…
Through the shooting window, Brian could see how the enemy steadily came closer. From the bunkers at the forefront even the first gunfire could be heard.
His defensive position was at the middle of the diamond. Because of this, he had to wait until the enemy passed the purple marks at the side of the road. Having to wait so long before he can fire made him very anxious.
To do something else, he went to the window on the other side, there Brian could look at the defense line further behind. From the artillery positions white smoke was unceasingly rising up, and with it, a thunder-like roar rolled over the battlefield. They are once again the first to become busy, with their 12-pounder they can almost cover the entire battlefield. As long as he listened carefully, he could even hear the screams of the shells as they flew through the air.
“Oh my God, they are running so fast!”
“Look at that fellow, his hand was torn off by a shell, yet he is still running forward.”
“What His Highness said was true, can they still be called human? They are simply the same as demonic beasts.”
Because the First Army was already informed during the pre-battle mobilization, of the enemy having taken the Church’s berserker pills, they didn’t become scared when they saw the enemy’s continued attack even under a hail of bullets; instead they were full of fighting spirit, after all, they were the First Army, who got forged under the flames of demonic beasts.
“Captain, they are coming!” Someone warned.
Hearing the call, Brian quickly returned to his position, took a revolver rifle next to the window and began loading it. Compared to the old weapons, His Highness’ new version had a simple improvement. Now, within a breath he could already fire off five rounds of bullets, then he could just throw the cartridge towards the recruit standing behind him, take the five extra rounds and fire them off, while the recruit would have reloaded his previous cartridge.
However, during the training, His Highness had stressed that only when the enemy had stepped into the range of 100 to 50 meters, were they allowed to use this kind of shooting. While for long-range shooting they had to aim to be as accurate as possible, because the manufacturing the bullets of revolver rifles was very troublesome, everyone’s amount of rounds were limited.
Brian deeply believed that the shells which contained the gunpowder — with their slender front and thick back, and their, and their almost always similar form— absolutely couldn’t have been created by a blacksmith. He knew that such a fine and delicate work had to have come from the hands of a witch.
Usually, after the shooting exercise, they would collect all their cartridge cases and hand them over to Iron Axe. Shooting practice was generally followed with a reloading exercise, during which they would sit as a group in the center of the camp.
To assemble the used cartridges into a new bullet, they had to follow strict operating guidelines. First, they had to push the primer to the bottom, followed by filling it up with gunpowder, then finally inserting the projectile. Due to the exercises, he was reluctant to consume his ammunition carelessly, in case the target was too hard to hit.
The moment the enemy crossed the purple marker, Brian took a deep breath, then finally shouted, “Fire at will!”
The soldier that have been waiting for this order for a very long time, enthusiastically aimed at an easy target and start pulling the trigger. Suddenly, the bunker became flooded with the sound of the gunfire. The first enemy to cross the line was hit by bullets from both sides, which caused blood to splash from his waist, after staggering two steps forward, he fell to the ground. It was obviously that they could suffer through more pain than ordinary people, but in the face of heavy-caliber bullets, this still didn’t matter.
Brian noticed that several people had jumped on the top of the frontmost bunkers, wanting to sneak attack the soldiers who were inside from the back, but they were blocked out by a thick iron gate. Not hesitating, he pulled the trigger, killing off the madmen who were exposing their bodies to him one after the other. The reason why the bunkers were arranged in a diamond formation, was so that that they could help with defending one another, enemies who wanted to bypass the first row and attack from behind would be shot to death by the rearmost bunkers.
“Be careful, they’ve thrown out their spears!” Someone suddenly shouted.
Brian noticed how a dense shadow rose up from the center of the enemy’s army, after passing its apex, they began to fall upon the bunkers that were on both sides of the road.
At such a distance, they have to cover two or three hundred meters! He subconsciously lowered his head into the pit, only to hear the sound of a series of cracking sounds from the top. After this wave of attacks had come to its end, he stood up straight and discovered that not one of those spears had been able to penetrate the bunker. Looking at the bunker in front, he saw that their situation was similar; only a few spears had been able to insert themselves into the wall, like some lonely feathers.
“Even if it’s looks very scary, it is still useless,” everyone began to roaring with laughter.
At this moment, Brain saw one enemy who disregarded all dangers, and threw up several splashes of earth in his forward charge towards their bunker. Then the enemy bent over and threw his spear in a flat curve, and at the very moment the spear left his arm, he was nailed down by an intense hail of bullets.
“Down!” Even before his warning shout could entirely leave his throat, the thrown spear already passed through the shooting window, and pierced the chest of a shooter, the latter issued a stuffy groan and then fell face up, towards the ground.
Chapter 200 Hunters and Prey
“Freckle!” Someone shouted, “He’s injured!”
“Do not move him!” Brian roared, “I’ll go and take a look at his injury, you continue shooting.”
He put his rifle in the hands of the recruit at his side, the one who was responsible for loading, and lowered his waist to approach the injured soldier. The wounded, who still hadn’t lost his consciousness, asked in a trembling voice, “Captain, I… am I going to die?”
The short spear had pierced him at the lower pit of the stomach, it was unclear if it had gone through, however, seeing that his breath still seemed to be flowing freely, the spear must not have punctured his lung. During culture class, His Royal Highness had briefly described the various organs of the human body and which measures were to be taken in the case of an injury. The best solution Brian could think of at the moment, was to remain here and wait until the end of the fight, then allow for Miss Nana to come over and treat him.
“Does it hurt?” Brian asked.
Freckles nodded with difficulty.
“Since you can still feel pain it means you won’t die,” to reassure the Knight, he put his hand on Freckle’s forehead. “You should know about Miss Nana ‘s ability, right?”
“Uhhn,” With difficulty, Freckles was able to show a smile. “During times of peace, everyone… wants to go see her, putting it that way, I… I, I can finally see her, now.”
“That’s right! Therefore you have to persevere.”
When Brian returned to his shooting window, the recruit turned towards him and asked concerned. “Why didn’t you pull the spear out?”