Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

Grateful for the Pope’s kindness in even dispatching his personal guards, Kijung immediately began inspecting the troops.

“In times of urgency, we must be prepared to mobilize all defense forces near the [Divine Staff]! However, I am a Holy Knight who received ‘punishment’ directly from His Holiness! True to the name of an Exorcist Grandmaster, I will confront a Demon King’s Fragment. The will of the Lord values life! Do not take your lives lightly! Everyone, prepare for battle!”

Clang, clank, clink~!

The Paladins and guards did not shout battle cries, yet the overflowing morale could be felt through Kijung’s skin.

Drawing his sword and raising his shield, Kijung thought, ‘I should use the Dinosaur Transformation skill when facing the enemy. It doesn’t last very long, and if Ghibrid doesn’t retreat, there’s no point in needlessly provoking with the transformation. Let’s first engage bare-handed, then assess the situation and use the Dinosaur Transformation. Guiding his retreat again is the best option.’

With a yell, he swung his sword down fiercely.

“Raaawwrr!”

Aaahh–!

Including Kijung, the Paladins, and guards, a total of 556 troops rushed towards the east in the contaminated Forest of the World Tree. They ran for about 15 minutes.

Kijung had to witness a bizarre sight. Not just him, but the Paladins and guards following behind were equally astonished.

“What, what is this? Ahh!”

As a tremendous heat surged with the explosion, Kijung reflexively raised his shield. He vaguely knew that Ghibrid wasteland was close by.

But what was fueling the flames burning everywhere?

Dragon’s Breath? No, it wasn’t magic. Rather, the terrain seems completely devastated. Why were there scattered dig sites across the area as if hit by meteorites?

“Exorcist Grandmaster! Someone is over there!”

“W-Who, who is that?”

Pointing frantically, one of the Paladins NPC called out to Kijung. With eyes sharpened, Kijung looked at the indicated spot. Despite the considerable distance, something was clearly moving. It moved too swiftly, making it difficult to even track with the eyes.

What appeared as a black dot to Kijung momentarily halted before moving again. At that moment, a voice resounded in Kijung’s ears amidst the frenzy.

“Did you think you could catch me with something like Soyutanda, the wings I’ve already shown you?”

“Squeeeal——!”

A dozen Manticores, bouncing like black dots, rushed towards the person, but the person slipped away without being caught.

“Your breath stinks, Manticores!” – In an instant, the person twisted his body and spewed fire into the air. The Manticores instinctively folded their wings to block his bullets.

The strength of the wings, resembling bat membranes, and the sound of hitting metal plates reverberated in all directions.

“… Ah! Oww!? That, that person!”

Finally, Kijung could grasp the true identity of the black-dot figure.

A user fighting over twenty Manticores and unidentifiable monsters in a desolate wasteland, turning nearly 600 meters of terrain into rubble and setting the unburnable areas ablaze, where even the slightest chance of fire was impossible.

“Kidd-!”

Kijung called out his name at the top of his lungs.

※ ※

Kidd showed no response towards Kijung. However, Kijung was convinced that Kidd heard his voice.

“Isn’t he easy to get along with? Is the situation that urgent?”

Only a few seconds had passed, but the situation was changing drastically. The Manticores charged at Kidd, who swiftly dodged and shot his revolver at them, despite the considerable distance from Kijung to witness the scene.

The gunfire echoed, followed by a crushing sound akin to hitting a drum. Though occasional screams of the Manticores could be heard, there were no bodies turning to ashes. Kijung was chilled to the bone watching Kidd’s movements.

“Even at this distance, it’s hard to keep up with him visually? Hah, it reminds me of Bluebeard incident. No, slightly slower than that, perhaps?”

Admiration and analysis occurred simultaneously. While the Manticores possessed exceptional defense, it was clear that Kidd’s movements overwhelmingly surpassed it.

That meant there was no need to rush to such an extent. So why was the situation so tense?

“There!”

A creature somewhat separated from Kidd and the pack of Manticores, observing everything with a contemplative expression.

Kijung quickly counted the Manticores engaged with Kidd while keeping an eye on this new presence.

“Because of that one there. It’s because of that monster that resembles a Manticore but seems different, making it impossible for Kidd to see this side! That monster might be- huh?”

Kijung observed the monster in the air wriggling about, but he couldn’t discern its significance. However, one thing stood out – the tiny bug that had been plainly visible near Kidd had vanished.

Why had the bug disappeared?

“Oh, damn it! Everyone retreat!”

His body moved first.

Kijung lifting his shield and the sudden flash of light from the airborne entity happened almost simultaneously. With an ear-splitting reverberating sound, an explosion occurred where Kijung had been standing.

“Wow!”

“Ahh!”

The Paladins and Royal Guards standing close to Kijung could not even hold their stances and were tossed in all directions. A storm that left fingers severed and thigh bones visible, causing severe wounds!

Then what about the spot where the explosion originally occurred?

“Ho, Holy Knight!”

“Exorcism Cardinal!”

Despite the worried voices and desperate expressions for Kijung, before the smoke cleared, a shout erupted from the same spot.

[Don’t panic! Focus on your surroundings, confirm any injuries to our allies, move the lightly wounded to the back, and the seriously wounded to the medical station!]

Baaaang!

As the explosive smoke dissipated with the Paladin’s resolute response, there stood a Holy Knight enveloped in white bones, his eyes shining.

[I will deal with the Manticore and the unidentified monster over there! Please prepare fire and attribute magic attacks! The Chimeras coming now are weak against fire. Even if Ghibrid are a hassle, let’s focus on reducing the Chimera population!]

Without even listening to the Paladins’ reply, Kijung dashed out.

When casting [Dinosaur Transformation], every second counted.

With his overwhelming increase in speed, it didn’t take long for Kijung to reach Kidd and the group of Manticores.

“Kidd!”

Kakakak, Kakakang, Kakakang-!

Even amidst this, Kidd’s guns didn’t rest a moment. He fired nine shots in mid-air, three more as he descended, and replaced the chamber in his right-handed revolver with six more rounds.

When both his feet touched the ground again, both of his Justice Guns were fully loaded with ammunition.

“That voice… it’s Master Kay. But his appearance!?”

“If we’re talking about appearances, Kidd, you’re not having it easy either, right? No time to chat about looks! What I want to ask is, once we finish off these guys, can we get some answers?”

Observing Kidd’s determined gaze, Kijung could imagine how fierce the battle must have been. His body was covered in ash, his once neat and chic appearance destroyed. Some parts of his hat’s brim were burnt or crumpled by the fire.

Since Kidd was in such a state, his smile seemed even more radiant to Kijung.

“Alright! I’ll take care of the Manticores. Just leave Luger to me.”

With that said, Kidd’s joyful expression shone even brighter, “Okay! I’ll take care of the Mantic- Huh? Luger?”

“Eek!”

[Over there! [Holy End]!]

Kijung, who was about to ask what ‘Luger’ meant, had to urgently raise his sword. Opening his mouth wide, he completely tore apart the lower jaw of the Manticore approaching, and then stabbed it!

“Chirp~.”

With a lightning-fast swordplay, he grazed the Manticore’s forehead and then kicked away its body.

Meanwhile, the scorpion’s tail aimed at Kijung and shot towards him, but that was it.

Tearrr-!

The full-body armor wrapped in Thone’s bones was not something an ordinary Manticore’s tail could penetrate.

“Not ticklish, huh?”

Swiftly, Kijung cut off the tail tip that got stuck to his sword.

In addition to being [Dinosaurized], Kijung, now able to wield the ‘Nameless Paladin’s Sword’ with both hands, had all his combat abilities heightened!

Was it because they had been facing evasion-focused Kidd for a long time?

The Manticore’s, like pigs, rushed towards him, unable to easily adapt to Kijung’s attacking pattern of sacrificing his flesh and taking their bones.

While Kidd entrusted the Manticore’s entirely to Kijung, he dashed towards him after breaking through the wall of fire formed by Luger’s soybeans.

“I didn’t intend to tell Leeha about it, but eventually Leeha’s younger hyung came… Isn’t that amusing, Luger?”

How long had it been since such laughter rang out?

Despite knowing that the Luger in front of him was not the ‘user’ Luger, Kidd couldn’t figure out how to express this desire to converse with him. He concentrated his mind on dodging the Manticore’s attacks and, in between, worked on avoiding all types of projectiles fired by Luger.

Combat where his life was at stake, like acrobatics, was not Kidd’s preference. Assessing the enemy’s skills and completely suppressing them with speed was actually Kidd’s style. Kidd readily admitted that.

Transformed into a monster, Luger, who had become a chimera, was by no means an easy opponent.

In reality, if they missed replicating the skills and projectiles possessed by the ‘user’ Luger, the damage to the next users would be much greater.

“It was actually fortunate that the Manticore’s targeted me. Thanks to that, the accuracy of the shelling was significantly reduced. If the numbers on this side were more and the Manticore’s attacks were dispersed, the shelling would have been far more precise and would have been aimed at me at shorter intervals.

Constantly being bombarded with projectiles such as soybeans and timed bullets, grenades and armor-piercing shells, and all kinds of penetrating-explosive projectiles?

In such a hair-raising scenario, how many times did he think he barely escaped alive?The Manticore, had it not served as a shield, Kidd might have died. Therefore, Kidd was satisfied with his battered appearance.

“Nevertheless, I didn’t die.”

Kidd holstered all four Crimson Geckos. Retrieving weapons during battle was somewhat unconventional, but…

“If I were alone, it would have been truly impossible… But… Luger, you were not alone either, so I won’t make excuses. [Cold Anger].”

Kidd accelerated even further. Hyo-oh euee. The light orbs gathered at Kidd’s waist. Skills requiring casting time near instant skills were extremely rare.

“And with this, it’s a draw.”

Haaaah…. Kidd took a deep breath. The Manticore-Luger in the air still faced the Paladin and the Pope’s guards. Kidd and his target were very close. Running like that, in the final moment, Kidd sped up once more. Boom! From 300 meters to 250, 200, and down to 150!

“What?!”

As the Manticore-Luger in the air noticed Kidd approaching, it immediately turned its focus. However, Kidd was slightly faster. 130, 100, 80, finally closing the distance to 50 meters in an instant.

“[Execution] Hm?!”

The moment Kidd used the skill, the sky suddenly filled with dark shadows. Despite a foreboding feeling, he couldn’t stop the skill he had already cast. Bang! A single gunshot rang out.

“Kiiii…yah!”

One Manticore turned into ashes and plummeted to the ground. But it wasn’t the Manticore-Luger. Another Manticore had suddenly come flying and intersected the straight line between Kidd and Luger, crashing to the ground and contorting its body.

“This… Are you telling me you predicted my movements?!”

Kidd exclaimed in surprise, looking back. Kijung was engaged in combat with another group of Manticores, unaware that one had slipped away, better than anyone else could understand Kidd, he could only grit his teeth in regret.