The two went down the stone stairs, as a flurry of explosions echoed from outside. Cheng Ziang’s concerns were valid – not a few flights down, a blast from above rose, shaking the tower they were in violently. A rocket seemingly just struck their observation post.
Even with preliminary test firing, the enemy’s precision was lacking. The rockets they shot spread out like a scattered handful of flowers in the sky with only about half hitting the densely populated soldier areas. The rest were mostly left to chance.
Luckily the stone tower was sturdy enough to withstand the blast and did not collapse immediately, but this gave the pair a warning and they quickened their pace.
Meanwhile, the battle outside continued. Assisted by the rocket attacks, the gunmen started to retaliate. Some hid inside buildings along the river, wildly unleashing machine-gun fire at the mass of soldiers across the river. It was a mystery how they managed to bring these weapons into the city.
The machine gun fire easily penetrated the wooden boats, cutting many filled with soldiers in half. Soldiers in metal armor who fell into the water struggled to resurface.
As the explosions nearby became more frequent, Cheng Ziang knew they couldn’t stay in the tower any longer. If the tower collapsed, they would be buried alive.
He reached a corner platform with a one meter wide window. He kicked the wooden frame of the window and took a look outside.
They were only about three storeys off the ground. The river was right below the window, and debris fell from the top of the tower into the water causing ripples. Suddenly, a rocket struck the riverbank opposite them, throwing chunks of rocks and dust into the river.
"Yue’er, we have to jump into the water, we cannot go further down!" Cheng Ziang said loudly to Baiyue, pointing outside the window.
Baiyue nodded, approached the window, and eyed the tumultuous river below with fear. The last time they fell into a lake, she almost drowned. She would have fed the fishes if Luo’er hadn’t saved her. Hence, looking at the river now, she was somewhat reluctant. After all, she was accompanied by Cheng Xiang, not Luo’er, and Luo’er would not be able to come to her rescue if a mishap occurred.
"Don’t hesitate, hurry!" Seeing Baiyue’s indecision, Cheng Ziang urged. Although jumping into the river did not guarantee safety, staying in the tower was definitely a dead end.
Instigated by Cheng Ziang, Baiyue gritted her teeth and jumped from the window. As she left the window ledge, Cheng Ziang also jumped, without an ounce of hesitation.
Less than a second after they plunged from the tower, a rocket whizzed past to hit the base of the tower. The rocks burst and the tower could no longer withstand the impact, it fell sideways into the river.
The duo hit the water and before they had a chance to resurface, they saw large rocks falling into the waters nearby, bubbles clinging to them. They knew that even a slight touch by one of these rocks could spell death. Despite being shallow, the river was more than capable of drowning them.
With struggle, they surfaced. At this point, the massive stone tower was just about to collapse in their direction. Many large stones had already separated from the tower and crashed into the river, spurting high pillars of water.
"Swim downstream!" Cheng Ziang shouted to Baiyue.
Thus, they swam downstream with all their might. Fortunately, the tower did not fall right over their heads. After a fierce struggle, the tower collapsed into the river less than three meters behind them, setting off a massive wave that helped carry them downstream.
At this point, the city was a chaotic mess. Cheng Ziang glanced back, less than half the rockets had hit their targets, the rest were exploding all over the city, turning it into a smoke-filled battlefield.
The Bobulu people had always sought to learn advanced tactics and weaponry from Earth, but Earthlings had always been unresponsive. So even while they had modernized their weaponry, their understanding of Earth’s combat tactics was superficial, at best.
On the contrary, the Aud people could obtain any weapons they wanted from Earth and also learn how to use them. Although they were not particularly interested in Earth’s weapons, their command of these weapons far exceeded that of the Bobulu people.
The Bobulu had many attributes the Aud people did not — unity being the most important one. Therefore, once they managed to modernize their weapons, their military strength would far exceed that of the Aud people. If the three nations of Bobulu unified to become a single country, Earth would face its most powerful enemy on the continent, which was something they didn’t want to see.
In contrast, the Aud people were corrupt, conservative, and ignorant. They resisted Earth’s advanced civilization, which ironically earned them Earth’s trust. As long as they could afford it, Earth was always willing to fulfill their needs.
The cannon incident involving Masya was a classic example of this. The UN Security Council’s debate was not about who sold the cannon to Masya, but who sold it without authorization. They objected to the shady deals, not the sale of the cannon.
As the Bobulu people were not familiar with Earth’s weapons, they were overwhelmed when faced with rocket artillery attacks. Many soldiers were helpless and did not know how to deal with the dreadful weapons, resulting in heavy casualties.
This was not limited to Saint Bawa’s defense forces, even the Heresy Tribunal Army suffered heavy losses. Even though they were wearing sturdy rune armor, many were killed by the shockwaves of the rocket blasts.
Cheng Ziang and Baiyue had originally planned to stay within the city to observe the situation and track the traces of Arya’s Blade, but it was clear that the attacks launched by the Aud people had affected the entire city, including them. Therefore, it was obviously unwise to stay in the city any longer.
Fortunately, they had not brought their luggage when they entered the city, only some self-defense weapons, so there was no need to return to the inn to retrieve it.
At this time, the city was in chaos, and the harbor nearby could not be spared. Merchant ships moored in the harbor left in succession to avoid this war-torn area. Coincidentally, Cheng Ziang managed to hitch a ride on a merchant ship, which allowed them to leave the city.
While it was referred to as boarding, in fact, the two were just clinging near the water line of the merchant ship, allowing the ship to carry them away from the city.
After leaving the city, the two detached themselves from the ship, then swam towards the northern shore. Drenched, Baiyue’s hood was plastered to her head, revealing the contours of her ears. They looked quite disheveled.
After the strenuous swim to shore, Cheng Ziang turned back and pulled Baiyue onto the shore, then asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
"I’m okay!" Baiyue shook her head. Although some falling rubble had scraped her arm, these injuries were minor so she didn’t mind them.
"Let’s go meet up with Luo’er, then let’s change your clothes." Cheng Ziang said, staring at her soaked clothing.
In order to play the part of a slave, Baiyue wore a long dress. She hadn’t noticed anything in the water, but once she was back on land, the soaked clothes felt heavy, making it difficult for her to walk.
The two walked along the shore road to the inn where Luo’er was. Along the way, they saw quite a few onlookers who saw their soaked appearances and started to whisper amongst themselves.
Upon arriving at the inn, they found that there weren’t many people there. Probably they had all gone out to get in on the action. They ignored this and went straight to their room.
The door to the room was firmly shut, Cheng Ziang knocked hard on it. Immediately Hu Daoke ran over to open the door, and upon seeing the two of them look so disheveled, a strange look appeared on his face.
"Weren’t you two supposed to go on reconnaissance? How did it end up in a fight?" Hu Daoke asked while looking at the two of them.
"It’s a long story. Give the keys to Yue’er, she needs to go back to the room to change clothes!" Cheng Ziang gestured with his hand as he spoke.
"Oh!" Hu Daoke nodded his head, took the keys for the girls’ room out of his pocket and handed it to Baiyue. She took the key and left the room.
"What happened?" Once Baiyue had closed the room door, Hu Daoke couldn’t help but ask.
"Heh," Cheng Ziang laughed bitterly, then said, "When gods fight, mortals suffer."
With that, he took the sword off his belt, pulled out the blade, and poured the water out of the scabbard.
"I guess so, with a sword as lousy as yours, trying to face down so many people was practically unthinkable." Hu Daoke agreed, nodding his head.
"Where are the other two?" Cheng Ziang didn’t bother responding to his taunt, instead asking about the whereabouts of Luo’er and Tangmo.
"Oh, they heard there was a fight in the city, so they went to the observation post to watch!" Hu Daoke said.
"So they left you behind again?" Cheng Ziang couldn’t help laughing.
Hu Daoke shrugged, not interested in responding to his taunt, instead asking, "What’s going on in the city, with all those gunshots and explosions?"
"These Aud people sure are ruthless. As if the Earth’s weapons weren’t enough, their allies outside the city somehow got a bunch of 107 rockets. Their aim is terrible, the city’s in an absolute mess. Lucky we managed to get out of there in time, or we would have been collateral damage." Cheng Ziang shook his head as he spoke.
"Damn, they actually used 107s just for a broken sword, these guys are kinda crazy!" Hu Daoke exclaimed.
"It’s not that simple, these guys clearly want to throw the blame on the Earth people, that’s why they used all those Earth weapons." Cheng Ziang said.