Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 425 - 275: Winter Preparations and War Machine (Part 2)

Chapter 425: Chapter 275: Winter Preparations and War Machine (Part 2)

A thick palm wiped casually on the trouser leg. He straightened his chest and said with barely concealable excitement, “Sir, all the prototypes have been completed according to the blueprints, now awaiting your inspection.”

Louis’s gaze swept over the distant array of devices ready to go, then glanced over a row of expectant craftsmen and several alchemists in yellow-stained robes, finally nodding lightly.

“Let’s begin.” With his order, the entire demonstration area roared into operation.

Mike waved his hand, and an assistant craftsman immediately pulled the rope.

“Activate the folding cheval de frise, ready to ignite!”

With a “click-clack—a bang,” three segments of cheval de frise suddenly sprang out, the mechanism’s slots automatically engaged, resembling a beast’s skeleton unfurling, heavily striking the ground.

Each segment was covered with iron spikes and interlocking stakes. Amid a subtle tremor, the ground spikes fit precisely into the stone floor of the testing arena, immovable.

Subsequently, the alchemy team on the other side immediately sprang into action.

A fiery magic core, the size of a knuckle, was pressed into the activation slot, causing the petroleum pipeline to tremble slightly.

“Whoosh—!”

Alongside a string of soft sounds, a row of flames shot up from the spine of the cheval de frise.

Golden-orange flames spread rapidly across the stakes like boiling waves, forming a complete fire wall in just three seconds, sealing off the entire testing passage.

The flames crackled and roared with heat waves billowing.

“Prepare to charge!” Mike shouted.

Two test knights armored heavily urged their horses to charge from the other end, hooves thundering like lightning, but as they approached the fire line, the horses hesitated, eyes showing fear.

They tried to bypass it, only to find all three parts of the cheval de frise interlocked, sealed tight.

“Retreat!” The knight pulled the reins, forcefully halting the charge.

Fifteen seconds later, only the scorched stake surface was left smoking.

For a moment, silence descended.

“Emergency closure formed within ten seconds,” Louis stood with his hands behind his back at the edge of the arena, “If used at a canyon mouth… the unprepared vanguard of enemy cavalry would be thrown into chaos.”

Mike grinned widely, “Our workshop’s creation is far more agile than the old wooden stakes in the Northern Territory’s passes.”

The craftsmen nodded repeatedly at this.

“Then let’s start the next item.” Louis said softly, his gaze already moving to the heavy-covered “Steel Giant” further away.

Under the pull of chain strings, the heavy curtain slowly fell away, and in the next instant, an almost breath-stopping sense of oppression swept through the demonstration area.

It was roughly wedge-shaped as a sleeping giant beast crouched on the ground.

The front end projected a distinctively sharp-armored car front, embedded with narrow observation slits and enclosed arrow slots, resembling a cold, menacing beast face.

The sides were fitted with thick side armor, sheets of black steel plates connected by rivets, overlapping like the scales armor of a plated lizard.

And four steel bulls were dragging it slowly out.

They were clad in gleaming battle armor, their horned helmets flashing cold lights, exhaling faint blue vapor.

This is the effect of Frost Leaf Vine potions, used to soothe their fierce nature, enabling calm on the battlefield.

Iron chains and reins connected under the car front, each step they took felt like a heavy hammer striking the chest, making the air subtly tremble.

“…This is the Steel Beast indeed.”

Emily stood beside Louis, her gaze inadvertently uplifted towards the gigantic entity, her voice almost inaudible.

Her slender figure appeared as diminutive as dust under the shadow of the giant beast.

“Like a… moving fortress.” She murmured, supplementing the sentence with an expression of undisguised awe.

The Steel Beast proceeded slowly, the heavy wheels and gear tracks engaged and rubbed, emitting a deep and continuous rumbling as if some underground creature were turning over in its slumber.

The four steel bulls drawing it forward maintained a steady pace—iron hooves on the ground, armor engaging—with each impact sounding like a hammer falling on the hearts of everyone present.

A cold mist escaped their breaths, bluish-white vapor swirling in the air.

Under the craftsman’s control inside the steel, the colossal beast completed the turning test slowly yet accurately.

It maneuvered across the front of the demonstration area unhurriedly, with everyone present holding their breath.

In the silence, a pressing feeling like an unspeakable tide swelled up in their hearts.

This is not a war machine.

This is a moving steel wall.

“More stable than I expected,” Louis commented, his tone still revealing a trace of inescapable satisfaction, “If set outside the city… the Barbarian cavalry line would crash into utter wreckage.”

The Steel Beast advanced somewhat clumsily, yet the heavy, stable pressure was exactly as he had initially imagined on the blueprint.

He nodded slightly, adding, “With a few more rounds of conditioning, make these bulls more familiar with the commands, it could speed up considerably.”

“Your design is superb, sir!” Mike responded standing at attention, his face flushed, unable to suppress his excitement, “We only followed the instructions…”

Louis waved a hand, advising him to ease off the flattery, though Mike was sincerely praising.

The drill wasn’t over. With a crisp sound of mechanism activation, the side cabin of the Steel Beast “clicked” open, and a set of tri-claw javelins immediately extended along the sliding arm, the metal friction evoking a sharp echo like a beast grinding its teeth in the night.

“Javelin—ready.”

Mike ordered in a low voice, the master craftsman pushed with his right hand, the retractable arm suddenly extending rapidly, a clawed javelin piercing through the air with a sharp angle, fiercely embedding into the wooden shield target on the simulated battlefield.

“Retract!”

The claw grasped the shield edge, pulling with immense force, instantly splintering the wooden shield into pieces. The scene was filled with a sharp crackling sound, wood chips flying; that hefty combat shield was directly torn into two sections.

Immediately, the second arm bounced out, the javelin flexibly adjusted its angle, hooking the rear edge of another side-standing wooden shield, pulling—twisting, dragging, rolling back—the entire action completed seamlessly, like metal predator claws repeatedly testing prey.