Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!-Chapter 166: Calm before

*Swish*

*Boom…*

*Swish*

*Boom*

In the short few minutes since I heard Fay's first shot, her barrage drastically changed.

From steady, well-aimed strikes separated by the few seconds she needed to adjust her aim and correct for the enemy's movement, Fay now moved on firing as quickly as she could.

'Silence,' I thought once the echo of the distant yet closing explosions ceased, fading into obscurity amidst the darkness of the night.

And as the moment without the sound of Fay's bullet stretched into several seconds, a realization struck me.

'She's changing the barrel.'

It didn't take a genius to figure it out. After covering the area ahead of us with such an intense barrage, why else would Fay suddenly stop?

"Is it over yet?" Claudy asked in a voice less steady than usual.

'Right, he was on the receiving end of this kind of fire,' I thought, nearly instantly mending the impression his quick question left on me.

"I doubt it," I replied relatively silently, somehow ashamed of looking back at the man.

It was one thing to indiscriminately rain hellfire upon the high charges of the enemy army… And another one to await a battle while accompanied by the constant background sound of those shots firing at the target just right up ahead.

*Swish*

*BOOM!*

This time, the explosion was even closer. So close, in fact, I could already see the air brightening up instead of looking for the clues reflecting off the bottoms of the clouds. And it grew quite loud too.

I took a deep breath, taking a look at our situation.

It's been a mere seven minutes since Fay fired her first shot. And ever since then, she continued to bring down the god's wrath on whatever was approaching. The accelerating rate of Fay's shots along with how quickly they grew loud and near proved something pretty damn worrying.

Whatever was rushing to meet us and in doing so, emerge from behind the nearby hill's ridge was capable of withstanding a fire much more intense than what easily scattered humans in the camp a few times by now.

And it was getting closer.

I shook my head and turned my eyes to my side and slightly to the back.

"I think it's time for you to get away, at least a bit," I informed the acting leader of the mercenaries while fully ignoring his escorts.

They might be high-ranking officers of the mercenary army… But they weren't leading it.

*Swiboom*

By now, the sounds of the bullet cutting through the air mixed with the sound of the round discharging.

This threat, whatever it was, was just ahead, just over the hill.

"No way…"

Alerted by the change on Claudy's face, I turned my face back only to see the enemy that just crested the hill.

It was once a glorious knight, no doubt. But by now, his battered, bloodied, and heavily damaged armor was anything but shiny and impressive. The heavy breathing of the man's massive horse only indicated just how tough of a trip he had to get all the way here.

And before I could even mutter a word…

*BOOM!*

This time, the explosion was so close, that the noise of the discharge drowned all the swishing sound of the round actually flying through the air. And for the very first time, I got to witness the disturbingly effective might of those anti-tank bullets.

The round didn't explode in the rider's face. No, it discharged roughly a meter away from him, at a sharp angle from above. Faced with some sort of invisible obstacle, the charge hidden within the round went off and accumulated just on its tip, cutting through whatever this defense was like a sculpting razor would cut through human flesh.

With ease.

Once freed, the tiny pellets melting in the overwhelming inferno of napalm-like substance spewing out from the tiny hole in the rider's barrier covered the man and his horse up.

Some pellets cut straight through the man's armor. The explosion itself compressed the rider's helmet-covered face and upper chest, squeezing them well beyond lethal levels before the rain of red-hot pellets.

In a single instance, the proud figure of a battered yet determined fighter who, as I've just noticed, carried a golden-sown banner in his hand, turned into a still corpse sitting atop a still mass of finely cut flesh that used to be its horse.

Quite notably, though, even with the upper third of his body gone and the rest cut like vegetables for a salad… The rider didn't let go of the banner.

Not until his companions braved over the crest of the hill. And without skipping a single beat, one of them just rode past the proud corpse, snatching the wood of the beautiful, golden-red banner from the corpse's still yet warm fingers.

"CHARGE!"

Whoever was in charge, screamed so loudly his voice cut through the distance that separated the crest of the hill from the camp.

"Golden Cavalry…" Claudy muttered, his eyes opening up wide.

BOOM!

Fay's shot fell two riders this time.

As it turned out, while the cumulation charges proved to be a great tool to penetrate whatever defensive barriers those people raised and then contained all of the mayhem released by the round mostly within the spherical shape of said barrier… it also meant that those rounds, designed to kill people en masse, could hardly harm more than two, three at once.

And from the feeling I got when I saw Fay's shot cut down two more of the gallant knights… Even a double-kill required some insane level of aim and sense for a distant movement.

"Leave, now!" I screamed out, using the fact that I still had some time and distance to work with. And with how those riders instantly rushed down the hill and towards the camp at a break-neck speed, the noise their mounts made had to shield my voice quite perfectly. "I can't have you dying on me now!"

The safety of Claudy was imperative. And as long as he survived, there would be still some room for us to work out a proper deal instead of this makeshift, gentleman agreement we had right now.

"But leave some of your men behind," I ordered right as Claudy gave me a pitying look.

Turning my eyes away from Fay's ongoing carnage, I smirked at the mercenary leader.

"I still need them to see how easily I can slaughter them all," I announced with a smile before finally removing the shottie from my neck and harnessing it in my arms. "Even if it some of them will end up dying in the process," I added only to turn away and walk up towards the loose, makeshift barricade the humans raised around their entire camp.

It was a far cry from any proper defense, consisting not of solid wooden stakes and proper walls, but made up with carriages, stacks of boxes, and all sorts of stuff only aimed to slow the enemy down, not to bring him to a complete stop.

But for my intents and purposes, this barrier was more than enough.

"Everyone!" I called out.

BOOM!

The shockwave of the nearby condensation bullet going off slightly shook my hair. And in the single moment I couldn't use to speak, I cast a quick glance at my unit.

They were all hidden behind all sorts of obstacles, removed from the view of the approaching unit of cavalry. And with a single look, I could tell.

There were likely more than two times the raiders than I had celestials and divines in my group. And judging from Claudy's look… This wasn't going to be an easy fight.

'Well, whatever,' I thought, hiding behind a random barrel while readying the shottie in my hands. Orienting myself with nothing but the intensity of the sound of the explosion, I awaited an opportune moment.

And once Fay's shoot appeared to nearly give me a haircut, I felt everything in the world suddenly align.

This wasn't my ability acting up. It was merely a mental shock when my body jerked up, rising in this strange slow-motion-moment over the cover and taking aim towards the raiders.

They were almost here. Just a few seconds away from crashing with their massive horses against the joke of a barricade the mercenaries set up.

Chased across a large distance by Fay's barrage, they clearly pushed themselves to the limit. All to reach the perceived safety of the camp, where Fay's aim couldn't find them as easily. And right as they were at the doorstep of the alleged safety…

I rose up from behind the barrel, carefully took aim…

And pulled the trigger.