Chapter 181 - Financial Burdens
While Neia was the one who began the massacre by killing the first man, it was Samur who was going to finish it.
That's how it had been until now, anyways.
The hundreds of ice spears Samur had conjured in the air darted towards their targets with incredible speed.
Of course, the guards guarding the door were no pushovers. They were the elites, the best of the best 'lent' to Mr. Kidnappers aka Tristan.
Originally, Tristan wanted to take Lecia back to their HQ. There, he intended to put her under the highest level of security the HQ had to offer.
That way, even if Lecia's so-called comrades came to rescue her, Tristan would be able to repel them.
However, the leaders at the HQ thought differently. According to them, while Lecia was an incredibly valuable asset, it wasn't worth endangering their HQ.
After all, their HQ hid secrets far more important than a mere 'Lecia'.
To compensate for that, they had provided Tristan one of their most secure hideouts along with exceptional security personnel. The best of their best knights were here, just to protect a single girl.
That's how valuable Lecia was to them.
Did Samur know her true worth? Probably not. He hadn't checked because she wasn't that important in his eyes.
But in Samur's defence, nothing was really special or valuable to him; he had seen everything that the Universe had to offer.
The perks of being a professional transmigrator.
Anyway, because these guards were not mere pushovers, they immediately regained their composure in front of the menacing ice spears and got into position.
The mages stood at the back while the knights stood at the front to let the mages safely cast spells.
The knights holding shields encircled the entire entourage, protecting them from all directions.
These guys had realised that that man's head exploding wasn't Samur's doing.
Nice.
The knights with the shields poured their aura (a form of energy fundamentally different from Mana and mainly used by physical fighters) into those shields.
The shields glowed blue as a layer of aura appeared on them.
The next moment, that layer spread out in to the air and formed even larger shields, thus blocking out both Samur's spears and Neia's bullets.
"Oh my," Samur chuckled. "Looks like you're going to lose, Neia."
?What are you talking about?? Neia asked confusedly.
The sensor she was currently using was a Mana Sensor. And because Aura was different from Mana, she couldn't see that it was being used through this sensor.
Samur hadn't expected them to use Aura, but then again, it didn't matter.
"Nothing. Just switch to Armour Piercing rounds."
?Roger,? Neia nodded and switched out her current magazine with a different one.
Since this was a high fantasy world, these armour piercing rounds were different from conventional ones. They were multipurpose.
Of course, one could also use them to piece through very hard surfaces, like the hide of a Dragon.
This is what Samur had used to blow the head of the Dragon in that epic aerial chase.
"Oh, and remember. Keep your body out of the line of sight of the rifle's end."
Unlike the Mk-III version (which exploded), the Gauss Sabot Mk-V rifle was made to handle armour piercing rounds.
The way it did so was by dispersing the recoil energy through its tail.
Needless to say, this energy was strong enough to shred through the shoulder of any normal person.
Neia might be able to handle it, but as a woman there wasn't any need to prove that she had a Big D by deliberating taking on that recoil energy.
Or was there?
Hmmmmmmm….
…
Let's just move on.
?Understood,? Neia said as she repositioned herself a bit and peeked through the scope again.
She had two choices right now; either shoot the guys rapidly approaching Samur, or shoot the mages at the back.
She decided to take out the troublesome mages first. Samur was more than capable of taking care of himself, anyway.
However, just then, she heard the rustling of leaves.
?…?
There was nothing out of place about leaves rustling. They were currently in a forest and it was a windy night.
It would weirder for the leaves to not rustle.
However, something about this sound seemed odd.
It came from behind her, and it came a second before the gust of wind.
Neia narrowed her eyes and looked at the mirror she had set up to see behind her.
However, all she saw was the green of bushes and trees.
But her intuition was telling her something else. Trusting it, she pulled her finger from the rifle and picked up the handgun.
The moment she did, the bushes rustled again.
Now she was sure of it. Someone was behind her.
Once she confirmed it, there was no need to hesitate. She swiftly rolled around and unloaded her pistol's magazine in the bushes behind her.
Several bangs resounded inside the forest as the unlike the rifle, the pistol was not silenced. What followed were the squeaks of animals and monsters running away.
"H-how did you…" A voice came out from the bushes, followed by a man riddled with holes.
The next moment, he fell down. His body twitched for some moments as some low groans escaped his mouth, before he finally died.
The unsilenced pistol silenced the assassin.
?…? Neia took a deep breath to steady her wildly beating her heart.
As they had expected, it didn't take too long for their enemies to calculate her position and come after her.
As per the protocol, she was required to reposition to one of the backup vantage spots.
And so, she turned around to pick up her rifle and the setup.
Due to sheer luck, or perhaps something else, she turned around just in time to see a blade heading for her neck.
Her body reacted before her mind could and she jumped back several steps.
However, the sword, as if it was a snake which had locked on to its prey, came after her.
"It would seem you're in danger," Samur said as he noticed that the absence of shots.
?No shit!? Neia exclaimed.
"Abandon everything and run away."
?What about you?? Neia asked as she narrowly evaded the sword heading for her neck.
As she did, her and her assailant's gaze met.
The assassin seemed oddly obsessed with her throat. Kinky.
"Don't worry about that. Abandon the sniper rifle and reposition to one of the backup hideouts. Do it as fast as possible."
?…Understood,? Neia decided to trust Samur and tactically retreat.
However, escaping on foot seemed a bit difficult; the assassin sent after her seemed dead set on ending her life.
And so, she took a large leap.
The assassin licked his lips as he saw her jump into the air. She had narrowly avoided her attacks till now, but that will no longer be possible in the air.
With the intention of ending this, he chased after her, brandishing his sword.
However, before he reached her, a torrent of light exploded from her body, forcing him to shield his eyes with his hands from the blinding light.
The next moment, the light vanished allowing him to open his eyes again.
However, the moment he laid his eyes on the 'being' before him, he shuddered.
A mighty aura pressed down on him as that being's eyes looked down on him as if he was an insect.
In front of the legendary Dragon, his body froze.
However, contrary to his expectations, instead of ending his pathetic life right then and there, the Dragon just flapped its wings and flew away.
"Ah!"
The strong winds generate from that flap smashed him into the ground. Chunks of rocks flew as a small crater formed on the ground.
Had he not used Aura to cover his body to protect himself, he likely would have died.
When he finally got up and got out of that crater, the Dragon was nowhere to be seen.
He had failed his mission of killing her. But what the fuck was he supposed to do to a Dragon?
But at the very least, he had stopped her from using that strange artefact to kill the guys on his side.
Which was quite strange. Why would a Dragon use an artefact when it could wipe them out with artillery spells?
'That must have been Neia,' the assassin thought to himself.
No wonder she didn't attack them directly. As per the briefing given to them by Tristan, Neia had absolutely zero attack power.
But it seemed they had found to a way to resolve that problem.
The assassin looked at the artefact that she was using to wreak havoc and decided to take it back with him.
Who knew, perhaps it might be useful to them.
Meanwhile, after escaping that assassin, Neia used cloaking magic and headed towards the first hideout, which was literally on the opposite hill of the one she had just been on.
She returned to her human form and contacted Samur, ?I escaped.?
"Perfect," Samur replied while firing another one of his spears.
?But I had to leave everything behind.?
"Ah… then it's probably already in the hands of the assassin. Whatever, I'll give you a new one, but it'll cost money this time."
He couldn't keep making things for free.
Well, actually he could. The cost of creating artefacts for the Guild members was shouldered by the Guild itself.
However, Samur had kept the sniper rifle a secret from them, so he had no choice but to shoulder financial burden on his small 12-year-old shoulders.
Sed.
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