LIGHTNOVELONLINE Vol 5 Chapter 17-4：Castle Siege Destruction Archery《Ballista》
Vol 5 Chapter 17-4：Castle Siege Destruction Archery《Ballista》
If she were at full alert, Ashno would have likely noticed the arrow when it hit the 300 meter mark at the latest. But having her resources taken up by needing to concentrate the earth magic on the search, not only had Ashno had to cut down on her wind magic alert resource, but she also was facing down at the ground, and wasn’t poised to handle an attack from above. It made perfect sense why her response was delayed.
Had she recognized the arrow at the 300 meter mark, it would have taken one second for it to land. With one second, she could just evade the attack, and could have possibly even stripped me of my【Wind Protection】, contorting the wind. But in the situation right now, there was only a 100m interval with 0.3 seconds left until impact. This distance was impossible to evade, try as you might.
And with such an overwhelming kinetic energy at a 100 meter distance, the arrow would go straight through even in a typhoon. Not even a high elf couldn’t cause it to go off-course with wind. But Ashno’s eyes still had life in them. The jade-colored pupils sparkled.
「Don’t make light of me！」
I felt I heard a voice that I shouldn’t be able to hear. Ashno struck at the side of the Ballista arrow with a wind-covered backhand. She wasn’t able to flick it off, but the arrow did slide along her arm.
The Ballista passed through, cutting into the surface of clothing, skin, and flesh before it landed on the ground, spraying a gigantic amount of dirt everywhere and making a roaring sound in its wake.
Looking over at Ashno, she had been blown back by the impact of the arrow, collapsed on the floor. The bones of her now-flimsy right arm were broken, with a large amount of blood flowing out, and she still managed to glare in this direction.
I murmured. Using Down Burst with wind magic, I crushed the Ballista to pieces before blowing it away with the wind and breaking into a dash.
Roleau and the others tagged along behind me.
「Chief, why are we running? Our opponent is weakened so now’s our chance.」 「Roleau, if you think that breaking her favored arm is enough to win against Ashno, you’re seriously underestimating her.」
Indeed, she was not the kind of pushover that was weakened by such a simple thing.
「But Cyril, can we even make a getaway from such a person?」 「Yeah, if we get out of the range of her wind detection magic, all that’s left is to make enough distance between us and her in the forest, and it will become very difficult to catch us. Right now let’s focus on making a break for it.」
Besides, even if we weren’t able to kill her, we had managed to curb her physical ability, plus that wound wasn’t anything to sneeze at. I doubt she would be able to run too much without stopping the bleeding. We dashed through the forest.
「Cyril-nisama, that huge arrow went to waste. It was so cool too.
Yukino muttered, looking back. Yeah, I know. It wasn’t a happy decision for me either.
「Yeah, I did my best to make it, so I didn’t want to break it, but who knows what would happen if it were to be used again.」
The imperial soldiers were guaranteed to come and search for that sniping point under Ashno’s orders. So that’s what I mean. They might take hold of the Ballista. Then it might very well be used by the enemy during the siege.
「But that was close, eh Chief? Just a little bit more and we could have eliminated her. Now I get why you wanted us to be careful. Who knew you’d launch such a monstrous arrow.」 「Close? What are you talking about, Roleau? That was fortuitous if anything. I didn’t think we’d manage to actually crush her dominant arm. We have luck on our side.」
Yes, we have the utmost luck today. It was a happy miscalculation for Ashno to suffer a wound from that level of an attack, not to mention that I estimate she unmistakably has several areas that are broken and with complications like the bone fragments stabbing her flesh due to compound fracturing.
With magic, she could at most strengthen her self-healing process. If Ashno were to forcibly heal the compound fracture, her right arm would no longer be usable. She needs high-level surgical procedure in order to heal that. At the very least, Ashno’s right arm would not be of any use in this war. 「I’d understand if you saw killing her as good luck, but why are you freaking out over just wounding her? What even was your objective in all this?」 「Well yes, you see, I only wanted to alert her to the presence of an attack that could kill her. That was enough, actually. In the end, these land mines, the Ballista, and even the Cluster Bomb are just setting the stage for what’s to come, you see.」 「That ginormous arrow was only setting the stage！？」 「Yep, that’s right. First, Ashno has to be careful in order to search for the mines. In addition, as she searches for them, now she has to be wary of any potential ambushes like earlier. Her load has just been doubled. If an area far behind her reach gets surprise attacked, that’s going to cause her to reach her breaking point.」
I’m sure that Ashno was more than capable of brushing aside mines, ballistas, and cluster bombs if they were concentrated on her one-by-one. But at the same time? Even she would crumble. Then there was the right-arm wound we managed to score on her. That would undoubtedly contribute to her loss of concentration. So that’s yet another burden. 「You see, Roleau, in order to defeat a hero, it’s effective to inflict several small burdens continuously and simultaneously. They will eventually fall with enough of that. No matter how strong someone is, they only ever have two hands. One slip-up and we can take advantage of that weakness and run with it. Heroes are not necessary to defeat heroes.」
Defeat the strongest with the strongest. In a story, maybe that’s how it goes. However, deploying the strongest against them would imply potentially losing our trump card. We can’t afford to suffer such a risk. It’s important to tie them down so that they can’t work at full strength.
「Hey, Cyril.」 「What is it, Lucy?」 「I’m glad you’re our ally, Cyril. Sometimes the ideas you have are scary.」 「Not so much my idea as it is an ironclad rule in the battlefield.
I wryly smiled as I picked up speed. Next up was surprise attacking the flank with the Cluster Bomb. Ashno was fixed to the vanguard, and was also ramping up the alert level around her. She’s not focusing on the rear at all right now. I imagine we’ll be able to get some guaranteed results now that she’s not looking over here.