Riddled with Bullets

Translator: Cinder Translations

...

Bennett saw the people inside the barrier technique taking off some strange things from their backs and fiddling with them before pointing them all towards him.

What were they doing? Was that some kind of weapon?

The dark tubes in front felt somewhat familiar to him. Primitive tribes in the southern rainforests often crafted tube-shaped weapons that could shoot darts or emit poison gas.

Did they want to kill him with darts or poison gas? Haha, that's hilarious.

Bennett sneered while addressing Paul, "Mortal, your soldiers are very competent indeed. Despite using crude equipment, they possess knight-like loyalty and bravery. I wonder how you trained them."

"I admit they have caused me some minor trouble, but it ends here!"

"I'll make it clear to you. Jaden, whom you've eliminated, was my subordinate. Without him, I have to make some minor adjustments to the original plan."

"This really troubles me, a perfectionist. Suddenly, the smooth sailing feeling vanishes, and something once perfect now has flaws. So... the one responsible for this situation must die, or I'll have a knot in my heart."

"Hmph, if you want to hate, hate your own weakness. If you want to hate, hate this world. It's so cruel. The fate of the weak is at the mercy of the strong, whether it's Jaden to you or you to me, it's all the same!"

Damn, do all these villains like to talk so much? Paul glanced hatefully at the lunatic outside and whispered to the woman beside him, "When I count to three, remove this... this 'shield.'"

Ladia nodded slightly, already drenched in sweat, looking like she could collapse at any moment.

"When the 'shield' disappears, fire all at once, got it?"

"Yes, Earl!"

Outside, Bennett was still frantically pounding on the barrier. He saw Paul talking to the girl next to him and jeered, "Haha, are you saying goodbye to that whore before you die? Rest assured, I'll send you both to hell together. Traitors are more detestable than enemies!"

"Have you already tasted this little girl?"

...

Paul began to count:

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

After the three words were counted, Ladia immediately spread apart her clasped hands, and their protective barrier suddenly disappeared.

Bennett was delighted, thinking that the people inside had given up resistance and he could finally rush in and slaughter them.

But at that moment, strange tubes in the hands of the opposing soldiers suddenly flashed with fire, followed by a deafening roar.

As always, one's prevention against unknown dangers cannot exceed one's accustomed cognition. This also applied to Bennett.

He was a wizard specializing in close combat, more inclined to the thrill of defeating enemies bare-handed, so he didn't usually use weapons much. However, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent's weapons was also an important prerequisite for victory. Therefore, besides mastering various spells that could greatly enhance human abilities, he also had extensive research on the weapons of this era, making him not an exaggeration to call him a master of weapons.

The team from the Greyman family neither had powerful bed crossbows nor blunt weapons for armor penetration. A Stone Skin spell was more than enough to deal with their swords and blades.

To guard against the opponent's sole archer, he had even cast a Danger Perception spell.

And with the boost of his Gigantic Strength spell, the opponent's soldiers were like infants.

There shouldn't be any problems no matter how you think about it!

However, just as the roar sounded from the opposite side, Bennett suddenly felt a wave of panic. This was the Danger Perception spell issuing a warning to his brain.

The Danger Perception spell works before the danger arrives. For example, if someone aims a bow and arrow at the caster, it won't warn them while aiming. Only when the arrow is released and its trajectory is certain to hit the caster will it alert them to the danger.

But what kind of danger could make him feel panic? He had never encountered it before.

The speed of a typical arrow is only 50-90m/s, and the kinetic energy is generally less than 200 joules.

With such a "slow" speed, Bennett, relying on his long-term agility training, could easily evade such danger.

Bennett would never have expected that there existed a weapon far lighter and easier to operate than a powerful crossbow, capable of firing metal bullets at an initial velocity of 300-400m/s and imparting nearly 2000 joules of kinetic energy.

This was a firearm. In front of a firearm, even true plate armor was as fragile as paper.

He didn't understand concepts like kinetic energy or initial velocity, but such a terrifying weapon didn't exist in his cognition.

At this distance, all ten bullets hit the target. They were so fast that just as the Danger Perception spell kicked in, Bennett felt intense pain in his abdomen and legs, with no time to react.

The wizard's mind raised a question: "What happened?"

He instinctively looked at his abdomen where the pain was coming from, and a terrifying sight met his eyes.

His stomach had been pierced by several large holes, blood gushing out continuously, accompanied by... his intestines spilling out?

Bennett's brain swam, and with a clang, he fell to the ground.

How was this possible?

What kind of weapon was that?

Why didn't my Stone Skin spell work?

The wizard recalled the momentary experience just now. At the moment the roar sounded from the opposite side, he felt as if he had been brutally punched several times, then a sensation of burning, intense pain, and numbness quickly spread throughout his body.

He struggled to get up, but his thigh, also hit, couldn't muster any strength, only endless pain and numbness.

What made his scalp tingle even more was that, along with his body's struggles, his intestines gushed out from the abdominal wound.

Fear instantly occupied the wizard's entire brain. He hadn't felt this way in a long time.

"No! This can't be real!"

Bennett cried out with a sob, using his still functional right hand to grab his intestines and stuff them back into his stomach, then tightly covering it.

However, there were more than one wound on his abdomen, blocking one hole but leaving another. No matter how hard he tried, it was futile.

More blood flowed out, and the wizard's consciousness began to blur, his heartbeat slowing down.

"I am... I am a member of the Arcane Order... Bennett, I am... a powerful mage!"

"How... how could I... lose to a mere mortal!"

In his final moments, Bennett's sense of fear gradually faded, leaving only endless resentment.

"I still have... many things to do..."

"I..."

Finally, he stopped breathing, his arms falling weakly, his eyes, though not closed, lost the last glimmer of light.

...

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Gunshots rang out again, and Bennett's corpse received two more bullets.

Because this enemy was too sinister, Paul, feeling uneasy, ordered the soldiers to shoot two more times.

Seeing the opponent lying motionless on the ground, he breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

It seemed that the opponent was completely finished.

(End of the Chapter)