I got him mid-monologue again. It's baffling that he didn't expect me to do that again. Well, it wasn't that unexpected.

The gentlemancer seemed like the man that preferred theatrics over optimization. He was going to gas me in his car, for gods sake.

"What the fuck?! Where am I? Why can't I teleport away?"

"You're in my house now, bitch."

The gentlemancer scrambles to his feet and backs away from me before regaining his composure.

"If I knew your family was affluent enough to have a personal fracture for your own mobile residence, I'd be more open to negotiation than acts of terror. It doesn't matter anymore because after I kill you, I'll get to keep your home."

He's surrounded by all my beasts in an unfamiliar pocket dimension. What gives him such confidence? Is it arrogance, or is there something I overlooked?

Duchess is perched around my manor's belltower as Khan coats the sky with his many bodies. Rob is trying to be as intimidating as possible, flanking the gentlemancer with Flash Gordon and me. The gentlemnacer looks around before speaking.

"Ellis, one of us isn't going to make it out of here, especially in one piece. I've done some digging after our 'initial' interaction. I decided that the heir of the Vincere's would make a rather good underling. Join me with your ego rock and strange beasts."

I silently [Empower] Flash Gordon and strengthen my grip. I can stomach bowing to someone stronger than me or deserving of respect. This 'gentleman' has neither quality.

[Empower C lv3

You can empower a single tamed beast for 1 minute. Cooldown: 10 minutes.

Mana cost: 50

Buff: 20% to all stats]

"Ellis, your eyes show murder again. Sigh, it's a pity. You might currently have outnumbered me or even surpassed me in might. But do you know what you don't surpass me in?"

Does talking give him a buff or something because that's the only explanation of why he would bother speaking? My Flash Gordon gets hurled right at this guy. Flash Gordon [Fragmentation]s and all five shards hit their target.

-300

-300

-300

-300

-300

"Money."

Flash Gordon slams into a dome of blue energy that surrounds the gentlemancer. My perception picks up minute cracks in the barrier, but it regenerates almost instantly.

"Ellis, you don't surpass me in money. It doesn't matter if I don't have my golems right now because of my magical items."

He's wearing a three-piece suit, and it is covered in jewelry. Rings, bracelets, watches, and a necklace where the barrier seems to stem from.

This guy fucking talks too much, and now I can't even stop him? I jump at him and punch his barrier, and nothing happens. If anything, I almost broke a few fingers in the clash. The shield is impact resistant, meaning I couldn't even knock him around like a pinball.

He pulls out a revolver with an ivory handle, I [Scientific Insight+] before rolling to the side.

[Cerulian Barrier (Consumable) A]

[Ivory Magiarm C]

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

Flying from the gun is a scorching ray of heat instead of a bullet. It burns the moisture out of the air and flies past my shoulder, digging into the lawn.

How does he have the mana version of a firearm? He's either a veteran or is in it deep with the military.

"Pity, I expected that shot to blow that empty space above your neck, but it seems that I'm a bit rusty."

The shot is deadlier than a bullet, but it's not more devastating than the explosion at my old home. However, I'd reasonably not want to be proven wrong. I activate [Bolster Resitance] for good measure before sicking my beasts on this man.

[Bolster Resistance B lv1 > Bolster Resistance B lv2]

[Bolster Resistance B Lv2

The user can spend mana equal to half of their target resistance stat to double it for five minutes.]

Quintupling the duration of the buff? I like it.

A cacophony of constantly breaking finger bones causes a shower of [Bone Shots] to slam against the blue barrier. Khan descends from the sky to swarm the gentlemancer, like a diver in a cage, constantly being chipped at by a swarm of hungry sharks.

[Master, thisss one's mind magic fails to penetrate the barrier. Moving the energy field is also something thisss one cannot do.]

I silently motion for her to stay on hold.

The constant barrage of attacks doesn't seem to worry the gentlemancer. The necklace is an A-ranked magic item that can only be used once. Its power is probably something that we can't deal with. There are a few things that could work.

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

Another crack of thunder followed by a roar of fire rings out from the gentlemancer's gun. It's bullshit that the barrier is one way, but what can I do?

He doesn't aim for me and instead nails Rob right in the waist, causing his pelvis and spine to explode, scattering him.

"One down."

Oh no. Rob. He'll be fine.

"Now for the snake."

Oops, can't have that happen. I conjure my sword and jump at the barrier, activating [Blood Sacrifice] and healing the damage I suffered in one swift move. I hack at the dome.

-1500

I can never get over the feeling of half my life draining before immediately coming back. Even with my second heart, the vertigo is still unappealing.

My tremendous blow startles the gentlemancer since something unexpected occurred. My sword's edge is sticking through the barrier, a foot away from the gentlemancer's head.

If it wasn't for the barbs, I might have pierced through. I tug at my sword, and it's stuck, the barbs keeping it in place.

The dome fails to regenerate the damage it sustained from my blow, but it's not like anything can capitalize on this since my sword is still in the way.

The gentlemancer quickly points the barrel of his gun at me and fires.

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

-1100

Holy shit, my organs are on fire. My body barrels over to vomit blood, but fiery gas escapes from my lips instead. I couldn't breathe, and one of my hearts instantly got destroyed. It feels like a pit of magma forcefully took residence in my body.

-150

"What the fuck was that?"

10% of the damage he dealt to me was graciously returned back to the sender. My ring didn't trigger on ranged attacks before. It's getting 'smarter.'

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

The second shot doesn't take my head off as my protector, Flash Gordon, uses one of his rook abilities.

[Faithful Protector U

The user may take a hit for another, regardless of limitations.

Mana Cost: 20& of maximum mana.]

My fire resistance is 400, but Flash Gordan takes the blow better than I did.

-622

With [Empower], Flash Gordon once again has a higher health total than I do.

I start rapidly mending my wounds, making sure I can at least survive another direct attack.

+1000

That's another 200 mana gone. I have about 300 left, so I can't be taking any more hits without needing to regain my mana.

"So the healing magic wasn't a trick. How do you do it?"

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

I was expecting another attack, but I managed to skitter away even with my close proximity. My second heart needs more time and healing before it can give back the passive regeneration. I was banking on making this a battle of attrition, but now I can't.

A thought occurred to me. Khan is such a big and easy target. Blindly firing into the crowd will kill one body at a minimum. So why hasn't he done this?

I flip off the gentlemancer while gesturing for him to approach, all with the same finger.

"What's the matter, running out of ammo?"

The gentlemancer doesn't spare a word. The gentlemancer looks straight at me and starts casting a spell. Magic circles hover under their hands, like how a puppeteer would control a marionette.

A flood of energy expels around him as every non-magical item suddenly animates. So only my costume. It tries to strangle and restrain me, but the simple leathers are too weak. Not to mention that theirs a massive hole from where I got shot.

*CRACK*

*FWOOOSH*

-350

The bullet only “clipped” me. I was anticipating the attack. The gentlemancer probably thought the distraction would be enough, but it wasn't.

"WHY? With my class advancement, everything should have been animated! Even the magic items for a short time. Isn't your left arm a prosthetic? Why didn't it come under my control? Even if it animated for a second, you would've died from a headshot.

Not even your mansion is animated. I didn't expect the shelf life to be long since it's so large, but not even a ripple of my energy touched the walls."

Biomechanics? I don't answer him and approach his bubble.

"Ellis, you can't hurt me, and I'm out of bullets. How about we call it a truce? You let me out of this fracture, and I'll forget about your transgressions."

I slowly approach the bubble.

"It's a good deal, Ellis. I'll even pay you to fix my face, like the original arrangement."

The next thing the gentlemancer felt was my sword in his gut. My next few steps all happened at once,

Rob was on standby after reassembling his injury. [Master's Gift] removed my sword from the bubble while giving it to Rob. My prosthetic arm was shoved into the gaping hole left behind before it could close.

My ear-piercing whistle summons Rob next to me, and I'm technically inside the bubble. Rob appears from nowhere, shrowded in shadow and wielding my barbed blade bigger than him.

[Critcal Hit!]

-305

I forcefully slam my entire body into the bubble, forcing my arm deeper inside. My hand grasps the necklace failing around the gentlemancer's neck.

"NOOO!"

Kudos to the gentlemancer for ignoring the six-foot blade in his gut, but I ignored his outburst and ripped the necklace right off.

The necklace, and the barrier, shatter into particles of light. A ring flashed on one of his fingers, and a wave of force jettisons out from the gentlemancer, sending Rob flying, and I get pushed back.

My feet leave grooves in the ground as I try to resist the blast. I try to remotely activate my skill [Bramble Blade]. My sword and ring are interconnected, so I hope it works.

Vines shoot out of my blade and dig into the flesh of the gentlemancer. A scroll falls out of his hands before he could've activated it. Duchess lifted the gentlemancer into the air before he reached for it.

With the barrier gone, Duchess has free reign to do whatever she wants with him. She spins him around over and over like he's in high-g training. Blood sprays everywhere as the gentlemancer’s orbit covers the entire yard.

Once he's nice and unconscious, he gets dropped to the ground near the gate.

I stand above him with Flash Gordon in my hands.

Flash Gordon didn't seem to care about almost being taken, so my rage for that event lessened. But the attempts on my life and the framing pissed me off. I guess he is also a terrorist or something, but he could have easily killed more than a dozen people and hurt a few dozen more.

"Should I turn him in to the enforcers"

"..."

"If you say so, Flash Gordon."

I bash his head in.