Amie laughed as she realized what sort of monster pack they had stumbled across in their rush to find enough targets to defeat the Paladins of the Royal Guard.

"Well, this will certainly get us an award of some sort. You know, assuming that we don’t actually die." Amie whispered.

"They’re not bulletproof or magic resistant." Dominic noted as he stared at the group ahead of them.

"That doesn’t help if they’re actually using magic." She retorted.

In front of them was an entire class of mages, thirty children, no more than ten or twelve years old, along with one Elder, and dozens of Goblin Shamans.

"No girls." Amie whispered, and Dominic noticed that her eyes turned completely silver as rage overtook her expression.

Of course there weren’t. They were breeding Goblins, the women would be... No, that wasn’t the issue, these were students. Students. Children whose classmates had been sentenced unjustly to a life of living hell to create more Goblin Shamans for the war effort.

"So, I’m going to kill that teacher, and you can take care of the Shamans." Amie whispered.

"Alright. But that means you get to deal with the children. Who knows how corrupted they have become from the blood rituals and curses. They’re likely to be just as evil as he is by this point, completely broken inside." Dominic warned.

"Then, they all die. Humans are rarely trustworthy to begin with."

Dominic couldn’t argue with that. He had often felt the same way about them, and they had hunted him for half his life. So, he would let Amie sort them out. But her words were telling.

As much as she looked like a petite human girl, it was clear that she was not human at all.

She also wasn’t a dragonkin, so she was more likely monster blooded. With enough monster in her lineage that she didn’t really view herself as human, despite passing completely for one.

That was unusual. If someone had monster blood, but passed as human, their parents usually wouldn’t even tell them. They would just find out that they had superior abilities compared to their peers, or a strong affinity for magic.

They would put it down to luck, and that was that.

But Dominic wasn’t thinking about that as he stalked through the long grass, approaching the Goblin Shamans with a rifle in his hands.

This was going to be short and messy, Dominic was sure of it. The faster that he could eliminate the shamans, the easier it would be, as their spells took some time to cast.

But on the other hand, they were also level four creatures, and even if they cast a barrier, his magic would shatter it in a single hit.

Still, it was better not to waste energy.

What he needed was a larger area spell than [Fireball]. It was a good one, but with the power difference between him and the Goblin Shamans, it really was overkill. Maybe Amie knew a way to cast more than one fireball at a time?

If he could cast five or six of them at a lower level, that would be just right.

He should have made more mortars.

Instead, the spells exploded among the Goblins as Dominic worked the action on his rifle, and the children in mage robes began to scream in terror.

But they weren’t running away, they were trying to cast spells in his direction, even in their terrified state.

The Shamans raised their staves, and lightning bolts crackled through the air toward Dominic, who began attacking with [Arcane Blasts] in between rifle shots.

It was enough to renew the mana needed to keep his [Area Barrier] up for a few more seconds, while the explosions whittled down the number of enemies, and Amie got in position to assassinate the Elder of the Mage Sect.

Once he was gone, Dominic had some hope that the boys could be rescued. But the way that they were attacking, it might be better just to keep one alive to find out where the girls were being kept prisoner.

Leaving them alive to suffer was just inhumane.

Only, when Dominic had eliminated the Shamans, there was still no sign of the little mage, and the Elder was finishing a defensive ritual around their position.

So, Dominic turned the rifle on him, and laughed at the panicked expression on the man’s face when five fireballs in quick succession exploded against his barrier.

The mana bullets alone would strain most mages’ ability to keep their barrier up, but the fireballs were a great visual distraction. He might not know where Amie went, but it shouldn’t be too challenging to take out this teacher, as long as the man wasn’t too far above level twenty with his defensive magic.

Two more bullets, and the barrier collapsed. Then a third took the Elder in the forehead, causing an explosion of gore to rain down on the students when the [Fireball] detonated.

That was the turning point for them. The children collapsed to their knees, crying and begging, all thought of fighting forgotten. But still, Dominic didn’t know where Amie had gone.

"Gentlemen, I have a few questions for you, and if you want to survive, you will answer quickly and accurately. Where are the girls from your class?" Dominic began.

They all turned to point at a tent as Dominic continued his questioning. "Where is the nearest group of mages that is not from your class?"

For a few seconds, they looked confused, as if that question had not occurred to them. But after a few seconds, they all began to point in different directions, including the one that he had come from.

Dominic suspected that they had no idea, and were just trying to [Locate Object] type magic usage to give him an answer that didn’t lead to them all dying.

"I will take that as ’you don’t know’. Unfortunate, really. Now, what should I do with you?" He asked, rhetorically.

The battlefield was silent for a few seconds, then a boy jumped up and charged at Dominic with a dagger in his hands.

"You will die!"