A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

…

Henry's fingers pulled at the triggers of his guns but then a tentacle made of water thrust out from behind Kayla as her body lifted about half a foot off the ground to accommodate the width of the tentacle.

It slapped Henry's wrists and while the physical pain was nulled by the shield still around his body, the tentacle still possessed enough force to slam Henry's guns aside so the bullets and slugs he fired struck the ground instead of Kayla's pretty face.

The tentacle struck Henry's chest next and forced him to slide back a few steps but he kept his eyes on Kayla who was now rising off the ground. There was a large blue spell circle behind her back and out of it thrust four more tentacles to join the one that had already appeared.

All five struck forward and wrapped around Henry before he had the chance to even get away and while they were unable to get past the shield still around his body, they constricted and slicked around his body in clear search for an opening.

"That shield can't possibly be active for much longer," Kayla said,

"Do you know how it feels to have your orifices filled with water that has taken form? I've never had it done to me but I assume it's extremely suffocating and leads to an excruciating death. It will be such a delight to watch."

Henry groaned with his arms pinned. How had he even let this happen? Had he really wasted enough time to let her retake advantage?

Henry was very aware that she outclassed him. It was so clear and he didn't need the analysis of <Insight> to know it, so ending her when he had the chance was the only shot he had had and he failed.

With his arms pinned, he couldn't even use the weight increase of 'Cudgel' to break the tentacles apart, and the only reason she hadn't suffocated him to death as she so proudly claimed she would was because his shield outclassed her Magical attack prowess.

And then, as Henry wracked his brain for a way out, and as the seconds ticked down for the shield to inevitably get deactivated, he saw the spell circle behind Kayla. It still glowed a dull blue as it facilitated the tentacles' existence.

'Huh, that could work.' He thought to himself.

Throughout his encounter with Kayla, Henry hadn't analyzed any of her spells because they were always flying at him way too fast fit him to take notice of the spell circle or seal creation motions that had been used to cast them. The only spell that had remained stable enough to be analyzed was her water shield and its spell circle/cast process was also always either too fast or hidden.

But these tentacles were different. Their spell circle remained so clearly behind Kayla and while the view was partial, Henry wondered if <Insight> could still work.

[Activating <Insight Lv.3>…]

[Analyzing Spell…]

[0:08]

[0:07]

[0:06]

"Come on," Henry groaned to the analysis that was still taking place on the screen in front of him, and with five seconds left on the shield, he considered reaching out to Nyx who he hoped was alright as he had ignored a notification of her losing some Hit Points earlier.

[Spell Analysis Complete!]

"Yes!" Henry yelled out knowing the system only ever said that when a replication was possible.

[Spell: Extra Arms]

[Would you like to Imprint 'Extra Arms' onto your ~Arcane Tapestry~?]

'Yes!'

[Choose a spot…]

A description of the spell appeared and while Henry was too distressed to pay attention to its details, he saw that its representation on the representative body presented on a screen by the system was so large that there were only certain parts of his body he could imprint it.

Plus, something about the design made him far more interested in keeping it somewhere he wouldn't have to see it often until the 'Shocking Grip' spell he had on the back of his hand.

He chose his back.

"Ack!" He let out in pain. He had expected pain as that had been the case with 'Shocking Grip' but this was at least four times worse than back then.

The shield deactivated then and the water tentacles wrapped around Henry to create some kind of cocoon as every opening on his face became flooded with water.

His mask didn't keep the water away. If anything, the mask trapped whatever water that got it. It was like being waterboarded and Henry knew this because he had been tortured with such a technique in his past life.

His knees wobbled and his grip on his guns slacked.

'Hurry the fuck up!' He yelled at the ongoing imprint but it just continued at the same pace while delivering its stinging pain still. Henry remembered 'Shocking Grip' had taken fifteen seconds to complete and he did not think he'd last that long.

Kayla watched with a sadistic grin on her face. She had a hand over her shoulder wound. Whether or not she could heal it, she didn't try. It didn't trouble her wound to control her tentacles and to watch her victim's life get squeezed out of him was so satisfying that the pain was nothing.

Through the water around his face, Henry could see her face.
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'What a sicko!'

And then the pain on his back ended.

Underneath Henry's vest and on his fairly muscled back was a depiction of a Spell circle but replacing the Arcane symbols were the words 'Extra Arms' which were written in a script that might as well be as ancient as Arcane Symbols.

From the center of the spell circle thrust out five tentacles that started out by joined tight together before spreading out and then extending an inch each from the outer border of the spell circle. It almost looked horrid. Like the rise of a sea creature from the ocean's deep depths.

But the imprint was complete. And before he passed out, Henry reached out to it to cast it the same way he had cast 'Shocking Grip' multiple times.

Extra Arms!

Henry felt it as more than half of his Mana points were instantly consumed to conjure the tentacles whose description, while almost macabre, looked cool in reality. It was a shimmering water-blue color. The exact same as Kayla's which meant Henry would likely have appreciated their beauty had they not been squeezing the life out of him.

Speaking of which;

Kayla paused her sadistically delighted expression to widen her eyes at what was happening. Her enemy had finally succumbed and was on his knees but now on his back, was a massive spell circle to match hers and out of it was extending tentacles to match hers.

Henry could feel each of his 'Extra arms'. They felt so much like an extension of himself that extending them to do his bidding was quite easy. And what he decided to do was pretty obvious; He thrust all five arms away from himself to slam into Kayla's chest.

*BAM!*

The impact was powerful and Kayla's eyes only widened further as she was struck and sent flying at least six feet away from where she had been. She got too far and her tentacles detached so the part that was around Henry turned into ordinary water that splashed down onto the ground where they melted quickly into harmless mana wisps.

*GASP!*

Henry took a deep breath first and, as though he'd only now realized there was a lot of water inside him, he stopped short and began to cough. Spewing a lot of it out.

He resisted whatever discomfort came next and turned his sights toward Kayla who was already back on her feet. Her broken tentacles had recovered and she watched Henry with incredulous eyes.

"How—?" She asked in a voice that sounded stunned at the same time so shrill that it hit Henry's ears.

He smiled in response to taunt her and remembered he was wearing a mask so she wouldn't see it.

"You're a Mage?" Kayla asked and then shook her head. The masked Gunman simply being a Mage would made more sense than this.

Magic has rules. A Spell requires words or gestures to be cast but Kayla had mastered her known spells so well that the ones that require spell words, she could cast with whispers and sometimes nonverbally. I.e. reciting the spell in her head.

The ones that require forming seals, she had mastered incorporating the seals into everyday actions and gestures with her fingers so they'd go unnoticed by even the most trained eye. It was how she could dish out spells so fast.

Even the ones that required long chants or long casting time like the water-blast she had first used to attack these bastards, she had done by keeping most of the spell recited in her head to be completed the moment she needed the spell cast.

It had taken years of deliberate practice to be that capable. She had chosen complicated spells to especially keep what she knew from being snatched by enemies she would face.

And yet… A masked man armed with guns replicated one of her most complicated spells and appeared already so capable of casting it while she was squeezing the life out of him and suffocating him with water.

What sort of talent—?

No, not talent… It had to be a trick!

So… What sort of trickery is this?!