Chapter 209.1 |
First spotted from the west wall of the royal capital were a group of harpies. The flying group of about 50 creatures was something that the kingdom’s guards had never witnessed before, but they already knew that enemies would be arriving soon.
Because the monsters still looked down on humans other than the heroes, it was anticipated that enemies would come in waves. Everyone understood that the situation was currently in favor of the kingdom. Therefore, the guards and the knights on the ramparts had enough time to exchange a few small private words as they prepared to intercept the attack.
“It starts from those flying monsters, after all.”
“I heard that Viscount Zeavert was investigating it, but how did he discover that?”
“Maybe he heard about this from the heroes. As I recall, the Viscount and Hero Mazell’s sister…”
“Before you waste your breath talking about nonsense, get ready!”
The knight shouted a reprimand to the guards who were exchanging a casual conversation. The guards hurriedly prepared their crossbow ballista, lining up the liquid-filled vessel and adding more components to it, while waiting for the enemy to approach.
Of course, Welner did not remember all the monsters in the game. However, he did remember that this harpy appeared in the labyrinth dungeon of the Heavenly King of the Wind. They were troublesome opponents.
…
Of course, if someone like Mazell became confused, anyone around him should run away as fast as they could. However, it would be easy to contain one or two confused normal soldiers.
Rather, one should be more wary of a poison attack, so it was best to strike those harpies before they could get close enough to fight.
Welner knew from his previous life that the kingdom’s army would be at a significant disadvantage if the enemy was watching them from the sky. Therefore, Welner insisted that it was necessary to first take away the enemy’s “eyes” by taking down this flying squadron, which would be the advance guard of the opponent.
Welner was more aware of the dangers of aerial patrols than the Knights, but any knight who had served as guards of ramparts knew that the view from above could be considered as an advantage. Therefore, everyone agreed with Welner’s opinion of aiming at taking down the aerial units, and preparations were being made for this purpose.
Evacuating as many people as possible from the border to the royal capital was part of this strategy. The Royal Army, which had confirmed in Finnoi that the enemy also needed to eat, had succeeded in starving the enemy as it was marching to the royal capital by giving them no one to attack.
…
Eventually, when the enemies were approaching within a certain distance, a signal was sent in the form of a metal plate reflecting light toward the inside of the city walls while preparations for the final battle were being made within the city walls.
The west gate was opened and infantrymen rushed out of it. The harpies saw this and began their descent at increased speed.
The soldiers rushed back inside the city walls, but the harpies continued their descent toward the still-open gate. If Welner had been on that battlefield, he would have described it as a hungry vulture biting the bait.
A series of strange sounds occurred above the city walls. Numerous metal containers flew from the height of the city walls further up into the sky at an angle. Then, just as the harpies were about to accelerate further to rush into the city gates before they closed, liquid poured down from overhead, causing the harpies to make strange movements as they struggled in the air, and then nets covered them from overhead.
The group of harpies became visibly disoriented.
What Welner thought and proposed at this time was the plastic bottle rocket of his previous life. Having remembered the mysterious gasses generated in the sealed bags during the experiments with the magic stone, Welner thought that it might be possible to make the tool itself fly, not as a weapon, but to deliver the trap to a distant place.
Although lightweight containers such as PET bottles did not exist, he had already experimented with thin metal containers to gain some distance if a large amount of gas could be generated at once inside the container.
The rockets were then launched diagonally upward from the top of the city wall aiming at a distance just ahead of the descending harpies. The rockets were made from lightweight monster materials and had a conical top, which helped in increasing the flying distance.
(T/N: Imagine Net Gun or Net Launcher)
The nets were pulled by the rockets from above the ramparts and spread wide, trapping the harpies which ran into the nets because of their momentum.
