Chapter 557 Damage Test
After dinner, Roland headed straight for the back garden—although he really wanted to spend some time alone with Anna first, the devil's red mist was limited, and he had to start the experiment as soon as possible.
Almost all the members of the Witch Union were present, even those who weren't participating in the test didn't want to miss the chance to observe the enemy up close.
The Mad Demon, with its limbs severed, was under the control of Hefeng, lying quietly in the center of the shed. It was the first time Roland had seen an otherworldly creature so different from humans. It was enormous, a head taller than Iron Axe, and its frozen arms were as thick as an adult's thigh, with clearly defined muscles and bulging veins, giving the impression of immense strength.
Its rough skin was bluish-black, which seemed normal considering the devil's blood was blue. Roland reached out and lightly touched its body, feeling a noticeable heat, indicating a faster basal metabolic rate. In a sense, species with faster metabolic rates are less adaptable to the environment.
Since the Mad Demon's respirator was tightly connected to its helmet, its face couldn't be seen for the time being. However, overall, it was clearly a higher chordate animal. Compared to the more exaggerated Heart-Devils and Hell Lords, the Mad Demon still looked somewhat human.
Of course, according to Agatha, these low-level devils were extremely unintelligent and couldn't be compared to humans. In terms of cunning and scheming, higher-level devils were more like humans.
"Of the five devils, the Executioner was melted by the Divine Will Seal, one Mad Demon was shredded by Anna, and the remaining three canisters of red mist had two used up on the road." Agatha rubbed her forehead, looking somewhat tired, her voice softer than usual. "This mist can only last until tomorrow evening at most, so if you want to make seals, the experiment cannot exceed noon tomorrow—I need half a day to melt the seal base, and it may fail several times."
"Red mist is deadly to witches, how did you change the canisters?"
"I had mortals help connect the tubes," she said, pointing to the bone container on the side. "I brought back these used storage canisters as well, they might be useful in the future."
Roland nodded, then looked at Hefeng, "Can you control it to use magic power?"
"If it can do that," the latter replied seriously, "I don't need to specifically control the target's every move, but rather issue commands, forcing it to obey my orders. These instructions transcend the limits of language and thought, even demonic beasts will obey—of course, they can't be too complicated."
"Very good," he instructed Nana Wawa, "Reattach its limbs first, I want to see the power and interval of the Mad Demon's spear throw."
"Wait, right here in the castle?" Lily frowned.
Miyue, Hummingbird, and others immediately hid behind Wendy. Bai Zhi and Asha, who hadn't experienced the collapse of the Cooperative, didn't react as strongly, their faces showing more curiosity than fear.
"Will there be any problems?" You Yu muttered.
"Don't worry, we're watching," Iffy said calmly.
During dinner, Roland had learned the general details of Operation Flashpoint. The unexpectedly high-level devil had thrown the team into chaos and even put them in danger, but the witches' teamwork ultimately defeated the powerful enemy, with Iffy playing a very important role. Especially after the Divine Will Seal failed, her determination to buy time for everyone to escape greatly changed the other witches' perception of her, and her own attitude towards non-combat witches had become more peaceful—a subtle transformation that even Iffy herself probably hadn't noticed.
Perhaps she would need a long time to truly integrate into the group, but in Roland's view, at least the possibility of integration had emerged.
Nana Wawa squatted down with a reluctant expression and began to heal the devil.
If it were conventional medicine, it would be impossible to complete this "surgery". Without antifreeze, frozen limbs could only be prevented from rotting at most, but couldn't stop the ice crystals from destroying their tissue structure. However, with the unreasonable magic power repair, the severed limbs clearly improved, and even the mottled burn marks faded away little by little.
When the limbs were reattached, the originally dark skin gradually turned cyan, indicating that blood flow had begun.
Half an hour later, it stood up from the ground without a word and slowly walked out of the shed.
The witches followed suit, pouring out like a swarm, unlike when they had arrived. Wendy and Scroll were followed by long lines, and the expressions on Miyue and the others' faces, wanting to see but also being full of fear, made Roland couldn't help but smile.
Leaf had already prepared the "shooting range"—two rows of olive trees led straight to the garden wall, with a steel plate and a breastplate hanging from the grape vines at the end. The target was about two hundred meters from the wooden shed, which was also the regular combat distance of the revolver.
"Begin," seeing the devil grab the bone spear, Roland signaled.
"Yes."
As soon as Hefeng's voice fell, the Mad Demon's arm swelled up, and the magic stone embedded in its arm emitted a faint yellow light. Then it bent over and took a step, throwing the bone spear forcefully towards the target—
A white shadow flashed by, and a crisp hum sounded from the armor in the distance!
And its arm quickly withered, as if it had exhausted all its strength.
Perhaps because it had suffered a great loss of vitality, the recovery time was much longer than usual, taking almost half an hour for its arm to gradually return to its original state.
Of course, the throwing power was still considerable.
The bone spear completely pierced the breastplate and was firmly stuck in the wall. After pulling it out, it could be seen that the spearhead had shattered in the impact. If it had been an iron javelin, the power would have been greater—but judging from the Mad Demon's attire, the enemy's use of ironware seemed even worse than humans. Even the armor of high-level devils didn't seem to be purely metal.
Thinking about it, it was probably because metal smelting required high-temperature flames, and red mist happened to be intolerant of high temperatures. If Agatha's information was accurate, the devils' conditions for using fire must be very harsh. If human civilization originated from fire, then devils were probably born fire-haters.
The next test was rapid throwing.
The Mad Demon was forced to throw two bone spears at the fastest interval, while emitting a painful roar—it seemed that even if its body was controlled, it couldn't avoid the severe pain caused by overloading the magic stone. After the throwing, its arm went completely limp, like a dry piece of bark, and never recovered.
And this time, both bone spears shattered against the three-millimeter steel plate.
From this, it could be seen that the Mad Demon's most threatening attack was comparable to a revolver using black gunpowder bullets, while a bolt-action rifle loaded with smokeless gunpowder could easily penetrate the steel plate at this distance.