Chapter 188 – Salevela Conflict 9

The fortress was about four stories tall. In the side of the fortress was a mounted hand-crank machines guns that put holes into anyone stupid enough to get close. Dolce watched the whole fortress while resting her chest flat on a covered position.

“The fighting’s rather intense,” said Elesia, who was prone next to Dolce.

“The Islanders are giving us the hard time,” replied Henry, who was crouched behind them his eyes constantly scanning the surroundings, his cheek was planted on his rifle.

“This is their home. It would be not right if they do. They are islanders that put their newborns into cold caves. Dying for their home is tradition to them.”

Dolce explained while watching a young lad get his head turned into a beehive, falling down with his eyes missing.

“Quite heartless don’t you think?” Elesia asked.

“Yes, but is their native tradition. The Templars brand their ringer with the cross don’t they?”

She turned her eyes at Henry. Henry noticed the gaze and answered, showing Dolce his ring fire. There was a symbol of the cross burned on his ring finger.

“When we are five, the brand of the cross is burned into our ring fingers.”

“See Elesia?” she said. “It only shows that the continent has different kinds of tradition. But sadly, the age of chivalry is dead. We, the people of the Freelands are nothing but people that have lost all tradition as the time of sword and axes are done. The only tradition left of us warmongering and slavery. Isn’t that great?”

There was a trace of ridicule in her voice. Elesia swayed her head. It made her realize how little knights she has seen compared to when she was little.

“I remember that there errant-knights everywhere. But they seemed to have vanished.”

“Why wouldn’t they vanish?” Dolce said with a laugh. “The invention of the musket killed their presence. If the dwarves weren’t so fervor in manufacturing the weapons, do you really think that the age of knights would die so quickly?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“That’s right. They wouldn’t die so quickly if the muskets didn’t spread. It made me realize that the only reason the demesne could not be taken was that of these weapons. The weapons didn’t only become better. Now we can use the rifles in our hands to continuously shoot bullets. An arrow could kill us. But we can avoid it. But can we avoid something that moves so fast? No, we couldn’t.”

Elesia has many mix feeling hearing that. She looked at her rifle and thought. Indeed, a simple bullet to the head would kill me. It has never been on her mind that she was this close to danger. She just judges it unworthy of her fear.

She has been raised to be stern and steady at a hard time. There was never a time she wasn’t willing to shield Dolce from harm. She was her shield. It was natural for her to die for Dolce. But the thought of a bullet killing her mistress made Dolce nervous.

Dolce sensed that her face turned stiff. Dolce patted her head as she turned her eyes back to the battlefield. The shielders that carried thick metal plates slowly moved towards the battlements. They made use of the shields as their cover. The crank-operated machine gun proved to be heinous, however. The shielders staggered back the force that being hailed towards them was too much. There were about five machines guns guarding the battlements.

The four continued to fire while the last machine gun would act as cover for them. The machine gun struck bodies one after another. A figure that was carrying explosives sprinted with haste towards the battlements with no sense of fear.

He roared madly. He carried the bag of dynamites with him and threw it above the battlements. The explosives made the battlements crumbled!

“CHARGE FORWARD NOW IS THE TIME TO KILL THEM ALL!”

That voice filled with fury belonged to none other than Sigrid of Alva. He wore his great coat, and his rapier was pointed at the battlements. His roar brought unrelenting bravery to the men. Most of the ones hunkered down stood up and ran to the battlements. They had this gritted expression as they waded through the gunfire of the last machinegun.

The last crank operated machine gun fired at the invaders. But a rifleman that was covered by bushes took sight. He shot the machine gunner and roared towards the battlements with haste.

Dolce dashed towards the battlements too. Elesia and Henry followed her and they combed through the bullets and corpses till they were able to hug the walls of the battlements.

Dolce looked inside. Her father was able to reach the gates of the fortress. His brother Don was setting up the explosives, as they then sprinted far from the gates and dived down to cover.

The gates exploded. The mist covered the view but the barrage of bullets made it clear that there was a machine gunner waiting for them. But this time a soldier carried a long iron rod with him. He was accompanied by another who held him in the waist. The soldier pointed the long iron rod at the gunner. It made a loud bang as a projectile was propelled at the gunner.

It was a shoulder mounted cannon. It was devastating and it allowed the assaulters to rush inside the fortress without any stop. The assaulters carried a massacre inside the fortress. Every defender was shot to the death by the time the sun was up high, glaring at the world.

The island was captured. The leader of the island was dragged to the courtyard along with his family. His wife was tearing up along with his other children. They looked like they have shat their pants. They smelled of piss and blood that the ones in the front shut their noses just to breath.

Sigrid of Alva stepped forward. He pointed his fingers at the family and shouted superfluous and exaggerated words of evil that made Don and Dolce roll their eyes and cringed. It was obvious the ones aware. But the soldiers were not, they shouted with fury and spat words of insult.

The family was then executed by firing squad. Their bodies were then burned.