C155
When Marsha fired Sound Cannon again, Shirone pressed his ears with both hands. At this moment, no magic was more effective than blocking one's ears.
“Euaaaak!”
However, Shirone's expectations were greatly missed.
Sound Cannon of a different level of power than ever before pierced through the back of his hand. If he hadn't covered his ears, his eardrums would have burst.
“Huu, you’re ignoring this noona too much. Even though I couldn’t go to academy, I know how to do sequence equations.”
Marsha may be a non-magic academy graduate by the classification of the Mage Society (Prev. Magic Society), but she's also a veteran who had defeated numerous mages. It's no exaggeration to say she acquired important theories through experience.
“Banshee’s Scream.”
When Marsha vibrated her Spirit Zone, a strange, elongated sound filled the room.
Shirone leapt to his feet in fear of the sudden phenomenon. He couldn't see. It was as if the world was darkened, like ink had been spilled on his retina.
'What is this? What kind of magic is this?'
Sound Mages travel the world collecting various sounds. Among them, the Banshee is a winged humanoid monster that lives in mountainous areas and has a female upper body.
It sends out a unique high-frequency sound to blind its prey and devour it, and Marsha uses sound magic to imitate that frequency.
Shirone became anxious. He could not determine the opponent's location through spirit zone.
The narrow space was dizzy by the reverberation of sound waves, and Marsha was being sensed solely through the sound, being the origin of the sound waves.
While Shirone's senses were paralyzed, Marsha had already come next to him. Then she held out her palm towards Shirone’s ear. At this distance, a direct hit from Sound Cannon would cause her brain functions to cease.
'Goodbye, Shirone.'
At that moment, Shirone's spirit zone vibrated violently. Marsha, sensing crisis through her Sonar, immediately retreated. At the same time, a light burst out and pushed out the furniture in the room.
Shirone, with his eyes tightly closed, encircled himself with lasers.
While shooting lasers rapidly around may not deliver a significant impact, Marsha, who had verified their power at the first gate, crouched down beneath the desk.
Taking cover behind the desk, Marsha couldn't visually confirm what was in front of her. However, using her Sonar, she could clearly feel what Shirone was doing.
'Huh?'
Marsha's heart dropped. Shirone was precisely aiming Photon Cannon right in front of her.
How was it possible? The echoing Banshee's scream doesn't usually disappear easily within a confined space.
Marsha recalled that the laser had encircled the room earlier.
'No way? Did he cut the sound?'
Disrupting the vibration of sound waves isn't easily achievable through regular magic. However, with a high-efficiency energy amplification like lasers, it was possible to slice through the sound waves.
Marsha may not have known the principles behind lasers, but Shirone knew the principles of sound. The difference in responsiveness that occurs there. This was the reason why magic academy taught numerous disciplines in addition to their majors.
"This…!”
With his eyes wide open, Shirone fired Photon Cannon at Marsha's location. At the same time, Marsha sprang out like a flying squirrel and rolled to the side.
Kwaaaaang!
A heavy sphere of light pierced through the building's wall and extended outward.
--------------------------
The battle within the forest was reminiscent of war.
It was evident that Freeman's subordinates didn't understand the value of Magic Projectiles. They had been firing their guns recklessly, and as a result, the landscape of the surrounding area had been entirely destroyed.
Yet, they were the ones being cornered. Their numbers, which had been 20, had now dwindled down to 7. Despite this, they hadn't been able to even determine Amy's location.
"Damn it! Where is she?"
"Over there! She just passed by that way!"
A burning stone flew from deep within the forest. It hit the back of the head of a gunman who hadn't had time to turn around, and knocked him out of consciousness even with his Schema active.
"Damn! She's deliberately using fire-element magic."
“Such a ghost. She moves so quickly, yet her accuracy is tremendous."
For a gunman, mobility and accuracy are important. Amy was overwhelming them in both aspects.
The reason she was able to use flight magic stably and that her targeting was so accurate that it was close to perfect was because she was the owner of Red Eye.
“Huu, now there are 6 left. No, 7 including Freeman."
Amy once again levitated rocks around her. Then the rocks became red-hot and suddenly burst into flames.
If there is photon theory in Photon System, there is ignition theory in Fire System. Known as 'Ignite,' it formed the basis of Fire System magic.
There are five main characteristics of flames that can be created by Ignite.
These were Heat, which generates heat; Flare, which lights fire; Burn, which sets objects on fire; Blaze, which burns a wide area; and Buster, which causes explosions.
Heating the rocks with Burn of Fire System was a spell called 'Fire Call,' a magic that made rocks burn like molten lava.
For a Fire Mage, Burn is important. It compensates for its lightness, a drawback of fire. Therefore, it was the perfect counter against gunmen utilizing Schema.
"Shall we go again?"
Amy soared into the sky and mercilessly dropped 'Fire Call.'
Compared to the meteorite bombing of Meteor, it may be child's play, but it was terrifying for those on the receiving end.
"It's from above! Shoot them all!"
The gunmen raised their guns to the sky and fired Magic Projectiles. But Amy, adjusting for error through self-image memory, was toying with the enemies in terms of evasion and accuracy.
Flight magic may be easily learnable by anyone, but maintaining balance in the ever-changing atmosphere wasn't easy.
Nevertheless, Amy was floating in the sky as if frozen. Her pupils, which were backing up self-image states at incredible speeds, were glowing red rapidly.
Each time projectiles were exchanged, the number of enemies decreased one by one.
When only two of Freeman's subordinates remained, Amy unleashed the last of her Fire Calls.
This time, she didn't even need precise aiming. The burning rocks lodged themselves into the heads and backs of enemies trying to turn and run with a thudding sound.
Only then did Amy lift her flight magic and land on the open ground.
Twenty gunmen were annihilated in an instant. Now, only Freeman remained.
"Your expression hasn't changed a bit even though your subordinates have been defeated. Are you too cold-blooded? Or are you a coward?"
"If disliking fighting makes me a coward, then perhaps I am."
Amy frowned at Freeman's words. If this was a psychological warfare, it was a highly sophisticated one.
But Freeman didn't care what people thought.
- Freeman is coming. Here comes Coward Freeman.
- If you make Freeman cry, Marsha will come. A pathetic guy who needs help from a woman.
Freeman, who was recalling old memories, said something unexpected.
"Let's stop."
"What? What did you just say?"
Amy was dumbfounded. She had victory within her grasp, yet he suddenly suggested stopping. Moreover, this wasn't showing any respect for his subordinates who had risked their lives fighting.
"I'm worried about commander. I think I should go and check on her. I don't want to see her down."
“Hmph, no one wants to lose. So, you should have lived a good life from the beginning.”
"That's not what I mean. She must not lose, even if it means dying."
"What are you talking about?"
Freeman did not answer Amy's question. He was just muttering his own story as if talking to himself.
“Commander is strong. Your friends might die.”
“Hmph, Shirone is stronger. He would never lose to such a woman."
“You are so pure and gentle. It's good to trust your man, but you'll regret it."
Amy, seeming irritated by being misunderstood as a lover, clenched her fist and yelled.
"That's funny. And I'm stronger than Shirone, you bastard. I can never let you go, so you'll have to go down right here."
"Is that so?"
Realizing that negotiations had broken down, Freeman held two guns in both hands and activated Schema.
His figure, which had been staring at Amy, became blurry like an afterimage and disappeared from sight.
Amy couldn't even react. But when she felt his presence behind her through spirit zone, she hurriedly twisted her body.
Freeman's kick just grazed her chin. Amy clenched her teeth, finding herself in a difficult situation.
'Damn... I made a mistake!'
Since he was a gunner, she thought he would attack from a distance, but he approached and attempted close combat. His thought process was clearly different from his subordinates who solely relied on Magic Projectiles.
"Hmph! I will deal with you seriously now!”
As Amy corrected her disheveled posture, Freeman jumped into the air and fired a barrage of Magic Projectiles. Explosive fireballs rained down toward Amy like dashed lines.
However, Amy also counteracted with a rapid-fire of Flame Strikes, neutralizing all of them.
In an infinitely vast coordinate space, aligning a point with a line is exceedingly difficult. The precision of both individuals could be said to be on a knife's edge.
Back on the ground, the two collided once again, engaging in a close-quarters firefight. But, as expected, the gunman had the upper hand at close range.
"In that case...!"
Amy unleashed Fire Mist, a defensive magic. As the hot wind blew, reddish smoke enveloped the surroundings like a lump of gas.
As Freeman moved out of range, Amy unleashed a rapid-fire of Flame Strikes to finish him off. About ten fiery spears surged forward, burning the air.
Popopopopopopong!
But this wasn't the end. Using Teleportation, she circled around Freeman, ceaselessly unleashing her magic.
Just as dozens of Flame Strikes converged on a single point, Freeman's eyes widened as he activated Schema.
One of the eye techniques: Compound Eye.
The landscape that Freeman was looking at was fragmented as if seen through the eyes of an insect.
Upon receiving the individually analyzed information, Freeman's waist swayed back and forth like a willow branch.
The continuous Flame Strikes that followed one another could not even graze his clothes and passed by in a crisscross pattern according to the order of time.
Amy sensed that this was no ordinary technique. Although it was nothing compared to Red Eye, it was clearly an eye technique specialized for gunmen.
She changed her strategy and hid in the forest. As long as the opponent was a high-level gunner, she had no chance in close combat.
However, Amy had another specialty: Sniping. She moved 300 meters away and spotted Freeman. She calmly saw him opening the cylinder to reload his Magic Projectiles.
'Hmph, let's see how long you can be leisurely.'
Amy transformed the target-type spirit zone into sniper mode. The zone stretched out in a conical shape, aiming directly at Freeman's face.
Due to the nature of Flame Strike, the power is amplified as the distance increases. This is because there is an air tunnel, which can be said to be a characteristic of wind magic.
Utilizing air pressure, the speed of an object can be accelerated as it flies. A Flame Strike fired from 300 meters away would have nearly four times the power at close range.
As Amy cast her magic, the spear of fire was sucked into the air tunnel and surged towards Freeman.
At the 200-meter mark, Amy thought it was over. Given the current acceleration, the speed to cover the remaining 100 meters would be more than four times that of the first 200 meters.
Ultimately, Freeman can never react in time.
As expected, Freeman did not move. However, Amy was shocked. The Flame Strike had landed far away from Freeman.
'I made a mistake?'
That's when Amy realized. She felt an unusual sensation infiltrating her mind.
'Anti-magic...'
It was clear that Freeman's gun was enchanted with anti-magic.
By her estimation, while it might be just a 3% difference, at 300 meters, even that small error would greatly magnify.
Anti-magic was dangerous to her. It directly affected her spirit zone, and it was a magic she couldn't counteract even with her red eyes.
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Tags:
Infinite Mage (Novel)
