Infinite Mage

Chapter 155: The Second Encounter (3)

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Ryuu

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INFINITE MAGE

As Marsha fired the sonic cannon again, Shirone pressed his ears with both hands. At this moment, no magic was more effective than blocking his ears.

"Argh!"

However, Shirone's expectation was completely off the mark.

A sonic cannon of a different dimension from before pierced through the back of his hand. If he hadn't blocked his ears, his eardrums would have burst.

"Huff, you're underestimating me too much. I might not have gone to school, but I can at least do arithmetic sequences."

Marsha, classified as a non-magic school graduate by the Magic Society, was also a veteran who had killed numerous mages. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she had acquired the important theories in practice through experience.

"Banshee's Scream."

As Marsha vibrated the Spirit Zone, a bizarre sound that seemed to stretch out filled the room.

Shirone, terrified by the sudden phenomenon, jumped to his feet. He couldn't see. The world was pitch black, as if his retinas had been blackened.

'What is this? What kind of magic is this?'

Sound mages travel the world collecting various sounds. Among them, banshees are winged humanoid monsters that live in high-altitude areas, characterized by their female upper bodies.

Marsha used sound magic to perfectly imitate the banshee's unique high-frequency sound, which blinds its prey's eyes and then consumes them.

Shirone became anxious. He couldn't determine Marsha's location through the Spirit Zone.

The narrow space was dizzying with the echoes of the sound waves, and Marsha, as the origin of the sound waves, could only be sensed through sound.

While Shirone's senses were paralyzed, Marsha had already approached him and extended her palm towards his ear. At this distance, a direct hit from the sonic cannon would halt brain function.

'Farewell, Shirone.'

At that moment, Shirone's Zone vibrated violently. Marsha, sensing the crisis with the sensitivity of a sonar, immediately retreated. At the same time, a fury burst out, pushing the equipment in the room away.

Shirone, with his eyes tightly shut, surrounded himself with lasers in all directions.

Rapidly swirling lasers couldn't cause much impact, but Marsha, who had confirmed their power at the first gateway, crouched under the desk.

Hidden behind cover, Marsha couldn't see the front with her eyes. However, using the sonar's search ability, she could clearly feel what Shirone was doing.

'Huh?'

Marsha's heart dropped. Shirone was precisely focusing the Photon Cannon right in front of him towards her direction.

How could he? Banshee's scream echoing in the small room usually doesn't fade easily.

Marsha remembered the lasers that had swirled around the room.

'Could it be? Cutting the sound?'

It wasn't easy to disrupt sound waves with ordinary magic. However, a high-efficiency energy amplification like a laser could possibly cut through sound waves.

Marsha didn't know the principle of lasers, but Shirone understood the principle of sound. This difference in responsiveness. That's why magic schools teach a wide range of disciplines beyond their majors.

"This can't be...!"

Shirone, with his eyes sharp, launched the Photon Cannon towards Marsha. At the same time, Marsha, like a squirrel, leaped out to the side and rolled.

Boom!

A heavy sphere of light penetrated the wall of the building and stretched out.

* * *

The battle in the forest was reminiscent of a war.

Freeman's subordinates clearly didn't understand the value of magic bullets. Firing recklessly, they completely destroyed the surrounding landscape.

But the ones cornered were them. The number had reduced from twenty to seven, and they still hadn't located Amy.

"Damn it! Where the hell is she?"

"There! She just passed by there!"

From deep within the forest, a burning stone flew in, hitting a gunner directly in the back of the head, even though he was in an open Schema, knocking him unconscious.

"Damn! She's deliberately using fire-type magic."

"There's no ghost like her. She moves so fast and still with incredible accuracy."

For a gunner, mobility and accuracy are crucial. Amy was overwhelmingly dominating in both aspects.

Being able to use Fly magic stably and targeting almost perfectly accurate was because she was a Red-Eye.

"Phew, only six left now. No, including Freeman, seven."

Amy levitated the stones around her again. The stones heated up and burst into flames like lava.

If the photon series had the Photonization Theory, the flame series had the Ignition Theory. Known as Ignite, it was the foundation of the flame series magic.

The properties of the flame created by Ignite could be divided into five categories.

Heat, which generates heat; Flare, which kindles fire; Burn, which sets objects on fire; Blaze, which burns a wide area; and Buster, which causes explosions.

Heating a stone with Burn-type flame was called Fire Call, a magic that burns rocks like lava and throws them.

For a fire mage, the Burn series is important as it compensates for the lightness, a drawback of the flame. Hence, it was perfect for dealing with gunners using Schemas.

"Shall we go again?"

Amy, soaring into the sky, mercilessly dropped Fire Call.

Compared to the child's play of Meteor bombardment, it was terrifying for those on the receiving end.

"From above! Fire everything!"

The gunners aimed their guns at the sky and shot magic bullets. However, Amy, adjusting for errors with eidetic memory, was playing with her opponents in terms of evasion and accuracy.

Fly magic could be learned by anyone, but maintaining balance in the air, where the atmosphere constantly changes, wasn't easy.

Yet, Amy seemed to hover in the sky, rapidly backing up her eidetic memory, her pupils glowing red at an incredible speed.

With each exchange of bullets, the number of enemies decreased by one.

When only two of Freeman's subordinates remained, Amy poured out all the remaining Fire Call.

Precision targeting was no longer necessary. The burning stones thudded into the heads and backs of the fleeing enemies.

Only then did Amy deactivate her Fly magic and landed in the clearing.

Twenty gunners were annihilated in an instant. Only Freeman remained.

"Your men have been taken down, and you haven't changed your expression. Isn't that too cold? Or are you a coward?"

"If disliking fighting makes me a coward, then maybe."

Amy frowned at Freeman's words. If it was a psychological warfare, it was quite a high-level technique.

But Freeman didn't care what she thought.

-Freeman is coming. The coward Freeman is coming.

-If you make Freeman cry, Marsha will come. The loser who relies on a woman for help.

Recalling past memories, Freeman made an unexpected proposal.

"Let's stop this."

"What? What did you just say?"

Amy was dumbfounded. She was on the verge of victory, and suddenly he suggested stopping. Besides, such a proposal was not respectful to the subordinates who had fought with their lives on the line.

"I'm worried about the leader. I think I need to go. I don't want her to fall."

"Hmph, no one wants to lose. That's why you should have lived kindly from the start."

"That's not what I mean. She must not lose. Even if it means dying."

"What are you talking about?"

Freeman didn't answer Amy's question. He just muttered to himself, telling his own story.

"The leader is strong. Friends could die."

"Hmph, Shirone is stronger. He'll never lose to such a woman."

"Loyal to the end. It's good to trust your man, but you'll regret it."

Amy, apparently displeased at being misunderstood as being blindly loyal, raised her fist and shouted.

"You're joking. And I'm stronger than Shirone, you bastard. So I can't let you go, you'll have to fall right here."

"Is that so."

Realizing that negotiations had broken down, Freeman gripped two guns in his hands and activated his Schema.

As he looked at Amy, his figure blurred like an afterimage and then disappeared.

Amy couldn't even react, but as she sensed someone behind her through her Zone, she hurriedly twisted her body.

Freeman's kick grazed her chin and passed by. Amy bit her molars in frustration.

'Damn... I made a mistake!'

She had expected a long-range attack from a gunner, but he had approached for close combat instead. His thought process was clearly different from that of his subordinates who had relied solely on magic bullets.

"Hmph! I'll take you on seriously too!"

As Amy regained her composure, Freeman, who had jumped into the air, fired a barrage of magic bullets. Explosive fireballs fell towards Amy like a dotted line.

However, Amy also continuously fired Flame Strikes, neutralizing all of them.

Aligning a point with a line in an infinitely vast coordinate system is an extremely difficult task. The precision of both was neck and neck.

The two collided again on the ground and engaged in a close-range firepower duel. But, as expected, the gunner had the advantage at close range.

"In that case...!"

Amy deployed the defensive magic Fire Mist. A gust of hot wind blew, and smoky reddish mist enveloped the surroundings like a gas cloud.

When Freeman retreated out of range, Amy fired a barrage of Flame Strikes to end it there. Dozens of fiery spears rushed forward, burning the air.

But that wasn't the end. Amy teleported repeatedly around Freeman, endlessly casting magic.

Dozens of Flame Strikes converged on one point, and Freeman widened his eyes and opened his Schema.

One of the eye techniques, Compound Eye.

The scene Freeman saw was fragmented as if viewed through an insect's eyes.

As individual pieces of analyzed information arrived, Freeman's waist twisted like a willow branch.

The successive Flame Strikes didn't even brush his clothes as they crossed paths in chronological order.

Amy sensed that it wasn't an ordinary technique. Although it couldn't compare to the Red-Eye, it was clearly an eye technique specialized for gunners.

She changed her strategy and hid in the forest. Facing a high-level gunner, she had no chance in close combat.

However, Amy had another specialty: sniping. From a distance of 300 meters, she watched Freeman calmly open the cylinder and replace the magic bullets.

'Hmph, let's see how long you can stay relaxed.'

Amy transformed her Target-type Spirit Zone into Sniper Mode. The Zone extended in a cone shape, aiming directly at Freeman's face.

As the distance increases, the power of Flame Strike amplifies due to the creation of an Air Tunnel, a characteristic of wind magic.

Using air pressure, an object can accelerate the more it flies. A Flame Strike fired from 300 meters would have nearly four times the power at close range.

As Amy cast the spell, the fiery spear was sucked into the air tunnel, rushing towards Freeman.

At 200 meters, Amy thought it was over. With the current acceleration, the speed for the remaining 100 meters would exceed four times that of the first 200 meters.

Freeman had no chance of reacting.

As expected, Freeman didn't move, but Amy was shocked. The Flame Strike hit far from Freeman.

'Did I make a mistake?'

At that moment, Amy realized. A strange sensation had infiltrated her mind.

"Anti-magic..."

Freeman's gun was undoubtedly endowed with anti-magic magic.

She felt it was about 3 percent, but at a distance of 300 meters, the error could be enormous.

Anti-magic was dangerous for her. It directly affected the Zone, making it a magic that even Red Eyes couldn't counter.

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