If you think it’s going to be difficult, I thought I could help you out too.
The power emanating from Marmaros is not just a physical effect of its properties but also a magical attack in itself. Depending on the enemy type, there may be resistance, but since it’s a magical attribute attack, if the enemy is weak against magic, extra damage will be dealt.
In the original work, there were magic spells without any specific properties.
So, if it’s something like a slime, I can handle it too. If I have a shotgun equipped with fire attribute Marmaros, I could probably melt the slime into goo. The issue is that using it would seriously clog the barrel.
“I don’t need any help.”
But Rena said confidently.
“Have you encountered a shapeless monster before?”
“No.”
…But that response was a bit too confident for having never faced one.
“But I know well about its characteristics. According to those characteristics, it can’t be my enemy.”
At her words, I unconsciously looked at the pistols tucked under Rena’s armpits. If the guns had Marmaros attached, it would show. Just like my shotgun. But Rena’s pistols looked too ordinary.
“Then, I’ll be off.”
She said that and confidently started walking toward the shapeless monster below the hill, leaving us behind.
Excluding the fact that its body was a translucent blue similar to slime, it looked more like a golem-shaped monster. It must have been about 3 meters tall? Up close, its presence would be quite overwhelming.
“Is she going to be okay?”
Alice, who was standing next to me, asked the question I wanted to ask.
“She said she’s confident.”
Claire said to Alice. The others were looking at Rena’s back with interest.
…Well, if it looks overly dangerous, we can just rewind time.
Thinking that, I watched Rena fade into the distance when Mia Crowfield opened her mouth.
“I think she will be fine.”
The moment Mia said that, all eyes in our group turned to her, causing Mia Crowfield to jump in surprise and shake her shoulders. It seemed she was embarrassed to receive so much attention and nervously glanced around before managing to say something.
“When you handle magic steadily, you can distinguish between objects or people that possess magic. I felt… quite a lot of magic from Lady Meyer…”
Hmm.
Unless she’s a grand sorceress or something, it’s quite difficult for an ordinary person to feel magic. There is a theory that swordsmanship is a type of magic, but in the game, it’s treated differently from magic. Though, its attributes might still count as magical.
Well, it’s foolish to logically clarify laws outside of physical principles. Isn’t that fantasy itself? Even the logical physical laws take quite a long time to recognize from a human perspective, and magic, which operates in even stranger ways, would be much tougher.
“Magic? You’re saying it’s amazing magic that would surprise you?”
When Jake spoke up, Mia Crowfield’s face turned even redder.
“Ah, well, um… I don’t think it’s Lady Meyer’s magic. It didn’t feel right when I sensed it earlier in the hallway…”
That means it’s influenced by the Marmaros after all.
“Uhhhh!”
Suddenly, we heard something screaming, causing us to stop our conversation and look toward the source of the noise.
The monster that looked like a slime golem was howling. It was a very low, rumbling scream that matched its size. I couldn’t tell where the sound was coming from, but the way its squishy surface vibrated with the sound didn’t sit well with me.
Honestly, it was a little gross.
Yet, Rena, who was walking in front, nonchalantly crossed her hands and drew her guns.
…And it looked kind of cool. It triggered some lingering feelings of being in middle school that had remained somewhere in my heart.
Without stopping her stride, Rena aimed her dual guns at the slime as it charged at her with a scream.
Despite its size, its actions appeared clumsy, but that was just how it seemed; each stride was quite wide, allowing the slime to close the distance to Rena in an instant.
But Rena didn’t just stand still.
She extended the pistols she held in both hands and aimed.
Then,
“Uhhhh!”
Calmly firing at the slime’s heavy, blunt fist that was heading towards her,
Bang—
Even from this distance, the sound of the gun was quite loud. It was the sound of gunpowder igniting in the bullet casing. The sound of the bullet slicing through the air as it shot forward pierced through the slime’s howl.
And then,
Puff!
One of the slime’s hands blew apart.
It wasn’t just an explosion. It was more like an explosion where the air seemed to catch fire. In war movies, when bullets hit something like a flamethrower, the explosion emits flames, and it had that kind of atmosphere.
“…Ah, it’s Marmaros!”
Claire gasped upon seeing that.
Yeah, it’s Marmaros.
But even though the gun appeared small in this scenario, there were no protrusions visible anywhere on it. And the barrel was not particularly thick either.
That means…
“Are you using Marmaros itself as ammunition?”
Charlotte reacted with interest.
“It seems that way.”
And Mia Crowfield confirmed that once more.
…So, the gun doesn’t need modifications. Since the bullets are just Marmaros to begin with, there’s no need to modify the barrel. The moment it fires, it acts just like a normal bullet.
The activation point is when the Marmaros hits the target and shatters.
“Ughhhh!”
As the slime swung its other hand with a cry that sounded like a shriek,
Bang!
Rena quickly spun the pistol in her left hand and blew off the slime’s left hand as well.
Even though both of the slime’s arms had been blown off in an instant, that didn’t mean its aggressiveness had decreased.
Its already-damaged right arm was slowly regenerating. At the same time, the slime attempted to step forward—
Thud!
It fell over sideways with a clang. White steam was rising from its right leg. The leg that had frozen instantaneously was breaking apart, and steam was pouring out as it melted again. It looked similar to dry ice melting.
In its left hand, it seemed to have fire attribute Marmaros, and in its right hand, ice attribute Marmaros was loaded.
“There are many large beasts in the autonomous region. With the population density being much lower compared to the forest or the mountains, it seems there won’t be any shortage of game because of that.”
…Moreover, there are many mines. Although the autonomous region’s government is almost fully in control, they’ve been persistently short on population and always recruiting soldiers to fight against warlords, so there are supposedly not enough miners to excavate Marmaros.
But even so, it’s also true that Marmaros is relatively easy to obtain. Just like how hunters in Winterfield hunt mountain beasts, there’s probably quite a bit of Marmaros that they extract from hunted beasts to help protect the settlement.
Bang, bang, bang—
The sound of the gun fired successively.
As Rena approached the fallen slime, she fired several times with the pistol in her right hand. With each shot landing on its torso, the slime began freezing at an alarming rate.
And soon, as the fully frozen slime could no longer move,
Bang!
Rena raised her left hand like she was driving a wedge and fired another shot.
Kaboom!
The hard frozen body exploded, scattering in all directions. As the pieces of the frozen shapeless body melted, they didn’t gather to form one again, nor did they regenerate. It appears the core, which was the weakness of the shapeless monster, was shattered along with the explosion.
After swirling the two guns, which were slightly smoking at the muzzles, to shake off the smoke, Rena stuck them back into the leather pouch under her armpits, and it looked impressive.
“Awesome!”
Claire shouted as Rena approached us. At that point, everyone began to clap for her.
Rena, walking toward us, looked a bit proud.
Since she was looking straight at me, it seemed she was hoping for my praise.
“You did great.”
While some might say it was just gear that made it possible, it’s meaningless to judge such things on the battlefield. When it’s life or death, that’s all that matters. And if you think like that, swords also get divided into legendary and ordinary ones.
However…
I subtly glanced behind Rena and thought.
…Considering how much Marmaros she just used, wasn’t this a losing battle? It would be quite difficult to extract Marmaros again now that the slime was shattered.
Of course, I didn’t vocalize such thoughts.
She looked far too satisfied with herself.
…Was this the feeling Alice had when she looked at me?
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