Gun-ota ga Mahou Sekai ni Tensei Shitara

After I got the okay for the hideout attack from the girls, I immediately prepared.

I thought about tying the horned horses’ rein to a tree, but there was the danger of them getting attacked by the other monsters, so I let them be.

I change the AK47’s safety switch to semi-automatic.

I pulled the cocking handle to load a cartridge into the chamber.

Chrisse also pulled the bolt back and forth.

She pushed the 7.62mmx51 NATO cartridge into the chamber.

Everyone tied the combat boots’ laces tightly again, checked the condition of the combat protectors, and wore the eye-protection gear.

“Formation is the same as we practiced, Shia is the vanguard, then Snow and I, and at the back is Chrisse. This time, the objective is locate the twin magicians’ current hideout and suppress the enemies. Try your best to not fight the monsters that we will probably meet; take detour if you can, because it’d be bad if the enemies were to hear the gunfire.”

“Leave it to me. I’ll advance the chosen road with the least possible chance to meet monsters. Moreover, when push comes to shove, I’ll just kill them silently with my knife.”

Shia nodded and tapped the knife that was hanging from her hips 2 and 3 times.

“This time, I plan to defeat those magicians so that there won’t be anymore victims, but if there are survivors, then we will prioritize saving them. But of course, our safety is still the first priority.”

I wanted to create the Legion corps to save troubled people or people in need of help for the future.

I haven’t reached the level required to set one up yet, but regardless of that, I reconfirmed with everyone that we would come to help if there were people in trouble or people who were looking for help.

Snow and the others nodded, showing their agreement.

I had truly good wives and friend.

I nodded back and signaled.

“Then we’re going.”

With that as the starting signal, everyone pushed through to the center of the forest.

▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼

With her proud [I can’t be caught in a surprise attack, even in the forest at night] remark, Shia, on lookout duty, noticed the presence of monsters before anyone else, and with the support of Body Strengthening on her body, she brought them down with knives (probably out of consideration to avoid disturbing everyone’s sleep with gunshot sounds, since it was late at night).

She had a much higher presence-sensing ability than the rest of us.

That did not apply only to monsters; it was also useful on pursuers or traps.

She immediately found the trap.

A metallic bear trap.

“Did a hunter living near here set up this trap?”

“I can’t say for sure who set this up, but a live body caught in this would easily get its leg crushed. Take care to step only on where my footprints are, okay?”

Following Shia’s indication, we walked around the trap, taking care to not step outside of her footprints.

We went further ahead and found a clapper linked to a tied string.

If you got caught on the string, the clapper would sound—or so they pretend, but this one’s a dummy. A real magic boundary had been set up. It was the same type as the one that was triggered we broke into the Vlad house.

Looking at the clapper, it seemed to be a trap to get us caught in the magic boundary, as it was set up in a difficult-to-see location.

“I’ll acknowledge their efforts, but the clapper’s positioning is too obvious. They might as well be advertising that [we are hiding another trap].”

Shia cracked an insult as if she was some kind of critic and defused the magic boundary in under three minutes.

Even for Snow, it still took over 5 minutes, as expected from her.

“Since the magic boundary is there, their hideout must be nearby. Everyone, brace yourselves.”

Snow and the girls each gave their responses.

We went further into the forest.

While we were on this search, we didn’t encounter any monsters.

Had the monsters already been hunted to exhaustion by the ogres, too?

It was convenient for us.

About 30 minutes later—50 meters from where we were–the forest gave way to a spreading empty land.

It was approximately half as wide as the open space from earlier.

There was a cave in there, and beyond that, it was overgrown in more trees.

At roughly the middle of the empty land, there was a bonfire, where ogres were deliciously eating corpses and dead-horned horses.

They numbered about 41-42.

It didn’t reach 50.

“…….!”

Chrisse covered her mouth.

It must’ve been a horrible sight for her, who had the best eye out of the people here.

But we couldn’t afford not to scout it out.

The side of the cavern was stacked with what looked to be pillaged cargo.

Two people covered entirely in totally magician-looking robes were checking the contents of the cargo while having a friendly chat.

Those two were probably the twin magicians.

We checked for survivors again.

There was a woman bound and gagged, trembling beside the cargo.

No doubt that she was a surviving merchant.

Because of the distance, I couldn’t discern anything other than that she was a woman with my eyesight.

Her age was probably slightly over 20.

The men forcibly made the woman stand and then disappeared inside the cavern.

(Those sleazebags…!)

I could clearly imagine what was going to happen to that woman after seeing this.

There was no time. I immediately drafted a plan.

We brought our heads together and spoke in quiet whispers.

(First I’ll take the left, Snow and Shia will take the right, and we’ll clear the ogres away. Chrisse, go right in front of the cavern entrance where you can see inside. If the men took the woman hostage, make them eat 7.62 mm.)

Snow, Chrisse and Shia nodded with a serious look.

We all spread out to the left and right.

I did call it spread out, but we were separated for no more than 10 meters.

We took up positions away from the front of the cavern in order to ensure Chrisse’s firing line.

Looking towards Chrisse, she took up a pose on her knees—a kneeling-shooting position.

I changed over from semi-auto to full-auto mode.

I raised my left hand to where everyone could see,  and I started counting.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1—

“Go!”

By supporting our bodies with Body Strengthening, Snow, Shia and I jumped out from the thickets and opened fire on the ogres while they were huddled around the bonfire.

[!!!!!!!!???????]

The ogres turned their heads toward us in surprise.

But they were too late.

With me from the left and Snow & Shia from the right, we fired, making the shape of the letter X.

The ogres momentarily hesitated on which way to turn, and because of that, they were defenseless and fell prey to a mountain load of 7.62mm Russian shot.

But because of their robustness that’s superior to orcs, they didn’t die easily even after receiving those.

[OOOOOoOOOOOOOOoOOOO!!!!]

They roared even as they took a shot or two and charged towards me.

I strengthened my body—my eyes in particular.

Just like how I once defeated the goblins, I changed my aim to their heads.

I had overwhelming firepower, unlike with the revolver.

Because of the great power, the ogre’s thick skull was smashed on a direct hit to the head, splattering grey matter everywhere.

The magazine change was also smooth and without pause.

Just when I used up the second magazine, the ogres that were coming to attack me had been annihilated.

Likewise, Snow and Shia also defeated theirs.

Timewise, it all took under one minute.

—silence fell.

We installed fresh magazines taken from our magazine pouches and turned the muzzle towards the cavern’s entrance.

Snow, Shia and I nodded to one another and slowly walked, encircling the cavern’s entrance.

Three more minutes passed, and the two magician-looking men from earlier showed up with the woman as hostage.

Each had the left and right halves of their faces tattooed in black ink.

If you brought them together, they would make single pattern.

Other than the tattoos, their faces and stature were identical.

These two men were now unmistakably identified as the twin magicians.

The man with tattooes on the right half of his face held a knife at the woman, using her as a shield.

The woman didn’t seem to have been raped; but her face was swollen, likely because of being hit.

“Who the hell are you!? How did you take down all these ogres without even using magic!?” x2

The men asked in unison.

“It doesn’t matter who we are, does it? Rather than that, it’s you—- wait, we don’t know your names yet.”

“To not know about us—ignorance is sin! We are the twin magicians who are famous ’round this neighborhood; when the two of us use our magic together, our power rises! Now you’d do well to see our magic and carve our names to your souls as it—gaaaah” x2

—BANG!

“Gyaaaaah!”

The enemy’s speech was answered with bullets.

Chrisse fired the M700P, hitting the shoulder of the man who was holding the hostage with a [7.62mm×51 NATO bullet]

As the hostage slipped away and the man became dumbfounded, one of his legs was shot.

“GUAAAAAH!!!”

The two men agonized because of pain they had never felt before.

Chrisse relentlessly fired one more bullet at each of the men.

I raised my hand, signalling her to stop.

Together with Shia, we rushed up to the agonizing men and kicked them in the jaw.

The two men lost their consciousnesses quickly.

Their legs and shoulders were bleeding heavily; the bullets have pierced right through.

We attached our magic-prevention collars precautiously and tied them up. Afterwards, Shia treated their shoulders and legs.

Here, we could take it easy and not kill them. Because we could take them back alive, they could be dragged out before the law and make up for their crimes.

Snow rushed over to the cowering woman and called her.

She took out a knife and cut the rope binding her arms.

“Please be at ease, we’re here to help. The monsters have all been exterminated, so you’ll be alright.”

“T-, ttttt-, thank y—”

Overcome with fear, the woman must have found it hard to say her thanks while she was shivering.

Snow paid it no mind, as she offered her a canteen and rubbed her back to calm her down. Then she applied healing magic on her face.

Thanks to the healing magic’s power, the bruises on her face cleanly disappeared.

After making sure of her state, I waved to Chrisse.

She came along to check whether there are any more survivors, then I gave everyone instructions.

“Shia, you go back first and tell Gomugo-san and the others that everything’s fine. When you’re there, take a horned horse and come back here. We’re going to be carrying these twin magicians with us. Chrisse and I will check the perimeter for any more survivors. Snow will stay next to her until she calms down.”

Having received their instructions, everyone started to move.

Thus we were able to safely rescue the woman and successfully capture the object of reward, the twin magicians.