The Author's POV

Standing behind a line of orcs on the tower's ground floor, I turned towards Leopold, who was next to me.

I then pointed at the gun in his hand.

"How's it going with that thing?"

Playing with the gun, Leopold flashed a satisfied smile.

"It's not bad, not bad."

Ci Chik—!

Taking the bullets out of the gun, Leopold tossed the gun in my direction.

"Here, have a look at it yourself."

Catching the gun with one hand, I took a good look at the gun.

The design of the gun was, how should I say, crude? Not sure if that was the right word.

It looked a bit like some of the older guns that existed back in the past. Of course, that was only aesthetically. In reality, the gun was far more advanced than any gun that had ever existed.

More powerful as well as each bullet could penetrate the skin of a demon.

Tossing the gun back to Leopold, I curiously asked.

"Have you found a solution for the recoil issue?"

"Sort of."

"Oh? Do tell me, I'm genuinely curious."

Kind of wanted a gun myself, if I had to be honest. However, I wasn't sure just how useful it would be to me. Most probably, it wouldn't, but it looked nice.

Unaware of what I was thinking, Leopold, pointed at the dwarves behind him.

"I talked to them and they told me that there are things we can buy to increase the weight of the gun and reduce the recoil; the only problem is that it cost a lot of money."

"That isn't that much of a problem. I think I have enough—"

Before I could finish, Leopold cut me off.

"I also thought about asking you for money, but then it suddenly hit me."

"What?"

Out of nowhere, taking out a cigarette from his dimensional space, Leopold lit it.

Cik. Cik.

*Puff*

Taking a small puff, the smoke slowly diffused in the air.

"Sorry, bit stressed."

Saying that he proceeded to take his sword out. He then waved it at me.

"Since I can also use the sword, as soon as I use the gun, I'll store it in my dimensional space. Then, I can just take the gun back after things calm down."

Leopold's response was out of my expectations.

Alternating my gaze between his ring and the gun, my head tilted in confusion.

"…that works?"

"Yup. I've tried. It's one of the tips that the dwarves have given me. The only problem is the reloading which takes time..."

"Okay…"

If the dwarves said that it worked then it probably did. However, I'd assume this strategy only works for people like Leopold, who could use two weapons.

WIIIIIIIIM—!

It was then that suddenly a strange noise enveloped the battlefield.

*Puff*

Leopold, who was next to me, took another puff of his cigarette. He didn't even need to look to understand what was happening.

like we're

his words faded, the barrier in the distance slowly started to disappear. What lay behind it were over thousands and upon thousands

the mana in the air

wave was just about to

***

unknown room

barriers, tha

dwarf walked towards the beacon and placed his hand on

[92%]

the beacon, signifying

Kru Kuk—!

dwarf's hand touched the beacon, the beacon let out a strange noise, and the light that shot upwards slowly started to

towards the hole where the

o' tha energy this early into

fine for now. What's really important be that we withstand tha second

with

"Ye think so?"

"Yeah."

not suffer substantial losses in the second wave, and they didn't activate the barrier once again,

on a stool, the red-haired dwarf tiredly

more waves do you think there's

Tap.Tap.Tap.

dwarf thought for a moment before answering

believe that tha war will

just them that were at war, but the orcs and elves too. Each side had sent some people to help out, but from the looks of it, things wouldn't clear up for a

war of this magnitude, it would take at least a year to see which

'en we shou' do our best ta

they used the barrier the more impact it would

up all the energy now, the

This was undesirable.

attention back towards the beacon, the red-haired dwarf solemnly nodded

"I agree."

***

Northern tower control room.

ready, tha

"Yes."

to their stations at Bemus's

a lot more spacious, and the map they were working

stood behind them with

seen your skills, I'm going ta give ye

map in

be using. If ye can find anything suspicious in

by no means an

only did this require extreme concentration, but also

an enemy strategy, you had to look at

to be spotted. If that one

both o' ye can do

proof that he

he had other people working on the same task and it wasn't only unique to them, but this was him telling Smallsnake and Ryan that

a small card from

ye access ta tha map o' tha other towers including tha northern one. If everything looks regular in tha northern

looking at one section wasn't enough to figure out an

mapping of the walls, he was helping

"Understood."

Smallsnake fully understood this.

card, he solemnly looked

"I'll do my best."

I've taken enough o' your time. I'll be leaving

other areas to give out similar instructions

"Ryan, help me out."

towards the control panel, Smallsnake quickly got to

analyzing the details of the

this was

***

—BOOOOOM!

the city's outer walls

the bottom level of the

to me, were Hein, Ava,

was in her ring form, and she couldn't quite show herself just yet. Furthermore, even if she did show herself, she'd be pretty useless since it took

downside of her ability was that in order to make herself appear as an ordinary ring, she had to get

her. Not exactly

others seemed to be less nervous about the

was a good decision since it gave them

my sword,