The Strongest Gun Magus: I Cast Bullet!-Chapter 47: Behind the Horizon

Marien didn’t panic. She rapidly raised a spirit shield in front of herself, smiling in the face of danger.

In moments like these, Fire Mana saturated the air, and Marien was close enough that her Inner Athanor began to suck it in all by itself. This was, potentially, one of the fastest ways to accumulate mana—and the most dangerous one.

Georg’s lightning bolt blasted Marien’s shield into pieces. The explosion was strong enough that the girl herself was sent flying to the ground.

"Gyah!"

Reynard watched this with wide eyes, cursing inwardly. The Wind Serpent had wrapped its tail around him, making it impossible for him to raise his arm. And unlike Georg, he didn’t know how to use spells one-handed.

He was trying to tear the serpent off himself with pure strength, but all he succeeded in was preventing it from dealing more damage to the Spirit Armor.

This was a seemingly hopeless situation, no matter from which side you looked. Georg stared down at Marien like he had already won.

"You will be fine, princess. The Magister will understand." He looked at Reynard. "And you... If you surrender now, I will let you live until your trial."

"Idiot! If you wanted me to surrender, you should have offered something actually better than the situation I’m already in!" Reynard threw back.

"Exactly. I never liked you, Georg... Now I know that’s because you are not just stupid, but also stupid!" Marien echoed, rising to her feet.

She was holding one hand to the side of her torso, as if something hurt there. Her other hand moved in slow, unsure magical passes. Mana moved between her fingers, but didn’t form any spell forms that Reynard could recognize.

Georg laughed.

"Is this your attempt at one-handed magic? You lack a few decades of experience for that!"

The Magister’s assistant didn’t notice what Reynard did—a very meaningful glance Marien was giving him, and the hand he slipped into his pocket.

Reynard’s lips quirked up the tiniest bit. He gave his own meaningful glance.

The next moment, Georg’s laughter was interrupted.

BANG!

A bullet from Reynard’s pistol hit Georg’s hand, in which he was holding his staff. Another struck him in the torso—Marien missed. Both bullets only bruised the powerful body of an Albedo magi, but a bruise was enough.

Georg gasped, letting the staff go. At the same time, the Wind Serpent rippled, losing most of its solidity.

Reynard tore the rest of the serpent with his bare hands, then pulled a pouch of Boom Powder off his belt. This time, it was tightly covered.

While Georg held on to his bruised hand, Reynard threw the pouch into his face. It was followed immediately after by a second bolt of lightning from Marien.

Georg ducked under it and reached for his staff when the pouch hit his shoulder.

Reynard released a burst of mana in its direction and turned away.

CABOOM! 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The explosion was powerful enough that the wind blew his hair back even from a dozen paces away. It sent Georg to the ground and splattered the ground with his blood. The man’s clothing was charred and dirty, and so was his face.

Whether he was still alive or not was hard to tell.

Reynard shoved his unloaded pistol back into the pocket and turned to Marien. She looked euphoric, in love, and totally unconcerned about all the other people chasing them.

"That was great. This was just amazing, my dear, but we gotta run! Get over the wall!"

Marien blinked and nodded. She picked up the bag of loot that she dropped after being hit by a lightning bolt and scaled the wall together with it. Reynard was close on her heels.

As he climbed over the wall, he sent a longing glance at Georg’s staff. But picking it up would take time, and they were really counting every second now.

In the distance, he could already see the faces of all the people who came to chase them. Teachers, students...

Terence was there too, with a pale face and eyes as round as plates.

But no Magister in sight. The old man probably needed more time to dress up.

Reynard jumped off the wall and kept running.

***

The fugitives weren’t caught in the night, and nobody caught up with them until morning.

Reynard picked up his backpack and Chili. Bent low by the sheer volume of his haul, he followed Marien into the vast wilderness around Growlgrove. When they got tired, they drank life-strengthening potions and pressed on.

Although Growlgrove itself was the local reserve of magical beasts, they often escaped and bred outside of it. Magi were paid to hunt them down so that local peasants could hunt and forage safely.

Still, it was ill-advised to travel these forests alone. Especially at night.

But no beast dared to attack two magi, no matter the amount of noise they created, and it was hard to find two people in a forest. And the fugitives had time to repack their things, so most of their things were moved to Marien’s Scroll of Holding. Reynard’s backpack now only held essentials and magic items.

Although in the first few hours, Reynard and Marien heard the sounds of searchers and pursuers following them, eventually they were left behind.

By the afternoon of the next day, the fugitives crossed the forest and walked onto a seemingly endless stretch of black fields. A few farmhouses were visible in the distance.

A pastoral picture of autumn.

Marien looked around with a sense of wonder.

"Oh... I’ve never seen this place before! Is this... the farthest I went from home? After my parents died, my grandpa wouldn’t let me even visit the market city. But this place is in the opposite direction from there, anyway. The wind here is so fresh..." She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. Then her nose scrunched, and she sneezed.

Reynard smiled in pure adoration. Marien sent him a pout, then turned into the distance.

"Give me another life-strengthening potion! I’m tired, but I will be damned if I don’t see what’s behind this horizon! The entire world is open for us now!"