The nail's heart tightened instantly.

At that moment, time seemed to slow down. He prayed in his heart for a hit, and stared unblinkingly at the giant evil beast, until his held breath returned to normal. The opponent was still safe and sound, continuing to run forward.

Several breaths later, a column of snow rose far away from the monster.

This is bad.

The nail's heart sank abruptly. Since the giant beast was not heading towards the sixth section of the city wall, there was an angle between it and the artillery. The long-barreled cannon had to constantly adjust its angle while estimating the speed of the opponent's movement, firing in advance, otherwise, it would be like now, shooting the shell behind the target after firing.

According to the firing rate of field guns, they only had one last chance before the monster broke through the city wall!

The nail could already see the thick fur and the blood-filled mouth under the fangs of the enemy. The witches were rushing towards this side, obviously intending to intercept the monster. But the four of them combined were not as thick as one of its legs. Could they do it with magic alone?

He was anxious, even wanting to run to the sixth section of the city wall to remind the artillery crew to aim forward, but the supervising team members standing on both sides of each section of the city wall made him finally suppress this impulse – leaving his post without authorization now might be regarded as desertion. Iron Axe had repeatedly emphasized that such behavior that could cause the defense line to disintegrate was absolutely forbidden. Once discovered, the supervising team could shoot him dead.

The evil beast running in the front had already entered the shooting range of the gatling gun, and a series of crackling firing sounds rang out from the city wall.

The nail had to continue to carry out his task, putting the prepared loaders next to the shooters.

At this time, the second earth-shattering roar rang out again, only three or four breaths apart from the long-barreled cannon's previous firing.

So... fast!? The nail looked towards the sixth section of the city wall in surprise. The smoke above the barrel had not yet dissipated, and residual smoke was still emerging from the muzzle, like a lit silver pipe. But what was even more shocking was yet to come. He didn't even have time to observe whether this shot had hit the enemy. A dazzling fire appeared once again—

The third shelling!

Good heavens, didn't they need to reload ammunition?

He only saw four or five people busy behind the barrel, but no one approached the muzzle. It seemed that this cannon was completely different from those short field guns, more like a gatling gun, capable of continuous firing!

And this attack had an effect.

The nail did not see the shell penetrate the monster's body. The first thing that caught his eye was a cloud of blood mist bursting out from the side of the giant evil beast. In addition to the scattered black blood, there were also torn fur and large pieces of flesh. At the same time, the evil beast trembled violently, and its overall body seemed to deflate a bit. Ridges like water waves surged on its solid fur—but he suspected that it was an illusion, because in the next moment, the sunken body returned to normal, but the monster's eyeballs were squeezed out in the depression, and a viscous substance of black and white was also ejected.

Without even a dying roar, the giant beast fell straight to the side on the ground, making a dull impact sound. It was not until this time that the nail discovered the place where the shell hit—a large hole had been broken in its body near the neck. Although it was insignificant compared to its burly body, it was even difficult to associate this hole with the fatal blow just now. Wisps of green smoke were emerging from the hole, and the surrounding fur was burned to a charred black.

The monster from hell died just like that?

The nail couldn't restrain the excitement in his heart, turning his previous worries into a roar and venting them out.

"Long live Your Highness!"

Even such a terrifying and ferocious enemy could not stop the powerful weapon invented by His Highness the Prince! Apart from that new-style cannon, he couldn't even think of any other way to kill this burly hybrid evil beast—even if the witches could do it, it wouldn't be so clean and neat. Thinking further, in a sense, His Highness had given them the supreme power comparable to witches!

This cry was responded to by more people, like a fuse, quickly igniting the emotions of others. At first, the new recruits followed and shouted, and then the veterans couldn't help but clench their fists.

The city wall then erupted in high-pitched cheers.

"Long live His Highness the Prince!"

*******************

Roland only received the news after the battle ended.

He put on a woolen coat and rushed to the west section of the city wall. The huge corpse of the evil beast was still lying quietly in the snow, and black blood had melted the surrounding snow into a pool of black water.

It seemed that no matter how terrifying these monsters looked, they were ultimately just carbon-based creatures. In the face of gunpowder and steel, they were no different from thin paper.

After this solid pointed bullet penetrated the target's body, it rolled due to instability, transferring the kinetic energy it carried to the target's whole body, and finally penetrated the body while rotating—just like what he saw on the scene, the other side of the target's body was completely lifted, and internal organs and broken bones were scattered all over the ground, even the hardest head was shattered in the energy shock and collapsed completely.

However, he also had some hidden worries in his heart. There was a limit to the bone strength of creatures. This thing was obviously several times larger than an elephant. How did it support its flesh without being crushed by its own weight? The size of land animals was far smaller than that of marine creatures for this reason. Gravity was an insurmountable barrier.

Could all of this be related to magic? He remembered Nightingale mentioning that she could see magic flowing in the bodies of some hybrid evil beasts.

"This... how is it possible!" Agatha, who followed, widened her eyes, "Isn't this a Hell Terror?"

"What is that, a name for hybrid evil beasts?" Roland asked curiously, "Has it appeared in the Fertile Plains before?"

"Yes, when they appear in groups, they are extremely troublesome enemies for both witches and devils. Many towns have been trampled into ruins by Hell Terrors," Agatha's voice sounded a little dry, "But they can only be seen when the Red Moon is approaching."

"Red Moon... approaching?" Roland suddenly remembered the records in that ancient book. When a blood-red moon appears in the sky, the gates of hell will open again. He frowned, "What does that mean?"

"Records passed down from the First Battle of Divine Will. That is the moment when magic is most abundant. The emergence of witches will usher in a peak, but similarly, devils and evil beasts will also become particularly powerful." Agatha said nervously, "I have carefully studied the history you gave me. According to the chronology, there should be at least twenty to fifty years before the Red Moon, and it is impossible for such monsters to appear."

"But it has appeared," Roland said in a deep voice, "What does this mean?"

"It means we don't have much time left."