74. Guns Are Powerless

Guns Are Powerless

Ever since my abilities had been grouped together on the panel, using them had become easier, especially when combining several powers to create one complicated effect.

Here, Force Adjustment weakened gravity’s grip on the pile of earth, making it light as bark while preserving its inertia.

It also temporarily reduced friction and cohesion so the dirt could be shaped more easily.

The shaping was done through Nearby Object Manipulation, molding the claylike mass into a hollow imitation of one of the fireball-throwing demons, which I could wear like an extremely thick outfit.

To make it more convincing, a second layer of Force Adjustment formed two spheres around the false claws, amplifying the collisions of air molecules and rapidly heating the air into fireballs.

“So, Martin?” I altered the sound waves so that my voice rumbled and echoed in a low growl. “Can you shoot me now?”

I lifted the “clothing” around me and slid forward faster than those prettied-up lesser demons could actually move, suddenly appearing within reach of him.

“How about now?”

He raised his rifle and did fire.

Or at least, he tried to.

No matter how hard he pulled the trigger, it refused to move.

Under the force field I had placed over the rifle, every bit of force he applied was canceled out, locking the trigger in place.

I dismissed the fireball over my right claw and tapped Martin lightly on the forehead with the edge of a superheated fake nail.

The point of contact hissed. He cried out and fell backward onto his rear, startled by how quickly I had gotten closer than he could track.

He stared up at me with wide eyes, and there was not a trace of condescension or lechery left in them.

“As you can see, guns are very easy to interfere with in magical combat,” I told everyone as the gravel and dirt slid off me without a single grain sticking.

Moving in that thing was awkward. I had to split my attention between controlling it like a marionette and moving around.

So even though it made my point easier to demonstrate, and seeing through it with Force Sense meant its biggest drawback was not a problem, I still discarded it.

Besides, being pretty was great, and it also helped prove that you should not judge magic by appearance.

“That is the biggest problem with relying on weapon tools, but not the only one. Since more and more people on our side are using weapons, someone had to come up with solutions.”

“If the solution is running at monsters and punching them in the face, I’ll pass,” another dissenter cut in.

At least this tall, thin man in camouflage seemed to know something about me.

“Even if guns aren’t reliable, they haven’t failed any of us yet, and they won’t fail if we shoot the caster from a kilometer away.”

His weapon, a long-barreled rifle nearly as tall as he was, strongly supported that opinion.

It also made him a victim of the second biggest problem with guns.

The real solution was either to abandon firearms entirely or to become a gunsmith in addition to being a gunner.

I suspected this group would not accept that answer.

Because I kept silent, the sniper, probably one of the few surviving soldiers sent in from outside who possessed such a weapon, prepared to speak again.

An older voice cut him off.

“Don’t be too sure, kid,” Zhao Linshou grunted. “Little Black and I have been hunting those things since the first night, and I’ve seen plenty of situations where even good guns struggled.”

He stared motionlessly at the broken skyline of the distant city, lost in memory.

The other soldiers gave him the time and respect they had not given me.

For the first time, I began wondering what Zhao Linshou had been doing while Chi Li, Cheng Rui, and I had been slowing the enemy’s advance, and why he was so famous and respected among his fellow gun nuts.

At least stop calling them gun nuts, the annoying little voice in my head mocked.

“Trust me, you do not want to get caught when your gun fails. That is why I…