Release That Witch

Levin stared at Lehmann Howes, who had fallen from the horse, and Lehmann Howes's head had completely exploded, revealing a red and white sticky paste. His broken helmet fell to the side, with a big hole on the top. It seemed that the helmet did not have any protective function.     

"Attack! Everyone attack!" Levin's voice followed.     

No, it was not right! Levin did not say anything at all. He covered his mouth and looked back to see the militia, who had quickly swallowed the pills and began to run, as if there were a wall of people coming towards him.     

It was the witch. He realized that it was the witch who imitated his voice. "Don't charge. Stop!" he exclaimed.     

However, his voice was like a tiny splash among the turbulent crowd. After hearing his command, some people stopped, but more people were still charging forward.     

"Quick! Charge forward! Break the enemy's line from the center, and then the town is yours!" Not just his voice, but the voice of Duane and the other knights rose together and their voices drowned out all other noise, just like a shout in the ear.     

There were also shouts bursting from the team as if they were in line with the command. Everyone was shouting "Plunder"! Levin did not know who started the shout, but soon the shout rang through the team. The situation had gotten completely out of control—no matter how Levin shouted, it was completely drowned out in the excited roars of all the people. He needed to take full control of the horse in order not to be swept away by the crowd, as the militia had lost their senses and rushed toward the central road.     

No, no, they were not rational at all, especially under someone's guidance. They would enter a state of extreme excitement after taking the pills, and any killing would stimulate them to be irrational. At first, the militia avoided Lehmann on the ground, but later they trampled on his body directly. Levin wanted to find Duane and the other people, but he found that they had been wiped away by the crowd. Finally, he had no choice but to follow in the direction of the team, and gradually leaned to the side of the forest. If his horse was suddenly hit, it was more likely to knock down the militia who had eaten pills, and then it would be hard to get up again.     

Departing from the team, Levin looked around. He wanted to find the witch who had created the chaos and tear her to pieces. In his opinion, this was definitely the conspiracy of the witch!     

Fifteen hundred people who had eaten the pills rushed towards the town's defense line. It was a fatal assault for the prince—even if the other side had a large number of new weapons, they could not withstand so many people, so the end result would be no better. If both sides were in disadvantageous circumstances, the witch would be happy. Therefore, she caused trouble in secret, which induced the army to advance without authorization.     

"The witch who killed Lehmann isn't the witch who made this chaos." He looked at the few militiamen beside him. Standing in front of the team, they had witnessed Lehmann fall down, and also heard his command to stop. But compared with the huge army, the militiamen nearby were less than 30 men. "One has the ability to hide his appearance; one has the ability to imitate sound. A witch can't have both of these abilities. Find the latter one! I want to tear her throat out!"     

...     

Brian could see from the shooting window that the enemies were approaching closer. Gunfire had arisen in the front bunker.     

His offensive position was located in the middle of the diamond, and he could not shoot until the enemy went through the purple signs on the roadside. This waiting made him anxious.     

Brian went to the window on the other side and looked back. The artillery was jumping with continuous white smoke and a loud sound like thunder rolling over. They were the first to be very busy and the range of fire for the 12-pound cannon covered almost the entire battlefield. Listening carefully, people could even hear the shells across the air.     

"Oh, God, they're running so fast!"     

"Look at that guy. His hand has been cut off by the shell, but he's still running forward."     

"His Highness was right. That guy isn't a human but is the same as a demonic beast."     

During their pre-war mobilization, the First Army had been informed that the enemies were all maniacs who had madness pills from the church, so the battle against the hail of bullets did not intimidate the crowd and they were full of fighting spirits. After all, the First Army grew up fighting against demonic beasts.     

"Captain, they're coming!" Someone warned.     

Brian quickly returned to his position and put the rifle out of the window. Compared to flintlocks, which needed to be loaded every time, the new weapons issued by His Highness had a qualitative improvement. He could shoot five bullets in one breath, throw the nest to the recruits who were following, and then finish the spare five bullets. By then, the recruits should have already loaded the bullets.     

However, His Highness had stressed in training that only when the enemies approached 50 to 100 meters could they use this method to suppress the fire. They should increase the accuracy of long-range shooting as much as they could, because the bullets of the rifles were very difficult to make and there was a limited rationing for everyone.     

Brian believed that, and almost every shell was the same shape, thin in the front and wide in the rear. The blacksmiths could never make such an ingenious thing, so he thought it must be made by the witch. Usually, everyone collected the bullet shells and handed them over to Iron Axe. But after the shooting training, there was a re-installation practice. A group of people sat around the camp and, according to operational norms, assembled the primer, gunpowder, and warheads into the distribution of the shell that was, in turn, assembled into a new bullet. So he was also reluctant to waste his ammunition casually on targets which were difficult to hit.     

When the enemies crossed the purple signs, Brian took a deep breath and shouted, "Shoot freely!"     

The soldiers had waited for this command for a long time, so they could not wait to aim at a good target and pull the trigger, and the bunker was flooded with the sound of gunfire. The first enemy coming across the firing line was struck by the bullets from both sides, and with blood emerging from his waist, he fell to the ground after staggering a little. Obviously, they could suffer more than ordinary people. But when they were facing large-caliber bullets, they had no hope.     

Brian noticed that several people had jumped to the top of the front bunker, trying to attack the soldiers from behind. But there was a thick, iron gate blocking them. He did not hesitate to turn the muzzle to kill the exposed fanatics. The reason why the bunker was arranged as a diamond was to cover each other, and enemies who attempted to bypass it would be strangled by the fire from the rear bunkers.     

"Look out, they're throwing the spears!" someone shouted suddenly.     

Brian saw dense shadows coming from the enemy forces, fleeing out of the air. The shadows crossed the highest point in the air, and then came towards the bunkers on both sides.     

The distance was two or three hundred meters away! He subconsciously drew his head down close to the pit, only to hear a series of crackling sounds overhead. After that wave of attack, he stood upright and found that no spear had been thrown into the fort. The situation in the front bunker was similar, with only a few short spears plugged into the wall, like solitary feathers.     

"It looked scary, but it didn't really work," everyone said, laughing.     

At that moment, Brian saw an enemy approaching the bunker, with a series of sputtering dust streaks flying everywhere. The enemy bent over and threw the spear out of his hand. The moment that the weapon was released from his hand, he was knocked down by a shower of bullets.     

"Get down!" Brian warned them, but the spear happened to pass through the shooting window into the chest of a shooter, who issued a muffled sound and fell back to the ground.