Betrayal and Bloodshed

"… ..I don't think we know who's in trouble right now. Since Paul Ackerman has already been killed, all I have to do is kill you along with the rest of the team." 

The masked woman gritted her teeth and tried to regain her momentum by shooting, but Jude did not respond and just pointed to the bottom of the container. 

Paul Ackerman, who had been swept up in the laser she had fired earlier, was looking up at them with a normal complexion and laughing. 

A faint circular shield surrounding his body. 

It's half broken and tattered, but at least it has managed to block one attack from a woman. 

And for Paul Ackermann, that was enough. 

"… ..!!" 

"Hey, you lady. You don't think I haven't heard anything about the uninvited guests coming tonight, do you?" 

"This is ridiculous…." 

"I have my own thoughts, and I've prepared myself. And I've invited another guest for today's event. Should I check their faces?" 

Taaak! 

As Paul spoke and snapped his fingers, someone walked out of the darkness hidden by the container as if he had been waiting. 

Thud, thud. 

The sound of something being dragged along with it. 

"iced coffee….." 

And this time, the woman staggered violently, as if she had suffered an irreversible shock. 

The new customer who walked out after hearing Paul's words was holding the neck of a man wearing the same mask as hers. 

Behind the half-broken mask, the face of a young man is distorted in pain, veins and wires dangling from his twisted, torn neck. 

And the one who showed up carrying that grotesque and hideous corpse was a man with a bandit-like appearance who had been their teammate just an hour ago. 

The man smiled and waved his hand. 

"Long time no see?" 

time 

"Hahahahahaha!!" 

Paul Ackerman patted the bandit man on the shoulder and let out a strange laugh. 

"You idiots. Didn't it ever occur to you that I could recruit other people to do the job?" 

He walked with a confident gait towards the container where the woman was standing, continuing to talk loudly. 

"The way you handle things is so sloppy that it's almost laughable. You should have known that if you have the right amount of money, there's nothing you can't do in this world." 

Crunch. 

"Don't worry. I won't kill you nicely. First, I'll open up your machine-filled head, extract all the information, and personally feed the customer who dared to turn a knife on me… ." 

At that very moment, when Paul was giving a passionate speech. 

Leo, who was hiding right next to him due to the talisman's effect, pulled the trigger with all his might. 

Taaaaang!! 

A loud gunshot rings out right next to me. 

The tattered shield was shattered in an instant, and the firepower of the shotgun fired at extremely close range tore at the defenceless flesh beyond. 

Paul never spoke again. No, there was no longer any Paul left. 

The lower body, which had been waving in the air with the upper half completely gone, trembles and then falls down. 

Leo looked down at the sight for a moment, then slowly lowered the object he was holding in his hand. 

In his hand he held a long, thick shotgun, completely different from the revolver he had before. 

Leo had brought a shotgun from Gun & Barrel for this occasion today, carrying it in a leather bag. 

It is not suitable for direct carrying and moving in combat, but if combined with a Druid's amulet, there will definitely be an opportunity to use it at least once. 

And that thought turned out to be absolutely correct. 

Paul Ackerman crossed the Jordan River before he could finish his petty boast. 

"!!!!!" 

The complexions of the bandit man and Jude Russell change in an instant. 

"Wow!!" 

The bandit man threw away the corpse of the masked man he was holding and flew towards Leok with both arms raised in the air. 

At the same time, Jude Russell threw away all the composure he had had until then and rushed towards the masked woman in front of him. 

To kill them as quickly as possible and attack Leo. 

From the moment it appears, avoidance is impossible. 

Raise your shield to its maximum in preparation for the coming attack from the bandits. 

A strength that is incomparable to the shield that Paul used as a makeshift measure by borrowing the power of the artifact. 

Phew!! 

But at that moment, something pale begins to appear on both of the bandit's arms. 

At the same time, his forearm swelled to twice its size, accelerated at an insane rate, and transformed into a single ray of light that struck the shield. 

It's being hit down. 

Kwaaaaaaaah!! 

The ground shook around the two hands he had struck down, and the containers piled high in all directions shook. 

Leo's body sinks deep into the ground, dislodging itself from its place. 

In the midst of the chaos, Leo felt the shield gradually crumbling and unconsciously broke out in a cold sweat. 

Wow!! 

One layer, two layers, three layers, and four layers…!! 

A power that cannot be explained by a simple body slam. 

Compared to the impact of the ground sinking, the impact on the shield is beyond imagination. 

The concentration of the hits the bandit man-made was evidence that it was comparable to the firepower of a heavy weapon. 

This is dangerous. 

Leo, whose mind instantly turned cold as he looked at the shield digging down, immediately raised his magical power. 

The best solution in this situation is not magic. 

I quickly reloaded the shotgun I was holding while stacking up my auxiliary magic. 

[Reload Acceleration] [Aiming Correction] [Impact Enhancement] 

I cast three auxiliary spells and placed my finger on the trigger. 

Taaaaang!! 

He quickly loaded two shotgun rounds into the man's abdomen, stopping him in his tracks for a moment. 

The bullet that had just blown away Paul Ackerman's upper body ended up pushing the man back and tearing the flesh in his abdomen. 

The man, too, did not care about such injuries and immediately jumped forward to continue the attack. 

I intuitively feel that destroying the shield right here and now would be a greater benefit than the immediate damage. 

But that brief moment of relaxation was enough. 

He brings the shotgun, now empty, to the ship and uses shock magic once more. 

Small firepower. Large recoil. 

The direction was precisely towards Leo himself. 

Paaaaang!! 

"Ugh…!!" 

Although he used the shotgun as a shield and a belt, the shock from his own magic was indescribably painful. 

The buttstock of the shotgun snaps in half from the impact, and Leo's stomach is crushed in a strange direction. 

An irrational judgment that leads to using offensive magic against oneself. 

But the recoil causes Leo's body to be thrown backwards, quickly moving out of the man's reach. 

Immediately afterwards, the man's two fists slammed into the ground, tearing through the cement floor. 

Kwaaaaang!! 

As debris flies in all directions, the shaking containers collapse here and there, and pitch-black gravel swirls like fog in the middle of the night in the port. 

Leo threw the broken shotgun he was holding far away and started to crawl, clutching his stomach. 

"Ugh…!!" 

I was prepared, but the pain was beyond my imagination and cold sweat ran down my forehead. 

With trembling hands, he took the cigarette out of his arms, lit it, and inhaled the smoke furiously. Only then did the pain begin to subside little by little. 

"… … Phew, phew…!!" 

There is no time to rest for long. 

Even after committing the madness of slamming magic into his own ship, Leo's head was still spinning coldly. 

High-speed movement and evasion magic consume a lot of magical power, and the calculation process is also complicated, so it was difficult for the current Leo to use them during battle. 

In particular, in the case of [Blink] magic, which can be said to be the pinnacle of combat movement magic, it is a magic that cannot be easily used even in WORLD 2.0 without filling up the growth limit. 

Leo, who cannot secure mobility at the moment, has no choice but to resort to extreme measures to escape the crisis before him. 

Kwaaaaang!! 

A man who had jumped up from his seat amidst the collapsed ruins walked towards Leo with a dark smile on his face. 

"Hehehe, I thought he was just an idiot, but he actually has a lot of guts. That's good. My ancestors really loved that kind of courage." 

With those words, a whitish shape rose behind the man's broad back. 

Leo could now guess that this was essentially a massive increase in the physical abilities of the already powerful man. 

Of course, his physical strength is not as great as when he faced Croken Asylus, but… that strength alone is enough to threaten Leo. 

Instead of responding to those words, he spreads out his magical power and slowly scans the area. 

You need to know how the fight between Jude Russell and the Masked Woman ended to decide how to fight. 

The man smiled even more deeply at Leo, who didn't even bat an eyelash at his warning. 

"To be honest, I'd rather let you live here. You've made things so much easier for me since you blew Paul Ackerman's asshole." 

"… … .." 

"Hehehe… I'm so full of the advance payments I've received from both sides, but if you clean up the aftermath like this, there's no need to fight with Dyke." 

Leo replied, wiping his sweaty forehead. 

"What if there are no witnesses?" 

"Hahaha! …. Yeah. As long as there are no witnesses." 

The man's smile becomes more vivid. 

Originally, since he had betrayed me once, I would have decided to join Paul Ackerman's cartel. 

But with Paul Ackermann's sudden death, another opportunity opened up for the man. 

If I could just eliminate all the witnesses here, I could join hands with Dyke again as if I had succeeded in my mission. 

In the process, he took the generous advance payment that Paul had given him. 

And at that moment, Leo's sphere of perception felt the bond between the two people who were not there. 

The showdown between the masked woman and Jude Russell. 

Leo, who immediately sensed the situation, let out a hollow laugh. 

'You ran away... That's amazing in its own way.' 

Ironically, the masked woman managed to escape from Jude Russell. 

And Jude Russell, who had missed his target, turned exactly the opposite way and was coming back this way. 

If I have to deal with two people, I'll have to completely revise my plans so far. 

"Phew…." 

There is no time to delay. 

Leo took a deep puff of smoke, then turned around and started running. 

Dadada...!! 

"… .!!" 

While biting the tobacco and inhaling the medicine, you can move like a normal person. 

Taking that into account, if we can lure the opponent even a little bit in the way Leo thinks, we can also solve the lack of mobility. 

But the man didn't just sit there and watch. 

Kwaaaaang!! 

"Where are you running off to, you punk!!" 

He picks up a container with both hands and throws it towards Leo. 

No matter how much strength I gained, it didn't seem like I could shoot the container like a bullet, but the pressure of the container box flying in a parabolic arc while blocking out the moonlight in the night sky was also considerable. 

Kuuuung!! 

Fortunately, the container that was thrown carelessly did not crush Leo, but the sight of it chasing Leo while tearing the thick iron plate with both hands was terrifying. 

'I can't run far away. If I can just move to right in front of you….' 

The recoil of the shotgun blast into my lower abdomen starts to pull my stomach in a sharp way. 

It's fortunate that the medicine is controlling it, otherwise it wouldn't be strange if I were rolling on the floor in excruciating pain. 

With my weak physique and injured body, I only have a limited amount of time to escape from that powerful warrior. 

A brief moment of leisure, less than 30 seconds. 

He somehow manages to buy up the little time he has left by tying up the containers the man throws with gravity binds and pulling them down, then firing his revolver a few times behind them. 

"Ugh, ugh…!!"