Sword of Dawn

Page 184

Ropeni Glenn was lost in thought for a moment, while Solderin suddenly raised his head and looked at the streets of the inner city that were being shrouded in smoke and dust, with his hands already on the bowstring of his short bow.

The surrounding Iron Ranger soldiers also raised their arms one after another, and opened the safety of the thermal energy ray gun and shield, while the heavy fireman had already carried the individual rail bomb launcher on his shoulders, pointing to the end of the street.

A group of knights and soldiers who looked rather embarrassed amidst the smoke and fire appeared there.

Luo Peini raised her head and saw that the commander leading the team was the most trusted guard knight of Sir Maryland.

The guard knight also saw the Countess Ropeni on the opposite side, and at the same time saw the neat and silent black-armored warriors wearing strange armor behind the Countess—those well-equipped people who were full of magic power obviously couldn't be from the Rock Fortress. The existence of these people is enough to prove that what Sir Maryland said before leaving is true.

It was not difficult to find Ropeni Gulen and the "destruction team" she brought into the city, because this team was standing swaggeringly in the open space of the North City District, but a group of people who could hear the orders clearly and had some The soldiers who had the courage to fight wasted too much time: a large number of soldiers had died on the southern city wall and on the sentry towers and arrow towers in the city, and the rest of the people were in chaos. Almost no one obeyed the order. These more than 100 people are almost all the hands that can be found in the castle.

After seeing the two corpses under Luo Peini's feet, the guard knight realized that the Viscountess might have done what she wanted to do.

Although the two corpses were dressed in the clothes of a handyman and a groom, their faces were very familiar.

The guard knight didn't know why Luo Penny wanted to kill these two southern nobles, but he must at least complete the mission entrusted to him by Sir Maryland——

The fortress could no longer be defended, the southern city wall was collapsing, and the two energy beams were still sweeping away all the commanding heights in the city. Before the Cecils came in, all the defenses of the fortress had been paralyzed, but at least, they To keep Ropeney Grant here.

But before these soldiers launched a meaningless attack, Soldering spoke first, and his voice pierced through the entire smoky street: "The battle is over, soldiers of Rock Fortress-the wall has fallen, continue to fight There's no need."

The guard knight pulled out the sword from his waist in silence: "I have my own mission."

"It's rare to see a knight like you in this era," Soldering frowned at the guard knight, although the soldiers and other knights brought by the other party were obviously shocked when they heard the words "the city wall has collapsed." They all seemed to be wavering and retreating, but the knight's attitude was still firm, which made him sigh, "If those southern nobles had the same courage and awareness as you...ah, then they would probably all die on the gravel ridge .”

The guard knight didn't seem to hear these words, and just continued to remain silent, taking a step forward.

However, at this moment, the air around him suddenly distorted, and then a strange hammer-like thing emerged out of thin air. The magic rune at the front of the hammer flashed, and a special pop-up structure was violently struck out. , slammed on the head of the guard knight—the latter had actually reacted a little bit, but the attacker's stealth ability was too high. When he reacted, he was already unavoidable. The venerable knight flew out on the spot, and was unconscious in mid-air.

The knights and soldiers guarding around didn't even realize what happened.

A swift shadow shuttled through the air, and came behind Solderin almost in the blink of an eye. Amber's figure condensed from the shadow. She was carrying a strange weapon composed of a mechanical structure and a rune device. After confirming that he ran to a safe area, he was greatly relieved: "Oh my god...it's so exciting...I thought I was going to be beaten to death..."

Solderin glanced at the half-elf thief from the corner of his eye—mainly the "Mechanical Warhammer" in her hand, and suddenly felt that after "Explosive Shooting", there was another superhuman skill that could be improved into a steel game. One of the cavalry's abilities.

——Which genius came up with the idea of ​​"Power Sap (Note)"...

Amber raised her head after taking a few breaths, and said to Soldering: "Gaowen...the battle with the lord has ended, and the supreme commander of the Rock Fortress has been captured. The battle is coming to an end, reduce the damage."

In this case, the half-elf would still say "lord" well.

Solderin nodded after hearing the news from Amber, and then looked at the bewildered and chaotic "defense forces" of the Rock Fortress: "Soldiers—you can put down your weapons now, your highest commander The official has already fallen, and it is not injurious to honor to surrender at this time."

Ordinary soldiers didn't really care about "face" when they surrendered. He mainly shouted these words to those knights who were still a little hesitant.

It turns out that when there are steps to descend, most knights surrender no slower than ordinary soldiers.

The last defense force of the Rock Fortress put down their weapons, and the Iron Rangers began to step forward to accept the prisoners, while Soldering came to the unconscious guard knight and looked down at him.

"It is not honorable to stop a knight's heroic behavior in this way, but the lord has an order to minimize unnecessary losses and casualties after victory, knight, your courage is admirable, but the battle is over," Thor When Delin said this, he shook his head slightly, "You will understand sooner or later—after enlightenment, you will eventually become a glorious citizen of Cecil."

Outside the Rock Fortress, on the bow of the "Aurora" on the Whitewater River, Gawain and Knight Byron were watching the fortress wall that was constantly collapsing under the artillery bombardment. Sir Maryland, who had been disarmed, stood pale on Gao Wen's body. Looking at the nightmarish scene in the distance.

The calibrator beams were still moving across the sky, and the last two towers of the Stone Keep were falling.

In the river beside the Aurora, Till leaned out from the tumbling water, and the river lifted her into the air like a palm. The siren from the deep sea stared at the Aurora without blinking. The "Rainbow Cannon" on the No. [-] deck.

In fact, she has been looking at it for a long time, and the light beam formed by the pure and violent magic power is shining in her eyes, which obviously aroused the great interest of this sea monster.

A signal flare rose from the Rock Fortress, followed by a second one.

Gawain exhaled lightly: "The battle on Soldering's side seems to be over, and Ropeni Grant's team has survived safely."

The artillery fire from No. [-] Heights gradually subsided, and the huge calibrator rainbow cannon finally extinguished its destructive focusing crystal, and the roaring sounds from various water pumps, amplifier groups, and magic cores below the cabin slowly followed. It weakened, and finally, the "magic array" on both sides of the warship also closed its wings made of steel.

There was silence on the Whitewater River.

Gawain glanced at Knight Byron next to him: "We can go to receive our northern gate."

Knight Byron laughed, but before he could speak, a sudden splash of water interrupted him.

Gawain saw a mermaid leap out of the water and slapped it on the deck of the Aurora, and then a carp stood up and stood up. Miss Till wobbled her body with the tail of the fish and pointed to the fish on the deck. The Rainbow Cannon stared at Gao Wen: "Give me one too!"

Then she seemed to think it was wrong to say this, and added: "Just say what you want!"

(Note: Power Sap, an improved version of Cecil's Rogue skill "Sap", hits the enemy's head with a mechanical power hammer, causing a temporary or permanent coma effect.)

Chapter 0443 Technology Trading

Seeing the rare positive look on Tyre's face, Gawain knew that he had finally caught this fish - but he still didn't know exactly how he succeeded in fishing, because according to his original plan , He wanted to drag Till around outside for a while, using various things in the human world to arouse the fish's interest a little bit, but he didn't expect this guy to be directly interested by the rainbow cannon.

But it's not bad, it's hooked anyway.

"Are you interested in the rainbow cannon?" Gawain looked at Tyre, "Is this thing very powerful in the eyes of you sirens?"

"Great? The power is really good, but we have no shortage of weapons..." Tyr shook his head, "I'm just curious... how do you restrain such powerful and pure arcane energy... and how do you get this energy from Extracted from an ordinary magical environment!"

Tire is not interested in the rainbow cannon itself - for the once extremely developed Kraken civilization, the manufacturing process and engineering technology of this new weapon is not too brilliant, but she is very interested in the principle behind the rainbow cannon , I became curious about the Cecil people's idea of ​​controlling magic power.

Gawain quickly figured this out. He looked at Tier's sleepy eyes, and instead of responding to the other party's request immediately, he asked, "Can I ask more specifically—why are you Are you interested in this part of technology? You sea monsters often observe races on land, have you never been interested in our magic technology system before?"

"The magic technology system on land before?" Tyre patted the deck of the Aurora with his tail, "Ha, you mean the 'skill' system invented by you land people? Or the magic array of level one, level two, and level three? ? That's completely different! Your 'skills' system is useless to us. Haven't you discovered it yourself? This thing called rainbow cannon... It is a more essential energy utilization technology, it Extract energy from the magic net, then adjust, restrain, focus, and finally launch, how many levels of magic is it in this process? What kind of skill is it? There are no such superfluous concepts at all!"

It was rare for Miss Siren to be so excited, and her tail kept flapping on the deck. Although her words were hard to understand and even confusing to others, Gao Wen vaguely understood what this Siren was thinking. something-

The "Universal Energy" property of the Ley.

Humans have spent tens of thousands of years building a set of "skill trees", converting magic power into skills of various levels, into spells of various types, using countless complicated and different spells and spell models To transform magic power into specific phenomena, but this kind of "skill" that only humans can understand and master is meaningless to sea monsters. Their life form seems to determine that they cannot understand human spells at all. No, it's useless.

What they need is "universal energy".

But it seems that due to the problem of life form, they have never found a way to convert magic power into universal energy.

The rainbow light cannon made Tier see a brand new technical route. From the destructive beam, she felt the power enough for the Krakens to break through a certain bottleneck, and this power...is not a rigid skill, but The pure energy absorbed from the magic net, tuned by the rune array, and focused by the iridescent crystal can be used as a weapon, but it can also be used in other places as long as the control rune is changed.

Gao Wen knew that the Krakens had an ancient lost city. The energy reactor in the city had been extinguished for many years. They needed a powerful new energy source to ignite the reactor. But perhaps because they couldn't make a complete transformation, they could only maintain the "remaining temperature" of the reactor, but they couldn't wake up the whole city.

After thinking for a while, Gao Wen broke the silence: "Can the rainbow cannon 'ignite' your reactor?"

"Maybe not yet, it's not powerful enough, compared to our core fusion tower, it's just a small spark..." Tyr turned his head, staring at the rainbow cannon on the deck, "But You made this spark appear..."

Most of the technologies that are capable of changing the world have crude prototypes at the beginning of their birth, even so simple that ignorant people can sigh "what's the point of this fancy thing?" In the eyes of high-level civilizations, this kind of simplicity is particularly serious .

Only very few people can realize the value behind these "little sparks" at this stage, and realize how far they can grow.

Gawain didn't expect that Tyre, who was always sleepy, would have such a vision, but he was glad that Tire had such a vision.

Fish with better eyesight generally have solid porcelain hooks.

"I'll give you a whole one," Gawain laughed and nodded to Tyre. "Of course, you have to pay something."

"Just open your mouth," Tire slapped the deck with his tail confidently, "I am a war priest anyway, and I will definitely be of great use to you, or do you want wealth and treasures? Then I I can also think of a way, the deep sea..."

"I'm not interested in your personal combat effectiveness and personal savings," Gawain interrupted Tyre, "Technology is still traded for technology."

"In exchange for technology?" Tyre blinked, "What do you mean?"

"How much do you know about shipbuilding...?"

As soon as Gawain asked this question, Byron next to him showed an expression of "it's finally here". Obviously, this Mr. Knight had already known what his lord's plan was for bringing this siren here. After checking the status of the rainbow cannon, Rebecca, who was strolling over, was stunned for a moment when she heard Gawain's words. She blinked and looked at Gawain: "My lord ancestor, are you going to ask Miss Till to help us build a ship?"

After getting Gawain's affirmative answer, Rebecca couldn't help scratching her hair, looking at Tyre with suspicious eyes: "But can she do it?"

Before Tyre answered Gawain's question, she heard Rebecca's questioning, and she looked puzzled: "Why do you think I don't know this?"

Rebecca was probably still immersed in the rune group and mechanical structure of the rainbow cannon, her head was dizzy and she didn't turn around, and said casually: "Do you sea monsters still need to build ships? It's not like you can't swim..."

Tyr couldn't help but looked Rebecca up and down: "You humans can still walk, why are you building cars?"

Rebecca's expression froze immediately, and it was only after a while that she choked out a sentence: "That's right..."

After putting the girl who was always out of her mind on the channel aside, Tire turned back to Gawain, "You want me to help you build the ship, don't you--Okay, I have no problem, but I want to make a few points first.

"First, the 'ship' as I understand it is definitely different from your current shipbuilding technology. In most cases, we don't need a kind of water transportation that is always floating on the water and must be kept sealed and dry. Tools, but this is not a big problem. With our technology of manufacturing water vehicles, it is not difficult to surpass you even in areas that we are not good at-this is not an offense, but a fact.

"Secondly, I can tell your craftsmen a lot of knowledge, such as fluid mechanics, material science, special coating technology, and even power technology, but it is very likely that these technologies will not be realized because they are too advanced. Because they need a lot of pre-tech and industrial foundation, and I don't know how to make these things step by step. So it is likely that I have been a consultant for you for several years and drew a lot of good drawings. But your artisans still can't make anything, and you don't blame anyone for that.

"Finally, although I agreed to the technology exchange, it was in my own name. I cannot contact the Deep Sea Royal Court now, so all my promises are limited to my personal authority. I can only help you build ships. All involved I won’t help with war technology such as weapons. But if we Kraken and Cecil establish a long-term relationship in the future, I will help you establish a good relationship with my people.”

After Tyre finished mentioning these three items, Gawain looked at the other party and confirmed again: "Is that all?"

Till thought for a while: "Hmm... help me make the pool in the room bigger, sprinkle more salt usually, and don't ask for anything else."

"Of course no problem," Gao Wen couldn't help laughing, "I can agree to all these requests, and in exchange, you can follow Kamel and Rebecca to learn about the universal energy technology behind the rainbow cannon—when you Know enough, when you think the conditions are ripe, you can choose to send these technologies back to the deep sea, and I welcome you to bring other sea monsters. Of course, if you want to leave early, you have to leave us enough ships technical data."

Miss Kraken readily agreed.

This deal that Gao Wenji had been hanging on for a long time was finally reached.

He finally acquired the technology of this superb lost civilization - although only a small part.

As for the situations mentioned by Tire, he actually thought about it from the very beginning.

Krakens are a civilization completely different from any land race, and their technology comes from the "Lost Era" before a few rounds of magic tides, which determines that their technical route cannot be the same as that of humans, only in "shipbuilding" From the above, Gao Wen can think of more than one major "difference point":

The Kraken's first ship was most likely a submarine - since they developed underwater.

Siren's first submarine should have no concept of sealing at all, the inside is full of the same sea water as the outside, just like the open carriage made by humans-this is determined by their life form.

Even if they build a ship that sails on the water, Kraken probably never considered any life-saving facilities such as escape boats. They might not even be able to build water-tight compartments. What if the ship sinks?Be a submarine!What if the submarine sank?Everyone push it on the seabed!What if the whole ship disintegrated on the spot?Swim back, everyone—this is most likely the most reasonable idea for a Siren ship engineer...

But even so, Gawain believed that the sea monster Tyr could bring a huge boost to the shipbuilding technology in the territory.

Not to mention anything else, Till's casual mention of "fluid mechanics" proved his judgment-this is a coined word, which is a combination of the words "flow" and "law" in the common language of mankind. Yes, Tyre stumbled when he said it. Byron and Rebecca next to him were completely bewildered when they heard this word, but Gawain knew what it meant as soon as he heard it.

In addition, Gawain is not worried about whether the ships built by the Krakens have sealing technology at all, because he remembers that Tyre said that the city of the Krakens was originally a giant ship that could fly, and with the help of this group of saltwater fish The survival needs of the ship should have simulated a "marine ecosystem", so they must have very amazing sealing technology now——

Sealing the water outside the boat is the same as sealing the water inside the boat (Hu talking nonsense).

Of course, considering the huge difference between Kraken's "shipbuilding" technology and human beings, Gawain should also carefully consider the working method of "Cecil Shipbuilding Bureau" after returning to prevent the built ship from being too "Kraken-like" ", but it can't be practical, and it has to be considered that Tyre is not a professional technician in Siren after all, she is probably a "keyboard man" (water group theory expert) similar to herself, so it is best to let this Tiaoyu is only a special consultant, not the general director of the project...

Chapter 0444 North Gate

The battle is over.

The southern city wall of Rock Fortress lost its shield protection and was completely unable to resist the bombardment of heavy-duty magic crystal shells. Facts have proved that magic crystal shells have a higher damage efficiency than calibrator beams when fighting solid rigid targets such as city walls— — Sir Maryland thought that the Rock Fortress still had a few 10 minutes of resistance time after the shield went out, but in the end it turned out that he miscalculated the different effects of shells and energy beams: the wall only lasted 6 minutes in the end.

The heavy gate of the fortress has completely collapsed during the bombardment, along with the hundreds of meters of walls extending from both sides of the gate. The outer city behind and the southern inner city were also damaged to varying degrees, and the barracks, armory and other facilities concentrated between the first and second city walls were razed to the ground.

This is a degree of destruction that would never occur in a traditional noble war: Cecil's army ended the battle almost completely smashing the defense facilities of the fortress, leaving no stalemate and conflict for the people in the rock fortress at all. room for maneuver.

After finishing the bombardment, Cecil's [-]st and [-]nd Combat Corps led by Knight Philippe and Knight Walder Perici began to advance towards the fortress, and arrived at the fortress that had lost combat effectiveness in the evening, and Walder What the knight sighed was that it took more time for his army to go to receive the results and walk on the road than to destroy the defense force of the fortress.

After the First and Second Legions entered the Rock Fortress, they encountered almost no resistance—in fact, there was no resistance at all. The only enemy of the right.

On the evening of the 736th day of the fire month in Ansu 58, the flag representing the royal family of Anzu fluttered down from the flagpole in front of the Rock Fortress castle, and the symbols of the Cecil family's sword and plow flew above this fortress with special significance.

Gawain's combat boots stepped on the cobblestone road of the fortress that seemed to still be warm and trembling. On both sides of him were ruins and buildings that were still emitting smoke. The fortress soldiers with frightened faces and smoldering faces stood on the road. On both sides, when Cecil's banner passed in front of their eyes, these people prostrated themselves on the ground to show their submission.

"All will be temporarily imprisoned in the dungeon below the castle, and those with insufficient rooms will be imprisoned in a strong building in the inner city," Gawain said in a low voice to Philip, who was beside him. Treat them—these people will be part of Cecil."

Philip stood up and saluted: "Understood."

Sir Maryland, who was disarmed and ashamed, was escorted by several Cecil soldiers and walked beside Gawain. Hearing what Gawain told Philip, he couldn't help raising his head, and there was a little bit in his eyes. Surprise: "I didn't expect you to still abide by the noble spirit..."

"The prohibition of cruelty to captives has nothing to do with the so-called aristocratic spirit." Gawain glanced at the former commander. Although he was a respectable knight, he was obviously a traditional nobleman. "What I forbid to abuse' Captives' don't just include knights and nobles."

Sir Maryland opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't say anything, just lowered his head again.

Gawain looked at Knight Walder Peric on the other side, and he nodded to the old knight: "Take someone to check the entire inner city and the underground cellars under the castle, search the entire city to prevent anyone from hiding , In addition, you have to cooperate with Knight Philip to count the supplies and houses in the city, and report in time. Don’t forget to emphasize military discipline during this process: it is forbidden to hide spoils, plunder, theft, and concealment.”

Walder Peric gave a knightly salute with a serious face: "Yes."

The old knight knew very well that letting the Second Corps lead a team to search the fortress city was not only an honor, but also a test—in this battle, the Second Corps finally became active as an official army. But whether these soldiers from the Kant area can become the long-term trusted troops of the lord must pass the test of military discipline after entering the city. The test is not less than when they first entered the battlefield.

Afterwards, Gawain arrived at the castle area of ​​the Rock Fortress—this castle straddled between the first and second city walls. In fact, its main body was a part of the second city wall. It was once the most magnificent, It's a tall building, but now... it has less than two-thirds of its structure left.

The entire top floor of the castle and all attached tower buildings have been destroyed by the calibrator beam.

Cecil's flag had been hoisted on the flagpole in front of the castle by the first group of troops to enter the city. Beside the flagpole, Gawain saw a slightly thin lady wearing a light aristocratic dress.

Ropeni Glenn stood there quietly, with the loyal middle-aged butler beside her, and behind the two of them followed the Countess all the way from Glenn to Panshi Ridge, and then from Panshi Ridge to Panshi Fortress, always loyal And the firm hundred guards.

On the other side stood the high-level ranger Solderin and dozens of Iron Ranger soldiers led by him.

A shadow quickly flashed in the air, quickly rushed to Gawain's side, and condensed into the figure of Amber, the half-elf lady raised her head triumphantly: "Hey, let me tell you, I helped hang the flag up of!"

Gawain patted Amber's shoulder casually (it seems inappropriate to touch his head in such a formal occasion), and then walked towards Roperney Grant. After seeing the calm expression on the countess's face, he knew the other party's revenge Already done.

"Your contribution is irreplaceable, ma'am," Gao Wen said seriously, "Patty will be happy for your safe return home."

He knew what the Viscountess was most concerned about.

After hearing Patty's name, Luo Peini's expression turned soft, she showed a faint smile, and bowed solemnly to Gao Wen: "Please allow me to pay tribute to you, this fortress belongs to you now ——Please also allow me to pledge my allegiance to you again, the Glenn family will always be loyal to Cecil."