In the distance, giant plushies marched across the battlefield, swinging their limbs and knocking screaming troops into the air—the princess’ doing.

Eventually, giant chimera’s emerged to attack the plushies and balance out the odds.

As Sako sprinted to the two girls, their eyes met. The moment they turned their heads and saw Sako with utter surprise, she knew that they knew she was one of the biggest threats on the field.

The hat girl rotated just in time to point and pull her trigger at Sako’s face once Sako reached point-blank range.

The bullet zipped out of the barrel, but even while inches from her face, Sako tilted her head. The bullet flew past her ear. She caught the shotgun by the barrel, yanked it from her arms, and threw it behind her.

The hooded girl next to the hat girl pointed her crossbow and fired an arrow.

Sako caught it with a hand, flung it to one side, and kicked the crossbow out of her hands. It flew far up into the air. It wouldn’t be coming back down for now.

The hat girl swung a fist.

Sako caught her extended arm, turned away, and flipped her onto her back on the ground. She didn’t bother twisting the arm to break it, as she was soft like that.

The hat girl sharply groaned in pain.

While Sako faced away, the hooded girl thrust a dagger at her vulnerable back.

Without looking back, Sako shifted out of the way, reached behind her, grabbed the girl by the wrist, then flung her skywards.

The hooded girl flew across the sky until she vanished.

Sako came to her senses as her anger subsided. Okay… That was a bit extreme… She glanced at the hat girl who was recovering.

She scrambled to her feet and shrieked in a panic. “WHERE DID YA THROW PAIGE?!”

That accent…

“That’s… a good question…” A pang of guilt hit Sako in the stomach. “Sorry, my bad…” She didn’t have the first clue as to where they could find the poor girl.

“Recall!” The hat girl yelled. Her lost shotgun manifested into her hands.

“Wait!”

She aimed. BANG!

Sako dodged the bullet. “Here me out!”

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BANG!

She dodged another. “Please?”

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sako dodged and dodged and dodged. That was an impressively fast shotgun. “Can we just—?”

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

She continued evading. No reload time?! And what was this speed?!

After about a hundred shots and a hundred dodges, the hat girl ran away to make distance and reload safely, yelling, “YA AIN’T SEEN THE LAST O’ ME!”

Sako couldn’t chase her. She had more pressing matters, like completing the quest with minimal damages and casualties.

She resumed blitzing through the ranks, incapacitating every enemy troop in sight.

~~~

Amanda loaded ’er shotgun as she sprinted through the forest. “Tch. That villainous wretch. Ah’ll get ’er. Ah’ll get ’er good!” She ran ’cross the Uttsio bridge, headin’ east to the mount’ns. Once she found a good slope, she began climbin’ after dismissin’ ’er weap’n to ’er inventory. She hoped Paige was alright an’ had landed safely. It wouldn’t make no sense to go lookin’ fer ’er without knowin’ where ’xactly she was. But she had faith in ’er.

A long while later…

Amanda reached the top an’ carefully trod ’cross the mount’n ridge to a perfect central spot with a solid foothold. She reckoned this was a convenient vantage point overlookin’ the field. Layin’ flat on ’er belly, she equipped ’er sniper rifle an’ looked through the scope ’cross the lake to the wall an’ magicians on the far side. Past ’em was enemy bases with reserved melee units.

There was a reason why she was so inclined to kill soldiers from both sides, especially the enemies: money an’ exp. They gave a lotta exp an’ gold. An’ if she finished the mission successfully, the reward would be even more gold. She couldn’t ignore that. ’Er powerful sniper rifle made all their HPs irrelevant. A solid headshot, an’ they was down. It did ignore Defense after all an’ had extremely high Critical Rate an’ Critical Damage.

As far as she knew, only Vanescka could withstan’ ’er bullets. She was a hard pickle in a tight jar, which was why Amanda would avoid ’er.

Paige would agree too that Amanda should continue the quest without ’er.

Amanda fingered the trigger an’ activated a spell. “Ultra-Long Range.”

The rifle glowed. Its effective range increased, an’ ’er scope allowed ’er to see longer distances—all the way ’cross to the sea. The gun’s speed an’ power was so great that no person could dodge or block it. These hella expensive bullets could penetrate some o’ the toughest tanks an’ outrun some o’ the fastest classes.

She searched fer the vermin…

~~~

A powerful bullet zipped through the air, whizzing over the head of every soldier below its path and headed right for the sea. The magical bullet gained even more speed despite the air resistance.

As Sako threw a soldier a good distance away, she sensed it. Looking in its direction, she felt a distinctly sharp and small object, cutting through the air and condensed with a massive amount of magical energy. She calculated the trajectory. It was supposed to be headshot, and it surely would’ve killed her.

She leaned all the way backwards, arching her back, and supported herself with her hands on the ground behind to form a bridge with her body. Once the bullet flew past, she sprang back up. The distance was too much to see exactly where it had come from. The general direction was the east though. Maybe the mountains. But she didn’t have the time to figure that out. Back into the fray she went.

~~~

Amanda removed ’er eye from the scope an’ looked at the field with ’er own two eyes. “...What in the hell did ah jus’ see?”