"Alan Covington." The call for Covington came.Covington nodded and picked up his compound bow.
The amba.s.sadors stopped communicating at this and looked to the field.
Covington walked up to the shooting line and glanced over at a point in the distance, where the cantaloupe melon was. He pressed forward slightly, then brought up the compound bow and nocked his arrow.
The biggest advantage of compound bows over recurve bows was the difference in draw weights. Compound bows had higher draw weights and a higher draw weight could increase the power behind a shot allowing for a flatter arrow trajectory and less flight deviation.
Covington drew back his bowstring, adjusted his stance and then began to aim.
Tang Yan noticed that Covington wasn"t even straining to see and was slightly surprised.
It seemed Covington had exceptional eyesight even for an archer.
Covington, holding his breath, finished aiming and fired.
Tw.a.n.g!
The arrow flew a slight arc in the air and under the watch of everyone"s gaze, it flew straight towards the cantaloupe in the distance.
Whoos.h.!.+
The arrow hadn"t even hit yet, but Earl Louis was already clapping impatiently.
Puff!
Along with the sound of the shot, the arrow pierced the cantaloupe and was firmly fixed in it.
"Wonderful shot!" Prince William couldn"t help exclaiming.
The amba.s.sadors also began to applaud.
There was a huge smile plastered all over Campbell"s face. Covington was an archery genius he had accidentally discovered. He had been secretly supporting his cultivation and training, just to find an opportunity to introduce him to Prince William. This bond would further strengthen the relations.h.i.+p between him and the prince.
After his shot, Covington felt a burst of excitement but Campbell had privately told him that he had to show humility in front of the prince, so he kept his emotions in check and returned to his original position.
Sure enough, his move attracted the favor of Prince William. The prince nodded with satisfaction, whilst speaking to Campbell: "You said you discovered him in a small village?"
"Yes, Earl Louis and I were there for an event and discovered him by accident." Campbell nodded.
"Very good, very good." Prince William nodded, then looked to Tang Yan.
Campbell also looked over to Tang Yan.
He knew the strength of Tang Yan, he was an amazing archer, but he was a compet.i.tive archer, specifically disciplined at 70 meters whereas Covington was born and bred on freestyle archery and performing such tricks.
He was full of scepticism on whether Tang Yan could pull off the shot, which was more than double his usual standard.
Not that he was hoping Tang Yan could make it, he wanted Tang Yan to get close but ultimately miss the shot. Further highlighting the impressiveness of Covington"s shot.
This was the main reason why he had asked the prince to invite Tang Yan, he needed someone to act as a stepping stone for this occasion and a clear marker for Covington"s skill. Initially he already had another archer lined up but then he heard Tang Yan was in the UK, so he switched the invitation last minute.
"Tang Yan!"
As Covington stepped back, Tang Yan was called up for his shot.
Hearing the call, Tang Yan walked up with his recurve bow.
The previous cantaloupe had just been taken up with the arrow still buried in it to Prince William.
Tang Yan looked up at the new cantaloupe that had just been placed 150 meters away.
The size of the cantaloupe was almost the same as the previous one, so it seemed the people in charge didn"t mess around in this regard.
Tang Yan adjusted the draw weight of the recurve bow to its maximum point, and then pulled an arrow from the arrow quiver.
150 meters was still within the realm of possibility but compet.i.tively it was a distance that was nonexistent. The farthest in a compet.i.tive game you could get was 90 metres.
But a 150 meter shot, with a recurve bow, let alone a melon, even if it was a hippo that put its head there, it would still be difficult to guarantee a clean shot.
The reason Covington could pull it off was because in addition to excellent talent, he had been practising such a shot for years building up muscle memory.
However seeing Covington"s shot, Tang Yan was filled with excitement and expectation.
He was curious to see if he could pull off the shot, he felt with 80% of Li Guang"s abilities it could be done.
He nocked the arrow and drew back the bowstring and after aiming at the distant melon, he adjusted up the recurve bow to almost sixty degrees to the horizon.
At this angle, the arrow from his shot would just shoot straight up into the sky.
Seeing his actions, Campbell held a slight look of confusion.
Was Tang Yan giving up?
At this moment Prince William"s eyes flashed a strange look.
Because of the distance, he couldn"t distinguish between the bows being used by the two, but seeing Tang Yan"s posture, he seemed to understand something.
He turned to look at Campbell and found that there was a slight nervousness in the latter"s eyes.
Tang Yan took a deep breath after completing his aiming and drew the bowstring back to its fullest.
Holding his breath and stabilizing his aim, he fired.
Tw.a.n.g!
Swoos.h.!.+
With a burst of air, the arrow flew out into the air at an angle.
Tang Yan still maintained his posture after firing the arrow. He waited for the arrow to fly out more than ten meters before he withdrew his bow.
On the sidelines, Prince William, the n.o.bles and the amba.s.sadors all looked up at the arrow gliding in mid-air.
Even if they didn"t know much about archery, anyone could tell that Tang Yan"s shot wasn"t the same as Covington"s.
In fact, Covington was also intently watching the arrow, with doubt at first, followed by curiosity before settling on worry.
Tang Yan"s arrow, at the end of its parabola, had a high probability of hitting the cantaloupe.
After reaching its highest point, the arrow fell obliquely.
As the alt.i.tude decreased, its speed became faster and faster.
When the arrow was only a dozen meters away from the end point, even Prince William could predict the outcome of the arrow.
He stood upright with excitement.
Campbell also stood upright, but his expression was different from Prince William"s.
Earl Louis was also shocked. He suddenly felt that Duke Campbell seemed to have kicked an iron plate this time round.