A Gunslinger's System in a World of Magic-Chapter 265: That One Death Sequence

As soon as Henry received the notification of Nyx's new skill, she was already activating it for use. Her body became shrouded with a dark misty shadow and it molded so much with her body that it looked like a part of it. This trend continued when her head began to grow a horn.

She looked slightly like a black unicorn except her horn was not the conical type of that fantasy creature but more like a blade. A curved blade that oozed dark shadowy mist as though constantly shifting between solid and liquid.

Nyx dropped her head and with her <Shadow Dash>, she charged at an Orc and stabbed through it with her horn before lifting her head and slicing through it so fast and so hard that its large body split in two with both halves hitting the ground at the same time with simultaneous thuds.

[Nyx has received 1000 Exp]

[<Shadow Body Manipulation: Dread Horn>;

At a fixed cost of Mana, arm yourself with a dread horn to spear your enemies through with.]

As usual, the system was vague about the actual mana cost of the spell and as it had been with <Shadowscape>, the details of the new skill were not very in-depth. But then again, they didn't need to be. Nyx already got the hang of it and had skewered two more Orcs already.

She seemed especially pleased with it as she relayed to Henry through their telepathic connection,

"-Oh this feels good! Is this how it feels to stab someone??? I love it!-"

Her energy and delight were infectious and Henry chuckled,

"-Try not to get blood in your eyes-" he cautioned. Her head being her point of attack, this seemed very likely.

Nyx scoffed,

"-Please, I'm so fast that I can outrun the blood splatter of my kills. I've got this!-"

And she did have it. She was already an efficient creature when it came to killing with her speed as an incredibly formidable tool but the 'Dread Horn' took it all further. Her kills were faster and, for the most part, cleaner. She no longer spent time clobbering enemies over and over because once they were split in two, what more is there to do but move on to the next?

Henry was not the only one to notice Nyx's increased efficiency. When she was done with the Orcs immediately around her, she set off for the ones giving the Knights trouble with their advantage in numbers. She saved the lives of many by the time the battle was over. Most especially the Mercenaries in Marla's group who couldn't stay as idle as they would have wished.

Again, there was no rest. It was a sprint to the next Dungeon Boss.

"How close are we?" Boyle asked Eloise.

"Very," she said and her tone did not sound encouraging.

"What is it?" Marla asked. Now that she had decided to bring her group along, any slumping tone or dread signs were deeply harmful to their overall chances of survival.

"It's nothing," Eloise said, "It's just… we're getting close."

That was all she needed to say. With a slightly added emphasis, it was clear this itself, was a course for concern.

Everyone could feel they had improved thanks to the hordes they had defeated so far but no one felt confident for that fight.

Still, they forged ahead.

"I hear fighting," Henry said soon. His Perception had grown and he picked it up better than he would have earlier.

"I sense it too," Eloise said but her brows furrowed, "These energies… They're one of us. It's Sit Doran's group!"

Th𝗲 most uptodate novels are published on ƒгeewёbnovel.com.

"How about that," Boyle said and paused for a second before announcing,

"Let's go help them!"

While he sounded like he usually did (righteous to save and continue his duty as a Knight), there was an edge to it. He wondered how his competitor, Doran had fared. And if they had had tragedies like his group had suffered.

"Henry, the Mercenaries," Andor said suddenly as they all charged to help the other group in their ongoing battle.

"I know," Henry answered.

His Quest to free the Cuff-wearing slaves was still in effect and he had completed it in part by killing Gareth and seizing his command cuff. Now the other command cuff was strapped to the wrist of one of the Mercenaries in the battle up ahead.

He believed that Mercenary was definitely still alive because the system would surely have informed him if anything had changed the current Questline.

"We have to pick our moment," Henry said, "It can't be like last time."

What he meant by that was that Gareth and his fellow Mercenaries could have been a very useful asset but that was lost the moment he got exposed. Unless such a situation was forced a second time, it was better to keep mute and at least fight by the sides of the Mercenaries until the expedition was over.

Andor understood. He just disagreed,

"If we have a chance to help those slaves now, then we should. Otherwise, they'd be forced to fight with us and they could die."

"They'd be forced to fight anyway," Henry said and gestured at the former slaves who were following their group for lack of choice.

"But it won't be their decision unless they're freed so it's not exactly the same thing," Andor said.

Henry paused because he felt Andor had a point. They had hung back from the group now as the Knights charged ahead so they could speak better and not feel rushed. Nyx stuck close of course.

Andor continued,

"Listen, do we really need those pieces of shit?" He asked obviously referring to the Mercenaries Henry was reluctant to kill at the moment.

"Probably," Henry said and his lips twitched into a smile, "But I think we can manage."

"Ha!" Andor let out feeling triumphant.

"But we'll have to be careful. We'll have the advantage of a full and rowdy battlefield. Let's take advantage of it."

And so the plan was ready. Henry had many Y'Nth metal arrowheads with him from the many archers he and the group at large had met and killed and he handed a few to Andor.

"Only use this for the kills. If there are no Orc Archers then we improvise but if there are Orc Archers, stab the Mercenaries with this so the kill isn't traced back to us.

I'll deal with the one with the Command Cuff."

With that, both Henry and Andor mounted Nyx's saddle and galloped to the battlefield. The group of Knights and Marla's Mercenaries had arrived before them and already joined the battle mix.

The four clerics that had gone with Sir Doran's group were all intact but were too much in the thick of battle barely protected by the few Knights close to them.

Meryna and her fellow Clerics stepped in quickly, rallying the former slaves who she had developed a bit of a rapport with and together they pulled the four clerics out of the gruesome battle scene and managed to retreat. The former slaves fended off attacks and Eloise was quickly there, shooting out Mana beams and ensuring they survived.

Doran noticed the arrival of the second group of Knights quickly and when he caught sight of Boyle, he first raised a brow and then frowned before being forced to look away and pay attention to his ongoing battle lest to be cleaved by an Orc's Axe.

A quick survey and Henry saw that not all the Knights of Doran's group had survived the expedition so far. They were down by at least half.

The Mercenaries, however, had kept their numbers mostly intact but the slaves were down by more than half. Clearly, they had been used as meat shields and were the reason for such high Mercenary survival numbers. Even now, the Mercenaries ensured they stayed close to absorb most of the attention of the attacking Orcs.

The sight convinced Andor even more that now was the time to act and fortunately, there were Orc Archers so their plan for covered-up kills was very much still in play.

They leaped off Nyx's back and Henry told her through their telepathic link,

"-Go!-"

And so she went. She vanished into shadow and used the shadow of many to traverse across the battlefield, charging out to interrupt an attack an Orc was about to deliver to a cuff-wearing slave who was barely capable enough to survive it.

She didn't slam into the Orc, she slammed into the Cuff-wearing slave sending him flying into the Mercenary behind him.

Andor got moving too. With his Spear in hand, he cut a path through enemies not caring about making a killing strike but just to get close to the Mercenaries. Henry followed sometimes firing shots to complete the kills Andor couldn't.

He had killed three Orcs by the time they arrived and Nyx's interference had caused a commotion very much in the favor of the Orcs. She vanished into the shadow just as an Orc's Ax came swinging down.

A cuff-wearing slave was just in line to absorb the attack —his eyes wide in horror at the incoming death—, when a watery tentacle wrapped around his waist and pulled him to safety.

The Ax continued swinging down and cleaved a Mercenary in two while it was still too shocked to really understand what just happened.

One half of the body hit the ground and the wrist of the arm had the command cuff on it. That one sequence had led to the death of the only other Mercenary besides Gareth to wear a Command Cuff.