3 The Flame Python and English Longbow

The sun was shining brightly.

The large burning orb of the sun in June seemed to have gone mad, scorching the world relentlessly. The air was extremely hot. There was a river amid the wilderness, its water boiling.

Next to the river was a majestic city—Blue Lion City. As the capital of the Blue Lion Kingdom, it was magnificent, like an ancient behemoth lying on the ground. Inside the city, the buildings were scattered and distributed in a radial pattern with the palace as the focal point.

Suddenly, the door of the palace opened, and a swift squadron rushed outside the city, pedestrians on the street hurrying to dodge them.

Soon the squadron left Blue Lion City and embarked on their journey. They passed by the steaming dirt road outside the city, leaving yellow dust on their heels. However, the squadron was oblivious to their surroundings, keeping their formation and heading far away.

An hour later, Richard reached an extremely remote hillside more than 10 kilometers away from the city and jumped off his horse. The squadron behind him also dismounted one after another and spread away, vaguely protecting Richard and a strong man in black.

The strong man in black carried a box in his hands. He was the third steward of the KGB store. Of course, there was a lot more than that behind his secret identity, since he was also the person groomed to be Richard's absolute confidant.

In fact, the KGB and the rest of the shops had all been established and were controlled by Richard, overtly or secretly, and he had a much stronger and far-reaching power than the prince.

The reason for this was that, on the one hand, he had much higher abilities than ordinary princes, they were even beyond this era. On the other hand, he had never felt that being a prince was valuable at all, especially after what had happened a few years ago.

In his opinion, being a prince was more of a disguise and… a hindrance. If possible, he would like to put aside his identity and do what he wanted without any restrictions. For example, studying the world, studying the power of magic that had always been rumored to be real.

Thinking of this, Richard looked to the side.

The wizard from the dungeon was tied to a horse, his face pale from the shaky ride on the horse. After the dungeon's chief guard untied the rope and pulled him down the horse, he could not even stand still.

The chief guard ignored him. After finding out that the wizard was a liar, his fear of him had disappeared, and what was left was nothing but anger. He kicked the wizard, bringing him to Richard, and said with a smile on his face, "Your Highness, look."

Richard ignored the chief guard, looked at the wizard, and asked, "Where did you see the python you were talking about? Show me."

"It was…" the wizard raised his head and glanced into the distance. He took a careful look and finally stretched out his hand. "It was just under that tree. When I passed by, the python suddenly appeared and almost scared me to death. But fortunately, it did not seem to be interested in me and left quickly. That was how my life was saved and I found its molted skin."

Richard nodded and turned to look at the chief guard. The chief guard waved his hand vigorously, and the dozen or so soldiers who had come with him pulled out their weapons one after another, quickly surrounding the area in front of them.

10 meters, 20 meters, 30 meters.

They reached the place the wizard had indicated easily. However, there was not even a rabbit, much less a big python.

The chief guard directed his gaze at the wizard, somewhat unkind. The wizard looked timidly at Richard, in fear that he might think that he was lying. He hurried to explain, "Y- Your Highness, it may be that the python has gone elsewhere."

Richard knelt down, his eyes on the ground. He scraped away the young weeds, revealing a trace that seemed to have been burned by flames. It seemed that a flame python had indeed passed by.

After taking a bit of soil in his nails, Richard brought it to his nose and sniffed. It smelled of phosphorus and something similar to garlic. There was also a uniquely odd smell of sulfur.

Richard stood up and turned to the chief guard to give his commands. "Search this place and pay attention to the ground and the trees. Snakes are poikilotherms. If the metamorphosis hasn't changed its characteristics, given this weather, it is very likely that it's hidden somewhere in the shade. Pay attention to these areas."

"Yes." The chief guard nodded vigorously. Without another word, he quickly conveyed Richard's order to his subordinates, telling the soldiers to disperse and continue the search in the area in front.

About 10 minutes later, they returned with news. A python had been found in a dense patch of grass more than 200 meters ahead, but they weren't sure if it was the python they were looking for.

Without any hesitation, Richard rushed to a spot several meters away from the python, but he was stopped by the chief guard.

"Your Highness, you have to be careful. Pythons are very dangerous," the chief guard said. "Should I ask someone to test if it will catch fire?"

Richard shook his head and said without a trace of emotion on his face, "No need."

As he spoke, Richard looked at the patch of grass tens of meters away. A brown piebald python was lying there, its eyes closed as if it was taking a nap. Under the light, the python's surroundings were slightly distorted.

Richard knew that it was the refraction of light when passing through a different media.

There was nothing in the atmosphere around the python. There was only one explanation for the refraction of light: the surrounding temperature was very high, much higher than the average air temperature. Taking into account that the weeds around him weren't charred, the temperature could not exceed their combustion point of 200 °C. It was likely to be between tens degrees, to slightly more than 100 °C.

An average python would not be capable of this. The answer was obvious.

Richard said to the chief guard, "Tell your people to get ready. There is no need to test it, catch it right away. First, test the defenses of our target with bows and arrows. It is best to catch it alive, preferably after seriously injuring it. If it doesn't work… kill it before catching it."

"Yes." The chief guard nodded. He quickly left Richard's side and began giving his commands, shouting as he arranged for several soldiers with the best shooting skills to pick up their bows and arrows.

To Richard, the bows and arrows used by the soldiers resembled the medieval English longbow. These bows and arrows were generally about 1.5 meters long, and some were up to two meters long. The back of the bow was made with a whole piece of bent wood, yew, which was strong and elastic. The bowstring was made from lamb intestines or cattle tendons. This set gave the arrow great power and a longer range due to the exceptionally long back of the bow. It was far more powerful than an ordinary modern set, and the arrow could reach a target at a 350 meter distance.

Usually, it could penetrate a leather armor at a distance between 200 meters to 250 meters. Within 200 meters, it could penetrate a chain mail. It could penetrate a plate armor within 100 meters. Within 50 meters, apart from shields and special armors, there was nothing that could resist its shots, making it practically invincible.

At that moment, the distance between the soldiers and the python was about 50 meters.

The four soldiers were all veterans, and because of years of archery training, it was obvious that one of their arms was longer than the other. This was a sign of abundant experience. They picked up their bows, took out the bundle of 24 arrows from the quiver behind them, untied them, and stuck them directly on the ground in front of them. Each arrow was nearly one meter long. When inserted into the ground, they could be easily plucked out without the need to bend down. This was so that they could shoot the arrows continuously.

The four soldiers were ready. They looked at each other and took a deep breath. Each grabbed an arrow, placed it on the longbow and aimed.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Four arrows shot out like meteors, shooting at where the python was. However, none of them hit the target, the nearest arrow had landed more than 10 centimeters away from the python. After all, the soldiers were not marksmen with great precision. They usually relied on consecutive shootings to ensure they hit the target on the battlefield.

Richard was not angry, he just continued watching.

The four soldiers, who had already failed once, quickly grabbed more of the arrows before them and placed them on their longbows. This time they took a little longer to aim, and then there were four shooting sounds. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

The python, which had been alerted, had been about to react when four arrows fell, two of which hit it directly. One arrow shot the tail, while the other pierced the body directly, and dark red blood flowed out quickly.

Hiss.

The python hissed loudly. It seemed to be angry, and it twisted violently, breaking the arrows easily. Opening its mouth, the snake spit out sparks and glided toward the crowd. The atmosphere instantly became tense, and several soldiers almost retreated subconsciously.

The person who was most excited at this moment was not Richard, nor the chief guard, but the wizard.

The wizard almost jumped up, grabbing the chief guard, and said repeatedly, "There it is! There it is! I am telling the truth. There are really pythons that can catch fire here. His Highness has promised me, so you can't kill me."

The chief guard was tense, he did not have the time for him. With a wave of his hand, he pushed the wizard to the ground, drew out his long sword, calming the panicking soldiers with his presence, and shouted, "What are you afraid of? Take your bow and arrow and continue shooting. The rest of the soldiers, prepare nets to catch it alive."

"Yes," the soldiers responded quickly and started working.