The stronger the adventurer, the greater their adaptability.
Because the dangers of the Dungeon are always unknown — if you couldn't adjust on the fly, you'd have died somewhere along the way long ago.
Zard rapidly assessed the situation.
His sight, his perception, his hearing — all of it was distorted, yes. But distorted was all it was. Nothing about the fundamental reality had changed.
Isagi was still there.
He was still attacking with that whip-like chain blade.
For Zard, that was enough.
Beneath the twin protection of his poison resistance and iron armor, the boy's chain blade — though completely invisible — posed only a negligible threat. It was already hunting for the weak points in his armor, places like his wrists, his neck, his eyes.
But the effect was still poor.
"Not bad. But not enough."
The response to Zard's words was a detonation tearing through the toxic mist.
BANG!
The thunderous blast of ignited gunpowder, trailing a plume of acrid smoke, hit with such staggering force that Zard's forward stride stuttered to a halt.
[What is that?]
A magic sword?
No — he hadn't felt any surge of magical energy.
Zard had no concept of what a "firearm" was. He simply found himself curious about this new weapon the boy had suddenly produced.
But quickly, he realized: things were nowhere near as simple as he'd imagined.
This boy in front of him had a bag of tricks that was simply beyond belief.
Chain blade. Firearm.
Isagi kept his distance from Zard at all times, constantly shifting his position as he launched attack after attack.
There was no way to close in on the "colossus" before him.
The Zard of right now was like a mobile, actively erupting volcano.
Simply getting close.
Was something impossible for him at this moment.
Fortunately, thanks to the [Moonlight Greatsword]'s "distortion" effect, it was equally difficult for Zard to close in on him right now.
The standoff held.
Not that this was anything he hadn't already anticipated.
Whatever else might be said, Zard was a "swordsman" — a fighter whose strengths lay in his Strength and Endurance stats.
Given the level gap between them.
Even with all those elixirs consumed and the forbidden technique in effect, prevailing in close-quarters combat against him was incredibly difficult. This wasn't speculation — it was experience Isagi had hammered out through practice in their previous battle.
And on top of that.
The Zard of right now was far more terrifying than before.
The [Land King]'s lethal toxin was something even he couldn't avoid. Under these conditions, the only option was to maintain distance.
But this, too, was part of his plan.
The chain blade's assault came in like a tide. Even if it couldn't penetrate Zard's heavy armor, that was fine — because dealing effective damage with it was never Isagi's actual goal.
Once he'd activated the forbidden technique.
He could no longer use any magic. The spirit transformation and various spells granted by the [Land of Reeds] character card were all locked out.
But the card's most fundamental few "mechanics" were still active.
The most important of these: the "energy gauge."
By landing attacks and dodging, he could accumulate energy — up to four charges. Fill it completely, and he could unleash a charged strike: a one-shot burst of enormous damage.
So——
Using the staff-sword's chain blade, he rapidly built the energy gauge to full.
Then, Isagi raised the "hunting rifle" in his hands once more, leveling it at Zard in the distance.
A weapon made for hunting beasts.
To look at it, it was something brutally simple in design — firing silver powder-charged shot, with several sections wrapped in scraps of cloth. Not a shred of aesthetic to it.
And just as Tsubaki had felt when she first forged it.
This utterly uncomplicated weapon should not, by any rights, possess any particularly fearsome power.
In Tsubaki's estimation.
It ought to be roughly on par with the standard-issue armaments used by ordinary adventurers.
But in Isagi's hands, the combat power it displayed was indistinguishable from a [Tier One Arsenal] — something that completely defied the comprehension of the city's greatest smith.
If you asked Isagi to explain it.
That was the peculiarity of a hunter's weapon bestowed by the [Night of the Hunt] character card.
At its core, it was bound to his experience of hunting beasts and monsters. The richer that experience, the stronger the weapon in his hands became.
Even the same weapon.
Would produce completely different results depending on which hunter wielded it.
Even the most basic, most ordinary standard-issue firearm — and that was before accounting for the modifications Isagi had asked Cecil to make after returning.
He had already created the [Complete Hunter's Arsenal] for Ais.
The repeating gun, heavy crossbow, cleaving axe, charge axe — all of them shared similar mechanisms: transforming or using explosive propellant to amplify output power.
Having done it once already, these designs had become second nature.
And so.
After the modifications — and with his own divine power poured into it — the hunting rifle in Isagi's hands now presented itself as something that looked plain and unremarkable on the surface, but was in truth——
Charged.
Firearms, too, could be charged.
When Ais used the repeating gun, she would frequently charge what she called the "Dragon Cannon."
In principle, a gun merely launches a projectile — its power is determined by whatever you're firing.
But don't think too hard about it. Call it quantum mechanics.
A cannon shot could be charged to amplify the force of the attack.
And naturally, the hunting rifle in Isagi's hands could be charged in just the same way — and by spending the energy gauge on top of it, the power of that single strike could be multiplied even further.
The most classic trick in the book — standing on your own shoulders to climb higher!
The weapon itself could already be charged.
Stack the energy gauge's charge on top of that.
The hunting rifle in Isagi's hands — from the pitch-black mouth of its barrel — began to blaze with a glaring light, deep blue and dark crimson intertwined, the frame roaring and howling like some primordial beast straining against its chains, ready to devour everything in its path.
"BANG!"
The charge had reached its limit. The energy in his hands was completely spent.
Suddenly.
The instant it fired, Isagi was sent flying backwards — hard enough that even Ryuu-senpai and Adi, watching from the distance, were startled.
And then came the blinding light, swallowing Zard — towering like a mountain range — whole, along with every last wisp of the toxic mist surrounding him.
A silent detonation.
In this world that still operated on the fundamentals of basic "physics," the tremendous force born from stacking the charge and the energy gauge together transformed into something that was, in every meaningful sense, "magical energy."
And so, Ryuu felt as though she were watching something she'd seen before.
[Explosion Magic].
Lefiya's Explosion Magic — but without the exaggerated scale. Just the same essential principle: an incomprehensibly vast concentration of magical energy, compressed down to a single point, then detonated.
Zard went flying too.
The man — his body cloaked in that impossibly thick toxic mist and jet-black armor — toppled like a falling mountain, crashing down toward the farmstead behind him.
And then.
From somewhere in the night, a cool, clear woman's voice rang out once more——
"Evangelium."
____
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