酷视

Chapter 43  Double tap

To quell all those worries, I simply decided to pull the trigger twice, regardless of the price of pain I had to pay in order to do so. BA-BANG!

The time suddenly resumed its usual flow, only for the extremely loud noise of the gunshots to explode right in my face, filling my ears with unpleasant and nearly painful ringing. But right now, I couldn\'t care less. I was too focused on keeping my gun steady, ready to fire another round. Thankfully, while my previous caution proved to be on the point, there was no need for me to worry THAT much. The first bullet struck… at something seemingly solid yet invisible that surrounded Fay\'s assailant. Whatever it was, my first bullet shattered it before bouncing off and ricocheting off into the distance. The first bullet failed. But the second one reached its mark without fail. Plop…

A strangely disgusting sound filled my ringing ears when the smiling bastard\'s body suddenly jerked to the back, pulled by the force of the bullet away. \'Thank God,\' I thought, feeling an avalanche of relief when the man instinctively grasped at his weapon in his last moments, pulling it back along with his already dead body. "Haaaa…" I breathed out loud, feeling the time gain enough momentum to carry on at its usual rate. But as much as I wanted to take a break and recover from the strain of whatever I did just now… there was no time for me to do so. Not when the time worked as usual again. I threw a quick glance to the area further out, quickly noticing a huge number of people rushing out to help their companion fight Fay… Or maybe to finish her off? To stop their friend before he would wound Fay beyond the point where tormenting her would still give them some amusement?

I didn\'t know their reasons. But seeing two of them sport bows, I didn\'t care for their reasons either. My hands jerked slightly to the side. I aligned the iron sights with the next target before pulling the trigger again, in the same pattern as before. A shot, a moment to realign the gun and the target, and a second shot. A procedure as simple as it could get, yet one that already proved to be effective. The first archer fell, giving me just a little bit of time to take a glance over to where Fay nearly fell. I killed my desire to rush to her. I would gain no tactical advantage by appearing like a knight on a white horse, save for making myself a bigger and more threatening target for the attackers. And what\'s more, there was still another archer within the group of the attackers!

I realigned my sights yet again, pulling back my finger right as the second archer drew the string of his bow back… And a fireball the size of a healthy bull suddenly appeared out of nowhere. What\'s more, rather than forming while static and only then starting to fly toward me, it formed while already rushing in my direction!

Sensing the approaching danger… I simply gritted my teeth, and dumped all my free points into my endurance with a single point, before pulling the trigger twice yet again. "AS IF!"

Fay\'s mom finally managed to step in, taking a measly second to react from when she landed. I couldn\'t really afford to turn around and look at what she was doing, as interesting as it might be. What I could tell, though, was that the fireball that was about to swallow me whole… simply fizzled out and vanished, as if it was never there to begin with!

"GET HER!" I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, having more trust in Fay\'s mom\'s athletic ability than I had in my own. I couldn\'t look at her, though. And it was all because my eyes were drawn to one thing I noticed when I confirmed that once again, the first bullet I shot broke the archer\'s barrier before the second one ended his misery. The now-dead archer managed to pull his bow back, though. And when the rapid injection of a lead bead into his brain caused his entire body to go numb, the bowstring slipped out of his fingers… And sent a deadly allow flying through the air. Thump. I could only watch in silence as the arrow drew an arch in the air… before striking me squarely in the heart.