NOVEL NEXT Ch. 89
“Impossible!?”
A storm of shrapnel and concussive force tore the worship hall apart.
A Demon in tattered clothes burst out, only lightly wounded. Even a point-blank grenade blast couldn’t kill a Demon shielded by mana.
But it was more than enough to provoke him.
The mercenary captain trembled with rage and roared.
“Kill him!”
Ikaku sensed presences materializing all over the shrine grounds.
Eight, nine... All told, maybe ten or eleven of them. A mix of humans and Demons.
A man hiding in a tree near the main path revealed himself. He raised his pistol, aiming at Ikaku.
Shifting his body off-axis, Ikaku evaded the first shot, then fired Alek’s Shotgun.
His aim was true. The slug round punched a hole through the man’s chest.
No mana. That’s one.
The moment he confirmed the hit, Ikaku was already running.
He took cover in the shadow of a komainu guardian lion statue just off the main path and reloaded Alek’s Shotgun.
Crack! Crack-crack!
Bullets struck the komainu and its pedestal, sending chips of stone flying.
“Come on out! You’re finished!”
“You’re surrounded! There’s nowhere to run!”
“Little bastard! You’re the one who killed Captain Shido! I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Throwing explosives into the worship hall? Sacrilegious shithead!”
“As if bringing guns isn’t just as bad,” Ikaku muttered.
The only reply was a volley of gunfire. The poor komainu was so riddled with bullets that less than half of it remained.
Ikaku pulled the pin on a grenade, his hand darting out to roll it toward the gunfire.
He holstered the shotgun, drew his large-caliber revolver, and waited.
The explosive device dropped with a thud at the feet of the man shooting from behind the chōzuya—the water basin for ritual purification.
The man scrambled out from behind cover.
“Aaaah!?”
Ikaku exposed himself for a split second and fired. A .500 S&W Magnum mercury-tipped armor-piercing round tore through the komainu-killer’s torso.
No mana. Two down.
The moment he peeked out from behind the pedestal, bullets flew his way.
Ikaku ducked back, then popped out from the opposite side and returned fire.
Two men were shooting from behind a large tree wrapped in a thick, sacred shimenawa rope, some distance from the path. Fourteen meters.
Four shots. Tree. Tree. Miss. Torso.
The target was human. A large-caliber round to the torso is fatal.
No mana. Three down.
Ikaku reloaded, chambering five rounds into the revolver while the komainu continued to absorb enemy fire.
His awareness, however, was already focused on a wider area.
Those footsteps... They’re trying to flank me. Time to move.
Before they could establish a pincer, Ikaku broke from the komainu’s shadow.
He ran. He shot on the move—suppressive fire, not meant to connect.
By sheer luck, his first shot hit the thigh of one of the men behind the large tree.
He fired two more rounds before he even realized he’d scored a hit.
Ikaku never lets good fortune go to waste. The instant he confirmed the hit, he stopped, took proper aim, and fired.
The head of the man groaning in pain from the thigh wound exploded.
Four down.
Ikaku reached the chōzuya, now shredded by the grenade blast. Bullets relentlessly peppered the area, piercing the water’s surface and splintering the wooden ladles.
Amidst the deafening noise—ping.
The sound of a pin being pulled. Ikaku didn’t miss it.
But the gunfire was too intense to risk a peek. Plop. A grenade rolled to a stop at his feet.
Ikaku scooped up the distorted metal sphere—and counted.
One... two... now.
He hurled back the grenade, sending it through the window of the shamusho—the shrine’s administrative office. It detonated before it even hit the floor.
Shrapnel shredded the interior, and the windowpanes burst outward.
Ikaku missed nothing. He had memorized the time that elapsed between the ping of the pin and the grenade landing at his feet. That’s why he didn’t hesitate to throw it back.
More than that, he held on to it, cooking it off until the perfect moment to detonate.
Ikaku may be a common man, but he is far from ordinary.
And so, he outthought and outmaneuvered his foes.
Three presences gone. That makes seven down.
After reloading his revolver, Ikaku broke from the chōzuya and sprinted for the shamusho.
Gunfire erupted, but hitting a running target is difficult. He made it across without taking a hit, calculating the positions of his next enemies from the angle and distance of their shots.
Once at the shrine office, he glanced through the shattered window to confirm his handiwork. Three bloody corpses.
Finished with his assessment, he turned his gaze across the main path to the juyosho—the amulet counter. The last shots had come from that direction.
Down to my last two convenient little bombs...
Ikaku pulled the pin on one grenade and placed it at his feet. He then hurled the second grenade—without pulling its pin.
“G-Grenade!”
“Get down!”
Seeing the grenade sail toward them, the Demon cultists ducked for cover. They had gotten a taste of Ikaku’s accuracy and were certain he’d land it right inside.
In truth, he never meant for that one to go in. It wasn’t an attack, which was why he hadn’t pulled the pin.
Forcing them to duck was enough.
He used that opening to dash out, calmly tossing the live, well-cooked grenade from his feet through the window of the amulet counter.
The instant the misshapen metal sphere entered the building, a pair of short screams were swallowed by the explosion.
A moment later, two Demons burst out.
Demons. So they survived.
“Graaah!”
“Gaaah!”
Driven by pain, the Demons gave in to their bestial nature and lunged for him.
They were ten meters away, on the other side of the path.
It didn’t matter how powerful the recoil of a Smith & Wesson M500 was or how superhumanly fast a Demon could move. Ten meters was simply too far to cover.
But Ikaku Akamuro’s aim was just that good.
Blam! Blam-blam! Blam-blam!
One went down before it could even cross the main path. The other fell just after.
He put them both down with shots to the torso, then the head. Ikaku emptied his five-round cylinder to finish off both Demons.
That’s nine accounted for.
Immediately after, a shadow leaped from the roof of the shrine office.
“You’ll pay for Captain Shido’s death!”
It was the mercenary captain. He’d been masking his presence, waiting for an opening.
He dropped from the roof, slamming both feet onto Ikaku’s shoulders and driving him to the ground.
The two of them tangled on the gravel.
The Demon’s sharp claws slashed toward Ikaku’s throat.
Ikaku batted them aside and shoved his palm against the Demon’s face. He used the momentum to create space, wedged one of his long, powerful legs between them, and kicked the Demon away.