Even the citizens and soldiers in Kingsfort, far away, heard the thunderous roar transmitted from upstream.
Even the Iron Peak County officers and men ambushed behind the river dike smelled the sulfur and gunpowder wafting in, akin to the breath of hell.
In the fortifications on the riverbank, Mason, who had been focusing intently on the Nulan Clock in his hand, desperately praying the delay devices wouldn't fail, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"My heavens! What a blast!" Even Gessa Adonis, seasoned in battle, was astonished by Mason's commotion. "Major, how much gunpowder did you actually use?"
Mason felt somewhat ashamed. "I don't know what effect blasting in water would have; there wasn't time to experiment. Just to be on the safe side, I used a bit extra. If all three delay devices had failed, we would have suffered a great loss."
