Reincarnated Hero System - Chapter 923 - 923: Attacked

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a gun since I came to this Planet…”

Arthur came to a realization completely unrelated to the current predicament, and Evan, curious about other Universes, asked about it.

“You have guns back home?”

“Of course, we do. They’re not mainstream though, since a lot of Devildom nobles feel they’re not well suited to magic combat.

I do have a friend who’s a gunslinger and she’s on a whole ‘nother level with them.”

Arthur responded as he fished out a smartphone from his subspace. Although it looked similar to the ones Evan was familiar with on Earth-V, he only needed to scan it with his aura a little bit to see that it couldn’t be any more different.

The boy powered on the phone and opened some videos of him and his friends that he’d recorded.

The highlight of the videos was a girl with black hair and emerald-green eyes, and Evan was impressed by her skilful weapon handling. His expression shifted to shock as he saw Arthur effortlessly slice her bullets in half.

Suddenly, their training escalated into an all-out brawl, demolishing the entire training hall they were using. Just when Evan thought they would cause more destruction, he noticed someone intervening to rein them in.

‘There’s someone who can make this guy settle down?!’

He was shocked at the fact that the unpredictable Arthur was docile before someone and couldn’t help but inquire about her identity.

“Who’s the other girl?”

“Nicole. Layla’s—the gunslinger girl’s—best friend. She’s undisputedly the best water manipulator you’d ever meet.

Her Innate Ability allows her to manipulate all forms of water. I’m anticipating how much stronger it’d become when she becomes a deity.”

Evan was initially focused on the relationship between the two girls when Arthur’s second statement resounded in his head.

‘All forms of water…!?’

Immediately, the memory of his conversation with Future Artemisia in Wolfen replayed itself in his head.

It was when Artemisia had informed him about how she knew the Progenitor godslayer—Arthur—and Evan had joked about Artemisia being in a relationship with him.

Artemisia’s exact response to him was: “His lover is someone who can control any form of water in existence and though I am also friends with her, I do not wish to get on her bad side by going after her man.

I don’t want to be remembered as a goddess who died by drowning.”

If Artemisia’s words were to be taken as truth, then this girl was Arthur’s ‘lover’.

Glancing at the boy beside him, Evan didn’t notice anything that hinted at romantic feelings in Arthur’s gaze. He just had a look of nostalgia as he watched the videos.

‘Maybe it happens later on…’

Suddenly, Arthur stood up, reeled in his catch, and tossed it into a nearby bucket as he spoke.

“I think it’s high time we killed them.”

“You think?”

Evan raised an eyebrow at Arthur’s comment. Just then, two things whizzed through the air, towards both boys’ heads.

However, these items never hit their marks since Arthur and Evan raised their hands and caught a bullet and an arrow respectively.

“They utilised a gun on me,” Arthur noted, while Evan remarked. “And I got an arrow.”

**PSSSsss!!!

Green liquid dripped from the arrow’s tip, melting a nearby stone, prompting Evan to continue.

“A poisonous arrow.”

He shouted toward the forest at their hidden attackers.

“Hey! What gives?! You should have used a gun on me as well, I always wanted to catch a bullet!”

About 100 metres away from their position, Beatrix and Artemisia heard the boy’s loud voice and removed their gazes from the time-frozen arrows before them as they asked in unison.

“”THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE CONCERNED ABOUT?!””

Normally, one would be annoyed at being attacked in the first place, but Evan was annoyed he wasn’t attacked with a gun.

As for the one who was attacked with a gun, Arthur looked over the .50 calibre bullet and tossed it across the stream, before releasing the time stop on it.

**BOOOMM!!!

A pitch-black explosion of death energy erupted, prompting Arthur to raise an eyebrow at Evan.

“You sure you wanted to be attacked with a gun?”

“…”

Evan fell silent, realizing too late that Arthur had frozen the bullet’s deadly detonation in time.

Just then, a rain of projectiles descended, each homing in on their vitals. Before they could reach their targets, spheres of silver light surrounded the bullets, halting them mid-air with runic writings glowing around them.

All eyes turned to Arthur as he spoke.

“Guess I can’t maintain a Partial-Bounded Field for too long.”

He disabled his partially activated Bounded Field—the reason those projectiles had been frozen automatically—and switched to a regular Temporal Stop without uttering a command word.

“You can stop time without a word now?”

Evan asked, glancing at the frozen bullets and arrow, and Arthur nodded in response.

“I always could, it’s just that ‘speaking’ let me focus my power and made the energy consumption more efficient.

But, with my increase in comprehension, I can achieve that level of efficiency without a word when it comes to inanimate objects.

With living beings, I need to be extra careful so I don’t accidentally halt someone’s time flow permanently, as that’d drain unnecessary amounts of power. Using my Faux True Voice allows me to achieve greater control.”

Arthur pointed at the trees from which the projectiles were flying out.

“Like these guys now. If I told them to Stop. ¬|

He switched to his Faux True Voice, and the barrage of arrows and bullets immediately ceased.

“Now, we use gravity to pull them over.”

He clenched his fist, using gravity laws to drag the hidden attackers from their hiding spots.

“Oh, there are four others I didn’t notice.”

Evan remarked, realizing there were 24 assailants instead of his original estimate of 20.

Arthur resumed the time flow, causing most attackers to stumble due to the abrupt change in footing. The four he hadn’t sensed earlier managed to execute backflips mid-air, landing gracefully on their feet while drawing their weapons and aiming at the four teenagers.

Looking at this, Artemisia snorted and raised two fingers in the air, before pointing them downwards and commanding.

“Devolve.”

“?!!”

“Gah!”

The exclamation came from one assailant who suddenly lost strength and toppled backwards, his head striking a spiked stone on the ground.

Evan quickly appraised the attackers, noting with a pity-filled gaze that their levels had all dropped by 100 in an instant. The abrupt loss of power left them feeling lethargic, keeping them on the ground far longer than usual, and during this time, Artemisia turned to Arthur and shouted.

“I’m gonna use them to vent.”

“Feel free.”

Arthur replied, using Destruction energy to disintegrate the arrows and bullets hovering in the air before gesturing for Artemisia to unleash her power.

With a crack of her knuckles, tendrils of lightning snaked down her arms as she fully released her divinity. Arthur and Evan sat nearby with buckets of popcorn, while Beatrix wondered where they even found popcorn in this chaotic situation.

That thought only lasted a second as she quickly joined them to watch the show.

Ignoring her companions, Artemisia sent arcs of lightning to shock the assailants back to their feet before charging at them. The first group, caught off guard, faced her wrath without realizing their powers had been diminished. Though armed with bows, guns, swords, and daggers, they were no match for her.

As the first wave approached, Artemisia raised her hand and activated Tidal Surge, sending a powerful wave of water that knocked several of them into trees.

“She actually slammed each one to a different tree. Nice one!”

Evan exclaimed, his voice echoing in the background.

Effortlessly dodging a bullet, Artemisia retaliated with a lightning strike to the gunman’s forehead, following up with a lightning-clad fist to his stomach, causing him to convulse before collapsing.

When three more attackers closed in, she activated Earthen Quake, shaking the ground beneath them and throwing them off balance. With a casual swing of her hand, she unleashed Aero Slashes, slicing off their limbs and finishing them off.

Turning her attention to the next group, she used two skills at once: Inferno Blast and Thunderstorm Fury.

A wall of fire surged up, incinerating arrows, while dark clouds unleashed bolts of lightning that rained down on the archers, splattering gore everywhere.

“Quintuple Headshot!!”

Arthur cheered, watching the archers’ headless corpses collapse.

One of the sword-wielders lunged at her, with Artemisia noting he was stronger than the others. She activated Limit Break, tripling her stats and disarmed him with a strike to his wrist before delivering a high kick that knocked him unconscious.

With more enemies closing in, she used her Unique Skill: Tempest Avatar. A humanoid avatar of lightning emerged behind her, mirroring her movements—even her action of retying her ponytail after an arrow had grazed it and cut her hair band.

Holding out her hands, she launched bolts of lightning, obliterating several attackers and leaving blood flowing toward the stream.

Dodging an arrow, Artemisia spotted the archer responsible sending more her way. Bullets soon followed, but she activated Elemental Shield, blocking the death energy arrows as she charged the gunslinger.

The woman attempted to create distance, using a companion to shield her. However, Artemisia’s Tempest Avatar created a blinding flash, giving her the opening to deliver an uppercut followed by a back kick, slamming the swordsman to the ground.

Using him as a shield, she absorbed his power with Energy Drain before delivering a devastating kick to the gunslinger’s groin.

“Watch out for your family jewels, boys!”

Beatrix called out, laughing as Artemisia zipped around like lightning, making it hard for the gunslinger to aim.

With her movements sluggish from Artemisia’s earlier Devolution, the gunslinger was unable to keep up. The strongest foes had already been taken down, leaving only the ranged attackers, who couldn’t compete with Artemisia in close combat.

As one assailant wielding a massive sword charged, Artemisia dodged his slow swing and blasted water into his face, knocking him down. While he struggled to rise, the Tempest Avatar mirrored her movements, unleashing a Lightning Strike.

Meanwhile, Artemisia shifted her focus to the gunslinger, who had swapped her weapon for dual daggers. Despite the woman’s surprising speed, Artemisia launched a flurry of wind blades with Aero Slash while destabilizing the ground with Earthen Quake, throwing her off balance.

The Tempest Avatar finished off the gunslinger with a rapid series of lightning bolts, allowing Artemisia to shift her focus to the last remaining foe—the bowman.

He attempted to coordinate his attacks with another subordinate, launching arrows and bullets at her, but Artemisia merely infused more energy into her Elemental Shield, tanking their assault effortlessly.

Activating Thunderstorm Fury, she unleashed a barrage of Tier 5 Lightning Magic: Arcane Bolt of Severance.

The gunman fell dead with a single strike, while the bowman turned to flee. However, Artemisia was not one to let an opponent escape easily.

She dashed forward, using Energy Drain to sap his remaining magic before her Tempest Avatar pulverized his skull.

[Level Up] x2

“Just two?”

Artemisia mused as she dispelled her Tempest Avatar and checked her status to see her new level.

“Well done, Artemisia!”

Arthur applauded as he walked over, while Evan grinned and added.

“That was quite the show. Especially the part where you made sure that one guy won’t have kids.”

Brushing wet hair from her face, Artemisia shot Beatrix a narrowed gaze.

“I was a tad bit annoyed.”

Feeling the intensity of her friend’s stare, Beatrix gulped, prompting Evan to chuckle.

“Beatrix, if you know what’s good for you, don’t piss her off anymore.”

“Evan…I’m not suicidal.”

Beatrix’s response show she was aware that she was the source of Artemisia’s irritation and already brainstorming ways to make amends.