Four Split Personalities

No matter from which angle one looked, Xia Lian was a very standard humanoid creature, even though she was the first Saintess of the Dawn Religion, even though her true combat strength was enormously strong, even though she had lived for several centuries, she was still just an elf standing 177 centimeters tall, at most just exceptionally attractive.

Before they were transformed, the Mutants were also basically standard humanoid creatures, including humans, orcs, elves, lizardmen, and so on. Indeed, Qiu’s "Mutation" Talent made these ordinary people faster, stronger, and more resilient, but it did not make them taller, larger, or more conspicuous.

So the question arises...

Through nearly a hundred meters of distance, would a Saintess without flashy effects, caught in a fierce battle with hundreds of monsters on a long bridge, stand out from the crowd and be distinctively different?

The answer is, of course, no.

Thus, even though the observer on the warship and Captain Paula Osan had excellent vision, at first glance, they could only spot a throng of monsters congesting the bridgehead, making it challenging to spot Xia Lian wielding her sword and performing the "Xia Ji Eight Cuts" amidst them.

Hence, the allies from the Skalan Duchy logically arrived at a series of conclusions—so many monsters, rescuing as urgent as extinguishing a fire, no time to waste, let the cannons fire away.

And then they completed a round of calibration shooting right away.

The good news is that many Mutants were blown to smithereens and died, and Xia Lian survived.

The bad news is that Xia Lian was also blasted skyward with those Mutants, and the well-trained gunners on the "Divine Punishment" managed to reload and expertly light the fuse in less than two seconds.

"My goodness!!"

The physically strong Saintess flailed a few times and had just realized what was happening when she heard the deafening roar of the second round of artillery, and her keen elven hearing told her that this barrage was conservatively estimated to be three times as powerful and extensive as the previous one. Realizing what had happened, Xia Lian immediately screamed and scurried toward the other end of the bridge, narrowly escaping the bombing zone.

Yarist, lacking in virtue, only saw a slender shadow flash by (blasted), then found himself being whisked away by his collar, and by the time he was set down, his character panel had nearly four layers of "Suffocation," and in front of him lay a whole ground of Mutants...

Well, a pretty evenly scattered ground of them.

"They really came."

Standing next to him, Xia Lian muttered softly, her longsword clanging onto the ground as she took a deep breath with some relief, "The allies... the Skalan Duchy’s allies... huh, Hei Fan that kid actually made the right bet."

The succession of booms did not cease; in fact, the scale only grew larger. Aside from the gigantic warship, where one could vaguely make out human figures, the three slightly smaller ships behind had also turned their bodies to unload their ferocious-looking engineering cannons continuously, like a divine punishment raining down on the bridgehead, plowing through the thousands of Mutants time and again, each burst of flames accompanied by dozens of charred bodies being flung into the air.

The gunners didn’t even need to aim!

"Damn it..."

Xia Lian suddenly remembered herself also being ’charred and flung into the air,’ and her expression turned particularly unsightly as she ground her teeth, muttering something difficult to understand about how a warrior might be killed but not insulted.

Well, it was actually quite easy to understand.

After dozens of rounds of artillery fire, along with a series of whizzing sounds, numerous ropes were ejected from those warships now within twenty meters of the long bridge, without exception hooking onto the stone parapet between Xia Lian and the group of Mutants, then one by one, men and women dressed in white shirts and black headbands, with long swords and scimitars in their mouths, surged onto the deck, charging with great momentum and balance across those robust ropes, each one displaying a resolute expression, their hands gripping a safety harness wrapped around the rope beneath their feet, clenching it tightly.

"I am glad you are unharmed, Lady Xia Lian."

Paula Osan, who had just leapt straight from the deck of the "Divine Punishment" onto the long bridge, descended from the sky and strode up to Xia Lian, who looked like an Ethiopian refugee, and with a serious demeanor, she saluted: "Under the command of the ’Turbulent Troop’ of Skalan Duchy, Captain Paula Osan of the ’Divine Punishment’, by order of His Grace, has come to aid the allied forces of Misha County."

Xia Lian nodded slightly, trying not to think about the recent artillery fire, and said solemnly, "May the goddess bless you, the Holy Church Union will remember your contributions to these innocents."

BANG!!

A burst of flames exploded behind Paula, and two Mutants, fortunate not to become fully cooked, were flung backwards, each with a fist-sized hole suddenly appearing in their foreheads.

"Undeserving..."

Paula casually hung her cannon-like firearm back at her waist and shook her head, saying, "On behalf of the Duke, I apologize for the silence of our duchy earlier. After this battle, Skalan will fully support the rebuilding efforts of Misha County, covering all expenses and manpower."

"On behalf of the Duke?"

Xia Lian slightly raised her eyebrows, glanced again at the firearm at Paula’s waist, pondered for a moment, and then burst into laughter: "So it is, you are the ’Turbulent Osan,’ I’ve heard a great deal about you, the most tactically and strategically renowned admiral of the Skalan navy."