Chapter 348: Two People, One Team (4)
Over these three days, hundreds of enemies had fallen to the duo’s arrows and bullets.
This was the result of focusing not on killing many enemies quickly, but on specifically targeting the leaders of the organizations gathered here.
It was natural for their attention to be diverted when alternating between shots that could never be dismissed as mere sniping.
Naturally, this changed the range of movements other Watchers could choose from near the labyrinth.
Too far to directly intercept them, yet too sharp to ignore—the binary choice of their sniping.
Lennok and Evelyn, having secured that exquisite distance, were constantly focused on shooting down and eliminating nearby enemies.
Creek…!!
[Aim Correction: Level 4]
[Trajectory Guidance: Level 2]
[Targeted Shot: Level 2]
[Trigger Acceleration: Level 3]
[Impact Enhancement: Level 2]
[Recoil Control]
[Bullet Preheating]
[Large-Caliber Bullet Loaded]
[Wind Speed Measured, Wind Direction Corrected]
[Barometric Pressure and Temperature Correction Ready]
[Maximum Firing Range Calculated]
An ultra-long-range targeted shot, powered by 11 layers of stacked auxiliary magic.
Only by borrowing Davi’s computational power to correct the trajectory and pump up the firing ability could he even partially mimic Evelyn’s divine skill.
But that was enough.
Above the rifle’s long barrel, the stacked auxiliary magic rotated and interlocked in unison.
They meshed together like gears, propelling the bullet out of the muzzle.
The bullet, having surpassed the speed of sound, accelerated once more as it burst from the muzzle.
It slid along a rail woven with magic in the air, curving precisely in the direction Lennok desired.
Swooshhh!!
A heavy sound that didn’t just cut through the wind, but tore it apart.
The bullet, traveling thousands of meters, pierced the cold air of the Northern Continent and accurately struck its target.
Thwack!!
The head of the summoner, who stood atop an elephant-like summoned beast directing forces, exploded like a watermelon, scattering blood.
Its power was enough to forcefully shatter the shield and various artifacts protecting the summoner’s body and obliterate the target.
It was natural that the faces of the other superhumans witnessing this nearby turned pale.
“F-f*ck…!!”
“It’s them! The gunslinger is looking this way!!”
“W-where’s the archer? Check where they’re shooting right now!!”
Over the three days spent near the labyrinth, Lennok and Evelyn’s influence on the surroundings was by no means negligible.
This was the result of consistently sniping only the core members of the organizations gathered here, prioritizing quality over quantity.
The superhumans gathered on this battlefield were even aware that the snipers were two individuals: one with a gun and one with a bow.
Lennok nodded, confirming that the masterless summoned beast was running wild in a frenzy, and that battlefront instantly descended into chaos.
‘It would be difficult for me alone to inflict this level of damage, but it’s different with Evelyn by my side.’
The auxiliary magic Lennok stacked and the mana consumption required to perform sniping of this caliber were immense.
He forcibly linked auxiliary magic, which typically saw reduced efficiency beyond 8 layers, to extend range and enhance power.
Considering the mana consumed, it was top-tier even among 6th-level military magic spells.
While it didn’t impair his condition, the consumption was by no means negligible.
Moreover, sniping of this power needed to be used cautiously, even considering the rifle’s durability.
But Evelyn was different.
Her arrows, unlike Lennok’s, didn’t tear through the wind but rode it smoothly, accelerating faster than their initial speed along the air currents, piercing her enemies.
The mana consumed to draw and shoot an arrow was less than half of Lennok’s 11-layered ultra-long-range sniper shot.
Furthermore, there was no need to worry about the durability of the longbow she wielded.
When Lennok designated a target with his unique senses and initiated the attack, Evelyn, with her keen eye, would precisely snipe those who reacted quickly.
It was clear that those with exceptionally quick reactions were the ones possessing dangerous skills on this battlefield.
The chaotic reactions currently observed from thousands of meters away proved just how effectively this simple binary choice had been employed over the past three days.
“Evelyn, are you still good on mana?”
“For now?”
As she drew her bowstring all the way back, her suit naturally assisted her movements.
Naturally, the most essential thing for drawing a bowstring was powerful physical strength.
However, the outcome of archery ultimately depended on the archer’s eye and skill.
On the fringes of the snowy mountains overlooking the canyon. Even after setting up a tent nearby and spending three full days there, her eyes and concentration showed no signs of faltering.
Lennok pulled out a bundle of mana potions from his coat, placed them next to her, and stood up.
“I’ve mostly cleared the battlefield near the labyrinth, so rest up and eat those.”
Only then did Evelyn turn her head.
“Where are you going?”
“Just going to do some maintenance on the barrier I set up nearby.”
Evelyn gazed at Lennok, who answered casually, then turned her head.
“Don’t forget, you can’t erase all traces.”
“…Right.”
Though he said that, Evelyn seemed to have roughly figured it out.
Lennok forced a wry smile, roughly packed his gear, and moved down the snowy mountain.
As he stepped outside the perimeter of the pre-set barrier, a faint vibration accompanied by a heavy clamor echoed.
At the same time, dozens of intense magical energies could be felt from all directions.
“It’s around here, right?”
“This is the result of confirming it by watching the sky all day without sleeping. The wind direction made calculations difficult, but it’s definitely here.”
“Finally found them, those bastards…!!”
Their expressions, as they ground their teeth and hoisted their equipment, were filled with such overt rage that it was difficult to witness.
Hidden among the snow-covered hollows, Lennok, observing them, understood their feelings to some extent.
Though Lennok and Evelyn, who carried out the sniping, didn’t know, it wasn’t hard to imagine the immense anger of those who were targeted.
It was said that since ancient times, snipers, if captured, met the most brutal deaths.
The threat of death approaching from unseen places was not something to be easily dismissed.
Lennok had also anticipated that among the superhumans gathered on this battlefield, there would be those who, unable to control their immediate rage, would seek out the two instead of entering the labyrinth.
“To kill Greg… I’ll never forgive them…!!”
“Don’t forget to contact me if you find them first. We need to tear them limb from limb and hang them from the top of the labyrinth.”
“Once the encirclement is complete, we’ll charge in immediately. Until then, absolutely do not touch the barrier. If we’re discovered, their arrows will reach us here…!!”
Thwack!!
Before he could even finish, a spray of blood erupted from the head of the wizard standing in the middle of the group.
A gruesome death, making his face unrecognizable. The other warriors nearby immediately moved.
“Damn it, they’ve already noticed us!!”
“This bastard, he wasn’t neglecting his surroundings after all! That dog-like son of a…!!”
“What do we do? Should we go in right now?”
“No, retreat! If they noticed us and still launched a preemptive strike at this point…!!”
The last warrior’s shout didn’t carry to its end.
Lennok, having identified the potential leader who made the fastest and most accurate judgments in this situation, unhesitatingly pulled the trigger of his newly swapped shotgun.
The recoil of three different magical energies, which he hadn’t shown at Palmer’s workshop.
The impact, which channeled the side effects of clashing different magical energies directly into the barrel, burst out of the barrier without reserve.
BANGGG!!
The roar of the shotgun was swallowed by the blizzard. More than ten chunks of flesh scattered everywhere, and terror-stricken superhumans shrieked.
“Aaaargh!!”
“No, no!!!”
“Save meee!!”
Once the enemy’s forces were halved with a single preemptive strike, the rest was simple.
Lennok drew out strands of lightning, dealt with those still breathing, and immediately moved to another spot.
What remained was a repeated cycle of launching preemptive strikes on superhumans panicking as their communications were cut off from all sides, exacerbating their confusion, and sweeping them away.
After swiftly clearing out over a dozen superhumans gathered near the snowy mountains, Lennok brushed the snow from his coat and began inspecting the barrier.
As Evelyn had said, he hadn’t completely erased the traces of those who had gathered nearby.
Near the canyon where nearly a thousand superhumans were bickering and jostling on the snowy field.
On the contrary, clearing traces too cleanly would likely appear suspicious.
It would be more desirable to just leave these corpses around, simultaneously sowing confusion and fear.
Thinking so, Lennok took an arrow shaft from Evelyn’s gear, plunged it into the corpse’s forehead, and let go.
Lennok watched the corpse fall down the snowy mountain, then immediately turned and walked away.
Three days had passed since the Watchers began moving in teams.
This was the sixth group that had come to track down and kill Lennok and Evelyn during that time.
“Perhaps we should move our position again…”
Muttering to himself, Lennok immediately headed towards where Evelyn was waiting.
“Done?”
“More or less.”
The mana potions he had placed at her feet. She hadn’t consumed a single one.
She had been engrossed in sniping without a single break until now.
A period where the danger of arrows and bullets fired from ultra-long range through consistent sniping had accumulated to its maximum.
Evelyn knew well that at this point, their influence could be best exerted on the battlefield.
Fwip…!!
Evelyn, deep in concentration on sniping, suddenly spun around and released her bowstring towards an entirely different location.
Two arrow shafts, held in her hand, received the elastic force and streaked through the air.
They accurately pierced the foreheads of two snipers waiting on a snowy mountain of similar height.
Thwack-thwack-thwack!!!
“…!!!”
“Gah!!”
“Hoo…”
Only then did Evelyn, lowering the longbow she had held tightly, let out a soft sigh.
Lennok quietly patted her shoulder.
“You did well.”
“It certainly doesn’t get easier as we go.”
Sitting down and turning her neck from side to side, she grumbled.
“As soon as they realized sniping was effective, the number of long-range shooters increased dramatically. And each one of them is formidable…”
Lennok also roughly understood what Evelyn was saying.
Fundamentally, a sniper vs. sniper duel, no matter the skill difference, was exactly the kind of thing that would gnaw at one’s nerves.
If the opponents also had relevant experience, they would conceal their presence and firing positions, making it even trickier.
Moreover, they had been continuously sniping for three days without rest, relatively increasing their visibility and drawing attention, so they had to be even more careful.
That’s why Lennok and Evelyn were continuously mindful of other snipers, even while aiming at the canyon below.
For three days, Lennok had mostly handled these matters, but Evelyn must have been constantly observing as well.
“Get some rest. I’ll handle the rest.”
After saying that, Lennok climbed onto the cliff where Evelyn had been positioned and took out his rifle.
Click!!
Since they had already suppressed the initial attack, dealing with other snipers whose positions were exposed wasn’t difficult in itself.
Quite a few had deployed long-range shooters to follow Lennok and Evelyn, but those with comparable skill and ability simultaneously were extremely few.
The important thing was that a duel between such marksmen didn’t simply end because a position was revealed.
Ordinary targeted shooters might often lose their lives to a single bullet from a blind spot, but Lennok and the hidden shooters on the other side were all superhumans who could easily withstand a normal bullet or arrow.
Therefore, the moment one was confident in a hit, they had to properly apply enough force to shatter even that defense.
In this snow-covered wasteland, Lennok’s diverse sniping, augmented by various auxiliary magic, was perfectly suited to shatter such shooters’ expectations.
“Ugh…!!”
“The power…!!”
He couldn’t hear the sounds, but he knew.
A distance so far that Lennok’s naked eye could barely gauge the proper range.
That a corpse, crushed along with its armor by a bullet, was bleeding hot blood in between.
Gauging distances farther than what was visible, aiming for positions beyond reach.
Perhaps the true talent of a marksman like Evelyn was…
…
Evelyn sat in the snow, gazing at Lennok’s back with a calm expression.
BANG!!
“That should mostly take care of it. Since I went to such lengths, we should be fine for a while.”
Lennok, having put away his rifle, walked down the hill with a much more relaxed expression than before.
Evelyn, who had been squatting, waved at Lennok.
“Watching you for three days, I’ve been thinking you’re much better than I expected. When did your shooting improve so much?”
“A duel between snipers isn’t actually that difficult.”
Lennok replied nonchalantly and sat down next to Evelyn.
“Ultimately, what’s important is the psychological warfare fought while roughly gauging each other’s positions.”
In that domain, Lennok was confident he wouldn’t fall behind anyone else.
If he didn’t lose the psychological battle between marksmen, the mental struggle of guessing and striking each other’s positions, then all that remained was reducing the number of possible bullets to find optimal efficiency.
Should he say it was rather manageable compared to when he consumed a considerable amount of mana for thousands of meters of sniping?
Evelyn quietly watched Lennok take firewood from the tent and start a fire, then chuckled.
“This is why it’s so convenient to work with a skilled wizard. They’re smart, and they can do so many things.”
“Are you just realizing that now?”
“I’m not just saying that. Of course, there were many skilled people when I worked at the Agents for a long time… but working for so long, these conveniences feel even more welcome.”
At Evelyn’s unreserved words, Lennok also smiled faintly.
He understood what she meant, as she was a seasoned veteran who had rough-and-tumbled in the city’s underbelly.
Logically speaking, lighting a bonfire to combat the cold would be unimaginable for marksmen like Evelyn.
However, Lennok succeeded in creating a relatively comfortable environment by erecting a barrier near the snowy mountains and reducing the areas that couldn’t be detected by sight or magical sensing.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason they had set up in this snowy mountain region, but by establishing the current conveniences and allowing Evelyn to manage her condition, Lennok had done his part.
“Right, I get it. The labyrinth entrance should start opening in about half a day.”
Just as Lennok was trying to laugh it off with those words.
Evelyn shook her head.
“No, it’s still not enough.”
“What?”
“Come to think of it, I deserve more praise and reward.”
“…”
Evelyn’s somewhat unexpected declaration.
The way she slightly glanced at Lennok showed that she had said it after some deliberation.
But upon hearing those words, Lennok instead flashed a triumphant smile.
“Hmph.”
“…?”
“I knew you would say that, so I’ve been preparing for three days.”
“P-preparing?”
Lennok, his smile deepening at Evelyn’s slightly raised tone, calmly reached into his coat.
At that moment, Evelyn flinched slightly, her gaze fixed on Lennok’s fingertips.
Thunk!
Lennok placed a case containing dozens of plant roots in front of Evelyn.
“It’s a vegetable collection, harvested over three days from all over the snowy mountains.”
Lennok said with an exultant expression.
“It’s for maximizing your condition before we enter the labyrinth. I was secretly preparing it, but I didn’t think you’d notice.”
“…”
“…What’s wrong? Is there an inedible species mixed in? I picked them out thoroughly.”
Lennok, realizing Evelyn’s gaze had turned cold, tentatively touched the case.
[Sigh…]
Davi, hidden inside his coat, let out a deep sigh.