Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 142: Section 113: Moonlight (Part Two)_2

Chapter 142: Section 113: Moonlight (Part Two)_2

The second Fireball exploded beside Joe, knocking him to the ground.

By the time he got up, he saw his comrades pushing aside the barricades. Those makeshift barriers weren’t heavy, but he still saw someone convulse and fall to the ground while trying to move them.

Joe got up, only to see more than twenty comrades, while a good dozen lay on the ground.

Joe took a step, watching his comrades charge toward the camp, then several of them were blown away by a sudden explosion.

He saw his second-in-command lying not far ahead, staring towards him with unseeing eyes, having been shot in the chest.

He also saw those elementals stand up, and within his team, someone was roaring... beginning to twist, beginning to swell.

It was Chaos! Joe stopped in his tracks.

It was Cohen... Joe grabbed his own hair.

No! That couldn’t possibly be Cohen!

He must have been replaced!

......

When someone sneaked close to the camp, Malin had already received a warning from Milani. Through his scope, he saw quite a few people.

They were carrying weapons, which didn’t surprise Malin.

They started to encircle the camp, which also didn’t surprise Malin.

Even as they charged at the camp, against the gunfire, even though the only Magician had been shot dead by Malin, they still managed to push the barricades aside and advance amidst the flying debris, Malin just sighed at the foolishness of risking life for wealth.

But when Chaos appeared among the group, Malin had to put down his rifle and crush the teleportation scroll he had prepared—this would allow him to return to the camp at the fastest speed.

"Chaos!" Just as Malin emerged from the cave prepared for him, he heard a warning from the Dwarves: "There’s movement on the north and west sides!"

"Ladies! Watch the north and west! Faye, follow me!" Malin said as he took the Shotgun and ammo pouch Jessica tossed to him.

The next second, two steel hollow point bullets and two arrow-shaped slugs were loaded into the barrel.

The Chaos creature roared towards the camp, followed by the gaunt bandits who, as if mad, issued the same howling cry and charged forward.

"Wall of Fire! Fifty yards ahead!" Malin called out.

He and Faye erected several walls of fire in quick succession, but the bandits still charged through, even though several were set ablaze, still screaming as if they felt no pain.

"They must be controlled by Chaos! Damn it!" The middle-aged mercenary captain drew his Longsword and said, "Let’s go!"

At this moment, Malin raised his Shotgun and pulled the trigger at the Chaos giant. The steel bullet drilled into its body, breaking its stride, and as it howled in pain trying to cover the wound with its hands, Malin raised the barrel and fired at its face.

The arrow-shaped slugs smeared across its entire face, having been soaked in Holy Water, they penetrated its flesh and bones, then turned its head into a massive honeycomb.

Discarding the Shotgun, Malin gripped a small twig in his hand, which had transformed into a Magic Wand, typically used by the mages of the Mage Association to amplify the strength of their spells. With a flick of his wrist, a pure white beam struck the Chaos giant.

The next second, pure white flames erupted from the body of the Chaos Giant, and then the entire husk of the Chaos Giant and the nearby bandits were engulfed by the divine flames.

With the super ability, the touch of holiness from the five-ring blessing spell formation drained half of Malin’s spiritual energy pool in one go. The frantic output of spiritual energy, pouring out like a deluge, left Malin somewhat fatigued. He turned around, kicked up the shotgun with his foot, and looked at the mercenaries, "Go out and capture a few alive. If there’s any sign of Chaos corruption, kill them."

"No problem!" The Dwarf was the first to sprint out of the defensive line, followed by his half-human teammate.

"What was that spell formation just now?" The middle-aged mercenary captain, a combatant who could only sell his strength, was completely stunned by what Malin had just done—that massive shotgun was double-trigger and fired twin shots, and even though he was descended from Frost Giants, he was baffled by the spell Malin had just used.

The Frost Giant’s abilities were more of a natural talent, but just now, he was clearly using a magic wand, and the beam was as thick as his arm.

"The touch of holiness," Malin said, noticing the puzzled and perplexed look on the healer girl’s face, he took the time to explain to her, "My bloodline ability allows me to turn many touch-based spells from the blessing spell formations into beam-like spells."

"That’s amazing," the girl said, her eyes wide with amazement.

At this moment, news came from Maya’s side that the bandits to the west and north had begun to scatter. They hadn’t even reached the position of the barricades when they broke ranks under the girls’ gunfire, leaving behind a dozen bodies as they fled.

"It looks like we’ve dealt with these enemies; the question now is, who’s going to interrogate these guys about why they attacked us," Malin said while stretching out his hand. Milani, crawling out of the long grass, leapt into his palm and then quickly jumped onto his shoulder.

Malin’s head was still Fio’s domain.

"Let me do it," said the mercenary captain, who seemed experienced in interrogation, so Malin left the matter to him.

However, to prevent the mercenaries out capturing people from being attacked by the remaining bandits, Malin waited near the camp. Eventually, the Dwarf and the half-human finished off a few severely injured men and dragged back a bruised and battered Gnome.

"Hand him over to your captain," Malin nodded, directing the Earth Elemental to clear a path, letting the Dwarf and half-human drag the captive into the camp, before letting the Earth Elemental block it up again.

Then he climbed out of the camp, heading towards the big tree—the gun was still at the lookout post.

......

After retrieving the gun, Malin returned to the camp, and the middle-aged mercenary immediately approached him—the Gnome hadn’t been as steadfast as Malin had thought, and had straight away spilled everything.

"You’re saying your bandit group leader got a kidnapping job from the Dark Guild concerning a target within the Mercenary Group?" Malin asked, sitting down in front of the Gnome.

"Yes, Your Excellency, I have no need to lie to you. I know what Chaos is like; we are certainly going to die. Since it’s like this, why would I need to deceive you?" The Gnome looked utterly exhausted, and Malin instinctively felt he wasn’t lying—with his current situation, it would be hard to escape death; death was imminent in either case, so indeed there was no point for him to lie.

"1200 per person, to be honest, I really can’t imagine who among them 72000 Sydney Union standard currencies could buy," Malin said as he turned to look at the mercenary captain, who didn’t say anything but just shrugged, looking tired, "Honestly, Your Excellency, if any of us are really worth that much, it’s definitely not me."

"I don’t think you’re worth that much either," Malin said with a smile, then turned his head to look at the Gnome, "You’ve got calluses on your right index finger and between your index finger and thumb. I’m asking you, have you ever been a soldier?" Malin had been curious when he stood in front of the Gnome and now directly asked.

The Gnome shook his head, denying it.

"The calluses on your index finger and thumb, the thick callus at the tip of your index finger, show you’ve used a gun," Malin said, smiling at the Gnome, "I don’t think lying in this regard would be of any benefit to you."

The Gnome was silent for a moment: "Yes, Your Excellency."

"I’m curious why you became a bandit. As far as I know, as an infantryman, you get paid 15 a week, which may not be much compared to those merchants, but with a salary of over 60 a month, you can live more decently than some local policemen," Faye said, following beside Malin.

The Gnome was silent again: "My story is a long one, I don’t know if you fancy hearing it once or twice," he said, looking at Malin.

After exchanging opinions, Malin and Faye agreed to his request: "Go ahead, we’re all ears."

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