Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

However, the issue this time was their number! In order to dodge three snowballs, they had to scatter over a wide range, which was an uncomfortable evasion method for Chiyou, who wanted to utilize the power of the group.

That’s why she didn’t dodge.

“Pyro, can you handle this?”

“Of course. I knew it when the chunks started flying earlier. Is this my job?”

“I’m not sure if you can melt them… Can I ask you for help?”

Chiyou approached Pyro with a smile in her eyes. Pyro tilted his head from side to side and backed away from her.

“You’re not someone I particularly like either. But I’ll give it a try. It’s part of our ‘contract’.”

Although Pyro wasn’t fond of Chiyou, there was someone he found more detestable. So Pyro was cooperating with her.

“Ughh!”

“The rest of the team, prepare to infuse mana!”

Chiyou ordered Yamato’s members. The reason she brought them from Yamato was simple.

They were shield bearers, had far-sighted vision, and were mana shuttles. They already knew that Pyro’s power was immense, but his mana consumption was equally fast. They also knew the news that Ram Hwayeon of Hwahong Guild had created a mana infusion device for Ram Hwajung.

That’s why she chose them.

“It cost a lot of money, but it was worth it. Huh, Hwahong is still immature. Though the guild’s internal oversight was thorough, did they forget who made it?”

If they could extract the information on how the mana infusion device was made and replicate it for Pyro to use.

“When Pyro signals, execute immediately.”

“There’s no need…!”

“What?”

“I’m not just here to play around! [Blazing Fury]!”

Pyro took a martial stance and thrust both hands forward.

Chiyou knew the form of the skill he had been using until now. Giant and intense flames emanating from his body! Didn’t that thick blaze burn everything?

However, this time, there was no sign of such appearance in the skill.

“Is this… Heat haze?”

There was no visible dragon. Instead, a force that seemed to make everything seem like it was wavering wildly spread through the air.

It was an enormous range of the Heat haze.

“What kind of heat is this?”

“Chiyou, step back!”

Everyone could tell that an unseen heat was starting to dominate the air.

“No, wait. This…”

Yamato’s members stopped trying to protect Chiyou in a panic and froze in their tracks. Chiyou squinted her eyes and examined the snowballs flying towards them.

Surely, they must be shooting towards their location at an incredible speed. In other words, the size of the snowballs should continue to increase to be considered normal.

However, it was the opposite.

“Chiyou-nim! Th-the snowballs are melting!”

“To have three snowballs of that size melt so quickly…”

Chiyou couldn’t hide the corners of her mouth twitching.

Compared to the explosion caused by Ram Hwajung and Arzenmacht’s combo attack that destroyed one snowball, Chiyou had nothing to worry about at all.

“Well, this much is nothing to worry about.”

Pyro stood up from his horse stance and turned around.

“It seems I do have an eye for people after all.”

“Even if you say that, it doesn’t make you any better. Let’s stick to the contract, just the contract.”

“Of course. I’ve imposed such a hefty penalty in the contract, you have no choice but to abide by it, right? Let’s go quickly.”

Pyro melted the snowball quite rapidly, but it still took some time. Above all, securing Blaugrunn’s Thunderbolt was a significant achievement.

“Enemies spotted in the rear! Approximately 300m away! They are coming! Chiyou-nim, give orders!”

The group had already advanced to a close distance.

Chiyou looked at Pyro, Crowley, and the members of Yamato once again, biting her lip.

‘Considering the power of Leeha… there’s nothing good about fighting head-on right now. There’s nothing to gain by killing them. In that case-‘

With a graceful step, Chiyou took the lead. Her judgment was to postpone combat as much as possible.

“Advance first! Low stance, quickly!”

She knew that patience would bring opportunities.

“Ung ung, um-um!”

Who allowed you to do that!?

Even though there were elevation differences and the shape was diagonal, Leeha raised Black Bass at the mere 300 meters. Just one shot, if Leeha could land just one shot, there would be no need to endure the danger here.

Whooosh!

However, aiming was not easy.

The strong wind that made his upper body sway made even shooting extremely unstable.

Missed!

Ha Leeha quickly opened the scope cap to increase the aiming accuracy.

“Ooh!”

Ha Leeha almost cursed under his breath.

“Why are you doing that, Leeha-nim?”

Ignoring Blaugrunn’s question, Ha Leeha took his eyes off the scope and wiped the scope lens with the collar of her coat. Blaugrunn chuckled, but his expression didn’t brighten up again.

“Dammit! How am I supposed to deal with reality suddenly hitting me here!”

Leeha was filled with anger. He had encountered such situations even when he went to catch a ice ostrich, but the current situation was far more serious than back then.

“It’s not just a fortress anymore. It has completely turned into a block of ice.”

Leeha was in a state where most of the lens functions were already lost.

“Why did you stop, human.”

Ram Hwajung and Arzenmacht also approached with troops. The brief opportunity that had arisen had disappeared without a trace.

whoosh

He let out a sigh instead of answering.

He already castigated himself. He had underestimated the blizzard that was raging through the field. Perhaps it was because he had experienced something similar before.

He had undergone sniper training during his military days, but replicating the cold of Korea and the Himalayas was an entirely different story. He should have thought and prepared more.

“Stupid. Shooting with bare eyes in such an unstable environment… means you have to hit at least two shots, right?”

He realized once again that this situation was not easy. Maybe considering this place similar to the previous one was his biggest mistake.

“No one to blame. It seems like using a scope for long-range sniping was doomed to fail from the start.”

The snowstorm was severely limiting his field of vision. While it would be better to have a closer range, getting closer than 150m was unrealistic if he considered the enemy’s countermeasures. If he thought the opponent would defend, the time he could afford would be around 1 second. The closer the distance, the more difficult it would be to track the target’s movements.

“Besides, Chiyou has already experienced the characteristics of this mountain once.”

In addition, she had a skill to predict attacks in advance. If he wanted to hit perfectly, he would have to guide the target’s movement in the desired direction before sniping, or lift it up into the air to make it harder to move further.

“It won’t be easy. But there is no way around it.”

He remembered one of the abilities he possessed as he walked. That ability which could bring everything living to a complete standstill in an instant. He had the terror spirit with him.

“Blaugrunn, could you help clear up the surrounding debris with Arzenmacht?”

There were also two dragons as aides. Blaugrunn immediately nodded and rushed to Arzenmacht.

“Arzenmacht! We need to engage in combat with the humans far ahead! Would you be able to help?”

“Do I have to help?”

“Yes, you must! We need to eliminate them right here to prevent the Demon King’s Army from gaining more power.”

Arzenmacht’s expression remained unchanged. He did not even nod his head. However, he was already stepping forward.

“Good! Now- Huh?”

“Ram Hwajung! It’s dangerous, so stay back!”

Ram Hwajung did not leave Arzenmacht’s side.

Blaugrunn showed a moment of perplexity, knowing well that he couldn’t stop her. Above all, there was something more important now than Ram Hwajung’s safety. The speed at which Chiyou and her party were moving had increased.

Having already experienced it once, Chiyou was heading towards the Bransylvania Castle at an incredible speed after eliminating the risks of perfect cold resistance, crevasses, and snowballs.

“I’ll tie my foot, so I’ll leave the snowballs to you.”

“No.”

As Blaugrunn soared into the air, Arzenmacht also took flight, with Ram Hwajung alongside.

“Let us.”

Arzenmacht pointed his finger toward Chiyou’s group.

“Do you see that?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re blocking the way.”

“Fine.”

Arzenmacht and Ram Hwajung finished their brief conversation and began casting spells.

Aaah…!

Blue mana particles began gathering around the two in the sky.

“They seem to have a strange harmony.”

One who briefly stopped due to the danger of the crevasse felt a sense of solitude standing alone on the ground.

But even that was short-lived, as they were truly astonished by the size of the mana created by the two.

In terms of casting and mana concentration, it was difficult to imagine how powerful that magic would be.

“[Ice Wall].”

The first spell cast was Arzenmacht’s skill. Almost simultaneously, Ram Hwajung also opened her mouth.

“[Frost Willow: Cease].”

Paaah-

The result of the deep blue mana that went out of control was visible even to the naked eye.

A snowstorm erupted, creating an ice wall over 25 meters high near the peak of a snow-covered mountain, and a colossal willow tree that seemed to sway as if alive!

“T-That-! That’s that thing she used during the guild battle with Byulcho before!? I knew they could combine Ice Wall with it?”

Leeha marveled. Arzenmacht writhed upon landing on the ground.

“Frost Willow?”

“Yes, ice Wall, sir.”

“Oh.”

They picked up their pace to catch up with Chiyou’s group and engaged in conversation. Arzenmacht seemed to completely understand Ram Hwajung’s peculiar way of speaking.

Leeha barely managed to guess the gist of their conversation.

“Did Ram Hwajung focus on attacking effects rather than obstructing the path, thinking Arzenmacht would use Ice Wall? If so, that’s even more surprising. Did she predict what the dragon Arzenmacht would do even though they met just a few hours ago?”

“If I pull this off… Ah!”

Leeha was engrossed in the amusement of the situation when suddenly the ground beneath them felt lighter.

“Crevasse! Everyone be careful, [Levitation]!”

Being tied to Chiyou’s group did not make trekking through the mountains any easier. The crevasse that split apart in an instant, turning into a cliff, was nothing short of hell.

Luckily, everyone except Leeha was capable of flight magic.

“Um, um! Umph, umph!”

As the enormous ice wall and whimpering ice willow trees came into view again, Leeha raised Black Bass once more.

“Since there’s no detour, let’s snipe Chiyou from here.”

Leeha’s calculations, thinking that Chiyou would be stuck due to Frost Willow’s indiscriminate attacks and the ice wall, were completely off.

“Indeed, is Chiyou just being Chiyou?”

There was no one in front of Ice Wall. Just as Leeha was about to ready Black Bass again, Blaugrunn, who had rushed forward, shouted, “There’s a small hole beneath Ice Wall!”

“A hole? You can’t melt the wall with fire…”

Arzenmacht even had a look of confusion. However, there was clearly a hole just big enough for one person to move through.

Leeha and Ram Hwajung immediately caught on to whose doing it was.

The perpetrator must be the only one powerful enough to melt the Silver Dragon’s ice magic without even flinching a hint of fire energy.

“Healing potion. Crowley.”

They managed to handle all attacks effortlessly without exerting great effort.

Leeha realized once again that they were formidable opponents.

“Let’s go too.”

At Leeha’s command, everyone began to move.

Even after swiftly passing through the thick ice walls, they couldn’t spot Chiyou’s group.

They only saw Bransylvania Castle appearing once more in the distance. Surely, Chiyou’s group must have accelerated towards that direction.

“Oh, they’re not ordinary indeed! We must catch up quickly.”

Leeha felt a bit anxious.

“They’ve already flown nearly halfway…?”