Man on the ark, forced to become king

“We took out the inner guards who came to gather intelligence beforehand, so they probably already know that there is an elite squad here capable of killing inner guards.”

"If we can be kept here, any amount of ammunition consumption will be worthwhile. The Ursus army is never stingy in this regard."

Remien shook her head with a bitter smile, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

She could blow a guard's head off with a single shot, but she was helpless against indiscriminate bombing that defied reason. She could only hope that the strong Vayvan woman could withstand it. This feeling of not being able to control her own safety was absolutely terrible.

"So we're just going to stay here and let them be our target?"

Fiameta frowned and pulled a golden leaf from his pocket.

"Hoping for Kazdel's army to come to our aid is definitely too late. Why don't we ask Lin Lu for help directly? He has a way to get here directly."

"Although failing the mission is somewhat embarrassing, it's still better than getting beaten up here all the time."

"..."

Goredia opened her mouth, instinctively wanting to retort, but ultimately held back.

If they always have to rely on that leader to come to their rescue, wouldn't that make them seem useless?

That would be far too embarrassing.

That's what she was thinking, but the reality was that everyone was trapped here by the Ursus army's continuous bombing, and she couldn't think of any other way but to call for help.

If there's really no other way, then so be it, even if it's embarrassing...

"We don't need it for now; our opportunity will come soon."

Among the group, Christen, who had the lowest combat strength, was the calmest. She squinted and analyzed, "This artillery unit is very fast. According to the intelligence we obtained beforehand, the Ursus army should not have arrived here so quickly. This illogical situation is most likely because this unit did not carry much ammunition and sacrificed its weight to increase its marching speed."

"Based on the conventional personnel distribution and bombing scale, this artillery unit should number around two thousand people. They have a limit to the amount of explosives they can carry, and they should be forced to stop soon. At that time, we can seize the opportunity to break out and leave this place."

boom! !

As soon as he finished speaking, the ground shook, and after the tremor that was almost touching, the explosions outside stopped abruptly.

Christensen's guess seemed to have come true; the relentless bombing suddenly fell silent.

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Esti Meteorite

"Leave immediately!"

The gray-white shield instantly shattered, and Saria let out a low shout, grabbed Christen, and sprinted in the opposite direction from the artillery array.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Fimetta and the others had no means to protect themselves from the bombardment, forcing her to be distracted, such a large-scale bombardment would have been completely ineffective against her.

With the added benefit of calcification magic, her defense is much stronger than Skadi's, who has enhanced her body with the power of the Furnace Hundred Phases. So what if she takes a cannonball to the face?

But the others are different. Fiameta and that unknown Lateran woman rely on their own firearms in combat. Their physical strength is not outstanding. Even ordinary sharp weapons can penetrate their defenses, and they are far from being able to withstand artillery fire.

Laurentina and Grandia might have a chance, but they can't compare to Skadi. In the long run, they will inevitably be unable to hold on, and injuries are unavoidable.

Needless to say, Christensen was the worst in the team, a complete weakling. If she hadn't been hiding under the calcified defenses, she would have been blown up countless times.

They couldn't leave, so Saria was naturally trapped here as well.

Now, whatever the reason, the artillery bombardment has stopped. If we don't run now, when will we?

No matter how skilled she is at defense, Saria doesn't have the habit of standing still and taking hits.

Therefore, the moment she heard the artillery fire stop, she immediately and without hesitation interrupted the spell and left with the weakest member, Christen.

"Come on! Laurentina, get on my back!"

Grandia realized what was happening, gave Laurentina a wink, tossed her the spear, grabbed Fiameta and Remian with her hands, and led the three of them on a high-speed sprint.

About 70% of her strength comes from speed; even with three burdens, she is still much faster than they are on their own.

As for Skadi and that person...

She saw it when the shield dispersed. Loretta was calm and composed, with no trace of an explosion on the ground beneath her feet, as if the bombardment of the artillery array had drawn a circle around her. Obviously, there was nothing to worry about.

Skadi's words...

Her disheveled appearance clearly showed that she had no other choice but to rely on her muscles to tough it out. But she could indeed withstand it, so there was no need to worry. This is where the advantage of her thick skin and tough flesh came in. There was no need to care about her. Just leave her there, and even if she ran a little slow, she wouldn't be killed by the explosion.

So, she simply shouted, "Skadi, retreat!" and ran away with her two half-crippled enemies.

"withdraw?"

Skadi, whose face was blackened by the blast of the cannonball, blinked twice, looked up at the sky, and belatedly realized what was happening. Then she saw Loretta, who had put away her magic bow and arrow, run past her.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Miss Orca quickly grabbed the edge of Loretta's armor, asking in confusion, "Are we leaving already? But, the mission..."

"A mission? Ursus's army could arrive at any moment. Do you want to rush over and take on tens of thousands of people?"

Seeing the girl's dark face with its goofy expression, Loretta almost couldn't help but roll her eyes.

In her many years of fighting, she had never seen anyone who looked like this before.

She was still a little scared after seeing someone take a bullet in the face before, but that was fine. People with thick skin and strong constitutions can take a bath in a hail of bullets without any harm.

But now, after being bombarded with insults and humiliation, and not knowing what will happen next, how can I still be thinking about the mission?

Fighting an army of 40,000 head-on? What was she thinking? Has she always been this brave?

Well, actually, she was somewhat unwilling to accept it. When she was with Fiameta, she thought about using the flesh and blood of the inner guards to create some poison gas bombs to directly destroy the Ursus army.

However, that was no longer an feasible plan. Apart from the one she had dealt with, all the other guards had been wiped out completely, leaving not even a trace. What was the point of continuing?

Run for your lives!

She wasn't confident she could fight her way out if she were blocked by an army of tens of thousands in a place like this.

"In short, we can't finish this mission. Let's retreat to a safe distance and then make a plan."

"Oh."

Skadi responded, scratched her frizzy hair, and followed Loretta.

……

On the snowfield riddled with shell craters, the smoke slowly dissipated. Saria and the others hurriedly retreated to a safe distance beyond the artillery's range. Ursus's drones advanced again after the shelling ceased to survey the battlefield.

No one noticed that there was still one person on the ruins of Blackrock Fortress, which had been bombed to the point of complete collapse.

"Latland's fighting style still has significant flaws. This is a problem, and we need to think of a solution."

Lin Lu shook her head slightly and sighed as she looked at Fiameta and Remian, who were being carried by Gretia, one in each arm.

Lateran's fighting style relies almost entirely on firearms. While this certainly raises their minimum skill level and makes them incredibly powerful, their over-reliance on firearms also results in relatively low combat ability.

Even though Fiameta and Remian are among the top-ranked players in Laterano, they cannot avoid this weakness.

Their extremely high attack power requires the cooperation of teammates.

In one-on-one combat, the disadvantage of firearms, which can only engage one enemy at a time, becomes apparent when facing multiple enemies or large-scale bombardment.

However, this is not a major problem, since his integration of Laterano was never intended to bring them to the battlefield.

The Golden Tree's target is the entire continent, the whole world. Even with the support of conventional weapons like the revolver, what use is Lateran's small military force?

Instead of sending them to the battlefield, it would be much more useful to put the Lateran who know how to use firearms into factories to manufacture them, thus arming the existing army of the Golden Tree on a large scale and producing firearms that can be mass-produced and deployed. This is far more effective than sending people directly to the battlefield.

As for combat strength, selecting only a few strong individuals with decent abilities will suffice. There are many ways to address their lack of defensive capabilities. After some research, we can find solutions, whether it's using the Golden Tree to specifically enhance their physical defenses or creating spells specifically designed for defense and escape.

But that’s for later.

For now, let's think about Ursus first.

It must be said that although Black Serpent is a bit weak in terms of personal strength, which is somewhat disgraceful to the gods, he is really reliable in the field of intelligence.

He had been operating in Ursus for many years, his influence was deep and his reach extended throughout the entire empire. His intelligence network was fully activated, and in Ursus, his eyes and ears were more sensitive than the emperor's. Very few things could be hidden from him.

With such a mole inside, many things become much easier.

This time, the Emperor's actions were not kept secret from Black Serpent's intelligence network either.

He knew, which meant the Golden Tree knew, and Lin Lu naturally got her hands on the latest news immediately.

It must be said that the young emperor's courage was truly extraordinary. No one expected that he would dare to deploy the military forces under his control to the border despite the domestic turmoil among the nobles, intending to use the border conflict to ignite internal strife in advance.

This is a desperate, all-or-nothing tactic.

The young emperor is not old, but he has great ambitions.

He had had enough of the empire's decay and decided to start afresh, allowing Ursus to rise from the ashes of war and undergo a complete transformation.

If he truly achieves this, perhaps Ursus will once again welcome a restorer and reclaim its former glory.

Unfortunately, there is no if in this world.

The existence of the golden tree was enough to render all his efforts futile.

No matter how brilliant your talents or how grand your vision, if it cannot be turned into reality, it is all just empty talk.

The emperor is still unaware that his empire has been riddled with holes by a venomous snake lurking in the shadows over the past few centuries. The Golden Tree has taken control of a border city, taken over several nobles controlled by the Black Serpent, and even the most important northern defense line is essentially under the control of the Golden Tree.

Even the Reunification Movement, cobbled together from two army groups and numerous infected individuals on the southern ice plains, was under the control of the Golden Tree.

It could be said that if all these things hidden in the shadows were to erupt, they could take away a significant portion of Ursus in an instant.

Even if the emperor eventually defeats the old aristocracy through his own means and takes power back into his own hands, he will still face an enemy that is even more powerful than the old aristocracy.