Steam weapons like crossbows sound unscientific, and even Leo can't imagine what its firing principle is. Obviously, relying solely on the instantaneous thrust of steam, it may be difficult to make the fired arrows produce power, but if not

If it relies on steam thrust, then what is the purpose of the half-human-high steam device carried behind the Annihilator?

With all the questions in his mind, Leo carefully observed the equipment on the Annihilator.

I saw the Annihilator wearing a steam insulation suit all over his body, wearing a pair of glasses that looked like diving goggles for his eyes, and holding a steam crossbow launcher in his hand. The launcher looked very much like Leo in the Earth Federation.

An old Earth era Gatling gun as seen in the weapons gallery.

On the back of the Annihilator is an iron box half as tall as a man. The outer shell of the box is equipped with some gears whose functions are unknown. There are some instruments, pistons and air outlet pipes on the top. There are two regulating hand valves near the hands.

, a sealed tube extends from the bottom of the box and is connected to the tail end of the repeating crossbow launcher.

Just as Leo was secretly observing the situation, a soldier from the Kingdom of England in the distance whose skin was severely corroded suddenly got out of the trench and ran like crazy towards the outside of the battlefield.

The noise made by this soldier was too great, and he was noticed only after running a few steps away.

I saw an Annihilator shouting and making a gesture, as if to indicate to his colleagues that this person was handed over to him, and then I saw him raising the repeating crossbow launcher in his hand and aiming it at the crazy warrior.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several very slight air-piercing sounds came from the launcher, and then five arrows about twenty centimeters in length were seen pierced into the body of the crazy warrior.

The barb at the end of the arrow is released during flight to prevent the arrow from penetrating the body and causing more serious tearing damage to the target's body.

When the soldier fell to the ground, his body had been torn into pieces by the arrow barbs, and his original shape could not be seen at all.

Although Leo had seen the power of various weapons of the Interstellar Federation, he was still amazed by the power of the steam repeating crossbow in front of him.

Leo retracted his head behind the bunker and assessed his own strength in his mind.

If he still had the same body as the original biochemical weapon, this kind of fast-firing weapon would not cause him any trouble, but now, although the strength of this body is two or three times that of ordinary people, it is not strong enough to avoid it.

Those arrows that are faster than sound, once he is exposed, the final result will definitely not be much better than that of the crazy warrior just now.

Thinking of this, Leo carefully retreated from the broken bunker into the trench, crouched down, and quickly returned to the place where Nelson and Jason were hiding.

"What's the situation outside?" Nielsen asked quickly when he saw Leo's figure.

Jason also pulled away the body, sat up, and looked at Leo expectantly.

"It's very bad." Leo shook his head, responded, and emphasized: "It's very bad."

Then, he carefully told the two of them what he had just seen outside.

Hearing that the situation outside was so dangerous, Nelson and Jason both sat on the ground in frustration, becoming disheartened.

Leo, who felt that something was not right in the atmosphere, immediately gave the two of them a little more hope, saying: "There is no way to escape now. When it gets dark, we may be able to discover the loopholes in their defense."

Although Leo's words were more like the last comfort, they at least brought a little hope to the two of them and made the surrounding atmosphere a little better.

At Leo's suggestion, the three of them moved to a trench closer to the edge of the battlefield, not to better observe the soldiers of the French Empire, but to avoid the poisonous gas smoke.

The poisonous gas smoke in the trench where the three of them are now is very thin. As long as their skin is not directly exposed to the outside, they will not be harmed, and the protection on their bodies will no longer be corroded by the poisonous gas smoke, allowing them to persist until tomorrow.

It was still some time before dark, and the three of them sat across from each other. At Leo's suggestion, they packed their belongings again. Before, because they were in a hurry to escape, the items they collected were stuffed directly into their pockets. In this case

It's nothing at ordinary times, but it may become a fatal factor when someone is running for his life.

To this end, the three of them carefully sorted out their belongings and rearranged them according to Leo's suggestions, making their belongings more organized and making less abnormal noises when walking around.

After packing up, the sun had gradually set in the west and the sky was getting dark. Jason, who was a little bored, wanted to pass the time and asked Leo in a low voice as if he had nothing to say: "Is there no danger for us to stay here?

If those guys advance into the trenches, we will probably be discovered immediately."

Leo closed his eyes slightly, while adjusting his breathing rhythm, cultivating his body and mind, and restoring his strength, he answered Jason's question: "No. It depends on the situation. The French Empire's troops will not be able to dissipate before the poisonous gas smoke in the battlefield area dissipates."

, they won’t go into the trenches.”

"Uh! That's good." After getting the answer, Jason felt a little relieved. Then he simply used his backpack as a pillow, fell down and fell asleep, not worrying whether he could be found from the enemy's defense tonight.

He broke through and escaped, looking completely heartless.

The surrounding atmosphere became quiet again, and apart from the occasional scraping of metal armor coming from outside the trenches, no other sounds could be heard.

After a while, the sky was completely dark. I don’t know if God was taking care of Leo and the others. It was clear that the sky was clear, but at this moment, dark clouds had made up for it, blocking all the stars and moonlight, making everything under the sky change.

Got to be darker.

At this time, the troops of the French Empire who surrounded the battlefield collected a large amount of firewood, made fires according to the distance, and lit them. The fire produced by the fires was almost enough to be able to find the surroundings.

And it connected with the firelight of other fires to form a search isolation zone composed of firelight.

I don't know if it was because he had never been in danger, but Nelson became a lot more courageous. He found a wooden box to put under his feet, quietly put his head out of the trench, and fiddled with the eyes of the mask twice.

, like a telescope, I could see the movements of the French Empire soldiers in the distance.

Nelson's actions were also noticed by Leo, especially the movement of adjusting the eyes on the mask, which aroused his interest. He also tried to feel the edge of the mask's eyes according to the position where Nelson's fingers touched.

Although the touch became a little less obvious through the gloves, he still felt that there seemed to be a deliberately protruding gear on the edge of the eye. He fiddled with the gear and found that the eyes on the mask extended forward and back like a telescope, allowing far-reaching eyesight.

The scene gradually became clearer.

"What a fun thing!" Leo returned his eyes to their original positions and said with approval.

Although this pair of glasses is simply an antique worth mentioning in the Earth Federation, in today's environment, it is really commendable to make the glasses so exquisite.

"This is a medical device specially designed by Locke Mechanical College for the Department of Medicine. It is just an ordinary pair of glasses at ordinary times. You can use it as a magnifying glass during surgery." Nelson retracted into the trench and happened to hear Leo's words of approval.

, so he explained, and then he said in a serious tone: "I just took a look at the soldiers of the French Empire and found that they are not ordinary soldiers."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked confused.

"They are the troops directly under Duke Devin, the eldest son of the French Emperor." Nelson explained, while pointing to a part of his waist and said: "Here is the badge mark of Duke Devin."

Hearing this, Leo recalled the uniforms of those soldiers, and quickly found the badge from the information compiled by the system, and confirmed: "Is it the two-headed deer?"

"Yes." Nelson nodded and added: "If I remember correctly, this is not Duke Devin's territory. Why would his troops come here? And he also used imine poison gas in violation of the mainland agreement. Could he?

Aren’t you afraid of being questioned by the Mainland Congress?”

"These things have nothing to do with us, and it's useless to know them or not." Leo was not very interested in the secrets Nelson said that may be related to the war. He was more concerned about other things, "Doctor, since you

If you can recognize those people at a glance as the troops directly under Duke Devin, then you must know something about them. Let’s talk about their capabilities. The more we know, the less likely it is that accidents will happen later.

.”

"Who do you think I am? I'm just a doctor. How could I possibly know about Duke Devin's army?" Nelson said, smiling self-deprecatingly, and added: "It's just that Duke Devin's direct troops are in France.

It is also one of the best among all the legions in the empire,"

As he spoke, he paused, as if he had something unspeakable to hide, but after thinking about the current situation for a moment, he finally said it, saying: "My classmates in medical school once mentioned that the medical school and Duke Devin had an encounter.

Cooperate to invent a drug for Duke Devin that can stimulate the human body's potential, but in the end it seems to have failed, and only a defective product was produced."

After Leo heard this secret, he couldn't help but think of those sword-armored soldiers patrolling back and forth. He thought that they were wearing heavy armor, carrying a large shield behind them, and holding a two-handed broad sword in their hands. They still looked like they were walking back and forth.

It was so easy that he couldn't help but think of the medicine in Nelson's mouth.

In the Earth Federation, it is common to use drugs to enhance the human body's potential. By taking drugs systematically, an ordinary person can eventually have the same physical fitness as a combat cyborg.

Although with the level of science and technology here, even if the technology tree is not askew, it is impossible to have potential drugs as efficient as those of the Earth Federation, but it is not impossible to create similar drugs.

So, he immediately asked: "Do you know anything about the defective products of that potential drug?"

"I don't know much about it." Nielsen shook his head slightly, and then added: "But I have seen the corpse of an experimenter who failed to use defective products. That corpse...how should I put it? It was like a monster full of muscles.

Same."

Hearing this, Leo couldn't help but stick his head out of the trench, and by the light of the campfire, he looked at the swordsmen patrolling back and forth in the distance. When he saw them waving the two-handed broad swords in their hands like pieces of paper, he already had something in his heart.

Answer.

"It's really hard to deal with!" Leo frowned, thinking that if those sword-armor soldiers really took that kind of medicine, then it would be difficult for his attack to cause fatal damage to such people. In that case, it would be possible

Alert others and put him in danger.

When Nelson sat back on the ground, the mechanical repeating crossbow he casually put aside gave Leo a wake-up call, and he quickly had a plan in his mind. Then he asked Nelson very seriously: "

I remember you just said that you added a poison to the arrows, what is the effect of that poison?"

"It's very strong." Nielsen said quite confidently, but seemed to feel that he said too much, and added: "The drug is very effective only for ordinary people. I have not tested it on people with special circumstances."

.”

"What will happen if this kind of medicinal powder is burned by fire? Will it lose its efficacy?" Leo asked again.

"The efficacy of the medicine will be affected..." Nelson answered quickly, and then he was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have thought of something. He looked at Leo and asked, "Do you want to throw these powders into the fire?"

,Create poisonous smoke?”

Leo nodded and asked, "Can it be useful?"

Nelson thought for a moment, seeming to consider Leo's idea. After a while, he said: "If you simply use this mixed powder, it will be difficult to produce the effect you want, but I can improve the powder and make it pass.

Incineration produces an effect and will not weaken the efficacy of the medicine too much."

Leo showed joy and immediately urged: "Very good, configure it quickly."

At Leo's urging, Nelson immediately took out the medicine suitcase, took out several bottles of medicine powder and a set of balance weights, and carefully mixed the medicines according to the proportioning formula. It didn't take long for him to fill up half a small iron box.

The medicine needed to prepare the poison was also used up at this time.

Leo found a wide-mouthed flask from Nelson's medicine box, poured all the medicine in the iron box into it, and then made a light-shielding tent using a wooden box and thick cloth.

He took a medical alcohol lamp and burned some water in the tent. After the water boiled, he put out the flames.

Then he put a half-meter-long bandage into a wide-mouthed flask filled with poison, poured warm water into it, plugged the mouth of the wide-mouthed flask with a soft stopper, and shook the bottle vigorously to let the contents

The poison quickly dissolved into the water, and the water completely penetrated the bandage in the bottle.

After making all preparations, Leo motioned to Nelson to take a rest now so that he would not have the strength to escape when he broke out later.
Chapter completed!