Li Shimin reached the battlefield at top speed just in time to hear the girl's scream. Filled with fury, he ignored Berserker of Azure beside him.
As the finest steed among Li Shimin's Fourth Noble Phantasm, the Six Steeds of Zhaoling, Zhaoye Jade Lion was only C-Rank, but his mobility was far beyond what ordinary B-Rank Agility could match.
Li Shimin sprang upright on Zhaoye Jade Lion's back, then took out his great bow and silently urged, Master, give the order.
At the other end of the Master-Servant Contract, Sakura was equally worried about Illya's peril. She quickly approved Li Shimin's request to release his Noble Phantasm:
"Understood. Rider, release your Second Noble Phantasm and eliminate Archer of Azure!"
"As you command!"
The moment he received permission, Li Shimin nocked five long, four-fletched arrows on his great bow at once.
Ordinary arrows generally had three fletchings, but Li Shimin's long arrows were specially made with four to combine armor-piercing power with greater stability.
Aside from their high cost, they offered almost nothing but advantages, and the bow, nearly two meters long, compensated for their short, flat trajectory.
Legend held that Li Shimin excelled at archery and military strategy.
When he fought to conquer the realm as the Prince of Qin, craftsmen specially made him a great bow and long arrows "twice the standard size." By the time he ascended the throne and adopted the era name "Zhenguan," one great bow and five long arrows remained from that set.
Later, Li Shimin placed them in the Imperial Armory and used them as ceremonial implements in sacrifices to Heaven, displaying the outstanding military achievements of his youth. (Note 1)
It might have smacked of vanity, but precisely because historians had recorded this deed from his lifetime, the five long arrows in his