leonardwarren Chapter 115: The Mage's Hand
Chapter 115: The Mage's Hand
As the spear landed, a row of slowly moving black shadows came into view on the western horizon of the scree slope.
It wasn't a cavalry unit; it was a heavy ballista that Ron had temporarily modified, adding wheels and making it mobile. However, many of the original pulleys had been removed and replaced with normal parts. A wooden board was installed in front of it, obscuring the interior, and the surface of the board was painted black and white.
From a distance, it looks like the engine of a high-speed train.
Unfortunately, no one here recognized this thing.
"What is that?" Frederick asked Declan.
Declan was also taken aback: "I don't know either. Be careful, that thing should be able to kill Sky Knights."
Upon hearing this, Frederick, who had been somewhat nonchalant, became serious.
Declan knew exactly what the priority was: "Never mind all that, deal with these two women first."
Just as Frederick nodded, two spears flew in from afar. Perhaps because they were closer, these spears were much faster than the dozen or so spears that had just struck.
At this moment, both the mercenaries and the members of the Imperial Guard quickly dispersed.
Unfortunately, the speed was too fast, and more than a dozen people were still shot into a pulp.
Frederick's good mood vanished the moment he saw that.
Another Earth Knight died; in this battle, he lost three Earth Knights.
You have to understand, his entire mercenary group only had seven Earth Knights. Losing more than half of them at once, how could he not be heartbroken?
"You deal with those two women yourself. I'm going to deal with those weird weapons," Frederick said righteously, but in reality, his eyes were full of greed.
If he could seize these crossbows he had never seen before, his mercenary group's strength could be greatly enhanced.
Declan cursed under his breath, turned his horse around, and charged at Caroline.
The next second, two more spears shot out, the frequency of which far exceeded their understanding of the current crossbow's cocking speed.
Five or six more people on both sides were shot dead.
Both sides only brought a little over 150 men for this ambush. In the fierce battle, more than 20 were killed by the Rose Knights, and now more than 20 have been shot down by ballistae, leaving less than 100 men.
"This ballista!" Declan's face turned ashen.
Frederick's eyes lit up, but looking at the orderly army formation and the spears and shields in front of them, even without cavalry, he still felt it was a tough situation.
In the few seconds he hesitated, two more spears flew towards him, this time aimed directly at him, but their aim was off, missing by a significant margin.
The two spears, originally aimed at Frederick's horse, flew off course twenty paces and pierced the side of an empty carriage, piercing through the carriage.
However, the impact of the spear hitting the ground still knocked down both warhorses.
"Damn it!" Frederick roared, leading the remaining knights to circle around the ballistae, preparing to directly attack them.
Frederick had already found out that there were no Sky Knights in Ashwood Territory, so he was not afraid at all and was full of confidence in his own strength. He was confident that even if he was surrounded, he would be able to break through the encirclement.
So his goal was simple: to seize an enemy crossbow and escape.
Two more spears shot out, this time horizontally, each with a tripwire attached, heading straight for their knights.
This move was undeniably vicious; even if the knights in front dodged the spears, the tripwires behind could trip their horses.
For a charging knight, turning around is no easy task, let alone when he has already picked up speed.
This attack caused chaos in Frederick's Knights, with a third of the thirty-odd knights lost in an instant. This time, Frederick was truly heartbroken.
In reality, these spears were not fired from the Eight-Ox Crossbow, but were thrown by Ron using the Mage's Hand.
His magic power is now close to breaking six thousand. That's right, when Neuschwanstein Castle was built, because it was a newly built structure and the construction was complicated, he was directly rewarded with more than sixteen hundred magic power points.
5871 magic power, converted into strength, is a staggering 58710 jin (approximately 24,550 catties). This is the standard answer to the saying "great strength can produce miracles."
To put it simply, the kinetic energy of a heavy arrow fired from an eight-ox crossbow is around 15,000 to 25,000 joules.
A large counterweight catapult can launch a 100-kilogram stone projectile with a kinetic energy of 250,000 to 400,000 joules.
The kinetic energy of the spear that Ron threw was approximately 450,000 to 500,000 joules.
In other words, the energy of this shot is 25 times that of the Eight-Ox Crossbow, equivalent to a heavy catapult compressing all its energy into a point the size of a spear.
Compared to modern firearms, it's comparable to the machine guns of an armored vehicle. Keep in mind that the muzzle energy of the Barrett anti-materiel sniper rifle is about 15,000 to 18,000 joules.
现代步兵战车主炮，如25mm或30mm机炮动能约为 150，000～250，000焦耳。
With a power of 50 joules, it surpasses the cannon shells of most infantry fighting vehicles and is close to the projectile energy of modern light tank main guns or 35mm anti-aircraft guns.
Ron is now like a human self-propelled cannon.
Ron's Mage Hand, after becoming a fully-fledged building mage, can control two items simultaneously.
He had pre-formed hundreds of clay spears and piled them behind him, so that when throwing them, he only needed to grab them and throw them out, without needing to re-form them.
Twenty shots per minute is the limit in this state.
The only drawback is that its accuracy is somewhat poor, making it unable to precisely snipe targets.
As Frederick led the remaining knights to the flank, they saw two spears slowly coalescing above Ron's head, then being swung violently towards their location under the control of a giant mage's hand.
"Hand of the Mage! What kind of new spell is this?"
While Frederick was still in shock and uncertainty, the spears came flying with a whooshing sound. It turned out that the two spears were connected by a rope.
Although the rope didn't hit Frederick and his companions, the terrifying kinetic energy caused the rope to flip them all over. Even Frederick, a Sky Knight, was thrown around and was completely disoriented, not to mention the other knights. The first official knight who touched the rope was whipped to death.
As a group of people were pulled off their horses by ropes, the immense resistance caused two long spears to fly in opposite directions, directly strangling the knights. The outermost knights were strangled to death by the terrifying force.
Because Frederick was in the very center, he was only slightly injured, except for feeling immense pressure. It wasn't until the energy dissipated that he fell to the ground and spun around several times.
By the time he realized what was happening, his entire knightly order was wiped out, leaving him all alone.
Frederick got up from the ground, his mouth filled with blood and dirt. He saw the young man standing at the front of the battle line. He wasn't riding a charging horse, nor wearing combat armor; he was simply manipulating two iron spears with one hand, as if playing with toys.
For the first time, he felt a fear he had never felt before when facing Gabriel: this man wasn't fighting a war, he was playing.
"What kind of magic is this?" Frederick roared at Ron.