Doomsday Pillars

From within her storage ring, Aria calmly took out a large long box with a black and blue sheen covering its surface. Some of the fighters who didn’t do anything noticed that the box was a box for storing a rifle.

Aria slowly stroked the surface of the box with an eager expression on her face. She then went ahead to grab the box’s lid and opened it. From inside the box, she took out a black sniper rifle. The sniper rifle had a massive muzzle break on its end and was so long that it could almost reach her chest when positioned vertically.

It had been more than a year since Aria last used a long-range rifle, hence her current excited state. Alex could see how happy Aria was right now when he saw her affectionately stroking the rifle as if it was a baby born to her.

James and Nathanael who saw and were curious about what the large black box was seen approaching Alex. When the two of them arrived, Nathanael; a special soldier from the US Navy Seal, recognized the weapon Aria was holding.

"Oh?! That’s the Fat Mac," said Nathanael with interest in his voice.

The SSK Industries .950 JDJ Rifle, nicknamed "Fat Mac", is an American single-shot rifle chambered in the extremely high-powered .950 JDJ round. As its name implies, rifles chambered for the cartridge have a groove diameter of 0.950 in (24.1 mm).

WEAPON TYPE : Large-caliber rifle

CALIBER : 950 JDJ (24.13mm)

ACTION : Manually operated, loading by detachable bolt

WEIGHT : 50–110 pounds (23–50 kilograms)

FEED SYSTEM : Single shot

MUZZLE VELOCITY : 670 m/s (2200 feet per second)

This American made weapon is the rifle with the largest bullets. And in spite of its weight (50 kilograms or 110 pounds), its recoil is substantial, and it is only practical to fire it from a shooting rest. Because of all these features, the rifle has little practical use, other than being a "range queen", which is a weapon brought to a firing range primarily for a fun time, and just for the sheer spectacle of it being fired.

Seeing this "range queen" rifle on Aria’s hand, Nathanael’s face couldn’t help but change his facial expression. "You can’t be serious, Alex. Are you sure you will let her fire that rifle?" asked Nathanael as his expression grew even stranger.

"Yeah," replied Alex with a carefree expression and a faint smile on his face.

Nathanael was dumbfounded when he heard Alex’s response. He suspiciously looked at Alex trying to see if he was bluffing. But too bad, his suspicion was only greeted by Alex’s smiling face, which made him even more confused.

"I had to travel the world across the oceans only to meet many famous scientists to succeed in making a new weapon, which ended up being only able to slightly injure the gargoyles. Are you saying that this rifle could injure those gargoyles, Alex?" said James suspiciously. He then continued his words, "You should know that it’s not about the weapon or the bullet size, Alex."

Alex could only smile faintly and said, "In this case, it really is about the bullet size. You will see it soon enough, James."

Upon hearing that, the two confused men decided to listen to Alex’s words while still maintaining their skepticism towards his assurance. When the three of them were talking, more and more gargoyles flew towards the group. However, the majority of the gargoyles that had arrived remained in the air, making the fighters fighting on the ground even more alarmed. As a result, the fighters became more careful and the momentum of the battle began to be taken by the gargoyles.

Seeing the dire situation, Aria quickly prepared her sniper rifle as she loaded a massive bullet into the rifle, a .950 ammunition. This .950 caliber bullet is the largest bullet with a length of more than 10 centimeters and a weight of about 233 grams. James and Nathanael that the bullet was covered in gold casing and looked absolutely stunning.

*CLICK*

A familiar sound could be heard as Aria cocked the bullet into the rifle chamber. She then quickly placed the rifle on her shoulder and positioned the scope in front of her eye as she crouched on the ground, ready to fire.

When Aria had found a target, she immediately aimed the rifle at it and pulled the trigger. At the same time when Aria pulled the trigger, James was surprised to see Aria’s rifle glowing brightly. Before he could ask what was going on, a loud sound echoed through the air startling everyone around Aria.

BANG!

The .950 bullet quickly flew through the air and hit one of the flying gargoyles in the head. The shot was so deadly that the gargoyle’s head immediately exploded on impact while its body rapidly fell to the ground. Nathanael and James who saw this sight were dumbfounded and stood there frozen with their mouths wide open.

Meanwhile, Alex who also saw this couldn’t help but exclaimed to himself, ’Headshot! One Shot One Kill!’ while outwardly he gave 2 thumbs up to Aria. "Good job, Aria."

Aria who heard Alex’s praise smiled slightly. She then quickly loaded another bullet into the rifle and fired another shot. Followed by a loud bang, another bullet quickly travelled in the air and hit right in the middle of the gargoyle’s chest that was flying. Just like before, the bullet once again penetrated the gargoyle’s body and left a large hole there, something James could not do with his energy weapon.

Nathanael who finally woke up from his shock was excited when he saw the shot hit, "Great shot!"

While reloading another bullet, Aria said, "I actually missed my mark. The recoil was too big so I had to compensate for my shot."

Another bang could be heard when Aria once again pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the body of another flying gargoyle but this time, it continued to pierce another gargoyle that was behind it.

Seeing that, Nathanael nodded and said. "I see, that’s what you mean. Good aim."

The shots from the Aria’s rifle quite affected the result of the battle, seeing that it was not easy for the fighters to kill the gargoyles that could fly quickly. Seeing the impact of Aria’s shots towards their kin, the gargoyles decided to send dozens of them to where she was.

Nathanael who was standing next to the crouching Aria quickly brought out his weapon and took his stance. When the gargoyles swept down towards Aria, he immediately swung his tier 3 ax and used his [Wind Blade] spell. When the wind blade reached the gargoyle horde, he managed to kill one of the gargoyles and seriously injure the gargoyles behind it. Nathanael tried his best to attack the gargoyles and defended Aria from their attacks, however, too many gargoyles were approaching.

Although Aria with her rifle is a soul reaper in long-range combat Aria’s weapon is not very effective in close combat. However, despite the shortcoming and the approaching gargoyles, Aria was not worried and continued to shoot the gargoyles in the distance as if there was no group of winged creatures that wanted to tear her body apart.

Alex smiled and pulled out two giant revolvers out of his storage ring. The two revolvers had bullet cylinders the size of a grenade launcher cylinders. He then quickly aimed these double-action-only revolvers towards the gargoyles with a grin.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Loud gunshots sounded continuously as Alex pulled the trigger quickly, finishing off the bullet quickly. A dozen gargoyles quickly fell to the ground like flies as each bullet Alex fired killed one gargoyle. The gargoyles who saw this unbelievable spectacle were frightened and immediately scattered running away from him.

Alex smiled happily when he fired the revolvers and saw the result. "Hahaha! I actually preferred these handguns to a sword."

Then suddenly, came a voice in his head.

[Master, without this sword those weapons are nothing]

Hearing that, Alex couldn’t help but laugh even more, "Hahaha! You’re right, Strokes. I’m sorry. Of course you’re still the best!"

Alex then loaded the same bullets as the ones Aria used with her rifle into the revolvers. James then realized that the bullets were covered with strange patterns that glowed when Alex held it.

These new weapons surprised not only the attacking gargoyles but also the other fighters. They couldn’t understand how those weapons were capable of killing gargoyles, whose bodies could only be injured by magic weapons.

In fact, the two weapons that Alex and Aria had were ordinary weapons that were only slightly modified. After all, it was not difficult to create a new custom weapon with the number of craftsmen on Bali Island.

The secret of these weapons’ destructiveness lies in their ammunition, more precisely the modified .950 caliber bullets. After trying various sizes of cartridges, only this .950 cartridge casing has a surface wide enough to be replaced with a magic casing.

Alex then went ahead and used pieces of tier 3 mutated animal skins that were quite thin to serve as the basis for the new cartridge casings. After countless trials and countless skin types, he finally managed to find several skins that were suitable to use.

With the ability [Drawing], Alex managed to create a new .950 caliber bullet that has new ability the power of spirit, [Magic Bullet].