Doubt (4)
Doubt (4)
I had been thinking that if things really seemed impossible, I could step in and help as well.
The force released from Marmaros produced a physical effect matching the Marmaros's attribute, but it was also, in itself, a magical attack. Depending on the enemy's type, the damage could be reduced, but because it was inherently a magic-attribute attack, it dealt bonus damage to enemies vulnerable to magic.
In the original work, there had been magic without any particular attribute, after all.
That meant I could handle something like a slime as well. With a shotgun loaded with fire-attribute Marmaros, it should even be possible to melt a slime into a gooey mess. The problem was that the barrel would get severely fouled after use, though.
"I don't require any assistance."
But Lena spoke with great confidence.
"Have you ever faced an amorphous monster before?"
"I have not."
...... She was awfully self-assured for someone who hadn't.
"However, I am well aware of their characteristics. And, based on those characteristics, it cannot possibly be a threat to me."
At those words, my eyes were drawn involuntarily to the two pistols holstered under Lena's arms, one beneath each. If a firearm had been fitted with Marmaros, it would show. The way my own shotgun did. But Lena's pistols looked far too ordinary.
"Then, if you will excuse me."
Having said that, Lena left those of us on the hill behind and began walking with a confident stride toward the amorphous monster below.
The monster's body was a bluish, semi-transparent color reminiscent of a slime, but apart from that, it actually looked closer to a golem. Its height must have been about three meters. Seen up close, its presence would likely feel tremendously oppressive.
"Will she be all right?"
Alice, standing beside me, voiced the question I wanted to ask.
"She says she's confident,"
Claire said to Alice. The others were watching Lena's back as if intrigued.
...... Well, if things looked too dangerous, we could simply turn back time.
As I was watching Lena's receding figure with that thought, Mia Crowfield spoke up.
"She'll probably be fine."
When the eyes of everyone standing here snapped toward Mia Crowfield, she flinched and trembled at the shoulders. Then, as if self-conscious about receiving so many stares, she rolled her eyes around awkwardly and spoke with some effort.
"When you handle magical power consistently, you learn to distinguish objects or people that possess it, as you know. I felt...... a considerable amount of magical power from Miss Meyer."
Hm.
Unless someone was truly on the level of a great archmage, sensing magical power with the naked eye was quite difficult. There had been a theory that sword energy was also a form of magical power, but in the game, it seemed to be treated as something different from magic altogether. Though its attribute was still classified as a magic attribute.
Then again, trying to logically define laws outside of physics was a foolish endeavor from the start. This was a fantasy world, wasn't it? Even the supposedly logical laws of physics would take a long time to fully define from a human perspective, so magic, which operated far more strangely, would be even harder.
"Magical power? You're saying she has magical power impressive enough to surprise even you?"
When Jake spoke, Mia Crowfield's face grew even redder.
"Ah, well, um, I suspect it may not be Miss Meyer's own magical power. When I sensed it earlier in the corridor, I couldn't feel it properly......."
Which meant it was indeed the influence of Marmaros, after all.
"Graaaar!"
A sudden shout rang out, and we stopped our conversation and turned toward the source of the sound.
The monster that resembled a slime golem was bellowing. The roar was low and resonant, befitting its size. I couldn't quite tell through what mechanism it was producing the sound, but watching its squishy surface vibrate in response to the noise was not a pleasant sensation.
Frankly, it was a bit grotesque.
But Lena, walking toward it, simply crossed both arms without any sign of concern and drew her pistols.
...... And that sight was, admittedly, a little impressive. Impressive enough to stir the lingering case of chuunibyou sensibility that stubbornly remained in one corner of my heart, like a chronic illness that refused to be cured.
Without halting her stride, Lena drew both pistols, and the slime howled and charged at her.
Because of its bulk, each movement looked sluggish, but that was simply how it appeared. Each step it took covered an enormous distance, and the slime closed in on Lena in an instant.
But that didn't mean Lena simply stood still.
Lena extended both pistols straight ahead and took aim.
And then,
"Graaar!"
Facing the massive, blunt fist the slime threw with all its weight behind it, she fired calmly.
Bang—
The gunshot was loud enough to be heard quite clearly even from this distance. The sound of the powder inside the cartridge case in the chamber burning. And the sound of the bullet tearing through the air at high speed pierced through the slime's bellowing and reached us here.
And then,
Boom!
One of the slime's hands burst apart.
It wasn't just any explosion. Rather than the blast of a mortar or a field gun, it was an explosion as if the very air had ignited and burned. In war films, they sometimes showed the effect of a bullet striking a flamethrower and erupting in a burst of flame, and it had exactly that kind of atmosphere.
"...... Ah, it's Marmaros!"
Claire, watching the scene, let out a small exclamation of admiration.
Yes, it was Marmaros.
But on the firearms that looked small from here, I couldn't see any conspicuously protruding part. Nor were the barrels unusually thick, for that matter.
Which meant.......
"Is she using the Marmaros itself as the projectile?"
Charlotte reacted with evident interest.
"I, I believe so."
Mia Crowfield then doubly confirmed it.
...... So, in other words, the guns didn't need to be modified. The bullet itself was made of Marmaros from the start, so there was no need to specially modify components like the barrel. Because at the moment of firing, it behaved just like a normal bullet.
The moment it activated was the moment the Marmaros round struck its target and shattered.
"Gyooo!"
The slime let out what sounded almost like a scream of agony and swung its other hand,
Bang!
But Lena swiftly spun the pistol in her left hand and blew off the slime's left hand as well. Both of the slime's arms had been destroyed in an instant, yet its aggressiveness hadn't diminished in the slightest.
Its right arm, which had been destroyed first, was already slowly regenerating. Even as that happened, the slime tried to step forward with both feet—
Bang!
With a shattering sound, it toppled sideways.
White steam was rising from its right leg. The steam produced as the leg, flash-frozen in an instant, shattered and then thawed again just as rapidly. It resembled the way dry ice melted.
It appeared that fire-attribute Marmaros was loaded as ammunition in her left hand, and ice-attribute Marmaros in her right.
"The Autonomous State has many large beasts. The population density is also drastically low compared to the forests or the mountains. Thanks to that, the hunting game probably never runs out."
...... And on top of that, there were many mines. The Autonomous State government still controlled most of them for now, but the population was chronically insufficient, and since they were constantly recruiting soldiers to fight against the warlords, miners to extract Marmaros were in short supply, they said.
Nevertheless, it was still true that Marmaros was comparatively easy to obtain. Just as Winterfield hunters roamed the mountains hunting beasts, a great deal of Marmaros would also be extracted from the beasts hunted to protect the settlements.
Bang, bang, bang—
A volley of gunshots rang out.
Approaching the slime that had fallen onto its side, Lena fired several more shots with the pistol in her right hand. With each bullet that lodged itself in its torso, the slime froze over with increasing speed.
And soon, once the thoroughly frozen slime could no longer move properly,
Bang!
Lena raised her left hand and fired a round as if driving in the final nail.
Boom!
The rigidly frozen body exploded and scattered in every direction. The frozen fragments of the amorphous body melted away as they flew, but those fragments neither gathered together again to become whole nor recovered. It seemed the core, the amorphous monster's weak point, had shattered along with the explosion.
After spinning both pistols with a flick so that the faint smoke trailing from their muzzles dispersed, Lena tucked the firearms back into the leather pouches under her arms. The sight was impressive.
"That was brilliant!"
Claire shouted toward Lena as she approached. That marked the starting point, and everyone clapped and greeted Lena.
Lena's expression as she walked toward us looked just a little proud.
Given that she was looking directly at me, she was probably hoping for my praise as well.
"That was splendid."
There were bound to be people who would say it was all thanks to her equipment rather than her skill, but on a battlefield, drawing such distinctions was meaningless. It was a place of only two options: kill or be killed. And by that logic, swords were also divided into legendary blades and ordinary ones, weren't they?
However.......
I glanced past Lena's back and thought.
...... Considering she had used that many Marmaros rounds, hadn't this been a losing fight in terms of profit? The slime had been blown to scattered pieces, so extracting more Marmaros from it would probably be difficult as well.
Of course, I deliberately chose not to voice that thought aloud.
Because her expression looked far too satisfied.
...... Was this how Alice felt when she looked at me?