The Demonic Hybrid
The Demonic Hybrid
From a distance, it looked like a gigantic tortoise with two heads. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to have two wolf heads.
[Is this the guinea pig of Dr. Frankenstein?] Roland thought to himself. The gigantic demonic beast was as high as the city wall and almost six meters long, with six short and thick feet in the shape of rhinoceros' legs. The size of each leg was equal to that of an adult human's body. As for its heads, the two wolf heads were unlike those of the common two-headed monsters in films, which either let out howls in turn or snapped at each other. Instead, the two heads sank low, with their eyes dimmed and their movements like zombies.
The most eye-catching thing about it was the shell on its back. The shell's surface had a dim grayish brown color and was covered with moss. With one glance one could tell that it was incredibly hard. This shell was similar to that of a tortoise, it covered the monster from head to tail. If the monster could retreat into its shell like a tortoise, it would definitely be hard to kill it.
But Roland was not worried since a demonic beast that moved so slow was destined to be a target. Even if firearms could not penetrate its shell, it would be easy to hit a wolf head outside the shell. If it hid in the shell, they could blow it with dynamite.
"Your Highness, this is a demonic hybrid." Iron Axe approached him with a grave face. "Now I understand why there has been a collective action of demonic beasts of different species. They were all driven by this demonic hybrid."
[Just like a lion that drives a herd of sheep?"] Roland thought and nodded. "This one is rather different from the one you saw last time."
"It's also the first time that I've ever seen a demonic hybrid of this kind. Though it looks clumsy, you shouldn't underestimate it. Any of the demonic hybrids would be hard to tackle."
"It's almost within the range," Roland said, "and let the archers try first."
It snowed lightly, while the wind blew rather unpredictably from the northwest. The weather was not good for archery. But the two huntsmen chosen by Iron Axe seemed confident enough.
They ascended the lookout tower and shot their arrows according to their judgement of the instantaneous wind direction.
The two arrows behaved like a pair of eyes. After they rose to a vertex, under the influence of both wind and gravity, they fell and landed almost vertically on the targeted shell.
Just as expected, the arrows were repelled and this action even sounded off an attention tone like a game in Roland's mind.
The two huntsmen continued to shoot their arrows calmly for another two rounds.
The last round was successful because the arrows landed at the anterior of the monster. One arrow landed right onto a wolf head, while the other stuck into the neck of its target.
However, it did not screech angrily or increase its attacking speed. It stopped for a moment, and then hid its heads and feet into the shell while moving on.
This incident baffled everyone.
The beast looked then like a tank with its chassis lowered. The ridge of the shell almost touched the ground. In this way, even the best archer could not shoot their arrows into its body.
"Use flintlock." Roland commanded.
Now the target was about 17 meters away from the city wall. Even a flintlock without rifling could not miss it.
Carter and Iron Axe came to the parapet quickly, mounted their guns, aimed, and fired.
While the smoke was dispersing, Roland could see clearly how the bullets hit the shell and made tiny fragments sputter. A small section of the shell cracked. Yet the demonic hybrid was unaffected and maintained its speed.
[The hardness of the shell still corresponds with that of a carbon-based organism,] he thought to himself. It was a pity that the lead bullets were too soft and prone to deformation. They were unfit to penetrate the thick shell. It would be unrealistic to attempt to shatter the hybrid's shell with these four guns. They would have to resort to the explosive packages.
Iron Axe made the same judgement like the prince. He commanded Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad to carry the dynamite, while the beast was already butting the city wall. When it found it could no longer advance, its shell began to vibrate with such an unbelievable speed and hit the wall with high frequency like a rotary hammer. Stone chips instantly splattered and several cracks spread quickly along the weak spots.
The rubble wall had a high compressive capability, but yet its tensile and shearing strengths were extremely low. To be more specific, it was almost defenseless against vibration. The people on the city wall all felt it. Soon, a loud friction noise pierced the ears of everyone and informed them that the hybrid's shell had cut a slit into the wall.
Yet the crashing did not stop. The beast moved again until the whole anterior of its body was embedded into the city wall.
The Militia fled from the part of the city wall that was covered with cracks, while the invisible Nightingale carried the prince in her arms and jumped from the wall—if anyone had stared at the prince at that moment, he would find the prince had descended like an apparition.
When Van'er arrived carefully with a pack of dynamite, he found that the middle part of the city wall had an almost three-meter-wide opening. The demonic beast who had crossed the wall then stopped vibrating and continued to advance with its previous speed.
"Hurry up!" Iron Axe said loudly, "Light the dynamite and place it under the beast!"
Though his hands were shaking, Van'er retained the clearness of mind. He remembered every detail of the training about how to use an explosive package. Unlike the packages used in training, each of these explosive packages contained less dynamite and was sealed with wooden planks. Fragments of mining waste were stuffed between the packages and planks. Its firing equipment was also optimized with an extractor of flint and copper wire. When this part failed, at the end of the package there was still a normal fuse. He tore the cloth soaked with oil at the outermost layer in a flurry and pulled at the copper wire with all his strength. From the wooden box there soon came a short buzzing sound. Then smoke appeared—that was a sign it had been successfully lit.
The fuse that had been soaked in salt burned rather slowly and would take about 30 seconds to burn. The world turned quiet for Van'er when he saw the white smoke that came out of the box. He had seen how powerful this thing could be. If it exploded in his hand, not even a fragment of his corpse would remain.
27 seconds.
Van'er listened to his pumping heart and silently counted. He walked up to the demonic beast and placed the lighted explosive package on its path.
15 seconds.
Then it crushed the package. Nothing could stop its advancing movement.
9 seconds.
Van'er turned around and ran.
6 seconds.
3 seconds...
There came a boom. Van'er felt the ground beneath his feet vibrated. Then the world continued its hustle and bustle.
He turned and saw white airflow gush from beneath the shell—it was the snow on the ground that had been blown up by the explosion and looked like a misty flower. The demonic beast stopped advancing at last, as if it was unable to withstand the burden it was carrying. Its gigantic shell fell rumbling to the ground. Black blood gushed out from beneath the shell and soaked the ground.
"Ooh..."
There was a burst of cheer in the crowd.
Van'er fell and sat on the ground. Only then did he realize that cold sweat had soaked through his clothes.
[It had finally ended.]
When everyone thought so, the horn sounded loudly again on the border.
Another herd of demonic beasts emerged from the horizon and came toward Border Town.