If flintlock guns using black powder were mostly limited to close combat, then rifled muskets extended the effective range to within 300 meters.
And if the target was a slow-moving murloc or a massive, straight-charging arm monster, then with volley fire and proper calibration, hits could be achieved even at five to six hundred meters.
But machine guns pushed the range beyond human visual limits—into the realm of beyond-visual-range shooting.
The tripod was firmly planted into the ground. With the support set up, the recoil of the heavy machine gun was significantly reduced, allowing bullets to be precisely scattered over a designated area.
Hughes’ hand-cranked Gatling gun wasn’t particularly accurate, but with Chloe’s supernatural ability providing real-time bullet impact feedback—plus the arm monsters crowding together along the shoreline—he was confident that he could inflict massive casualties.
At this moment, aiming was no longer important. The only limit to his killing range was the bullets’ reach, and in this regard, the bullets far outmatched directly loaded gunpowder.
Besides the amount of gunpowder, the most critical factor affecting a firearm’s range was the airtightness of the barrel.
The reason Minié balls significantly improved a rifle’s range was that the lead projectile could partially engage with the rifling, creating a better seal. More of the explosive gas from the gunpowder was used to propel the bullet, whereas in direct-loading firearms, gas utilization efficiency was only about 60%.
But with the brass cartridges used in the Gatling gun, this efficiency reached as high as 90% to 95%. The same amount of gunpowder resulted in a higher muzzle velocity, greater power, and a longer range.
Hughes called Nini over. Many parts of this gun had been manufactured with her help, and she was the only one who had ever witnessed it firing.
Nini skillfully loaded the bullets and began turning the crank handle.
Hughes gripped the heavy machine gun tightly, took a deep breath, and fired!
"Too close, at least five hundred meters off."
"Too far, the bullets are landing in the sea."
Alexei was somewhat surprised as he watched the slowly rotating barrel. So, this kind of gun didn’t fire all its bullets at once but rather one shot at a time?
What was the point of that?
The rate of fire was certainly much faster than that of a rifled musket, but it still required at least three people: one for loading, one for aiming, and one for cranking.
Hmm, perhaps the gunner could handle both aiming and cranking, freeing up one person… but even then, it didn’t seem very practical.
A weapon this heavy, carried over with great effort, only increased firepower density by about five men—it hardly seemed worth it. But if its range could be extended beyond a thousand meters, that would be another story.
Maybe… this machine gun wasn’t so bad after all?
After firing over a dozen rounds, Hughes’ shots gradually became more accurate. The first bullet finally landed among the arm monsters gathered on the beach.
Nini suddenly sped up the cranking motion.
The gunfire, which had previously been a series of individual shots, merged into a continuous stream. Like raindrops, bullets flew toward the distant shoreline, stirring up a spray of red mist.
Severed limbs instantly filled the air.
If rifled musket bullets drilled holes into flesh, then heavy machine gun rounds simply cleared entire sections with brute force.
Flesh, grass, and sand were all indistinguishable from one another. Murlocs who instinctively sought cover were shredded along with their hiding spots.
"Move left, elevate a little! Keep elevating by two more grid points!"
Chloe’s voice grew excited.
With the aid of her supernatural ability, she observed the battlefield from an aerial perspective.
The arm monsters, piled together, became perfect targets for the machine gun’s sweeping fire.
Under her direction, the bullets seemed to extend from her very will—wherever she looked, concentrated firepower followed.
Whether it was an arm monster or a murloc, there was no difference.
Flesh was as fragile as grass before the hail of bullets.
An arm monster attempted to charge forward, only to be split cleanly in two by the bullet stream.
A murloc stood up against the barrage, only to suddenly lose half its height.
Blood and flesh mixed together.
A raised arm lost its support and fell.
A murloc, confused, looked down at the gaping, washbasin-sized hole in its chest—only for several more to appear a moment later.
The gathered monsters turned into a beehive, then into an indistinguishable mass of gore.
Under the machine gun’s barrage, the beach became a scene straight from hell.
Within mere minutes, the machine gun’s roar ceased.
Chloe stared at the distant shoreline and couldn’t help swallowing hard.
This was a battle she had commanded.
All she had to do was give directions—left, right.
She hadn’t even moved from her spot.
And in just a short moment…
Alexei stood frozen in place, dumbfounded.
The moment the gunfire became a continuous roar, his mind went blank.
The overwhelming noise shattered his thoughts.
The few remaining threads of rationality screamed within him, but he could no longer process them.
Only now, as silence returned, did he finally grasp what had happened.
This single Gatling machine gun—just one—was more powerful than the entire Holy Guard’s firepower combined.
The barrels of the Gatling gun still emitted wisps of smoke, glowing hot from continuous fire.
"Why did we stop?" Nini asked, puzzled.
"The arm monsters are all dead," Chloe licked her lips, her throat dry. "All fifty-plus of them… completely wiped out."
The crowd fell silent.
The monsters had been gathered on the shoreline, a full fifteen hundred meters away.
At that distance, normal human eyesight could barely make out what had happened.
Fifty arm monsters—if two squads of Banshees fought with blades, it would take them a long time to kill them all.
But a single Gatling gun had done it in mere minutes.
And Hughes had only sprayed bullets in the beginning—afterward, he had mainly followed Chloe’s precise commands for short bursts, delivering devastating indirect fire at fifteen hundred meters with pinpoint accuracy.
The arm monsters were two to three stories tall, making them ideal targets for Chloe’s coordination.
If the targets had been murlocs instead, the inaccuracy of the hand-cranked Gatling might not have allowed such thorough annihilation.
Alexei wiped his sweaty forehead with a trembling hand.
Suddenly, he understood why Hughes had personally taken charge.
Steam rifles were also powerful weapons, yet Alexei had never been too concerned about them.
That was because ordinary humans couldn’t use them easily—they were weapons meant for supernatural beings.
But the Gatling machine gun was different.
Hughes was a mere mortal.
If he could use it, then so could the Holy Guard.
Even without Chloe’s supernatural oversight, even if the gun was only fixed in place firing at predetermined positions, it would still completely change the battlefield.
Staring at the heavy machine gun displayed before the crowd, Alexei’s fingers trembled uncontrollably.
For the first time in history, humanity could stand and face supernatural monsters head-on.