A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

Eloise's brief history lesson gave Henry quite a bit to think about regarding the structure of the world and how there was so little of it he knew or had experienced at all.

And then, voices broke through his thoughts.

"We need to get moving," Sir Boyle said, "The more time we spend standing around, the stronger our enemies become."

While his words seemed directed at the entire group, Knights, mercenaries, and all, his eyes were on the ones grabbing Arrows and shoving them into the storage bags they had brought along.

"We agreed that we'll have the loot," Gareth said and gestured at all that had been recovered so far, "This is the loot."

"I didn't say you couldn't or shouldn't gather. But now that you're done, we have to go," Boyle said with insistence, "Besides, you're owed first crack and the largest percentage of the Loot. Not all of it."

Gareth smiled but said nothing. The gathering was indeed over but the potential of a massive deposit of Y'Nth metal added a bit more zeal to their desire to explore the Dungeon that made helping the Knights of Citadel take second place in priority.

The Storage bags were sealed and to be carried by the slaves and the journey forward into the Dungeon was to begin when Eloise paused and held out a hand.

"What is it?" Boyle asked.

Not as magically sensitive as Eloise, his senses had not quite picked up on what was to come.

"Something is coming!" Eloise yelled out suddenly and thrust her hands forward to conjure her shield.

A ball of fiery red light slammed into the shield barely a second later, shattering it with such a massive impact that Eloise was sent flying many feet away. She would have traveled even more had her back not slammed into a tree. Discover stories with empire

"Enemies!" Boyle yelled almost at the same time Eloise's shield was decimated by the attack.

And then the Orcs appeared all dressed in leather on the lower half of their bodies while their green chests, marred with thickets of hair, were left bare and heaved with their breathing as they glared their red eyes at the humans who dared step into their Dungeon before they could venture out of it.

With this set of Orcs before him, Andor instantly understood why Eloise had said the ones that had been in the trees were small.

Most of this bunch were well past seven feet and with a width to match their height.

Their arms were hulking intimidating masses and they were all armed with Axes that showed off the same crude workmanship that had been clear on the Arrowheads. But crude make aside, the Ax blades were all so clearly made with Y'Nth metal.

There were small Orcs among the group though and they were all armed with wooden staffs the top of which were rigged with chunks of Y'Nth metal. They chanted spells in a croaky voice and the Metal glowed with magical energy just waiting to be unleashed.

The Large Orcs didn't wait for their Casters to complete their spells, they just yelled out battle cries and charged.

The first to get close to Henry was swinging his Ax before Henry even had the time to blink or otherwise react. In truth, Henry had no idea why his reaction was sluggish but he was already in the process of activating *Extra Arms* when Andor was suddenly pushing him aside and raising his shield to receive the coming Ax strike.

"Mmph!" Henry let out before he heard a loud metal ring that announced the connection of the enemy's weapon with Andor's shield.

"Hng!" Andor groaned. The weight of the attack forced him to slide back but he dug in his heels, endured the vibrations in his arms, and retrieved his Spear from his storage bracelet before launching himself at the Orc.

Meanwhile, having just been spared from attempting a defense that was almost too sure to fail, Henry took 'Cudgel' out of his Inventory and fired three shots at the Orc's head.

Somehow, the creature had known what he was about to do. Somehow, it had known a projectile was about to be fired in its direction. Or maybe it moved on instinct. All in all, it raised its Ax and blocked the shots.

As the bullets deflected off the metal of the Ax blade and Henry thought to fire more, Andor arrived with his Spear. He got to the Orc while it still had the weapon raised in front of his head which felt its midsection essentially unprotected.

But the Orc was fast.

Before Andor's Spearhead was even within a foot of making contact, it was swinging its Ax at him.

With his eyes widened, Andor was much too thrown into motion to stop dead in his charge but he was able to throw his weight and swing his body to just barely avoid getting cut in half by the massive Ax blade. And since he had chosen the direction he swung his body in with care, Andor remained within a foot of the Orc, whose upper half had turned to facilitate the most recent weapon swing.

Throwing every bit of his weight and strength into the Weapon, Andor stabbed his Spear into the Orc's side and grinned when the Spearhead broke through the creature's green skin. It tore through thick muscle until the metal had completely vanished into the creature's body.

And of course, Andor made to do what he had done many times already since he had had this Spear. He caused his Mana to surge and charged it into his weapon.

Alas…

*BAM!*

… The process was interrupted by a powerful slam of the butt of an Ax handle against his head.

The pain of getting stabbed had done very little to hobble the Orc and it had retaliated against the source of its pain.

Andor's sight became dotted with stars but even more, the slam had been so powerful that it forced him to lose his grip on the shaft of his Soear as he was sent sliding a few feet away.

The Orc pulled the Spear out of his side and followed up. It didn't just run toward Andor. It leaped at him. The attack it came with was a strike from above that would definitely cleave Andor in two.

Meanwhile, when the altercation between Andor and the Orc had just begun —when Andor had just stabbed the Orc—, Henry was aiming to get involved. Those plans were stopped by a red arc of Mana swinging at him.

With his Perception to warn him, Henry leaped to the side quickly enough to have the arc move past him and probably attack some other unfortunate soul and as he cast his eyes on his attacker —one of the casters in the Orc party that ambushed them—, he became very aware of just how dire the situation they were in, was.

A rough count of the enemies made it clear quickly that the large Orcs alone numbered past thirty and had more than half that number of Casters providing them support from a distance.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Suddenly, even though the altercation between Andor and the Orc from before was ongoing merely a few feet from him, Henry could not pay attention to it. He was under the scrutiny of three casters who had specially picked him as their target.