A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

Despite his conviction, Boyle found it difficult to move. His body felt stiff and the very frame of his chest seemed shattered to pieces. Every move he managed to force himself to make wracked him with pain that had him lying back against the tree.

"Fuck!" He let out and made gestures with the hand he had his storage bracelet on just so he could somehow manage to summon a Healing Potion and drink it for some much-needed first aid.

He was just getting frustrated about failing at this when he felt a serene wave surround him as his body glowed ever so slightly.

"Hold still," Meryna said from behind the tree, "This will work faster if you do."

Her presence surprised Boyle. While he had not had much of an opportunity to spot where everyone was on the field, he knew the Clerics were hanging as far back from the fight as they could. For their safety.

He could tell Meryna had come close just to heal him.

"Thank you," he said gratefully and stayed calm to let the healing continue and remain inconspicuous to the Orc Priest.

He had to be healed. Against this enemy, his strength was needed.

…

Meanwhile,

When Boyle's mind was getting pulled into a nightmarish vision as his body moved through the air to make violent contact with a tree trunk, Eloise charged at the Orc Priest leaping a bit for a boost as she swung her sword at its neck.

*Clang!*

Her sword was met by the Orc Priest's staff and forced to side before it struck her in the stomach with a fist coated with liquid red mana.

"Ah!" Eloise groaned in pain. Her mind was getting pulled into a vision of sorts but, maybe through sheer will, or maybe by luck, she pulled free before the Mana could take hold. She wrapped a string of Mana she had conjured earlier around the Orc's neck to pull herself closer to it rather than get sent flying by the blow.

The Orc Priest smirked and with a wave of its hand, it conjured a spear it thrust forward to spear Eloise through with.

"*Neron!*" Eloise yelled in a sudden spell cast and used an upward gesture of her head to command the cyclone of wind she just made appear toward where its force should be focused.

The sudden wind cyclone forced the conjured Spear upward and in the process, it cut through Eloise's armor and drew blood but that pain was nothing compared to what she would have been forced to endure so she remained silent. Besides, right when the spearhead was cutting its little wound across her front, Eloise arrived with her sword an inch from the Orc's neck.

"Impressive."

Eloise didn't see the creature's lips move but she heard the voice so clearly. At the same time, she realized there was a layer of liquid mana between her sword's blade and the Orc's neck. Preventing the injury she was after.

*Thud!*

The Orc Priest struck its staff's end against the grassy ground but the sound that came from the contact sounded far too loud and crisp for that. A sprawling spell circle had appeared beneath the Orc and covered such a wide area that it was beneath Eloise as well.

A force of mana rose from that spell circle wrapping around her body and keeping her rooted to the spot while the Orc pushed its face closer and its lips stretched into a grin as the tips of its extra-long canines glinted as though especially sharpened.

"Die now!" It said and only then did Eloise realize its liquid red mana had taken all manner of sharp shapes that now faced her in some preparation of execution by bombardment.

Eloise resisted the surge keeping her rooted and dug deep in search of that extra push that could free her when a bang sounded as Henry, still on top of the tree branch, pointed 'Cudgel' and fired a shot.

The bullet was blocked by a swiftly conjured shield but since it had carried the homing signal of <Guiding Shot>, Henry did not allow himself to be discouraged as he fired multiple shots in succession. All hitting the very same spot.

After the third shot, he pulled 'The Hydra's Sting' from his Inventory. He had the gun loaded with 'Hydra's Tongue' bullets and had drunk one of the Mana potions Eloise had given him before they left the Lotus Inn.

At first, the Orc Priest saw Henry as a mere nuisance. Surely projectiles were the least things to be worried about. That was foolish and it realized this when Henry, with unerring marksmanship, shot so much at a singular spot on the conjured shield that it cracked.

"You—!" It said mostly in a growl and about a quarter of the blades it had conjured to bombard Eloise with turned toward Henry to fire at him while the rest targeted the Mage-Knight still.

The seconds of distractions proved enough for Eloise to muster her magical and physical might to fight against the force holding her. She had just managed to move her arms when the blades fired.

Before they hit her though, she was sure she heard a 'Neigh' from a distance but the horse that produced the sound was already charging at her in a streak of black that neither her eyes nor her senses, could truly adequately detect.

"Oomph!" Eloise groaned as Nyx's head hit her so hard that it lifted her off her feet and cleared her from the spot she had been trapped in a split second before the daggers stabbed down there.

"What?!" The Orc Priest let out in surprise.

Its eyes, improved by the blessing of Kroa, had not even been able to catch what creature it was that thwarted its grandiose attempt at a kill. It looked to the side and saw Eloise nursing a sore spot in her side from where Nyx's head had hit her.

"-Get on!-" Nyx yelled as loudly as she possibly could but as Henry was the only one able to hear her words, her agitated whinnies were all she was left with to convince Eloise.

Fortunately, the Knight caught the host quickly enough.

Angry at being jilted of the kill, the Orc Priest conjured orbs of blazing red mana and bolts of lightning that it fired at Eloise with the clear intent to get the black horse caught up in it.

Sensing the coming attack had caused Nyx's agitation and she caught Eloise's attention quickly enough for the Mage-Knight to reach out and grab her reins before she kicked off into a gallop that saw her outrunning the orbs and lightning sent by the Orc Priest.

Speaking of which, the Orc Priest was still under a fairly consistent stream of shots and the final straw finally broke through its shield much to its surprise.

After all, it had seen Henry get targeted by a quarter of its conjured blades and get knocked off the tree branch and out of sight.

How was it to know that, right after he was targeted by the conjured blades, Henry called to the Hat on his head to activate its protection?

[Activating <Hat Of Shielding>]

The blue haze of protection appeared around Henry to seal him in a bubble that all conjured blades failed to break through. The only thing they were able to accomplish, due to their combined force of contact, was pushing Henry off the tree branch but he didn't mind.

The moment he hit the ground and the shield staved off what could have been a painful landing, Henry continued to fire shots to break through the shield, and when it finally shattered, the shots responsible stabbed into the Orc's Priest's thick hide before it had the chance to conjure another.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Which brings us to the reason Henry used 'The Hydra's Sting';

With its eyes widened in shock at such a turnout, the Orc Priest's horror only grew worse when the gunshot became tinged with an even sicker green color than its ordinarily green-colored skin.

Horrid veins spread from the bullet wound and it began to bubble before exploding in an acidic combustion that took a good bit of its skin and exposed the bone underneath which became tinged with the acid that sizzled and began to eat away at its structural integrity.

"ARRRGGGGGHHH!!!"

Raising its head toward the sky, the Orc Priest let out an anguished scream at the pain wracking through it but even while its eyes —wide and glowing with a much more bloodshot hue— were turned upward, the Orc swung its Staff and knocked aside bolts fired from a distance by Knights who were now closing in.

Another volley of bolts followed and after those were parried, a few Knights revealed themselves to be lying in wait. They picked this to be their moment by charging without a battle cry and with eyes furrowed in seriousness.

Their approaches were intercepted by a large wave of red mana slamming toward them to seize their bodies and squeeze hard as it raised them Ten— fifteen feet in the air before slamming them down so hard they broke through grassy vegetation until they faced smashed into the harder earth underneath.

While they lay crumpled and struggled to move, Spears formed of the red liquid mana speared them through their backs and into the ground forcing them to groan in pain once before going silent. Discover stories with empire