Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

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The entire raid was astonishingly smooth, as the officer Cavalry unit took the artillery battery gate without suffering any casualties.

In fact, the Cavalry in the second half of the charge were almost just running along, giving Winters the illusion that this was all some farce.

Field, with two subordinates, entered the battery from another direction, and to prevent open flames from igniting the gunpowder, the three Spellcasters took turns maintaining the Luminosity Spell.

Field led the way, cautiously checking each storeroom. He would first open just a sliver of the door to determine if there was any light inside. However, the Colonel found no gunpowder stores, only empty warehouses and panicked rats.

Winters had been somewhat skeptical of the Colonel's theory that "the gunpowder store must be located at the point farthest from the cannons," and after inspecting a row of storerooms without seeing even a shadow, his vigilance had waned a bit.

But Field remained alert, carefully opening the second to last door. The wooden door creaked open a fraction, and the Colonel froze on the spot.

Turning his head, he gave Moritz a slight nod, and the Major, who was maintaining the Luminosity Spell, got the message and stopped casting. He pulled out a silver coin from his pocket and flashed it at the Colonel.

Field nodded again, took a deep breath in front of the door, and kicked it open vigorously. He then quickly ducked to the side and used the Amplify Sound Spell to give a loud shout.

This magically augmented shout wasn't as deafening as Moritz's Sonic Burst Spell but still startled Winters, and clearly, it also caught the people inside off guard.

Elite Musketeers can suppress their instinctive fear, remaining unblinking and awaiting the commander's order to fire, even as the enemy charges at them.

But the people inside clearly didn't possess this ability.

Gunshots rang out, and two lead bullets flew from the room, shattering against the artillery battery's stone walls.

Upon seeing the people inside open fire, Major Moritz swiftly moved to the doorway, launching three silver coins in rapid succession with his unadorned yet lethal Arrow Flying Spell.

The sounds of heavy objects dropping to the floor came from inside the room.

"Didn't you say we needed to take captives? Couldn't you aim for the shoulder or something?" Field chided the Major, retrieving a copper rod to activate the Luminosity Spell.

Moritz just shrugged, saying nothing.

The room's cold weapons and armor reflected the green light from the Luminosity Spell; it must be the arms store of the Duckbill Battery. Winters saw two bodies lying over a pair of matchlock guns, with neat stacks of barrels behind them and cannonballs piled high on racks.

"Naval management is really poor," the Colonel remarked, not missing the chance to criticize: "An armory and gunpowder store together? Aren't they just asking for accidents?"

By now, Winters had grown accustomed to Colonel Field's tendency to critique everything, knowing the Colonel meant no harm and was just outspoken. Ignoring him as usual, he and Moritz acted as if they were deaf.

Accustomed to this cold shoulder, the Colonel clicked his tongue disinterestedly and began to check the bodies on the ground.

"Notice anything?" Moritz asked, a rare utterance for him.

"No uniforms, filthy fingernails, rotten teeth—though these are all common enough features, they don't indicate anything specific," the Colonel replied offhandedly, his attention suddenly caught by the weapon carried by the deceased: "But this knife... isn't this a cutlass?"

Waving the short, curved knife he'd pulled from the body, the Colonel mused, "This is a sailor's cutter... Huh, interesting. Let's go see if we've caught any survivors."

The attackers, locked in hand-to-hand combat, were no match for the officers, and even outnumbered, the officers managed to quickly secure the entire battery at the cost of only four light injuries—fewer than the number who were hurt falling from horses at night.

The remaining few surviving enemies were dragged out to the battery's central open area like chickens, shivering as they knelt. The staff officers sat on the side bragging, while the junior officers were tasked with the dirty work of dragging out body after body.

"That little bastard didn't even realize what was happening; I just went up and chopped off half his shoulder with a single swing, and even bent the blade..." Colonel Kara was obviously very pleased with the raid, laughing and boasting about his bravery with his peers.

What do warriors do after a victorious battle? They brag. It's human nature. There was no doubt this was a splendid victory, and as the commander, Colonel Kara was entitled to boast.

Seeing a subordinate approach him, Colonel Kara dropped his jovial expression, lifted his head towards his men, and asked, "Are we done tallying?"

The young officer nodded, "We've counted forty-seven bodies, but some are the local garrison, hard to separate them..."

"Don't worry about that," Colonel Kara interrupted, "Let the Navy sort it out. We..."

Before he could finish, a sound like a hammer smashing a boulder interrupted him.

Accompanied by the whistle of cannonballs and the dull thuds of iron projectiles striking stone, the outer walls of Duckbill Battery started to crumble under the cannon barrage.

Chunks of broken stone even flew into the open area at the center of the battery, and several cannonballs screamed overhead.

From the sound of it, at least a dozen cannons were firing at Duckbill Battery.

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