SS1 7.2 - Final Firing Position
Kubran Valley was located between Sidra Forest and Sherem Forest. It was huge, had a shape like a plate, and its surface was being covered by trees and vegetation at moderate density. Most of all, it had enough mid-size games to sustain large low-rank monster population.
From the monster’s perspective, Kubran Valley was the mirror city of Karmen. Torrak launched several major hunting operations on it, but it never brought expected result. The monster population in this valley remained high, far from preferable level. And now, I carried out a hunt and kill for Old Jack in this very valley.
I followed Ariel’s suggestion to enter Kubran Valley from Sidra Forest at night. Two nights later, we arrived at one of Old Jack’s resting spot. It was located in an edge of a cliff and had a shape like giant bird nest. While Ariel inspected it, I provided her a perimeter security, watching the area while holding my MPX.
Then, I heard several low growls, footsteps, and broken twigs from the trail below our position. I still couldn’t see them, but this was the sixth time I heard such growl after entering Kubran Valley.
With ease I recognized them. They were orc in a hunt for mid-size game. Without making a sound I approached Ariel and gave her a hand signal for incoming orc. We then lay down on the ground, behind a shrub.
Orc’s eyes were five times more sensitive than human eyes. It would help them a lot when they carried out a night activities. However, their vision under the darkness wouldn’t surpass a good NVG like PVS-31. And so, they didn’t realize our presence. They casually threaded the trail just eight meters before our position, five orc in total.
The first time I encountered contact like this one, my heart couldn’t help but skipped a few beats. But now, I could with ease watched as the orc faded away into distance. Ariel then checked the area using her hearing before turning her gaze to me.
“Old Jack used the nest about two days ago,” Ariel said in low voice.
I immediately took out a piece of hard-copy map and marked Old Jack’s resting spot. Then, I pointed my finger on other mark on the map, where Old Jack killed a whole D-rank team yesterday at noon.
“It’s only three clicks from this nest,” I said in low voice. “It seems Old Jack left it after killing the D-rank team.”
“Yeah.”
“Any idea where is his next stop?”
“After killing a hunter team, Old Jack will go to the deeper part of Kubran Valley. From here, there are three locations that become his favorite resting spot.” Ariel pointed in three different locations in the map as she added, “Here, here, and here.”
“How long the time we need to reach these resting spots?”
“7-9 nights, but it will be faster if rain pours down to covers our track.”
I instantly made a calculation. Old Jack always stayed in one hunting ground for no more than three weeks. With the remaining time we have, we could only pick one out of three possible resting spot.
After taking a deep breath I turned my gaze to Ariel. “Pick one of the resting spot.”
“What if Ariel pick the wrong resting spot?”
“In that case we miss our chance, but I won’t blame you.”
After a moment of ponder Ariel pointed her finger on one of the resting spots. “Let’s choose this one.”
“Why do you choose it?” I curiously asked.
“Ariel has resting place like Sierra Lodge to watch over this spot. It will minimize the possibility orc or goblin discovers us while we are waiting for Old Jack.”
“I see.”
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Other than for safety factor, Hole up in a place like Sierra Lodge was not bad choice. I firmly agreed to Ariel suggestion. Wasting no time, we continued our walk, straight to the deeper part of Kubran Valley.
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It took eight nights of arduous walk before we arrived in a cliff edge. It was about 30 meters high and stood before a flat rocky opening as big as four soccer fields. Honestly, I still couldn’t believe we arrived at deeper part of Kubran Valley fully unnoticed, and didn’t need to leave cold body in our trail.
Of course, it was not easy. All the way, we couldn’t eat something with strong aroma, couldn’t have dry bath peacefully, and were plagued with lack of sleep as orc and goblin also had daytime security patrol. However, other than that we were alive and kicking. Most of all, we were eager and fully ready to take our shot on Old Jack’s head.
After scanning the rocky opening I turned my gaze to Ariel and said in low voice, “So, this opening is Old Jack’s resting spot.”
“Mhm.” Ariel then pointed her finger at a small pond about 100 meters from our position and added, “His trail show Old Jack has a habit of sleeping near the water hole.”
I lightly nodded and then asked another question, “Where is our lodge?”
“It’s about 14 meters below us,” Ariel calmly replied. “Big Sis named it Oscar Lodge.”
“I see. It will give us a firing position about 16 meters high at 100 meters distance.” I lightly smiled before continuing, “It’s a decent firing position. The wind around here is also pretty calm.”
“Mhm.” After a moment a pause Ariel added, “Sun will come up in the east soon. We have to enter the lodge before the first light and get some sleep.”
“Good idea,” I expressed my agreement.
Without further ado, I set up rappelling rope. Ariel would guard the rope and packed it later, so I took the turn to check the lodge. Fortunately, the cliff wall was made of a solid and normal rock. I got sure footing with ease.
Then, I made a silence and gentle vertical walk, facing down, left hand control the rope while right hand held silenced P320 Flux Raider. It took me a few seconds to reach the entrance. In full alert, I then crawled through it. It was small, five meter longs, and had curve shaped like the entrance at Sierra Lodge.
As for the interior, it was a bit bigger than Sierra Lodge. It was also clean and had nice air, with a big pile of dimly glowing purple moon stone in a corner. Once I was sure everything was safe, I signaled Ariel to pack the rope and came down to the lodge. Then, we slept in turn.
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It felt so good to give our body and mind three hours of sleeping and three hours of sitting, without the need to be wary of passing orc or goblin. After that, we took a bath and had a light lunch before setting up the final firing position at the lodge entrance.
It was already past noon, but we were not in hurry. We would take the shot on Old Jack’s head at night, when he slept like a log. So, we worked in a calm manner. First, I and Ariel made two piles of sandbags. The first pile was bedding for the suppressed TRG M10, while the second one was for me and Ariel to sit.
After that, it was range estimation. I didn’t use laser range finder for this job. I worried we had monster with ability to see laser beam present in the area and would discover our position. Fortunately, I was very good in analog range estimation and the rocky opening was practically flat.
First, I used climbing rope to confirm the exact height of my eyes level from the rocky opening’s surface. Then, I used clinometer to get the angle of elevation to the spot I wanted to measure. After that, I only had to put the number I got to basic trigonometry to get the distance. Last but not least, I made the sketch of the opening and divided it into several small areas based on the shooting distance.
Once I finished the sketch I showed it to Ariel. “The closest shooting distance is 40 meters. The farthest is 380 meters, just before the tree line in the opening’s edge.”
“Mhm,” Ariel calmly gave me a light nod.
“If Old Jack show up and sleep next to the pond, we will kill him for sure,” I firmly said. “However, we still have to prepare ourselves for the worst scenario.”
“Berg,” Ariel said in low voice. “If you miss your first shoot, Old Jack will definitely discover our position. After that, he will escape while signaling low-rank monster in the area to attack us.
In such scenario, our only option is to fight to the death.”
“No, we have another scenario,” I calmly said. “If I distract and hold our attacker’s attention, I believe you will manage to escape.”
“Ariel won’t leave you to fight to the death alone,” Ariel firmly said while returning the sketch.
“But you have to do it. It’s my order as older member of our family.” After a short pause I added, “You have to survive and carry on the family name.”
“Without you, bad folks will hurt Ariel again,” Ariel said before pressing her lips together. “It’s a life worse than death.”
“You don’t need to return to Karmen,” I casually said. “You are good enough to live in the wild. The tablet will help you to sustain yourself using monster kill. I have also made my last wish using my tablet. If I die, everything I have in my inventory will be transferred to yours.”
“What about Ariel’s firearm training?”
“For the last few days, I use my lookout turn to make video and manual on how to use firearms for you. You can study it on your own.”
“But it will be very lonely to live alone,” Ariel said before starting to lightly sob.
“You can go to other kingdom that treated demi-human nicely.” After a pause I added, “Over there, I’m sure you will be fine and find your own path.”
“…”
Ariel said nothing and just walked back to the lodge interior and sat in a corner, and I chose to not push the matter further. Ariel would need some space and time to digest my intention. And so, we just sat in our place quietly.
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