Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons Volume 3 E-Book
616th Special Information Battalion
7,84 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Serie: Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons Volume 3
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 268
Ähnliche
Table of Contents
Cover
Prologue
Chapter 1 — The Villainess and Familiars
Chapter 2 — The Villainess and a Divine Beast
Chapter 3 — The Villainess Fights a Divine Beast
Chapter 4 — The Villainess’s Renovation Spree
Chapter 5 — The Villainess and the Season of Partings
Chapter 6 — The Villainess Goes Abroad
Chapter 7 — The Villainess Wants to Observe Actual Combat
Chapter 8 — The Villainess’s Love Potion
Chapter 9 —The Villainess Experiments on Humans
Chapter 10 — The Villainess and Some Outlaws
Chapter 11 — The Villainess Eradicates Bandits
Chapter 12 — The Villainess Worries about Her Cousin
Chapter 13 — The Villainess and Lovestruck Maidens
Chapter 14 — The Villainess and a Dashing Prince
Chapter 15 — I’m the Villainess, and It’s Finals Time Again
Chapter 16 — The Villainess Goes Shopping
Chapter 17 — The Villainess Wants Everyone to Learn about Commoners
Chapter 18 — The Villainess and Her Cousin Climb a Mountain
Chapter 19 — Villainess versus Undead Dragon
Chapter 20 — The Villainess and Alchemy
Chapter 21 — The Villainess Takes a Dip in the Sea
Chapter 22 — The Villainess Wants to Adventure in Peace
Chapter 23 — The Villainess and the Abbey
Chapter 24 — I’m the Villainess, but the Culture Festival Has Me Worried
Chapter 25 — Culture Festival at the Villainess’s Booth
Chapter 26 — The Villainess Enjoys the Culture Festival
Epilogue
Side Story — The Villainess’s Familiars
Afterword
Color Illustrations
About J-Novel Club
Copyright
Landmarks
Table of Contents
Color Images
Prologue
Through various twists and turns, I’d become the girl who slew the dragon. Looking back, it was impressive that I’d been able to defeat such a monster. It made me feel a little sad to think that, in terms of my abilities, I was becoming more and more monster-like myself.
Anyhow, I’d gained a heap of reward money big enough to make my purse celebrate, but I still didn’t have much saved in preparation for becoming a fugitive. I wanted four million marks in my savings at the very least, and I had no idea how many times I’d have to risk my life before I got to that point. But still, I was glad that I had a surefire way to earn money.
If things went badly, I’d have to work as a mercenary or an adventurer while in exile, which would mean saying goodbye to my glamorous noble lifestyle.
In other news, I’d recently gotten on good terms with the members of the Witches Association. I’d been able to improve the firing rate of my 120 mm rifled gun using the spatial distortion magic I’d learned from Valentine, and I was steadily powering up. The plan was to stay friendly with the Witches Association and inherit their lost magic so that I could steadily gain the power I’d use to overthrow fate!
However, I wasn’t expecting things to keep going smoothly much longer. I’d finally encountered Elsa, also known as the heroine. It wouldn’t be long before she entered high school. That would finally set the story in motion.
Gah! I’ve got no idea what’ll happen from here on. Well, whatever. I’ll just keep getting ready to conquer fate! Just you wait, fate! I’m about to tear you to shreds!
To that end, I was visiting the Witches Association headquarters again that day.
Huh? A familiar?
Chapter 1 — The Villainess and Familiars
“A familiar?”
I was at the Witches Association headquarters, and I was staring blankly at Serafine, unsure what she meant.
“So no one told you yet? There was a time when witches employed familiars. A familiar is a beast that protects its mage, becomes their eyes, and serves as their partner.”
“Isn’t that what fairies do? I’ve already got a fairy, you know.”
I gave my breast pocket a light tap. Blau came crawling out with a sour expression on her face.
“Master...this is a bad place... There’s no wind, and the stench of death hangs in the air...”
“There you go again. All I smell are books, Blau.”
She was right about the lack of any wind, but there was no smell of death.
“Oh, a fairy with a good nose. Were you aware that a massacre once took place here?”
“Huh? I never heard about that...”
“Really? It happened fifteen hundred years ago. The knights foolish enough to attempt an assault on the Witches Association became a mountain of corpses. There wasn’t much more to it. How I’d love to play with human beings with such abandon once more...”
Huh? What? Did she just casually reveal that she took part in a battle fifteen hundred years ago?
“Um... How old are you, Serafine?”
“You should never ask a woman her age.”
This must be that “She looks like a kid, but she’s actually centuries old!” trope...
“Now, as I was saying, a familiar is more than that pitiful fairy. Fairies do have their uses, but they’re incapable of defending their master.” Serafine shrugged her shoulders in disgust.
“What? But Blau really tries her best!” That was all I had to say.
“Let me show you my familiar.” She grinned wickedly as she used spatial distortion magic to open a rift in midair.
“Whoa! A cerberus?!”
The magic beast that appeared from the rift was a three-headed cerberus!
The three heads of the cerberus each spoke separately as it stepped out from the rift.
“Oh?”
“It was you our master spoke of.”
“A new witch?”
It’s... It’s huge! Like a small truck. I’m glad we weren’t too close to the bookshelves.
“That’s right,” Serafine said. “This is the new witch. But she doesn’t even have a familiar yet.”
“N-Nice to meet you,” I greeted it.
The cerberus was peaceful, perhaps as a result of it being submissive to Serafine. But I’d heard that cerberuses were magic beasts every bit as dangerous as fire dragons. They could use magic, and they would ravenously feed on humans while lurking in the shadows. One story told of a lone cerberus that destroyed an entire city. How much of that story was true and how much was fiction was unclear, but I had no doubt that this beast posed a serious threat...because it was real big!
“How’s this possible?” I asked.
“It’s bound to me as my familiar by blood. This is a type of lost magic, though if I had to classify it, I’d call it blood magic. You can form the same bond with a fairy, but a bond with a magic beast is far more useful.” Serafine petted the cerberus’s head as she spoke.
“Truly,” the cerberus agreed.
“Wow. Does that mean I can bind Blau to me like this?”
“Only if your insignificant fairy so wishes. A familiar contract requires mutual consent. They can’t be formed unilaterally.”
I see. If it were a one-sided agreement, that’d be like making a slave.
“Now I have to ask, how’d you get that cerberus to agree to be your familiar?”
“I drove it to the verge of death and demanded that it accept the contract if it wished to live.”
“And you call that mutual consent...?”
You clearly forced it! Thanks a lot.
“Well, why not try it for yourself with that fairy? It might be willing.”
“Blau, would you make a contract with me?” I asked Blau in my breast pocket.
“Only if you absolutely insist, master...”
“I do.”
“Shouldn’t we give it more thought?”
Wow, Blau’s so selfish...
“Come on, let’s make this contract.”
“All right,” Blau said as she floated up out of my pocket. “It’s just that lost magic creeps me out.”
“What do we do now, Serafine?”
“First, you both need to exchange blood,” she replied. “Try it.”
“Blood?”
I shut off my sense of pain and drew blood from my index finger with my knife.
“Blau, do fairies have blood?”
“We do. But if it’s painful—Oww!”
I made a small cut on Blau’s index finger.
“M-Master! How mean!”
“Sorry, sorry. But we’ve gotta exchange blood somehow, haven’t we?”
“Ugh...”
I placated Blau with a smile. “Now for the exchange.”
“All right,” she agreed.
I touched my index finger against Blau’s.
“Next, channel your mana into the fairy,” Serafine instructed.
“Roger.”
I channeled mana into Blau just as she’d said.
“Next, you must incant, ‘Thy blood binds mine, my blood stains thine, and we become one through blood.’”
Oh. Must be a magic incantation.
“Let’s do it, Blau. Thy blood binds mine, my blood stains thine, and we become one through blood.”
“Ah...”
As I recited the incantation, I began to feel what Blau was feeling.
“I see it was a success,” Serafine said. “You should try some things right now. Is your fairy able to share its vision with you?”
“Let me share your vision, Blau.”
I released her from my hand, but her senses remained linked with mine. And then...
“Oh?! I can feel what Blau is touching! I can see what she’s seeing! I can see my own face through Blau’s eyes!”
A window had appeared in my vision, and my own face as seen by Blau was displayed within it. What in the world? So this is what it’s like to have a familiar!
“This is amazing! It must be because of our familiar contract!”
“You shouldn’t be so amazed by this,” Serafine said. “There’s little that a fairy can do. They’re useful for scouting, but not much else. If it were a magic beast, however, it could be your shield or your sword. Every witch should have a familiar or two.”
I guess a witch just wouldn’t be a witch without a familiar. A black cat was standard back on Earth, but here it must be magic beasts like this cerberus. Personally, I’d prefer something a bit cuter, but whoever heard of a cute magic beast?
“Perhaps you’re unsure what sort of familiar you’d like?” Serafine asked.
“Yes. A little...” I replied with a troubled look.
Something tells me that Serafine would give me a hard time if I asked her to recommend some cute magic beasts. I’d better keep my mouth shut.
“In that case, accept the lotus fruit gathering quest once it’s posted at the Adventurer’s Guild. Then you’ll find a fine magic beast. Drive it to the brink of death, and then force it to make a contract. Remember, you must accept the lotus fruit quest.”
“Lotus fruit gathering quest. Got it!”
I wonder what kind of familiar I’ll find waiting for me. If I had a griffin or a wyvern, I could ride around on its back. Though that wouldn’t compare to the 04-type flight unit I made!
You know, being able to perform aerial reconnaissance using shared vision is going to be handy. And the idea of having a creature around to defend me when I’m in trouble is something I can’t pass up. I’m going to need power of all kinds while taking on the low-life trash known as fate!
Petra and the others should be back from that expedition soon. I’ll ask them to take on that lotus fruit gathering quest! I’m so excited I can hardly wait!
Chapter 2 — The Villainess and a Divine Beast
There I was, at the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Hey, Astrid. You’re looking full of energy as always.” I was greeted by Petra, who’d recently gotten back from an expedition.
“Petra! I’m back for more adventures today! How’d your expedition go?”
“We barely gained anything from it. We already knew that the chaos caused by the fire dragons had to have messed up the ecosystem around here, but we still don’t know how bad things are. We reported everything we saw to the guild, but we only got a tiny reward for it.”
Ah. I remember how that fire dragon gobbled down those orcs. I can imagine how it could wreck the ecosystem.
“The real problem is that magic beasts are on the move. They scattered in all directions in fear of the dragons, so there’s a massive monster migration in progress.”
“Oh, that sounds like trouble...”
If the fire dragons are like nomads invading from the east, that makes the situation something like the Migration Period...
“Anyhow, they’re not near any densely populated areas, so it’s not too much of a problem,” Gertrud told me. “If they do start moving toward somewhere populated, the adventurers currently out scouting can report back, and orders of knights and parties of adventurers would do something about it.”
“So, what kind of quest are we gonna accept today?” Ernesta began looking at the quests posted up on the bulletin board.
“I have a recommendation!” I quickly pointed out one in particular. It was, of course, the lotus fruit gathering quest that Serafine had told me about.
“A lotus fruit gathering quest?” Ernesta asked. “Why would you recommend this?”
“Well, lotus fruit is in demand lately, so I figured it should sell at a good price. See, the reward is pretty high, isn’t it?”
The reward really was high. Serafine had probably posted it herself and put an unusually high price on it. It was double what we’d gotten for the mandrake gathering quest. It made me wonder why no one else had claimed it yet.
“Hm, I know this area,” Gertrud said. “There aren’t any particularly ferocious beasts around there. If we can get that reward for gathering in that area, it’ll make us a good profit. Though I don’t get what the client was thinking when they set a reward like this.”
“Th-They must have really wanted that lotus fruit.”
Eek! I have to avoid making them suspicious!
“If you recommend it, then I guess we’ll go for it. It’s not like there’s another quest we had in mind. The money we got from the dragon subjugation quest won’t last much longer.”
“Huh? We got six hundred thousand marks each, right? Did you spend it?”
“Pretty much. We donated some of it to the orphanage we came from, and the rest didn’t last very long because we bought new equipment.”
Wow! She used up six hundred thousand marks...
“Gertrud still feels indebted to the orphanage. We told her she didn’t have to make such a big donation, but she did it anyway. I think she gave them enough to rebuild the orphanage.”
“Gertrud must be a good person...” I replied.
Meanwhile, the only thing I ever think about is saving money for the sake of being a fugitive. I feel bad.
“Anyway, let’s go with this quest. Any objections?” Gertrud said while picking up the quest announcement.
“None,” Petra agreed. “Let’s do it.”
“Let’s go for it!” Ernesta agreed too.
That’s a relief. Now I can get myself a familiar. I feel a little bad for misleading them, but hopefully they’ll forgive me if I get a familiar and become more reliable in combat.
But wait... Didn’t Gertrud say that there aren’t any dangerous magic beasts in the area where the lotus fruit is? Maybe Serafine put a good beast there herself, especially for me? No, that’s a bit far-fetched...
I’m starting to feel that something’s not right here. But we’ve accepted the quest now, so we’d better do it!
....
We were preparing to embark on the lotus fruit gathering quest. The weapons I’d brought were the machine gun, the shotgun, and an anti-materiel rifle!
The anti-materiel rifle was a big gun that used high-caliber, .50 rounds. It’d be enough to take out most enemies. A direct hit from one of its large-diameter bullets would send the enemy’s flesh and blood flying as it reduced them to mincemeat.
Well, those were the weapons I had on show. Using the method Valentine had taught me, I’d made several spatial rifts that were storing my 120 mm rifled gun together with explosive and HEAT rounds. Both the explosive and HEAT rounds had been stored near the rift entrance on an incline so that they could be loaded automatically.
I won’t be fighting any dragons today, so an anti-materiel rifle is all I need. At least I hope so. I’ll be in big trouble if I encounter a magic beast that an anti-materiel rifle doesn’t work against...
“We’re all set. Let’s get moving.”
“All right!”
Gertrud had finished the procedure for accepting the quest, so now we were heading straight to the battlefield! By carriage, it would take about thirty minutes each way to reach the place where we’d be gathering the lotus fruits, so it was close enough for a student like myself. I was hoping to avoid any more situations where I wouldn’t have enough time unless I waited for the weekend.
And so, we headed to the place in a swaying horse-drawn carriage.
“A student? You must be an assistant mage,” the coachman said as he looked me over.
“That’s right. I need the money...”
And I’m hoping to get some real-life firing practice too.
“I heard that all the academy students are sons and daughters of nobles. Life must be tough for nobles too. It’s a cruel world.”
“Y-You’ve got that right.”
My family has plenty of money. It’s just that I don’t want to be left penniless after our domain gets seized. That’s the thing making life tough.
“Well, take care out there.”
“I will!”
We arrived. As the coachman waved us off, I turned and waved back at him.
“Hm. Lotus fruit is used to make sleeping draughts, isn’t it?” Petra asked. “Why’s there such demand for that? I’ve always slept like a baby myself.”
“I’ve never had any problem sleeping, either,” Ernesta replied.
I’d always slept well too. I had no need for medicine.
“Either the client has something making them worry, or they’re dealing with someone who does,” Gertrud answered. “As long as there’s nothing illegal going on, it’s not for us adventurers to ask clients for reasons. Got to admit that I’m curious though...”
We passed through a gap in the undergrowth and reached the spot where the lotus fruit was. Our formation was the same as always, but now the party members had new gear. Gertrud had a shiny new claymore and plate mail, and Petra had gone from having one bow to using a decorated shortbow and a longbow that she wore on her back. Ernesta had also switched to plate mail and a new longsword.
I wonder how much it all cost. If their reward of six hundred thousand marks didn’t go far, then it must have been a lot. I guess their armor must wear down with every hit they take too.
Maybe I should be wearing at least a bulletproof vest myself...
“Here it is: the lotus fruit,” Gertrud announced, standing before a tree with twisting branches.
“How many were we meant to gather?”
“It was twenty. I really thought we’d find more lotus fruit than this here. Something’s odd...”
From what I could see, there weren’t even twenty ripe fruits on the tree in front of us. At most, there were five or six.
“At least there’s nowhere for dangerous magic beasts to nest around here. We can take our time.”
“That’s true,” I replied.
Hmm. Maybe the idea is that I’ll start with a gentle magic beast as my first familiar rather than something dangerous? On the other hand, Serafine seems a little sadistic, so I can’t imagine her setting up anything so kind.
“These lotus fruits sure smell good,” Petra said. “Sadly, you can’t cook with them because anyone who eats them falls asleep.”
“Yeah,” agreed Ernesta. “And they taste real sweet too.”
I couldn’t say anything because I’d never tried eating a lotus fruit before.
“Mm?”
“What’s up, Petra?”
“Nothing. I just thought I heard a wolf howling in the distance...”
A wolf?
“In which direction?” I asked.
“Three o’clock. Quite some distance away.”
Oh? Could this be my chance to get that familiar Serafine was talking about? I’m not much of a dog person, though... I would have preferred some kind of cat-like beast...
“Could I go take a look?”
“Hold up. It’s not safe to go off alone,” Petra warned me. “I’ll come with you.”
“I appreciate it,” I replied.
I was getting Petra caught up in a personal affair of mine, but letting her come with me was better than making her worry.
I began making my way toward the place that the howl had come from. The undergrowth was thin, but we kept our bodies low to the ground as we advanced. Since we were assuming that the creature was a wolf, we made sure to approach from downwind.
“Looks like you’ve gotten the hang of this. I’m not sure there’s anything left to teach you.”
“Not at all. I’ve still got much to learn.”
Most of my knowledge came secondhand from the military books I’d read.
“What’s...that...?” I spoke before I could stop myself.
There was a massive wolf in the direction that Petra had heard the howl coming from. It was a true monster: it had a body as big as a bus or a large truck, and it was covered in silver fur that glistened in the light of the sun.
I heard a gasp from Petra. “Whoa... It can’t be... That’s a fenrir...”
A fenrir’s a giant wolf, isn’t it? If I remember right, Fenrir was the uncontrollable monster that kept breaking loose from the chains that the gods made to bind him. That same creature exists here as a magic beast? What a terrifying world.
Suddenly, I heard girls’ voices in my ear.
“Miss Human! Miss Human!”
“Shh! We’d better keep our voices down, or that thing will notice us.”
“Fairies?” I said.
“Yes. We’re fairies of this forest. Are you a mage, Miss Human?”
Floating to my left and right were two fairies that looked a lot like Blau. One had reddish-brown hair and a red dress, while the other had blonde hair and a yellow dress. They looked almost identical, as if they were twins.
“That’s right,” I replied. “What’s wrong?”
“We want you to take down that big wolf.”
Huh? They’re telling me I should fight that thing?
“Why do you want me to do that?”
“The wolf’s after us. There used to be a lot of fairies here, but then that thing came along and gobbled everyone up.”
That reminds me. When I first met Blau, she was about to be eaten by a griffin.
“Hmm. I’m not sure I can handle that thing...”
“Please, Miss Human. We’ll form contracts with you if you do it.”
“That’s right! We’re begging you.”
What? I can make contracts with two fairies at once?! It’s normally just one at a time!
“Blau wants you to do it too, master,” Blau appeared from my pocket. “Please save these fairies.”
“Hey, who are you talking to, Astrid?” Petra asked.
“Fairies. They’re asking me to fight the fenrir.”
“What? Are you kidding?” Petra said with a look of disbelief.
“Petra, please stay back. I’ll do something about this.”
“You’ll do something...? What do you think you can do against that monster? That thing’s big enough to eat a whole city. You think you can handle it alone?”
“Yes. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
As I spoke, I was putting the machine gun in its trunk and swapping it for the anti-materiel rifle. I used a small amount of mana to synchronize the rifle with my body before taking aim at the massive fenrir. I couldn’t kill it if I wanted to make it my familiar, so I didn’t aim at the head. My target was its abdomen. Just like Serafine, I planned to leave the fenrir on the verge of death so I could force it to accept a contract.
“I can’t let you take on that thing by yourself,” Petra said. “I’ll help. Don’t worry, we can let it run off if it comes to that.”
“Thanks. I appreciate the help.”
All right, wolfling, let’s get this party started!
Chapter 3 — The Villainess Fights a Divine Beast
“Engage combat preparation measures.”
I began to secrete adrenaline, and my perception of time started slowing down at the same time.
I exhaled the air from my lungs with a great sigh and aligned the reticle with the fenrir’s abdomen. The creature wasn’t moving. It was standing still on four legs, reigning over the forest as its sovereign.
But now your reign is down to its last few minutes.
Then I pulled the trigger. Blau muted the thunderous noise of the gun; there was no sound.
“It repelled it?!”
I heard something like a crash against metal as the bullet I’d fired bounced away. It was as if it had hit the armor of a tank.
Impossible! It couldn’t have repelled a .50 round!
“Who’s there? Show yourself.” The fenrir spoke in a low voice while looking around.
“Wh-What was that?” I asked.
“A boundary,” Petra replied. “This type of magic beast creates them. Want to run before it notices we’re here?”
Making boundaries is a coward’s trick! Even lost magic doesn’t include boundaries!
“Could I break through it with force?”
“You’d need some incredible force to break through that. It would take about ten dozen mages.”
Ten dozen mages? Can I really handle this?
“I’m going to try breaking through it.” I stored away the anti-materiel rifle and pulled the 120 mm rifled gun from a spatial rift.
“Wh-What? Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious.”
I’m ready for this. I’m making it my familiar. I want it.
“There you are!” The sharp eyes of the fenrir were facing us.
“That’s right, you dumb wolf! Here we are!”
I used blood magic to give my strength a sudden boost as I moved through the undergrowth. All the while, I kept the muzzle aimed at the fenrir and prepared to fire the first shot.
I’ve got to keep moving...
“A lone human intends to challenge me? How amusing!”
The fenrir closed the distance between us with a single powerful leap.
Just as I thought. It’s well-built. No mistaking those muscles.
“That’s some real big talk, wolfling! But you won’t put a scratch on me!”
With a grin, I pulled the trigger of the 120 mm rifled gun. I didn’t get to enjoy the sound of it firing because Blau was muting it, but that was just as well because it would have ruptured my eardrums. The shockwave from a weapon of this caliber couldn’t be taken lightly.
“Hngh?!”
Heh heh. That was a HEAT round. These pierce through armored cars with ease. You think your boundary can hold up against that, wolfling?
“Hmpf! Was that it?!”
“Tsk! You’re a stubborn one!”
The HEAT round did nothing more than graze the fenrir’s cheek. The metal jet then created an inferno that got close, but the fenrir was able to twist its large body to avoid being burned.
No mortal creature should have been able to dodge a shell launched from a tank gun after it had been fired. This was a monster to be reckoned with.
You’re special. I like you!
“Why don’t you dance with me a little longer? I’m in a good mood today.”
“Spare me your drivel, human. I’ll be the one toying with you.”
This wolfling needs to learn some manners. I do like its spirit though.
“HEAT rounds! Continuous fire!”
I positioned myself beside the fenrir with a light sidestep as it charged toward me, and with my slowed sense of time, I took aim at its abdomen before firing multiple shells in succession.
One shot didn’t work, but how about four?!
The fenrir couldn’t completely dodge the attack this time. A storm of metal jets seared its abdomen and then broke through.
“Reloading!”
I created five spatial rifts, loading shells into all chambers of the revolver at once.
“Lost magic...? Then there are still humans capable of using it... Now I see. You intend to make me your familiar, do you?”
“That’s the plan. I don’t suppose you’ll accept quietly?”
Once the shells had finished loading, I aimed the 120 mm rifled gun at the fenrir once again. Killing it would be a terrible waste, but I needed it near death if my plan was going to work.
This is tough.
“Bwah hah. Very well. If you’re able to land a hit on me with your next attack, then I’ll be your familiar. But first, there’s something you must know: the folly of challenging the divine beast, Fenrir!”
Oh? The fenrir just changed somehow... It got faster! Several times faster!
“So this is what you’re truly capable of! I’m liking you more and more!”
“Everything until now was a mere game!”
The fenrir moved so quickly that I couldn’t keep track of it, even with my slowed sense of time.
I see. It really was just playing. I can’t underestimate this thing...
“But I haven’t run out of tricks just yet.”
I induced the release of more adrenaline, raising my heart rate further. The faster my heart beat, the more my sense of time slowed. My field of vision also narrowed, but my concentration was good enough that I wouldn’t lose sight of my target once I’d taken aim.
“Come, young wielder of the arts of ancient witches! Show me your true power!”
To make things even harder, the fenrir now understood that I needed to keep my gun aimed at it, and its movements were making that difficult. Simply put, it ran with a zigzagging motion. Maintaining my aim was tough. My slowed time perception and the fenrir’s swift movements were evenly matched.
“A human-powered fire-control system can’t keep up with this.”
But I wasn’t done. A sadist like Serafine wouldn’t have set this up for me if it hadn’t been such a challenge. And besides, the creature wouldn’t be worthy of being my familiar if it hadn’t been so strong.
“What’s wrong, human? Your attack hasn’t hit me! Bwah hah hah!”
“Talk all you want,” I replied sullenly.
“Well, well, well! Let’s hear your battle cry, witch! Show me your courage! Your power!”
The fenrir’s enjoying this. It’s getting real full of itself.
“Haah!” The fenrir lunged at me.
At the same time, I charged toward it ready to attack.
“Wh-What?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” Petra fired an arrow as quickly as she could, but unlike my HEAT rounds, they couldn’t even scratch the surface of the fenrir’s boundary. But that was fine.
If it’s courage and power you want, Fenrir, then here it comes!
“I’m going to make my attack...”
The fenrir took a great swipe at me with its front right leg.
“...the instant you attempt yours!”
I slid along the ground, dodging the fenrir’s swipe by a hair’s breadth. That slide carried me to the position below the fenrir’s abdomen, where I fired all five rounds loaded into the cylinder.
“Gagh...!”
Got him!
The shells I fired actually hit the fenrir this time. Blood spilled out of its abdomen, coating my cheek.
Oops. If my uniform gets any dirtier, I’ll never be able to explain it...
Once I saw the fenrir fall onto its side with a thud, I started moving toward its head.
“Well? Did I hit?”
“You did... I thought no human was this strong...”
The fenrir’s lower half had been torn to shreds by the impact of the shells.
I might have gone a little too far...
“Keep still. I’ll heal you just enough to keep you alive.”
Using healing blood magic, I stopped the fenrir from bleeding out.
“Are you ready to make that contract now?”
“I’ve no objections to serving a witch with your power. You may keep me by your side until your lifespan reaches an end or you tire of this world.”
He still sounds full of himself, but that’s fine, I guess. As long as he accepts.
“Now I need some blood.”
