The verbal exchange was low-level and irrelevant, but the battle between the two was so fierce that it left no room for breathing, and even S-Rank Adventurers like Kelvin and Bakke found it to be incredibly intense.
“Sky-Jumping Bullets!”
Shin fired bullets from his bayonet and gun. The two bullets, which would have hit the stage or the surrounding barriers if they had continued straight, disappeared from their trajectory shortly after being fired.
“Not that again!”
As Art dodged, the two missing bullets pierced the space behind where he had been. It was an attack that made it seem as if the bullets had teleported in mid-air to surprise Art. However, this was not a metaphor; Shin’s bullets had truly teleported.
After retiring as an Apostle of God, Shin acquired a new Unique Skill in exchange for returning the Unique Skill he had received from Iris as a gift. That skill was “Miss Target,” which she was currently using.
This Unique Skill conferred an ability upon attacks that Shin threw or fired from projectile weapons such as guns and bows. It was a 100% accurate power that repeatedly tracked the intended target until it hit. Even if he fired a bullet with the gun barrel pointed in the opposite direction, the attack could be made to change its trajectory by being swallowed by a small warp zone that appeared unexpectedly and then spat out at a location where it would miraculously hit the target. Furthermore, even if Art dodged the bullets that had come through these coincidences and miracles, Shin’s ability was not yet over. After all, this power continued until it hit.
— *Kikiiin!*
“Tch!?”
Art, who had dodged the surprise attack by jumping to the side, was now targeted by the ricocheted bullets as they hit the stage, changing their trajectory towards where Art had fled. It was likely that no matter how many times Art managed to dodge these ricochets, the bullets would not stop. The mysterious miraculous power would not decrease the bullets’ power, nor would coincidences cause them to lose sight of Art. In essence, as long as he was within Shin’s territory (at least the entire stage), this attack would continue until it hit its prey. Moreover, the number of bullets imbued with this power was abnormal.
— *Dandandandan!*
Shin continued to fire additional bullets in a completely wrong direction. This time, he fired toward his own blind spot, directly behind him.
(Even so, the bullets will lock onto me on their own. Is the plan to hide the bullets with my body and they’ll disappear? As usual, it’s an ugly way to fight. However, it’s also troublesome. Naturally, shooting them down would be the effective countermeasure, but unless they are completely destroyed to the point of annihilation, they will continue to hunt me even if they are shattered. It would be bad if they were accidentally dispersed and the number of attacks increased. Also, from past experience, destroying those bullets rarely succeeds. In most cases, they are only partially destroyed and become small fragments. This is probably related to the Luck stat, but…)
Art pondered. His deductions based on past experience were almost entirely correct. As Art suspected, Luck was deeply involved in the mysterious phenomena of Shin’s “Miss Target.” In other words, it was a power specialized in attacking, similar to Touya and Serge’s “Absolute Gospel.” If he dodged, they would pursue him for some reason, and even if he destroyed them, as long as even a small fragment of the bullet remained, all of that fragment would pursue him again. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, no matter how the bullets were intercepted, miracles and coincidences were involved, so fragments almost always remained. Dodging was not a solution, and destroying them was a bad gamble. As a result, he was currently being subjected to this unreasonable attack.
However, the attacks did not stop, and the number of bullets still raining down was increasing. Since the match began, a total of 144 bullets had been released by the previous gunfire. And all 144 bullets were still wreaking havoc on the stage. Teleports and ricochets were occurring everywhere, and the stage was now in a chaotic state.
“If you had such an interesting power, you should have used it against me too! That’s unfair, only picking on Art!”
A Summoner in the audience shouted, attracting attention, but it was irrelevant to the battle, so we will omit it.
“Just hit him properly once, Art! Even a graze won’t stop my Sky-Jumping Bullets!”
“Hmph, you should say that after you’ve grazed me!”
Let’s get back to the story. Despite being in such a chaotic battlefield, Art had not sustained a single wound yet. That was understandable. While Shin was activating his Unique Skill, Art was also activating his own Unique Skill.
“Seriously, he’s not even a student of my student, so he should stop dodging excessively!”
“I have no idea who you’re talking about, but your students must have had a hard time!”
“Whoa, he’s dodging like Ange! What kind of ability is that!? I’m curious, so curious! Hey, let me take your place, Boss Shin!”
…Some spectators could be heard stomping their feet. However, as usual, we will omit this.
Let’s return to the story again. Art’s Unique Skill was “Narrow Escape,” an ability that boosted all of his danger-avoiding skills and elevated them to higher-level skills. If Art possessed “Danger Perception,” it would evolve into “Danger Omniscience,” and if he had “True Sight,” it would evolve into “True Eyes.” Furthermore, Art’s skills were naturally S-Rank. By mobilizing all of his high-level, S-Rank evasion skills, Art evaded this predicament while breaking a sweat. When Art seriously dodged attacks, it was disturbingly rare for him to be hit.
“As always, it’s creepy and disgusting! It’s a skill that’s like harassment towards me!”
“Hmph, who would kindly let themselves be hit? Not only increasing the numbers, but also mixing in a few poisonous ones, this cowardly attack!”
“Oh, you noticed?”
Shin’s bayonet Hazard Cluster was loaded with a few bullets containing poisonous gas, the same kind he had used against Kelvin. Normally, these bullets would scatter poison upon impact, but this time, due to Shin’s “Miss Target” being activated, they had mysteriously not broken and were mixed inconspicuously with regular bullets, chasing Art.
However, Art was not just dodging attacks. Even while doing so, he was playing a musical instrument and performing a lighthearted performance.
“You don’t have to hold back. It must be painful to keep listening to my duet of sorrow and joy at such close range, right? Here, I hope you find relief soon. Get shot quickly.”
“Hehehe, I don’t want to!”
Art was a master of the “Performance” skill, and the music he played was said to stir people’s emotions. Furthermore, strangely enough, the melody seemed to sound different to each listener. Its effects were clearly reflected in their stats, granting allies a dramatic improvement in all abilities and inflicting a debuff on enemies that significantly lowered all their abilities. And, of course, in this case, Shin received the latter effect.
“But still, your performance is as terrible as ever. And hey, can you stop firing attacks with your instrument strings? Let’s be reasonable about that.”
“I can’t take that from you!”
With a surge of anger, Art strummed his instrument’s strings, and something shot out, speeding towards Shin.
