Noah was certain that Bombard's power was absolutely incapable of destroying that shield-type Teigu.
Even if a person were blasted into ash, the Teigu itself would not be.
Just now, he had seen the man named Hans release the enormous energy stored inside the shield.
No matter what he was planning to do, Noah did not think he could simply stand by and watch.
Although he did not believe Najenda could still be alive after taking Bombard head-on, a thing like a Teigu was no different from magic.
Anything was possible.
So he pulled the trigger at the location where the two of them were.
And emptied the magazine in one breath.
The smoke scattered.
Noah stared at the image displayed through his scope.
There was something unusual there, drawing his attention.
"What is that?"
His eyes narrowed slightly, and Noah's gaze fell on a curtain of light beneath the smoke.
The golden curtain of light looked like the surface of water curled into a sphere.
The ash and soil blasted up by Bombard fell onto it, creating ripples as though landing on a lake.
On this scorched-black earth, that golden veil had become the only color.
No one who saw this place would ever guess that only a few minutes ago, it had still been a forest.
Because of the Energy Vortex, more than two hundred meters of forest had been reduced to ruins.
'A barrier?'
Was this the technique of that shield-type Teigu user named Hans?
The instant Noah saw the golden curtain, Forge Iron activated.
Metal elements were drawn from the earth and shaped into a round of ammunition completely different from the Bombard formula.
His "Bombard" determined the bullet's color based on the material.
If it were the original version, created using Flame Stone, then the bullet would be a bright red crystal.
One round of "Bombard" ammunition was made of several parts.
Bullet head
The original version used Flame Stone, a volatile material that exploded upon impact. It already possessed destructive power exceeding that of a high-explosive grenade.
Casing
A tungsten-steel casing, capable of withstanding extremely high temperature and impact.
Bombard formula
Through Weaver, fire elements were woven into magical script and engraved onto the ammunition.
Filler that increased killing power upon explosion
This could be either energy or material. Energy meant things like fire elements and mana.
Sealing fire elements inside the round increased the explosion's temperature and range.
Material was similar to fragmentation grenades in modern weaponry.
Steel balls or iron fragments were loaded inside the ammunition.
After the explosion, the steel balls and iron fragments scattered from the impact, producing killing power similar to a shotgun and causing extremely powerful physical damage.
But this round was different.
Its entire body was pitch black, with a spiral shape near the bullet head, and the overall length of the ammunition was exaggerated.
Rather than ammunition, it looked more like a giant nail.
Noah held this round upright before his forehead and chanted softly.
"Blast Arrow."
"Arc Ray."
"Shadow Dart."
"Penetrate."
He combined these magical scripts together, then added the concept of "shooting."
[(Unnamed) Attached: Penetration Formula]
・Creator: Noah
・Type: Physical round
・Specialized ammunition engraved with a penetration formula. It possesses exceptional piercing power, along with the effects of automatically correcting its trajectory and concealing its flight path.
・Effective range: 3.15 km
・Kill range: 12.7 mm straight line
When it came to naming attack methods, Noah had always been practical.
For example, Bombard was simply called Bombard.
If it was a move obtained from somewhere else, then it was fine to continue using the original name.
But Bombard Formula was an attack method he had developed himself.
If he insisted on giving it some name like "Crimson Lotus Purgatory Burst," it would only make him feel ashamed.
This was specialized ammunition using a penetration formula.
So he would simply call it "Pierce."
Then...
"Pierce."
Noah pulled Annihilator's trigger.
Driven by mana, the pure white heavy sniper unleashed terrifying power.
The surrounding dust was shaken by the impact of the round being fired, spreading outward in all directions.
The golden curtain trembled.
It seemed to have sensed the coming danger.
The golden curtain, which had originally curled into a sphere, actually changed its shape, transforming from a ball into a four-sided pyramid.
The visibly solidified energy concentrated on a single point.
Noah immediately understood.
The other side had gathered all its power into one place, intending to clash directly with his penetration formula.
Zzzzt—!
A piercing screech rang out the instant they collided.
The four-sided pyramid made of golden energy rubbed against the spiraling bullet head, releasing a terrifying impact.
Gradually, the penetration formula left cracks across the golden energy body.
It looked as though it would pierce through that energy body after only a few more breaths.
But at that moment, Noah suddenly noticed something.
The rotation speed of the piercing round had suddenly dropped sharply.
In the blink of an eye, it had lost eighty percent of its kinetic energy.
This was... Energy absorption!
Even after changing into that form, it could still activate the shield's ability.
Noah pulled the bolt, ejecting the casing engraved with the penetration formula from the chamber.
At that moment, he felt a chill attack from behind.
Weaver had already captured the shape of that "object."
Two crimson snake-like auras wound toward the back of his neck and his ankle.
Noah's gaze turned cold, and he calmly took a step back.
As though they had not expected him to move that way, the two red serpent auras continued attacking along their original paths, brushing past him on either side.
During that moment, Noah tried to interfere with the aura, but none of the natural elements had any effect.
It was as though the two sides did not exist on the same dimension.
This move belonged to that twin-blade user?
So he was still alive after all.
Noah glanced backward from the corner of his eye.
Sure enough, a figure gasping for breath was leaning against a tree, holding the handles of the curved blades in his hands.
The blades themselves had vanished.
It was Jeffman.
After Najenda had saved him through such an unconventional method, he had taken some time before managing to stand again.
The two savage crimson snakes were reflected in Noah's eyes, and he thought that this was probably the hidden technique of the other party's Teigu.
If those snakes bit him, there was no need to think too much.
The result would certainly be terrible.
Noah slipped through the intertwined section of the two snakes with an unbelievable posture, casually reaching out and catching a dry leaf drifting toward him.
His mana-enhanced body moved with the wind, as light as if he were bouncing on a trampoline.
The two snakes turned at a sharp right angle, charging into the sky before chasing after Noah's figure.
Noah shifted and dodged the snakes' attacks, while using a spare moment to fling the dry leaves in his hand toward the struggling Jeffman like hidden weapons.
The dry leaves enhanced by mana stood straight and sharp, almost like blades.
Noah's throwing experience had been accumulated over countless days and nights. At their current distance, he had a ninety percent certainty that he could take the opponent's life.
Whoosh!
Three dry leaves tore through the air.
They locked onto the enemy's throat, heart, and lung.
With mana reinforcement and the support of wind elements, the dry leaves were even more powerful than the kunai used by ninja.
They could pierce through even an iron plate.
Especially the throat. There was no protective gear there, so a complete penetration would be normal.
Because Jeffman's injuries were too severe, even his vision had begun to blur.
But even if his eyes were blurry, the experience he had accumulated on the battlefield would not disappear.
He could sense the flying objects coming from the front.
So he roared.
Along with that roar, Noah discovered that the crimson snakes chasing behind him suddenly dissolved into red mist and vanished.
He shifted his gaze to Jeffman himself.
The handles in Jeffman's hands had condensed two crimson blades out of thin air.
Twin-blade flurry.
The first two dry leaves were directly knocked away by the sword dance, shooting into the ground and a tree respectively, burying themselves several inches deep.
Seeing that, Noah silently stared at the third dry leaf.
The blade landed on the leaf. This time, the dry leaf was not knocked away. Instead, it was easily sliced apart.
That strange feeling startled Jeffman.
Immediately afterward, the dry leaf that had been split into two halves flew toward Jeffman's throat and lung respectively.
Jeffman twisted his body with all his strength, and his neck suddenly burned.
He fell to the ground and touched his neck with his hand. Then he let out a breath of relief.
A cut had been opened on his neck, but it had not damaged his airway or carotid artery. It was only bleeding a little.
He was about to climb back up.
But the strength in his body rapidly drained away, so quickly that he did not even have time to react before collapsing onto the ground again.
Feeling his hands and feet quickly turn cold, Jeffman struggled to press a hand to his abdomen. What he felt was warmth.
No, it was scorching heat.
Hot blood sprayed from his abdomen like a fountain.
It was the other half of the dry leaf.
Jeffman had avoided the half flying toward his throat, but he had failed to avoid the other half attacking his lung.
His lung had been pierced.
A large hole had been punched through his body.
Blood surged out uncontrollably.
"Cough..."
Blood poured into his airway, making Jeffman unable to speak. All he could do was wait in agony for death to arrive.
Noah glanced at him, then shifted his gaze back to the golden energy body.
At this moment, the golden energy body had turned into a sphere.
From beneath the sphere, an opening unfolded, and Najenda's figure fell out from inside.
Noah examined the unconscious Najenda and was surprised to discover that the injuries on her body had actually healed.
Only a minute ago, this woman had been on the verge of death, with no chance of survival.
Yet now, she lay there peacefully, without a single visible wound.
The golden sphere trembled.
Under Noah's surprised gaze, it gradually changed shape and finally approached a humanoid form.
A man.
The golden energy body had transformed into a human shape.
Its outline looked very similar to the man named Hans.
Noah stared at it, and pieces of information surfaced in his mind.
[Power of Oath]
・Type: Energy body
・A unique individual born from sacrificing the Teigu "Oath Disc" and its user Hans together to activate the Teigu's trump card.
・Retains part of Hans's lingering obsession.
・Closer to a natural phenomenon than a living creature.
So this was that Teigu's hidden technique?
A one-use ultimate move that required sacrificing both the user and the Teigu to activate?
Noah's face was filled with shock.
He had to admit, he had never underestimated Teigu.
But even though he had valued them again and again, he was still astonished by what they were capable of.
It had fully healed the dying Najenda!
And then there was its current form.
This was far from ordinary.
He could feel pressure from "that thing," a fatal sense of danger.
In terms of latent ability, that thing might have reached Lv.5.
Noah quietly observed the golden humanoid, this unique existence identified by Seeker as "Power of Oath."
But in the next second, Noah met its gaze.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
That thing clearly only had the outline of a human, with no visible facial features or organs, yet it gave Noah the feeling that it was "watching" him.
It was "looking" at him?
Noah carefully examined the information on Power of Oath.
His eyes widened slightly, his attention focusing on the words "lingering obsession."
Hans's obsession.
To save Najenda?
No. It should be to protect Najenda.
Without a doubt, among everyone present, the only existence that could threaten Najenda was probably Noah.
That's right.
This was "hostility."
Power of Oath intended to eliminate Noah, the possible threat to Najenda.
At that moment, the golden humanoid's arm suddenly transformed into the shape of a sharp weapon, taking on a blade-like form.
Noah did not hesitate.
He reached into his bag and pulled out Hekatonkheires, which had been stuffed inside.
"Time to work!"
"Use your trump card. Berserk!"
Noah threw Hekatonkheires out while ordering it to use "Berserk."
Berserk was the trump card of the biological-type Teigu, Hekatonkheires.
Once used, all of its abilities would increase greatly.
Its combat power for a short period of time would become terrifying.
But naturally, such a powerful move had a major flaw.
After using it, Hekatonkheires would fall into dormancy and would need several months to recover.
"Rooooaaaar!"
After being thrown out, Hekatonkheires rapidly expanded from its tiny miniature form. In the blink of an eye, it became a giant monster five or six meters tall.
It opened its bloody mouth and pounced toward the golden humanoid.
In the next second...
The golden humanoid appeared behind Hekatonkheires.
The two seemed to have brushed past one another as if nothing had happened.
But when Hekatonkheires landed, its massive body split from the middle, completely cut in half. It turned into two huge chunks of flesh and collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.
Noah stared at the golden humanoid that had instantly killed Hekatonkheires before him, and even he could not help freezing for a moment.
Right.
Energy.
This thing's absurd performance was all thanks to the enormous energy it had absorbed earlier.
Although it had only been for an instant, Noah had seen it.
The golden humanoid had a human shape, but its essence was an energy body. It could be understood as a beam of light.
Perhaps it would be easier to understand if one called it a lightsaber.
Yes. It was a humanoid lightsaber.
The instant Hekatonkheires pounced, it had been cut in half!
In conclusion, it had thrown itself straight onto a condensed energy blade...