Our Family Has Fallen

Chapter 418: Chapter 277: Capture_1

News spread quickly, as the team hadn’t advanced too far, and their positions weren’t far apart.

The fastest to arrive was a troop led by William, as he was in charge of the second echelon.

”How is it?”

”Quite severe, but the armor protected the vitals. Plus, this hemostatic powder is effective, so his life was saved.”

Paracelsus had just finished tending to the wounded, her hands covered in blood. The muffled voice emerging from beneath her Beak Mask couldn’t hide her praise for the powder’s effectiveness.

”They’re incredibly lucky to have survived this.”

William was looking at the wounds on both men. With dozens of cuts of varying sizes, they were almost completely drenched in blood. When they were dragged out from among the corpses, everyone had thought them dead.

But, following protocol, emergency treatment was administered, and unexpectedly, their conditions stabilized.

The fact that they hadn’t died from such injuries was a testament to the efficacy of the emergency medical treatment.

Of course, this was also thanks to the full gear and expensive medical treatments Lance had spared no expense to provide.

Lance could accept spending the money; he truly had it and wasn’t short on funds.

However, he couldn’t accept losing men. He had so few, and they were to be the backbone of his future army expansion.

By the time Dismas and Balistan arrived, Hamlet’s men had already brought the situation under control.

”What’s the situation?”

William briefly explained the situation, causing those who had hurried over to look at the wounded men with renewed attention.

The two had fought desperately to hold off the enemy for their teammates, battling fiercely. They actually managed to stop the enemy until reinforcements arrived—and they were still alive.

This was simply... indescribable loyalty!

”I can handle things here; we can’t delay the Lord’s plan,” William said. He was somewhat surprised by their arrival, as everyone had their designated areas, which the Lord had assigned before the operation.

”Leaving the front lines to the team leaders won’t disrupt the Lord’s arrangements. But it’s strange; the resistance we’re encountering is too weak.”

Dismas explained that he could return so quickly because the team leaders were capable of maintaining command.

It was also because he realized the number of Heretics they were fighting was dwindling; otherwise, if the front line had been under pressure, they couldn’t have rushed over so quickly upon hearing the news.

This wasn’t an exaggeration. The initial assessment estimated at least a thousand enemies here, but after some initial resistance, their numbers quickly dwindled.

However, their search of the houses revealed that most showed signs of recent habitation. People couldn’t just vanish into thin air.

”So, there’s only one possibility,” added Balistan, and everyone understood what he meant—the tunnels.

”What do we do now?” Dismas was troubled. No one knew what the conditions were like inside the tunnels, and even without experience in military command, he understood the dangers lurking below.

”Have you ever caught rats?” A strange expression appeared on William’s face. ”We often use rats to train our hunting dogs. But if a rat hides in its hole, the dogs are helpless against it. Rat burrows always have several exits. To catch them, you can use smoke to drive them out. By following the smoke, you can also find the other exits.”

”But if there are many exits, it could cause chaos. I think it’s better to notify the Lord first and pull our men back before we try to smoke them out.” Dismas wasn’t ignorant of such a simple tactic, but he worried that if those hiding below surged out all at once, his men could be thrown into disarray.

”I have an idea.” Paracelsus, who had been standing to the side, spoke up. She took out a packet containing an unknown substance. ”Add this when you smoke them out. I’ve tested it. It induces extreme agitation, and excessive inhalation will cause cardiac arrest and death.”

This was Incense material confiscated from Heretics long ago. Lance had actually been trying to develop uses for it, selecting some of the more stable formulas for Paracelsus to test. This substance was one of those semi-finished products.

William looked somewhat surprised. He knew a little about what went on at the sanatorium, which was precisely why he felt a bit uneasy about Paracelsus.

Using people as test subjects... William found it hard to accept. However, those individuals were all heinous criminals, so even he couldn’t say much against it.

”Excellent!” Dismas, by contrast, wasn’t burdened by such deep moral considerations. He agreed to the plan immediately and without hesitation. He knew many of those ”rats” would die down there, but as long as it wasn’t Hamlet’s men, it was acceptable.

Besides, those creatures could hardly be called human anymore.

On Dismas’s command, various combustible materials, along with Paracelsus’s packet, were thrown into the tunnel entrance. Dismas then took out an Incendiary Bottle, lit it, and tossed it down. Flames erupted instantly.

Wood tar was potent stuff, but production was still too low. Even if Lance had wanted to equip all his men with it, it wouldn’t have been feasible. Only a few key personnel received small vials to use against important enemies.

This concoction also had a drawback: it hadn’t been purified or distilled. The numerous impurities gave it a tar-black color and caused it to produce thick, black smoke when ignited.

This effect was even more pronounced in conditions of insufficient oxygen, where complete combustion couldn’t occur. Now, however, all these characteristics had become advantages.

Paracelsus, with her Beak Mask, was protected from the toxic fumes. However, Dismas and the others sensed something acrid permeating the air and quickly covered the tunnel entrance with planks. Even so, smoke still seeped out through the cracks.