[153] Second Encounter (1)
"We're definitely close. If we go about one more kilometer…"
Just as Amy started to explain, a fireball burst out of the woods with a roaring noise.
"Ambush! Take cover!"
Sirone's party scattered in different directions. The flame slammed into the ground, devoured the air as it swelled, then scattered as heat.
"Fireball?"
"Amy! Watch out!"
The second and third attacks arrived at the same time.
But Amy didn't dodge. Instead she took a combat stance, fixed her eyes on the flames, and lanced through the fireballs with the same number of Flame Strikes.
"Come out! Only cowards ambush!"
"Your skill's decent. Getting this far wasn't just luck."
Sirone's party looked back along the mountain path. A man stepped out of the forest. He was about Rian's height, with a lean, agile build.
He had no eyebrows, yet the confidence with which he slicked his hair straight back, and his pallid impression, made him look like a snake.
"Who are you?"
"Deputy Commander of the Aengmu Mercenary Corps. Agado Freeman."
At the words "Deputy Commander," tension flickered across Sirone's group. On the other hand, it also meant the destination couldn't be far.
"Sirone, I'll handle this. When I give the signal, take Rian and Tess and head for the cliff."
"I can't do that. It's too dangerous."
"And what about you? Did you forget you jumped into that trap alone? Are you going to keep treating me like I don't count?"
"It's not that. He's not alone. There are about twenty men lying in ambush in the woods."
Amy had already confirmed it with her Spirit Zone as well. All the more reason she wanted Sirone to go first.
If they got bogged down here, they'd only be buying time for reinforcements from the first gate to arrive.
Determined to persuade Sirone somehow, Amy raised a hand and pointed at Freeman.
"Sirone, look at that man's weapon. It's a gun."
Sirone turned and studied it closely. He really was gripping a weapon exactly like the one he'd seen in books.
Magistone rounds fired from a bow required swapping arrowheads, but a gun was specially manufactured to use only magistone rounds.
It loaded a small quantity of magistone rounds and fired them forward; judging by the design, it was a revolver system whose cylinder rotation allowed for rapid fire.
"Get it? You know what a gun is, right? You can reload faster than arrows, and it's a direct-fire weapon. Unlike arrows that detonate after impact, this fires a spell that's already manifested, so it's specialized for mid-to-long range. I bet the ones hiding in the woods are all using the same weapon."
Sirone understood what Amy meant.
"Okay. Then I'm leaving this to you."
Rian and Tess looked back with puzzled eyes. Amy's explanation of the guns only made it seem more dangerous. So why was Sirone changing his mind and leaving Amy alone?
"I'll buy time with a Fire Wall so they can't pursue. Use that window to break through."
"Got it. Rian, Tess—get ready."
If it was Sirone's call, Rian would follow. He didn't like leaving a comrade behind, but this wasn't the time to waste on debate; Tess swallowed and readied herself to burst out as well.
"Now! Go!"
Having finished focusing, Amy shouted, eyes wide. As Sirone picked a direction and sprinted, Rian and Tess flanked him left and right.
As expected, flames from guns came streaking in from all sides of the forest.
Amy cast Fire Wall in the shape of a massive circle.
The ground started to bubble like porridge, and flames that rose from underfoot tore forward with terrifying force, driving into the forest.
Then, as she amplified her mental power, the wall of fire roared to life, cutting off the enemy's line of sight.
At the same time, Sirone grabbed Rian and Tess and unfolded Space Shift. Its range was short compared to a high mage's, but it was more than enough to vanish from the enemy's very eyes.
Hearing the sound of Space Shift, Amy finally cut off the Fire Wall and panted for breath.
Nicknamed a mana-guzzling parasite, Fire Wall required a constant pour of mental power to maintain the barrier.
Despite its tremendous power, it wasn't "overpowered" precisely because the casting cost was so high.
Freeman, however, was purely impressed. The girl standing before him was, at best, in her teens.
As far as he knew, mages who could cast a Fire Wall of that scale at that age were exceedingly rare.
"Admirable. Sacrificing yourself for your comrades."
"Hmph! What 'sacrifice.' I sent them because I can handle this myself."
"Is that so? You look rather tired. Sorry, but things are urgent on our end too—we won't be waiting."
At Freeman's word, his subordinates appeared.
The fact that not one of them doused the burning forest was proof none of them were mages. But all of them were Schema users, and like Freeman, each gripped a gun.
A method of battle mixing Schema and magic. On the battlefield, such people were called Gunners.
Amy had never watched Gunners fight, but she could guess. She herself could wield both long-range magic and Schema at once.
Freeman's men flipped open their cylinders and fed in magistone rounds. Each cylinder seemed to hold at least six.
With two hands, that meant twelve spells mounted per person, and there were twenty enemies. So the cycle of their firepower, paced by reloads, worked out to two hundred and forty magistone rounds.
"Sorry, but your reckless little adventure ends here."
As Freeman finished speaking, his men raised their guns.
Truly, subordinates take after their chief: their temperament was different from Falcoa's men.
There was no carelessness or swagger—only focus on eliminating the enemy.
Amy let out a short laugh. Maybe Sirone had done most of the work this time, but she hadn't expected their assessment of her to be this stingy.
"You think you're going to have a shootout with me with only twenty people?"
Drawing her legs in as if bracing her lower belly, Amy began to cast.
A gust surged, and fist-sized stones rose around her, catching fire with a whoosh.
"This time, you picked the wrong opponent."
Amy's pupils burned crimson.
Even as she ran, Tess kept glancing back. She'd chosen to trust Sirone and follow, but no matter how she looked at it, it was a reckless plan.
Gunners might lag behind mages in raw firepower, but they possessed physical ability on par with swordsmen.
Thinking of Amy fighting among such foes made Tess's stomach twist.
"Sirone, how about turning back now? I'm worried about Amy."
"She'll be fine. If we drag this out, it gets worse. Survivors from the first gate might be chasing by now. Getting to the hideout fast takes priority."
"I get that, but what about Amy? Wouldn't it have been better if you took care of the enemies and came back?"
Catching Tess's train of thought, Sirone gave a wry smile.
"That's not how it is. A mage's skill isn't judged just by raw power. It depends on the situation and on the element. Against Gunners, Amy is several times stronger than I am."
Tess looked unconvinced.
Sure, she knew Amy was in the graduating class, but what she'd seen of Sirone's prowess since they arrived had been overwhelming.
Could there really be a situation where someone could become several times stronger than Sirone?
"How could that be? No matter how skilled you are, numbers matter."
True to a swordsman's nature, Tess centered her thinking on physical force.
Of course, in battle, the arithmetic sum of physical force by numbers is important.
But in magic, things are a little different.
For a mage who employs myriad phenomena by combining power source and technique, the enemy's headcount doesn't matter much.
What they focus on instead is the superior calculation that shapes circumstances so their honed ability can show its best efficiency.
"The properties of photons and those of flame are different. And their fortes in the four-aspect system are different too. Amy's a mage specialized in long range. That's because it lets her maximize the strengths of Crimson Eyes. No matter how strong they are, if Amy fights them in her own domain…"
Sirone spoke with conviction.
"No matter how many there are, they can't possibly beat Amy."
Tess swallowed. When she dealt with Sirone and Amy in daily life, it felt like looking after stubborn, thoughtless younger siblings—but in real combat, they turned ice-cold.
"You two are incredible. How can you be so decisive?"
"That's your misunderstanding, Tess. I think you're the incredible one."
"Tch. As if. You're the one who destroyed the fort, and I didn't even help."
Sirone didn't see it that way. The skill curves of swordsmen and mages are different from the start.
In the mental disciplines, many break through their age, but swordsmen—who need physical growth to back them up—tend to emerge later by comparison.
Tess and Rian would only grow stronger. And with a single blade bearing their conviction, they'd walk their own path.
"Sirone, we're here."
Clearing the forest, they found a vista of blue sea heaving beyond a god-given cliff.
On the cliff's eastern side stood a brick house. That was likely the hideout. But to get there, they'd have to pass the last gate.
Operations Captain Falcoa was waiting for Sirone's party.
Tess frowned, puzzled. By her read of his personality, he should've long since buckled on his blade and charged out to the battlefield.
"What the—has that bastard been here all along?"
"Heh heh heh, cracking you at the start would've been a lot more fun. But we've got our own circumstances."
There'd been an order from Marsha. It wasn't a tactic to his taste, but Falcoa complied. After all, it was the word of the one who'd turned a man written off as society's scum into a hero of the battlefield.
"Anyway, you made it. The commander was right. The woman you're looking for is in that building. Go in and try bringing her out."
Falcoa turned aside as if to open a path. But Sirone's party couldn't move. The killing intent blocking the way was utterly different from what they'd felt at the Royal Palace.
Tess understood how Amy had felt. To fight someone of this caliber, they too had to accept a certain degree of risk.
"He wants to throw us off. Rian and I will handle things here. Sirone, you go in and bring Yuna out."
Sirone nodded without argument. At his natural, "of course" response, Tess understood why Amy had smiled. Far from feeling slighted, she felt her heart warm.
'So it's not such a cold world after all. Is this what it feels like to be trusted?'
With Sirone's skill, slipping out alone would be trivial. After a beat, he cast Space Shift; his body became a flash and vanished.
Falcoa, however, didn't even turn his gaze.
From that, Tess realized it: he'd intended to let Sirone go from the start.
"Why?"
"Well, the commander's orders—and besides, I like the side with the woman a whole lot better."
Falcoa drew his sword and pointed at Tess. He was clearly a man of foul temperament, but the drug-staggered wobble was gone.
Without taking her eyes off Falcoa, Tess explained the plan to Rian.
"He's a Schema user. While I hold him off, you attack."
Falcoa's skill was obvious from his aura alone. So it made sense for Tess, also a Schema user, to defend; it was the way to maximize their chance of surviving.
"No. I'll hold him. You attack."
"Idiot, how are you going to hold him? I hate to say it, but you holding that guy alone is impossible."
"If it's impossible, then I'll just have to die."
"What?"
Tess blinked in disbelief. But Rian was serious—and he wasn't giving up the fight. He was simply fighting his fight.
"We're here to beat that bastard. We're not fighting just to keep breathing."
Tess couldn't refute it.
"If you hold him, sure, we can waste time. But you know that won't win. We'll both die in the end. So I'll hold him somehow. In the meantime, you focus on the attack."
Rian was right. You can blunt your sword and thicken your shield, but you won't win a battle that way.
In the end—even at the cost of your life—the right way is to hone your blade razor-sharp.