Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

"...it's time." Ashton murmured.

He fastened his belt around him and looked at himself in the mirror. He's wearing a light armor that protected his vitals. Here's paddings on his joints and he's wearing a pair of enchanted boots that could protect him from the tormented soil.

He wearing the Cloak of Apparition on top of this while guns are holstered on his sides. He was looking ready to wage war.

Ashton felt a hand around his back. He saw Aria looking at him with a clear worry in her eyes. He gave her a reassuring smile and said:

"I'll be fine, don't you worry about me. I'm ready for this."

"I'm aware that you've trained for this but that doesn't really stop me from worrying." She stated, "Then again, I can't really stop you from doing this. Just remember that if things get dicey, do not hesitate to run away. I don't want to lose you."

Ashton turned around and encased her in a hug, he gave her a loving kiss and said: "You won't lose, I promise."

He pulled back, still giving her a reassuring smile, he nodded at her and said: "I'm off."

"Take care."

And with that, Ashton disappeared from the library and re-appeared at the underground bunker.

To think that this place remained undetected and uninfected is surprising for him. He didn't think that it will last this long but he's also not complaining.

Ashton took a deep breath and calmed himself. Admittedly, he's nervous. What he's going to do isn't a simulation anymore, it's the real deal. A single streak of carelessness might cost him his life so he has to be prepared and ready for anything.

Ashton took out his guns. He closed his eyes as he channeled his mana, casting a buff after another to himself.

With most of his spells reaching lv.20 and above, the buffs he applied to himself doesn't just only last for a long time but are also extremely potent as well.

His defense, strength, speeds, stamina, endurance, recovery, and perception were boosted. The potency of his attacks are increased, his presence were minimized, his footsteps were silenced, his guns are glowing with sheer power and his entire self looked threatening.

Once he had all buffs casted on himself, he took a step forward and his body seemingly stretched and turned transparent. He passed through the exit of the underground bunker without any noise nor difficulties. He's like a ghost who just appeared out of nowhere.

Upon stepping outside, Ashton immediately felt the dense killing intent in the air. He couldn't help but wince out of sheer disgust, this is something that that he never really gotten used to.

He continued to apparate until he found a hiding spot to survey the battlefield. His eyes swiftly roamed around as he marked the demons lurking around mentally.

It's also daytime by the way, the only time when Demons are slightly weakened. Even with all of his training, Ashton didn't dare to fight them in the middle of the night since that's just a death wish.

As soon as he began tallying the numbers of the demons, a plan immediately hatched in his brain.

From his observations, he saw at least 10 packs of Imps, 3 Crowfwthers and the Tormentor who had been here since day one.

​ That's a total of 124 Demons lurking around his vicinity. It is highly possible that this isn't all of them either since his perception is suppressed here.

Still, this is good enough. Right now, the Tormentor is the biggest problem that he intend to solve as early as he could. He'd be damned to let that thing devour the souls of other demons to make itself stronger.

The Crowfathers are a threat too, yes. But since he figured out a way to effectively counter them, they're not an immediate priority for him.

Over a hundred Imps though...now that sounds like something he didn't want to deal with. Alas, he had to or else he won't be going anywhere.

Ashton fused the guns, turning it into a sniper rifle. He perched from his hiding spot and aimed at the Tormentor's lantern.

'That thing needs to get out of here.' He mused to himself as his scope followed the lantern.

He took a deep breath and channeled his mana to the rifle. Using a Gunslinger skill, he stacked 10 casts of Arcane Missile to form a bullet, blessing it with Piercing Rounds and a Curve.

At the same time his exhale ended, he shot the bullet and streaked through the air so fast that nobody was able to follow it.

The Tormentor seemingly sensed the threat and held up the lantern to cast the barrier. Unfortunately, right as the bullet was about to hit the barrier. It curved at the latest time possible and swiftly flew around the area that is not covered by the barrier, landing squarely at the lantern and blasting it to pieces.

The winds howled along with the release of the souls trapped in there. The Tormentor released a guttural scream that alerted every demon within its vicinity, but before it could even search for the one responsible for blowing up its lantern, the Tormentor's head exploded into bits.

Next, it's body lit up with flames as it toppled down on the ground, twitching and burning.

The demons finally reacted with that and began looking around to search for the Tormentor's killer.

But once again, before they managed find him. Ashton was already firing more shots.

A single bullet streaked through the air, scattering into explosive salvo that rained down on the demons. It landed on the cluster of the Crowfathers and Imps.

The salvo was blessed with Purify and Warmth, making them no less than a White Phosphorous Salvo for the demons.

They cried out in agony as the burned and melted from it. The demons who were lucky to not get his are now seriously panicking and searching for the one responsible for all this.

They're failing, and that is because of Ashton's reduced presence. His buffs were seriously making this easier for him since the demons could only see where the shot is coming from but not where he exactly is.

Pressing his obvious advantage, Ashton fired shots after shots. The battlefield was starting the get covered in smoke with all of the fire appearing here and there.

Demons fell one after the other, the commotion caused by this was sensed by all of the other demons roaming around the city ruins. And so long as they get close to five kilometers away from where Ashton is, he will see them and he will shoot them.

Now, with all the smoke and fire around, it just became even harder to tell where Ashton was. His massacre created a tight circle around him which served as his cover to protect himself, yet it's also an absolute killing field.

Any demon who were brave enough to step foot within this area will either burn or get shot, either way, they will end-up dead.

Ashton practically never left his position. Why would he when he formed a safety circle around him?

He must've spent at least an hour or so, firing constantly and ending the hoard of demons. He was never really at risk of being discovered as no demon even managed to get close to him, but he still kept his guard up. Again, he couldn't be careless in here or else he'll die a horrible death.

Ashton might've killed at least five more Crowfathers and a couple hundreds of Imps. He might've seen a different breed of demon amidst his massacre but honestly he had no time to identify them since he's a little bit busy.

Ashton kept firing until he could no longer sense any demons around. All he could see is a sea of fire and smoke around him. He remained in position for a while, slightly hesitant to believe that he already killed every demon around.

After waiting for a few more minutes, he stood up and sighed. His guard is still just in case but he truly can't sense any demons anymore.

He took this down time to check his reserves and discovered that his tank is still relatively abundant. He drank some water and started purifying his surroundings en masse.

The fire raging around him is actually helping with that as well since it's burning the impurities that seeped through the soil, these fires won't die until it cleansed everything of filth.

Ashton apparated out of the circle of fire and scattered his senses around. He was greeted by silence around him. Only the crackles of fire could be heard around him.

Not a trace of demons in his sight. Nothing's coming too...

He once again released a sigh, at this point, he was convinced that indeed managed to completely eradicate all demons lurking around the city ruins.

Ashton reverted the rifle to it's base form and began walking away. He looked a bit despondent as his gaze roamed around what remains of the city.

Just before he left the ruins, he turned back once and whispered in the air.

"Farewell, City M. Maybe we'll see each other again in the future."