Volume 7 started… yikes. Thanks for reading~
After letting Setsuna and the others go ahead, I stood at the top of the spiral staircase with my sword at the ready.
It would"ve been easy if the hero of the【Rifle】wasn"t able to move anymore from Freya"s freezing magic, but it seems it didn"t go so well.
With that status, he shouldn"t have been able to defend against Freya"s ice, but in reality, he broke the ice into pieces with his rifle.
It"s my first time seeing a rifle, but it"s quite troublesome.
Compared to Bullet"s gun, his rifle falls behind in attack range, rapid-fire and application, but in proportion to that, the speed and power are higher.
It"s an existence that centralizes on one point.
I can defend against it if I try to, but if he attacks when I avert my awareness or when my posture is thrown off balance, blocking against it is extremely difficult.
Just the fact that it is several times faster than sound is dangerous.
My【Recovery Heal】can heal anything as long as the target is alive, but it can"t do anything about instant deaths.
Even if I"m shot in the heart, I can still stay alive for a while longer, but if he pierces through my head, it"s over. That"s the one thing I need to avoid no matter what.
And the other troublesome person is the hero of the【Spear】.
I could tell from our exchange before, that I will have quite some trouble with her one on one.
Compared to the hero of the【Axe】, her ability is inferior, but the problem is that I have to constantly stay in a posture where I can take the hero of the【Rifle"s】shooting.
Because of that, I can"t end it.
Therefore, there"s only one thing I have to do. No matter what, I have to kill the hero of the【Rifle】first.
If I defeat the hero of the【Rifle】, I can handle the rest.
"Alright, I"ve settled on a plan." (Kearuga)
Tightly gripping my sword, I dodge the hero of the【Rifle"s】shooting.
I need to maintain the status quo for just another two minutes.
If I can gain two minutes of time, these guys won"t be able to catch up to Setsuna and the others.
After gaining time, I"ll destroy the hero of the【Rifle】with an attack that will definitely make me take damage.
He"s in a place two hundred metres away, in a room on the second floor of the castle.
I endure the current situation while picturing a method to reach there.
I make sure to prevent my posture from collapsing so I won"t take any fatal blows.
I jump to the back to dodge her spear, but her spear extends towards my forehead. By swinging my head, I just barely evade it.
From the nature of that spear, I confirmed that it"s a【G.o.d Made Treasure Arms】and grasped its ability.
The spear"s length can be changed at will.
Due to that, the spear approaches me even after I dodge it, and because it extends, it accelerates, increasing the power.
Even for its defence, although it"s weak against extremely close attacks as a long spear, this spear can become short and easier to handle.
It"s by no means flashy, but it"s a good weapon in an actual fight.
From her posture with the spear, I can see traces of steady, acc.u.mulated hard work. A serious, hardworking person; that"s probably how she was before becoming the Dioral king"s toy.
My right shoulder gets blown off by a bullet and strikes the wall.
No matter how much I stay alert, there are timings where I have no choice.
I had prepared myself to take it from the start, but I still moved my head so that it would definitely be protected.
A black knight charges into me, so I violently cut it away.
Although I defeated the guys here, Guren"s flames ran out.
So, I take out a different sword.
It has almost been two minutes.
Two minutes finnally pa.s.s, and my second sword"s flames run out.
"I can finally go on the offensive." (Kearuga)
I"ll charge when the hero of the【Rifle】shoots his next bullet.
What I realized from our fight so far is that there"s a one-second interval between each shot.
In other words, if I reach him within a second, it"s my win.
Predicting the timing of his fire, I jump off the spiral staircase. As planned, his bullet lands near my feet. I"m far ahead of the high ground the hero of the【Rifle】is at since even I can"t jump two hundred metres.
As I fall, I hold the sword handle with my mouth, turn both my hands to the back and use a【Wind】and【Fire】composite magic.
"【Blast Wave】" (Kearuga)
It sprung forth as I said that, making me fly to the hero of the【Rifle】with great propulsive power.
At this speed, it won"t even take a second to reach two hundred metres. Counterattacking would be impossible.
However… he fired.
"The one-second interval was fake, huh." (Kearuga)
I see, so he always took a shooting interval of one second to make me think he couldn"t rapid-fire.
Even after losing his sense of reason from the black mist, his long battle experience was ingrained in his body.
Rifle users have probably fought a tiring amount of people that aim for the interval between their shots. That"s why he learnt that tactic.
Interesting.
His bullets are already bad enough by being three times as fast as sound. And right now, I"m leaping at a speed close to sound, meaning it won"t take that long for me to fall. I can"t change course after suddenly accelerating.
As well as that, his aim will let him accurately hit my forehead.
Dealing with it now is impossible. Death is certainly awaiting me. A bullet is going to sink into my forehead, pierce it, destroy my brain and cause instant death.
If it"s an instant death,【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】won"t activate.
It"s my loss.
Well, that"s what would have happened if I actually did that though.
That scene was a scene of the future that I saw with the power of the left eye the G.o.d bird Caladrius granted me, the【Kokus.h.i.+gan】.
The【Kokus.h.i.+gan】can see several seconds in the future.
Because it exhausts me, I hardly use its power, but I did that to destroy the hero of the【Rifle】for sure.
In reality, I"m only just about to jump out.
If I charge and use【Blast Wave】like this, I"ll die.
So, I"ll purposely weaken the【Blast Wave】from my right arm when using it.
Then, the centre wavers in the air, swerving me just a bit away from the bullet as he shoots it, because his aim is precise.
Both my arms break from being rash, but I don"t care.
【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】immediately activates.
The hero of the【Rifle】readies his rifle.
While running in a complex pattern, I get closer.
I"m using the most simple method of dealing with rifles; never standing in a straight line with the rifle point.
As long as I keep that up, I won"t get shot.
Waiting for my arm to be healed by【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】is irritating.
With my sword in my mouth, I run and pa.s.s by him.
The blade of the sword I"m holding in my mouth cuts the hero of the【Rifle"s】neck.
Even with the power of his black mist, the injury he got from this sword clad in Guren"s flames won"t heal.
I pinion the hero of the【Rifle】from behind.
"【Looting Heal】" (Kearuga)
I might as well do it. I didn"t make it in time with the hero of the【Axe】, but I"ll take this guy"s ability, power and memories during the dozens of seconds until he dies.
I want his abilities and above all, I want to know how the three heroes were killed.
Two seconds after using【Imitation Heal】, the hero of the【Rifle】died.
He was a strong enemy. I even thought I might die for the first time in a while.
I"ll search through the memories I stole from him.
"Tch, so that"s how it is." (Kearuga)
I was curious about why the hero of the【Axe】, who had that much ability, and the hero of the【Rifle】, who was so proficient in covering for others, lost, but I could understand why after looking at his memories.
It was only obvious for the three heroes to die.
Even we would lose if we challenged something like that without setting up any countermeasures.
The hero of the【Rifle"s】rifle isn"t a【G.o.d Made Treasure Arms】, but it"s a magic weapon made by a legendary dwarf that"s said to be the world"s greatest blacksmith.
Because of that, although it"s inferior to the【G.o.d Made Treasure Arms】, it"s still an extremely powerful weapon.
With that rifle in hand, I use【Transformation Heal】to change my abilities to the ones I took from him.
This rifle has the ability to charge the bullets with the owner"s magic.
By charging the bullets with【Acceleration】magic that the hero of the【Rifle】was good at, he increased the bullet speed, therefore raising the power.
Instead, I"m going to charge it with【Deterioration Heal】.
The ability I got from him is called【Ultra Senses】.
It makes the surrounding scenery look awfully slow.
This thing"s effect is stretching out the time your body senses, by around five times.
It"s an extremely powerful ability.
Since I got it, I might as well use this rifle ability.
I aim at the hero of the【Spear】.
Thanks to【Ultra Senses】, it"s easy to aim. On top of that, I have ultra eyesight, kinetic vision and clairvoyance because of my【Jade Eye】, and can even see the future with my【Kokus.h.i.+gan】.
Missing would be harder.
A bullet gets spit out, immediately piercing the hero of the【Spear"s】head,
Although it pierced her head, her injury gets healed by the black mist, but the【Deterioration Heal】I charged in the bullet activated, twisting her whole body and making her unable to even lift a finger.
"Yeah, this is convenient. I"ll be keeping this rifle." (Kearuga)
I fix the rifle onto my back with a belt and take all the bullets the hero of the【Rifle】kept in his chest.
Making these bullets by myself will take time, and I can"t make a perfect one. Once I run out of bullets, I either have to ask his memories by using a keyword or throw away the rifle.
Just like how I came here, I use【Blast Wave】to return to the spiral staircase. I collect the flame-clad swords stuck in the floor.
And then, after kicking away black knights, I make it to the hero of the【Spear】and cut her head off.
As she dies, her【G.o.d Made Treasure Arms】returns to being a jewel.
Then, I put it in my pocket to let Freya equip it later. Kureha already has a treasured sword that"s been pa.s.sed down for generations between【Sword Saints】.
With the【G.o.d Made Treasure Arms】, Freya"s fighting power will increase much more.
I run with all my might towards the Rainara room.
I thought it would be okay with Kureha there, but as expected, I can"t make them go against that thing.
Please, be safe.