Elf Tensei Kara no Cheat Kenkoku-ki

Vol 5 Chapter 17-3：Castle Siege Destruction Archery《Ballista》

There’s actually one more device. Its design is twofold. If the mine receives too strong of an impact, the hard and brittle dummy inside will break first, sweeping away the attack.

In other words, it wouldn’t work even if you attempted to clean out all the mines at once with elemental earth magic. You could rupture all of them if you repeated the same attack again, but the concept of striking the ground twice isn’t something that most people would think of.

This was truly a compound of malice.

「Look, Lucy. They stopped moving.」

「Yeah, everyone’s scared, huh. I mean, even I wouldn’t want to walk in a direction where my feet would be blown off.」

That was the true fear that land mines possessed. Not just the guarantee of more and more casualties. The fear that “something might be buried up ahead” was more than enough to paralyze everyone where they stood.

This was also the first time they had ever seen land mines. No one would be able to make any decent progress at this rate.

The Empire’s troops stopped in their tracks for maybe an hour.

She had long, blonde hair, and the jade-colored eyes indicative of high elves. It was Ashno.

As planned, we got her to take the bait.

「Everyone, we’re heading out!」

「Chief, are you going to use the Cluster Bomb?」

「No, before that, I was actually thinking of putting Ashuno on alert.

I answered as I ran.

We’re heading for a bungalow positioned on a slightly elevated hill. That’s the cache for my secret weapon.

「Chief, what the heck is this?」

「Cyril, this is the first time I’ve seen this. What a big bow.」

Resting at the top was the castle siege destroyer bow, also known as “Ballista”.

It functioned the same as a crossbow. However, the size differed.

It was a gigantic bow that dwarfed my height.

「This is Ballista. It was originally made for the purpose of destroying castle walls.」

「But what would you even use something like that for！」

「We use it to attack Ashuno, of course. She’s 1.2 kilometers away from here. We’d be able to attack from outside of her field of awareness.」

That’s why I made it.

A normal crossbow would probably be a fearsomely arched trajectory from this range. Crossbows can at most go 100 meters per second. 12 seconds to land.

With 12 seconds, the crossbow arrows would fly over 100 meters before landing.

However, this Ballista has an overpowering kinetic energy twenty times that of a regular crossbow, and can fire the shots out at a rate of 360 meters per second.

The trajectory at the range we’re at would be close to horizontal, not to mention impossible for Ashuno to detect before it’s too late.

In addition, having more kinetic energy than a crossbow means that evading it with wind would be difficult. Depending on the distance, even Ashuno wouldn’t be able to twist the trajectory.

The first thing I did was take out the special arrow and wipe off any dirt. This will be an attack of precision. Even the slightest deviation would be fatal.

「That’s a real thick arrow. It’s thicker than Yukino’s arm.

Indeed, a big bow requires bigger arrows. There was a silent intent of murder hidden within the dull light of each huge arrow.

「Chief, can you actually fire this thing?」

「Of course.」

This Ballista had stronger tension than it appeared to. Using materials that could manifest tension to the max with Kuiro’s power, I made the bowstrings out of carbon.

Thanks to that, the bow wouldn’t even budge if both Roleau and I were to draw it.

However, there were two cylinders attached to the parts.

These cylinders made use of air pressure.

I summoned wind mana with all my strength, passing the wind through the cylinders.

When I did that, the cylinders activated from the air pressure, pulling the bowstring of the giant bow further and further out. It went all the way back, and then there was a clicking sound of a fastener.

That’s where I set the arrow I mentioned earlier. There was no dirt or scratch on the runway.

The reason why I chose the primitive Ballista instead of firearms was in fact to raise the shooting accuracy. Black gunpowder would be too uneven with the blast and would prevent any sort of sniping.

「Man, this is intimidating.」

「Yeah, I’m getting scared just thinking about it. Cyril, are you sure this will land the hit?」

「Yeah, don’t worry, I’ve got this.」

I first cast【Wind Protection】on the arrow.

Then, I booted up【Program】.

Normally, I would simulcast【Perception Expansion】, but this time, we were out of range, so I made do with calculating the visual information via the binoculars.

I do have to be more careful now that the overall vision has become less accurate, though. Repeating miniscule adjustments to the proper angle, I advanced until I reached the point where I could be confident of success in hitting the target.

This snipe of over one kilo was possible entirely because I drew out each part with perfect accuracy.

Placing my hand on the trigger, I glared in Ashno’s direction.

She was using detection magic in the soil, concentrating on searching for the mines I had buried in the ground.

Searching in the soil would be difficult, not to mention that she would have to search in as wide of a breadth as possible. Even with someone of her caliber, her attention would be focused on the search, and she would be significantly less alert.

And that’s where we strike.

「Go！」

The Ballista fired its arrow.

The gigantic arrow surpassed the speed of sound and flew in its target’s direction. Air resistance could be ignored due to the effects of【Wind Protection】. The other elements in the equation had already been revised in light of measurement errors.

The arrow aimed straight for Ashno in the far distance, who only looked like a speck from this vantage point.

500 meters away, and Ashno had yet to notice. 100 meters away from her, and Ashno finally noticed the arrow.