The several thousand craftsmen that had been gathered together suddenly scattered in all directions. What they left behind was an enormous and heavy ballista. The string of this ballista was more than ten meters long, its body was pitch-black, and many of its parts were still giving off steam, fresh from the forge.
After using all the time and manpower available to him, Zhang Shouzhi had finally finished the giant ballista!
Awooooo!
The moment they had finished, the Behemoth began to tense up its muscles, lowering its body and head, its scarlet eyes hungering for destruction. The Behemoth was readying a charge.
“Senior Zhang, give the giant ballista to us!”
Chen Bin immediately drew his sword and rushed up to the giant ballista, a string of orders leaving his lips.
“Seventh, tenth, twelfth, and fourteenth units… all of you, get up there!
“Thirtieth and thirty-eighth units, load the ballista bolt!”
With the army in chaos and everyone fleeing, the craftsman teams and Zhang Shouzhi exhausted, and Wang Chong having been thrown aside by the Behemoth, only Chen Bin and his ballista teams still had the strength to stop the Behemoth.
Bang!
The ballista teams immediately displayed the fruits of their training. Chen Bin had barely given the order when the ballista teams that had just been preparing to flee immediately changed direction and rushed toward the giant ballista.
Several hundred ballista team members began to neatly divide up the work, showing not one bit of disorder.
Creakcreak! The firing mechanism was pulled open and several dozen Tang warriors swiftly loaded a ballista bolt, more than ten meters long and weighing nearly one thousand jin, onto the giant ballista. Boom! An enormous foot stomped past the defense line, the tremendous impact unleashing an earthquake. In a space of several dozen zhang, hundreds of fleeing cavalry were tossed into the air.
The Behemoth had finally broken past the defense line and begun its attack!
Nearly one hundred thousand soldiers were now in great peril!
“Release!”
Chen Bin finally gave the order to fire. At this moment, everyone stopped breathing, their hearts leaping up to their throats, and time seemed to freeze. The giant ballista had always been a mere concept, never truly being realized. No one knew if this giant ballista would actually work, could actually fire, or if its ballista bolt could even harm the scaled Behemoth. Not even its creator and builder Zhang Shouzhi knew these things, much less anyone else.
But there was no other choice. Whether or not it succeeded, they could only try.
Chapter 958 - Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (II)
Chapter 958: Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bang!
Like an enormous dragon breaking out of the sea, the massive ballista bolt howled through the air toward the distant scaled Behemoth. This ballista bolt bore the hopes of countless people, and even the fleeing mercenaries of the Western Regions couldn’t help but turn their heads and look to the ballista bolt with eyes brimming with hope.
Several dozen zhang of distance flashed by: fifty zhang, thirty zhang, ten zhang…
Time slowed to an interminable crawl as the distance between the ballista bolt and the scaled Behemoth grew smaller and smaller. Seven zhang, six zhang… boom! The ballista bolt collided against the head of the scaled Behemoth.
Awooooo!
The moment the ballista bolt struck, the scaled Behemoth reeled back, its two front limbs rising off the ground as it threw its head back and let out a mournful howl. Its already weakened vitality was once more struck by disaster, another large part of it being shorn away.
Cheers immediately shook the skies. The nearly one hundred thousand soldiers were invigorated by this sight.
“Wonderful!”
“It worked! The giant ballista really worked against that monster!!”
The morale of the army was given a massive boost, none being happier than Chen Bin and his ballista soldiers. They had succeeded! The giant ballista that Wang Chong and Zhang Shouzhi had designed together had truly worked against the Behemoth! The moment this giant ballista first appeared in this world, it had instantly displayed an unimaginable power.
That single ballista bolt had also given an unprecedented shock to the Tibetans, Turks, and Arabs watching from the distance.
“What was that? When did the Great Tang get its hands on such a formidable weapon?”
Huoshu Huicang’s eyes were twitching, that ballista bolt protruding from the Behemoth’s head causing mighty waves to rage in his mind. He was a Great General of many years and had exchanged blows with Zhangchou Jianqiong no small number of times, as well as interacted with several other Tang Great Generals, but he had never encountered a weapon like this.
The Behemoth Army of the Arabian Empire was already surprising enough, but Huoshu Huicang was even more stunned by the fact that the Great Tang actually had a terrifying weapon that could deal with these Behemoths.
Although the Behemoths were terrifying, they were hardly as scary if the Great Tang could mass-produce this kind of weapon.
On the contrary, a Great Tang that could create weapons effective against these Behemoths was far more deserving of his fear and apprehension.
“How could this be! When did the Great Tang become capable of standing against the Arabs!”
Duwu Sili was still the most shocked of their group. As a spectator to this entire battle, he had been closely watching everything that was going on. When the Behemoth had knocked Wang Chong flying, Duwu Sili had believed that the battle was settled and that all that was waiting for the Great Tang was the crushing of its fortifications and complete destruction of its army.
To his surprise, the enormous ballista bolt the Great Tang had used had been able to heavily wound the Behemoth. What had been a clear conclusion had all of a sudden become complicated and confusing.
“Bastards! Just what is going on!”
At this moment, no one was more shocked and dismayed than the commander of the Behemoth Army, Masil. The Behemoths had no natural enemies, and they all had extremely formidable defensive capabilities. There was almost no human weapon that could harm them. For Masil, the death of one Behemoth in this place was already difficult enough to endure.
But even more unacceptable was that these eastern infidels had managed to create a giant weapon that could harm his Behemoths.
This time, Abu Muslim and Ziyad did not immediately criticize Masil. The abrupt ballista bolt had also been a massive shock to the two Arab commanders of the east.
“Hurry and load! Get ready to shoot again!” the emboldened Chen Bin loudly ordered. It had not killed the Behemoth, but the giant ballista had already proved its worth. It was completely capable of severely wounding the Arabian Behemoths.
Awooooo!
Just as twenty to thirty ballista soldiers were carrying over another massive ballista bolt, a howl cut through the air. At some point, a pair of scarlet eyes brimming with hatred had locked onto them. At almost the same moment, a tide of baleful energy engulfed them.
At this moment, all of them felt like they were in terrible danger.
“Oh no! The Behemoth is targeting us!”
“Hurry! Load the ballista bolt! Everyone else, prepare to protect the giant ballista!”
While the ballista bolt had managed to injure the scaled Behemoth, it had also provoked its wrath. With a heaven-shaking roar, the Behemoth turned its head and began to charge at the giant ballista.
“Ah!”
The army was in a state of panic, and even Chen Bin paled. Just when it seemed like the giant ballista and all the ballista soldiers around it would be killed by the Behemoth, everyone heard an enormous roar.
“Out of my way!”
A giant figure suddenly charged out, pushing the Behemoth past the defense line.
“Milord!”
“Lord Marquis!”
The sight of that familiar figure caused the soldiers to rally once more. Although the four-armed god had lost two of its arms, it still possessed its prodigious strength. More importantly, the constant battering the Behemoth had received had greatly dimmed its fire of life, and it was no longer as fierce and savage.
Boomboomboom! Caught off guard, the Behemoth lost its balance and was forced several steps back by the Godking Yama, each step causing all of Talas to quake.
“Beast! Take another blow from my cudgel!”
Wang Chong’s bellow was like a peal of thunder, and before he had even finished speaking, that enormous iron cudgel was swinging around to smash the Behemoth’s head. To be more precise, it was aiming straight for the large ballista bolt protruding out of its skull.
Owwwww! The Behemoth howled and quivered. Half of that ballista bolt had been sticking out of its head, but now, Wang Chong had smashed the entirety of it into the Behemoth’s skull, dealing it a severe wound.
Wang Chong was still not finished. While the Behemoth was still confused, the Godking Yama began to batter away at the Behemoth with its cudgel. Smacksmacksmack! In a few short moments, the Behemoth’s head was struck thirty to forty times.
“Wonderful!”
“Lord Marquis! Lord Marquis! Lord Marquis!”
The air resounded with endless cheers from the Tang. But in the distance, the Tibetans, Turks, and Arabs all had extremely nasty grimaces.
“Release!”
With Wang Chong stopping the Behemoth, Chen Bin and his men excitedly worked at their task. With a wave of Chen Bin’s Wootz Steel sword, the second giant ballista bolt was fired, swiftly sinking into the Behemoth’s skull.
“Hurry, faster!”
Chen Bin urged his men on. After their experience loading and firing twice, his men were much faster at loading the giant ballista. Boom! Another ten-meter-long ballista bolt came hot on the heels of the second, nailing itself into the Behemoth’s head.
……
Wang Chong and the giant ballista worked in close collaboration. While Wang Chong’s cudgel attacked from the front, the giant ballista fired from the rear. Ballista bolt after ballista bolt sank into the Behemoth’s skull, each bolt sapping away at its life.
Boom! The final shot was not unleashed by Chen Bin’s men, but from the nearby open gate of Talas. At some point, the second giant ballista had been finished and been pushed out through the city gates. Leading the team was the slender and still-young figure of Xu Keyi.
With two giant ballistae, the army exploded with cheers, its morale at its peak, even greater than it had been at the start of the battle. With the bolt fired from Xu Keyi’s giant ballista, the distant scaled Behemoth finally crashed to the ground.
The earth quivered under the impact, as if it was about to crack apart under the pressure.
After taking twenty-some bolts from the giant ballistae, the infamous ‘Terrorizer’ of the Arabian Empire had finally died, the last embers of its life having been extinguished.
“Protector-General! Protector-General! Protector-General!”
All the soldiers within the defense line and inside Talas were cheering so loudly that they could be heard a hundred li away. In the distance, the generals of the three opposing empires all had extremely awful expressions, particularly the Arabs. The Terrorizer had a thunderous reputation, having destroyed innumerable cities. Nothing had ever posed a real threat to this Behemoth, much less been capable of killing it.
But now, it had entered its eternal slumber.
If they hadn’t seen it for themselves, not even if they were beaten to death would they have believed it. This was undoubtedly a massive blow to the Arab army.
Buzz!
Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Chong raised his right foot, stepping over the Terrorizer’s corpse and striding into the distance.
“Chen Bin, Xu Keyi, I’ll leave the two giant ballistae to you. Work together to kill the last Behemoth!”
Wang Chong’s voice echoed in the air, but the person himself had already gone.
In the distance, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and Wang Yan were embroiled in fierce combat with the black boar Behemoth. Their attacks were coming in fast and thick, but the Behemoth ignored them, focusing all its attacks on Talas. The lofty walls of Talas were shaking, swaying more and more with each impact.
The situation was perilous. If the black boar’s attacks continued unabated, the entire city of Talas would collapse in short order.
Chapter 959 - Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (III)
Chapter 959: Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (III)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Yama’s Fury!”
Just when the black boar Behemoth was prepared to smash into the wall once more, the black Godking Yama leaped into the air and slammed the enormous cudgel burning with violet flames into the Behemoth’s head. At almost the same time, the giant ballistae under the control of Chen Bin and Xu Keyi also began to fire, two huge ballista bolts shooting toward the black boar’s head.
Owwww!
The black boar Behemoth that was the ‘Destroyer’ gave off a shrill howl. This time, its hardy bristles and pliable, tenacious hide were ineffective. The long ballista bolts pierced right through its skin and skull to penetrate deeply into its head.
The Destroyer had finally suffered a wound of unprecedented severity.
Bang! Bang!
As the Destroyer howled, two more ballista bolts thundered into its head. Its once-exuberant flame of life seemed to suddenly be assailed by a snowstorm, instantly dimming.
“Wonderful!”
Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and Wang Yan were elated by this sight and immediately began to work with Wang Chong and the two distant giant ballistae. One second, two seconds… The black boar Behemoth’s vitality was dropping at an astonishing rate.
Roaring, the Behemoth turned its scarlet eyes to the distant giant ballistae and began to charge. This Behemoth had originally been focused on attacking the city, but the damage inflicted by these two giant ballistae had been far more severe than that of the three Great Generals. Each blow sent pain all the way into its bone marrow, such that the Behemoth could not simply disregard the attacks of the giant ballistae.
“Stop it!”
Gao Xianzhi and the others had been completely focused on the Behemoth, so the moment it turned, enormous chains of Stellar Energy swished out and pulled it back. A few seconds later, the Supreme Desolation God, the Mighty Miracle God, Gao Xianzhi, and Wang Chong’s Godking Yama began to attack the Behemoth’s ribs.
The Behemoth charged left and right, but found itself stymied at every turn. During this entire process, the Behemoth’s head was struck by eight more ballista bolts.
“Release!”
“Release!”
The giant ballistae were lined up together, Chen Bin and Xu Keyi swinging down their swords as they commanded their men to shoot. These two were the best ballista officers in the Tang reinforcement army, and they had only needed a short while to understand how to use the giant ballistae.
Besides that, the two had also refined the loading procedure, speeding up this most important part of the giant ballista’s firing process.
“Release!”
“Release!”
One bolt was fired after another, the two giant ballistae showing a completely different level of power from when they were used against the hippo Behemoth. Under the continuous fire of the giant ballistae, the black boar Behemoth’s vitality was weakened to an unbelievable level.
“These fucking bastards! I’ll tear your corpses into shreds!”
As the Destroyer was surrounded by the four Tang experts and constantly wounded by the giant ballistae, Masil trembled, his rage contorting his face into a savage grimace.
Masil turned and yelled to one of the fearful servants behind him, “Hurry and call the Destroyer back!”
Alt
hough he was extremely unwilling, he deeply cherished each of these Behemoths. The Terrorizer was already dead, so Masil could not sit back and watch as the other Behemoth died at the hands of the Tang.
Phweeet!
A moment later, a sharp whistle suddenly rose from the Arab camp. The sound of this whistle made the black boar Behemoth in front of Talas pause and turn its head toward the Arab camp. Boom! Without any hesitation, the illustrious Destroyer pushed aside its attackers and began to madly charge out of the encirclement.
“Beast! Don’t you think it’s a little too late to think about escaping!”
Chen Bin and Xu Keyi sneered at this sight. If the Arabs had called back the black boar Behemoth earlier, they might have still had a chance, but now, the Behemoth had at least twenty ballista bolts sticking out of its head, each of them hammered deep into its skull by Wang Chong’s cudgel. In this situation, even something as tenacious as this Behemoth was teetering on the edge of death.
Boom! Boom!
With another wave of Chen Bin’s and Xu Keyi’s swords, two more ballista bolts struck the Behemoth’s head.
The Behemoth was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it had covered fifty zhang. Boom! Boom! Two more ballista bolts struck its head. Seventy zhang. Boom! Boom! Another pair arrived.
Rumble! One hundred and fifty zhang!
Yet another two ballista bolts struck true, and with one last howl, the black boar Behemoth crashed into the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.
With the battle concluded, everything fell quiet. The first cheers exploded from the Tang soldiers atop the walls of Talas. The enormous pressure that had hung over all their heads had finally dispersed.
“Won! We won!”
The Tang soldiers and mercenaries waved their hands in the air, their faces red from excitement. Through the corpses of the three Behemoths, the Great Tang had once more displayed its power to its enemies.
More importantly, the army finally had a weapon capable of dealing with these monsters. The army of one hundred thousand had one more tool in its arsenal to help it survive this battle.
“It’s over. The Arabian Behemoths could not pose a threat. In the end, it seems like it’s still up to us!”
The Human Emperor c1-2382 Page 620
