Castle of Black Iron

Only after serious consideration did the first mate decide to let Zhang Tie have a try because what Zhang Tie had just done represented his true strength.

The two boxes of bolts were soon taken out. At the head and the end of the Jasper box containing huge bolts, there were movable metal buckles that people could hold.

Four crewmen of the airship carried the two boxes of bolts onto the deck at their fastest speed.

”Do you need me to accompany you there?” The first mate asked Zhang Tie.

”No need, but thanks!” Zhang Tie replied as he fastened the movable metal buckles on the top of the two boxes with a part of the iron chain on the deck so that he could lift them up. Under everyone’s amazing eyes, Zhang Tie lifted the two boxes weighing above 200 kgs by his left hand as he slightly nodded.

The airship then made another rapid upward rush. After another wave of shooting, two more Iron-beak Ibises were shot down. Before the airship stabilized, Zhang Tie had already started rushing onto one rope ladder from the deck with two boxes in hand and climbed upward.

When he was on the deck, he didn’t feel it was cold. However, when he climbed several meters upward, Zhang Tie felt that it was very chilly at the 2000-odd m altitude. His face even felt like it was being stung by the chilly wind. When he lowered his head, he found that everything on the land became much smaller. At this moment, what was under his feet was endless marsh and grassland.

As it was his first time being at such a high altitude, Zhang Tie felt a bit dizzy.

The animals in the marshland and the grassland seemed to not have noticed the fighting above them at all. Zhang Tie peered at the marshland and found an unknown creature which was much taller and bigger than an elephant was drinking at the waterside. In a split second, it was engulfed by a huge mouth from within the water. After that, the terrifying head which was even bigger than two trains sunk in the water once again, leaving the suddenly flying birds and the ripples on the water.

If the two animals were not large enough, Zhang Tie could never have noticed them from such a high altitude. At the sight of this scene, Zhang Tie directly oozed a cold sweat as he started to understand just how horrifying it was in such a depopulated zone so far away from a city.

Zhang Tie didn’t know what the hell the animal beneath the water was or its level. Even though that creature had already lurked under the water, Zhang Tie could still feel the two huge icy eyes of that animal were gazing at him. It was watching the airship in the air like watching a prey, making Zhang Tie feel cold inside.

Compared to those unknown living beings in the marshland, undoubtedly the Iron-beak Ibises who were crazily attacking the airship became charming in comparison.

Even though two boxes of bolts hanging on his arm weighed over 200 kgs, Zhang Tie could still easily climb the rope ladder. In the eyes of those crew and the first mate, the two boxes being tied with an iron chain were absolutely like two empty cardboard boxes. Only the tightening rope ladder that was bearing Zhang Tie’s weight told everybody else that the weight on the rope ladder had already been over 300 kgs. Each step Zhang Tie made would make an extremely forceful deformation on the rope ladder.

”Cover!” With a loud exclamation from the first mate, the airship turned around again and threw Zhang Tie outward like a swing. At the same time, a wave of bolts flew off the deck and shot towards the Iron-beak Ibises which were rushing towards Zhang Tie. The first mate seized the opportunity and shot twice, shooting down the two Iron-beak Ibises who entered the shooting angles on the deck and wanted to attack Zhang Tie.

”Sh*t!” Zhang Tie swore inside, feeling that these Iron-beak Ibises were too cunning. After seeing the first three teams of crew climbing upward by the rope ladder, they had already known how to hold Zhang Tie back this time.

Was each navigation mission of the airship this dangerous? Zhang Tie wondered. This was also Zhang Tie’s first time venturing so far away from a populated area. Previously, both the survival training in the Wild Wolf Valley and the war in Kalur where the Iron-blood Camp fought the Sun Dynasty were not far away from cities. Zhang Tie didn’t have an intuitive feeling about dangers in the wild. However, this time, Zhang Tie truly felt why people in this age would like to stay in the cities with high walls.

”Watch out!” Someone below shouted loudly.

This time, there were a total of six Iron-beak Ibises attacking Zhang Tie. Even though three were shot down, there were still another three rushing towards Zhang Tie from different directions. The Iron-beak Ibises’ long bills were thrusting towards Zhang Tie like spears. Besides the bills, if he was scratched by the sharp claws of Iron-beak Ibises, it would be more dangerous than being scratched by the sharp claws of tigers and black bears. After all, they were LV 5 creatures.

Zhang Tie then swung back again and stayed close to the metal armor over the gas bag. With two boxes hanging over his left arm, his left hand tightly held the rope on the rope ladder. Seeing the two Iron-beak Ibises drawing close to him in a split second and intending to attack him, Zhang Tie narrowed his eyes.

When the hearts of the crew on the deck raced, a silver light like a swimming snake suddenly appeared in the air.

When this silver light like a swimming snake appeared, the distance between the sharp bill of the Iron-beak Ibis which was closest to Zhang Tie and the latter was only 50 cm while the distance between the other two Iron-beak Ibises and Zhang Tie was respectively 2 m away and 3 m away.

Zhang Tie was like a live target hanging in the air.

”It’s over! If this brat didn’t show off and just stayed on the deck, he might be able to shoot off several more Iron-beak Ibises...” Many crewmen who were gazing at Zhang Tie suddenly thought up this.

However, after that, the silver light like a swimming snake appeared.

In a split second, it was raining blood while three Iron-beak Ibises turned into 6 pieces of corpses and dropped off the air. Due to wind direction, that blood rain even sprayed and dyed the faces of the row of the crew who were holding cross bows and were close to the shipboard on Zhang Tie’s side.

With the exception of the first mate, nobody else had seen clearly how had Zhang Tie launched the attack.

After this round of attack, Zhang Tie accelerated his climbing speed. Moving faster with his feet and hands, Zhang Tie arrived at the top of the airship which was dozens of meters higher than the deck in a short while.

The first batch of the crew which had landed on the top of the airship were all suffering from wounds. About more than 10 Iron-beak Ibises were surrounding these crew and attacking them. Among the wounded crew, two of them had already laid on the metal armors. Buckling up their protective clothing onto the rope ladder, the crew were divided into two groups and were protecting the two lying wounded soldiers from being attacked further by Iron-beak Ibises.

The present fighting scene was very fierce while the fresh blood from both men and birds were spraying everywhere.

As this location was so close to the port side of the airship at the top, Zhang Tie found one protective armor of a gas bag had slid off. Even in the heavy wind, he could still hear the sound of ”si...si...” from that place, where the gas was constantly leaking outside of the gas bag. However, being not far from this damaged gasbag, other metal armors that were being attacked by Iron-beak Ibises were also tottering.

”Go to hell!” The moment he climbed onto the top of the airship, Zhang Tie had witnessed a crew member whose face was covered with fresh blood jumping up from the airship. When the sharp bill penetrated the location between his shoulder and his chest, he fiercely twisted the Iron-beak Ibis’s neck before thrusting his dagger into the neck of the Iron-beak Ibis like killing a pig, slicing off its neck by thrusting several times.

The Iron-beak Ibis uttered a wail while flapping his wings crazily and being pulled down from the air. As a result, one person and one bird rolled over and dropped off the airship while spurting blood.

”Zhitian!”, the other crewmen screamed loudly, eyes almost popped out of their eye sockets due to grief. His body would definitely break into pieces by dropping off from such a high altitude.

That person and that bird then rolled over towards Zhang Tie, who seized that person using his right hand. That Iron-beak Ibis then dropped off weakly and was blown away by the heavy wind.

After that, Zhang Tie seized the person with his right hand while the 200-odd kgs’ bolts boxes were hanging over his left wrist. He then kept climbing upside with his left hand and two feet. When he reached the top of the airship where the slope had gradually become mild, Zhang Tie put that person onto a protective armor before rapidly buckling up the crewman’s clothing onto the rope ladder.

At this moment, the other crew at the top of the airship were struck dumb with astonishment by Zhang Tie’s sudden appearance and the person and the two bolts boxes in Zhang Tie’s hands.

The airship then changed direction once again. A huge inertia almost threw everybody out from the top of the airship.

During this process, Zhang Tie rapidly laid down. He then calmly buckled up his protective clothing onto the rope ladder before twisting his two feet to move over the knots and firmly stepped on them like what the other crew members did.

After fixing his body, Zhang Tie opened the first box hanging on his left arm and held the first javelin-like bolt before throwing it out...

For Zhang Tie, during this bloody fight between him and the Iron-beak Ibises, the most dangerous and challenging period was the dozens of meters from the deck to the top of the airship along the rope ladder. If those Iron-beak Ibises didn’t stop him during this distance, after he climbed onto the top of the airship with enough huge bolts, fixed himself and gained a good viewpoint, everything would have been fixed.

One minute after Zhang Tie climbed onto the top of the deck, the first Iron-beak Ibis was penetrated by a spear and dropped off.

”Ah, it’s been shot down by the bolt. That kid made it to the top!” Someone shouted loudly while everyone else was shocked.

”I wonder how many Iron-beak Ibises this young man can kill this time?” Thinking of this question, the first mate had already ordered the second team of crew to prepare for climbing onto the top.

Then, everyone looked up in astonishment...

Soon after the first Iron-beak Ibis dropped off, the other Iron-beak Ibises constantly dropped down like dumplings being put in the pot with boiling water.

The airship changed its direction once again.

This enabled people on the deck to have a chance to see what happened to the last two Iron-beak Ibises, which had been scared of being killed and wanted to escape far away. However, before they flew 100 m away, two huge bolts from the top of the airship caught up with them at once.

With two final wails, the world became tranquil.

The whole process since he climbed onto the top of the airship to the end of the fight was less than 3 minutes...