Dismas, seeing this, hesitated no more. He thrust the Ignition Stick forward; the fuse instantly ignited, and the long-silenced war machine let out a deafening roar.
BOOM!
The blast, a hundred tis stronger than gunfire, made Lance’s heart tremble. He instinctively dove to the ground, away from the Collector.
However, what followed was not the Collector being shattered by a single shot as Lance had imagined. Instead, the fist-sized solid shot deviated from its path, shooting into the dense forest behind and piercing straight through a tree.
"Dismas, you’ve bloody missed!"
Lance certainly noticed this and quickly scrambled to his feet, speechless at the sight of the unscathed Collector.
On the other side, Dismas, who controlled the cannon, also wore a look of annoyance. He had failed as a cannoneer despite his usual perfect accuracy, betraying the trust of My Lord.
No, I refuse to embarrass myself before My Lord!
Dismas, obsessed with his recent error, had given up on tinkering with the cannon. Instead, he drew his Short Sword and charged at the Collector.
He had to make up for his mistake.
But everyone already knew from nurous attempts that ordinary attacks were aningless; Dismas charging in was akin to suicide. Lance noticed his odd behavior and hurriedly intercepted him, shouting angrily, "Calm down! One mistake doesn’t an everything is over. We still have a chance. Now, follow and regroup."
At that mont, Lance exuded the aura of a leader. His firm stance made Dismas reluctantly lower his head and retreat back into the ranks.
Once they had a clear understanding of the Collector’s nature, its threat was significantly reduced. Lance no longer cared whether the Collector could awaken the Head Wolf and took the initiative to lead Dismas away.
Lance and Dismas were putting distance between themselves and the Collector. Unexpectedly, the creature didn’t attempt to collect more artifacts, nor did it flee. Instead, it followed them. Evidently, its targeted collectible had changed.
Lance also noticed this. He thought that they couldn’t harm it, and if the creature left on its own, everyone would be safe.
But now it seed he should be considering how to inflict enough damage to finish off the creature.
His gaze swept the area, and soon, beside the cannon, he found what drove the war machine—the gunpowder.
He also discovered sothing very interesting: what Laosan called ’explosive bombs,’ stored within a box. A few had even fallen out during the recent battle.
All of them were fist-sized, with thick steel shells and long fuses attached. Weren’t these just simple hand grenades?
After making this discovery, Lance was ecstatic. He rushed over, picked one up, weighed it in his hand, and grinned at the Collector flying towards him.
"Damn it," he muttered, "let’s see how you like so heavy firepower!"
"Dismas, get ready to shoot its head with your pistol! Reynard and Balistan, you two prepare to defend. The bomb will produce shrapnel. Rember to dive to the ground," Lance ordered. The team imdiately began to move, while he quickly grabbed the Ignition Stick that had been thrown on the ground and lit the bomb in his hand.
Its fuse was designed to burn slowly, so Lance was in no rush to throw it. Instead, he held it, allowing the sparks to steadily consu the fuse.
His actions made Dismas and the others’ scalps tingle.
They couldn’t help but marvel at My Lord’s audacity—truly worthy of the man who dared to declare war on an Evil God alone!
The pressure from the previous mistake was relieved, and their resolve fird once again.
Following such a Lord, they seed immune to fear, and when there was no fear, naturally, there was no pressure.
Lance’s attention was fully on the Collector. Only when the creature approached to just over ten ters away did he bellow, "Fire!"
Dismas raised his musket angrily and, without the slightest hesitation, pulled the trigger.
This ti, I definitely won’t disappoint My Lord!
Indeed, he didn’t disappoint Lance; at this distance, he could hit whatever he aid at.
The bullet, carrying Dismas’s unerring conviction, drilled into the Collector’s eye with a crisp sound, inflicting a great stun upon its blue-glowing skull.
Lance seized this opportunity, throwing the bomb in his hand, its fuse almost burnt to the end.
"Grenade, get down!"
Lance threw himself to the ground. He watched the bomb fly in an arc and strike the Collector’s Yellow Robe. Then the fuse burned out completely. The gunpowder inside ignited, expanded rapidly, and, compressed by the steel casing, erupted into an explosion.
BOOM!
A loud blast and a bright fireball erupted, engulfing the Collector. A cloud of thick white smoke imdiately billowed up.
Before the smoke could disperse, the Collector, which had been suspended in the air, plumted to the ground with a dull thud.
Lance felt sothing pass over his head but wasn’t scared in the slightest. He stood up imdiately after the explosion to look at the Collector.
The Yellow Robe was tattered and torn. Its torso and skull were largely shattered and destroyed; even the tentacles had stopped writhing and hung limp.
But it wasn’t dead yet. The fractured pieces of its skull were rging and fusing, rapidly regenerating.
"God damn it!"
Once Lance realized this, he said nothing more. He picked up another bomb, tore off a large piece of its fuse, lit it with the Ignition Stick, and threw it. This was followed by a second, then a third.
The few who had just managed to get up saw this and hurriedly moved away; ten ters was no longer a safe distance.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A series of explosions thundered. The area was completely devoured by the blaze. Flying shrapnel even scratched Lance’s arm, but the wound healed in the next second.
In a way, Lance truly was a "monster."
When the smoke finally cleared, only a charred landscape was visible. But what surprised Lance was that the Collector had not died, even after three bombs. Though its body was mostly destroyed and looked even more battered, its strange skull was still writhing, attempting to repair itself.
Suddenly, Lance realized sothing.
Just like those collectibles, the Collector’s true essence wasn’t its body but its skull. As long as the skull wasn’t destroyed, the soul housed within wouldn’t dissipate, and thus, it wouldn’t die.
Understanding this, Lance grabbed a bomb and lit its fuse. He rushed forward, plunging his Short Sword into its eye socket while the Collector, still not fully recovered, was unable to move.
As he reached out, the Collector struggled fiercely. The light from its skull expanded several tis in an instant, like intensely burning phosphorescence.
But Lance ignored it, forcibly stuffing the bomb into its loosened jaw.
"Die, monster!"
After doing all this, the bomb’s fuse had burned out. Lance, with no ti to dodge, kicked the Collector, sending it tumbling over.
BOOM!
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