The boy gasped awake, the cold dry breath caught into his throat as he moved his head around.
The gritty texture of sand and gravel scraped against his bare skin.
A jolt of panic surged through him as he realized he was lying on the ground.
The world above was a breathtaking expanse, a night of a million twinkling stars splashed across blackness.
A full moon bathed the landscape in an ethereal silver light, illuminating long, inky shadows that reflected across the unfamiliar terrain.
Sprawling on the ground, his face stayed still, frozen as he saw the night sky so clear with the stars and moon were completely visible, no light pollution.
The air he breathed felt different somehow. Unlike the stale air that would irritate the nose at this temperature, this one felt…invigorating.
He lifted his left arm, pulling the long white sleeve up to see his forearm. It was the same forearm as her body when he died.
A strand of hair caught his eye. He pulled it to the field of his vision. His hair felt somehow longer.
But, it was the same body.
In the distance, a city glimmered with tiny lights from buildings and skyscrapers that seemed impossibly small from this vantage point.
As he squinted, he could see different colors mingling together in one scene - red signal lights flickering on top of skyscrapers and random green lights that probably came from a billboard.
A mountain loomed in the background, separating the color of the horizon with its own body covered in shadow.
It's been a while since I touched places like this…
“Oi.”
A sharp voice cut through the stillness, pulling the boy's attention away from the city below and towards a girl proning on the ground.
He was propped up on his elbows, his eyes focused intently on the scope of a sniper rifle perched in front of him.
The scope stretched long above the rifle, almost as long as the barrel—there were 2 parts, actually.
The rear one was a traditional scope for daylight engagements. The one in front was a massive night vision binocular. It was bulky, the diameter was bigger than the size of an object a hand can completely grip.
It was aimed at a particular building in the distance.
The rifle’s barrel was also strapped with a very long and thick muzzle covered in a green dampening fabric.
The girl wore a sleek black coat that blended into the dark sky, with a hood covering her head and only revealing her fringe and face.
“You've finally woken up.”
She muttered a word without looking away from her scope, while adjusting it and placing a small piece of wood under the rifle's stock.
The boy couldn't help but stare at the rifle, tracing his gaze from its extended barrel all the way to its bipod legs planted firmly on the ground.
“Nice camo⁽¹⁾. How much magnification is that?”
The boy commented as he knelt down, pretty distant from the girl.
“Thanks, and it's 3-18x30mm⁽²⁾.”
The sniper replied nonchalantly as she loaded high-capacity rounds into her magazine and locked it into place.
She then pushed the bolt forward and secured it.
Her peripheral vision noticed the boy's curious gaze.
She tilted her head for a while, within 3 seconds, she looked back into the scope.
The boy stared at the massive scope continuously.
As their eyes met, The boy saw that the sniper's expression was not disturbed.
“Is that a TAC 50⁽³⁾?”
He blurted out.
“Yeah, how'd you know?”
“I watch tons of videos about guns.”
“Cool.”
The sniper answered nonchalantly and went back to adjusting her scope without another word.
Intrigued, The boy inched closer but kept a safe distance.
“Why are you aiming that gun?”
He asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
“I'm going to kill a g—.”
The sniper answered with a professional tone, then she stopped halfway.
“I'm hunting a boar for money.”
“Boar?”
“Yeah.”
“With a sniper rifle aimed at a city?”
That question hit like a pebble to the sniper's head.
After pausing for a few seconds, she slowly turned her head to the boy. Her eyes could tell her irritation.
“Yeah…”
The boy tilted his face and furrowed his brows.
“Fine… you win. See that guy over there? I want to blow his head off.”
The sniper kept her left eye shut as she peered through the scope.
“Oh…”
The boy's face fell flat.
It was night and ‘that guy over there’ was miles away according to where the sniper was aiming to.
“Thanks for telling…where's the guy?”
This question hit the sniper like a pebble again.
The sniper looked away from her scope and tossed a pair of binoculars to the boy.
He caught them quickly, then bringing the binoculars to his chest, his fingers curling tightly around the expensive equipment.
“Jesus Christ, this shit is expensive! You can't just throw it like that!”
He scolded the sniper.
“Don't worry about it, I've got plenty more in my storage.”
The sniper smirked.
The boy was speechless.
He moved behind the sniper and peered through the binoculars to see what he was aiming at.
Everything inside the binoculars were bigger. However it was blue. The hotter an object was, the brighter the color was.
“Coordinates?”
The boy struggled to find the target that the sniper was trying to lock on, but he couldn't find it.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
He knew the sniper was looking into the school building, but everyone that was walking around the school were just normal people—and none of them were guys.
Some were dressed in black classic shirts with collars and buttons, and there were 2 people dressed in a maid uniform that were guarding the lobby, and their hands were empty.
A little movement from his arms made a very big change to the direction of where he was looking, and he couldn't constantly focus on where he initially looked.
“See a school with the least lights on?”
The sniper girl's voice was calm, steady, her right eye glued to the scope.
The boy squinted through the binoculars, scanning the buildings below.
“That's where I'm looking at.”
“Correct coordinates.”
The sniper confirmed, not budging from her position.
“I don't see any guys.”
“See those girls, especially in the maid uniform? They are guys.”
The boy blinked, lowering the binoculars to stare at the sniper.
“They are the guys?”
“No,” The sniper sighed, a hint of irritation in her voice. “They are guys.”
The boy's eyebrows knit together in confusion. He pulled his eyes away from the binoculars aggressively, glancing at the sniper.
“Hold on. To make sure your eyes are okay. Am I a girl or a boy?”
The sniper finally shifted her gaze from the scope, meeting The boy’s eyes with a deadpan expression.
“Boy.”
The boy’s mouth opened, then closed. He took a moment, then pressed on.
“Are you a girl or a boy?”
The sniper's lips pressed into a thin line, clearly annoyed. She turned back to her scope with a huff.
“Girl.”
The boy went quiet.
Silence broke between them for a while. Then The boy asked with a flat tone.
“Are you gay?”
The sniper’s head jerked up when she listened to it, her face scrunched with irritation.
“Shut up.”
The boy was unhappy either.
“Then why did you call me a boy.”
The sniper girl’s fingers tightened on the rifle, knuckles turning white.
“Why does it matter?”
The boy shrugged, pretending to inspect the binoculars.
“What nationality are you?”
“Why'd you ask that?”
“Because you misidentified genders.”
The sniper rolled her eyes, her patience visibly fraying.
“Focus on the mission.”
The boy leaned closer, lowering his voice conspiratorially.
“Answer my question first.”
The sniper locked into the boy's eyes like an eagle, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“I have a rifle. That’s all you need to know.”
“Fair enough.”
The sniper adjusted her position for the last time, before putting her index finger on the trigger.
The crosshair was on the maid with blue eyes and black hair.
Meanwhile another one beside her had lime green eyes and black hair.
The boy looked at the same thing too.
A young woman's voice crackled through her transmitter.
“Handler⁽⁴⁾ to Sicarius⁽⁵⁾ One, confirming copy, over.”
The sniper immediately answered, not moving her body anymore.
“Sicarius One, copy. Request intelligence data, over.”
“We've failed to identify their leader. Recommend taking down his minions⁽⁶⁾ first.”
The sniper girl huffed, pulling her eyes out of the scope.
“Negative. We're not rushing into their territory.”
“Remember. This is psychological warfare. Discourage them.”
The sniper sighed. Pausing for a few seconds before replying.
“Roger that.”
“Be advised. Your location has been compromised. Enemies are en route to your location, over.”
Handler's flat voice called out again.
The sniper’s eyes widened momentarily, then narrowed again.
“How much time do we have?”
“No more than 10 minutes. You better have your mortars and SAMs⁽⁷⁾ ready. Handler out.”
As the transmission ended, the sniper girl exhaled slowly, her focus returning to the scope.
The boy, sensing the shift in atmosphere, quietly resumed his position beside him, the earlier banter replaced by a tense silence.
“I heard we have company.”
The boy asked her, still scanning the school. The maids were still standing there.
“We've been having ‘em.”
The sniper didn't move her body the slightest. Only her mouth. Then she asked again.
“Mind helping me?”
“With what?”
“Scan your surroundings, west and east from where we're heading. There are only 2 routes to access this mountain. There'll be either a man-to-man ambush or they'll rain hell down this place.”
“I'll try to do that.”
“Good answer.”
The sniper took a deep breath and exhaled it. Vapor came out of her mouth.
“Sicarius One to Mortar Team, what's your status?”
“Ready, over.”
“SAM team, anything?”
“Enemy Reconnaissance Vehicle detected through IR⁽⁸⁾ sensors. Waiting for orders.”
“When I fire, you fire. Get it?”
“Get it.”
The sniper girl took a deep breath and held it.
Her grip on the rifle tightened, finger poised on the trigger.
As the mark of the scope aligned with the blue-eyed maid, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The 50-caliber⁽⁹⁾ round fired off from the barrel, sending a recoil into her shoulder.
The gunshot echoed sharply, a trail of smoke following the bullet's deadly path, no flash.
Within seconds, the bullet found its mark, shattering the blue-eyed maid's skull. Blood splattered against the wall as her body crumpled to the ground.
The maid with green eyes barely had time to react before another round pierced her temple, ending her life instantly.
“Fire in the hole!!!”
Male voices shouted from the higher hill.
Simultaneously, three mortar shells launched into the night sky. The boy caught a glimpse of them before they vanished into the darkness.
At that moment, four soldiers sprang from the camouflaged ground with a Javelin⁽¹⁰⁾ launcher on their shoulders.
“Fire!!!”
One of them commanded, and all three triggered their Javelin missile launchers.
Missiles burst from the barrels, deploying fins and propelling themselves skyward.
The boy tracked the missiles with his eyes.
Meanwhile, the mortar shells reached their targets at the school building.
The first shell crashed into the walls, exploding and tearing a massive hole through it.
The second shell landed in a nearby grass field, igniting a blaze.
The third shell struck the school lobby, shattering glass doors and setting wooden structures ablaze.
Simultaneously, the Javelin missiles struck the Reconnaissance Vehicle hovering in the sky that was blending with the night.
The stealth coating shredded away immediately. The skin was all torn, leaving only frames of the fuselage inside flames.
Pieces of the aircraft disintegrated mid-air as it plummeted, then it split in half.
The boy dropped arms that were holding the binoculars, shuddering in fear and intrigue as the explosions reflected before his eyes.
It was like witnessing the New Year's fireworks display.
The heat of the flames reached them even from afar.
“They're completely blind now. Time to take care of business.”
The sniper girl reloaded her rifle, securing the bolt, and fired her TAC 50 into the school building windows.
The 50-caliber rounds shattered the glass windows and found their targets, killing some who were attempting to locate the sniper and others who ran in panic.
Some rounds missed, crashing into the walls.
The mortar team prepared more 120mm high-explosive shells, bringing them to the launchers.
“More rounds ready!”
“Fire!”
They dropped the shells into the launchers. In a split second those shells fired out into the sky.
Almost a minute later, the mortar shells rained down on the school.
Two of them crashed into the infrastructure of the building.
One lucky shell crashed through a window into a room where a lot of people gathered to arm themselves.
As the tip of the shell smashed into the floor tiles, its warhead blew apart, the shell that coated itself turned into shrapnels that shot out at the speed of sound.
In one explosion, the entire room was obliterated.
After struggling to search for enemies for a while, The boy's binoculars finally captured some heat traces from the ground.
3 vehicles were heading to the mountain via the east route.
The heat sources were their engines and exhaust. The cars’ headlights were off.
“Enemy cars detected! Direction…uhhh, 2 o'clock! heading towards us, headlights off!”
The boy exclaimed.
The sniper locked the magazine into the sniper rifle and pushed the bolt.
Then, she immediately shifted her position and looked at the direction the boy mentioned.
He was right.
There were vehicles heading towards them, headlights off.
The first vehicle carried 6 people, aside from the driver, all the male soldiers carried assault rifles.
The second one carried 4. Aside from the driver, the rest of them were carrying missile launchers.
And the last one, there were 5 people.
As the sniper saw the person sitting in the middle seat of the rear row, her eyes widened.
It was a black person with red eyes, wearing a black classic collared shirt and black trousers, smirking with confidence as wind blew his hair to the back.
After the sniper saw her for a while, her mouth smirked, revealing her teeth.
“Bold of you to leave your nest, Alduin.”
She muttered, as she locked the bolt of the rifle.
Suddenly, one of the people in the second car launched a missile, the projectile streaking through the night sky toward their reconnaissance aircraft.
Within seconds, the warhead smashed right into the allied aircraft’s fuselage.
The explosion was deafening as the missile hit, the reconnaissance aircraft disintegrating into a shower of sparks and debris, raining down the mountain.
“Shit…!”
The sniper’s aim was disrupted. She didn't even know how to react properly to that.
Simultaneously, the first car's occupants opened fire, bullets whizzing through the air, aimed at the sniper and the boy.
The sharp cracks of rifle fire echoed around them, as the bullets fell around them.
The boy immediately jumped to the back of a lumped ground, while bullets slammed into them.
“Why the hell are they shooting at us?!”
He screamed, asking the sniper.
“They shot down our UAV⁽¹¹⁾! Now they've spotted us on their radar!”
The sniper quickly changed the magazine of her rifle, switching between high capacity rounds into Armor Piercing Incendiary.
“That shit is our UAV?!!”
The boy asked again, as he wanted to move forward to the sniper’s side, a bullet landed close to him.
“It blocks the enemy intelligence signal. They couldn't communicate with each other. So they couldn't find our exact position, even with a thermal system!”
The sniper didn’t flinch. With a terrifying calmness, she adjusted her aim, following the trajectory of the car that was climbing the rough terrain at high speed, carrying soldiers that were shooting at them.
As the trajectory of the car changed and faced them, she immediately squeezed the trigger of her TAC 50.
The powerful shot rang out, striking the engine of the first car with pinpoint accuracy.
As the shell penetrated through the grills, the tip of the bullet crashed into the engine block, penetrating into the crankshaft and destroying the piston arms.
At the same time, the incendiary warhead exploded. The fuel that was being injected immediately ignited, and the flame led into the tank through the pipes.
The engine hood flew out of its place, crashing into the windshield, before the entire engine and the fuel tank went ablaze.
The car was lifted into the air as it tore apart, then tumbling down and rolling downhill.
Flames and debris scattered, lighting up the night with a brief, intense blaze.
The boy crouched low, his eyes wide as he took in the scene.
The sniper quickly pulled the bolt, ejecting the casing, then pushed it back.
“Not yet!”
The boy shouted, spotting additional vehicles in the distance.
As the sniper placed pressure on the trigger, the second car fired an RPG⁽¹²⁾.
The rocket arced towards them.
Right now, the sniper’s scope was focused on the warhead of the projectile. The car behind it was obscured by the smoke from its tail.
The boy’s eyes widened as he spotted the projectile.
Without a second thought, he lunged towards the sniper and pushed his arms into the sniper’s armpits, yanking her back.
A split second later, the RPG smashed into the rifle, blowing the rifle apart.
The explosion was fierce, sending a shockwave through the ground and filling the air with smoke and debris.
The sniper landed hard beside The boy, both of them momentarily stunned but alive.
Without even thinking, the sniper immediately got up and pulled a fist, aiming it at the boy's face.
“What the fuck are you doing?!”
“Don't you see a fucking RPG heading your way?!”
Suddenly, gunfire erupted from two directions, catching them in a deadly crossfire.
Bullets from the car and the school peppered their position, assault rifles and marksboy rifles pinning them down.
“Fuck! They’re shooting at the fire near our spot!”
The sniper shoved the boy aside as a burst of rounds shredded the air where he’d just been crouching.
“On your feet!”
She barked, grabbing his arm.
As they bolted, she yanked something from her jacket—a metallic slab no bigger than a notebook.
With a flick, it unfolded like rippling water, expanding 10 times its size into a shimmering plate that hovered just inches above the ground.
It moved with her, the base gliding smoothly as if propelled by unseen wheels.
She swung the shield to her right, angling it against the incoming fire.
“What the hell is that?!”
The boy exclaimed as he followed behind her.
“Ray Shielding! It reflects everything back to our enemies so that we look invisible!”
The sniper answered.
“Is that shit bulletproof?!”
The boy asked again.
“Why the hell would I carry a bullet proof shield?! That shit is heavy!”
They ran away from the compromised location, turning behind the mountain, as the sniper threw the Ray Shielding away.
Behind them, chaos erupted among their squad.
Orders barked through transmitters as the sniper’s voice cut through.
“Drop the mortars! Grab anything for ambush. Take out those cars!”
The voice echoed in every man's transmitter.
The men scrambled downhill, tossing aside heavy equipment and ripping open crates. Grenade launchers and rifles were distributed quickly.
A team uncovered a box hidden beneath tarps, revealing stacks of stick grenades and dynamite.
Some went downhill, deploying landmines and emptying all the weapons in their storage box.
As they removed a fabric that covered a box, inside was almost a ton of stick grenades.
Those soldiers took a few for themselves, then threw a dynamite connected to a cable that connected to all dynamites into the box, laying them all out to the road.
The sniper and the boy tore downhill, weaving through the trees.
The boy panted hard, his steps uneven, but she moved like a phantom, her coat flaring as she ran.
With a sharp tug, she ripped it off and flung it aside, revealing lean, agile limbs.
“Sicarius One to Handler, we need exfil⁽¹³⁾ now!”
She screamed into her transmitter through the chaos. Her free hand yanked out a pistol, the polished slide catching the fleeting glint of sunlight.
“A Jeep is inbound. ETA⁽¹⁴⁾ ninety seconds.”
“Make it faster! We’re in a goddamn crossfire!”
She snarled, tossing the transmitter aside without a second thought.
Immediately, she racked the pistol’s slide and sprinted downhill, her boots finding purchase on the loose, jagged rocks.
Behind her, the boy stumbled, his footing couldn't find traction on the steep and treacherous terrain.
“Hey—hey!”
He called out, barely keeping up.
“Why the hell are we leaving them behind?”
“They’re not players!”
She shot back without turning. Her voice was clipped, her focus unbroken.
“It’s their honor to die here.”
“What the—”
“Later!”
She barked, silencing him with a single word.
Then the world split apart.
The mountaintop erupted in a blinding inferno, a column of fire and debris surging skyward.
The blast punched through the atmosphere, scattering clouds like leaves in a gale.
The roar hit next, a wave that drowned out thought, followed by a shockwave that tore through the valley.
The ground bucked beneath them, sending the boy sprawling. The air was thick with heat and grit, flames and charred debris raining down like the wrath of gods. He pushed himself up, his wide eyes fixed on the inferno.
The glow of the explosion painted his face in fiery hues, the sheer scale of destruction reflected in his trembling gaze.
His breath caught, heart hammering as the earth seemed to groan beneath the weight of the catastrophe.
Seconds later, another shockwave washed against him, deafening his ears.
Suddenly, he lost his footing, his right foot crashed into a bulged stone.
He stumbled, and at that speed, he went down diving, falling into the terrain below.
His head collided hard with the ground. Pain shot through his skull, and everything went blank.