Lord of Rot

The other twin also pushed through Guy’s shriek and charged right up to him.

Guy crossed his arms in front of him just in time. Though he successfully blocked the kick, he was still inevitably knocked back several steps.

Guy opened his mouth and shrieked.

Another sonic wave surged forth!

”AHH!!”

The scream tore across the battlefield.

Leech glanced toward Guy. The fight was at a stalemate, and it was clear there wouldn’t be a victor anytime soon.

Still, they were doing their utmost to relieve the pressure on him. He, on the other hand, had to face over a thousand elite Soldiers, in addition to several Transcendent.

The firing didn’t cease for a single moment.

The battlefield, where the Porcupine Soldiers stood in formation, was thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder.

’It’s not effective enough.’ Leech’s expression grew slightly grim.

The monkey Soldiers had clearly found a way to counter the firearms.

They advanced behind a vanguard of layered shield walls.

The firearms had decent armor-piercing capabilities, but they couldn’t possibly punch through two or three layers of shields, then through armor, to kill the Soldiers protected by so many layers.

Behind them, the rest of the monkey Soldiers followed, weapons in hand, waiting for the moment they were close enough to Leech’s ranks to launch their assault!

The heavy shield wall advanced step by step. The distance between them had shrunk to less than two hundred paces!

’If I don’t break through that front shield wall, we’re doomed.’

Fortunately, Leech had come prepared.

”The cannon!” Leech yelled.

Immediately, four or five Soldiers lifted the cannon down from the wagon it was being pulled on.

They loaded the gunpowder, then the cannonball.

However, Leech had to handle the aiming himself. The cannon wasn’t very accurate on its own; he needed to use Magic to guide the ignition of the powder and increase the propulsive force.

He jumped down from Rocket’s saddle, laid a hand on the cannon, and calibrated its aim.

He took aim.

He chanted a Magic Spell.

Lit the fuse.

BOOM!

The ground trembled violently, and the tremendous roar threatened to shatter the very sky.

A flaming cannonball blasted forth, flying in a straight line before smashing violently into the heavy shield wall.

The sturdy shield wall was instantly ripped apart, the shell blasting a gaping hole in the line.

Within a radius of dozens of feet, no one was left alive.

Flesh and blood flew through the air, and the ground was littered with sticky gore and severed limbs!

Leech was very satisfied with the result. ’The power is much greater, and the accuracy has improved dramatically!’

With the shield wall torn open by the cannon, the musketeers seized the opportunity to focus their fire, rapidly widening the gap.

The cannon was reloaded.

Leech chanted another Spell, using it to adjust the Magic Gunpowder’s propulsion.

Flames like Dragon Breath spewed from the cannon’s muzzle.

Even having heard the cannon’s roar once before, when the thunderous BOOM echoed again, the men couldn’t help the trembling in their hearts.

The earth shook and the mountains trembled!

Another section of the shield wall was ripped open.

The monkey infantry had only closed to within a hundred paces, yet they had already lost several hundred men!

The disparity in numbers was being rapidly leveled by Leech’s cannon.

’So that’s what they mean by ”equality at the end of a barrel.”’

The third shot was loaded and ready.

Before it could even be fired, the monkey Soldiers began to lose their composure.

Some of the Soldiers’ legs even gave out from fear.

Since the battle began, not a single one of the Porcupine Soldiers had been killed or injured. In contrast, their own forces, including their Cavalry, had been cut in half!

The monkeys’ morale was in the gutter, while the porcupines’ was soaring.

After the third cannon shot, the monkey Soldiers’ frontline shield wall completely collapsed.

The dense hail of bullets could finally reach them at close range.

Men fell in droves.

The most terrifying part wasn’t the men who died instantly from the gunshots. It was the wounded who fell and were subsequently trampled by their own comrades, severely disrupting the advancing formation.

The fourth shot was loaded, about to be fired at any moment.

The cannon’s muzzle shifted slightly. The monkey Soldier it pointed at went weak at the knees and collapsed to the ground.

”Charge and kill him!” La was apoplectic. To see his army, which he was certain would be victorious, get wiped out without even touching the hem of an enemy’s garment... the pressure in his chest made him want to vomit blood.

”Force a charge,” said a man who bore some resemblance to La. ”Their weapons are bizarre, but they don’t have our numbers. As long as we close the distance for close-quarters combat, those weapons will be useless.”

”Exactly! Exactly!” La nodded. ”Go now!”

The four Transcendent set off at once, charging forward at high speed.

’Transcendent?’

Leech watched the four figures hurtling across the battlefield. It looked like he was their target.

’Trying to stop me?’ He adjusted the cannon’s muzzle, aiming it at the slowest and most brutish-looking of the four: a bald man.

As the cannon aimed at the bald man, the only tuft of hair on his body—the one in an unmentionable place—stood on end!

Even as a Transcendent, he couldn’t guarantee he could survive a blast from that terrifying cannon.

Leech wasn’t sure either. So... he lit the fuse!

BOOM!

To the onlookers, it just looked like four strangely dressed figures had charged out from the enemy ranks. Then, one of them—a bald, brawny man—was suddenly enveloped in a BOOM of smoke and dust.

The cannonball’s flight was invisible to the naked eye.

As the dust slowly settled, a figure could be seen still standing.

’He actually blocked it?’ Leech was stunned.

But once the dust had completely cleared, he saw the truth: only the man’s lower body, from the waist down, was left standing. His entire upper torso had simply vanished.

’What a tough body!’

Leech guessed the man must have had some special method for reinforcing his body. It just wasn’t enough to withstand a direct hit from the cannon.

The other three Transcendent had already closed the distance.

”Kill the Baron first!” one of them shouted.

The three of them swarmed Leech simultaneously.

This, however, made Leech breathe a sigh of relief. If they had ignored him and charged into the gun line to wreak havoc, his formation would have crumbled in an instant. ’It’s much better that they’re coming for me.’