Although I did recover the gun, I couldn't use it before him anymore. If I did, and he picked up on how to use the gun, then I'd be screwed if it ever landed on his hands again.
"Fina, do it!"
I quickly backed off as Fina sent the same fog into the space between me and Noir. Afraid of stepping into it, he once more created a vortex with the tentacles and cleared the purple and pink smoke. I was able to take enough distance with the time it took for him to clear everything, though.
Under the cover of the smoke, I managed to load the next bullet properly. However, I can't miss this shot. Instead of shooting instantly, Fina and I moved around, keeping our distance and attacking him using long-range attacks.
I previously lacked such a form of ranged attack. But with the new contract with Fina's previous tamed monsters, whom we left behind in fear of them accidentally dying on the battlefield, I gained a few skills capable of doing so.
Fina kept up with using the pink and purple smoke, slowing down Noir's advance while praying that he enter either of the two smoke's ranges. I, on the other hand, gathered the moisture in the air and sent it toward him. However, both attacks weren't even able to touch the hem of his clothes.
"Stop running and return my gun!"
Noir yelled as he summoned twice more tentacles, using half to defend and half to attack. I felt my ears twitch from his words, making me retort in reflex.
"It's my gun, not yours! Your little gun should be hanging right below your belt; why don't you draw that one?!"
"So you think you're clever, huh? Brat, wait until I catch you!"
To reflect his mental state, the tentacles started chasing after us wildly. The rocks all around started falling down to the camp, where the injured tamers were.
Thank God there were some guards patrolling around, so they managed to prevent a tragedy caused by the falling rocks. If not for that, then I may have gone down there myself to help them.
"Kyaah!"
Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed from behind me. There, I saw Fina getting dragged across the ground by a pair of dark tentacles. Without needing time to consider, I quickly jumped up and punched at the tentacles holding her.
With my punch loaded with overflowing energy, the tentacle that got hit quickly turned into mush and fell limp on the ground.
"You okay?"
I asked as I held her in a princess carry while avoiding the pursuing tentacles at the same time. Fina blushed slightly as she grabbed my neck tightly, fixing herself so that she wouldn't fall off. Although it was a chance to enjoy the soft sensation pressed against my chest, the situation wouldn't allow me to do so.
"I'm fine; I was just a bit surprised when I was caught, is all."
I jumped away three times in a row, earning enough distance to allow me to drop Fina to the ground. As soon as I did, however, a tentacle pierced through the ground and wrapped around my ankle.
"Shi-!"
Before I could shout, the tentacle pulled me around, dragging me across the ground. Thinking "now or never," I pulled the trigger, separating myself and the tentacle, before I rolled on the ground and stood up.
I'd rather not pull the cocking lever before Noir, so I just kept the tip of the gun aimed at him. Noir, who didn't really know how the gun worked, was frowning hard as he found the end of the gun pointed at him.
*SCREEEEE!!!*
At that moment, however, something unexpected happened. A loud and irritating noise was heard. It came right between the two of us, so there's no way of ignoring it. I quickly turned to the right and saw a large statue-like demon about 5 meters tall. It was lean and floated in the air.
It had five pairs of limbs on both sides of its body. Looking closely, the limbs were similar to a ball-jointed doll's limbs, giving it an uncanny and eerie feel. By reflex, I used the appraisal on it and was surprised by what I saw. Without time to explain, I quickly shouted.
"Fina, don't touch the orbs!"
She heard me loud and clear and nodded her head. Although she should have had no clue what I meant, she still followed my words.
A second later, just as predicted, balls of energy about a meter in diameter spread all over the place. One was aiming for my entire leg, another for my arm, and one more was aiming for my head.
"Haaap!"
I jumped up and kicked one of the spheres, sending myself blasting away from the dangerous objects. As soon as I did, the spheres suddenly released a violent glow as they devoured everything that was caught in their midst.
"What the...!"
Fina shouted in surprise, not expecting such an outcome from the spheres. However, now that she's seen it, she should've fully understood why I asked her to dodge it.
The demon before them, the one that looked like a human model made out of wood with tens of limbs attached, was actually a space element. It consumes its prey by teleporting their body parts straight into its mouth using the rift sphere, the one that managed to delete everything that was left inside its range.
The first wave was simply a greeting, and a second later, hundreds to thousands of those balls appeared once more.
"Ah! You f*cker!"
I cursed after finding that there was literally no safe spot around. I hurriedly took out a sword and activated a weaker version of the echoing thunderclap, which was almost no different from a normal quickdraw other than the range it could cover.
My sword flashed once, bisecting the spheres of spatial energy from my position up to about a hundred meters in front of me.
One thing to note, though, is that when using a quickdraw technique, you end up needing two hands. In short, I was forced to let go of my gun for a moment.
As I did, Noir managed to stealthily creep a tentacle nearby, making it go and nab the gun from my side.
"Oh no!"
As I was a bit late to respond, the gun was already halfway between us before I could even notice. Fina, however, was paying attention and managed to throw a knife, cutting off the tentacle. The gun dropped in the middle, which caused the two of us to rush forward in a mad dash.
"...!"
However, we were still a step too late. The demon's spheres suddenly started releasing a dangerous presence as they were about to activate. The bad thing was that the gun fell right in the middle of one such sphere when they all activated and vanished.
"Sh*t! No! Give back my gun, you goddamned demon!"
I started panicking and rushed to the demon's side; however, there was no sign of the gun anywhere around it. I recalled the description of the demon and felt the blood drain from my face.
"Random... Teleportation!"
This demon teleports prey straight into its mouth to eat, but any inorganic or lifeless objects get thrown away at random locations. meaning that the gun was now thrown into an unknown region but was still within the range of the demon.
"At the 9th stage, that'd mean it covers tens of thousands of kilometers, though!"
Ember, who was at the fifth stage right now, could only teleport a thousand kilometers at most. This demon was definitely powerful with regard to spatial manipulation compared to Ember.
"I'll be taking my leave, kid! Enjoy fighting against the swarms I called for you all!"
Noir suddenly declared that as a black portal had opened right behind him. Although he wasn't saying anything, it should be obvious that he went on to search for the gun. I don't know why Noir wanted it, but there's no way I'd let such a powerful weapon land in the hands of such a villain.
[Fina, and everyone else, listen up!]
I quickly used the link between me and the rest of the girls to pass my orders.
[Change of plans! We need to clear the entire battlefield of the 9th-stage demons! Go full throttle!]
As I passed the message, I sheathed the sword once again and lowered my posture. Before me, the space element mannequin-like demon became my target as I honed my concentration.
A single step brought me dozens of meters forward. A single swing caused hundreds of slashes. And a single breath, putting out the puny life of the 9th-stage demon before me.
"Special skill: [Blinker]!"
I muttered the name of the skill as I slowly sheathed the sword. Behind me, the mannequin-like demon slowly fell apart. Each part of its body was chopped up into small blocks, ensuring that it couldn't regenerate or something of the sort.
"Let's go!"
Without even looking at the dead body of the demon, I pulled Fina over and rushed to the front, where the other girls were fighting.
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