Release that Witch

Charms felt the world spin as his ears filled with the sound of metal twisting, the whistling of steam, and Hank’s screams entered his ears.

The moment felt arduously long, and when the carriage finally stopped, he found his body lying on a window pane.

The fortunate thing was that his four limbs were still working. He flipped over, lifted his head, and climbed up without any hindrance, which meant that he was basically fine. It was the best news after experiencing a derailment incident, albeit a temporary one.

“Hey, pal, are you ok?” He endured the smoke and steam while groping his way blindly to Hank.

“Uhm… I should be fine.” Hank groaned. “Heavens, what happened?”

“The demonic beasts broke the rail; we need to leave quickly.” Charms patted Hank on the shoulder. “I don’t know what city you’re from, but remember this. Heavens will not protect you in Neverwinter, the only ones capable of protecting you is the King and this flintlock. Now follow me.”

Charms climbed out of the window above him and saw the completely derailed and overturned train, the carriages laid on the ground in disorder, forming a crooked line. But due to the reduction in speed before going off the rails, the carriages were not badly damaged and maintained their original shapes. Many more survivors took the initiative to open the doors and windows as they attempted to climb out through the holes.

Right at that moment, Charms heard a clear gunshot.

His heart thumped as he turned to Hank and shouted,” Listen, you’re going to help everyone get out of this situation safely, then bring all of them to run west!”

Without the train, it was too risky to attempt running towards Station No. 1. But they were able to see the outline of the Misty Forest—so long as they ran in and call for Ms. Leaf, Charms felt that the people had a higher chance of escaping the pursuit of the demonic beasts.

“I-I got it…”

Upon seeing his nod, Charms sprinted above the carriages.

He had to find Dusk.

When he arrived at the last carriage, Charms discovered a few militiamen fighting against a few wolf-type monsters. Although the militia had managed to kill a few of them, they continued their attempts to climb up the carriages relentlessly.

He undid the safety and fired at the wolves from a distance of less than ten meters. Although it was his first time pulling the trigger against the enemy, he quickly found the feelings he had during training, and quickly took care off the rest in no time.

Even before he could catch a breath and ask about the witches, the ground started trembling! The empty bullet shells slid down the carriage and produced clanking sounds.

At the peak of the tremors, a gigantic worm suddenly erupted out of the ground and opened its bloodied mouth before them!

“Holy shit, what is that thing?” The militiamen cried out in alarm as they pulled on their triggers, instantly producing blood splatters across the body of the monstrous worm. But compared to its size, the wounds inflicted by the bullets were negligible.

The epidermis of the worm started to swell, so much that Charms was able to see the throbbing green arteries beneath the surface. After releasing a disgusting sound of squirming, demonic beasts covered in mucus were spat out.

Charms nearly couldn’t believe his eyes. There are actually such weird monsters among the demonic beasts?

But he did not have the luxury of remaining in shock; the new demonic beasts that had appeared were combined hybrids. Charms noticed that if they were allowed to separate, the humans were bound to fall.

“Open fire, open fire!” He fired at the enemies while shouting to the others.

His words awoken the militiamen who immediately used the train carriage as cover while unleashing their bullets at the horde of demonic beasts.

In a split second, the crowd of demonic beasts were riddled with bullets, but the gigantic worm did not shrink even after spitting out the demonic beasts. Instead, they continued swelling until a pair of sharp tusks stabbed out from the inside, lacerating the worm’s large mouth as the final hybrid tore out amid blood!

The moment Charms laid his eyes on the thing, his heart almost froze.

It was the monster he had heard about from his father—the thick tusks, four legs and two pairs of arms indicated that it was the rumored ‘Fearful Beast of Hell,’ the most difficult hybrid faced by humans. It had only appeared a few times before, but it was known that ordinary firearms were incapable of stopping it!

After ripping apart the worm’s mouth, the Fearful Beast of hell raised its sharp blades and charged towards the carriage!

Charms subconsciously jumped to the ground. Almost at the same time, the enemy collided onto the carriage with an impact that actually caused the heavy carriage to slide. Two unfortunate militiamen who were unable to avoid in time were flung to the ground and crushed beneath the sliding carriage, instantly turning into indistinct mush even before they could scream in pain.

The fearful beast’s tusks got stuck within the metal exterior and gave the humans the opportunity to fire. But aside from making the former even more irritable, the bullets were useless.

Suddenly, a slender figure rushed into the battlefield. She was clearly a human girl, causing everyone to raise their muzzles.

“It’s dangerous, get away!”

Charms immediately recognized the other party and blurted out immediately, “Balshan!”

Balshan ignored their warnings and performed a leap and rolled directly to the belly of the monster. This stunned Charms for any slight mistake would result her in being trampled by the monster.

Balshan seemed to be aware of it; she followed along the monster’s struggling feet and extended her hand to grab the other party. The thick fur quickly decayed at a speed visible to the naked eye, causing the Fearful Beast of Hell to unleash a terrorizing wail!

As though having received a command, the other demonic beasts dropped everything they were doing and rushed towards the gigantic monster, targeting the witch beneath it. The situation immediately became critical—if either the wolf monsters or avian monsters got close to Balshan, she was bound to be powerless towards them. Furthermore, the close proximity prevented the humans from firing their weapons due to the high risk of stray bullets finding their way to her, plunging everyone into a dilemma.

Damn it, I have no other choice!

Charms gritted his teeth and unleashed a roar as he charged out from behind the carriage, running straight towards the struggling Fearful Beast of Hell.

The situation took a strange turn. The humans that were running away from the Fearful Beast of Hell had turned into a situation of who could reach it first.

A bear-type demonic beast lunged towards him with its mouth wide opened. Without attempting to dodge, he drew his rifle and shot—

“Get lost!”

The instant the gun was fired, the muzzle found its way to the target’s head.

After the loud bang, the bear monster’s head was instantly blown into pieces. Without even looking, Charms continued to sprint towards the Fearful Beast of Hell!

To lower the probability of hurting her by accident, I have no other choice except to close in!

“Ah—”

A mutated eagle and boar monster arrived by the monster’s side. They braved the risks of being trampled by their peer and opened their mouths at Balshan in attempts to corner her. But Balshan knew who was the real threat and remained fixed on the Fearful Beast of Hell at the expense of exposing herself to the two demonic beasts.

By this time, the area of decay had spread even further while Charms had found his way to Balshan and engaged in close combat with the beasts. The high capacity Van’er rifle showed its advantage at this point—the requirement of not needing to manually reload. Charms was able to take out all the demonic beasts regardless of how thick their hide were, with their exposed heads right in front of him as they attempted to bite at Balshan. Of course, he was bitten a couple of times while protecting Balshan, at times even using his own body to block the enemies’ attacks.

The Fearful Beast of Hell finally pulled its long tusks but barely had any strength left. The decay had spread across its entire body, causing the initially thick and practically invulnerable fur to become as thin as tissue and no longer capable of supporting the weight of its internal organs.

It staggered for two steps and dropped to the side, its internal organs and intestines gushed out of the very first decay spot, at the same time releasing a pungent and rotten smell.

Charms noticed that the internal organs looked like they had been soaked in the sewages for months and had long turned white.

Upon seeing the death of the Fearful Beast of Hell, the other demonic beasts scattered.

Charms endured the pain from every part of his body as he caught Balshan, who had lost her footing and collapsed, into an embrace.

At that moment, the Witch was in a state too horrible to endure. Wounds covered her entire body, while her legs that had been bitten by the demonic beasts had turned into mangled blood and flesh with bones protruding out from all angles.