Chapter 200: The Land That Flows Like a River - 2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 200: The Land That Flows Like a River - 2
The Regressor and I were in agreement: we needed a plan.
“The Gunmaster…! Tch, she’s a real pain in the ass!”
The Regressor shot up, shouting with irritation.
“Stay here! I’ll check outside!”
“Don’t show yourself! She’ll fire the moment she sees you!”
“I know! I’ll distort the space with Heavenly Mirror, so it’ll be fine!”
“It’s a volley! Are you sure you’ll be okay?!”
“I’ll have to deflect it! There’s no other way! What, you want me to drill a hole and peek out?”
If we did that, Historia would find it instantly. That woman, for all her recklessness, has an uncanny knack for getting to the heart of the matter. You could say she has good instincts.
When I shook my head, the Regressor grumbled as she prepared to go out.
“Seriously… whose idea was it to have someone with that much Qi shoot a gun?! She’s gotten weirdly difficult to deal with!”
Sorry about that.
I muttered briefly before immediately undoing the cloak I was wearing. I took two steel rebars, arranged them in a cross, and draped the cloak over them, instantly creating a human-shaped figure.
Alright. This should be enough to draw their attention.
“I’ll open the back door and throw out a decoy. When the gunfire focuses on it, you go out the front!”
“Got it!”
‘What’s this? You two actually know how to coordinate!’
She sounds pleased. I’ve scored some points.
Holding the makeshift decoy, I kicked the container’s back door. It flew open with a clang, and a hail of bullets immediately peppered the doorframe. A series of chilling sounds rang out. The half-open door slammed shut from the impact, then swung open again, repeating the motion.
“Hup!”
I hurled the decoy through the opening with all my might. The moment the human-like shape appeared, the soldiers’ gunfire shifted toward it.
‘A lure. Is this Huey’s work?’
But Historia, the one I actually wanted to fool, gave it only a brief glance before dismissing it. The muzzle of her gun remained fixed on the container, unwavering, ready to react to whoever came out.
Tch, I guess I have to use this too. But what if the decoy says hello?
You think you have such good hearing? Then listen to this!
“Good morning, Ria!”
Shouting loudly, I yanked on the wire connected to the decoy. The part where the rebars were tied together twisted, making the tattered cloak momentarily look like it was raising a hand. For the briefest of instants, that deceptively human-like gesture made Historia’s gun barrel turn toward it.
‘Tch, such an obvious trick…!’
Why do you think obvious tricks become obvious? Because they’re effective, so they get used often.
Immediately after, the Regressor burst out the front. Taking advantage of the relatively thin barrage of bullets, she emerged, cloaked in Qi Deflection, and instantly swung Chun-aeng.
Skyblade Art, Heavenly Mirror.
The volley of bullets that followed a half-beat later lost its way in the swirling wind. Amidst the rain of bullets scattering in every direction, the Regressor’s eyes widened as she gripped her invisible sword.
Farsight, Indigo Eyes. Surveying the area with her sixth eye, the Regressor scowled and yelled.
“Just one of the Six Generals?! Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Ridiculous, you say.”
Having missed the timing, a counter-shot was difficult. Instead, Historia stood firmly planted on the automaton carriage and slowly took aim at the Regressor.
A cold smile played on her lips.
“You’re full of confidence, Cutie.”
BANG.
Qi spiraled violently as gunpowder and Qi Art exploded in unison, propelling the bullet from the barrel. The target was the center of the Regressor’s chest. It was a single, full-power shot, holding nothing back.
At the same time, the Regressor’s blade was already in motion.
The seventh color of the Seven Colored Eyes. The eye that sees power, the Violet Eye.
She watched the tremendous torrent of power, from its discharge to its trajectory, as if in slow motion.
The stronger a force, the less it is affected by external factors. In other words, its beginning and end are clear and unchanging.
An eye that observes the release of power, something akin to foresight. The Regressor moved her wrist to meet the end of that trajectory. The weightless Chun-aeng moved in a flash.
Her suspiciously high-performance mystic eyes captured the bullet’s movement.
But if I could win just by observing, I would have conquered the world long ago. No matter how good your eyes are or how sharp your Qi Sense is, it’s useless if you can’t block the attack.
But the Regressor possessed a Qi Art specialized in defense.
Heavenly Counter Domain, Defensive Form. Parry.
Chun-aeng sliced through the air, and in the same instant, the gunshot rang out. The two trajectories passed through the same point in space at the same time.
The flash of light veered off course. The Regressor, who had been holding her breath, let out a deep exhale and continued the motion of her swing.
“Don’t mess with me! There’s a lot of wind here!”
A fierce wind raged across the Land That Flows Like a River. Enveloped in a storm so intense it distorted her vision, the Regressor swung the massively swollen Chun-aeng like a fan.
Skyblade Art, Dance of Chaos.
At the edge of the giant butterfly’s wingbeat, an invisible storm brewed. It was more insignificant than a gentle breeze, yet it was a grateful vortex that could lift a butterfly’s small, light body.
Now, magnified tens of thousands of times, it slammed into the automaton carriages running parallel to the belt.
Rumble. Even the heavy automaton carriages swayed helplessly in the vortex of wind. As the carriages lost their balance and staggered from side to side, a few soldiers were thrown off.
Even amidst the chaos, Historia remained glued to the roof of the carriage, reloading her next shot. As if the shaking beneath her feet had no effect, she expertly balanced herself with her arms and legs and aimed her gun.
“Tch, you’re a handful…!”
“Look who’s talking.”
While the two women faced off, I took out a single, neatly folded piece of cloth.
I hadn’t been able to grab everything in my haste to escape, but I had managed to secure a few truly important items. One was my deck of trump cards—my magic cards, each infused with an enormous amount of Alchemic Gold.
And the other was this special cloth, custom-ordered from Sephier.
“This isn’t how it was meant to be used…”
It was a magic cloth. The kind I sometimes used in performances, an opaque cloth to cover people’s eyes and make objects inside disappear or change. Its main features were that it was extremely durable and wrinkled easily.
This is a secret, but it’s actually double-layered, so you can hide things inside.
In any case, I had Azzy hold the cloth in her mouth. I placed my hands on the shoulders of Azzy, who was staring at me intently.
“Azzy. Can you do it?”
“Woof. Trust. Me!”
With firm resolve, Azzy immediately leaped forward.
She landed in front of the Regressor, who was preparing to block the next bullet. With the cloth in her mouth, Azzy shook her head violently as if to fling it away.
Even as the storm raged, harassing fire continued. It was still meaningful if it could wear down their nerves. But with Azzy’s appearance, even that became pointless.
The cloth flapped, and every bullet was swallowed beneath it.
Thud-thud-thud-thud. Like a net filtering a current, the cloth billowed backward, forming uneven pockets. The captured bullets made futile noises.
‘The Dog King is using a tool? But she’s still the Dog King. She cannot be our enemy.’
Historia ignored Azzy, who was prancing around in her line of sight. Without wavering, she aimed past her at the Regressor and pulled the trigger.
‘Their lines of sight are blocked. I’ll use this chance when she can’t see me to fire a penetrating shot.’
A naive thought.
Just before the bullet was fired, Azzy’s fur stood on end. A beastly instinct, close to a sixth sense. An instant before the shot, Azzy leaped high into the air.
BANG. The gunshot echoed again.
But this time, the Gunmaster’s shot achieved nothing. Azzy, firmly clenching the thick, sturdy magic cloth, intercepted the bullet.
Ordinary fabric would have been pierced. And her opponent was Historia, no less. The bullets she fired, infused with Qi, were fierce enough to tear the world apart.
But my cloth was no ordinary cloth, either.
A bullet spins. This is to allow it to cut through the wind and fly true. But that spin also makes it stick to things more easily.
The moment the bullet tried to pierce the cloth, the fabric it touched crumpled into a vortex. Every part of the cloth, except for the section in Azzy’s mouth, stretched backward as if yanked by an immense force. My magic cloth looked like it would tear at any moment, but it somehow held.
Phew, that was close.
I knew it might be cut by a Qi-infused blade, but I believed it could block a bullet. I was counting on you!
The impact made Azzy’s head snap to the side, but only for a moment. She immediately gave a sharp shake of her head, and dozens of bullets caught in the cloth fell to the ground, rolling away. As Historia clicked her tongue, an officer on another automaton carriage shouted.
“Dog King, we are human! Do not stand in our way!”
“Woof? Me, blocking this?”
Azzy tapped one of the fallen bullets with her front paw. The incensed officer yelled, veins bulging in his neck.
“You are acting in hostility toward humans!”
“Woof? Regrettable!”
“Why is the Dog King taking sides?”
With the sturdy cloth still in her mouth, Azzy looked at the many people over there and declared.
“It’s a political move! I am a king, after all!”
“What?”
“Military State, I express my regrets!”
“This is why I hate kings…!”
Just as the enraged officer was growling, Historia sensed something and fired a blank into the air. A blue aura of Qi shot up like a signal flare.
As everyone focused on the Six General’s signal, Historia shouted fiercely.
“Everyone, evade!”
Azzy’s intervention was a mystery, but the Regressor did not miss the opportunity that had presented itself. Seizing any and every chance was a virtue of the Regressor.
She focused her mind and gathered her power. The flowing wind stopped flowing past her.
Though she wielded Qi and held a legendary sword, the Regressor’s power resembled that of a mage. The way of a world-changer, who twists and reshapes the world, creating her desired reality with immense power.
“You think you’re the only one who can shoot!”
There was more than enough wind. The Regressor held the condensed wind in her hand and brought the hilts of Jizan and Chun-aeng together.
Until now, she had wielded them with Jizan as the hilt and Chun-aeng as the blade, but this time was different.
Jizan was the cannon barrel, and Chun-aeng was the cannonball.
She aimed at the Gunmaster, using the Gunmaster’s own methods.
‘Fighting you with a gun up close is tricky, but I’m not scared of a long-range firepower duel at all!’
Historia’s weapon was, at best, a gun meticulously crafted by the Military State. It wasn’t bad, but it couldn’t escape the inherent limitations of a firearm.
In contrast, the Regressor’s weapons were treasured blades that were close to omnipotent.
The Regressor returned Historia’s method in kind.
The wind, which should have pushed everything away equally, braced itself against the recoilless Jizan, preparing to launch its entire being. The compressed wind burned hot, heating the tip of Jizan. A red aura swirled around the pitch-black weapon’s end.
A self-assertion fired from the earth to the sky, a message from the ground to the heavens.
Aerith Blade Supreme, Living Volcano.
It was different from Historia’s shots. If Historia’s power was a gunshot that seemed to pierce the world…
The Regressor’s wind bullet engulfed its own sound as it rushed toward the enemy. As if even the sound was a waste, power itself was fired.
The stray power became heat. A torrent of wind carrying immense heat was unleashed. The reason it didn’t ignite despite its temperature was simply because there was nothing to burn.
But the chaotically searing heat, blazing even as it flew, gave a clear indication of the power contained within.
Historia clicked her tongue and, instead of reloading, took a sharp breath.
A vortex formed in reverse of her firing motion, sucking Qi and wind into the muzzle of her gun. Having condensed power to its limit, Historia didn’t pull the trigger but instead detonated her Qi.
Explosive Discharge Domain, Fire Net.
Historia’s Qi Art resembled fire. It explodes, it burns, it erupts.
Not a net of fire created by crisscrossing bullets, but a literal net of blue flame spread out to block the Regressor’s wind.
The net of fire, erupting outward, collided with the wind bullet. Flame and heat, always companions, now clashed, locked in a brief stalemate.
For a fleeting moment, it seemed as if the flame would swallow the heat and swell…
But it was impossible.
The Regressor possessed two legendary swords. Moreover, their power as the twin swords of earth and sky was on a fraudulent level. The firepower an individual could muster was no match.
Still, she could at least put up a fight.
“Mage Officers! Headwind!”
At the officer’s command, the same sound echoed from all the automaton carriages at once. The officers, who had been gathering mana in advance, all stretched out their arms and shouted.
“Set, Re! Pascal!!”
Unique methods like magic are difficult to counter without using magic of the same kind. The Military State was a rigid nation, but if its tactics were just as rigid, it would only end up being hunted.
The Mage Officers assigned to each unit drew out all their remaining power to resist. A headwind poured out from their outstretched arms and the gauntlets surrounding them.
Even that wasn’t enough, but it was better than nothing. The three automaton carriages managed to hold on, their left wheels lifting just slightly off the ground.
One almost tipped over, its left wheel in the air, but when Historia quickly drew her pistol and fired three shots, it barely regained its balance and righted itself.
Holstering her pistol, Historia showed a hint of displeasure.
‘If we hadn’t countered… we would have all been overturned. This power to control wind is also troublesome. And the Progenitor hasn’t even stepped in yet.’
Left with no choice, Historia ordered a retreat. As if they had been waiting for the command, the automaton carriages slowed and turned their wheels outward. With a rough rumble, the wheels vibrated as they moved away.
Just that simple maneuver was enough to create a significant distance between them and us on the Meta Conveyor Belt.
‘Still, confirming the enemy’s methods was a sufficient gain. We’re the ones starved for information, after all.’
Historia, still standing atop the automaton carriage, continued to glare this way. As her eyes met the Regressor’s, she threw a fleeting glance toward the inside of the container.
‘In any case, the all-out assault is tomorrow morning. As a reconnaissance battle, this wasn’t bad.’
This… was a reconnaissance battle?