The three guards had never heard of any Ballack, but hearing Henry's serious manner, they couldn't help believing him somewhat.
Moreover, his hands were empty and raised high, posing extremely low threat.
One guard lowered his gun muzzle and said: "Where's the letter? Give it to me, I'll deliver it up."
"Alright, the letter is in my chest," Henry said while slowly lowering his hands, but midway suddenly flicked both hands. Two 15-centimeter throwing knives flew straight out, instantly crossing six to seven meters to pierce deep into the throats of two sentries pointing guns at him.
Henry's hands each flicked twice more, four knives lightning-fast piercing the hearts of both men and the throat and heart of the front sentry asking for the letter.
Ignoring the three guards collapsing, Henry dismounted and moved aside the chevaux de frise, searched the three sentries for weapons and money pouches, taking everything.
Then he pulled out six throwing knives, shook off the blood, stored them in his space, and threw the three men into the aspen grove beside the road.
Henry remounted and continued forward slowly. After several more turns, he found the road ahead about 300 meters long had doubled in width, with gas lamps hung every thirty meters or so on both sides.
Besides two chevaux de frise in the middle of the road, there was a granite sentry post about five meters high at the road's end with five sentries and a Gatling gun on top.
Behind the barriers on the ground were also 5 sentries.
The long absence of enemies had made these sentries somewhat lax. Hearing hoofbeats, they thought it was sentries from below bringing messages up.
Henry quickly jumped down from his horse, stored it in his space, and a "one-in-a-thousand" Winchester rifle appeared in his hands. He immediately fired at the machine gunner on the sentry post.
The somewhat casual guards had just witnessed the strange sight of such a large horse suddenly disappearing, and while still dumbfounded, disaster immediately struck.
"Bang bang bang"
First, all five sentries on the post who hadn't hidden their forms properly were shot and fell, with three near the edge tumbling straight down from the guardhouse.
Next were the five sentries on the ground.
Only now did they finally come to their senses, also raising rifles to shoot at Henry.
But in their haste, plus the far distance, not a single bullet hit Henry. Instead, Henry used 5 shots to bring them all down.
Henry quickly ran forward, reaching the barriers and pulling one aside. It took nearly two minutes to finally reach the guardhouse, shooting two more rounds at two who were still struggling and groaning along the way.
Behind the guardhouse was another bend. Before Henry reached the turn, his brow began to sting faintly. He immediately slowed down, carefully poking out half his head at the bend to look.
In view was a plaza over 50 meters wide and over 200 meters long. On the far side was a huge Irish-style manor - the same three-meter-high dry stone walls and Gothic Irish architecture, with manor gates that could accommodate ten riders simultaneously entering and exiting, now tightly closed.
Ten guards were patrolling in front of the gates.
Like Devonshire Manor, the plaza's left side was a mountain wall, the right end was a cliff. Over forty gas lamps hung on both sides and in the middle of the road, illuminating the plaza almost as bright as day.
The difference was that besides two ten-meter-high watchtowers at the gate equipped with two Gatling guns each, two more Gatling guns were positioned in the middle on both sides of the plaza.
Currently these guards and sentries were all holding rifles at ready or manning machine guns, vigilantly watching this road entrance.
This was somewhat deranged.
Henry judged that if he dared go out to shoot out the gas lamps, he would immediately face encirclement by four Gatlings plus attacks from ten guards.
With so many gas lamps, this was troublesome!
Even if Henry never missed, shooting out over forty lamps would take 20-30 seconds.
Four Gatlings, even civilian versions, could spew out 400 bullets. If just 15% hit Henry, it could nearly exhaust his current release pearl shells.
Not to mention the ten gate guards could fire about 300 more shots. Just 10% accuracy would put Henry in enormous danger.
Even with granite stones blocking there would be considerable danger, so he couldn't charge like this - too high risk, too low reward.
Even shooting out the lights might not help much. Seeing this manor so well prepared, they likely had flares. Henry charging then would become a sitting duck.
Henry walked back near the guardhouse to collect the eight sentry corpses, then returned to the corner, put on his mask, and took out one corpse to throw around the corner.
"Bang bang bang"
"Rat-a-tat-tat"
Sounds of rapid rifle fire and machine gun spitting erupted.
After half a minute the gunfire stopped. Henry immediately threw out another corpse, and gunfire immediately erupted frantically again, shooting the two corpses until blood and flesh flew, kicking up dense dust on the ground.
When the gunfire stopped, Henry threw out another corpse. This time the gunfire wasn't as dense - probably some guards realized they'd been fooled.
Henry also heard their cursing and their leader's reprimands.
Henry threw out another corpse. This time even the machine guns didn't move, only rifles fired a few times.
Henry immediately exposed half his body to shoot at the gate guards with his rifle. In just two seconds he fired four shots, bringing down four. This time was too tight so he didn't pursue headshots.
Sometimes severely wounded enemies brought greater psychological pressure to their comrades.
Then Henry immediately withdrew behind the corner.
"Rat-a-tat-tat" - rapid machine gun sounds erupted, sending rock fragments flying from the corner.
When the machine gun sounds stopped, Henry threw out another sentry corpse, immediately causing the machine gun sounds to erupt rapidly again.
But the machine gunner quickly realized he'd been fooled and stopped firing.
Henry immediately flashed out half his body and fired four more shots. This time he only brought down two gate guards because most had hidden behind cover.
Then Henry hid behind the corner to reload his "one-in-a-thousand" Winchester rifle.
Behind the manor gates, about thirty meters away, guard commander Kean had 30 cavalry quickly mount up while another 50 gunmen lay in ambush behind the stone walls on both sides of the manor gates, awaiting their chance.
The situation was unclear now. Kean worried the enemy had large forces ambushed behind that corner, otherwise ten sentries wouldn't have been eliminated so quickly without even a chance to activate the Gatlings.
After this machine gun counterattack, Henry again threw out a corpse. Finding the machine guns didn't respond, he immediately leaped out from the corner and raised his rifle to aim at the watchtower machine gunner about 120 meters away on the right side of the road.
At this distance Henry's aimed shots were perfect accuracy. The bullet precisely entered through the machine gunner's eye, spraying blood from the back of his head as he fell backward, followed by the watchtower machine gunner about 110 meters away on the left.
Two shots fired in three seconds successfully sent away two machine gunners. At this time the manor gate's two machine guns frantically spat flames, bullets flying toward Henry like torrential rain.
However, these bullets still needed 0.6 seconds to arrive - enough time for Henry, whose agility far exceeded ordinary people, to run back behind the corner. So these bullets could only futilely strike the muddy ground and trees behind, creating a series of "puffing" sounds.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +20 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Mutter"]
[Every 50 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]