Ordinary ballistae can already shoot through the ship's plank at a distance of three hundred steps, and the range of these big guys may reach five hundred steps or even further.
And now, they have entered this distance.
Redd's gaze crossed the city wall and landed on the outline of the city further away.
He couldn't see Daemon, he couldn't see those men in black robes, he couldn't see what the city-state was planning.
But he didn't need to see them. He knew they were there, and that was enough.
As for those ballistae--
The corners of his mouth raised slightly, revealing an almost imperceptible sneer.
Let them fight. Let them feel they have a chance. Only in this way will they not run away.
On the city wall, the war machine of the Lys people is running at high speed.
Bugles sounded one after another, the messengers ran and shouted on the city wall, and the crossbowmen hurriedly adjusted the shooting angle.
The commander stood on the highest tower, holding a copper telescope, staring intently at the approaching fleet on the sea.
There were beads of sweat on his forehead, but there was a proud smile on his lips.
They're coming. They're coming from the front. These idiots are really coming from the front.
"Let go!" He waved his hand violently.
Orders were passed down layer by layer along the city wall, and the shouts of the messengers were blown away by the sea breeze, but the ballistaeers had already seen the flags waving on the towers.
The winch was released, and the bow arm suddenly rebounded, making a deafening roar--
"Collapse--"
It was not a sound, but a series of words.
More than a dozen ballistae were fired almost at the same time, and the explosions of bowstrings merged into one, as if a hole had been torn in the sky.
Huge crossbow arrows ejected from the city wall, piercing the sky with a sharp sound of breaking wind.
Their trajectories are very high, as if invisible giant hands are throwing them into the sky, and then they begin to fall under the influence of gravity.
The arrows drew parabolas in the sunlight, and the cold light of the arrows formed a death arc in the sky.
The first thing people on board heard was the sound.
That was the popping sound of a bowstring - not an ordinary bowstring, but the sound of a giant bowstring that had been stretched to the limit by a winch and had accumulated thousands of kilograms of power and was released in an instant.
The sound was sharp, short, and had the aftertaste of metal trembling, as if someone was using a huge hammer to hit a steel wire that was stretched to the limit.
The sound came from the direction of the city wall, passed through the sea, passed through the air, and penetrated into everyone's ears.
Then, there was the roar of crossbow arrows piercing the air.
That's another sound.
It is deeper and heavier, like the roar caused by the friction between something heavy and the air when it falls at high speed.
A dozen huge crossbow arrows fell from the sky, and the tail feathers of the arrows made a sharp whistle in the air, like a group of invisible ghosts howling.
Dawg Lars raised his head and his pupils shrank suddenly.
He saw those crossbow arrows. They were as thick as an adult's arm, and the iron arrows shone coldly in the sun. Stabilizing fins were tied to the arrow shafts, and the tail feathers trembled slightly as they fell at high speed.
They fell from the sky so fast that they could barely see their trajectory, and could only see black shadows magnifying in front of their eyes--
"Hide--"
Before he finished shouting, the first crossbow bolt had already hit the battleship ahead.
The ship was the vanguard of the fleet, a standard warship carrying eighty sailors and two hundred soldiers.
The crossbow arrow fell from a high place, carrying terrifying kinetic energy, and penetrated directly through the deck.
It's not penetration, it's penetration.
The entire crossbow arrow was like a spear dropped by the gods, shot from the deck, passed through the lower cabin, penetrated the bottom of the ship, and plunged into the sea.
The wood chips exploded at the point of impact, and the debris flew everywhere. A hole nearly three feet in diameter appeared on the deck, and the wooden boards on the edge rolled outwards, as if they were torn apart from the inside by some huge force.
But this is just the beginning.
More crossbow arrows followed.
One shot hit the bow of the ship, blowing up the entire bow and the keel below. Wood chips and bone fragments were mixed together and scattered.
One shot hit the side of the ship, and the huge force tore the entire ship plank off the hull, exposing the darkness inside the hull.
One shot hit the bottom of the mast, and the thick-mouthed mast broke like a dead branch under the impact of the crossbow. It fell with the canvas and ropes, hitting the deck and causing a scream.
The ship was torn to pieces in a matter of seconds.
It's not "sinking", it's "dismantling".
The kinetic energy carried by those giant crossbows was so terrifying that every impact was like a small bomb detonating on the ship.
The ship's planks were shattered, the keel was broken, the ropes were broken, and human bodies were scattered.
The entire ship seemed to be grasped by an invisible giant hand, and then crushed into pieces.
The crew on the ship had no time to react. Some people were directly hit by crossbow arrows, which passed through their bodies and tore the whole person in half;
Some people were hit by flying sawdust. Under the impact of crossbow arrows, those fragments became sharper than the blade of a knife, easily cutting through flesh and blood, and even nailing people to the deck;
Some people were hit by the collapsed mast, and the sound of broken bones could not be covered up even by the sea breeze;
More people were thrown into the sea by the shock wave, fell from the deck more than ten meters high, hit the water with a dull sound, and were then submerged by the ensuing broken boards and debris.
The color of the sea water changes in just a few breaths.
Scarlet color spread from around the wreckage of the ship, as if someone had poured a pot of red paint on the blue canvas.
The blood spread on the sea surface, getting thicker and wider, mixing with the dark blue traces left by the fish-men before, forming a strange, disgusting purple-black color.
The crew members who fell into the water were fluttering, struggling and screaming in the bloody water.
Some people are missing arms, some are missing half of their faces, some have sawdust stuck in their bodies, and some are no longer struggling, but are just floating quietly on the water, rising and falling with the waves.
A lucky few were spared death.
They either happened to be standing in the blind spot of the crossbow arrow's impact point, or they instinctively squatted or lay down the moment before the crossbow arrow hit, or they were simply thrown into the sea by the shock wave but miraculously escaped serious injury.
They splashed desperately in the scarlet water and swam towards the ships of the rear fleet, shouting for help, waiting, and all kinds of unclear words.
But their shouts were soon drowned in the greater chaos.
Several subsequent ships were also attacked.
Although not as tragic as the vanguard ships, the dense crossbows still caused serious damage to them.
The side of a ship was shot through, water poured in from the hole, and the ship began to tilt.
The deck of another ship was hit, and the crossbow bolt penetrated two decks before stopping, leaving a dark hole.
The rudder of another ship was shattered, and the whole ship was spinning on the sea like a headless fly.