The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 56: Maybe I Have Taken Too Much on Myself

The silver light of the almost full moon was falling on Darland’s snowy streets and reflecting from the snow on the rooftops and ground. On a clear night like this, even without any street lights, Reynard didn’t need any magical lanterns.

From his perch on a workshop’s rooftop, he could see the approaching group of magi clear as day.

All five of them wore near-identical helmets, breastplates, and fur coats. An empty hexagon—symbol of the Order of Winter—was drawn on them.

Reynard checked that all his weapons were easy to access despite his own fur coat, cast Spirit Armor on himself, and jumped off the rooftop to meet his guests.

They stopped in the middle of a street, ten paces away from him. The street here was narrow enough that only three people could fit in one row.

Reynard recognized two of the people in front of him. One of them had a recent scar on his cheek—the wound was healed with magic or potions, but not perfectly.

"Hello again," Reynard said, smirking. He held his hands in his pockets.

"Smith!" the narrow-faced magus said, raising clenched fists. "So you’ve been waiting for us, huh? At least you know that you can’t just offend the Order of Winter and not face consequences."

"So you say. But I’ve already shown that I’m stronger than you... So won’t you kindly fuck off?"

Someone in the back of the crowd snickered.

The narrow-faced magus snarled.

"The time for words is over! Take hi—"

Before the magus could finish that sentence, Reynard pulled a pair of clay bombs out of his pocket and threw them at the crowd.

’So nice of you to stand close together!’

CABOOM!

The explosion sent a shockwave that almost blew the hat off Reynard’s head and rattled the shutters on the windows of nearby houses. The clay shrapnel flew in all directions, some of it bouncing off Reynard’s Spirit Armor.

The enemy magi were thrown back. Some of them had time to raise weak ice shields, but the explosion still threw them all to the ground. There were many new scratches and burns to their faces and clothing.

The bearded magus was hit the most—he was lying on the ground without movement at all.

The rest spurred into action, getting up and casting spells.

A large ice owl appeared from thin air and swooped at Reynard right behind a barrage of ice arrows released by other magi.

Reynard pressed to the side of the street, avoiding the barrage, and grabbed a revolver and another bomb.

BANG!

A well-placed shot broke off a piece of the ice owl’s wing, sending it to the ground. The bomb was immediately thrown at the rest of the attackers.

’If it worked last time, why shouldn’t it work again? I just shouldn’t think about how much these cost.’

Another ice arrow struck Reynard in the shoulder. It didn’t pierce the Spirit Armor, but distracted him for half a second.

As soon as he caught his bearings, Reynard detonated the bomb he had just thrown, but it was already too late.

CABOOM!

A Winter’s magus realized that these things were dangerous and batted the bomb away from their group. The bomb exploded much farther away from them than Reynard had planned.

The explosion blinded the enemy magi with its flash and peppered them with clay shrapnel, but it was too far to deal any actual harm. Just a distraction.

’Shit. Okay, there WAS a reason this could fail,’ Reynard thought. ’Five more shots, though.’

He aimed the revolver carefully with two hands, then shot three times in succession, taking care to mitigate the recoil.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Two bullets buried themselves in fur and metal armor, another in flesh. An enemy magus fell to the ground, holding onto his bleeding throat. He was as good as dead.

Then Reynard himself was blown to the ground by a blizzard of wind and razor-sharp shards of ice.

He gasped from the powerful blow and almost dropped his gun. His Spirit Armor rippled under the onslaught, threatening to fall apart at any moment.

Reynard tried to stand up, but as soon as he got to his knees, the blizzard grew even stronger. It pressed on him, pinning him to the ground like a giant’s foot. Even his physical strength of an Albedo magus was not enough to overpower this magic.

’What’s going on?! This is too strong for a simple Albedo spell! Unless it’s yellow or even red...’

Reynard focused all his mana in his Spirit Armor and tried his best to get up. With great effort, he managed to turn his head so he could see his attackers. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Two bodies were lying on the ground nearby. Three other magi were standing with their arms outstretched toward Reynard.

’They have added their spells together!’

Reynard felt his spirits sinking. He really was in it now. Even if he managed to shoot and interrupt one of the enemies, there would still be two casting their blizzards at him.

This wasn’t a situation where the concentration of all three magi was necessary for a spell to continue. Those were three entirely separate spells that, by coincidence, could work well together.

’Maybe I have taken too much on myself. At this point, the guys might not stop even if I plead for mercy, since I killed one of their own...’

Crackle!

A bolt of lightning struck the back of a Winter’s magus. He fell to his knees with a gasp, and the pressure on Reynard lessened by a third.

He immediately aimed his revolver.

BANG! BANG!

A second magus staggered, holding onto his shoulders. Reynard failed to hit anything vital, but interrupted his concentration.

The blizzard became just a powerful, ice-filled wind.

In this moment, Spirit Armor rippled one last time and collapsed. Reynard immediately felt ice stinging his skin, ripping it off scratch by scratch.

But he stood up and squinted against the wind.

In a distance, ten paces behind the Winter’s magi, a person hidden under a heavy wool cloak jumped off the roof. Lightning was crackling between their hands.

’Somebody decided to help me?’