A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

The red flame that had been around her sword\'s blade blazed more furiously and with a powerful heave, Triss tossed it toward Gina in a circular blast that rotated violently toward the Ice-Mage Vyker.

Gina gasped with her eyes wide and hurried to erect a defense for herself by conjuring an ice wall. The circular flame attack struck the wall and although they canceled each other out, the impact of their contact struck Gina and sent her flying almost off the Arena.

Reon frowned at this development. The impact had struck him too but he had survived it and was only forced to slide a step away from the spot he had previously been. He kept his attention on Triss though and prepared to make his move.

While Triss had been in battle with Chad, Reon had taken the time to prepare a mighty attack whose cast was only evidenced by the individual balls of burning flame on his palms.

The moment Triss stopped her spin and before she could contemplate the start of another attack, Reon brought both his hands together and combined the two burning flames that he had deliberately compressed. The balls of flame reacted violently with each other and became so massive that they blocked Reon from Triss\' sights and then they fired a combined beam. .net

*BOOM!!!*

Triss had been caught fairly by surprise. While she had known what Reon was planning (she would have been foolish not to know considering she was well aware that he was a Flame Mage Vyker whose role in this battle was long-distance attacks such as this), she had been caught in a moment just after an attack.

Her transition into another move-set was not yet complete and it had now been interrupted. Fortunately, the wide blade of her sword could serve well as a shield and she was able to raise the weapon just in time to intercept the blast.

Unfortunately, the flames of the attack were so wild that they spread far beyond the width that the wide blade could cover. They singed Triss\' skin, her undergarment-like shirt, and her red hair. The force was also so powerful that it was forcing her away and trying to send her away from the Arena\'s stage entirely.

Just as the massive stream of flames blocked Triss\' view of him, it also blocked Reon\'s view of her. But he was sure his attack had struck her and now all he had to do was keep his focus and win the physical contest to knock her away, expending every bit of physical energy she had and was trying to use to resist…

"Huh?"

Reon\'s eyes widened as his sharp Vyker senses warned of something coming at him from the side. He glanced over and he saw the blunt end of a sword swinging toward his face and packing heat that surpassed what his massive stream of flames could produce.

"Holy—!" Reon yelled. It took a lot of effort to tear his attention and magical energy away from the stream of flames he was already firing but he managed to do it and conjured a flame field instead.

*Bang!*

The large blade made contact with the shield and only then was Triss\' face visible. There were no signs of injury on her body and her lips were stretched in a grin while the blazing balls of flame in her eyes were now infernos.

Those eyes grabbed Reon\'s attention the most. He couldn\'t look away from them. Even when he felt flames licking at his insides, he couldn\'t help but stare. Even when they seemed to pull at his soul and drag it into a Demonic abyss, he couldn\'t look away.

*crackle*

With the sound a twig makes when the flames of a campfire lick at it and start its burning process, Reon\'s flame field was starting to splinter. The infernal fire that blazed around Triss\' blade was overpowering the flame field\'s integrity.

The realization helped Reon break free of the hold Triss\' eyes had on him and he hurried to conjure a stream of fire to force Triss away before she completely broke through his defense.

Triss\' grin became a smirk. It was as though she could read Reon\'s mind so clearly like it was an Open book. She knew exactly what he was planning to do and, preemptively, she stamped her right foot against the ground.

*Bam!*

The heat that was radiating from her body got channeled to her foot and a pentagram was burned into the spot she just stamped her foot against and from the pentagram blazed magical energy backed by Infernal might. It flared and unleashed an arch of Hellish flames that struck Reon\'s flame field and shattered it.

"Fuck—!" Reon started to say but Triss turned her sword right then and slammed the flat side against his face.

*Bang!*

With his nose broken, his face quickly covered in his blood and some parts even burned by the flames that had coated the blade, Reon flew right off the stage. He collapsed a few feet away and lay twitching. Even if he could still fight, it didn\'t look like he wanted to. Not right now and certainly not against Triss.

The sequence had lasted only a few minutes.

In that time, Gina and Chad had recovered from what they had suffered from Triss but Gina was closest and attacked first.

A jagged piece of ice formation rising off the ground and stabbing toward her jaw was the first attack to come at Triss who swung her sword and cut the formation clean in two. However, as the two pieces separated, they shattered into multiple icicles that charged at her to try to succeed where the jagged formation had failed.

With a powerful swing of her sword whose blade was still coated with red infernal flame, Triss deflected the icicles and the heat she and her weapon radiated turned most of it to mist before they could even get close enough.

She appeared to have the upper hand and was starting to roll her eyes at the ineffectiveness of Gina\'s attacks when she realized the mists and flecks that she had turned the ice attacks into had not dissipated. They still floated around her body. All were still controlled by Gina whose face was screwed in concentration.

And then the temperature began to drop.

It dropped fast and the mist of ice appeared to multiply.

Triss felt her heat begin to cool. She tried to muster it but it was as though Gina\'s ice were inside her body, changing her internal chemistry and blocking her ability to conjure flames or even heat.

The temperature continued to drop and Triss realized moving her body was no longer as easy as it should have been while Gina looked to be getting more and more comfortable as the seconds ticked by.

"I\'ve been among Flame Vykers for months," Gina said with a smirk,

"You think I haven\'t picked up a trick or two to deal with flame bitches like yourself? I call this Move, \'Absolute Zero\'.

You must be feeling it now. That cold that\'s gripping your insides… Gripping your Heart. Despite the freaky Devil-worshiping nonsense that made you, your Heart is still the source of your mutation. I\'ll stop it first. You won\'t survive this so you might as well give up now. I have no qualms about killing you!"

"\'Absolute Zero\'… Not bad," Triss mumbled and her hand shivered as she raised it to stare at the flecks of ice that seemed to be rising from underneath her skin and freezing over it.

And then she sensed a coming attack.

Chad was hoping to take advantage of Gina\'s ongoing move. He now had the advantage of free movement that Triss did not and would be digging his claws through her before she could resist the cold enough to react. Or so he thought.

"Rarr!" With a feral growl rising deep within his chest, Chad leaped at Triss. His claws were inches from her when she blurred from his sight.

Before his eyes could get wide in shock, an ice-specked palm was suddenly in front of his face. It slammed into it and its fingers, strong and inescapable, tightened around his head.

Even with the ice flecks still spreading over her skin, Triss had moved her arm faster than Chad\'s eyes could follow and her grip was stronger than his scales could handle.

*BAM!*

After securing her grip around his head, Triss slammed Chad into the ground so hard that he cracked the concrete floor of the Arena\'s stage and sunk into a crater so deep that his head was not visible. Triss\' hand on his face was also not in view.

The angle looked so horrible that Chad\'s neck might as well have been broken because the rest of his body was still visible on the surface even though his head was out of sight.

Gina gasped with her eyes wide and then she heard Triss say,

"Hey Gina, look into my eyes."

Gina made the mistake of complying and she saw burning infernos where Triss\' eyes were supposed to be. Suddenly, that was all she could see as her soul was pulled from her body and dragged deep into Hell for eternal torment.