Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord
Chapter 200: This Side Faces the Enemy

The battle on Ash’s side had yet to begin.

At Hughes’ request, the Sirens had made ample preparations, laying out a significant amount of explosives, but they had yet to initiate the attack.

Meanwhile, the number of murlocs and sea urchin monsters was growing. More and more monsters landed from the sea, and soon the murlocs numbered over a hundred, with more than a dozen sea urchin monsters present.

『Lady Ash, shouldn’t we start attacking now?』

『No need to rush. Our main task this time is to coordinate with the Holy Guard’s shooting.』

『The Holy Guard?』 Nini curled her lips.

『You really think they can fight against the sea urchin-armed monsters?』

『They can’t.』

『Then why are you waiting for them? If you ask me, Lord Hughes is just overthinking things. Counting on the Holy Guard? No way.』

『You saw the battle report on their fight with the murlocs just now, didn’t you? Even though they had superior numbers, making it hard to assess their combat skills, they did succeed in driving back the murlocs.』

『Wasn’t that because of Lord Hughes’ rifled muskets? If we had those weapons, we’d definitely be even stronger than them.』

『Yes.』

Ash nodded, looking at the murlocs and armed monsters in the distance.

『But Lord Hughes still chose to equip them.』

Nini circled around Ash in surprise.

『Did I just hear what I think I did? Are you complaining? Complaining that Hughes didn’t give us weapons? Wow, Ash, you actually complain about the lord?』

『I’m not complaining. I’m stating a fact. Humans are weak, but when Lord Hughes gave them guns, they could fight on the battlefield. We are strong, but our bullets don’t fly any faster.』

Nini blinked and lowered her head in thought.

She had seen those rifled guns before.

They weren’t much of a threat to the Sirens. In normal circumstances, they could wound them, but once they activated flesh magic, those bullets were nothing more than an itch.

『Weapons can close the gap between humans and us, is that it?』

Nini muttered to herself. She wasn’t stupid, she quickly grasped the key point.

Besides, seeing how Hughes didn’t seem to care much about the rifled muskets, it was clear they weren’t his strongest creation.

Nini had been involved in a lot of weapons development and knew that Hughes had been working on some big projects recently.

She felt a mix of worry, relief, and a vague sense of fear toward the unknown.

With these emotions swirling inside her, Nini saw the Holy Guard arriving on the battlefield.

This time, they positioned themselves farther from the murlocs, seven to eight hundred meters away.

This distance exceeded the effective range of the rifled muskets, making it difficult to aim precisely, but a volley could still be deadly.

The location had been chosen carefully, close to the network path. If the enemy advanced, they could retreat inside immediately.

After discussing with Ash, Hughes decided to set the battlefield here.

『Lord, the murlocs are still gathering. Their offensive this time seems particularly strong. There are already over a hundred murlocs, and more are emerging from the sea.』

『When we fought the murlocs on the other side just now, was there any movement here?』

『None at all. It was as if they didn’t even notice.』

『That’s really strange. They aren’t far apart, and they’re all coming up from the same ocean.』

Ash fell silent.

Yes, it was indeed strange. These enemies had been acting bizarrely from the very beginning.

Who knew how Richard’s interrogation of the captured murlocs was going?

"Alexei, form up and open fire."

Alexei nodded. Ash had already discussed the battle plan with him. Now, two squads of Sirens flanked the Holy Guard, ready to provide support at any moment.

As orders were given, the soldiers lined up in long ranks. The squad leaders briefed their men on key points for this battle.

"This time, we’re shooting at near-maximum range. Don’t bother aiming, just raise your barrels at this angle, point in the enemy’s direction, and pull the trigger."

As the order to load was given, the soldiers began stuffing new bullets into their gun barrels.

"Fire!"

The first volley was unexpectedly effective.

The murlocs and armed monsters had yet to organize themselves and were still clustered together chaotically. The first volley alone took down at least ten of them.

Before they could react, the second volley had already begun.

By the time the monsters finally started charging in disorder, they had already endured three rounds of gunfire.

Three volleys had left forty corpses in the sand, yet the creatures were still nearly a kilometer away from the humans.

Once they started moving, the shooting became less effective.

However, as they got closer, the bullets began hitting their marks again.

The murlocs were still sprinting from afar, while the armed monsters rolled toward them at high speed.

By the fifth volley, the monsters had closed the distance to three hundred meters.

There were ten of them left. Although they had taken many bullets, only one had fallen.

The soldiers grew restless.

At this pace, they could only fire one more volley at most.

"Stay calm! The lord is with us! The Sirens are at our side! Do not disgrace the Holy Guard!" Alexei shouted.

"Reload in place!"

The command had an unexpectedly powerful effect.

When the soldiers turned and saw Hughes standing not far away, they visibly relaxed.

Their lord had not run, so they knew they would win.

"Fire!"

Boom!!

The armed monsters had closed to just over a hundred meters.

They were large, and now that they were close, the Holy Guard’s shots mostly hit their targets.

Three more monsters fell.

『Draw swords.』

The Sirens unsheathed their long blades in unison but did not make any further moves, remaining where they stood.

"Reload in place!"

Alexei roared, and the squad leaders maintained order.

The soldiers’ legs trembled, they knew they didn’t have time to fire another shot, but not one of them turned to flee.

Shaking, they continued loading their bullets, though several dropped them in their panic.

The five remaining armed monsters had just reached the hundred-meter mark, when suddenly, the ground lit up with bursts of fire.

A few inconspicuous little boxes had been placed on the ground.

As the monsters approached, crimson flames and explosions flashed continuously.

Streams of metal tore through them, turning them into shredded flesh.

A twisted piece of iron flew into the sky, bouncing on the ground several times before revealing a barely discernible inscription—THIS SIDE FACES THE ENEMY.

This was a new type of triggered landmine that Hughes had recently deployed, inspired by Nini’s explosives.

The greatest advantage of these mines was their directional detonation, using metal jets to injure enemies, far more lethal than ordinary bombs.

Adding the inscription was just Hughes’ personal amusement.

This mine had nothing in common with the Claymore mines from Earth, but its shaped charge design did require a directional marker, otherwise, the concave warhead might be misunderstood.

On Earth, such mines were typically used for anti-armor purposes.

Against these armed monsters, they were almost overkill.