Chapter 6: Balrog

Looking at the mercenary groups dying one by one, the rest who watched on the sidelines gulped. They were even more determined not to be involved in that fight.

Meanwhile, a certain emerald-haired girl saw a black thing moving at an extremely fast speed. It went to the mercenaries' vehicles and pierced through their roof easily.

Then, she saw a person drop out of it to a certain vehicle. A person that she couldn't be more than familiar with.

"Shiro-san?"

The aforementioned person, Shiro, didn't notice her gaze as he was having too much fun right now.

[Reinforcement].

He applied Reinforcement, one of his three Thaumaturgies, to his entire body as he hopped to the roof of the van. Inside it, he heard some people arguing.

"Fuck! Fuck! These are the targets you've talked about? Even the Campaign Knights aren't this absurd! Only the rumored Aegir in the sea is this strong!"

"SHUT UP! I didn't know they were this strong! I-"

Bang!

A bullet pierced through the roof of the vehicle, directly killing Edwin's brother. Brain matter exploded inside the SUV as some of it got into Edwin.

"Fuck!"

Thinking that he doesn't stand a chance against the monster that he provoked, he made his decision.

He took out a small silver box within his coat and opened it. There, he saw a dark black fluid that looked like liquid metal. Moments later, its color turned crimson red as it left the cooling box.

The temperature around him suddenly changed, as if he was sitting inside a huge fiery furnace right now.

"Those guys..."

He looked at the vial inside the box. It is given to him by a certain higher-up of an organization after saying that it'll help him in the future.

'Damn it! They knew I would fail right from the start!', he thought. 'Why did I even think of provoking her?! If I die, even my father and grandfather won't let me go!'

Soon, he forgot all of his dilemmas. It never truly mattered as he is now in a life-and-death situation, hence he swiftly did his job.

Pssshk-!

Edwin injected it into his thigh. Nothing changed at first, but he slowly got the feeling of power accumulating within him

Shiro was about to shoot him with his rifle when he sensed an arrow coming at him.

Swooosh-!

Getting off from the vehicle, he saw what shot him just now.

"A ballista?"

He avoided it since he felt some threat emanating from it. Furthermore, he also sensed a couple of Sarkaz mercenaries getting off their vehicles and coming straight at him.

"Its power is too strong that it pierced through my barrier..." Shiro mumbled. "Time to get serious, then."

He deactivated Reinforcement in the rifles and stored them in the newly bought Dimensional Storage. He didn't close it as he picked up the 2 strongest rifles that he ever has, the AR 3070 (Similar to MK40A1) and the AK47.

This time, Shiro used up the Reinforcement spells stored in the Magic Crest. One of the few things that he did is to add spells in his Magic Crests, which was done smoothly thanks to its 100% adaptability. Thanks to it, he could insta-cast the thaumaturgy that he has.

Green lines started appearing on these rifles, making them stronger.

The Sarkaz mercenaries, being confident that they can tank the guns of Laterano, took a defensive stance. Some used a shield as a cover while others used a greatsword and ducked within a thick boulder as a cover.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The moment the projectiles hit them, their confidence was shattered as well. Some of them got out of it by being knocked over a few meters, while some directly got shot and are now severely bleeding.

"What is this? Guns shouldn't be that strong!" One of them explained. "Unless... it's a Sankta gun?!"

Hearing that, the mercenaries shouted, "Be careful! Don't get hit by it!"

Meanwhile, Shiro sighed as he looked at the remaining bullets in his magazines. He decided to place back the AK-47 in his Dimensional Storage and attempted something for the first time.

[Gradation Air].

Gradation Air, also known as Projection Magecraft, is one of the rewards that he acquired together with Reinforcement and Flame Magecraft. By using structural analysis on an object, it can be materialized/replicated with the use of mana. The more the magus knew about the object, the better the materialized object would be.

Though, he also used a mix of his mental power to gather the exact information needed, which means that he created a variation of Projection Magic. He utilized his computation speed that surpassed the limits of a human plus the help of the circuits to succeed.

This way, the ratio of the replica to the original is almost one-to-one.

Another AR 3070 appeared in his left hand and shot it at the mercenaries. This time, he didn't give a damn about his bullets and went full auto. Another round of prompts appeared in his sight, indicating his kills.

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

Bang-! Bang-! Bang-!

"Heh. So you guys are just like this?" He mockingly said as he ran at them while firing another round of bullets with the rifle in his left hand.

"You! Don't you dare-!"

His head exploded before he could even finish his sentence. The ones who were angry at him were also wounded in one way or another.

'They are this easy to provoke?' Shiro mused.

Right now, 1/10 of his mana from his circuits is gone. Since he's still analyzing the magic circuits and how to turn them into something compatible with a Rune Magician, he could only use the three rewards he received as a form of attack.

Flame magecraft would only destroy their weapons too, so he didn't opt for this if it's not the last resort.

Bang!

The final mercenary who chased after he died. After he killed the Sarkaz Mercenaries, the rest weren't even trouble. Guns are also rare in this world, so all he dealt with are crossbows and cold weapons.

Just as he was done looting them, he saw a huge fire pillar appearing not far away. Seeing this, he looted them with haste, even more, utilizing his [Dimensional Storage (SR)] so that the weapons that he saw would get straight into it.

Blame the temptation of the Random Spins. If not for his luck, he would've lost 300 points for nothing. Thankfully, he got an SR, speaking volumes of his luck.

"Growl!"

Soon, a flaming giant was formed. It is more than tens of meters tall and has skin made up of stone and magma. The heat that it emanated is enough to turn its surroundings into an inferno.

'It feels familiar...?'

He felt a familiar sensation as his eyes swept through it. However, he soon thought about the countermeasures to be used in this situation.

"Hey."

"Doctor Kal'tsit?"

He was surprised to see her appear with her van nearby.

"That thing..."

"An experimental subject, one that is related to the Demons."

Demons.

They are beings whose strength increases the more people know them. They are the number one enemy of the world which are being fended off in the known borders of Terra.

To be honest, Shiro's theoretical and technical knowledge only reached the entirety of the Rune Magicians/Aura Knight. He didn't know much about the tricks and only discovered some up until now. But, the only thing he felt vividly was the aversion toward higher-leveled beings.

These entities known as "Demons" are one such being.

"Demons? I see. It must have a core, no?"

"You're right. The person who took the drug now serves as the core of this magma giant."

'Damn. I should've killed that bastard first!'

He put aside his regrets and focused more on the situation. Looking at it, the magma giant is the result of an originum technique. Meaning, it is extremely volatile at the moment. It can explode at worst, contaminating the area with originum.

Though, it doesn't matter much for Shiro, who's immune to it, and Kal'tsit, who's already infected with it.

"Shiro, can you bring Mon3tr to its core?"

"Wait, you'll try to collapse it from within?"

If Mon3tr went inside this extremely volatile creature, it could result in its immediate collapse. Only by then would the threat be exterminated. Of course, Shiro wondered how it would do this, but chose to trust Kal'tsit for now.

"Okay. Let's go hitch a ride first."