The submarine docked at the end of the channel and tethered her cable close to the silent Macaw.
The sailors landed in their turn, and with another shout, pushed down a short four-pounder gun of the lightest character from the Macaw.
This was a temporary adjustment to Lorraine's program after guessing what would happen to Team Nasbolt.
Until then, no one thought they would really be pushing artillery like a clumsy Army man on an adventure.
In theory, it was a stupid decision.
In order to fire farther and parry more consistently on a rocking brig, seagoing guns were never cast larger, finer, or heavier than land guns.
Compare this with a six-pounder gun of the same class. Six-pounder land guns often weighed less than a ton and were equipped with lightweight gun carriages, while six-pounder long guns for naval use weighed two tons.
Even the lightest, shortest-barreled, six-pounder short gun on the Buttercup, selected by Lorraine to be mounted on the boat, weighed in at a solid 1.2 tons.
Trying to carry such a massive weight through a rugged sea cave is a pipe dream in itself.
However the Macaw offered Lorraine a different option.
It had six well-preserved short four-pounder guns in its stern gun compartment and weighed only 0.7 tons overall.
There were also gun carriages in the gun compartment for easy transportation, albeit small wheeled ones for the deck, but they still made it possible to go on adventures with the guns.
There was no shortage of shells corresponding to the caliber. Loose shells, solid shells, and chain ball shells ... of iron coated with dried and caked grease were stacked right next to the guns, and stacked neatly.
The only regret was the deterioration of the firing charge stored in the bilge. Luckily, Lorraine had six copies of her own, so she reloaded them according to the caliber of the four-pounders, and with very little effort, she was able to distribute eight copies.
Yacharin, with his specialized skills, had measured the hardness of the walls of the sea cave, and determined that four pounds of loose shot would not collapse the walls, so that Lorraine's conception passed, and the expedition succeeded in adding a great dependence.
There are twenty men left on the expedition.
In order to use the artillery well, Lorraine adjusted four men to specialize in pushing and pulling the gun carriage, and two to push the ammunition, along with Yacharin's assistance in handling the gun. They formed a total of seven men in the extravagant artillery squad, which was placed in the middle of the group.
The rest of the sailors had their own placements, Lorraine and Noa with five sailors were responsible for clearing the way, and Haina with five sailors was at the rear, guarding the retreat.
The seamen took advantage of the moment of unloading the guns and distributing the powder to review them over and over again until they were sure they were truly prepared, and Lorraine, with a huff and a puff, raised her torch and said softly, "Let's go."
...
It's quiet in the cave ...
The dome did not rise with the foundation, and under the illumination of a dozen or so torches, the zenith, which was originally not illuminated by light, became clear, only three meters high or so, and to Lorraine, it was as if she could reach out and touch it.
The width of the cave is also narrowing.
From an initial width of 14 or 15 meters for the waterway alone, to a width of only five or six meters across the two walls, the expedition has been able to look all around itself, as well as into a series of forked holes, some deep, some shallow, some barely pedestrianizable, and others that even a cat couldn't get into.
Lorraine's hand was holding Acharin's newly acquired stabbing sword.
In this cramped environment, his fighting ability was weakened tremendously, he couldn't jump, there was nowhere to hide, and he couldn't even use the long sword he was good at, his height and arm length plus the length of his sword couldn't be utilized at all in this kind of place.
The gun ... apparently can't be fired either.
He felt like he'd walked into a giant anthill, and even became paranoid that the culprits who'd massacred Nasbolt's team were some kind of prehistoric ants, the man-sized kind.
It shouldn't be so bad, should it?
He reassured himself mentally in an uncertain tone, and while doing so, he traveled more carefully, especially the forks and holes, large or small, which had to be thoroughly explored before he dared to cross them with his adventuring party.
For half an hour they walked in this fearful manner without encountering any danger.
Lorraine raised her hand, "Rest in place, second group on sentry duty."
The party halted at his command and gathered together, and four sailors stepped out of the line, two in front and two behind, each raising a fire-clutching knife.
Lorin opened his water bladder and took a sip as Noa leaned in close to him and asked softly, "What do you think the danger is, Captain?"
"I don't know." Lorraine shook her head, "Yinger. Arnason is my bloodline ancestor, a Viking from the 9th century. Judging by the size of the longships and the oar-rocking slaves who were executed, he didn't have the manpower to make traps big enough to run for a thousand years, even if he had planted his treasure cache deep in a cave."
"But that explorer's team is all but wiped out. Could it be another riot?"
"Rioting is not impossible, but the likelihood of going down with the riot and none escaping is next to none. Most of the time, mutinies always produce winners."
"Beast?"
"Trying to regiment a team of 40 people who specialize in exploration, the beasts in the cave are either swarming or extraordinarily huge. Like Yacharin said, if there are such beasts using the treasure site as a lair, how can there be any gold artifacts preserved ...," Lorraine laughed bitterly, "Don't forget that Nasbolt is not an Ancient One, and has only arrived a hundred years before us. But he saw the treasure with his own eyes, and nearly took them away."
Noa was also confused.
The two hadn't been able to discuss the situation for half a day, and were about to ask Hina and Yacharin if they had any new insights when the change came out of nowhere!
The sailor on sentry duty in front of the group suddenly screamed in agony.
He fell with a scream, sliding flat on his back toward a forked hole not far away, as if dragged by mysterious forces, completely defenseless.
This was followed by screams from the back of the line.
Ena, quick as a flash, duh, shot her flying dagger while shouting, "Lorraine, ankle!"
Ankle!
Lorraine thought nothing of darting out, and as she ran, the long knife on her belt snapped out of its sheath, and like a wheel of steel whirled and swept past the sailor and the center of that forked hole.
Psst!
Sailor Den stopped.
The sailor on watch with him ran up and dragged his startled mate back to the brig, and Lorraine picked up the torch that had fallen on the ground and flung it flying in the direction of the forked hole.
Torches light up the distant view.
The assailant was a huge lizard, over three meters long, with a hideous triangular head and a black and brown body with rough skin. Its body was covered with raised bumps shaped like scales, but without scales.
It wagged its stubby tail and eased out of the forked hole, its copper-bell eyes fixed on Lorraine, its sharp claws snapping a trail of sparks on the rocky ground.
"Komodo ... Gargoyles?"
Lorraine raised her bayonet alertly.
He saw more giant lizards step into the firelight, five in front of the party, from the dome, from the rocky wall, from the forked hole ... He also heard the sailor at the rear of the temple shouting that four had been spotted behind the party.
"Yacharin, the hole is too small, don't fire the cannon ...," he said in a whisper that barely reached Yacharin's ear, "Noa, try for a quick battle."
Before the words fell, Lorraine sprinted out, and with a big stride had already stood in front of the giant lizard whose tongue had been chopped off, and stabbed the sword in his hand as if it were a lightning bolt straight into those eyes.
The giant lizard was not slower than him at all!
The moment Lorraine started, the five giant lizards started at the same time. They leapt toward Lorraine with a swiftness that was completely incompatible with their length, swinging their claws forward, swishing their tails from side to side, and crawling upside down on the dome, they flicked out their long tongues at Lorraine, shooting straight at Lorraine's throat like a stabbing sword!
But Lorraine was pleasantly unafraid!
He formed a lunge and stabbed his rapier at his target, half-drawing his long sword with his free left hand and holding it against the back of his blade across his side.
Noa shot her silver tarot like flowers, a dozen of them, swirling past Lorraine, cutting right through the long tongue above Lorraine's head, clanking to offset a sweeping blow.
Yacharin struck the musket with a boom, and amidst the smoke, the fiery red lead bullet hit a giant lizard squarely in the body, sending its entire body flying half a meter away.
A giant lizard swung out its claws and smashed into Lorraine's long sword.
Only a ding could be heard, Lorraine stifled a grunt, and the thrusting sword in his hand pierced through his target's eyeball almost simultaneously, and with a single pick, broke his skull!
The target's sharp claws stopped less than twenty centimeters from Lorraine's side and hung limply, helplessly, on the ground.
Lorraine jerked out of the common, turned and spun sideways, and guided the long blade in an inverted hold, slashing diagonally at the second target in front of her.
"Kill!"