Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

Then, he shouted towards Karelin, “I’ll accept your proposal. However! If you lose this one-on-one fight, all the giant forces must retreat immediately, and you must take responsibility and arrange a negotiation between me and the President!”

It wasn’t simply because he succumbed to Karelin’s provocation. It was the only way to end the 100-day war before the 100th day. To receive the President’s agreement, Leeha needed to ‘completely’ overpower Karelin.

Karelin’s expression slowly twisted upon hearing Leeha’s declaration.

“You’ll regret those words.”

“You know that the one who wins the final bout is the real winner, even if they lost the previous two?”

Leeha, too, retorted and lifted the Black Bass.

He shot real bullets at Karelin, who was charging like a bullet. Karelin tackled in a light fighting stance, naturally catching the bullets with his outstretched hands. This wasn’t surprising to Leeha, as he had experienced this several times before.

“You got it!”

“You can do it, Karelin-nim!”

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“Damn it, what happens to our quest now?”

Giant users began to gather around Karelin. They, too, perceived how the situation was unfolding. If even Karelin lost to Leeha in a one-on-one duel, no giant here could defeat Leeha in a fair fight.

Even though countless giants had been killed, there were still over ten thousand troops. However, those gathered here were already demoralized.

Could they charge together with united strength? If that was possible, they wouldn’t have gathered under Karelin’s command.

The fear of the White Reaper’s attack restarting at any moment. And Karelin, considered the strongest among the giants here, engaging in a one-on-one duel.

These two factors suppressed their actions. Karelin, having created this atmosphere, could focus on facing Leeha without getting ambushed.

During this time, Leeha shot three rounds, but Karelin caught them all. He even had the leisure to flick the caught bullets back at Leeha.

“I’ve faced you multiple times. I’ve roughly grasped Leeha’s skills now. The monstrous unknown from the beginning has vanished. But somewhere, there will be a defensive or biological item.

As long as I’m cautious of that. And if the dragon doesn’t intervene.

‘I’ll win the one-on-one!’

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Karelin charged with more force.

Now, the straight distance was less than 100 meters, yet Leeha continued to repeatedly shoot his gun.

“It’s done! Soon, Karelin will be within attack range!”

“Once he’s caught, it’s over! He’ll die instantly without any resistance!”

Giant users quietly cheered. Knowing their position, they couldn’t shout, but their eyes were fixed on Karelin and Leeha.

Karelin was no different; he had fought twice and won twice with the same pattern.

“Wildly flying bullets! As long as I’m careful of those, I can win!”

Even as the distance narrowed to within 50 meters, Leeha showed no signs of moving. He mechanically pulled the trigger and fired repeatedly.

Karelin’s lips moved slightly. There was no doubt Leeha was a formidable user. He surely had powerful attack skills and abilities.

But Leeha should have avoided this match.

“He probably thought he had won, but that arrogance will be his downfall-”

Karelin looked at Leeha. Leeha was holding the Black Bass. But the way he supported it was different from holding it with his left hand and pulling the trigger with his right.

The Black Bass was supported by a stabilizer protruding from Leeha’s waist. And the trigger was pulled with his left hand. Then what about his right hand?!

‘Whoosh!’

Karelin caught the bullet flying at him.

‘-So?!’

No, what he caught wasn’t a bullet.

“What- This is?”

A black-bladed dagger. Karelin gripped its blade, feeling a sharp pain in his cut palm.

『All mana have dissipated.』

Leeha lured, lured, and lured Karelin. He tediously showed and re-showed the same pattern. For this one shot.

“Hoo, to push a wrestler’s technique to the extreme and turn the skill into … that’s really impressive. I didn’t even know something like ‘Absolute Judgment’ existed.”

Clunk!

“But without it, this is the end, Karelin. Don’t move.”

Karelin’s steps came to a complete halt. Leeha slowly backed away, increasing the distance between them.

“If you move, I’ll shoot.”

“What nonsense-”

Karelin charged.

However, when he grabbed the dagger thrown by Leeha, perceiving it as an ‘attack’, his mana reached 0, disabling his skills.

Seeing him now moving significantly slower, Leeha lowered his gun a bit.

Boom!

“Arghhh!”

The bullet pierced between Karelin’s ankle and calf, causing his body to collapse. Rolling once on the ground, the ranked 12th wrestler , a famous user and a member of the Shazrashian Federation’s government, spat out blood-like words.

“This is ridiculous! If I had just caught you- if I could only catch you!”

Karelin flailed, reaching out his hand. The giant users found it hard to even watch this scene. Leeha also furrowed his brow slightly and spoke to him. It was a pitiful struggle.

“Karelin, that’s not the right direction.”

“-Damn.”

This was why the giants could no longer bear to watch Karelin. He was reaching out in a direction away from where Leeha stood.

As it was Middle Earth, where immediate death or critical hit judgments existed, the damage varied depending on the hit location.

Just as Kijung excelled with his ‘tanking’ stance, there were specific areas that had to be effectively hit.

And the lower calf area was typically a spot where damage was halved.

“One hit…”

“That too, to the leg.”

“Has his vision been blocked?”

One shot aimed at that spot turned Karelin’s vision completely red. So much so that he might have lost almost all his HP points, making it impossible to see ahead and bringing him close to death.

The morale of the giants, who were expecting either an evenly matched fight between Karelin and Leeha or Karelin’s overwhelming victory, plummeted to zero and beyond.

The White Reaper watched this scene with a smile.

“Hoo, hoo… It succeeded.”

Leeha was smiling but it was a complete façade. However, it wasn’t because he was nervous due to the gamble of this battle.

Facing the ‘King Kong’ that charged ignorantly despite knowing the strategy itself was nerve-wracking.

‘You shouldn’t have chased me during the second fight.’

The uneasiness Leeha felt from Karelin was during the second duel. Leeha saw Karelin’s unnecessary movements towards the multi-warhead shot.

Even though he caught the bullet, he still acted unnaturally towards trees and bushes.

“If he had to any attack within a certain range against his will, and not completely nullify the damage but take part of it… that assumption turned out to be true with Ram Hwayeon’s information.

When Leeha heard the second job change news of Ram Hwajung, he requested all information about Karelin from Ram Hwayeon. And since Karelin’s skills were relatively well-known among the rankers, that information immediately reached my ears.

“The ‘Grab’ skill for any attack within range. How can a human react to the speed of a bullet?

Of course, he can’t.

The Middle Earth system guided Karelin’s body to move that way. Although he had a feature to ‘grab’ every attack, he couldn’t control his body himself. After obtaining that information, Leeha could study the strategy against Karelin.

He must have trained extensively to achieve ‘Absolute Judgment’. But ultimately, if it’s a skill, it can’t escape the influence of mana.

Just like how practicing sniping a hundred thousand days on end wouldn’t allow Leeha to use a curve shot without mana.

Leeha rummaged through his bag, took out a healing potion, and handed it to Karelin.

“Take this.”

“… I don’t need your pity.”

“Huh? Oh no, not pity. You need to take responsibility. Drink this, regain your strength, and lead the giants back. You also need to arrange a negotiation with the President. There’s a lot you need to do; if you stay like that, it’ll trouble me. Hehe.”

Karelin turned his head towards the direction of the voice. Leeha clearly saw the face of a completely stunned King Kong.

“To say that now… I feel like snapping your neck. If you would allow it-”

“No matter what I say, I believe you wouldn’t act irresponsibly. Quickly drink it.”

Leeha didn’t make this decision thoughtlessly. Although it’s a nation without a hierarchical system, there’s no place like the Shazrashian Federation that values honor and status.

Karelin, holding a significant position there, wouldn’t charge after the duel ended, or so Leeha thought.

Above all, it was possible because neither Leeha nor Karelin genuinely hated or resented each other.

Karelin angrily gripped the potion’s neck and downed it. The anger was evident to Leeha, but Karelin was still an adult.

“From this moment, the quest is over! Responsibility for the clean-up will be handled by me, Karelin, through a meeting with His Excellency the President. All users and knights, please return. The post-management of this place will be handled by Hamina Castle.”

Karelin shouted this to the giants, then turned back to face Leeha.

“Is it over now?”

“There are still some final discussions left, but it’s pretty much over.”

“I hope we don’t see each other as enemies next time.”

Karelin gave a bitter smile. Leeha nodded vigorously.

“Same here. Oh by the way, as I mentioned before, could you help me later with the Shazrashian public affairs tasks?”

“Is that something you say to someone with a mountain of things to do?”

“What’s good for me is good for everyone! I’ll help you too, Karelin!”

Leeha smiled and gently patted Karelin’s body. Karelin exhaled a sigh and shook his head. However, a few moments later, a positive hologram window appeared before Leeha’s eyes.

“Then I’ll return first. I’ll notify you once I’m ready.”

“Okay. Thanks. Now that we are ‘friends’, don’t think about running away. Haha.”

Karelin was the one who initiated the friend request to Leeha first. He soon used a teleporting orb to return to Shazrashian’s capital.

“Now… Giants? It’s time for all of you to leave.”

Whoosh!

Blaugrunn approached Leeha in his round. He lifted both Leeha and the White Reaper into the air.

“I’ll give you 15 seconds. I won’t take responsibility for those who remain here afterward~!”

As Leeha thrust the Black Bass forward, a bright white light started converging on it.

“Oh no! The White Reaper- It’s his skill!”

“Run! It’s that skill from the Human Flesh Hunter! Run!”

Giant users and even the NPCs hurriedly took out their orbs and began fleeing. During the time it took for the orbs to activate, they looked anxiously at Leeha. The increasingly bright white light appeared ready to shoot at them any moment.

“Hurry! Why is this damn orb so slow!?”

“It’s growing! It’s growing! It’s-”

Simultaneously, pale blue lights sparkled from all directions.

Leeha used to check again for any hidden users or NPCs.

“None. Alright. You can remove the now.”

“Seriously… You only call me for these strange tricks. At least tell me the reason.”

Blaugrunn grumbled. The white light gathering in front of the Black Bass was merely Blaugrunn’s magic.

However, the giants, who were terrified and scarred by the white light, had no leisure to distinguish it.

『Hahaha! That was a funny trick!』

“Shimo-nim, you recognized it, right?”

『Of course. Just like when you summoned a bear clad in the Fire Spirit’s aura and when you put glasses on a being with the Water Spirit’s energy, I saw all of it.』

“W-What? You can see all of that? Not just the wind?”

Leeha’s eyes widened. At that time, when he planned to use a double decoy, he had already been seen through entirely.

‘That explains it! Not aiming at Bahamut, and not being fooled by the spyglass… it’s all because he can see beyond the substance-‘

While Leeha marveled, the White Reaper’s lips curved into a gentle smile.