Ch.202[Chapter 202] Sanctus Dominicus

Bang! The sound echoed across the hilltop.

Well, it was hard to tell if it truly echoed.

Perhaps it was just one of the many bombardments Sir Dominic had fired from below the hill that was mistaken for a gunshot.

Sir Dominic turned his head toward the direction of the gunshot.

Smoke was flowing from Jugashvili’s pistol.

It wasn’t a mistake.

Jugashvili’s gun had fired at least one shot.

“What are you doing?”

Sir Dominic shouted fiercely.

“Where did you shoot?”

Sir Dominic was unharmed.

So was Jugashvili.

Jugashvili took out a pipe from his inner pocket and put it in his mouth.

“Don’t worry.”

The smoke flowing from the pipe overlapped with the gunpowder smoke from the barrel.

“You don’t think I’d purge a capable… comrade like you.”

Jugashvili said calmly while stroking his mustache.

His demeanor was puzzling, as if he had either resigned himself to something or had some hidden confidence.

“Then why on earth did you fire your gun?”

Sir Dominic pressed Jugashvili.

The gun had been fired.

Since Jugashvili only fired his gun when using his special ability [Purge], Sir Dominic’s suspicion was natural.

“It’s my second special skill, Comrade.”

Jugashvili spoke as if understanding the suspicion was justified.

“As you know, Gacharland has more traits and special skills than there are people, and while they may be similar, no two are exactly the same.”

Jugashvili raised his gun.

The smoke had stopped, but the acrid smell of gunpowder still lingered.

“This is… what they call a starting cooldown. A skill that can only be used after some time has passed since the beginning.”

Jugashvili raised his gun toward the sky.

The barrel gleamed sharply as if threatening the sky.

And once again, a bullet was fired from the barrel.

Sir Dominic had been watching this from the beginning.

After firing the gun, Jugashvili raised his free hand and pointed to the sky.

Sir Dominic instinctively looked up in the direction of that finger.

Unlike the previous gunshot, there was a sound like air escaping from leather, and a red light flew into the sky.

“The first shot was a signal, Comrade. A signal made with sound.”

Jugashvili said to Sir Dominic, who was blankly staring at the red light.

“And five seconds later, I send another signal through visual means.”

The red light that had been flying skyward seemed to reach its peak and hesitated, no longer able to climb higher.

And just before falling back down, it exploded in mid-air with a bang!

A flare?

Sir Dominic thought.

“Now my turn is over, Comrade Dominic. The system just announced that we’ve been randomly relocated.”

Jugashvili smiled.

[Jugashvili has activated his hidden special ability, [●●●grad].]

[[●●●grad] is an unstable technology currently under development.]

[With the effect of [●●●grad], you can appear at any desired location on the battlefield as long as it’s out of enemy sight.]

[With the effect of [●●●grad], ‘current position’ has been designated as the random teleportation location.]

[With the effect of [●●●grad], the field of the current stage is changed to [Urban Warfare].]

[With the effect of [●●●grad], you can resurrect endlessly.]

[Warning! This stage does not allow resurrection-]

[With the effect of [●●●grad], the system window has been purged. Resurrection is approved for this time only.]

Sir Dominic stared at the endless system windows appearing in the sky.

Between the slowly dispersing sparks like fireworks, the system windows were indirectly showing Sir Dominic’s victory.

“…What a broken ability.”

Sir Dominic muttered.

A special ability that could ignore the system.

If Sir Dominic’s special abilities, [Standard-Bearer] and [Cinematic], were examples of simple strength, [●●●grad] seemed like the epitome of a broken special ability.

“It is indeed a broken skill, Comrade.”

Jugashvili grinned.

“But as I said earlier, it can only be used after a certain amount of time has passed.”

Jugashvili glanced at the watch on his wrist.

“Five minutes. 300 seconds. An unbearable wait for impatient people. Especially if cooldown reduction doesn’t apply.”

Sir Dominic tilted his head.

Sir Dominic was a tank with weak damage output, so even in duels he would use all 10 minutes and move on to judgment, and in the past Trom raid solo play, he had spent dozens of hours—he was a man of ‘slow’ tempo.

Because of this, the five minutes Jugashvili mentioned felt quite short.

However, he realized that five minutes could be plenty long for others.

Above all, this skill had no means of directly harming the enemy.

Thinking about it that way, this skill could be seen as having sufficient penalties.

With that thought, Sir Dominic nodded.

“Oh my. Is this the afterlife or the living world? With the clouded mind of a fallen monk, I cannot tell.”

“Jugashvili! At least warn us before you shoot, comrade!”

While Sir Dominic was lost in thought, Vacheslav and Gregory, who had died earlier, appeared from among the ruins of collapsed buildings on the hill.

Gregory, particularly displeased with Jugashvili’s actions, was expressing his complaints disguised as jokes with a sneer, while Vacheslav was grumbling, apparently feeling wronged about being executed so easily.

“Enough.”

Jugashvili said.

“Comrades. We have essentially won now.”

Jugashvili raised his head.

“So… let’s prepare the ceremony.”

Jugashvili looked at Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic met Jugashvili’s gaze with a puzzled expression.

“Ah, I can’t resist a ceremony. Good idea, comrade.”

Vacheslav agreed with Jugashvili’s ideology… no, his idea, as if it were a good one.

A ceremony was also good for raising one’s value.

…

“Damn. This wasn’t in the calculation.”

The Dragon Clan’s samurai struggled to calm his trembling legs as he rose, using his sword as a cane.

“!”

The Demon Lord stomped her feet in frustration behind the three-headed Chihuahua.

The samurai looked at the spot where the ronin had already collapsed and disappeared.

In that place was the Chief of Staff with a sword stuck in his stomach, who was staggering, apparently having taken considerable damage.

“You…!”

The Chief of Staff glared at where the ronin had disappeared with eyes full of burning anger.

But the ronin who should have received the Chief of Staff’s anger was no longer there.

The Chief of Staff, barely containing his unreasonable irritation, turned his head toward the samurai.

“How dare you interfere with the Demon Lord’s progress and land a hit on me. Quite impressive for a human.”

“Hmph. You should have accepted our alliance when we offered it.”

“You’ve got guts, samurai.”

“When you live by the sword, you need this much courage, old man.”

The samurai raised his sword tip toward the Chief of Staff, squeezing out his last strength.

“…Step aside, even now.”

The Chief of Staff said, anxiously checking the Demon Lord’s expression.

The Demon Lord was expressing her displeasure by puffing her cheeks like a squirrel with a mouth full of acorns.

Currently, there was only about 1-2 minutes left until Sir Dominic’s party achieved a point victory.

Even if they climbed the hill now, there was no guarantee they could win.

This meant that the Demon Lord would not obtain her rightful reward, the three-headed Chihuahua, and that the Demon Lord’s mood would be foul for the foreseeable future.

The Chief of Staff trembled at the thought of the Demon Lord’s anger.

Once Princess Teu Le Vante became angry, things would spiral out of control.

She would treat the Chief of Staff like a stranger for an entire week.

That absolutely cannot happen. With this thought, the Chief of Staff looked at the samurai with renewed determination.

The samurai was still maintaining his stance, glaring at the Chief of Staff.

His body was already at its limit, but he was holding on through sheer willpower.

“…We can’t delay any longer.”

The Chief of Staff said, secretly acknowledging the samurai’s spirit while feeling urgent.

“But we must go as quickly as possible.”

The Chief of Staff took out a squeaky hammer from his inventory.

A toy that deals no damage but stuns for about 0.1 seconds when hit.

“…Wasn’t this supposed to be a no-item battle?”

The samurai said incredulously.

A squeaky hammer in this sacred fight.

The samurai already knew the power of that squeaky hammer all too well.

While it was just a 0.1-second stun, in the samurai’s current state, that 0.1 seconds would be enough to put him in a completely groggy state.

“Samurai, you wouldn’t call this cowardly, would you?”

The Chief of Staff raised the squeaky hammer over his shoulder.

Then he threw the hammer at the samurai, who was still wearing an expression that said ‘this isn’t right.’

In an instant, the squeaky hammer flew toward the samurai’s face.

With a ‘boing!’ sound, the samurai’s consciousness went dark.

Waaaaaaaaaaaah!

Just before collapsing, the samurai thought he heard a siren sound from somewhere.

He watched with fading vision as the Demon Lord’s party ran up the hill that had become a forest of buildings.