When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#118 - On the south side of the mountain, next to the river, there is an orphanage

The horn's sound, echoing through the night sky, seemed to shake even the thick clouds.

“Ooooooh——”

The Holy Gun Squad, who were already sleeping in or near the armored vehicles (or rather, armored battle wagons), immediately jumped up, donned their breastplates, and put on their helmets.

They filed out of the tents, the grass rustling under their footsteps.

The Holy Gun Squad members skillfully jumped into the battle wagons, grabbed their weapons, and stood in their pre-rehearsed positions, arriving on the wagons earlier than everyone else.

The remaining Black Hat Army and Guardsmen assembled and lined up at the sound of whistles, running towards the wagons.

Amidst the sounds of disassembly and assembly, tall, thick wooden walls rose on all the battle wagons.

The oak armor was connected to the wagon's undercarriage, reaching over three meters above the ground, too high for even a jumping spider to leap over.

But it was just right at chest height for the soldiers inside the wagon.

Some gaps under the carriage and around the wheels were blocked with burlap sacks filled with dirt to prevent the jumping spiders from crawling underneath.

Sharp wooden stakes were inserted between the large wagons to prevent the jumping spiders from climbing over.

Two burly soldiers holding half-man-high black wooden shields stood there, with four spears or lances protruding from behind the shields, pointing diagonally into the air.

The riflemen placed their spring-loaded rifles on the notches of the oak armor, while the assistant riflemen immediately grabbed a bag of stone bullets and iron pellets to stuff into the muzzle.

The flailmen and spearmen beside them all picked up their weapons and stood in their designated positions.

Torches and fluorite lamps were raised high, illuminating everything brightly.

The iron chains connecting the large wagons shook, then gradually stabilized, and the chaotic sounds slowly subsided.

After the flurry of activity, the camp suddenly fell silent.

Apart from the whistling of the wind in their ears, there seemed to be no other sound. Sweat began to bead on the hands of both the Edict Squad and the Holy Gun Squad.

The wind tugged at the flames of the torches, causing them to sway back and forth, carrying the scent of pine resin and grease into the forest through the gaps in the armor, helmets, and wagons.

In this quiet environment, everyone waited silently.

Every small sound was amplified countless times, including the sound of a distant mountain spring and the sound of a comrade swallowing saliva nearby.

The forest was so quiet, with no noisy birds, a stark contrast to the Black Bone Swamp.

Amidst the horn sounds, the giant spiders were also restless.

Their legs scratched impatiently on the ground, their bodies swaying from side to side, occasionally taking a step forward or backward.

But they still didn't attack, as if waiting for something.

A strange tinnitus made both Horn and Jeanne cover their ears, while only Carrie, in full plate armor from head to toe, frowned.

But the rest of the villagers seemed not to hear it and continued to stare firmly ahead.

“They’re coming!” someone shouted.

The ground began to shake, the grass and trees swayed, and scarlet spider eyes crawled out of the darkness into the light.

They didn't rush up all at once, as if they knew that would only interfere with each other.

“Wind them up!” Horn shouted loudly.

The clicking and whirring of gears turning filled the阵地.

“Hold steady, don’t move!” Horn stood behind the spiked wooden stakes and the large shields, shouting, “Listen to my command!”

Twenty fathoms, ten fathoms, five fathoms…

Among hundreds of jumping spider soldiers, a dozen vanguard jumping spiders suddenly leaped up.

“Fire!”

In a burst of explosions, the front ends of ten spring-loaded rifles erupted with a cloud of black, and hundreds of shrapnel pellets burst out of the barrels, scattering in all directions.

Immediately, four or five jumping spiders screamed as their heads were shattered by the stones and iron pellets, and a foul, stinking odor exploded like a whirlwind.

Two or three others were knocked to the ground by the swinging of spears and flails, their carapaces shattered, squealing and screeching.

For a moment, the ground was covered with jumping spiders twitching and struggling on their backs.

The oak armor plates echoed with thudding impacts as the remaining jumping spiders all crashed into the erected wooden walls.

One jumping spider was lucky; one of its legs grabbed the edge of the armor plate. Just as it was about to exert force, a short sword was swung down, severing that leg.

“Reload,” Rudylo shouted to the javelin thrower beside him. If the assistant rifleman didn't have time to reload, the javelin thrower was the first in line.

The javelin thrower immediately bent down, picked up a paper packet of iron pellets and stones from the ground, stuffed it into the barrel, and used a wooden rod to ram the firing pin and stones back in.

“Get out of the way!” Rudylo roared, moved the barrel away, pulled out the winding key, and a cloud of black shot out, knocking a jumping spider that had leaped high into the sky back to the ground.

Rudylo felt a dizzy spell. He gritted his teeth, moved out of the way, and the assistant rifleman immediately took his place, starting to wind the winding key.

He picked up a sedative potion, drank it all in one gulp, and the dizziness immediately lessened.

After coughing, Rudylo patted his chest, drew his short sword, and stood in the front row again, stabbing a jumping spider in the abdomen.

At the connection point beside him, the faces of the two shield bearers were ashen, and thudding impacts constantly came from their shields.

“Don’t be a coward,” Victor thrust his spear forward, knocking down a jumping spider. “Don’t forget Rudylo, that lucky kid.

Whoever kills the most giant spiders gets priority for a Holy Gun!”

The armored battle wagons were like a Great Wall, and the jumping spiders that leaped towards them were like monsters, constantly crashing into the wagons' armor plates.

The jumping spiders' screams, the officers' commands, and the muffled sounds of flails smashing carapaces were all drowned out by the interspersed gunfire.

The chains connecting the battle wagons rattled loudly, and the wheels and axles under the wagons emitted a mournful sound of breaking.

The fighting on the front lines was more intense than anyone had expected.

“Look, what is that?”

When they saw what the sentence was referring to, everyone couldn't help but gasp.

Crushing the bushes, a blue-gray giant spider, larger than an ox, raised its forelimbs.

Its pincer teeth, as thick as a small arm, constantly collided in front of its mouth, like two long swords rubbing together.

It was showing off to Horn and his group.

A bolt of lightning shot into its mouth, directly cracking its pincer teeth and hanging them by the mouth.

The ox-spider let out a painful howl, its hateful eyes immediately locking onto Jeanne.

Spreading its eight legs, each thicker than a thigh, mud waves rolled as the ox-spider charged straight towards Jeanne.

Even more dazzling electric light rose from Jeanne's body, and the surrounding soldiers had to move away because their hair was standing on end.

Intense electric light flashed, cutting through the night sky, illuminating everyone's eyes, and the small jumping spiders all let out painful squeaks.

After the electric light, the ox-spider lay prostrate on the ground, but its corpse was still sliding on the ground, plowing a palm-deep trench in the mud.

Having fought until now, fine beads of sweat appeared on Jeanne's forehead for the first time.

Where did these giant spiders come from?

Horn could see that in the distant mountains and forests, there were still trees trembling, which meant that more giant spiders were rushing this way.

“More, more!”

“Look, look over there, there's another one over there.”

More and more ox-spiders emerged from the forest, four, eight, sixteen.

They were hidden in the dark bushes and trees, coldly watching this group of small, upright insects.

The largest of the ox-spiders took the lead, crushing the bushes again and charging towards the wagons.

If it crashed into the wagons, even with oak armor plating, they might not be able to withstand it.

On the wagon it was aiming at, the soldiers' faces gradually turned pale.

Amidst the interspersed gunfire, Horn picked up his long-unused Ferdinand greatbow.

“Duck and cover!”

Horn's voice came from behind Victor, and he immediately did as he was told.

The next second, it was as if a banshee was shrieking at close range.

The short spear shot from the Ferdinand greatbow whistled past Victor's head, his clothes were whipped up by the strong wind, making snapping sounds.

The short spear pierced through the night sky, straight through the ox-spider's chest, blood and flesh swirling backwards along the shaft.

Raising its head, the ox-spider let out a scream, its body constantly twisting and struggling, trying to get rid of the spear.

But the more it struggled, the more its flesh tore, and the deeper the short spear went, unable to break free.

When Victor stood up again, the ox-spider had already entered its death throes.

The ox-spiders, who had been eager to try, hesitated slightly after seeing the tragic state of their two companions.

But the strange tinnitus sounded again, and the other jumping spiders immediately began a more frenzied attack.

The ox-spiders immediately continued to charge towards Horn and the others.

“Dee dee dee dee——”

Just as Horn took out a second short spear, preparing to fire again, a strange and clumsy flute sound began to ring out from who knows where.

The flute sound couldn't be said to be pleasant, it was even a bit harsh and out of tune.

But precisely in such a flute sound, the faint tinnitus immediately melted away like ice and snow.

“This sound is…”

Horn looked in the direction the flute sound was coming from.

It was Carrie.

She was fully armed, but in her hand, she was holding a short flute.

The harsh, out-of-tune melody flowed out of the simple bone flute, filling this mountain road like flowing water.

Horn could see clearly that it wasn't the bone flute of a beastman, but the bone flute he had found in the Killer Rabbit cave earlier.

But miraculously, under the harsh flute sound, the ox-spiders and jumping spiders who were originally charging and jumping, seemed to be under a petrification curse, standing blankly in place.

They seemed not to know where they were, not to know who they were, and after wandering around in place for a while, these giant spiders actually began to retreat one after another.

“This is…”

Horn had heard it, this was such a familiar tune.

Ever since he met Carrie, he could often hear this song.

Ever since Carrie got that flute from the beastmen, she had been practicing this song.

At this moment, like welcoming this grand performance, Carrie played this tune with that strange bone flute.

She had sung it countless times, a tune that Horn knew by heart.

“On the south side of the mountain, beside the river, there is an orphanage…”

“They are smart and pious, they are pious and smart, they have elves flowing inside their bodies…”

“Blue orphans, oh, you need to be careful…”

“Hunters and demons are hiding in the green forest, everyone quickly run away!”

In the rustling sound of bodies rubbing against trees and grass, the giant spiders retreated like a tide, as if nothing had just happened.

Welcoming the approaching Horn, Carrie forced a smile: “Ho… Papa, I, remember.”