Chapter LXVII – Their battle is fought out.

Today was a beautiful day like any other.

Clouds had parted way in an occasion that was rare for the summer of Northern Gemeinplatz, letting sunlight loose all over the muddy landscape of Casamonu. The birds had come out of retreat from General Autumn, chirping away while they had the rare opportunity to do so. An earthly smell permeated throughout the land only broken by the smell of iron, lipids, and a pinch of protein.

“ARGH! S-ssibal!”

A single casing flew from John Brown’s rifle. Not another moment passed before…

BANG!

…Kim disappeared from his sight, dissipating into a black cloud. The second bullet found its home in a local tree rather than its intended target.

“I’ll have to admit, that did surprise me.” Brown couldn’t help but jolt upon hearing Kim speaking from behind him. The old man, and the rest of the line of freemen, turned to face him. “Now I admit tha-”

BANG! Kim dissipated into a black cloud once more. He reappeared on a spot very close to where he had disappeared, sitting on the ground while holding his left shoulder with his right hand.

“Give me-”

BANG! Kim wasn’t there anymore.

“A second to-”

BANG! Neither was he here.

“A SECOND TO-”

BANG! Ping! Now he had gone thitherward thithermost from the line of men over yonder, and Brown’s gun was empty.

“GIVE ME A SECOND TO TALK FOR FUC-”

BOOM! This time Kim didn’t have to move as Rabanowicz’s smoothbore pistol shot went wildly off-target.

“Fine! You savages do not deserve villainous monologues!” Despite having once looked threatening due to his all-black armor, Kim now looked quite pathetic while sitting on the mud. His face made it clear that he wasn’t having a fun time, probably due to the 7.2 mm (.308 inch) wide hole occupying his left shoulder along with other factors which might currently be souring his otherwise excellent day; his left arm had gone completely limp much to his horror. “Where did you even get that from?!” All composure was gone from the once edgy and cool exterior, though thankfully he had gotten a brief moment to calm down now that the freemen were out of javelins and Brown’s rifle was out of bullets.

“I know the answer to that as much as you do.” replied Brown, sticking another magazine into his new little friend. “But I thank the Lord for having sent us such a gift in such a great time of need.”

Kim paused, so had Tangerina. They were unsure of what to do now that they were outmanned and outgunned. Retreat was an option, yes, but these people had somehow managed to get a hold of modern weaponry! Who knew what’d happen if they got more? One John Brown with a semi-automatic rifle was hard enough, who knew what’d happen once there was one John Brown plus many angry men with a semi-automatic rifle? That’d have dire consequences on the economy!

“It’s probably that damn Japanese at the back supplying them.” thought Kim out loud, his gaze fixated upon the Watanabe who had attempted to stone him for his recent cryptocurrency shenanigans. John Brown seemed too old to be an isekai protagonist with special powers. “Tangerina! We aren’t retreating; we have to wipe them out now!”

Tangerina opened her mouth as if to say “Is that a good idea in this situation?”, but she wasn’t paid to open her mouth. She only nodded before preparing another spell to end all spells: “[Big Water…] erm… what was that again… crap…” A big ball of water was summoned from the half-spoken spell, splashing down harmlessly in a cooling fashion.

Meanwhile, Brown had an idea about what he should do with the witch in front of him. He raised his rifle, only to find Tangerina quickly yelling “[BIGDAMNWATERSHIELDHOLYSH-]” the moment she noticed the weapon aimed at her.

BANG! The bullet made contact with the bubble, only to burst it and land harmlessly next to Tangerina’s. Luckily, for Tangerina anyways, a big shield made out of water that had wrapped around her like a bubble worked against early 20th century firearms. Tangerina quickly cast another protective bubble around her, this time joined by Kim inside the bubble. With a combination of such swiftness and defense, how were the freemen supposed to break through?

If only there was a way to dry that water-bearing dastard, though Ayomide who was sick of dastards, bastards, and masters. An idea dawned upon her; an idea so simple that it should have come to her a few moments ago instead of now. “Old man, keep being ready to shoot.”

Things weren’t easy for Ayomide however, for her enemy wasn’t standing idly and waiting for turns to attack. Gemeinplatz wasn’t civilized enough yet for turn-based battles, neither was Kim civilized enough to admit defeat and run. Now his movements were a bit slower so that he could stay inside the bubble of water, but his one functioning fist still represented a threat to the integrity of everyone else’s precious internal organs and nobody dare approach him for a tackle.

The battle had turned into a semi-comedic scene, one which would have been fully comedic if not for this being a life-or-death situation, where the line of men retreated back from Kim while he tried to approach Watanabe. Kim went right, the line went right; Kim went left, the line went left; Kim couldn’t go upwards as he couldn’t fly, neither could the line follow him if he suddenly could.

Meanwhile, Ayomide was watching Tangerina. Her bubble of protective water was slowly thinning out, beads of salty water running down her forehead instead. Keeping up such magic without a proper magic staff or convenient magic gem seemed to be tiring the woman despite her great capacity for magic. Kim, the type of man to not care about the feelings of women at all unless the woman in question was their plot-convenient little sister, was continuing his policy of not caring. He was more focused on the scrawny loser who had just tried to stone him.

The protective bubble got thinner and thinner, until Tangerina had seemingly stabilized its thickness. Keeping such a barrier indefinitely would have been possible thanks to the fact that magic regenerated; as long as, hypothetically, no catgirls decided to interfere with anything, then Tangerina could keep producing enough magic to keep the barrier running.

Unfortunately, Tangerina lived in an imperfect world where catgirls could and would interfere with her business.

“[Ayomide’s Special Dry Cleaning]!” With a special attack name she had invented approximately seven and a half minutes ago, Ayomide pointed her green gem towards the curs hiding behind their bubble. Then came forth a continuous gust of wind, not strong in terms of total force, but wide in area.

Kim and Tangerina were first confused as to why Ayomide was sending such a weak gust their way, for the wind seemed to have no value as an attack. Thankfully, the didn’t need to wait much to clear their confusion; unfortunately, their confusion was soon replaced with horror. The gust of wind was swiftly evaporating the water comprising the bubble, which didn’t help with its integrity. Ayomide had been the Chief Dryer (not an official title, yet) of Libertycave and a lot of her time had been spent in fierce battle with the slipping-and-sliding antics of pesky Lady Aqua (neither is this an official title, yet; nobody was planning on creating a cult based on such a personification of water, yet).

Tangerina tried her best to draw out her last remains of ye mystical magical power, but it was for naught. Naught it was, fraught she was, haught he was, caught in a pinch they both were. Pop! the bubble went, shattered like the Kim’s dream of smacking poor Watanabe in the face…

BANG!

BANG!

BOOM!

…or so it seemed, until Kim dissolved and undissolved ever closer with every shot taken by a combined force of Brown, Tubman and Rabanowicz. Dissolving into dust and being a nuisance seemed to be his thing. He was face-to-face with Watanabe now, so close that they could hear each other breath amidst the cacophony.

“[Flash Bang]!” Unfortunately, Ayomide was to be so rude as to interrupt a moment between these two men. She had anticipated that Kim would try to pull of a Hail Mary slay by approaching their line, and her gem had been raised at face-height towards the man trying to avenge his dollar-shaped pride.

Soon Kim’s vision was filled with light, the sort of light that made him feel like the Lord Himself had booked him an express ticket to kingdom come. “Thy kingdom come” as Brown and many other would utter in prayer; Kim’s kingdom came not as he crashed down to the wet mud below. His sense of balance was gone, he couldn’t see anything other than a black void, just cold, wet, disgusting mud as far as he could feel…

Kim’s ears were too busted at the moment to hear what happened next.

[Oh dear, you are dead!]