Chapter 96: VS. Snipes

My heart hammered like a bell.

“…”

So I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I inhaled, then exhaled.

Good.

“Rikan, delaying action. Slow their advance as much as you can while falling back to us. Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Rudo, A1. Support Rikan. Endo, are the explosives upstairs ready?”

“They are! I’ll send Acht upstairs too!”

“Please do.”

The orders I gave were a temporary life-prolonging measure. Orders that would only stretch the time before the flow of blood reached a fatal amount.

What do I do? What should I do?

A pincer attack. That was the worst possible situation. At the very least, I wanted to limit the enemy’s line of attack to one side. Both the underground passage and the facility were ready to be blown. We could seal them off. We could, but…

Timing.

That was important. Blowing up the underground passage was no good. Then we would only be able to get out through Yuri’s side. That was bad. Checkmate. Alex could still be dealt with somehow, but Yuri was no good. If we were going to break through, it had to be from Alex’s side.

So we would blow the facility side first.

There was no mistake in that plan. But simply blowing it up would not be enough. We had to make sure Yuri could not slip through, and burying Rikan and the others alive was out of the question.

Ah, damn it.

“Why did they come from above…?”

『Because it is precisely where you think they would never come from that we dare to go. Rookie, this is a tactic I did not teach you.』

“Hah.”

I laughed.

Wonderful. What an effective tactic.

Provided you ignored the minor issue that no normal person could actually pull it off. In other words, provided you ignored the fact that it failed as a tactic in the first place.

Yuri could do it.

She had broken through the swarm of Bubbles and forced a ground assault into her options, from a direction that should never have been a choice at this place and this time of day.

A tactic? Don’t make me laugh.

“Don’t worry. I know that tactic. It’s called ‘brute force,’ isn’t it?”

I crawled along the ground into cover and threw out one bit of banter. The moment I slid behind a stack of sandbags, one of them burst in a small puff.

I had been shot.

But it had not gone through the sandbag. It did not seem to be an anti-materiel rifle. That was a relief.

『Oh? It seems you have been studying properly. Good.』

Just from his voice, I could imagine the huge skinhead grinning broadly.

『That is why this pains me. Rookie, we were not told to capture you alive. No, rather, killing you was even recommended. You have made too much of a name for yourself, Rookie. No, it would be rude to keep calling you that forever, wouldn’t it, Hound?』

“…Growl, growl.”

『I never told you this, but the sniper bastard before you, Snipes, was me. Shall we call this old Snipes versus new Snipes?』

“You can’t just cut out two generations and call that old and new…”

I peeked out from behind the sandbags.

A space filled with nothing but darkness opened wide before me.

Then a flower bloomed there.

Muzzle flash.

A flower of light bloomed together with killing intent.

And at the end of that flower was me.

I jerked my head aside. The bullet grazed the brim of my cap and sent it flying high.

“…”

As expected, his aim was precise.

He had aimed straight for my head, and his bullet had gone exactly there.

Good skill.

Yes, precisely because his aim was so accurate, because his skill was so good, I thought of a way to beat him.

I had to secure our retreat quickly. Even Rikan would not hold for long. That thing, Yuri, was that kind of creature. But blocking the retreat was a top-class sniper. He was blended into the darkness, while we were completely exposed in the light.

We were at a disadvantage.

Enough to make me laugh.

Even so, I had to create a retreat route quickly.

And I had thought of a way to do it.

“…”

Can I do it?

I asked myself.

“…”

I have to.

I answered myself.

“Rabbit, Rat, you two look like you have the best reflexes, but how is it in practice?”

Answer: Of those present here, Rabbit has the fastest start-up movement.

Question: What do you need?

“Sorry, but I want to entrust my life to you.”

At my words, Rabbit blinked three times lightly, as if asking what I really meant. So I told him what I had thought of.

He opposed it.

Well, of course he did. I would have too.

So I decided to execute it on my own. I had told him the plan. That was enough. Rabbit would have to do everything in his power to save me. That was all.

I closed my eyes.

Sharpened my awareness.

I pictured the position of the muzzle flash from a moment ago in my mind.

I raised my gun.

Took a deep breath.

Now…

At the speed of walking.

Kill.

I walked five steps.

For an instant, confusion mixed into the killing intent Alex directed at me. Even so, that killing intent immediately focused again.

The back of my neck scorched.

But that instant was my chance.

The color blue appeared in my mind.

Somewhere inside my head, the second hand of a clock cried out.

I pulled the trigger / delayed / the muzzle flash bloomed.

A bullet flew.

Straight ahead, tracing the killing intent Alex had unleashed.

A bullet flew.

Toward me, standing there with my body exposed like an idiot.

And then, Rabbit jumped.

His leap, timed to the pull of my finger on the trigger, made full use of the less-than-one-second opening I had stolen from Alex.

And he slammed into me.

“Gof…”

There is a technique in Chinese martial arts called penetrating force.

This had nothing to do with that, but Rabbit’s hit landed better than expected, stabbing into my wide-open flank while I was standing to shoot. For an instant, my breath stopped. I coughed. Tears welled in my eyes.

“Vaaah.”

Even my groan had a muddy sound mixed in.

But that was all.

The bullet passed through the place I had been standing just a moment ago.

That was all.

Gunfire rained down from beyond the darkness. But it was not the carefully aimed fire from earlier. It was probably Alex’s Monoz shooting.

I did not feel a life riding on the tip of my finger. Then Alex was probably still alive. But I had hit him. That sensation remained.

And now the Monoz were firing wildly. Most likely, they were preparing to withdraw while treating him. Something like that.

“…Endo, advance ahead into the passage. Probably one wounded enemy.”

“Got it. I’ll treat them.”

“Please.”

A fight needed a point where it could settle. For that, it was better to take prisoners.

“Rat, accompany me. From now on, we are S1. Horse, stand by in Monoku state. Rabbit and Snake, guard him. You are S2. Ox, Tiger, Dragon, Goat, Boar, form A2 and attach yourselves to Endo.”

Now then.

“I’m going to go have a parent-child quarrel. Same as always. Win, no matter what. Order to Win. That is all.”