"Fire!!"
Webber's hoarse command, nearly torn apart yet brimming with boundless killing intent, was like a high-voltage current. In an instant, it surged through the taut nerves of every soldier in the company, entered Peter's eardrums, and struck straight into his mind, already filled with fury and resolve.
Almost instinctively, the breath Peter had been holding burst free at that moment. The finger clenched around the trigger pulled back violently with every ounce of strength in his body!
"Click!"
The hammer fell. Flint and steel struck amid high-speed friction, bursting into a clearly visible spray of orange-yellow sparks! The sparks landed precisely in the open priming pan, and with a hiss, the priming powder ignited instantly!
The next instant—
"Boom—!!!"
Peter felt an enormous, violent recoil slam into both hands gripping the gun and the hollow of his shoulder braced against the stock! The firearm jerked sharply backward as though struck by a massive hammer! At the same time, the muzzle of the Flintlock Rifle spewed a blazing tongue of fire several feet long, interwoven in orange-red and searing white, along with a great billow of dense, choking white gun smoke!
This was not an isolated occurrence.
At the very instant Webber's command was issued, the first two ranks of more than a thousand soldiers across the entire Carnford front moved as though controlled by one single will, making exactly the same motion!
"Boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom—!!!"
If the Sauron Army's volley just now had been the scattered popping of beans bursting in a pan, then Carnford's volley at this moment was an unbroken peal of thunder that seemed ready to rip heaven and earth apart!
Centered on the positions of each company commander, clusters of blazing muzzle flashes bloomed like flowers of death opening all at once, with blood-red stamens and