Chapter 735: Death’s Roar

In little more than ten minutes, Henwell destroys two statue knights.

The anti-magic suppression affects Henwell, but it does not reduce him to an ordinary man.

His formidable physique allows him to retain combat strength comparable to a Grand Knight.

The Lady of Calamity assumes Henwell has lost all his extraordinary abilities. She is wrong.

He can still draw on the power of his Gene Lock and Will Lock, though both are suppressed to a degree.

If he activates those two powers, he can reach the combat strength of an ordinary Iron Rank professional.

Barring a desperate situation, Henwell has no intention of revealing that ability.

The Lady of Calamity is merely a temporary partner. Revealing too much to her would do him no good.

Henwell has already decided to ambush and kill the assassin couple once the operation is over.

These statue knights are nowhere near as formidable as the one that spoke to him earlier.

Those first two statue knights possessed the combat strength of a Grand Knight as soon as they awakened.

Perhaps because of the Anti-Magic Formation, the statue knights that awaken later possess strength only approaching that of a Battle Knight.

Otherwise, everyone else in the hall would have been slaughtered long ago.

Henwell could dispose of the statue knights with ease, but he is drawing out the fight for three reasons.

First, he wants to study the laws at work here as closely as possible. The Anti-Magic Formation is remarkably ingenious.

Any insight he gains could help him wield his Will Lock more effectively.

His Light of Civilization, born from the Will Lock, can also suppress his enemies.

Henwell hopes to incorporate the Anti-Magic Formation's methods of applying laws into his Chains of Civilization.

If he succeeds, he will be able to suppress his enemies far more powerfully in future battles.

Second, he cannot let the Lady of Calamity gauge his true strength, least of all the assassin couple at her side.

The three parties are working together only for the moment, so Henwell must remain cautious.

Finally, the fight gives him a chance to test the two new weapons in his hands.

Henwell personally helped develop the pair of oversized revolvers.

The development project bears the code name Thunder-1. Henwell has provisionally named this particular pair Death's Roar.

Their shots truly are deafening!

Now that the extraordinary alloy has been finalized while stable propellant remains nowhere in sight, the only answer is brute force.

The barrels and actions are made entirely from extraordinary alloy, strong enough to withstand the pressure of volatile propellant.

The new weapons are nowhere near ready for mass deployment. Henwell's side has not even developed a primer such as mercury fulminate.

To ignite the propellant, an extraordinary rune on the hammer must be activated.

That means the weapon can only be used by an extraordinary professional.

Henwell does not mind that limitation.

In his plans, the military will eventually be the only system producing extraordinary professionals in large numbers.

Ordinary people will never progress beyond Knight squire. That restriction should curb the public security problems that widespread firearms might otherwise create.

The Thunder Hand Cannon packs offensive power at the Knight rank.

Yet even the basic version costs more than a thousand gold coins.

Even as a prototype that has yet to enter mass production, it is far too expensive.

Each extraordinary round costs roughly ten gold coins as well.

Strictly speaking, the Thunder Hand Cannon remains a weapon that burns gold with every shot.

It will not become widely available for a long time.

Even so, Henwell knows exactly why these weapons must reach the battlefield.

Equipping even one legion, or a single warband, would be enough to make a difference.

At a critical moment in a stalemated war, these weapons could rapidly break the deadlock and create a decisive local advantage.

Take the Battle of Blood and Fire. Had even one warband of the Death Herald Legion carried these weapons, the battle would have ended very differently.

The Night Falcon Knights would have been wiped out long ago!

The Death's Roar revolvers in Henwell's hands are even stronger than the Thunder Hand Cannon. Each shot hits as hard as a Battle Knight's full-strength attack.

They cost dozens of times more, and this pair exists solely to test their performance in battle.

The Thunder Hand Cannon has an optimal effective range of only twenty meters, making it clearly a close-to-mid-range combat weapon.

It is meant to be used alongside melee weapons. Finding the right tactics will take time, experimentation, and hard-earned experience.

Turning a unit into nothing more than a pistol squad would be naive.

If the first volley leaves even one enemy standing, an opponent at the Knight rank can cross twenty meters and reach the shooters in an instant.

That is why the weapon must be paired with melee arms.

What if the enemy is not a Knight?

What kind of foolish question is that?

The weapon itself requires a wielder at the Knight rank. If the enemy is weaker than that, there is no reason to deploy troops carrying such expensive weapons.

A weapon that burns gold with every shot must be reserved for the most valuable targets.

Henwell wants to use this fight to work out a practical set of gun-and-sword tactics.

At the same time, he wants to give Miller, his informal disciple, some guidance.

Daisy is quick-witted, but she is not made for bloody close combat.

After another ten minutes or so, Henwell destroys two more statue knights.

Only four remain in the hall. The Lady of Calamity speaks up. "We need to move faster. We cannot remain here much longer."

"You can sense it too. The corrupted creatures outside are growing restless. We must descend as quickly as possible."

At her words, Henwell brings the lesson to an end.

He catches the statue knight's weapon on his greatsword, draws Death's Roar from his left thigh, presses the muzzle beneath its chin, and blows its stone head apart.

He then slashes horizontally to block an attack from the right while raising the gun in his left hand to blast back another statue knight on the opposite side.

The muzzle whips behind him, and he fires into a statue knight charging from the rear.

With a light flick of his wrist, he swings the cylinder out to one side and ejects the spent casing.

He brushes the gun across his waist and deftly loads fresh cartridges into the cylinder with his thumb.

He snaps the cylinder shut and, without raising the gun, angles the muzzle toward the shin of the statue knight still locked against his greatsword.

The shot blasts its knee apart, and the statue knight pitches sideways.

Henwell twists and sidesteps, bringing his greatsword down and sending its stone head flying.

He steps onto the headless statue and leaps, turning in midair to evade the next statue knight's sword before driving a knee into its chest.

The tremendous impact knocks it to the floor. Before it can rise, Henwell crushes its head beneath his foot.

He raises his gun and fires with precision, shattering the neck of the approaching statue knight.

Henwell hurls his greatsword into the chest of the last statue knight. The blade pierces it but fails to inflict fatal damage.

He leaps after it and uses his final round to blast apart its hand.

Henwell steps onto the greatsword embedded in its chest, flips over the statue knight, catches its neck from behind, and tears its head free by brute force.

As he lands, he hooks the fallen greatsword into the air with one foot, catches it, and hurls it again.

The blade pierces straight through the damaged neck of the remaining statue knight.

With that, every statue lies destroyed.

Even Alex cannot help admiring Henwell's speed and instincts in battle.

Henwell dusts the stone fragments from his clothes. "What comes next, my lady?"