The Human Emperor Chapter 958 - Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (II)

Chapter 958: Step Onto Stage, Giant Ballista! (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bang!
Like an enormous dragon breaking out of the sea, the massive ballista bolt howled through the air toward the distant scaled Behemoth. This ballista bolt bore the hopes of countless people, and even the fleeing mercenaries of the Western Regions couldn’t help but turn their heads and look to the ballista bolt with eyes brimming with hope.
Several dozen zhang of distance flashed by: fifty zhang, thirty zhang, ten zhang…
Time slowed to an interminable crawl as the distance between the ballista bolt and the scaled Behemoth grew smaller and smaller. Seven zhang, six zhang… boom! The ballista bolt collided against the head of the scaled Behemoth.
Awooooo!
The moment the ballista bolt struck, the scaled Behemoth reeled back, its two front limbs rising off the ground as it threw its head back and let out a mournful howl. Its already weakened vitality was once more struck by disaster, another large part of it being shorn away.
Cheers immediately shook the skies. The nearly one hundred thousand soldiers were invigorated by this sight.
“Wonderful!”
“It worked! The giant ballista really worked against that monster!!”
The morale of the army was given a massive boost, none being happier than Chen Bin and his ballista soldiers. They had succeeded! The giant ballista that Wang Chong and Zhang Shouzhi had designed together had truly worked against the Behemoth! The moment this giant ballista first appeared in this world, it had instantly displayed an unimaginable power.
That single ballista bolt had also given an unprecedented shock to the Tibetans, Turks, and Arabs watching from the distance.
“What was that? When did the Great Tang get its hands on such a formidable weapon?”
Huoshu Huicang’s eyes were twitching, that ballista bolt protruding from the Behemoth’s head causing mighty waves to rage in his mind. He was a Great General of many years and had exchanged blows with Zhangchou Jianqiong no small number of times, as well as interacted with several other Tang Great Generals, but he had never encountered a weapon like this.
The Behemoth Army of the Arabian Empire was already surprising enough, but Huoshu Huicang was even more stunned by the fact that the Great Tang actually had a terrifying weapon that could deal with these Behemoths.
Although the Behemoths were terrifying, they were hardly as scary if the Great Tang could mass-produce this kind of weapon.
On the contrary, a Great Tang that could create weapons effective against these Behemoths was far more deserving of his fear and apprehension.
“How could this be! When did the Great Tang become capable of standing against the Arabs!”
Duwu Sili was still the most shocked of their group. As a spectator to this entire battle, he had been closely watching everything that was going on. When the Behemoth had knocked Wang Chong flying, Duwu Sili had believed that the battle was settled and that all that was waiting for the Great Tang was the crushing of its fortifications and complete destruction of its army.
To his surprise, the enormous ballista bolt the Great Tang had used had been able to heavily wound the Behemoth. What had been a clear conclusion had all of a sudden become complicated and confusing.
“Bastards! Just what is going on!”
At this moment, no one was more shocked and dismayed than the commander of the Behemoth Army, Masil. The Behemoths had no natural enemies, and they all had extremely formidable defensive capabilities. There was almost no human weapon that could harm them. For Masil, the death of one Behemoth in this place was already difficult enough to endure.
But even more unacceptable was that these eastern infidels had managed to create a giant weapon that could harm his Behemoths.
This time, Abu Muslim and Ziyad did not immediately criticize Masil. The abrupt ballista bolt had also been a massive shock to the two Arab commanders of the east.
“Hurry and load! Get ready to shoot again!” the emboldened Chen Bin loudly ordered. It had not killed the Behemoth, but the giant ballista had already proved its worth. It was completely capable of severely wounding the Arabian Behemoths.
Awooooo!
Just as twenty to thirty ballista soldiers were carrying over another massive ballista bolt, a howl cut through the air. At some point, a pair of scarlet eyes brimming with hatred had locked onto them. At almost the same moment, a tide of baleful energy engulfed them.
At this moment, all of them felt like they were in terrible danger.
“Oh no! The Behemoth is targeting us!”
“Hurry! Load the ballista bolt! Everyone else, prepare to protect the giant ballista!”
While the ballista bolt had managed to injure the scaled Behemoth, it had also provoked its wrath. With a heaven-shaking roar, the Behemoth turned its head and began to charge at the giant ballista.
“Ah!”
The army was in a state of panic, and even Chen Bin paled. Just when it seemed like the giant ballista and all the ballista soldiers around it would be killed by the Behemoth, everyone heard an enormous roar.
“Out of my way!”
A giant figure suddenly charged out, pushing the Behemoth past the defense line.
“Milord!”
“Lord Marquis!”
The sight of that familiar figure caused the soldiers to rally once more. Although the four-armed god had lost two of its arms, it still possessed its prodigious strength. More importantly, the constant battering the Behemoth had received had greatly dimmed its fire of life, and it was no longer as fierce and savage.
Boomboomboom! Caught off guard, the Behemoth lost its balance and was forced several steps back by the Godking Yama, each step causing all of Talas to quake.
“Beast! Take another blow from my cudgel!”
Wang Chong’s bellow was like a peal of thunder, and before he had even finished speaking, that enormous iron cudgel was swinging around to smash the Behemoth’s head. To be more precise, it was aiming straight for the large ballista bolt protruding out of its skull.
Owwwww! The Behemoth howled and quivered. Half of that ballista bolt had been sticking out of its head, but now, Wang Chong had smashed the entirety of it into the Behemoth’s skull, dealing it a severe wound.
Wang Chong was still not finished. While the Behemoth was still confused, the Godking Yama began to batter away at the Behemoth with its cudgel. Smacksmacksmack! In a few short moments, the Behemoth’s head was struck thirty to forty times.
“Wonderful!”
“Lord Marquis! Lord Marquis! Lord Marquis!”
The air resounded with endless cheers from the Tang. But in the distance, the Tibetans, Turks, and Arabs all had extremely nasty grimaces.
“Release!”
With Wang Chong stopping the Behemoth, Chen Bin and his men excitedly worked at their task. With a wave of Chen Bin’s Wootz Steel sword, the second giant ballista bolt was fired, swiftly sinking into the Behemoth’s skull.
“Hurry, faster!”
Chen Bin urged his men on. After their experience loading and firing twice, his men were much faster at loading the giant ballista. Boom! Another ten-meter-long ballista bolt came hot on the heels of the second, nailing itself into the Behemoth’s head.
……
Wang Chong and the giant ballista worked in close collaboration. While Wang Chong’s cudgel attacked from the front, the giant ballista fired from the rear. Ballista bolt after ballista bolt sank into the Behemoth’s skull, each bolt sapping away at its life.
Boom! The final shot was not unleashed by Chen Bin’s men, but from the nearby open gate of Talas. At some point, the second giant ballista had been finished and been pushed out through the city gates. Leading the team was the slender and still-young figure of Xu Keyi.
With two giant ballistae, the army exploded with cheers, its morale at its peak, even greater than it had been at the start of the battle. With the bolt fired from Xu Keyi’s giant ballista, the distant scaled Behemoth finally crashed to the ground.
The earth quivered under the impact, as if it was about to crack apart under the pressure.
After taking twenty-some bolts from the giant ballistae, the infamous ‘Terrorizer’ of the Arabian Empire had finally died, the last embers of its life having been extinguished.
“Protector-General! Protector-General! Protector-General!”
All the soldiers within the defense line and inside Talas were cheering so loudly that they could be heard a hundred li away. In the distance, the generals of the three opposing empires all had extremely awful expressions, particularly the Arabs. The Terrorizer had a thunderous reputation, having destroyed innumerable cities. Nothing had ever posed a real threat to this Behemoth, much less been capable of killing it.
But now, it had entered its eternal slumber.
If they hadn’t seen it for themselves, not even if they were beaten to death would they have believed it. This was undoubtedly a massive blow to the Arab army.
Buzz!
Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Chong raised his right foot, stepping over the Terrorizer’s corpse and striding into the distance.
“Chen Bin, Xu Keyi, I’ll leave the two giant ballistae to you. Work together to kill the last Behemoth!”
Wang Chong’s voice echoed in the air, but the person himself had already gone.
In the distance, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, and Wang Yan were embroiled in fierce combat with the black boar Behemoth. Their attacks were coming in fast and thick, but the Behemoth ignored them, focusing all its attacks on Talas. The lofty walls of Talas were shaking, swaying more and more with each impact.
The situation was perilous. If the black boar’s attacks continued unabated, the entire city of Talas would collapse in short order.