Chapter 51: Chapter 51: The Powerful Repeating Crossbow
The crossbow arrow flew unabated, piercing straight through the Dogman Scout’s neck.
A single arrow to the throat.
A look of shock appeared on the Dogman Scout’s face before its body went limp and it collapsed to the ground.
It all happened so suddenly that the Dogman Miners and the supervising Warriors in the rear failed to react.
Fang Zhen was perfectly calm, his mind clear of all distractions. He coolly flipped the lever on the Dragon Gall Crossbow to switch from arrows to pellets, then grabbed the cocking lever and yanked it down hard.
With a ’CLICK!’, the string pulled taut. Fang Zhen returned the lever to its position, completing the reload. He then aid at the nearest Dogman Miner through the optical sight.
He didn’t target the Dogman Warriors, choosing instead the unarmored and more vulnerable miners.
Once he had his target, Fang Zhen pulled the trigger.
The string of the dual-purpose weapon—or more accurately, the repeating crossbow—snapped forward, firing the steel ball.
The steel ball flew through the air, and in less than a second, it struck the back of the head of a Dogman Miner who was still mining, completely unaware.
BANG!
Through the optical sight, Fang Zhen clearly saw the steel ball fired from the Dragon Gall Crossbow tear off a chunk of scalp from the back of the Dogman Miner’s head. The ball entered its skull—likely piercing straight through it—and so sort of pulp splattered out.
The Dogman Miner staggered forward and smashed its head against the rock wall, its skull splitting open. It collapsed to the ground, its body convulsing. The single steel ball had sent it into a seizure.
Only then did the group of Kobolds finally react.
An Iron-Armored Dogman wielding a short axe roared. The Dogman Miners stopped digging, clutching their pickaxes in a panic, completely bewildered.
However, the Armored Dogman Warrior holding a candle, a longsword slung across its back, was much calr. It let out a few sharp barks, quelling the miners’ panic, and then scanned the area.
Its gaze swept across the cavern and locked onto Fang Zhen at the entrance of the passage.
The Armored Dogman Warrior was visibly stunned for a second, as if it couldn’t believe soone would dare to enter the mines alone to challenge its tribe. Then, it began to bark furiously.
Amid the barking, the Dogman Miners and the other warrior spotted Fang Zhen. Now with a clear target, the entire pack of Kobolds barked in fury, raised their various weapons and tools, and charged him.
Another steel ball was their only welco.
After killing the Dogman Scout and one of the Dogman Miners, Fang Zhen took in the entire scene. His active ’combat focus’ kept his mind free of all distractions.
While the Kobolds were reacting, Fang Zhen had already pulled the tal lever on the Dragon Gall Crossbow, cocked it, and taken aim.
The mont the Kobolds spotted him, he finished aiming and pulled the trigger.
The Dragon Gall Crossbow might be called a slingshot, but its power was anything but ordinary.
At a distance of about forty ters, the Dragon Gall Crossbow in its steel-ball mode could shatter a beer bottle or pierce two to three soda cans lined up in a row.
In this naless dungeon world, neither goblins nor Kobolds possessed Fang Zhen’s level of physical strength. In fact, they seed almost to have osteoporosis; their bodies just weren’t that durable.
Fang Zhen fired another steel ball straight ahead.
A Dogman Miner had just spotted Fang Zhen and was joining the angry barking when a steel ball flew straight at it, striking it right in the face.
With a sickening SMACK, the flesh on the Kobold’s left cheek was ripped away, peeling the skin off its gaunt face. The steel ball embedded itself in its cheek, collapsing the left cheekbone. Shards of bone pierced the Kobold’s eye, which burst in a grueso mix of blue, red, and green fluids.
The Dogman Miner was thrown backward, where it rolled on the ground, letting out miserable yelps of pain. ’YELP! YELP!’ It sounded just like a beaten mongrel, a literal whimper of a defeated dog.
’The power is incredible!’ Even Fang Zhen was surprised by the devastating effect, amazed by the Dragon Gall Crossbow’s might.
But his mind was perfectly clear. The thought flashed past in an instant, and his hands moved with the accuracy of a precision instrunt, cocking the Dragon Gall Crossbow and aiming once more.
Fang Zhen pulled the Dragon Gall Crossbow’s tal lever, cocking the string.
He was in peak condition. His movents were as smooth as flowing water, with no wasted motion, possessing the elegant beauty of a finely-tuned instrunt.
In this state, his reloading speed was even faster than usual. While practicing at ho, the interval between cocking, aiming, firing, and starting the next reload was 2.5 seconds. Now, in this peak condition, Fang Zhen could complete the entire sequence in about 2.1 seconds.
At the sa ti, Fang Zhen realized his earlier estimate was off. He had calculated that it would take the Kobolds 8 to 10 seconds to spot him and charge, but there was a discrepancy.
Fang Zhen had based his initial calculation on the Kobolds’ height and what he assud was their top speed, comparing it to his own and adjusting accordingly. In reality, however, the monsters took longer than expected to recover from the initial shock of the attack. There was another factor, too.
In actual combat, Fang Zhen suddenly realized the Kobolds were slower than he’d anticipated.
The Kobolds’ base speed was close to his estimate, but he’d forgotten one thing: they were carrying pickaxes and other weapons!
The pickaxes weren’t light—weighing at least seven or eight pounds—and they seriously hampered the Kobolds’ speed.
Estimating based on their current speed, it would take them at least 14 seconds, maybe even longer, to reach him.
That ti difference was enough for Fang Zhen to get off at least one more shot.
Fang Zhen’s Spirit rose as he realized this.
An extra two seconds of ranged attack ti ant he could take down one more Kobold before they closed in.
With their numbers dwindling and his advantage growing, Fang Zhen’s odds of victory invisibly increased.
Realizing this didn’t affect his shooting in the slightest. His movents remained uncannily calm and steady.
He pulled the tal lever again, cocking the crossbow, aiming, and firing.
This ti, Fang Zhen didn’t go for a headshot, instead hitting a Dogman Miner in the left side of its chest.
The steel ball buried itself in the Kobold’s chest. The Dogman Miner collapsed, but it hadn’t been completely taken out of the fight. It let out a few wails and tried to push itself up, only to be trampled by one of its comrades from behind, forcing it back to the ground.
Fang Zhen cocked, aid, fired. Cocked, aid, fired.
With his ’combat focus’ active, Fang Zhen was terrifyingly calm, like a battlefield sniper rcilessly reaping the lives of the charging Kobolds.
In the blink of an eye, Fang Zhen had fired six rounds.
Six shots from the repeating crossbow, and Fang Zhen had taken down six Kobolds. One shot, one kill.
Two of them weren’t completely out of the fight, but they were dazed and struggling on the ground, posing no imdiate threat to Fang Zhen.
BANG!
Fang Zhen pulled the trigger again. A steel ball shot out, striking a Dogman Miner in the face and sending it flying backward.
After firing, Fang Zhen imdiately began to reload the crossbow.
By now, the foremost Kobold was only twelve or thirteen ters away.
This was the distance that truly tested one’s nerve.
At this range, Fang Zhen didn’t even need the optical sight. He could clearly see the ghastly white, interlocking canine teeth of the approaching Kobold.
The psychological impact of the rapidly closing distance was imnse. It was like being in the front rank of a spear wall in ancient warfare, watching enemy cavalry charge. To say you weren’t nervous would be a lie; any normal person’s mind would reel under such pressure.
Fang Zhen, too, felt the visual and psychological shock of the charging pack of Kobolds.
And yet, in that mont, Fang Zhen felt sothing strange.
Reviews
All reviews (0)