"I can walk on my own now, you know," Priya complained a bit.
"Not yet."
Zarek's eyes were pretty focused as he rushed through the buildings. He didn't seem to have calmed at all.
BANG!
The sound of a gunshot made his eyes narrow, a sniper bullet slamming against the brick face of a corner they had just turned around.
Priya flinched, her arms tightening around Zarek's neck, but nothing about the latter's stride stopped. He neither sped up nor slowed down.
After seeing Malik's Talent, he already expected this. By the time he met Malik in his third life, the man already had protections, so one could only guess at his Talent. Now that Zarek knew it, several things made much more sense to him.
Malik had hidden it well.
[Ironbound Compulsion] was an ocular skill that allowed one to freeze an enemy in place for a brief instant of time. Most of the world thought that this was where Malik's marksmanship skill came from.
Amongst the best snipers, he was almost always ranked within the top twenty. Something told Zarek that that was already the result of Malik holding back a great deal.
An ocular skill that could freeze an enemy, and a Hawkeye Talent to boost off of it. It was no wonder he was often called One Shot in Zarek's past lives.
In the Godsfall Apocalypse, protecting your status screen and its secrets was always top one on your list of priorities. Malik certainly took that to an extreme, and he was clearly right to do so.
"You don't have to worry. He won't be able to get us, but he has likely placed a mark on me. Getting rid of it will be difficult."
"A mark?"
"His Talent is Hawkeye. The description right now is pretty vague, but he should have already realized that he has two main abilities. One is increased hand-eye coordination, and the latter is a marking ability."
There was only one Ability under the Hawkeye Talent right now, but the two came hand in hand. This was because Malik's Hawkeye Talent was at least an A-Class Talent.
Hawkeye came in many grade divisions and not everyone would have one so powerful. While Zarek was only speculating based on what Malik had shown in his past lives, he was fairly certain that he was correct.
Hawkeye seemed like a simple ability, but it was far more esoteric than it seemed. The connection between the gaze and hands underlay a secret control over a distance that others wouldn't have.
Essentially, Malik felt the same ease in putting a bullet through a target as someone else would feel punching the same target at short range.
It would take Malik time to understand just how overpowered such a thing was, but he would innately feel that he could track a target from even exceptional distances.
And that was what Zarek was facing now.
Zarek was certain that Malik hadn't had eyes on him just now; he just shot a bullet where he felt Zarek likely was because he had laid eyes on him already.
And yet, even with his Talent only at F+ currently, he had still almost taken Zarek's head off.
This was a variable Zarek wasn't expecting, but it didn't surprise him either way.
Accounting for every variable, even with Rebirth, was impossible. He hadn't known Malik's Talent before, so he couldn't have expected this now.
But that was why his experience and diligence would win out. He might not have known Malik's Talent, but he knew how to deal with it.
Distance.
'He should be about 500 meters away right now. He won't be very accurate beyond this range. We should be good.'
Zarek leapt into a window, his kevlar gloves grasping the jagged edges of the sill without a care. He landed and then rounded a corner, going down a set of stairs to the basement.
With a kick, he blew out a back door and rounded down another alley.
Priya watched on in silence, wondering if Zarek had always known the school this well.
They were getting further and further from the center of commotion, and the Turned were getting sparser.
A second and third bullet had collided near them, but every time, it was just a bit further off.
Soon, they had made it to the back of the school. There was a thin forest line here. Behind it was a main road, then a set of homes, and well on the other side was a highway.
Their school was located in quite a wealthy neighborhood, so it was mostly endless suburbs as far as the eye could see. But around the academy itself, there was more liveliness.
Parks, walking trails, more than a few stores and mall strips. It could be said that the school and the things around it were the heart of the community.
But now that community had been ruined.
It wasn't long after they burst through the thin forest line that they saw the destruction.
Some of the once-beautiful homes weren't even standing any longer. Who knew what sort of destruction they had to have faced?
"Tanks." Zarek explained.
There were no Turned powerful enough to do such a thing yet. At best, they could shatter some windows and break down a few doors. But collapse a house?
No, that was all the government's doing.
"They brought tanks here?" Priya frowned.
"This is one of the most affluent neighborhoods in the state. Of course, they did. They probably evacuated most of everyone too."
"But…"
"Where?" Zarek finished Priya's question for her.
"… There's no way there's enough space for everyone."
"No… No there isn't enough space," Zarek said calmly. "They'll realize this soon if they haven't already and stop their rescue efforts."
"And everyone else?"
"They'll have to fend for themselves until the government decides it's about time their citizens become citizens again."
"That doesn't sound like it would go well…"
"No, it never does."
Zarek glanced at the skies. Dusk was approaching.
The Turned would be more active now, but it was also a chance for him to truly break into E-Grade.
Malik might have marked him… but what the newbie Hawkeye user didn't know was just how sensitive the senses of a Godsfall Spawn were.
Not only could Zarek sense others that had been influenced by the stream of time, but he was incredibly sensitive to those trying to make changes to his own stream.
Trying to kill him happened to fall right into that category.
He could sense Malik too.