Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 359 The Battle of the Guardians
"prince!?"

Josh's eyes widened in surprise.

He thought the prince's group had abandoned the area and fled for their lives, but unexpectedly, they returned with reinforcements.

Behind the prince were the musketeers of the port guards, who filled almost the entire alley. The Mother Goddess believers, who had reached the barricades, slowly turned around and were greeted by the dark muzzles of guns.

"Fire!"

The officers roared out orders, and the monsters from the Church of Mother Goddess were pushed back by bullets before they could even get close. Although the deranged believers were fearless, their bodies could not withstand the bullets. Like wheat blown down by the wind, they fell one after another.

Although the monsters were devouring the believers, the people in front of them were falling too quickly, and they had no choice but to use their own flesh and blood to meet the gunpowder and bullets.

Blood splattered from the massive body, the monster's roar was drowned out by the gunfire, and in just a moment the alleyway was a river of blood.

Josh was pulled back by several members of the Secret Order. He was panting heavily, the life-or-death moment having almost exhausted all his strength.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness, the prince has come to the rescue," Josh said haltingly, but he soon noticed Zoe beside him, whose complexion was not good.

"What's wrong, Zoe? Is there a problem?"

"Something's not right." Zoe stared intently at the port guards outside. Unlike the small cavalry squad led by the prince earlier, these were infantrymen. They were constantly cycling through loading and firing, and the number of enemies opposite them was decreasing with each cycle.

Josh followed her gaze and gradually realized that the Port Guard was also in the Upper East Side. Why were they all there, but the Missionaries of Christ had not?

The mother-in-law had notified the Secret Order from the beginning that the Guardians of the Faith would come to their aid. Theoretically, they should have set off earlier than the Port Guard, since they were all infantry without horses and should not have arrived later than the Port Guard.

"Perhaps they've been held back? There are so many followers of the Mother Goddess."

“Impossible, this kind of enemy can’t hold back the Guardians of the Faith.” Zoe’s face was very ugly. She had experienced the deep-sea war and knew the fighting power of the Guardians of the Faith. Even without heavy firepower support, these Mother Goddess believers could quickly advance here.

"And even if the Christian Guard was held up, why didn't Grandma come over? What kind of enemy could hold Grandma back?"

Josh swallowed hard.

What kind of enemy can hold back the mother-in-law?

Josh didn't know much about the supernatural, but he did know that his mother-in-law's greatest strength lay in concealment and escape, which even she couldn't get away from.
Josh quickly pulled a map out of his clothes and pressed it against the wall to examine it.

"The roads in the upper district are too narrow; they can't possibly go west!"

The Secret Order wasn't far from the Upper City. After a quick assessment, Josh pulled Zoe through the alleyways and ran to the other side.

The prince and his harbor guards are here; nothing serious will happen. The missionaries are more important.

The two stumbled and staggered past the busy believers. The Secret Order was preparing to evacuate, and no one knew if they could hold out. Several carriages were parked on the road, and women carrying infants ran frantically out of houses. The believers were barely maintaining order.

Josh knew this place very well, and led Zoe through a winding path until they reached the top of a tower.

Pushing open the rotten wooden door and past the rusty clock, the two arrived at the window. Josh almost lost his footing and wobbled at the gap in the wall, but luckily Zoe grabbed him and prevented him from falling.

The two awkwardly stood up and peered through the gap at the distant upper town. "My God... what's that?"

Josh opened his eyes wide, staring at the huge figure in front of him, muttering to himself in a daze.

This is the clock tower, one of the tallest buildings in Blood Harbor. It was built during Blood Harbor's heyday, and every day the bell ringer would ring the morning bell. Now, only ruins remain to bear witness to its former glory.

Standing here, you can see most of Blood Harbor. Further away is the Upper City, which is surrounded by stone walls and is now guarded by many soldiers.

Heading south along the streets of the Upper Town, you'll see a group of soldiers carrying bolt-action rifles. They're wearing uniforms, recently created by Hughes, and the newly arrived Guardians of the Church in Bloodharbor are the first to wear them.

At this moment, their situation was extremely dire. The soldiers were running desperately through the alleyways, occasionally firing back under the command of their officers.

The bolt-action rifles they used far surpassed the firearms of the time in both power and speed. The soldiers, who had been through the baptism of deep-sea warfare, also cooperated well, but the battle was still very difficult.

Simply because they were facing a monster that was as tall as a small mountain, so tall that it blotted out the sky.

"Then what is that?"

Josh's gaze fell on the monster, which resembled a mountain of flesh and blood, or an extremely obese person with disgusting fat beneath its folds of skin.

However, upon closer inspection, one can see that beneath the skin and flesh, there is not a still surface, but rather a mass of maggots that wriggle slowly, stretching the skin into wrinkles of different shapes.

On that skin, there were countless tiny limbs—no, those limbs weren't tiny, they just looked small because the monster was so big. The densely packed limbs on it resembled a layer of fine down.

The constantly wriggling downy hairs.

Josh staggered a few steps and almost fell to the ground, while Zoe turned pale and almost vomited on the spot.

After a moment of shock, the two looked at each other with horror and spoke at the same time.

"Don't you think it?"

"Those monsters among the Mother Goddess's followers!"

The monster did look very familiar to them; they had just seen those monsters on the street, and now they saw this enormous mountain of flesh right here.

They were very similar in appearance, limbs, and movements. The monster in the alley was also growing bigger by constantly devouring the corpses of believers, but neither of them expected it to grow to this size.

That mountain of flesh was already taller than the tower. Fortunately, it moved relatively slowly; otherwise, given its size, the Christian Guardians would have had no chance against it.

Even if the Guardians of the Church can barely hold their own now, the battlefield is fraught with danger.

The monster tried to grab the little people on the ground with its limbs, but the Guardians were incredibly agile. Every time the limbs slammed down, the Guardians below would scatter and then quickly regroup, and could even fire back during the process.

Thanks to the Deep Sea Wars, the Guardians of the Faith have extensive experience fighting massive enemies, and this mountain of flesh is much easier to deal with than the arm monster.

"Zoe, let's go down first, then look for someone. Zoe?"

Josh was surprised to find that her companion seemed a little absent-minded, as if she were listening intently to something. In such an urgent moment, she had actually lost focus?
(End of this chapter)