“What’s that sound?!”
Gopala tossed aside the wine cup in her hands in displeasure.
Today was the day for them to move their barracks, but an esteemed ruler like her wouldn’t move together with her lowly soldiers. Instead, she had been merrymaking with her aides in her luxurious tent.
It was only when loud noises and shouts echoed outside that she blew her top.
“Tell those lowly things to quieten down! This is a barracks, not an entertainment district! Execute anyone who refuses to listen!” she ordered her aides.
She picked up her wine cup and gestured for the maid to refill it. “How irritating. I was just getting in the mood, but now it’s all ruined.”
Moments later, one of her aides rushed into the tent in a fluster and fumbled up until he was kneeling before Gopala. His teeth were clattering. “Y-Your Majesty, the h-heavenly…”
“What is it?”
Gopala’s smile vanished, sensing that something was amiss. Her aide struggled to get his words out, so she hurriedly stood up, walked out of the tent, and looked at the sight before her.
It was the most terrifying sight she had ever seen.A young man was rampaging in her barracks, spreading death.
A pitch-black sandstorm and lightning raged in his hands, unleashing devastation upon the masses. Livestock was burned to a crisp. Tents were ignited like campfires.
The young man was accompanied by heavenly soldiers dressed similarly. Each wave of their metal whip reduced dozens of living humans to heaps of meat. Flames and explosions engulfed the Sindhi barracks.
Sindhi soldiers, slaves, steeds, and livestock fled anxiously, trampling on one another.
“Am I… drunk?” Gopala stared in disbelief.
This terrifying massacre had happened so abruptly that she thought she was hallucinating due to the alcohol. Her aides and maids, who had rushed out after her, stood behind her with dazed expressions, not moving in the least.
Padam!
Someone fell to the floor, his body trembling nonstop.
“Your Majesty, d-did we anger the deities?” he exclaimed tearfully. “Is that why the deities are punishing us right now?”
Gopala bit down on her tongue, and the sharp pain and metallic taste jolted her nerves.
“That’s not it!” she roared. “It’s the Tangs. The Tangs have invaded us! Where are my armored war elephants? Gather them right now!”
The Tangs’ flying troops were stronger than Gopala had expected; the only way for them to get a stable footing in this battle and possibly turn the tables around was by gathering the armored war elephants.
Gopala took the flute hanging on her waist and blew it.
A sound imperceptible to the human ear spread throughout the battlefield, prompting the armored war elephants to rush toward Gopala. Those who dared to stop them, be it soldiers or livestock, were trampled into meat paste.
“Here!”
The armored war elephants stood in formation.
Gopala leaped onto the largest armored war elephant, on which her throne awaited her.
“Ready!” Gopala smiled in confidence as she raised her hand.
The war monks began their chants, and the towers on the armored war elephants’ backs emanated a faint light. The armored war elephants were carrying artifacts, making them a mobile fortress of sorts.
“Target those flying troops. Fire!” Gopala ordered.
Pshing, pshing!
The towers on the armored war elephants released gushes of crimson flames into the sky, reminiscent of a meteor storm. Their targets were the terracotta warriors headed toward them.
This was Gopala’s trump card, as well as the reason she thought she could exploit the conflict between the Tangs and the Abbasids to secure some land.
Indeed, this batch of armored war elephants was equipped with long-range attack capabilities!
She had to pay an exorbitant sum to nurture this army. Countless lowly peasants were killed so that they could be used as materials to forge the artifacts.
However, this was all worth it.
The armored war elephants could decimate a small army if they fired simultaneously, or suppress a large army if they took turns firing. They were already unstoppable in close-quarter combat, and now, they were a menace from afar too.
Gopala could already imagine the Tang army’s imposing flying troops being shredded apart by the firestorm conjured by their artifacts and plummeting from the sky like sniped birds.
And things happened the way she imagined it.
Following the firestorm, the flying lions fled as the glowing Tang ‘heavenly soldiers’ plummeted from the sky.
“Hmph!” Gopala chuckled as if her earlier show of competency was only an illusion. She leisurely waved her hand at her aides and said, “All right, everything is settled now. Leave the cleaning up to the peasants. Let’s head back into the tent to continue enjoying the banquet.”
To Gopala’s surprise, none of her aides congratulated her with their usual flood of fawning words. Instead, their faces turned even paler and their bodies trembled nonstop.
“What’s wrong?” Gopala asked in surprise.
She quickly noticed that they were all looking in the same direction, gasping in shock.
So, she turned around and froze in shock.
The Tang soldiers, who had been shot down by her armored war elephants, were crawling up from the ground… No, it would be more apt to say that they were rising from the ground. They towered over everything else at a height of over ten meters, looking almost like mountains!
In contrast, the 5-meter-tall, armored war elephants looked like pitiful dwarves.
Gopala was baffled.
Can the Tangs transform into giants too?
She instinctively compared the gigantified terracotta warriors with her armored war elephants, and her body turned cold. Her mind went blank, and she found herself at a loss for what to do.
From the moment the gigantified terracotta warriors appeared, the Sindhi barracks had fallen completely silent.
O’ great Siva, are you punishing us?!
Boom!
Boom boom!
While the Sindhi soldiers were still in shock, the towering giants began to move.
A gigantified terracotta warrior rushed at an armored war elephant with footsteps so heavy that the world creaked. Under everyone’s gaze, it lifted its leg and kicked the armored war elephant.
BAM!
It produced a deafening explosion reminiscent of a battering ram striking a fortress’ gate, leaving ringing sounds in everyone’s heads. With a miserable wail, the armored war elephant was sent flying!
Blood splattered.
The armored war elephant flew a long distance before crashing heavily into the ground and falling still. It was such a miserable sight that the armored war elephant looked like a little puppy being viciously kicked off the road after blocking a brawny man’s path.
Silence reigned again.
Then…
“RUN!!!”
“WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE TANGS?!”
“MAMA!!!”
“This must be Siva’s divine retribution!”
“Siva is destroying the world!”
The Sindhi army fell into disarray.
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