酷视

For whatever reason, the golden figure opted against making a huge mess and just cutting through the lines of gathered celestials and divines. Instead, it moved swiftly… but within reason, jumping from one opening to another to get through the huge crowd of humans.

\'I\'m running out of time,\' I calmly made a mental note. Then, I looked around the hill.

Karlan, Madam, Leinei, Fay and me.

As little as I knew about their backgrounds, they appeared like a force just right to stop the local ruler in his tracks, giving me just a little bit more time.

\'With how things are, I\'m too weak to even look at him, given how I barely could resist Karlan\'s pressure,\' I thought, only for my eyes to twitch as I looked back towards the human camp out in the distance.

The storm has collapsed. The strange force of causality that fed into its core now vanished, cutting the flow of aura and causing the entire storm to contract on the now open and empty spot where its core used to be.

And as the dark clouds converged closer and closer, the blanket of rain that turned the ground around the camp into a damn swamp, now focused its full might on the camp itself.

\'Whatever fires my shot might cause, they will be quelled by the hail. And once it grows even stronger…\' I raised my eyes to the sky, studying the clouds for a short while. \'The rain might start affecting my shoots!\'

I shook my head and turned my head back to the small crowd on the hill.

"Leinei, I need you to go with Fay and bring the big box that we\'ve arrived with," I started giving orders, knowing full well the pressure of time. "Karlan, Madam, I will need you to hold back that guy for as long as you can," I added, turning my eyes to Fay\'s mother only to look back at the girl right away.

"Fay, dearest, what I\'ve gone through looked and felt scary, but it allowed me to grow stronger. So, while I might go through it again pretty soon, it\'s not a bad thing!"

The plan formed in my head. A desperate action to cement my position and the situation we were in.

With just a single shot, I\'ve proved very little, while potentially messing up the local leader\'s plans for the attack. I didn\'t weaken the enemy to the point where their real strength would be affected either.

"Oh right, Fay, can you maybe discern the strongest people in that camp?" I asked while everyone was still frozen by how suddenly I assumed command over all of them.

"I… I don\'t think so?" Fay muttered, too busy trying to figure out what I was trying to do to fully focus on my question.

"Well, then we will have to leave part of it to the luck," I spoke to myself in response, grabbing the neugarand as I raised up from the small nest I made for myself.

Now that I had no target in particular, shooting in the general direction of the camp would be easier from a standing position. And most importantly…

"Guys, I\'m sorry, but I need you to hurry up. Oh, and be careful with that freezer!" I added, raising my hand to the bolt-action lock of the gun and reloading it with the simple four moves that every gamer and ancient soldier knew by heart.

I brought my cheek to the body of the gun and took a quick glance through the scope.

Without the connection with Fay, I couldn\'t see the auras of the people within.

\'And according to how she felt about it, I couldn\'t really ask for an aura as visible as that rising pillar of causality…\'

Ignoring how I came to understand the concept behind what I saw for the nth time, I took a deep breath. And right at the point when my lungs were about to do the switch and push for an exhale, I pulled my trigger.

Swish!

There was no gunpowder discharge to make a booming sound. The shot itself was as silent as the slight buzzing of the capacitors powering the magnetic rail within the gun.

The sound of the explosion and the distant noise of the rising mayhem were a different matter though.

[Battle Log:

- Average attribute level of the kill: 7.5 Participation: 70%

- Average attribute level of the kill: 2.2 Participation: 70%

- Average attribute level of the kill: 1.9 Participation: 70%

…

…

…

The log of the battle flashed in the corner of my vision, but I paid it little to no mind.

Instead, I raised my hand near my cheek and reloaded the gun, watching how the empty cartridge that housed only the driving, magnetic weight of the round fell from the gun on the grass of the hill.

"Guys! We don\'t have the time, go!" I hurried everyone while taking aim for another shot.

Swish!

Boom!

A cone of fire lit yet another part of the distant camp, adding more and more lines to the active log of the battle.

\'This is too easy,\' I thought, grinning my teeth as I felt power gradually surge towards me, filling the now seemingly unending holes of my talent.

And with every shot, I could tell my senses continued to sharpen, making me feel more like one with the weapon in my arms.

Right as Fay gritted her teeth and turned around to rush down the hill while pulling Leinei along, I could see the golden figure already crossing the halfway point of the distance that initially separated us.

\'I\'ve lost too much time!\' Forcing my attention back on the moment and all the opportunities that it held, I reloaded and pulled the trigger, sending another anti-tank, armor-piercing condensation round into the soft target of human bodies gathered in the camp.

As my senses tuned in better and better with the act of shooting, I started to slowly recognize the most lethal pattern of crowds that could appear at this precise moment.

With a hell-fire raining down on their heads, they didn\'t scatter… but bunched into groups, hoping to ward off the danger with the strength of numbers.

What it meant for a sharpshooter like me with explosive rounds, though, was that the enemy willingly made themselves all a bigger and easier target.

- Average attribute level of the kill: 2.9 Participation: 70%

- Average attribute level of the kill: 2.4 Participation: 70%

- Average attribute level of the kill: 3.3 Participation: 70%

The kill logs now doubled and tripled in number, scattering to every corner of my vision as my hands repeated the same routine.

Pull the leaver back, bring it down, feel the click, pull it back up, and then push it forward, away from you. Lower your cheek, take aim, and gradually pull the trigger, as if the shot was supposed to come as a surprise.

Swish!

Boom!

The golden figure was just ahead, a mere second away.

Pull the trigger, bring it down, and feel the click. Load the new round, take a deep breath, and allow the shake of the recoil to disperse throughout your upper body.

Reload, fire.

With every repetition, my movements grew smoother and more refined.

Reload, fire.

And stop.

The rapid expansion of my kill log suddenly stopped right as I lowered the muzzle of my gun and took a look at the barrel.

Even without the thermal expansion of a gas, the rapid movement of the rounds and the inevitable heat of air resistance produced when firing already caused the barrel to get slightly discolored.

\'Shooting again means putting everyone at risk,\' I thought, gritting my teeth over the stupidity of leaving the replacement parts back in the freezer.

Having nothing better to do, I pushed two leavers and disconnected the glowing-hot barrel from the electric system of the gun, pushing it off its socket with a pull on another lever.

With a simple \'pop\' sound, the barrel split from the main body of the neugarand, dropping down to the ground and instantly frying the grass it fell on.

"Now, it\'s up to Fay to get back soon enough," I muttered, breathing out properly for the first time in a while before raising my barrel-less gun over my back and resting it on my shoulders, right as I noticed the golden figure finally make its way to the top of the hill only to be intercepted by Madam\'s and Karlan\'s silent front.

\'Now, let\'s see how things go.\'