"G-General, a-are you alright?" A dazed guard who had just crawled up from the ground still remembered his duty and stumbled to Claude.
Just as Claude was about to reply, he saw a flash of light in the air. The guard in front of him had a horrifying gash from his left shoulder to the right side of his abdomen, as if he had been cleaved by an axe.
"Ugh …" The guard didn't even have the chance to cry out in pain before falling to the ground. He kicked the ground a few times before he stopped moving. Fresh blood spurted out from the wound on his chest.
"Windblade!"
Claude was shocked. He immediately recalled the legendary battle spell. He was indeed ambushed by a magus. Even though he didn't know why, he was at a critical juncture of life and death.
What should I use? Claude's mind finally cleared up a little. Magic Missile. He looked at the revolver in his hand. Oh, I remember now. I still have an energy barrier. That's a necessary life-saving spell for magi in a duel.
Claude no longer cared about exposing his identity as a magus. He hurriedly used his mana to activate the basic spell engraved in the second hexagram in his mental domain and prepared to give himself an energy barrier.
"Enemy ambush!"
The other three guards at the back had already climbed up. Seeing their comrade fall to the ground and die, they naturally understood that they were ambushed.
The guard in front knelt on one leg and aimed his gun with both hands, ready to fire at the figure in front of him.
However, when he pulled the trigger, he discovered that the shockwave from the explosion of the fireball that landed on the carriage had blown up half of the carriage. At the same time, the guards were also blown off their horses, and even the match on the gun in his hand had been extinguished by the explosion ….
Just as the guard retrieved his musket and took out a flint to reignite the match, a long green arrow suddenly flew from afar and pierced into his body. After half of the arrow had pierced into his chest, it turned into a stream of clear water and mixed with the fresh blood from his body. The guard dropped his musket, covered the wound on his chest, and softly fell to the ground.
This … This was the Water Arrow Technique!
With much difficulty, he conjured an energy barrier around himself and calmed himself down.
However, he did not understand what he had done to cause so many mages to come after him.
Fireball Spell, Wind Blade Spell, and Water Arrow Spell were not spells that a Magician could cast, because no Magician would choose to cast three spells of different attributes.
Most magi would only choose offensive spells with attributes similar to their own. Claude's Magic Missile, for example, was a non-elemental spell.
The situation of the two guardsmen was the same as that of the first. One had his match extinguished, and the other had his match broken. If he wanted to fire, he had to find a new match.
At this moment, seeing the guard in front of him fall to the ground, the guard who was about to change the match immediately equipped his bayonet and rushed forward to provide cover for his comrade who was lighting the match.
A dozen or so steps away, the charging guard raised his bayonet flintlock and thrust it straight at the two figures in the dust. The people who dared to approach so boldly at this time must be harboring evil intentions.
Due to the sacrifice of his two comrades, the charging guard was filled with rage. That thrust had used up all the strength he had left in his body.
The two silhouettes in front saw the guard's charge and thrust, but the one in front didn't panic and continued to block his way. Instead, the one beside him stopped and raised his hand, chanting something.
"Kill!"
The charging guard let out a shout, but to his surprise, a thin membrane appeared in front of his bayonet, blocking his charge. The blade of the bayonet was less than an inch away from the body of the person at the front, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stab through.
The guard was stunned. Before he could figure out what was going on, he saw a sinister smile appear on the face of the person in front of him. That loose gray robe fluttered, and his vision went black. He fell into eternal darkness.
Claude could clearly see that the person in front of him raised his finger and a long wooden spike pierced through the head of the charging guard.
The figure at the back had already stopped chanting. He raised his right hand, and a sparkling light of water appeared once again. In a flash, a bloody hole appeared on the face of the soldier who had just lit the match and was about to clamp it onto the medicine box. He fell to the ground without a sound, and blood stained a large area of the ground.
Everything happened in a few short moments. Claude's eyes bulged and he pulled the trigger with all his might, only to find that the trigger was so heavy that he couldn't pull it off no matter how hard he tried.
It was only then that he remembered that he hadn't turned the safety switch on yet.
The two grey-robed figures arrived quickly and were only four to five meters away from him. Because the dust from the explosion had mostly settled down, he could basically see what was happening on the other side.
"Him?
He's worth a hundred thousand gold keptons. That's way too easy. "
The grey-robed figure in front was a middle-aged man. He looked at Claude's general uniform and sneered.
Claude raised his revolver with the safety switch on and pointed it at the man. However, the man didn't panic at all and continued chatting with the grey-robed figure behind him. "Do you think he was scared silly by us? Did he forget that the gun he's holding isn't loaded with a match? Is he trying to scare us?"
Claude looked at the two grey-robed figures calmly. "Who told you to kill me?"
The grey-robed man laughed. "Since you're going to die soon, I'll let you know why you're going to die.
The Shiksan king, Majid III, entrusted us with a bounty of a hundred thousand gold keptons for your head.
Do you understand now? You can die now. "
The grey-robed man raised his finger at Claude, but Claude pulled the trigger without hesitation.
* Bang! *
White smoke rose from the revolver. In that instant, Claude saw a transparent bubble flash in front of the grey-robed man and explode. A finger-sized hole appeared on the man's forehead. His body stiffened for a moment before he fell to the ground.
"Ah!"
A shrill cry rang out. The grey-robed figure behind him let out a woman's voice. It was a female magus.
She immediately raised her right hand at Claude and chanted something.
Perhaps she also thought that Claude was only wielding a short gun that could only fire one shot, so she didn't hesitate to cast a spell in front of him.
With another bang, this female magician's eyes were filled with unwillingness. Her nirvana became lifeless and gloomy, and she also fell to the ground.
"Damn it, why does he have two pistols?"
Roared another grey-robed man in the distance as he raised his hand at Claude. Claude watched as a transparent blade of light appeared in the air in front of him and struck him before he could dodge it.
A colorless energy barrier appeared in front of Claude. Just like how the dead man had withstood the bayonet attack, it blocked the blade of light that came out of nowhere. However, the bubble on the barrier flickered rapidly, as if it would burst at any moment.
"Damn it, why does he have an energy barrier?"
The gray-robed Magician who shot out the Wind Blade was stunned, and the figure that was about to rush forward also stopped in its tracks.
Claude turned the hammer with his left hand and fired at the magus with his right. However, the shot didn't hit the magus at all. The bullet skimmed past his thigh.
The gray-robed Mage was shocked. "His gun can fire continuously …"
He wanted to turn around and run, but Claude had already pulled the hammer down and fired. Then, he pulled it down and fired again.
Two shots in a row. One hit the magus' left shoulder and the other hit his back. The magus fell to the ground, struggling.
There was another magus who could use fireballs. Claude turned to the spot where the magus used the fireball. It was empty.
Sweeping his gaze across the surroundings, he saw that the street was already empty. Only the half-destroyed carriage could be heard, and there were only screams and groans.
Claude walked around the carriage with his revolver in hand and saw a dead horse and two guards lying in a pool of blood on the ground to the right of the carriage.
They were luckier than the four guards on the left in that they were severely injured when the fireball hit the carriage and exploded, unlike the four guards who were thrown off their horses by the shockwave of the explosion and were killed by the Magician when they regained consciousness.
The coachman was already dead. He was the one in the worst state. The moment the fireball hit the carriage, half of his body was torn apart. All that was left on the seat was a broken leg.
Claude looked in front of the carriage. He remembered that he still had six guards to deal with the blockage up ahead. They should be running back now.
However, when Claude saw the scene in front of him, he felt a chill run down his spine. He saw his six guards lying in a pool of blood and three grey-robed magi walking towards him.
Pfft, pfft, pfft. Claude's back trembled and the energy bubble flickered.
He turned around hurriedly, only to discover that the gray-robed Spellcaster who had released the fireballs had already appeared at the entrance of the alley twenty to thirty meters away. He was pointing a finger at him, and streaks of colorless arrows were flying toward him.
He also shot Magic Missile, but as a grade-zero spell, it couldn't do anything to Claude's energy barrier.
Claude raised his hand and took aim. The magus dodged.
"Bang!" A gunshot rang out, and the gray-robed magician let out a blood-curdling scream. His right leg twisted, and blood spurted out as he rushed straight into the alley.
Claude bent the hammer and pulled the trigger, but all he heard was the sound of an empty barrel.
The bullets in his revolver were all used up. Claude hurriedly reached for the new barrel in his pouch and took out a new one. He folded the revolver and removed the empty barrel. Just as he was about to put the new barrel in, he remembered that there was a small bone shard stuck in the back of the new barrel. He had no choice but to toss the empty barrel on the ground and use his free hand to pull out the bone shard stuck in the back of the new barrel. Only then did he put the new barrel into the revolver.
While Claude was busy putting in the new barrel, the three grey-robed magi from the carriage had already cast two rounds of spells on Claude.
However, Claude ignored them. He could only gamble that his energy barrier would be able to withstand the spells of the three magi.
His gamble paid off. Two of the magi cast Magic Missile and the two rounds of attacks on Claude's back were blocked by his energy barrier.
The other magus cast Wind Blade. When it hit the barrier, the bubble flickered and flickered as though it was about to burst. However, it managed to hold on.
"His energy barrier is a grade-one spell scroll. Break it first and we'll be able to kill him!"
The Magician who released the fireball into the alley was still hiding in the corner. He shouted at his three companions who were in front of him.
Claude didn't have the time to care about him. Since he had already loaded his revolver, he wasn't afraid of the three magi.
He turned around and knelt on one knee. He pried the hammer open with his left hand and held his right.
He straightened his right hand and gripped the revolver tightly. He aimed, pulled the trigger and fired.
It was a duel less than 20 meters away between Claude and the three magi.
The moment Claude opened fire, the three magi cast another round of spells.
Two Wind Blades and a Water Arrow. These were all Tier 1 spells.
Bang! He pried the hammer open, took aim, and fired.
Bang! He pried the hammer open again, took aim, and fired.
Claude fired all six bullets in his revolver in one go. The first to be hit was the magus in the middle. He staggered backwards and fell to the ground.
The second to suffer was the slightly shorter magus on the left. He took two shots as he was about to cast another spell after the first shot. Claude didn't give him the chance and the second shot hit his chest, causing him to fall to the ground.
The skinny magus on the right took three bullets from Claude because he was trying to run away.
It seemed that the magus was rather cowardly. When he noticed that two of his companions had been shot, he ignored the fact that his Water Arrow had injured Claude and turned to run.
As he was the last person Claude aimed at, he missed the first shot due to his injury. The second shot hit his left thigh.
Seeing that the magus was still dragging his legs and leaving his back to him, Claude didn't disappoint his enemy's goodwill. He calmed himself down, held his breath, aimed, and fired. The last bullet knocked the magus to the ground.
Claude didn't have it easy either. The first Wind Blade from the magi's three grade-one spells managed to hold out for a while. But when the second Wind Blade hit him, the barrier shattered as well.
At the same time, the shockwave from the second Wind Blade affected Claude's aim and left an inch-long wound on his left arm. As a result, the second Wind Blade didn't hit the magus's vitals and he had no choice but to follow up with another shot.
Fortunately, the more cowardly magus on the right was shaken by the fact that his two companions had been hit. As a result, the slightly slower Water Arrow didn't hit Claude's chest. Instead, it hit Claude's right abdomen.
If he had been more daring and followed up with a Magic Missile, Claude might have been the one to die.
But he was too cowardly. Two of his companions fell to the ground without making a sound, causing him to turn around and run. That gave Claude enough time to aim and fire. However, it could also be said that Claude had to endure immense pain to fire his last three shots.
Claude used his left hand to cover the wound on the right side of his abdomen. The revolver in his right hand fell to the ground. The immense pain made his entire body feel numb and powerless.
By then, he knew that there was still a fireball-throwing magus hiding in the alley. However, Claude didn't have the strength to cast an energy barrier spell on himself or reload his revolver with a new one.
He turned his head with great difficulty and saw the magus hiding in the corner of the alley out of the corner of his eye. A fiery red ball of light was slowly forming in his hand and turning into a huge fireball.
Claude suddenly felt like laughing. The magus who released the fireball was probably in deep trouble now.
Had he known that two Wind Blades would be enough to destroy Claude's barrier and that Claude would be heavily injured along with the three magi, he definitely wouldn't have used a grade-two offensive spell like Bursting Fireball.
It was simple. He could have killed Claude with a single Magic Missile. Why would he waste time and energy to cast a Bursting Fireball? He was just worried about Claude's barrier, wasn't he?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the magus raise his hand and throw the fireball at him.
Claude gritted his teeth and endured the pain as he lunged forward.
Then, he felt the heat and impact from behind him. He was sent flying four to five meters away. Just as his consciousness faded into darkness, he seemed to hear two gunshots.