Refining the Heavens 4 (炼天四)

Chapter 50: Monster Horde (Part 2)

Thousands upon thousands of Cave Trolls surfaced from underground. These natural burrowers had followed the Saint Empire troops from the beginning undetected. Naturally, as these creatures were shadowing the soldiers, their presence were easily concealed.

These subterranean beasts set large rocks as the foundation, then pushed up the dirt from underneath thick layers of snow to cover it.

Though it is supposed to be a stairway, they did not bother to create actual steps and let the uneven soil provide traction for the humans.

The cannons that fired almost desperately as their construction chipped the rock foundation and blew up great clouds of dirt. Despite Cave Trolls are hardy creatures, these weapons of war are enough to take out a bunch with every shot. However, a monster horde is somewhat of a calamity that could wipe out cities and destroy military garrisons.

Hundreds of trolls were wounded in the heavy artillery fire in seconds, but only a couple were unfortunate enough to be killed instantly. With the incredible regenerative trait of the trolls, as long as they aren't dead, they will recover from any sort of grievous injuries and jump right back into business after a few minutes. Without cannons, killing one would be a terrible ordeal, these creatures have three hearts and four lungs, bone plated head, and a tremendous metabolism. They have unfair resilience against all types of elements and blunt attacks and vigour alike a dragon's.

If not for their small stature that is no bigger than a human child's, they would be able to take over the monster world. Instead, the larger beasts treats them as their staple food somewhat like anteaters to ants. If not for that, the entire world will be already crawling with trolls.

These subterranean beasts started swimming up towards the cliff top. As they slinked upwards, more and more soil and rocks are pushed up forming a small mound that grew rapidly.

They are black in colour, with two spike-like teeth protruding upwards on either side of its foaming maw, a flat nose-less face, and overly large blood-red eyes. On each side of its face, there are two pairs of reptilian orifices which act as its nostrils and ears. Thin elongated arms with large claws helped them move the soil around easily. They had dry, scaly skin, but instead of normal keratin scales, it was covered with a layer of tiny, rock-hard bone plates.

A wriggling mass of such hideous creatures charging up the plateau was enough to cause the hearts of veteran barbarians to palpitate with fright.

Reynold stared at the growing soil mound and a terrifying sneer appeared on his face as he said in a voice dripping with venom, "Use the Briar Root Cannons!"

In the world of cultivators, physical cannonball firing war machines are weapons of the lowest grade. If not for the invention of Fire Powder that could blast a D ranker into bits, with Ki Barrier and all, it would be completely useless against powerful practitioners that could use Seals, Runes, Artefacts, and all kinds of wondrous techniques to protect themselves.

However, in any of the three realms, weapons are consistently researched to make them stronger, faster, more powerful, and essentially to become more efficient at killing.

The first upgrade of the traditional Fire Powder cannon on Gaia is the Elemental Cannons, instead of merely shooting out explosives, these upgraded big guns are able to counter the numerous protections that cultivators could throw up.

Against a soil bridge which is mainly Earth Element, Wood is perfect counter.

At the same time, as the Snowdrifts fulfil the promise of creating a bridge straight to the top of the plateau, Esley's soldiers continued pressing towards the north. A hundred thousand soldiers in each of the two lanes moved swiftly under artillery fire, arrows, and runic fires. The vanguards that are protecting the group with the cubic barrier quickly weakened under duress, but as they continued despite soldiers falling over after exhausting the last strand of their Ki.