Chapter 683: Trigger Finger [Ko-fi Donation Bonus Chapter]
Hidden in the mountain range, a young man looked through the scope of a sniper rifle, his finger twitching slightly on the trigger. He had heard Sylas' words, but he didn't lower his guard in the slightest. In fact, it looked like he was still trying to find an angle to shoot.
But at that moment, Sylas seemed to look over, his gaze piercing right through the scope. The young man subconsciously fired again.
...
BANG!
Sylas frowned.
He had already spoken out, but he still felt a danger locked onto him, so he hadn't released his hold on the barrier. In fact, even if he hadn't felt this danger, he wouldn't have lowered his guard so easily.
But he still didn't expect a fourth shot to echo just as the echo of his own voice was still lingering in the air.
Once again, the bullet rebounded against the barrier. But this time, faint cracks had begun to appear.
The instant Sylas saw this, his intention flared.
The peacock that had only been hovering in place, flapping only every so often, suddenly felt every fiber of its being flex. With a hard pulse of its wings, it shot out like an iron ball from a cannon, cutting a line straight across the skies.
Another shot rang out, but Sylas had already anticipated it. This sniper wasn't using any special abilities. Likely using the unique environment provided by the barrier, the Grimblades were using modern weaponry.
On the one hand, these weapons were still more powerful than anything the Summoning had produced just yet.
But on the other...
They lacked any sort of flexibility.
Sylas crouched on the back of the peacock as it barrel rolled through the skies, tucking its wings in tight and swerving out of the predictable path of the sniper.
By now, the young sniper had already realized that it was too late to aim again. Sylas was moving too fast, and lining up a shot in these conditions was impossible.
He immediately stood, pulling a twin pair of pistols from his holster.
Sylas' eyes sharpened. He still didn't have a clear line of sight to the sniper, and he obviously wasn't in the 100-meter range of his visualization to pick him out, but by now, the faint streaks left by the bullets had appeared too many times.
Sylas' visualization couldn't track the bullets, but it could track their aftereffects, and that left him with an obvious line right to the exact location of the sniper.
Without being able to see the sniper just yet, he had no way of seeing their exact actions. But he knew that any sniper worth their salt would already know lining up another shot was impossible. He didn't know much about military affairs and weapons, but he had a general sense of timing.
He also knew that if he flew in blind like this, he might find himself facing off against another rain of bullets... ones that he couldn't dodge this time around.
Judging by his calculations, a single sniper bullet had almost 10,000 Attack to it concentrated into a single point. Sylas had no ability to block something like that.
A normal bullet would be half that.
But none of that would matter if Sylas took the initiative.
At that moment, three Explosive Bolts appeared a hundred meters from Sylas just as his skin bloomed with black scales and his Madness Comprehension bloomed.
They ripped through the skies and landed in the region around the young sniper in what felt like the blink of an eye.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Snow, dirt, and rock erupted into the air.
The young sniper was blown back by the impact, having managed to dodge the initial volley with ease, but remaining unprepared for the aftershock.
To his credit, he recovered well, rolling back and onto his feet like a spring, and aiming his weapons forward.
However, to his horror, he no longer had a line of sight on Sylas. The air was filled with smoke and smog, and the heavy line of trees that had once been protecting him from Sylas now protected Sylas from him.
SHUUUU!
The young sniper's head snapped in a certain direction as he opened fire, only for him to realize far too late that Sylas was no longer on the back of the peacock.
BANG!
A powerful force slammed into the young sniper's back, his head snapping forward with so much force that his vision spun.
Sylas hadn't wanted to kill the sniper, so he hadn't aimed for his head. But there was always a cost to playing around with mercy.
The sniper, despite his dizzy state, spun while he was falling, turning both pistols toward Sylas' general vicinity.
Still...
Sylas was ready.
His tail whipped out, slapping both arms to the side and shattering the bones that supported
them.
The sound of two gunshots pulsed by Sylas' ears as he raised a foot, stamping it down and onto the young man's back.
A grunt came from the young sniper as blood flowed out from his lip. Breathing became a luxury as the pressure on his ribcage was too much.
Sylas reached down and pulled the young man up by his neck, staring into his eyes coldly.
He was much younger than Sylas expected, not much older than Jake, and maybe even a little younger than that. Seeing such a thing, Sylas added a little bit more to the fact that this was nothing more than a mistake, but it was still impossible to confirm for now.
"Stop!"
"Put him down!"
Shouts came from all sides as red lasers trained themselves onto Sylas' body. There were so many one would have thought that Sylas' scales were now crimson instead of black.
Sylas, of course, wouldn't listen. He stared at the young man before looking high into the skies. The peacock was there, hovering high above. That was the best contingency plan that Sylas could form in short order.
However... he felt he was unlikely to need it.
Soon, the reason for that became obvious.
"Lower your weapons down."
Lucius' voice echoed through the chaos.