"Ugh..." Van'er scrambled to his feet. After confirming that his body and limbs were still in one piece, he breathed a sigh of relief.

But his heart soon sank the next moment.

Many people close to the Longsong Cannons had been penetrated by bone spears. It was hard to tell whether they were still alive. He saw some soldiers, who had been maimed by bones spears, searching for their broken limbs in the mud. Van'er managed to fight back tears. The artillery battalion was one of the very first squads built and trained by His Majesty. From the beginning when they had fought against the Duke of the Western Region, all the way to the attack at Hermes, they had seldom suffered defeats. Looking at the astonis.h.i.+ng casualties, Van'er was heartbroken.

But, Van'er knew this was not the time for him to lament the loss. The angel of the First Army Miss Nana was currently at the battalion shelter. As long as the soldier sent to her was still breathing, Miss Angel would be able to heal him!

"h.e.l.lo, anybody out there?" Van'er shouted as he crawled to one of the wounded soldiers in a critical condition who got his stomach stabbed. "Anybody help me?"

"Sir, we're here!" Two soldiers came out of the smog, trotting to him.

"Send him to the field hospital." Van'er stuffed the intestines spilling out of the soldier's stomach back in, together with the torn pieces of flesh. "Make sure not to leave anything behind."

"S-sir," The soldier grimaced in pain. "I..."

"Stop talking. If you have the strength to talk, save it to kill demons." Van'er patted his cheek. "Hope you'll get better and be back soon, I'm relying on you to fire. Do you understand?"

After the wounded soldier was sent away, he ran to another field medic and asked, "Did you come from the camp?"

The man glanced at the badge on Van'er's shoulder and saluted. "Yes, sir! Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Continue with your business. Taking care of the wounded is the top priority." Van'er waved his hand. "What's it like at the front?"

After the artillery suffered the attack, the battlements within 500 meters were enveloped by thick smoke. Except for the closest cannon, Van'er didn't know anything about the other squads. He could only hear the patterings of running footsteps in distance, and the occasional roars of cannons and guns. He was a little surprised that there were no reinforcements at this point, even though the field medics had been called to the scene.

"The demons are coming from above!" The field medic answered hastily while bandaging a wounded soldier. "I just came from the central camp and saw those winged monsters land and engage the heavy infantry."

The demons landed after spearing?

In other words, the present chaos was caused by the infiltration of enemies at the rear. That was why the reserves, who were usually positioned in the central zone, were not able to approach and reinforce the Longsong Cannons at the moment. It also explained why the front was still intact.

Realizing this, Van'er immediately understood what he should do.

He must put the Longsong Cannons back into operation.

The enemy wanted to prevent them from firing at the approaching demons, so he must stop them.

As long as the front line was not penetrated, the enemies would sooner or later be exterminated by the heavy infantry.

Although Van'er didn't know where His Majesty had found those warriors with such monstrous strength, who could carry weapons comparable in weight to field artillery with ease, one thing was certain — their capacity for battle was only parallelled by the ferocious demons'.

"I'll leave the wounded to you!"

Van'er ran to the ammunition case that had fallen to the ground and used all his strength to pick up a sh.e.l.l. He then staggered to the muzzle and pushed the sh.e.l.l into the bore.

Then he loaded the cannon.

It was actually two people's work, but Van'er finished by himself. He was out of breath by the time the cannon was loaded. Van'er took a deep breath and started to adjust the firing angle based on the enemies' previous marching speed.

At that moment, the field medic dashed toward him, shrieking.

"Sir, behind!"

In that second, Van'er felt his blood freeze. Immediately, he rolled to the ground before even turning around.

His instinct had saved him.

With a loud clink, an ax pelted past him, ruffling his hair, and hitting the breechblock, creating a series of sparks.

Van'er looked up and saw a mad demon glaring at him!

"GRAAAA—!" The Mad Demon raised its ax and stomped towards him, howling.

"I'm done," Van'er thought to himself in despair. Although he had a sword around his waist, he could not draw it when he was on the ground. Even if he did have it in hand, it was impossible for him to block the blow, as demons were far stronger and faster than humans. 

As the ax got closer, Van'er reached out his hand, attempting to block the strike...

"Crack!"

A wall of ice suddenly manifested between them. The ax smashed into the wall, sending ice crystals flying from its surface.

Was I... saved?

Van'er turned around in shock and saw a blue-haired witch performing a grabbing motion while watching the demon with a cool stare. She said to Van'er, "Come here, behind me."

Van'er clenched his teeth. Although his legs were too shaky to support his weight, he somehow managed to get to his feet and walked to the witch.

"Gah, Vaaaakaaaa..."

Van'er had no knowledge of the demon's language, but he could tell that it looked murderous and furious.

The demon dashed around the wall and crouched, the right arm with which it held its ax swelling rapidly.

The witch, surprisingly, drew closer to the demon, while ice slowly spread beneath her feet. She looked like the G.o.ddess of Winter.

Just when the demon was about to strike, an icicle burst from the ground and sent the ax flying. In the meantime, the demon's arm was bent at a strange angle. A fraction of its grayish white bone was exposed to the air, hardly covered by any flesh. It was a gruesome scene to behold.

Before the demon could even give a yelp of pain, the ice crystals proliferated rapidly from its ankles and turned it into an ice statue.

"Th-thank you." Van'er let out a sigh of relief.

"It's not over yet. There's going to be a second round of spearing." The witch looked up at the sky, which was currently filled with ash and smoke, and called out. "Miss Molly!"

Van'er suddenly remembered that there was actually a time gap between each spearing attack. As the demon had just bulked up his arm, it meant that the sky was dangerous once again.

Van'er wondered who Miss Molly was and was puzzled why she didn't seek shelter.

"Leave it to me."

While Van'er was in bewilderment, a young, slightly childish voice came from the distance.

Then Van'er saw an incredible scene!

Above him suddenly appeared a half-transparent blue ball which gradually grew bigger in size. Soon, it covered the area within a radius of 10 meters. Two tentacles at both ends of the ball dragged the remaining soldiers with minor injuries into a covered area while swaying from side to side.

Right after all the wounded soldiers were transferred, the enemies launched their second attack.

Five or six bone spears pelted down at tremendous, lightning-like speed, and shot at the ball. Van'er could clearly see the spot where the head of the spear landed ripple as if the surface of the ball were a thick body of water. As the ripples split, overlapped and rushed forward, the ball started to tremble as though it would burst at any moment. However, the bone spears were stopped several meters above the ground.

"Good job." The blue-haired witch withdrew her ice and looked at Van'er. "It's safe here for now. You can retreat with your people."

"No, there's something I haven't done yet." Van'er grounded his teeth, forcing himself to get up. "I have to make these d.a.m.n monsters suffer before I go."

There was only one last step left.

Van'er shambled to the Longsong Cannon, limping. He picked up the matchlock and pulled toward him with all his strength!

The scorching air around the muzzle soon cleared sky. The battlement, after 15 minutes of silence, was once again filled with thunderous roars!