Chapter 289: Chapter 253: The Woodland Archer’s Prowess

“How do you feel?”

“I’m fine, my lord.”

Losa’s eyes revealed a clear sense of admiration: “I feel like I can even shoot down an eagle in the sky now.”

Losa thought to himself, shooting down an eagle should be impossible, just like how I felt incredibly strong after adding some points, but actually only increased by three points.

He instructed, “Then try your bow, Leonard, bring the scrap armor I asked you to bring, and fix it two hundred yards away.”

Losa took an arrow and set it on the bowstring.

He drew the bowstring, and his face showed a look of surprise.

Finally, his face turned red from exertion, and the bowstring was only drawn a third of the way!

Thud!

The arrow missed its target, grazing past the scale armor sheet fixed to the side, flying who knows where.

His face flushed: “My lord, I don’t have enough strength to draw this bow.”

Losa frowned.

Is it because this bow was originally used by Woodland Elf Archers and not meant for ordinary soldiers?

And rightly so, the system’s military training does not improve physical attributes, only provides combat experience, skills, and equipment.

Imperial Knights have it even worse, without even providing equipment.

Leonard slapped him on the back of the head: “Fool, when Ulm received the blessings from the Heavenly Father, he could ride on horseback like a seasoned rider, why can’t you?”

Leonard knew the inside story, and this old soul was considered Losa’s confidante. He was one of the capable but few subordinates who could manage the building of a new city well.

“Don’t worry, Losa, try shooting once more with your old bow.”

Losa comforted, “You should also understand the reason for this situation.”

Losa nodded: “We are not Elves; our bodies are weaker, and our arms are not as long.”

Losa once again took up his original hunting bow. This time, he fully drew it back, releasing the arrow. It flew steadily and hit the armor plate nailed to the target.

Upon closer inspection, it sank three inches into the wood.

Looking at the arrowhead, it was surprisingly intact, though the shaft was slightly cracked.

Bows and arrows were valuable in the military of this era, especially arrows. The reason why the Western Nomadic Cavalry was weak during this time is partly because of their poor iron-smelting technology, many arrows still used bone arrowheads.

After testing, even when switching bows, using these specially made arrows, both scale armor and Zha armor could be easily pierced within two hundred yards.

No plate armor was in stock, so it wasn’t tested.

There was no need for that either.

Because currently, only some wealthy Crusader Knights are widely equipped with plate armor, many poor knights couldn’t even gather a set of chain armor, let alone the more precious plate armor.

Many great nobles bought numerous sets of plate armor, often for collection or show.

Losa wasn’t considering starting an internal war anytime soon.

The Saracens widely equip scale and Zha armor, being able to pierce most of these two types of armor is already sufficient.

As for the riding bows of heavy armed archers, they don’t need to be mentioned.

They are only slightly stronger than the thirty-pound light bows commonly used by Nomadic Cavalry, making it difficult to inflict effective damage on fully armored enemies.

These Byzantine-style armored cavalry are more like their counterparts from the Eastern Jin Kingdom, resembling iron pagodas.

Currently, the Great Jin, although declining, still has a vast territory with tens of millions of people, making it the strongest among the Eastern Empires, ranking ahead of Song and Liao.

“Brother Losa, may I try your bow?”

Speaking was Zack.

As a heavy armed cavalry archer, he was also quite skilled in archery.

Losa reluctantly handed over the bow: “You won’t be able to use it either.”

Zack tried it, found it to be true, and wasn’t annoyed, laughing as he said: “Indeed, it’s unusable, this bow must be at least one hundred pounds.”

“Let me try too.”

Losa cleared his throat, asking Losa to bring the Elf Bow, nocked an arrow.

In the amazed gaze of the two, he drew it back fully.

Whoosh—

The arrow flew like a shooting star, effortlessly piercing the head of the wooden target, speeding off into the distance, disappearing without a trace.

“My lord, you have such great strength!”

Losa chuckled: “See, being an archer is not so easy. Tomorrow, report to Knight Commander Jeanne, assist her in training the new recruits, and later select some outstanding ones to come to the Tree of Life for advancement.”

Losa was quite pleased with himself, he hadn’t practiced archery for a long time, yet hadn’t regressed at all.

The bow was a good one as well, without calibration, it hit the target on the first shot, its contribution was not insignificant.

Losa bowed: “Yes!”

A moment later.

One by one, the branches and leaves alternated, delivering the arrows shot into the unknown back to Losa.

The Tree of Life conveyed a tone of complaint, grumbling that Losa nearly shot its roots with the arrows.

“Sorry.”

Losa apologized, but there wasn’t a hint of remorse in his expression. The Tree of Life was so massive that even being shot with a siege crossbow cannon wouldn’t cause any issues.

He stuffed the arrow back into Roland’s quiver: “Returning to its owner.”

Roland quickly said: “Thank you, sir, and thank you, Mr. Divine Tree.”

The branches and leaves shook slightly, accepting Roland’s gratitude.

Losa encouraged him: “Roland, keep training hard, I believe you’ll soon be able to draw this Elf Bow.”

He had no intention of claiming this Elf Bow for himself. Though the bow had some extraordinary features, it was actually only quite good for ordinary people.

Roland was just a hunter from a small place, good at archery, but in the grassland tribes, plenty of people were better at archery than him.

After job transitioning, his archery skills improved, but his physical fitness remained the same, not as strong as Zack, who once served as Hebron’s City Guard Army.

However, Losa had higher expectations for the new unit of Woodland Archers.

A hundred elite archers able to draw bows over a hundred pounds—what kind of concept is this?

Even in the early Qing armies, which greatly valued archery, they were absolute experts.

With armor-piercing arrows, any armored cavalry, all would be shot through. Across the whole of Europe, excluding extraordinary factors, they were considered elite archers.

Entering New Habsburg, the Inner Castle was nearly completely constructed. The buildings attached to the outer walls were quite complete, looking much cleaner and orderly compared to the massive construction site appearance it had some time ago.

“Sir, the construction progress is fast; it won’t be long before you can move in.”

“No rush, as long as it’s done within my specified time.”

Losa saw a painting on the bulletin board in New Habsburg: a Double-headed Eagle spreading its wings, sheltering a pair of parents embracing a child.

“Who painted this?”

Leonard quickly replied: “Sir, I painted it myself.”

Losa praised: “Very nice, old Leonard, I didn’t know you had such skill?”

Leonard sincerely said: “People must know how their good days come about; previously, every year there were people starving to death due to famine.”

“Makes sense.”

Losa was thoughtful.

He wasn’t charitable; initially, he was good to the common people mostly because he came from a plebeian background, empathizing more with them.

Now, this reason remained foremost but the fact that common people were easier to sway than local powerful heretics had also become a major reason.

“Leonard, fetch me a sheet of paper, I want to write a letter to Kurs.”

Leonard’s approach inspired him; he planned to use large character posters… large character posters weren’t reliable, too many were illiterate now, the simple comic form was more practical.

“Yes.”

“You can also take fifty gold coins from the warehouse as your reward.”

This wasn’t something important, as having the statue of the Throne Angel, his people had always felt positively about him; adding internal publicity was just icing on the cake.

…

Losa stayed a night in New Habsburg, then returned to Hebron.

Currently, there were no trivial matters to handle, allowing him to enjoy some leisure time again.

Hunting the Fire Dragon certainly couldn’t only involve Losa and Prajna.

Their output capability was limited, and the Tyrannical Dragon was thick-skinned; even if it stood in front of them, letting them attack freely, they likely wouldn’t succeed in killing it.

Because Losa’s main attack methods, aside from borrowing Jeanne’s Holy Spear, were using the “Breath of the Giant Dragon.”

But that Tyrannical Dragon could soak in magma, almost immune to fire.

Despite the fact this Dragon Species had no wings, actually, even within the entire Fire Dragon group, the Tyrannical Dragon ranked in the middle-upper order, many winged Fire Dragons fell below it.

Additionally, considering this Tyrannical Dragon’s lifespan, conservatively estimated at five hundred years, it was already in the realm of adult dragons.

Absolutely needed Losa, Jeanne, Furin, Chelina, and Prajna to form a team of five to consider dealing with it.

In the Hebron residence.

Losa lay on Prajna’s lap, talking to himself: “However, targeting in advance isn’t impossible.”

“It’s said the Tyrannical Dragon should still be sleeping; otherwise, over the years it wouldn’t remain undiscovered.”

“Strike while it’s asleep, then conduct a righteous group assault?”

“But what if we accidentally trigger a volcanic eruption?”

Prajna glanced down at Losa, couldn’t help but smile slightly: “Sir, perhaps that Fire Dragon has long gone? After all, the ancient record describes events from many years past.”

Losa laughed: “That won’t be the case; I’ve already asked Nishaya to have someone investigate. The Fire Dragon’s presence there is confirmed, no mistakes.”

“Where is there?”

“In the territory of the Holy Lineage family, close to the two Holy Lands of the Fire Worship, where a range of volcanoes is located. These have been dormant for many years.”

Prajna furrowed her brow: “So we need to bypass Rauf’s territory, and then enter Hashim?”

“Penetrating enemy grounds sounds dangerous, but it’s the nearest location to us where dragon presence occurs. If I confine myself to the territory, it may be very hard to awaken the Dragon Bloodline in this lifetime.”

Losa stated earnestly.

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