Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 467 Just keep shooting

"Why does it look like they are not in any kind of a hurry?"

Sitting down behind the improvised nest of the machine gun and with only the top of my head peeking out, I couldn't really get a proper look at the situation down the ramp.

In all honesty, though, there was no need for me to look out in the first place. Just with my aura sense, I could tell with quite a degree of precision where exactly on the ramp the crowd of invaders was at any given moment.

Still.

Between feeling it out and actually seeing it with my own, two eyes...

'I guess growing stronger comes with the hurdle of actually adapting myself to using this newfound strength of mine, huh?'

"Should we open fire?" one of the soldiers manning the gun asked, a sense of uncertainty hidden deep within his voice.

I lowered myself back behind the small, makeshift barricade of the gun's nest before taking a long, inquisitive look at the man.

Despite not bearing any life-threatening injuries, there were close to several tens of cuts all over his body, turning his once elegant, white-blue uniform into a bloody red rag. If not for the parts of shiny, metal armor that his blood simply didn't stick to, he would have enough of his own blood covering him to put any sane doctor into a state of panic.

In no way or form was this man in a shape to serve at the very front of the line of the defenders. If he served under Makary, he would have long since sent the man to the rear to recover...

But here, there were two reasons why the man not only continued to man the gun but also didn't seem to mind his role in the coming fight.

First, the situation at the fortress was desperate. The help of the machine gun only allowed them to stabilize their defenses... But nothing more. They couldn't bring it out to the field, not before regaining total control over the first level of the fortress and securing the weakest, outermost layer of walls.

Still, they were hopelessly outnumbered and already tapping into the reserves of weak, injured, and simply untrained soldiers. With that in mind, having a veteran, albeit heavily weakened and injured, was still the best the commander of this fortress could offer.

In the end, though, there was still the second point. A point that I've only recently started to notice now that I interacted with locals more than ever before.

And this man... No, all the men and women at the fortress, both the defenders and the attackers alike; they were all like wild beasts.

If born into the modern world, they would all excel in sports and hardly ever go to get themselves checked up at the doctor. All for the simple fact that those who were born with weak health, those who were born prone to sickness...

They would hardly if ever grow into adulthood. With no modern medicine and healthcare that allowed to eliminate the culling of weak elements that usually occurred in their early years, only those born with the strongest biology would survive into adulthood.

And just like that, the defenders of the fortress both could and didn't really have any other choice but to endure what would likely kill anyone weaker than them. Yet, between their powerful physiques and great determination... They endured.

Still, after several days of enduring like that, despite gaining all sorts of experience and seeing what a modern machine gun would do to a human body... The man still just couldn't help but feel nervous.

"If we had infinite shots, I would give you the order already," I replied harshly but with as kind of a voice as I could produce. "But at this distance... A twitch in your wrist and the shots will fly off only god knows where."

'Could it be the reason why they are...'

As if to prove my line of thought before I could fully formulate it, the very moment the front of the advancing unit of imperials reached the optimal shooting range, they all started to run.

"So they were saving their energy," I muttered to myself before reaching out with my hand to pat the shoulder of the soldier behind the machine gun.

"Sir, shouldn't we start shooting?"

The imperials were rushing ahead with all the strength they saved during their slow, initial approach. And even though they were already within the maximum optimal range...

"Hold on."

With only three crates of ammunition left and way more soldiers than that on the other side, every last pull of the trigger had to count. And while the enemy was now close enough for every bullet to claim at least one life...

"Hold!" I said in a stern voice, holding the soldier's shoulder as if to stop his arm from moving and thus his fingers from pressing the trigger down.

"But they are so close...!"

"Not yet," I ordered, fully retreating underneath the cover of the gun's nest.

If I allowed the enemy to spot me now, the entire plan that I hatched in the heat of the moment would go down the drain. And after winning the fearsome battle of convincing Fay to stay back and only intervene if things got really bad...

'I'm going to make the most out of this damned opportunity.'

The enemy was getting closer and closer. But it wasn't until they breached a hundred meters mark that I finally let go of the soldier's arm and nodded my head.

There was no need for me to say anything. Like a hound dog snapping at the very moment it sighted its prey, the soldier rose up from behind the cover, took aim...

And screams followed, mixing with the low-pitched growling of the mechanically silenced machine gun.

In an instant, the aura of the attacking crowd waned, as some souls started to vanish while others exploded under the influence of extreme pain caused by the ugly wounds.

The total, general aura of the crowd swirled...

And at that very moment, I finally felt it.

The total of seven auras that, now that the crowd's aura was no longer perfectly uniform, stood out.

"So it begins..." I muttered under my nose, gripping a simple knife with a broken-off blade in my left while holding a high-powered handgun in my right.

"What?" the soldier by the machine gun asked, not stopping his barrage even for a second.

"Nothing for you to be concerned about," I replied with a small smile as I felt the seven distinct auras rush ahead through the crowd. "Just keep shooting and leave the rest to me!"