American Isekai - Chapter 122 (Patreon)

“Is there anything else I should be prepared for? Any more surprises like fire magic?”

“That wasn’t magic. And yes, I suppose I should discuss something with you. Later though.”

The Puppet Master came to me in a staging room just for me. Umara was sill in the medical room recovering. As for me, I hadn’t expended much while cooking Ravon.

However, cooking my enemies with fire was the elast of my worries. Something like that was easy to use against knights since they wouldn’t just keel over.

However, even I wasn’t sure about some of the effects my other weapons would have.

World War 2 was a time of extensive weapons engineering of all types. I had to make sure that I wouldn’t accidentally kill a knight assuming they could survive some things.

But that would come later when it was time to use such weapons. For now, I was pretty sure I’d need to handle things conventionally.

The Puppet Master sighed.

“Ravon’s armor wasn’t prepared to handle the elements since you shouldn’t be able to use them. You got lucky, but now that they know, the won’t make the same mistake. Assume that every knight and warlock from here on out will be prepared against your fire.”

“Obviously. I was thinking about saving it for later but I was curious as to how effective it’d be. Turns out, it’s just as good as everything else in my arsenal.”

“Yes, it was quite shockingly good. It has no mana so it can’t be so easily blocked even by elemental defenses. And it was also armed with your Psyka which enhances it’s efficacy. The synergy was almost too good, and Ravon crumbled despite being on the tougher end of Authority 6. Whatever dimension, whatever world, continues to feed you those weapons was obiously extremely good at making them. I can’t imagine the kind of place it was.”

“Yeah, it’s a real headscratcher.”

I smirked a bit. If only I could show him how much worse it was than what’s in his mind.

My thoughts on the wars were irrelevant to the wars themselves. The weapons created were designed to kill as many people as possible with the greatest efficiency while breaking down any and all barriers that attempted to stop them from doing so. Such developments into modernity were ceaseless and exponential, making them as amazing as they were horrifying.

Now, I was the beneficiary of that world, utilizing these weapons in another world, my only backing being the power of Psyka that enhanced their attributes and made them effective against the barrier known as magic.

When those barriers were broken down, they would unleash the same horror they did on every other earthling through history that had to face them.

And I had to admit. I was having some fun.

It was all amplified by the fact that I was already kicking the ass of the goons they were sending to try and kill me. I couldn’t possibly have remorse for killing any of them, let alone letting them off with some wounds.

There were still four more ahead of me before Ponteck though. I could have all the fun I wanted but I still needed to be efficient. I had to incapacitate all of them while preserving enough energy to win the final battle.

It would be done, but it would be difficult.

I looked over at Maxwell.

“Would you happen ot have anything that can give me energy if I need it?”

“I would. It comes with backlash though.”

“Anything permanent?”

“...No.”

“Then I don’t care. I may be coming to you later.”

“I never agreed.”

He rebutted as I walked to the door. It was time for the next battle.

I didn’t respond, heading out and up to the arena.

The warlock who stood before me was geared in thick robes and a hood. I didn’t know their name, and didn’t care to listen to it as it was announced.

They would be gone before long anyway.

I equipped my hood and pulled down my glove, getting comfortable before the judges hand went down.

Right then, the Browning A5 appearedf in my hands as I took aim. A few spells were sent my way, all of them of the fire variety.

I simply let off a few rounds of birdshot, each of the fireballs exploding after losing their integral formation.

The opposing mage was stunned for a bit. In that time, I swapped the shotgun for my StG, letting off a barrage at the warlock.

The bullets were minimally empowered when they collided with the barrier, and none of the did noticeable damage. So I continuously added more until I saw reactions.

The last few rounds in the magazine were empowered to the max, three of them outright shattering the barrier and catching the warlock off guard.

That’s when I took out the M1 Garand, lining up for a quick shot that pierced through their leg.

“Ahh!!”

His scream came out for a moment. That shot was fully empowered as well, so although the robes had some defensive measures, it didn’t matter.

Right after that, the barrier came back up. But it was unsteady, so I just used another magazine to shatter it for good before putting a few more holes into the warlock’s legs.

When he couldn’t stand, I lowered my gun and looked at the judge.

The judge glanced between me and my opponent, not immediately calling the battle even though it was pretty obvious I had won.

It didn’t matter though. I just stood there as the warlock continued to suffer the agony of bleeding gunshots to the legs. There was already an increasing pool of blood on the floor.

Still, it took almost 2 minutes for the judge to call it.

“The winner is John Cooper. Next battle will be in 30 minutes.”

“Finally.”

I sighed and walked off back to my private staging room.

Maxwell muttered when I entered.

“You know why they’re waiting?”

“Yeah, because they want to give my enemies more time to try and wear me down. I can’t just point a gun at them and expect to deliver the same message of dominance as if I were holding a sword.”

“Mm. That, and they want Ponteck to have more time to rest. The Puppet Master told me his status. He lost a significant amount of blood and they’re feeding him a bunch of medicine. He’ll recover significantly within the next few hours, but at the very least, he shouldn’t be 100%. You just need to preserve your energy and use the opportunity your girlfriend gave you.”

“I will. How is she anyway?”

“She’s fine. She just ran through every ounce of mana she had. Given an hour she’ll be lucid enough to watch.”

“Good.”

“Focus on recovering. That means clearing your mind.”

“Like meditation?”

“Yes. Just relax. Sleeping if you’re able would be good as well.”

“Hm.”

I nodded, and right then, Maxwell spawned an entire couch.

My brows raised.

“For me?”

“No, for my dog.”

“Hey, I’m not your dog.”

“I didn’t… Nevermind. Just sit.”

He waved me off, making me chuckle as I plopped down on the couch.

It was plush, it cradled my butt, and it smelled nice. I kicked my feet up and heard a scoff.

“Boots off my couch.”

“Fine, fine.”

I rolled my eyes and slipped the boots off. Couldn’t he just get it cleaned with some magic? This couch probably had a self cleaning function anyway.

After that, I got comfy and closed my eyes. With the control over my thoughts the Spark gave me, it was fairly easy to blank out and doze off.

However, I didn’t have long. After a 20 minute power nap, I fel my mind get poked.

“Get up. Next battle is here.”

“Hmm…”

I yawned and climbed off the couch, slipping my boots back on and heading out the door. My yawning continued as I stepped onto the arena. The next opponent was a knight, a girl a head shorter than me.

This girl was supposed to be a precursor to Ponteck. Her name was Kevala and wore armor that was particularly intricate.

She wielded a spear, but interestingly, also had a whip coiled around her waist. I noticed the bladed tassel on the end.

Worse than all that though is how threatening she felt. I was quick to sober up when I felt the snake-like gaze on me.

And perhaps another detail I was curious about was how I couldn’t remember her name from the Elite leaderboard. I remembered them all, courtesy of my enhanced memory, and she wasn’t on there.

Which meant she wasn’t good enough to be on it, or the more likely explanation, she didn’t care to compete for a position.

Perhaps she just never went on the expeditions, training on her own in whatever way her family insisted. Regardless, she caused my neck to tingle, and not in the sexy way Umara did.

I tilted my head.

“I’ve never seen you around before. Too good for the Magisteirum excursions?”

“Something like that. I wouldn't be here if it weren’t a special request. And even besides that, I was curious.”

“Man, they must want to kill me pretty bad if they’re bringing you out. Just forewarning you though, I’m not into the whipping or bondage stuff like that.”

“...Like what?”

“You know. Spanky spanky?”

I made some whipping motions and sound effects, getting confused silence in response. Then, the judge's hand went down.

“Battle start!”

“I had a girl convince me to try it without realizing that she wanted to tie me to the bed. It took spanking her ass red to finally get her to-”

“S-Shut up!”

She charged at me in interuption, making me laugh a bit as my hood wrapped over my head.

This time, I didn’t bring out a flamethrower. It would be useless. I could sense the mana around her armor. It probably wouldn’t even make her sweat.

So I took out a Lewis Gun and started unloading.

The pan on top of the gun rotated with a mechanical click as every round fired. Kevala was pelted with lead.

However, some of the bullets actually richocheted off her armor, while most didn’t do any noticeable damage. They were moderately empowered so it was surprising.

I started kiting as she continued forward. She wasn’t incredibly fast, not like Feiden. So it was pretty easy to keep my distance with the pressure of my machine gun.

However, eventually the pan went dry, and she took the opportunity to charge forward.

An StG appeared in my hands the next moment, fully empowered shots emptying into her chest. This time, I saw sparks fly as they managed to pierce the metal. However, the effects seemed minimal. They probably couldn’t break much further past her skin.

She completely disregarded them and stabbed out with her spear. Just then, I felt y Aura scream at me.

So I made a split second decision and spread my Aura.

A clone appeared, taking my place as I ducked out of the way. We both barely dodged before sprinting off in different directions.

She looked between us for a few seconds, not able to decide. And then, she shot toward the wrong me.

I kept my face neutral even though I wanted to laugh. My clone continued to run as I took out my M1 Garand.

I my eyes zoomed in through the iron sights, finding a gap between the helmet and collar piece of Kevala’s armor.

And I stuffed my gun so full of Psyka that she actually turned around toward me.

I fired before she could react.

The gun exploded with even more force than normal, blood blooming from her collar as it peirced through the leather underneath her armor and flesh.

She buckled for a second before dropping her spear and grabbing her whip.

I watched as it snaked around with her arm, continuing to fire but not being able to hit any significant shots.

Then, the whip was flung and shot toward me like a bullet. I created another clone, dodging a bit and letting the whip fly past me.

It cracked right where my body was, letting off a sound no less explosive then my bullet. There was even a shockwave, making me realize that I would get turned to paste if that thing hit me.

Still, I was calm. I also decided to change tactics.

My Psyka was draining and I needed some time to recuperate that they probaby wouldn’t give me. So I let Kevala try to hit me a few times before realizing that she couldn’t do much to take energy out of me.

So I just let her do some target practice, using small bursts of illusions to throw her off and save me energy on dodging.

That continued for a minute or so. I thought I could continue like that for a while since she couldn’t seem to hit me.

But then, she shot forward while slashing her whip out horizontally, The whip’s length hit my shoulder and threatened to wrap around me.

But with some agility and time dilation, I was able to duck around and let the whip slide off me. In that time though, Kelava closed the distance.

I generated a clone, but she actually chose right and came after me. The clone disappeared as I started dodging, getting into a worst case situation.

She took out some knives and tried to do slash or stab down at me. Occasionally one of my clones would distract her enough to dodge, letting me create some distance.

But it was clear that I wasn’t getting away. Even taking out the machine gun and pleting her again didn’t deter her. She still came at me like nothing could hurt her.

Gradually, the threat Is tarted to feel grew. So in order to stifle her momentum, I brought out another gas mask, different from the one I used with the flamethrower.

I took a moment to throw that on. Then I took out a grenade and loaded it with Psyka.

I dropped it as she lunged at me, turning and jumping away just as it exploded.

The shockwave washed over me, but I was unharmed as the coat blocked just about everything.

It shocked Kevala too. She was several meters away, catching herself.

We looked at each other, and then, I took out another canister.

I sighed, tightening up my coat a bit.

“Let’s see how this works.”

I activated the large canister with those words before tossing it out towards her.

She naturally backed away as yellowish vapor started spewing from the canister.

I tossed out a few more in her direction, pelting the entire area in the most feared chemical agent of Earth’s history.

“Mustard Gas is quite the fitting name, isn’t it? Although I don’t think you guys have mustard here.”

“What is…”

Kevala rushed around, but was eventually enveloped. I also continued to shoot her in order to keep her away, and I suppose she decided to test her luck inside the gas cloud.

That turned out to be her biggest mistake.

I backed away to a corner of the arena where the gas hadn’t spread, staying as far away from it as I could. As I did so, I heard whimpers and muffled cries.

The gas was contained by the invisible protective barrier around the arena, so she had nowhere to go to escape it.

Unless she wanted to lose of course. I watched her fainitly within the gas as she scrambled around, even bringing out some water and dousing herself with it.

Of course, nothing worked. And after a few screams, she threw herself off the arena, ripping off her helmet and armor.

I looked over and saw her bare arms, reddening skin and forming blisters already effecting her. She looked like she was choking on her own throat. She was also rubbing her eyes, yet couldn't cry out as the gas messed with every orifice on her face.

I looked at the judge.

“Call the match! She ran off the arena!”

“...The winner is John Cooper.”

“Good. Puppet Master!”

I called and ran off the arena, escaping the gas as the Puppet Master appeared by my side.

“What did you do now?”

“She’ll probably be fine. It’s a poison that causes blisters and irritation.”

“Do you have an antidote?”

“Of course not. You guys can treat poisons, right? Besides, she’s a knight. It won’t be as horrible as it would with a normal person. Also, if you can, I would try to contain all that gas in the arena. If you disperse it, some spectators might get affected. It likes to linger.”

“My god. What the hell did you leave me with,,,”

She sighed as I walked off. It was no longer my issue so long as Kevala wasn’t weaker than she looked.

I walked back to my private room as the Puppet Master started to gather warlocks to contain the gas.

Maxwell looked me dead in the eye.

“What the hell was that?”

“A poison gas. Not as deadly as it is extremely painful.”

“I saw you staying away from it. I’ve never seen someone so afraid of their own weapon.”

“You’ve also never seen a weapon like that. You don’t know what it’s capable of. I do. So I respect the weapons I use. I know that all of them could kill me even easier than they do anything else. That’s not fear.”

“Mm.”

He nodded as I sat down.

After some silence, I smiled.

“Looks like it was quite effective. I just can’t use that one against Ponteck now. I would end up hurting myself.”

“Do you have another card like that to play?”

“No, nothing so exotic. I’m preserving my energy, like you said. Now, I only need to face one more warlock before fighting Ponteck.”

“If you let that battle drag, you may be screwed.”

“So I’ll start by going all out. A blitzkrieg, as we call it where I’m from. Maybe the shock and awe will give me the edge I need.”

I rubbed my chin while laying down to take another nap.

“Wake me when it’s time.”

“Mm.”

I heard a hum before closing my eyes, falling into a half sleeping state.

It was almost time for the finale.