Chapter 124: Impotence
Translator: Wuxia Dog Editor: Wuxia Dog
It might be that Zaganide had been too confident of his notorious reputation of brutality or that he had always taken the initiative in starting wars, but he had spent little effort on defense. The destroying of the magic circle had implied the end of Nuremberg. Ronning lined up four magic crystal cannons to fire together. The city walls east of Nuremberg were smashed in an instant. One of the cannonballs fell among the Evil Eyes, exploding them into spattering fluid. The others screamed and desperately emitted rays of light after getting up; none of them were calm enough to wait for orders from their commanders.
Strictly speaking, the regiment of Evil Eyes was the only one that could fight from a distance without any firing range limitation. The rays of light that they emitted was only the diameter of a human’s little finger, but extend up to two hundred meters. When the light exceeded a certain distance, it would spread quickly, but its killing force was neglectable. The standard range of expansion depended on the individual strength of the Evil Eye that was emitting the light.
The four magic crystal cannons, as well as the magicians near them, had all been turned reddish under the light, but none of them were injured. The magicians kept operating the magic crystal cannons, preparing to launch the next round of attacks.
Ronning gave the orders again. The white-hot beams of light soared up from the ground, throwing the Minotaurs and the Evil Eyes who were on the city walls into the depths of despair, and depriving them of their fighting wills. They were all wondering why their enemy’s commander was still holding back his order of invading since the city walls had already been exploded into ruins.
A hint of an icy smile played around the corner of Ronning’s lips when he saw from the Eye of Perspective that the soldiers of Nuremberg were running down from the city walls like ducks in a thunderstorm. Then, he made another order. The magicians hurriedly readjusted the muzzles of their magic crystal cannons. With a thunderous sound, the cannons started to show their might once again.
This time, the cannonball fell inside the city and exploded, causing a crushing defeat to all the soldiers who were hiding behind the city wall; there were even several ordinary towers that collapsed onto the ground in an instant.
Ronning didn’t know what was waiting for him, thus he cherished every living force and soldiers of his. Compared to manpower, military supplies were nothing important. Plus, he had already sent three cavalry brigades to block the other pathways. He had no power in the past, but he had made the decision to despoil all the money and military materials of the city the moment he stepped on the territory. Unlike the other generals who knew nothing but how to continue making territorial gains, Ronning had already taken the future development into consideration even though he was only a young man.
The soldiers of the infantry scratched their heads with anxiety. Usually, they would have already given a further attack, but their current commander did not make any orders. Thus, none of them dared to move.
The four magic crystal cannons kept spitting out fires of violence, and the magic cannonballs successively fell into the city, stirring up circles of death waves. All of the buildings turned into debris under the explosions, and the living creatures burned into ashes. If someone took a bird’s-eye view of the city at this time, he might find that the falling points of the cannonballs were all well-ordered. As several fell in the south, following them would be the same amount in the east; each part of the city equally shared the incoming cannonballs.
Not long after, a group of Minotaurs and Evil Eyes thoroughly lost their fighting will and fled to the west of the city, opening the gate and flooding out.
Seeing this, Ronning finally let out a sigh of relief. “Attack!” he shouted.
The soldiers finally let out a shout. Three phalanxes simultaneously moved, marching forward with overwhelming momentum. Ronning drew out his war pike, waved his arm, and led two cavalry brigades to detour the city walls to hunt down the fleeing Minotaurs and Evil Eyes.
In the depths of the corridors of the cell, some bloody-eyed Minotaurs were sullenly drinking. It was quiet here, and occasionally, the sound of a cup clashing could be heard. A moment later, when seeing the flag that did not belong to them start flapping on the city wall, the Minotaurs glanced at each other, picked up their huge axes, and walked toward the depths of the corridor.
“Bang!” The iron gate was rudely kicked open, but the Minotaurs were transfixed when they stepped into the cell. A strange man was standing there, while the stinky prisoner stretched his arms in the center.
“Watch out!” Han Jin let out a muffled shout and waved his arm. A wooden giant appeared and blocked at the gate of the cell. He immediately released a charm of Spirit Possession Operation on himself before fiercely pouncing forward.
However, the Minotaurs were all gone, and only some discarded axes remained on the ground. Outside the corridor, the Minotaurs were running and shouting in hoarse and strange voices. Though Han Jin didn’t know what they were shouting about, he could feel their desperation.
He suddenly turned around and stared at the prisoner. He had fought with the Minotaurs once, and knew that they would not be scared away by his deterrent force.
On the other hand, the prisoner was still slowly and casually stretching his limbs. He showed neither excitement for regaining freedom, nor sadness for his scars and pains.
Han Jin knew what means Zaganide had used against this prisoner. He had seen only two iron nails piercing through the man’s palms yesterday, but today he found that the man’s shoulders, legs, ribs, and other places all over his body were tightly tied up by some unknown kind of metal threads; bones could even be seen in some parts. From the perspective of modern medical science, the man should have been dead long ago, but yet he looked relaxed. Leaving the useless modern medical science aside, his tenaciousness itself was enough to be in awe of.
“Little thing, thank you for saving me,” the prisoner said lightly.
“Raphael…” Han Jin replied helplessly. Were all elderlies forgetful?
“Sorry… Mr. Raphael,” the prisoner said with a small smile. “I am curious… did you come here to save me, because you know that Zaganide will kill me?”
“Zaganide attached such great importance to you. He won’t leave without any preparations.” Han Jin smiled. “I am also wondering why you didn’t remind me of this yesterday?”
“I am old and slow. I recalled your name for the entire night after you left yesterday.”
“And yet…” Han Jin felt more helpless. “You still don’t remember my name?”
“What if you are a famous young man? I was afraid that I would remind them if I directly called your real name, so I called you ‘little thing’ all the time.” The prisoner slowly squatted down and stroked the metal threads which were untied by Han Jin. His touch was gentle as if he were stroking a lover. “Hard to believe that Zaganide would forget me. It’s… strange to be forgotten by an old friend.”
Upon hearing this, Han Jin suddenly reacted. “You are right! Zaganide should have known that we were going to attack here. Why didn’t he kill you earlier? Or bring you somewhere else?”
“God knows. Maybe he really has forgotten about me.” The prisoner carefully put away all the metal threads. “Or he was so crazy about Caroline that some part of his body was bitten off by her, and he had no time to care for me.”
“You… have seen their performance?”
“Performance? Ho ho… Little thing, you’re a little dirty. You should not be interested in this.”
“Raphael!” Han Jin reminded the man of his name again. “It’s you, not me!”
“Yes… yes, I am indeed dirty.” The prisoner looked at his own bony arms and burst into light laughter. “I shall find a place to wash off the ten years of dirt on me. Go with me, little thing.”
“Ra…”
“Mr. Raphael,” the prisoner corrected.
Han Jin moved aside and allowed the man to go first. “Please!” He had left several beetles on the corridor which could monitor what was happening outside. This time, he decided to find out the actual strength of the man by not helping him no matter what happened.
The prisoner slowly strode outside as if he were a baby learning how to walk, but he slowly became much steadier when he reached the door.
As soon as he showed himself at the door, a group of Sirens of Abyss, who were coming to the cell, froze, screamed, and turned around to flee. The most petite one was so scared that she immediately fainted.
The prisoner kept moving as if nothing had happened. He walked up to the Siren of Abyss that had fainted, stopped beside her, squatted down, and gave her a stroke. Though his body was blocking Han Jin’s sight, Han Jin could still see which part of the woman he was touching through the perspective of the beetle that had been placed in front of them. He was totally speechless.
“Are you the leader of the attackers?” the prisoner suddenly asked.
“I am one of them.”
“Do you have any authority?”
“A little.”
“Then I suggest that you keep her. She is underage, and is definitely a virgin; is that what you call them? This kind of Siren of Abyss is rather rare. When I was young… her first night could have been sold for at least one thousand gold coins.” The prisoner pointed to the other Siren of Abyss who was running away in front of them. “As for those, they are just worthless bitches.”
If the prisoner was not an old man and looked unfathomable, Han Jin would have definitely kicked his ass! But now, he just shook his head. “If you want her, just take her. I am not interested.”
“You aren’t?!” The man looked at Han Jin in astonishment.
“Not at all,” Han Jin replied assuredly. He was telling the truth.
“What an excellent young man you are. Brave, intelligent, powerful, possessing special magic, and sober; at least you won’t indulge in women,” the prisoner muttered and paused. “Are you impotent?”
Han Jin thought the prisoner had a clear purpose and that each word that had come out of his mouth had intention when hearing the first half of the sentence, but wanted to beat him up when the remaining half was uttered.