Page 215 of The White King's Favorite

“They’re using fucking catapults!” shouted Tessandra. “Kassian!”

However, the Prince didn’t hear her, and was already rushing near the impact point to try and save those people. Naptunie spotted her brother suddenly running in the same direction.

“Damn it!”

Another bang exploded, even louder. The next one had hit a building, projecting more debris around, and injuring twice as many people. Naptunie screamed again, more horrified and terrified. Those things were blowing open whole buildings!

“They are aiming at the citizens!” shouted Bastat. “Everyone, reform the ranks, now! Mix with the Yekara!”

It was easier said than done. Although it was clear the projectiles were sent into their side of the crowds, the citizens just couldn’t run ahead of the Yekara, it was about as dangerous and risky. The whole area had turned from a disorganized battle into complete chaos, the crowd running in all directions in fear of the next attack. Another suddenly appeared, and Nana closed her eyes, afraid it was coming their way. She heard a loud noise, and felt the ground trembling again, debris collapsing above of her.

“Nana! You alright?”

She dared to open her eyes. Tessandra had raised her sword above them to protect them from the debris, and her body was acting like a shield for Nana too. However, blood suddenly appeared on her face, a long trail running from her hairline to her chin. The vision of Tessandra injured suddenly had an effect like another bang for Naptunie. She opened her eyes wide, pinched her lips and frowned.

“No!” she suddenly exclaimed.

“W-what?”

Before Tessandra could add a word, Naptunie suddenly got down and escaped her protection, running out to see the damages.

“Nana, come back!”

She wasn’t listening at all. Naptunie’s eyes were going left, right, analyzing the scene of each crash without any fear for her own safety. When Tessandra caught up with her, she suddenly spun around before the fighter could say a word.

“They are firing from the direction of the bridge we didn’t leave Sir Darsan nor one of the dragons at! Judging from the distance, they must be right outside the Outer Wall! And if I’m right, they can’t fire any farther than this, but I don’t know how many catapults they have!”

“Are you sure?” muttered Tessandra, shocked.

“Absolutely sure!”

Naptunie’s eyes did show how confident she was. Tessandra glanced around; she had no idea how the hell she was able to calculate that, but she had to believe Nana either way. For most people, those things seemed to appear truly out of nowhere, and the speed didn’t give them any time for analysis, nor to run. Another one appeared in the sky, and Tessandra grabbed Nana again to take her to what she hoped to be a safe spot. They protected their heads and waited until the damage was done.

“Judging from the rhythm, they have at least two,” said Nana, coughing from some dust. “Two catapults. But they have to be really big to carry such a heavy weight, and by the time they recharge...”

“Nana, Nana, calm down! Focus. You said those things can’t go any farther, right? Can you tell the farthest they can land? What is the safe zone?”

Naptunie turned around, quickly doing the math. Tessandra had asked the question just in case, but she did not actually expect Nana to be able to predict this much... She was proven wrong once again when Nana’s little finger pointed at the end of a nearby building.

“From there... to there,” she said. “I’m almost sure they cannot hit any farther than that!”

“A-alright... Alright, I’ll get Kassian to move our side to that area. But Nana, he’s going to need my help here, too many people got hit already. Someone needs to stop those machines.”

“Understood!”

Nana waited and a couple of seconds of silence passed as she seemed to wait for Tessandra to turn to someone else. When Tessandra raised an eyebrow, her confident expression sank.

“Y-you can’t mean... me?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not sending you alone to destroy those. But you showed us you can sneak past the fighting, and you know the area like the back of your hand too. Just get to the bridge where Krai is, and take him with you to destroy those things.”

“W-w-what?!” exclaimed Naptunie, turning pale. “Tessa, you can’t expect me to borrow Sir Dragon like that!”

“He likes you Nana! Don’t worry, he’s smarter than he looks, he’ll listen!”

“B-but I don’t even have a single beignet with me! And I’ll be going alone? He can’t possibly listen to me like that!”

“I said, he likes you! Not just your beignets! Just go, Nana, hurry!”

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