Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

"My lord... it's just ahead." The Tanilia soldier, forced to lead the way, stumbled ahead, trembling as he clutched the wound on his head.

The man behind him instilled a fear so profound, the Tanilian old soldier had never seen such a ferocious warrior—charging into the crowd amidst musket fire, cutting down an entire squad of musketeers.

The soldier's legs trembled involuntarily, unable to stop, and fear made him look back involuntarily.

Seeing the movement, Winters, in a fury, smashed the butt of his gun hard against the back of the soldier's head.

The soldier fell face-first into the mud and scrambled to his feet without daring to delay, choking and praying as he moved forward.

The Venetians, no longer holding any reservations, had directly blasted open the volcanic crater at the mountaintop, sending water cascading down through the former streams to flood Tachi as the first wave of their assault.

After several more hours of fierce combat, the Venetian troops rode their momentum to break through the trenches, embankments, and the will of the Tanilia people, leading to the total collapse of the defense within the city.

The "siege within a siege" had descended into utter chaos, with Tanilian soldiers still resisting from within houses, while bloodthirsty Venetian soldiers killed anyone they saw.

Winters ignored all of it; he had gotten separated from Major Moritz in the chaos of battle—but that did not matter, for he was after just one man.

"This is the place, my lord." The trembling soldier pointed at the former residence of the Earl of Red Sulfur Island, not daring to turn his head. Then, he heard the sound of a weapon being drawn. Instinctively, the soldier shut his eyes.

"Get lost!"

The Tanilian soldier, as if receiving a pardon, scrambled away in escape.

Winters burst through the wooden doors of the tower, bellowing, "William Kidd!"

The last of the Federation guards charged down from the staircase, only to be slain one by one by Winters. With each kill, he shouted: "William Kidd!"

His thunderous roars echoed through the tower like a death-curse, and the last guard, terrified by the Grim Reaper-like Winters, threw away his weapon and leapt out the window in a frenzied escape.

At the top of the tower, he found William Kidd.

William Kidd sat in a chair, seemingly unsurprised by his arrival.

Compared to the spirited captain he had first met, the William Kidd before him had been completely worn down: his temples and cheeks were deeply sunken, his eyes tired and haggard, his shoulders thin as leaves, and the bones of his once broad wrists were all that remained.

But even with only skin left, Winters recognized that face; there was no doubt, it was William Kidd.

"Ha, Venetians, you've won... for now," said William Kidd from his chair, unusually calm. "Kill me and go claim your reward."

But in the next moment, Winters grabbed him from the chair and slammed him onto the floor.

Kidd moaned in pain as the furious Winters stepped on his chest and said through gritted teeth, "Do you think I care about that crap?"

After that, he struck William Kidd's face with two fierce punches.

William Kidd's mouth filled with blood, his nose broke, and a red liquid flowed ceaselessly from his nostrils.

"I'm only going to ask you one thing," Winters said, panting, spitting out a mouthful of blood, pressing the blade of his knife against William Kidd's neck, asking grimly, "Where is your Spellcaster?"

"Hahahaha..." Kidd's response to Winters's question was a chilling laugh, as if he had heard the funniest joke.

He laughed so violently he choked on the blood in his mouth.

His face red with coughing, the features oddly flushed with a morbid redness: "You... you know nothing... right... hahahaha..."

Winters wasted no time with words, raised his knife, and chopped off William Kidd's right index finger: "Where is your Spellcaster?"

"Ah!!!!!!!!" As pain surged like heart-piercing daggers from his hand, William Kidd screamed, trying to cover the wound, but Winters kept his arm pinned down, causing him to roll on the ground in agony.

"Where is your Spellcaster?"

This time, Kidd's middle finger was separated from his right hand.

William Kidd's body convulsed severely, and he curled up, unable even to let out a full scream; only intermittent, low, broken noises could be heard from his throat.

"Where is your Spellcaster?"

William Kidd lost another finger, and his consciousness began to blur.

"Where is your Spellcaster?" Winters kept asking the same question over and over: "Where is your Spellcaster?"
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"Where is your Spellcaster?"

Major Moritz, who led the other surviving Spellcasters to the tower, was shocked by the scene before him.

"Winters! What are you doing?!" Moritz rushed over and dragged Winters away from the nearly unconscious William Kidd: "Calm down!"

"Let go of me!" Winters struggled and roared like a frenzied bear: "William Kidd knows who the magician is! He knows! He knows everything! Let go of me! XXX let go of me!"

"Lailo, Joshua, carry William Kidd away!" Unable to restrain Winters by themselves, Moritz and Pisani immediately ordered others to move Kidd: "Hurry up and stop the bleeding, General Serviati has ordered him alive!"

William Kidd was quickly carried down from the tower, as the Major and Pisalo desperately held on to Winters, preventing him from following.