I killed one monster.
It was a lucky and inconceivable deed whenever I think about it. Is it possible for a standard human without any superpower to triumph over it? The hunter didn't, and he was a hunter. That is a person armed with a firearm and years of experience in the wild. And he ended up being hunted.
Compared to him, the team of soldiers could have more prospects prevailing than the hunter or your average man. Considering the team has numbers, more lethal weapons, rich experience in killing, knowledge of the monster, and most importantly, a superpower user. At least one of them is.
For your average man, they won't even mount up resistance against the creature. Its mere presence is enough to drive them to pee their pants. I haven't understood it at the time but reviewing the memory of the incident and the postures of the bodies that have been discovered in the village. I come to the conclusion that the monster has some sort of aura of dread.
Whenever it comes near you, fear takes hold of you. Exactly what happened to me at the time. The appearance of the monster is frightening, but not sufficiently so to prevent me even from fleeing. However, if it has some sort of aura or ability to render anyone immobile from fear it will explain it. Of course, it still has its limit otherwise the predecessor of this body won't be able to supposedly flee from it.
And the lucky part of the incident is of course the ability itself rather than its activation. The emotional suppression side of the ability is what I dreaded the most about it. But It is also exactly that side of the ability that saved my life. It allowed me to counter whatever the monster has that forced me into a freezing fear and fight back. Had I gotten another type of superpower that doesn't offer any fear immunity, I am afraid I won't be of this world anymore.
And meeting the team of five soldiers confirmed that a monster like that isn't unique. Do they have the same appearance or the same fear-inducing ability? I don't know. But if one of them is enough to annihilate an entire village, then something that can fight them wouldn't be cheap.
The ability alone can render any scientist from my previous world crazy. And they would do anything, money or violence, to get their hand on such a mystical person. And their intention wouldn't be good, at least not for the test subject they got their hands on.
While I am not sure about this world, taking unnecessary risks to find out is not deserving. Hence why I kept the monster's death a secret.
Until they permanently confiscated my rifle that is.
I found it outrageous truthfully. I didn't voice it of course. But taking away the only thing that can protect you is unfit when just one to two days ago a village was entirely massacred. Not the police nor the ambulance showed up. Just five people looked at it for five seconds and then prepared to go on to their errand as if I were in a war zone.
Maybe I am just being paranoid, maybe they sent for help, and the village is too secluded for aid to arrive. Or just the human rights here in this empire that are fucked up.
Whenever it is, separating myself from the rifle could be the last stupid decision I make. And since asking gently doesn't work. And taking it back by force isn't feasible. The only remaining choice is to go where the rifle goes.
"What bullshit are you sprouting Northman, lying wouldn't help--"
"What are you blessed with?" Cutting in Eric, Alec stopped in his tracks and asked, nothing on his face reveals what he is thinking.
"Precise shooting." I answered curtly. If I cannot keep my ability as a hidden card, I will at least keep a part of it. I did not intend to keep it a secret forever, just long enough to reveal it on terms that I deem favorable to me.
Needless to say, someone with a superpower is more useful than someone without it. The question, however, is to what extent. Is it useful enough for a good paycheck or useful enough to start wearing the medical patient robe? I wanted to take my time researching and gathering enough information on how the Blesseds are treated, before planning on how to disclose my ability or even use it without hesitation to others' schemes. But with the way things are shaping out, I may not survive until then.
Alec slightly creased his eyebrows, his gaze not leaving mine. While the others seem to realize something.
"How does that work?" The one who spoke first was Bell. She proceeds to take out three of the cartridges inside of the rifle, leaving it only chambered with one, then she handed it to me "Show me."
The others stayed quiet and didn't object as Bell moved to my left side, put her right hand on my left shoulder, and grasped it tightly as if afraid I would run away or point the weapon at them, the wary gesture clear.
"See the rooster weathervane on that roof?" She pointed with her right index finger at the rooftop of the highest building in the village, where a metal ornament in the form of a rooster was attached to it. "Hit it." was all she said after I nodded.
The distance between the weathervane and me is approximately four hundred meters, not a long distance by any means, and with my ability, it is even less impressive to hit. The shot that left a scar on my left cheek however is impressive, I haven't located the exact location she took that shot but I am certain the distance between us was more than a thousand meters. If I want to replicate her achievement I would need practice and a rifle scope, both of which I am currently lacking.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I thought as I looked at the weathervane doing what it is meant to do; rotating around its axis and steering in the direction of the wind. If I need to demonstrate a Blessing, shooting and hitting the target in a trivial way won't be enough. No, now that I have decided to reveal my Blessing It must be, if not extraordinary, at least remarkable.
I turned to the side and came face to face with Bell. She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Bell is quite tall for a woman, I am already well aware of that thanks to our previous interaction. She is almost as tall as me. So I didn't have to tilt my head down to keep eye contact. Her eyes are as black as her hair, you had to pull in the effort to not get lost in them. Fortunately, I have an excuse for staring into her eyes for so long, or else I will just be some creep.
I raised the rifle with my right hand and pointed it in the general direction of the target. This body isn't the athletic type, nor it is weak for an early twenties body. There is no comparison between me and anyone of these five soldiers. However, lifting a more or less four kilograms rifle by its grip and with just one hand is possible in some ways, at least for twenty seconds, maybe... hopefully.
I haven't taken my gaze away from Bell's for even a second, and I haven't even blinked. She too seems to take it for a contest and kept her gaze focused on mine. It felt like a panther that will pounce on you the moment you look away.
Once I esteemed the rifle is pointing in the general or at least near the general direction of the weathervane, I activated my Blessing. It took me one or two seconds to enter the hyper-focused mode since I am yet to be experienced with the activation.
The cool feeling overtook me as I launched a series of processes; pulling the memory of the environment, calculating the distance, calculating the angle, and calculating the target rotation caused by the wind. Not even a fraction of a second and all the calculations were finished leaving a series of numbers that easily converted into instructions to my arm. The Bar Mode decreased slightly but it isn't in the red yet.
My arm stabilized, stopping the shaking caused by lifting the weapon from one end. All my right arm muscles synchronized with my mind and precisely moved as instructed. No waste of a single fiber and no error in the execution. No need to look at the target, and no need to concentrate on the rifle sights, just memories. Memories of the target, of the rifle, and the memories of my movements. My arm moved 4.6 cm to the left, and 2.3 cm to the top. My waist angled the rifle straight and...
Bang.
The trigger was pulled, a gunshot reverberated, and the sound of a metal pebble hitting a metal plate was heard. I immediately deactivated the mode and let down my arm, in total it stayed active for an exact duration of 1.67 seconds.
"Wow! As expected of someone who beat up officer Kelliv, I wonder how much rhum you will get with that gift, enough to make Carlson jealous I bet." Zane cheered, I heard someone snorting, that must be Eric, the other two men stayed quiet. While Bell... she kept staring at me.
I thought of it as a joke, but does she truly think of it as some sort of staring contest? Obviously, I didn't remove my eyes away from hers either, I don't know if she is taking it as a contest but if she was, I will not lose, It is my first staring contest after all.
"What is the toll?" I heard Alec's voice, and since no one readily answered him assumed he was talking to me.
"Toll?" I have an idea what he means But if I have the opportunity to ask questions that will not make me suspicious, I will not pass it up.
"You lifted your weapon with one arm but you can not maintain it raised like that indefinitely, the toll here is muscle fatigue. The toll is burden of the gift on the body."
I would have appreciated it more if the example he gave was of someone's Blessing or gift as he himself calls it. But I will just have to make do with what I've got, namely, gifts can't be used without restrictions. In other words, the consumption of energy, which in my case, the cerebral energy. For now, assuming all abilities are like that wouldn't be unwise but it is also not wise.
"Brain fatigue...I guess?" I said with an uncertain voice. Because I am not sure or more precisely I shouldn't be. For them, my ability is precise shouting. And how does that work? In the same way, the guy in a magician's suit pulled out a rabbit from his hat. In fewer words, I don't know. And they don't either, nor do they have enough technological advancement to know, at least that much is clear to me.
"Coffee can fix that." The one that said that is the same person that doesn't want to give up on the starting game. I have to admit I am starting to get creeped out. Like she didn't blink once all this time. Wait, will you lose if you blink? I did blink a couple of times, but then again, if blinking means losing, she would have stopped the staring.
"Good luck with that." Eric snorted, I am starting to believe that snorting is his second talent, right below the covering-things-with-mud talent.
"We got some." Bell said. It is truly impressive and quite unsettling how the others seem to ignore our starting contest. As if what we are doing isn't childish or perverse, depending on the mind, but just a trivial thing like a handshake or something.
"Three, three is all we fucking got, dammit, and you want to waste it?"
Three beans? That sucks.
But still, I wonder if coffee would have any noticeable effect on my ability. Currently, the only way to recuperate Bar Mode and by extension brain energy is by sleeping. Not using the ability and just resting my mind also helps a bit, something a noticed only earlier, however, it is negligible compared to sleeping.
Understandable, the main purpose of sleep after all is to repair, restore, and reenergize the brain and body. Everyone need sleep, at least anyone who has a brain.
Like everyone else, I am aware that caffeine has effects on sleep. The quantity I consumed in my previous life may not be less than water. Even my blood could have been black at that point. And all of the sleepless nights I spent staring at a pale screen can be summed up into years. All for the success of the company, only to end up here.
I digress, the company is now a shard of a gone life. What I should focus on now are the ability and coffee. I haven't tried but my guess would be similar to just resting in other words negligible.
"Our reserves of TS3 are too limited to test in the field, but I am positive they won't be tight on them at the base." Alec said prompting me to turn my head to him concurrently losing the staring contest.
I may have misunderstood.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Haah you will see friend Victor, coffee will make you fight for an entire day and still have the stamina to fight three Glavis women."
What the fuck.
Putting the Glavis wording aside. What fucking coffee is that?
The coffee I used can hardly push the sleep away, while these guys are drinking coffee before fighting.
"TS3 or how we call it coffee, is a stimulant that gives a boost of energy lasting from 10 to 15 hours." Alec gave a simple explanation of what this coffee of theirs meant.
"Drugs?"
"It is also under that name yes. Anyway you can learn all about TS3 later on, but now I have a question for you Victor" Said Alec looking at the weathervane for a second before looking back at me "I understand why you wanted to keep your gift a secret from us, however, why revealing it now. because, if you were expecting us to abandon our mission just to escort you to the fort, It will be with great regret I inform you that your gift isn't exceptional enough to warrant that."