Ran was calm, the barrage of attacks he had just endured had barely scratched his exo.

Despite his staggering defense, he had decided to be careful, facing several hundred enemies at once was still very dangerous without preparation, even for him. If a sword or arrow got through his visor he would probably die instantly.

His joints were also vulnerable, and if he was surrounded, he might end up being skewered from a blind spot.

To compensate for this, Ran had chosen this narrow, steep path, there was no way to get around it... or to run away...

He had no intention of letting any of these men get out alive, after all, they were there to happily slaughter an entire village.

"No mercy to be shown here"

The plan he had devised was simple: immobilize the troop by serving as bait... Then cut off any escape route. For this part Ran had used an old weapon from his world, simple but terrifying.

The flames were rapidly approaching the rear guard of the troop, and they didn't even have time to see the glass bottles before they exploded at their feet, spilling their contents which immediately burst into flames. A mixture of grease, oil and strong alcohol.

The villagers on top of the cliff could be proud of themselves, after all, they had just thrown the very first Molotov cocktails in this world.

The effect was instantaneous, clothing and wooden shields quickly ignited, men burned in agony, screaming at the top of their lungs as their cloth stuck to their melting flesh, the vision of horror was sending fear and panic into the hearts of their comrades.

The fire devoured everything and a huge inferno rose, blocking the only remaining exit for these mercenaries. They were caught between Ran and the flames. And between the two they didn't hesitate long before charging Ran, a decision that they had no time to regret.

Despite the screams of pain and the mass charging towards him, Ran remained calm, took a deep breath, loaded a bullet into the chamber, raised the barrel of his gun and exhaled slowly.

"Here we go."

Then all hell broke loose, the screams of burning men were drowned by a maelstrom of shrieking metal raining down on the unfortunate, each bullet ripping through bodies, tearing organs and breaking bones. Ran's cannon spat out its ammunition with an infernal noise, decimating everything in its path. The bodies didn't have time to fall before more bullets came to tear the survivors apart.

Despite his frantic rate of fire, Ran counted his bullets carefully, making sure that each shot killed as many people as possible. When his magazine was empty, he simply let it slide off into his inventory and pulled out another one in a single fluid motion.

When he resumed his rampage, he made sure to shoot first those who were trying to climb the cliff and the runaways trying to brave the blazing flames to force them to focus on him, a few men, desperate to escape this situation even decided to jump into the abyss.

None of that mattered, he would let none leave here tonight.

But suddenly, a sharp *click*click* put an end to his butchery and the deafening explosions finally ceased. After such a sustained shooting, Ran's rifle jammed!

The smartest of the mercenaries threw themselves to the ground as soon as the first detonations were heard, they had seen their comrades fall, mysteriously hit by this man who was supposed to be dead.

They didn't understand what was going on, how could a weapon be so devastating? No matter how many of them there were, no matter how strong they were, no matter how well equipped they were, they all fell one after the other, limbs were ripped apart and blood was splattering all around, they couldn't even run away without being shot!

One could not even call it a fight anymore... It was a real massacre. They were all more or less resigned to die in front of such unreasonable power, but against all odds the detonations stopped. A miracle had just happened, so in a last hope for survival, they all rushed towards Ran, roaring, before he had time to repair his weapon.

But it was not meant to be.

Ran grumbled, threw his rifle into his inventory and pulled out his new sword to greet the dozen or so mercenaries rushing at him. They were already too close to use the explosive ammunition, so Ran gripped his weapon firmly with both hands and split the air in front of him in an explosive circular motion.

The first mercenary who had charged was heavily armed compared to his comrades, rather sturdy, he had metal armor, a massive wooden shield and a war axe. He thought to stop Ran's weapon with his shield and split his skull open, but no sooner had he raised his shield than it shattered on impact, taking his arm with it. The blade continued on its way and slashed a good part of his torso before he was thrown against the cliff, he spat blood and slid down the wall. Needless to say, he never got up again.

But Ran didn't have any respite, another one had already taken advantage of this exchange to pounce on him, this one was the opposite of the previous one, small and agile, he wielded 2 sharp daggers and aimed directly at Ran's visor.

The latter was still in his spinning motion and could not block, so he decided to drop his weapon and fall backwards to avoid a deadly blow. The first dagger split the air a few centimeters from his helmet, but the second one suddenly changed course and came down in a pike!

Ran blocked as best he could with his forearm, they both ended up on the ground, the mercenary had dropped his second weapon to put his full weight on the dagger to push it through the visor but Ran held on!

However, the other mercenaries were not standing still and rushed to finish Ran off.

Ran was about to summon his knife when a high-pitched whistling sound reached him, an arrow came out of nowhere and went through the skull of the mercenary who was threatening him, then another one fell on his comrades, and soon another one, a whole volley came to knock down the mercenaries taken by the surprise flanking attack.

As Ran pulled the corpse from his chest, he saw Era standing on top of the cliff with a bow in her hand and several villagers shouting around her. The original plan was for the villagers to flee into the forest after throwing the cocktails, in case Ran lost, but he felt a warm feeling in his chest at their sight, he was really happy and proud that they had come back for him.

But it was not yet time to rejoice, Ran recovered his long sword and began to finish off the survivors who were groaning in pain, he was soon joined by some villagers equipped with spears who had accepted to do the dirty work with him.

This could be considered inhuman and cruel, that is true, he was pretty sure what he was doing was even considered a war crime back home but it's not like they had any choice, no one knew what would happen if someone were to learn about what happened tonight and to be fair, the injuries that Ran had inflicted were fatal, so they might as well end their suffering.

As the last moans of pain were silenced he thought he was finally done, when a movement caught his attention, under the dead horse of the marquis. Ran saw Gliver desperately trying to free his leg from under his mount.

He redoubled his efforts when he realized that Ran had noticed him, but it was far too late.

The great and powerful nobleman who had played with so many lives was now trying to save his own skin, Ran could almost have laughed, if the stakes had not been so high.

Moving slowly forward, Ran pulled out his rifle, ejected the jammed shell and checked his magazine, then pulled the bolt. He was now right in front of Gliver.

"Any last words?"