A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

The Man\'s lips spread into a smile,

"Sir Aurelius, you made it!" He said in a voice that carried, "Thank heavens, we need all the help we can get."

"Norbert…" Aurelius said to acknowledge the man\'s greeting and if he wanted to say more, he never got a chance as an Undead Knight came barreling at him right then with a shield raised to bash into him.

With his eyes wide and his senses sharp in reaction, Aurelius pulled out his shield, again seemingly from out of nowhere, and held it out to receive and resist the bash.

*BANG!*

The sound both metal equipment made after contact was loud and impactful.

"Ugh!" Aurelius let out as he locked in his knees and kept his position. Only getting pushed back a step or two.

"What are you waiting for?" Aurelius cried out suddenly and he looked over at the Archway with such intensity that Henry thought he was talking to him but then the Squires began to charge past him, all yelling cries of determination as they broke into groups.

One group went to aid Aurelius. They stabbed their swords at the Knight\'s unprotected back. Deftly aiming for gaps in its armor. They stabbed through the gaps but with hardly any actual flesh on their target, the result was not nearly as satisfying.

Plus, more often than not, the sword simply went through the gaps in the Undead\'s bones with only a little twist required to wrench the weapons from the grip of the Squires.

The Undead Knight reacted to their pointless stabs and with the slightest pullback from its current shield bash against Aurelius, it swung its spear in a violent arch that caught one of the Squires in the head in a slam that sent her flying many feet away.

The others ducked just in time to avoid the Spear\'s shaft and Aurelius used that moment to make a sudden sidestep. He rolled to the Knight\'s side and swung a sword at its neck only to find the blade of his sword promptly bashed aside by the Undead\'s Shield.

It still had its spear in motion and could not pull it back to stab Aurelius. Or maybe it just didn\'t want to. Either way, the Undead Knight unleashed its sickly deathly mana in a violent surge that blasted the Squires that had managed to duck its Spear attack and knocked them all away.

The Mana surge also struck against Aurelius with a force that aimed to slam him away like the Squires but he held his ground, unleashed a Mana surge of his own, and the two were quickly locked in battle.

Meanwhile, the second group of Squires made their way to Eloise in hopes of providing her assistance but then a massive axe descended in the space between them and Eloise. Another Undead Knight had taken action and picked them as its opponent.

The axe that had struck the ground was specked the blood that had barely been shaken off despite the swings it must have made because the kill was recent. The kill lay on the ground just a few feet away. Just recently split open.

With their eyes widened, the Squires raised their weapons and prepared to take a stance but before the stance could take the form of defense or maybe even attack, they received a forceful wave of Mana surge interrupting their attempts before the axe came swinging at their heads next. Its massive double-sided blade looked more than enough to split them in two at once.

The Squires generally had enough sense to take advantage of the slam of the Mana surge and slid a few steps back but they were also incapable of remaining on their feet and fell back with groans of effort.

The Squire at the front of the group had his sword raised horizontally in front of him, almost instinctively —like how you would throw your hand out after falling— and with a flash of its heavy steel, the axe that had just swung horizontal and cut through the air, swung down vertically and cut clean through an arm.

The Squire\'s eyes were first wide in horror. His shock seemed to delay his pain and then he yelled out not only at the pain of losing an arm but at the idea of losing it at all.

"ARRGG…!!!"

The pained/horrified yell was very loud and earsplitting to those close to it but it was hardly new in the current climate. It was quickly lost amid the other pained yells all over the Hall. Plus, it was shut up quickly enough as the Undead Knight pulled its weapon back and then brought it down to cleave the Squire in two.

An instantaneous end that shut up the yell and replaced it with the sounds of blood and the squelching sound of spilling innards.

Horrified by what they just witnessed, the other Squires had taken the opportunity that their comrade getting cleaved in two, presented and aimed to put as much distance between the Undead Knight and themselves.

The Squires couldn\'t even get to their feet. Their legs seemed to fail them and they had barely crawled three feet when the Knight turned its horrid hollow but glowing eyes on them and took a step with its axe pulled back in preparation for a swing.

But then, its head twitched and it raised its axe in front of its face just in time to intercept two Mana-infused Slugs fired at the same time from the weapon whose muzzles were now smoking in Henry\'s hand.

*BANG!*

The resulting sound was a bang of the two slugs hitting at the same time with the same level of impact.

The Undead Knight, while acting quickly enough to use its axe like a shield, was still caught fairly by surprise and had not expected the impact the Slugs would make so he was forced to slide back a step after which it brought the axe down and glared at Henry who still had the weapon raised.

<Reload>

Blue light glowed across \'Violent Retort\', reloading it with bullets just as a dark circle spread from Henry. It had started spreading since Henry had fired the Mana-infused Slugs and now it touched the Shadow the Undead Knight cast.

Before the Undead had the chance to glare at Henry some more, Nyx leaped out of the shadow with her head in the position to barrel into the enemy.

*Bam!*

Nyx made contact with the Undead and it slid back even more steps but still had its attention on Henry so when Henry pulled the triggers of \'Violent Retort\', it was ready, and leaned in a dodge to avoid the projectiles that were naturally expected to travel in a straight line.

But they didn\'t.

The Mana-infused Slugs changed direction with the Undead Knight. Or more accurately, they changed direction with the Undead Knight\'s axe and followed its large blade until they struck against the very spot the last two Mana-infused slugs had made contact with.

*BANG!!*

Somehow, this impact seemed even greater than the last and spun the Axe in a violent spin.

At first, the Undead tried to retain its hold on the weapon and it was forced to move a few steps away before eventually, the axe was wrenched from its already weakened grip, spinning away and leaving it without a Weapon.