Pirate Kingship

Chapter 427 - 340: Firearms VS Stone Tools: Rifled Musket - Hammer of Punishment!_2

Chapter 427: Chapter 340: Firearms VS Stone Tools: Rifled Musket - Hammer of Punishment!_2

Seeing this scene, Byron and Violet were not worried at all; instead, they were somewhat looking forward to the upcoming battle.

In this world, air power did not hold the same dominance as in Magicless Worlds. The Singer’s Song of Aerial Embargo, the Law Mage’s decrees, the Holy Prayers of the Order of Sanctity... Multiple abilities could inflict a devastating blow on Low Order Sky Knights with low magic resistance who dared to invade their airspace.

The native Allied Army that had gathered did not possess such abilities, but they had an Air Force even larger than that of Tayapan.

SCREECH!

The piercing cries of eagles resounded from all directions.

The Dragon Lizard Warriors and Knights numbered fewer than one hundred at most, but the "Eagle Spirit Warriors"—hailing from various city-states and transformed into golden eagles, bald eagles, harpy eagles, and other raptors—outnumbered them by several times. They flapped their wings and fearlessly swooped into the fray.

However, as soon as the two sides engaged, the latter immediately found themselves at a disadvantage. Although they knew from intelligence that these somewhat deformed Dragon Lizard Warriors had received a blessing of power from the "Heavenly God" Itzamna, they still underestimated the intensity of their power enhancement.

Those who dared to engage these Dragon Lizard Warriors in close combat were invariably stripped of their wings, falling from the sky screaming in agony as blood rained down. The Fallen Ones, their mouths full of fangs, would even bite down on their victims upon seeing blood, feasting in midair.

It seemed that after their beast transformation, they instantly acquired all the "greed" traits of a Giant Dragon. This also explained why the "Snub-nosed King" Teotihuacan, for the sake of the five Crystal Skulls and the Emperor’s throne, would become blinded by greed and foolish enough to attempt an ambush on his own powerful benefactor.

"Fall back, don’t engage in close combat."

"They’re no longer human! Use the ’Deck Cleaners’!"

Meanwhile, a ten-man Air Force squadron from Torrent Fortress, led by Wayne Dote, had already climbed to a position about two hundred meters directly above those Dragon Lizard Warriors. They were members of the "Wild Guides." Transformed into half-human, half-eagle forms, each unslung a firearm from their back that, at first glance, looked no different from an ordinary Flintlock Musket. But if one looked inside the barrel from the muzzle, they would find spiral grooves, unlike the smooth bore of a regular musket. This was no ordinary smoothbore; it was a batch of well-crafted flintlock rifled muskets!

—The brand-new "Punisher Hammer Model 1472 flintlock rifled musket" rolled out by the Torrent Fortress armory. Its inception predated Byron’s development of firearms phobia.

"Each unit, select the target closest to you. Fire at will!"

After giving the order, the "Artillery Expert" Wayne Dote aimed his sights at a Dragon Lizard Warrior whose head and face were covered in human blood. "Three, two, one, fire!"

Eleven gunshots echoed in the night sky. Instantly, eight Dragon Lizard Warriors had their heads blown open, their bodies crashing to the ground and turning into pulp. The potion vials on their bodies shattered, and a highly corrosive green mist rose, sizzling as it dissolved their corpses into puddles of bloody water. The remaining three were also critically wounded; though they struggled to flap their wings, they still spiraled down from the sky.

"Reload!"

After firing a shot, the group of Eagle Spirit Warriors, who also doubled as "Artillery Experts" or "Musketeers," quickly reloaded. The bullets for their rifled muskets, however, were also different from the round balls used in normal smoothbores; they were closer in shape to modern conical handgun bullets.

In fact, some highly skilled Artisans had long ago invented the "rifled flintlock gun," also known as the "Rifle Gun." The word "rifle" itself originally referred to the rifling—the spiral grooves—inside the barrel. There are many types of Rifle Guns; essentially, any gun with rifling can be called a Rifle Gun. History in Byron’s past life had already proven that "rifling" is the soul of a gun barrel! Because rifling imparts spin to the bullet, rifled guns typically achieve longer range and greater accuracy due to this rotation.

However, compared to these advantages, a series of disadvantages initially kept them from shaking the dominant position of smoothbores. Firstly, the spiral rifling demanded a more stringent manufacturing process, increasing both time and labor costs. Naturally, the price was also much higher than that of a smoothbore. Furthermore, because of the rifling, the bullets initially had to be slightly oversized to engage the grooves. This made loading difficult and significantly reduced the rate of fire. Moreover, lead bullets would deform when forcefully rammed down the barrel, sometimes getting stuck in the rifling grooves. This dramatically increased the risk of the barrel exploding. In large-scale volley fire combat, the advantages of precision offered by rifling were far outweighed by these drawbacks.

Nonetheless, although Violet did not become the inventor of the [Sacred Relic: The First Rifled Musket], her refinement of a small bullet ultimately brought rifled firearms effectively to the battlefield. This new ammunition would eventually become the first choice for all Musketeers and Artillery Experts. It was the "rifled bullet," a design inspired by Byron and named by Violet herself.

Its shape was nearly identical to a modern round-nosed bullet. The key difference was the continued absence of a reliable percussion cap for ignition; thus, it was still just a projectile, not a self-contained cartridge with gunpowder. However, the defining characteristic of this "rifled bullet" was that its initial caliber was slightly smaller than the bore of the rifled musket. This made loading simple, comparable in speed to a smoothbore.

The base of the bullet featured a conical indentation, into which a small oak plug was fitted. When the trigger was pulled, the instantaneous pressure from the ignited gunpowder, combined with the impact of the oak plug, caused this hollow base to expand. This expansion forced the bullet to perfectly engage the rifling in the barrel.