"Do you know where there are more loose stones?" Anser looked into the distance and did spot several undulating hills.
"The nearest are Firestone Hill to the northeast and Gravel Slope to the east. The stones on Firestone Hill are relatively large and hard to quarry. Gravel Slope is full of small stones…" Iris pointed out both locations to him one by one.
Anser observed through a telescope and decided to prepare both types of stones.
Affected by factors such as line of sight, wind, and the shape of the stones, throwing stones from several hundred meters up made it difficult to aim precisely; it could only achieve area coverage and relied heavily on luck.
Large stones were heavy and highly destructive, but their attack density was too low.
The main striking force would still be small stones—scattered densely, covering a wide area. Pebbles the size of marbles could be lethal, and stones the size of a fist could dent and deform plate armor, with astonishing killing power.
In his previous life, Anser had seen an experiment on objects dropped from height: an egg falling from about the eighteenth floor—roughly fifty meters—could generate enough impact to fracture a skull, causing cranial injury or even death.
Toril's gravity was similar to Earth's; replacing the egg with a stone would naturally result in far greater lethality.
"Is there any oil?" he asked Iris.
Iris thought for a moment. "The castle should have pine oil, tallow, whale oil, vegetable oil, candles, and alchemical fire glue."
"These are too expensive. Is there the kind of foul lamp oil used by ordinary households?"
"There shouldn't be much of that. It's toxic."
Anser said helplessly, "I'll have the Union prepare some."
The foul lamp oil he referred to was actually coal tar, also called black oil or pitch locally. It was originally obtained through the dry distillation of wood and could be used as fuel, waterproofing, anticorrosion coating, and even for disinfecting wounds.
Later, an alchemist from Waterdeep learned to produce coal tar from bituminous coal and opened a factory for large-scale production, greatly reducing costs.
However, although coal tar was not expensive, its smell was extremely unpleasant and its fumes were toxic, so only poor households would use it as lamp oil.
Anser summoned Finn and Grey Eagle through teleportation, letting them coordinate with Iris to monitor the movements of the Amn forces.
He himself flew from high altitude to the Durlag Union, arranged for Graham to procure large quantities of tar, and then hurried to Firestone Hill, hiding on the far side of the mountain and beginning to collect stones.
The sky was clear today, and the Amn forces could see his movements, but they showed no special reaction and continued setting up camp.
Anser believed they would not be able to guess his plan for the time being; after all, if the number of thrown stones was insufficient, it indeed would not pose much threat.
He sped up his actions to launch the operation as soon as possible—delay could bring unforeseen changes.
The stones of Firestone Hill were black with a reddish hue and had a hard texture, making them indeed difficult to quarry. However, he had the Mold Earth cantrip, so it was not too strenuous.
Large stones could be directly stored in Holrewen, while stones with a diameter under one foot were bundled into large canvas sacks and then stored.
Because items stored in an extradimensional space needed to be marked—with a maximum of 200 marks—small stones were too scattered; without bundling, they would be inconvenient to retrieve.
After extracting dozens of sacks of stones, he flew to Gravel Slope. The stones here required no quarrying at all—everything was loose gravel, and stones the size of a human head were rare.
He simply notified Bratt to bring a group of people to help collect them, packing them into large hemp sacks or canvas bundles.
Dozens of people worked for three hours, packing over three hundred sacks of gravel. Each sack weighed anywhere from one to three hundred kilograms, all small fragments, mostly between one to ten centimeters in diameter.
Once the packing materials were used up and the dragonhide pouch was full, he sent Bratt and the others back, then hurried to the Union outpost to collect the tar.
Graham, acting in the name of the Union, purchased two hundred barrels, each weighing about 23 kilograms, for a total cost of over four hundred gold coins. The price was somewhat high, but with sea routes cut off, it was already fortunate that anyone was willing to sell.
Anser instructed Graham to continue purchasing, stored the tar into Holrewen, and hurried back to Fort Jacqueline.
Iris had not left the city wall. Seeing him return, she immediately approached. "How much did you prepare?"
"Nearly four hundred sacks of stones—large and small. As for quantity… at least tens of thousands," Anser estimated. "And two hundred barrels of tar."
"You're fast," Iris said in surprise. "When do we act?"
"Immediately!" Anser opened his pocket watch—it was already past five in the afternoon.
The Amn camps had all been set up—six in total—distributed around the base of the mountain. They had even erected simple wooden gates, with squads of soldiers patrolling back and forth.
Smoke rose from within the camp—they were cooking.
At this time, the enemy was gathered together. The effect of a stone bombardment would be second only to nighttime.
Moreover, he worried that the Amn forces might attempt something at night, so he decided to strike first—broad daylight, openly and directly.
"Let's go." Iris gestured for him to sit on the flying carpet.
Anser climbed on. Wind howled past his ears as the two rapidly ascended, soon reaching a height of four to five hundred meters.
"How should I cooperate?" Iris hovered above one of the camps, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
"First, we fix our position." Anser took out several stones of varying sizes and casually threw them down, watching them plummet and finally strike the wilderness soil.
Iris immediately understood, adjusting the flying carpet's position.
"The first wave is crucial. If I scatter gravel, you move the carpet slowly to cover the entire camp as much as possible. If I throw barrels of oil or stone bundles soaked in tar, you use flaming arrows to detonate and disperse them…" Anser instructed.
"Understood." Iris's expression turned serious.
Anser stood up and swung his teleportation staff, bringing out a large sack of gravel. The carpet sank slightly, then stabilized again.
Stones were dense; over two hundred kilograms of gravel formed only a small bundle, just over half a meter in diameter.
His hands transformed into dragon claws. With one claw, he tore open the thick canvas, then grabbed one side and flipped and flung it, dumping the entire sack of stones in one second.
All the while, the carpet was moving.
Anser immediately summoned a barrel of tar and hurled it down, chasing after the falling stones.
Whoosh—
A flaming arrow caught up to the barrel and detonated it instantly. Black oil ignited in an explosion, like falling heavenly fire, wrapping flaming fragments of stone as they plunged toward the camp below.
Due to the height, the explosive ignition, and the force of the throw, the stones spread out more the closer they got to the ground.
Anser did not pay attention to that. He rapidly threw down barrel after barrel of tar and sack after sack of stones, so fast that Iris's flaming arrows could not keep up. He quickly assisted with a few bursts of Sorcery Burst, also helping to scatter the stones further.
Meanwhile, the camp below had already descended into chaos. Dozens of barrels of oil turned into falling heavenly fire—wherever they landed, flames erupted and would not go out. Tents, soldiers, gates, supply carts…
Half the camp was shrouded in smoke and fire. Acrid black smoke drifted with the wind, obstructing vision and choking people until they could not open their eyes.
The soldiers who ran out still had to face falling stones from the sky. By the time they heard the whistling sound, it was already too late to dodge. Running was useless; not running seemed no better. Life or death depended entirely on luck.
[Target killed, gained 7 experience points]
[Target killed, gained 12 experience points]
A series of combat notifications flashed through Anser's mind, intermittent yet unceasing.
The soldiers were all trained, generally stronger than civilians, and most yielded over ten experience points. However, since this was cooperative combat, when they were burned or crushed to death, he could only obtain a portion of the experience.
The soldiers in the camp scattered and fled. Anser felt that continuing to throw would be a waste of resources. He waved his hand. "Let's go. Next camp."
"Good effect." A smile hung on Iris's lips as she drove the flying carpet straight toward the neighboring camp.
In truth, the hit rate of the falling stones was very low, and fewer soldiers were burned to death than expected. But the coverage was wide, destroying large amounts of supplies; the chaos created and the blow to morale were far more important.
Next, the two repeated the same tactic, flying over and throwing wildly, giving the Amn forces no time to react.
However, before they finished attacking the fourth camp, their stones and tar were almost completely depleted. Anser was also drenched in sweat, his waist sore and his arms weak.
This work was no easy task!
But the results were brilliant. Several camps were filled with thick smoke, corpses lay everywhere, many were wounded, and no one was treating them.
All the soldiers had fled into the wilderness, hiding in corners with shields over their heads, terrified and uneasy.
For most of them, it was the first time experiencing an aerial strike—and a deep sense of helplessness took root in their hearts.
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