Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Chapter 191 – 78: Escape_2
However, before he could exhale that breath, a rock almost as big as his head smashed ruthlessly onto his skull.

Accompanied by a terrifying crack, the Tanilian convulsed once and then lay motionless.

Winters’s hands still didn’t let go of the rock; he summoned strength in his waist and lifted the rock above his head again, swinging it down in a full circle.

Once, twice, thrice.

Only after the opponent was thoroughly dead did the exhausted Winters release his grip, gasping for breath as he got up.

The mud patch in the forest seemed like it had just hosted a bloody sacrifice, with splashes of red and white everywhere.

“Help! Help!”

The cries for help carried a Venetian accent.

Winters took the dagger that the now-deceased Tanilian wore and, using both hands and feet, climbed out of the muddy area and headed toward the source of the sound.

——Cut——

Colonel Kongtai’er’s situation was now precarious.

A dozen Venetians had fled toward the south until they were stopped by a low cliff in front of them. The ground in front abruptly rose two to three meters, and the cliff was made of limestone, offering no handholds whatsoever.

A tidal wave coming from the northeast had capsized the Venetians’ small boat, and the western beaches of the bay were nearly covered with Venetians who had been washed ashore, some alive, others dead.

Colonel Kongtai’er was among those who were alive when they were washed ashore.

He immediately gathered the other surviving Venetian soldiers around him and led this small band of stragglers into the forests in the island’s interior.

“Colonel, we can’t run anymore; if we do, the soldiers’ morale will collapse. While we still have the strength, let’s turn around and fight them,” Andre said, carrying a wooden stick as he found Colonel Kongtai’er.

Warrant Officer Andrea Cherini, leading a few soldiers, had joined up with Colonel Kongtai’er’s group during their escape.

“We don’t even have weapons; a direct confrontation would be a dead end,” Kongtai’er said, hands on his knees, breathing heavily. “Head southwest to the coast. Figure out a way to set sail back to the fleet; there’s still a chance to live.”

In the group, which included the two officers, there were a total of fourteen people, not one of them had a piece of iron. Those who refused to abandon their armor and weapons drowned at sea; during the escape, they only found the things they carried too cumbersome.

The soldiers wished they could throw away everything disposable, only Andre had picked up a thick tree branch as a club.

“Let’s rest here in this clearing for a moment, then we’ll walk along this cliff to the west to find a gap to climb up,” Colonel Kongtai’er, drenched in sweat, clearly couldn’t run any further, as high-ranking officers who usually rode horses had no stamina for this.

Hearing the colonel’s order to rest here for the time being, the soldiers collapsed onto the ground one by one, running through the forest had left them utterly drained.

“Don’t sit! Get up! Once you sit for a rest, you won’t be able to run anymore,” Andre, holding the stick, moved among the soldiers, ordering them not to sit: “Stand up, all of you, stand up.”

The utterly fatigued soldiers could hardly attend to all this; the authority of an officer meant nothing to them at this point. They just kept their heads down, sitting on the ground, neither answering nor obeying orders.

Andre, seething with rage and gritting his teeth, however, did not dare to force the soldiers to act at this moment.

Sounds of snapping branches came from the woods, growing quickly closer, and a figure dashed out of the dense forest and into the clearing.

Not wearing Venetian uniform, it was a Tanilian!

The Venetian soldiers did not expect the pursuers to catch up so quickly, and the Tanilian hadn’t expected to stumble upon so many Venetians.@@novelbin@@

They stared at each other, eyes wide, for a second.

“Kill him!” Andre scooped up the stick and charged.

At the same moment, the Tanilian turned tail and ran back into the dense forest, shouting as he ran, “They are here!”

The lean Tanilian was agile like a monkey, disappearing in a flash. Andre chased him a few steps, but seeing he couldn’t catch up, he stopped, defeated.

“Move, move!” Andre shouted loudly, urging the soldiers as he dragged them up from the ground.

But just as he had warned, after a strenuous activity, not resting was one thing, but once they sat down to rest, their bodies completely lost energy.

The soldiers stood up, swaying, and shuffling their feet; even knowing the pursuers were behind them, they could no longer run.

Just a little rest, just a little longer, even just a moment would do. The voice of the devil whispered in the soldiers’ minds.

“I can’t run anymore; I’d rather die than run! Just let them kill me!” One soldier simply sat back down on the ground, succumbing to despair and resignation.

Andre couldn’t suppress his fury any longer; enraged, he raised his stick and roared, “I’ll kill you right now!”

The soldier who had sat back down was startled into action, scrambling to his feet.

However, it was already too late; the Tanilians had caught up with them.

About a dozen Tanilians emerged from the dense woodland, encircling the small band of stragglers led by Kongtai’er and Andre.

The Venetians had the advantage in numbers but had no weapons at all, not even enough stones for each person to have one.

Although the Tanilians had cutlasses and short spears, they were outnumbered, so they did not dare to strike first.

The sides stood in a standoff, the Tanilians slowly pushing the Venetians back to a small space by the low cliff until the Venetians with their backs against the cliff had nowhere to retreat.

The spark that ignited the brawl came from two more Tanilians who ran over from the woods carrying matchlock guns.