Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

“Panzer Faust”

Bang——!

Luger, who was firmly heated, fired another cannon shot, but only rocks were destroyed. The Cyclops’ magic casting was much faster than the Three Musketeers thought. It was an evasive maneuver that magicians skilled in combat could do. If it was in a normal situation Leeha would have been left making fun of Luger, but they were in an urgent situation.

“Damn it! What is that? They are not on the level of Crolang, they appear to be stronger than Crolang!”

“At least he didn’t use magic!”

Leeha and Kidd’s bodies flew once again. A huge rock flew towards the spot they were just before.

Boooom!

Boulders the size of trucks flew in at a breakneck speed and crashed down. If they collided with each other, they would have enough destructive power to not leave any trace.

“Kyahahaha-! Grilled humans, barbecue!”

“Don’t be too conceited!”

New energy gathered in the horn of one of the cyclops. Kidd didn’t miss that chance. Befitting of the title [Rapid fire], his panning fired once more. Six bullets were fired within a second, all of them flew precisely towards the cyclops’ eye but failed to reach them.

“Kuwaaaaaaa-!”

It only dug into the flesh covering the cyclops’ eye with a puk, puk sound. Luger’s muzzle pointed toward the hands covering the eyes.

“You’re useful sometimes, cowboy.”

“Don’t pretend you’re cool, just hit it quick-”

Luger pulled the trigger with a light smile.

Baaaaaang—!

The aftereffect was so strong that Kidd, and Leeha next to him flinched, but unfortunately, the shell did not hit either. The horn of the cyclops flashed, and the giant figure disappeared in an instant.

“No way! It could cast magic with its eyes covered? How does it read the timing?”

Leeha thought its more ridiculous than the shivering Luger. They knew how ridiculous it was because the three people were experts in the shooting. Just now, its timing was perfect. The perfect gap between action and inaction, that was where the shell went to!

“Does that mean it was from reflex?”

The best result they could get was Kidd’s bullet hitting their marks. The reaction of the noble demos was beyond imagination.

“Kuwoooooh-!”

“Dodge!”

The follow-up attacks, which did not even give them a chance to be surprised, spurred the three of them apart again.

Puk-! The dust rose again.

‘Cough, is this Bluebeard’s strengthening power? It’s so different from when I saw him with Crolang!’

Crolang was definitely a field boss-level monster. In addition to strengthening abilities for the northern trolls under his command, it also had multiple complex buffs. He even had the strength to ride an unknown creature. It was powerful and surprising but, it had not deviated from the monsters he knew. But what about them?

“A lich’s magical response inside a cyclops’ body……. Now I know the horrors of the 2nd Human-Demon war.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what Kidd said. If there were thousands of them, it be strange if humans did not go extinct.”

Leeha lifted the Black Bass and aimed at the Cyclops. Of course, his main target is its ‘eye’.

Penetrating it perfectly would be great, but its eye was bigger and easier to aim at, and they were a widely known weakness.

“But if I just aim at the eye-’

He pulled the trigger like lightning. Baaaaang! After a while, gunshots rang out, but they only broke the Cyclops’ collarbone.

“Damn it! It’s like that! How can I hit the eye when I did not adjust the clicks!”

Leeha clearly aimed at the eyes, but that was based on the distance from earlier! Leeha’s accuracy couldn’t help but drop when his target could blink from 30m to 50m in an instant. It was impossible to take the time to aim properly because of the sudden attacks thrown at them. The situation where they couldn’t do a lot of things continued. How many minutes have passed since they managed to save their lives? the three musketeers’ thoughts were getting darker.

‘It’s not even Bluebeard, they are just the five monsters that he made.’

‘I could tear them apart, if only I could hit them.’

‘What’s their weakness? Where should I shoot?’ In other words, it is difficult to hit them, and more importantly, I have no time to aim properly. Most importantly, to do that-’

Their magic should be sealed. The thoughts of the three people united as one. And another user who had come to a conclusion laid on the ground and raised his voice.

“Horn! The source of their magic is their horn, you just have to break them! The eye is not a weakness, the horns automatically react when you aim at the eyes!”

Fernand looked at them through the magnifying glass.

“Automatically?”

“Yes. That’s- not a cyclops. It shouldn’t just be recognized as a field boss Cyclops. Seeing how many experience had gone up-”

“Has your experience increased?”

“It’s a new discovery. It’s clear that my bestiary is filled with new information. Those guys are no longer ordinary cyclops. They’re a new species of monster. I will say it again, but their weakness is the horn! The more you aim at the eyes, especially the more skills you use to aim at the eyes, the faster the reaction of the horn will be. Because the horn responds to mana!”

Fernand quickly answered Leeha. As expected, it was the quick judgment of the best adventurer on Middle Earth. Of course, such a response wasn’t enough for Luger, who had already suffered.

“You should have said that earlier, you bastard!”

“As expected! Thanks, Fernand-ssi!”

“If the weakness is found, why don’t we move quickly?”

While Luger’s words were lightly covered up, Kidd rumbled. After Fernand discovered the weakness, the first move wasn’t from the Three Musketeers nor Fernand.

“Five minutes and 32 seconds against these guys, and even identifying their weakness……. And it was because of the help of an adventurer. You’re still far away. Phew.”

Browless checked his pocket watch and put it back in his pocket. It was a very small sigh, but Leeha clearly heard it.

“Director-nim……?”

“Take a good look.”

Browless passed by, holding Leeha’s shoulder, and then approached Kidd and held out his hand. His head was pressed down as usual, but his tone wasn’t warm. The cold atmosphere he had shown when they first came to the academy appeared.

“Would you lend me [Crimson Geckos] for a while, Kidd-kun.”

“Of…… of course.”

Kidd, whose appearance resembled Browless, held out his revolvers. While the cyclops screamed with a putong, putong sound, he was not in a hurry. After equipping the four Crimson Geckos, Browless lifted the brim of his hand and spoke one last time.

“This will be your first and last class with me. Watch and learn. Understood?”

Browless’ loading was faster than Kidd’s. In an instant, he inserted bullets into the revolvers, his body flew to the left, and pulled the triggers on both hands. Twelve bullets were fired in the moment when his body was in the air before he even touched the ground.

With a tatatang- sound, one of the cyclops’ horn broke.

It happened in a blink of an eye.

‘Twelve sounds……?’

Leeha thought he heard wrong, but the expression of Kidd next to him said otherwise. It meant that even if it was shot in that short gap, there was not even a single error.

“Kuwaaaaak-! I won’t forgive you, the horns- count- gave me!”

Kung, kung, kung!

The cyclops, with its broken horn, ran without hesitation and raised its club. And that wasn’t all. Light flashed on the horns of the other Cyclops. Another cyclops was waiting with a rock in his hand as it moved to grab and strike Browless’ back. It was like a series of attacks by someone who had nowhere to run or escape to.

“You should have been suspicious when the horns flashed the first time. You should have assumed it was a new monster when I said it wasn’t an ordinary Cyclops. It’s a monster that uses magic, how does it use it? where is the source of magic? and how long is the time between spells? What is the range of its magic? Besides blinking and shooting lightning, what other magic could it use? You should have tried to figure all of those out.” 

Even while watching such a situation, Browless did not rush to speak or move his hands. He calmly reloaded, but his speed was still faster than Kidd’s.

“To use a skill as soon as you see it, Luger-kun, you still have a long way to go. With that attitude, Bluebeard’s staff will pierce your neck.”

“Uwoooooo!!”

Hwaaaang—!

Browless watched the club swinging through the wind until the last moment.

And at that moment, he took a leap, ran toward the Cyclops, stepped on its thigh, and took another leap, raising his altitude.

It wasn’t flight magic nor magic to walk through air. Browless trampled on the body of the massive monster, raised himself up, straightened his arms, and aimed at the Cyclops’ face.

The Cyclops, who had lost its balance, was unable to correct its posture quickly.

“Indeed…… if you approach like that-”

“-does that mean you can prevent the other cyclops from attacking? Keep the enemies at bay. B-but, if you don’t know the characteristics of the monsters-”

“I think that’s what I said. You must not move without a full understanding of the enemy. Also…. the three of you should not rely on your skills, but to figure out its weakness with only knowledge and experience.”

Fernand received the admiration of Kidd and Leeha. How did he do that? They couldn’t even ask. Although he was an NPC, Browless proved that it could be done.

“Most importantly.”

Tatatata…….

Every time Browless’ finger moved, a hole appeared in the Cyclops’ face. Out of the 12 bullets, those that pierced the eyes exceeded five. Because of their structure, where their brain was connected to the optic nerve, it could never survive. Browless swapped revolvers as the Cyclops fell. He put the empty guns into the holster and took out the ones that were still loaded, and moved his hands again in a ‘falling backward’ posture. The target was the Cyclops who was waiting with a rock. In an instant, bullets pierced its forearms, tearing through tendons.

“Kihaaaaaaat-”

“Noisy, one-eye.”

Hwirik, he kicked the Cyclops in the knees and landed on the ground after rotating his body. Even Luger couldn’t keep his mouth shut at his movements, which seemed to be calculated from the beginning. Browless ran toward the Cyclops that was in pain, reloaded, and broke its horn just by shooting while running. After that, he waited for the guys who couldn’t control their excitement to do something wrong and calmly put a bullet in their eyes. It appeared to be a simple repetitive task. As if removing eyeballs from a doll, Browless popped the Cyclops’ eyeballs.

“Secondly, you should think about the difference between attacks that work and attacks that don’t work. If you tried to figure out when they could use magic, you should have been able to do it quickly. Their horns respond when you use your skills, and when there’s a risk of the eye getting hit. Isn’t it simple? They only got hit when Leeha fired and Kidd panned. Both of them were attacks that failed to target the ‘eye’ accurately.”

“For sure……”

The only successful attack was by Leeha, whose click adjustment was misaligned, and Kidd, who was firing rapidly with an unstable aim.

Both attacks were normal attacks, not skills, and were attacks that failed to target the eyes.