A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

The Orcs had all fallen now and everyone's attention was on Marla who drew her sword back and struck the semi-Sphere a third time.

"Yeah, go Marla!!!" Yelled a male mercenary in her group.

Boyle shoved past him and stepped closer to Marla to ask with his eyes furrowed,

"What are you doing?"

The question was a bit foolish. It was obvious what Marla was doing. But also, Boyle's question was not to actually know what she was doing, but just a way to draw her attention and interrupt her next swing. He was getting a really bad feeling.

Marla ignored him. Her lips were stretched into a grin as she continued to strike the Semi-Sphere, weakening its structural integrity with each impactful contact.

Boyle took another step forward and the Mercenary he had shoved aside earlier went to stand in front of him with his arms spread.

"Stop moving old man," he said with a glower.

"Old?" Boyle repeated almost amused. They looked the same age even though that was not likely the case.

The rest of Marla's group stepped forward too. Some were injured and winced even as they raised their weapons but still, they managed to look intimidating enough.

"It's ours," the Male Mercenary said.

"Are you sure you should be breaking it?" Boyle asked but none of them answered so he looked at Eloise whose eyes were wide and wasn't sure what to say.

And then…

*CRACK!!!*

… The splintering of the Semi-Sphere resounded all over the field and, for the first time in a while, Marla stopped swinging her sword. The splintering continued until the entire structure was covered in cracks and then…

*BANG!*

… It exploded into a thick cloud of red mist.

At first, there was silence while Marla watched and waited for the cloud to clear away so she could see her prize much more clearly but suddenly a loud screeching noise filled the air and creatures floated out of the red cloud.

The creatures were immediately identifiable as spirits. For one, their bodies were almost translucently red and their mouths were gorily stretched wide to release a continuous screeching that Henry had a strong feeling was the only type of sound they could make.

Marla, closest to them, leaped back but one of the red spirits came at her still so she made a wide swing with her sword and it passed clean through the spirit right before it slammed into her body.

She rose for a second and then turned around with red glowing eyes as she opened her mouth and let out a screech similar to that of the Red spirit that just possessed her and charged at Eloise.

Eloise raised her sword quickly in defense but when Marla's sword struck her own, the force sent her flying while her eyes widened in shock at the strength the Mercenary possessed.

Eloise wondered if the red spirit was empowering Marla but somehow, almost immediately she had that thought, she just knew that wasn't the case. This was Marla's strength. She just hadn't seen fit to use it to the extreme until now.

The red spirit was making the Mercenary use the full extent of her abilities for malice and interestingly, Eloise wasn't sure Marla even needed to be pushed too much to turn her weapon on her. She was after all, very defensive of that loot she was after. The 'loot' that caused all this.

Anyway, while Eloise was still in the air, Marla dashed and was suddenly swinging a kick at her side. It connected and sent her at least ten feet away where she slammed against a tree trunk.

"Ack!" Eloise groaned but her eyes opened wide when Marla came at her from above with a powerful swing. Right before the Mercenary's sword got too close for comfort, Eloise stretched a hand forward and cast a magical beam attack that struck Marla square in the chest and sent her crash-landing many feet away.

Eloise got back to her feet then and charged to follow up when she heard a yell,

"Eloise, get her here!!!"

The yell came from Meryna the Cleric. The red spirits were causing havoc on the scene. Two other Mercenaries in Marla's group had been possessed as well as three Knights which caused pandemonium as the ones who had managed to avoid possession had to contend with the possessed as well as the spirits that still wanted their bodies.

Eloise found the request strange but by the time she was nearing Marla, the Mercenary was very alert. She had also unleashed her Mana surge that raged violently.

Eloise unleashed her Mana surge as well and channeled the righteous conviction of her oath. When their weapons clashed, she just managed to have enough strength to force a stalemate. For all of two seconds.

Marla shifted her stance and Eloise's eyes widened in sheer awe at how effective just a footwork change had been to turn things around. Suddenly, they were no longer in a stalemate. Rather, she was getting forced low.

Marla grinned, her red eyes flashing with malice that, again, Eloise couldn't completely discount as not being her own and being totally because of the possession.

Marla heaved Eloise's weapon away and caused her to stagger away right before she spun and struck a kick against the Mage Knight's armored stomach to send her flying.

Fortunately, Eloise learned from the last time this happened so, before the kick connected, she had wrapped a string of Mana around Marla's waist.
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"Huh?" Marla let out in surprise when she noticed the string and then she was yanked from the spot and pulled with Eloise while she flew in the air.

As she moved, Eloise remembered Meryna's words and conjured a platform of Mana to slam against and change her direction mid-air. At the same time, she yanked the string she had wrapped around Marla's waist, pulling the Mercenary closer.

Since they were in the air and Marla didn't have solid ground to enact her body mass against and ground herself, this was easy. At first, Marla thought to slice the string but then, she changed her mind. She stopped seeing the string as unwanted and rather wanted. It gave her a clear line of sight of Eloise and made it so the Mage Knight would not be able to escape the mana arc she planned to unleash.

But then they had arrived at their destination; About two feet away from Meryna and one other Cleric.

Marla struck out her Mana arc. Eloise met it with her sword blazing with the righteous conviction of her oath and although she did manage to slice the Mana arc attack in two, she was forced to slide two feet back. She dragged Marla along.

The Mercenary had just swung her sword and cut the string when she was wrapped in a silvery bubble that held her in place. Or more accurately, it held the red spirit controlling her in place.

The bubble condensed until it became like a second skin on Marla's body and then she raised her head and her eyes, red to signify her possession, were wide as she let out an angry screech that was clearly not her own but rather belonged to the red spirit trying to keep from being expelled.

It failed.

*SCREECH!!!*

With one final screech, the spirit pulled free of Marla's body and as she fell to the ground, it floated into the air seeking a new target. It never got the chance.

The second Cleric by Meryna's side had his hands in the position of a man pulling a bow. Only there was no bow. Just a bright silvery beam of light in front of the hand he had pulled back. When he let the hand go as though letting go of a string to let an arrow fly, a thin ray of silvery light was fired.

It hit the red spirit in the chest and spread its purifying light until the creature burst into a red mist that quickly enough, faded away as well.

It all happened within two seconds.

"Wow," Eloise said.

"Exorcism is kinda our thing," Meryna explained with a light smile, "Our 'attacks' work best against the immaterial."

"I'm impressed," Eloise said. She hadn't even thought of exorcising the spirit and had the fight continued, she feared she might have gone in the kill. Especially if Marla kept pushing her.

The Mercenary was stronger. Taking the time to think of a 'peaceful' resolution could have cost her.

Speaking of which;

"Ugh," Marla groaned finally stirring, "What happened?"

"You were possessed," Eloise said.

"Oh," Marla said sounding like the thought disgusted her.

"And you tried to kill me," Eloise continued.

"Oh," Marla said sounding happier like that was some bright side to all this.

Eloise rolled her eyes as she stretched her hand and helped her up.

"So you helped me how? Hit me hard enough to bring me back to my senses?" Marla asked with a small smile.

"They performed an Exorcism," Eloise said and pointed at Meryna and the other Cleric.

"They did?" Marla said sounding amazed.

"We did," Meryna reintegrated with a nod, "And we're trying to do the same for the others."

"The others—?" Marla said and turned around to see her fellow Mercenaries acting all rabid and striking at Knights who fought back against them with the intent to kill.

The same was the case for Mercenaries who had to fight possessed Knights. As stated earlier, it was pandemonium.