Tsukuru let out a deep breath, and he glanced down at his new Scordana Gunblade, which currently only had one bullet left in its cylinder.
'This is exactly why I wanted a gun with a disposable magazine!' he thought in annoyance. 'So I wouldn't run out of bullets so fast!'
Reiju's voice then piped in.
"Even if you had somehow gotten around the problem with the magazine placement, you would have still had a capacity problem," she replied. "Even a weapon like a Desert Eagle would have only fitted seven bullets with how high-caliber of rounds you wanted to use."
Tsukuru gritted his teeth in annoyance.
He knew that his mother was right.
He popped open the cylinder, and dumped the cartridges in his hand.
He scanned the metal cylinders, looking for the one that still had a projectile.
When he found it, he popped it back in the cylinder.
Tsukuru activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference filled the arena, and five groups of pixels began to appear in his hand.
Each of the five groups of pixels clustered into the shape of the Intermediate-Tier Paleneedle Bullet.
There was a flash of light, and the five bullets appeared.
He then began placing each of the bullets one-by-one into the cylinder.
Just as Tsukuru had finished popping the third bullet into the fourth chamber.
The sound of electronic interference could be heard again.
And since Tsukuru wasn't currently activating his Ability, that meant only one thing.
The next group of enemies were about to appear.
Tsukuru looked up towards the far side of the arena, expecting to see groups of pixels beginning to form.
However, his face soon scrunched up into a look of confusion.
He didn't see anything.
But, then something caught his eye.
He could see spots of blue light being illuminated on the arena's surface. As if something above it was casting off light.
Immediately, Tsukuru's gaze snapped upwards.
There, he saw them.
Three groups of pixels beginning to form in a sort of triangle formation.
The pixels clustered together into a slender, curvy, humanoid shape. Additionally, these figures had curved devil hornssprouting out of the sides of their heads, a thick tail coming out from somewhere on their lower back, and had large, imposing bat wingsgrowing out of their backs, almost as large as the figures themselves, explaining why they had spawned in the air.
There were three consecutive flashes of light.
Then, the creatures fully manifested.
They all had black eyes,pale-blue skin, pointed ears, and long, spiky red hair that reached halfway down their backs. Their horns, wings, and tail were the same pale-blue color as their skin.
The horns sprouted out of the sides of their heads near the temple, before then curving down and looping upwards, eventually extending a few inches above their heads.
They also had four digits on each hand, with three on each foot. All of which were sharped into claws and talons.
As for their attire, they wore a sleeveless top made out of a white cloth. Just like with his previous summons, her top seemed to be modeled after a halter top.
The top reached just slightly below their chest, but it was torn and frayed at the bottom, making it impossible to tell if it was originally intended to be a crop-top.
Covering their lower body was a loincloth that reached down to their thighs, with a large flap on the back that reached down to the top of their calves.
Just like with his Hobgoblins, this "loincloth" was fastened to her hips with a ring of skulls.
Tsukuru looked at the three winged creatures, his eyes squinting, and a look of deep confusion on his face.
'These creatures…' he thought. 'Their appearance reminds me of something, or someone. But I can't seem to place it. Is it something from an anime I watched over the years?'
As Tsukuru continued to look at the new creatures, his System's Scan Skill automatically activated.
The System's "vector"appeared over their faces.
A line extended out to the left, before then going upwards and leading to a square that showed an up-close image of them.
Below the square, there was text displayed.
[Name: Gargoyle
Rank: Infantry
Grade: Pawn*
Pawn Points: 0/5]
Seeing the word "Gargoyle", Tsukuru's eyes widened in realization. It was as if something had suddenly clicked into place.
An image flashed in his head.
In it, an almost exact copy of these "Gargoyles" appeared in his mind. But there were noticeable differences.
The woman in his mind had a gold tiara on her head. She also had gold earrings, a gold band around her left bicep that looked like a snake wrapping itself around her arm, and a gold loop on her right ankle.
In addition, the woman's loincloth was fastened to waist by a black belt with a gold buckle, instead of the ring of skulls the Gargoyles possessed.
Back in the real world, Tsukuru stared at the Garoyles in astonishment.
"They look almost like…" he thought, before then shaking his head.
'It must be the System again,' he thought. 'Mom said it herself, all of the Extra Summons here were originally designed to be male. The System is just modifying their forms with my memories.'
Tsukuru's face then hardened, as he looked up at the Gargoyles.
'Don't think that just because you're in the air that you're out of my range,' he thought.
He lifted up the Scordana Gunblade, and pointed it at the middle Gargoyle.
But instead of aiming at her heart like he normally did, he aimed at the center of her left wing.
'Let's knock you back down to Earth, shall we?' he thought.
He pulled the trigger, and the sound of a gunshot rang out.
Tsukuru smirked, as he expected the bullet to rip a hole straight through the Gargoyle's wing, sending her hurtling down towards the ground.
Instead, something else happened.
The Gargoyle's entire left wing began to quickly turn to stone.
As it did, Tsukuru saw the left side of the Gargoyle's body jerk down suddenly, as if its weight had suddenly increased.
A ping was heard as the projectile bounced off of the now-stone section of the Gargoyle's wing, leaving nothing but a tiny scratch behind.
Tsukuru's eyes widened in both shock and surprise.
'I'm sorry, what?!' he thought. 'Those are armor-piercing bullets made out of Intermediate-Tier Beast Crystals and an ultra-high density Glathrium Alloy! They should be able to pierce through anything that isn't at least Advanced-Tier Beast Armor!'
Tsukuru's eyes then tightened slightly, as he remembered back to one of his earlier "challenge runs" in this arena.
When the Dark Elves had used those special arrows against him.
Tsukuru smirked, as he realized what had just happened.
'Right,' he thought. 'That asterisk next to their Grade means that they have access to certain Skills that they normally wouldn't get until they reached a higher Grade!'
Tsukuru's smile widened.
'One of a Gargoyle's most well-known traits is their Ability to turn into stone during the day,' he thought. 'But you turned that into them essentially having the Stone Transformation Ability. That's actually pretty creative, Mom.'
Reiju's voice then piped in.
"Actually, that's not normal stone,"she replied. "It's a hybrid mineralcomposed of Tungsten and Corundum. In fact, it might be even harder than your high-density Glathrium alloy Beast Bullets."
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
'So what you're telling me is that they essentially have diamond skin?' he asked.
"Diamonds with the weight and density of Tungsten," she corrected.
Tsukuru gritted his teeth.
'It's like fighting Riley all over again,' he thought.
Slowly, cracks began to appear all along the Gargoyle's left wing.
A moment later, the "stone" broke off, looking like a type of shell, revealing the pale-blue wing beneath.
She looked down at Tsukuru, and began flapping her wings.
She flew through the sky, until she was flying right above him.
Tsukuru looked up at her with an amused look.
"Yeah?" he asked. "And what are you going to do to me from all the way up there? Those claws are pretty much useless if you can't even reach me!"
A smirk crept across her face.
She reached both hands above her head, clasping them together.
Her arms down to her forearms quickly turned into the "stone" material.
Then, her wings stopped flapping.
Tsukuru's eyes widened, him instantly knowing what she was planning. After all, it was an attack that he was quite familiar with from playing video games.
'Shit!' Tsukuru thought.
He immediately took off running towards the far side of the arena, where the enemies usually spawned.
The Gargoyle fell out of the sky like a dropped hammer.
Just before she reached the ground, she smashed her hands down in an overhand hammer slam.
The high weight of her arms, which were currently transformed into the Tungsten-Corundum mineral, combined with the kinetic energy of her fall, caused her to hit the ground like a meteorite impact.
A loud BOOM was heard, and a shockwave washed across the arena, making the whole platform shake like an earthquake.
Soon, a dust cloud kicked up, covering the whole arena in a smokescreen.