Chapter 62: Sniper
Roth and I are coming up towards the palace that is now visible to us. While walking, I am spacing out thinking about Roth's words earlier; I closed my eyes to clear things inside my head. But instead of clearing out my head, I saw myself looking at someone that looked like me, who was just sitting in a cage, just scarily smiling at me. I looked around and saw that I am in a small dark room with a single light above us.
He stood up and walked towards me, who was standing outside his cage. He looked at me with an amused look on his eyes while I looked at him with a frown on my face. After what felt like forever, he finally started talking to me.
???: how long are you going to keep me caged up here, Joseph." he said while giving me a scary smile on his face. Without any emotion, I looked at him and asked him a question.
Joseph: "who are you.." I said while looking at him, who walked away to the back of his cage and sat down on the floor. The shadow that the light above me made the man in front of me looked menacing.
Devil: "I am you… or should I say the anger, pain, despair, est; that you have been bottling up. You could call me Devil if you want." he said while summoning a red hunting knife and started twirling in the air. "So what is it going to be, Joseph, you have the key in your hand, you could unlock my cage," he said while pointing at my hands.
I looked at my hands and found a blood-red key that popped out of nowhere. I looked at the person who called himself Devil and asked him a question.
Joseph: "why would I unlock your cage.." the Devil started crazily laughing when I told my question.
I looked at him in confusion as to why he was laughing. But suddenly, everything was breaking apart, and a light was shining down to me, lifting me in the air. Suddenly the Devil started talking.
Devil: "too bad your times up, see you later, Joseph..." he said before vanishing out of thin air. Suddenly I heard someone calling out my name.
???: "Joseph! Earth to Joseph," my eyelids quickly opened in surprise as I turned my head. When I turned my head, I saw Roth calling me out of my mind.
Roth: "why did you space out, Lara just told me that she just reached the old palace we need to meet her up towards the bridge." when I heard his words my mind became clear.
Joseph: "Yeah, sorry about that I just need to think for a bit to myself." I said while shaking my head and following Roth, who walked ahead.
Roth: "you should inspect the rifle and get used to it," he said while pointing the gun on my back. I took the rifle off my back.
The rifle is an old British sniper rifle called Lee-Enfield with a 3.5x scope attached to its top. I made some adjustments. When I saw that it is much easier to use, I finally was ready to use this rifle. Then I followed Roth, who was going to a nearby Asian looking building.
Roth: "Come on, Joseph, you will be the sniper while I will be the spotter." I just nodded and went towards the building to set up the sniper nest.
It didn't take us long to set ourselves up and waited to see if we could find Lara. I was using the scope of the rifle to check the shantytown that is built below the old palace. Using my hearing, I could hear gunshots from farther away, all of a sudden, I saw Lara in a tight situation where she is climbing and is being shot by enemies.
I quickly aimed at the man who was going to shoot Lara with a bow when my crosshair was above his head. I took a second to slow down my heart and stop my shaking hands. Quickly pulled the trigger, killing the man in my sights.
I pulled the chamber to release the empty hot shell that was inside the rifle. I quickly switched the target towards the second man who was there. With eyes like a hawk, I pulled the trigger.
When I pulled the trigger, I heard the bullet explode inside the gun chamber, propelling the sniper bullet out of the barrel. My shoot travels through the air, breaking the sound barrier. Then I saw the shell curved down due to gravity hitting the man between the eyes when he was looking at me. When I saw both targets are down, I called out my shots to Roth.
Joseph: "Targets Eliminated.." Roth uses his binoculars and double-checks if that's the only enemies around the area. Then I grabbed his radio to talk to Lara, who just climbed up the ledge.
Roth: "We got you covered, girl; you are clear to climb up." I looked through my scope and saw that she has wounds all over her body, but one thing that made me frown was were her wounds on the side of the stomach
Lara: "Roth… Grims dead," she said, holding onto the radio with a sad look on her face. "They tried to use him as leverage to make me surrender... But he won't let them." when I heard this, I looked at Roth, who looked dazed that his old friend just died.
Roth: "Grim you... Stubborn bastard." he said while facing away from his binoculars.
Lara: "I am sorry, Roth." when I heard this, I just sighed and brought out my radio to talk to Lara.
Joseph: "Lara, don't be sorry… just make sure his life wasn't sacrificed for nothing." I said to Lara, who was surprised to hear my voice. Then Roth backed me up after my words.
Roth: "we'll raise a glass to the old man when we get out of here." he said towards Lara.
Lara: "I need to get closer can you cover me again," she said while looking at the bridge to cross the palace. When I heard her words, I looked through the scope and saw that there were multiple enemies on the bridge she wanted to pass.
Joseph: "I advise you not to go to the palace. There are lots of enemies that are on top of the bridge. I only have sights on you until the palace walls." I said to try to stop Lara from going to the palace.
Lara: "Just do it, Joseph. I need to find the others that Grim said that are trapped in there." she said while having a pleading look on her face. We looked at each other for a minute when suddenly our radio started talking again.
???: "rescue chopper N888RC is responding to SOS, inbound from freighter Trinity." when I heard this, my hair stood up, my focus on Lara is now on the radio I am holding. Roth answered the call while Lara ran towards the bridge, which forced me to help her.
Roth: "this is Conrad Roth of the Endurance. Do you copy." but the radio only gave static noise. Roth looked at me with a hopeful look on his face then started talking to his radio. "Lara, did you hear that a rescue helicopter is inbound!"
Lara: "That tremendous news Roth; set up a signal I am going in for Sam and the others." When I heard this, I quickly talked to her.
Joseph: "Lara, maybe I should come…" but before I could say anything, Lara denied me from coming with her.
Lara: "I don't want to lose more people to save me, Joseph, just stay with Roth. I got Sam and the others into this mess, and I am getting them out." she said through the radio before cutting it off. I looked at the receiver and sighed. I looked at Roth, and he nodded at me, I readied myself and looked through the scope.
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---on the bridge--
On the bridge, there were groups of people guarding the entrance to the palace. The temperature above the bridge was going down as the sun hid behind the hills. However, the group of people didn't seem faced with cold temperatures and are happily smoking and talking to each other to pass the time.
"Hey, do you think our guys caught the outsiders," the man said towards the group. The people around him started laughing at the man who asked the question.
The man who asked the question was mad and started talking again. "Hey, I am serious here; they killed lots of our men. Even our sniper team went missing in the woods," he said out of anger.
An African man started talking to the man who got angry, "calm down, Harry; you don't have to worry about them; they would come here anyway to save their people…" he said while bringing out his gun to show how much power he holds.
Another man who looked scared pitched into their conversation, "Father Mathias will send us to the oni's if we don't find them," he said while looking at the African man who pretended he didn't hear the scarred man's words.
All of a sudden, the group's attention was drawn to an Asian man who is walking towards us. "What the.." but before he could shout to us what he just saw, he was shot in the head. All the groups wherein disarray while looking for the shooter.
Shouts and panics were now heard throughout the bridge, trying to find who is shooting them. All of a sudden more people were shot in the head.
Someone in the group said something while most of the men were in a state of panic"Sniper! Sniper! Find the muzzle flash." when the group heard this, they started looking around. But before they could shout out the sniper's location. A bullet passed through their head in between the eyes.
"We can't find the sniper, and the sniper would kill us when we see a glint." a man yelled while trying to peek out of cover. When his head was halfway out of cover, his head burst like a balloon. His brain matter was spraying over the floor.
More people were going down until almost all the people who were previously on the bridge died. But all of a sudden, one man found a girl who was climbing up the bridge. He went towards her and used her as a hostage. The man was about to grab the girl, but his head burst into more parts. But because of his forward momentum, he accidentally pushed the girl off the bridge.
We all looked over the bridge, thinking that she was dead. "Hey, they went over is she dead." the man said, but before he could say anything else, more heads burst like balloons.
"Shit take cover, we still have a sniper we need to find," a man said, taking cover, but while he was taking cover, he saw a glimpse of the girl that fell over. He started yelling to start shooting below the bridge. "Hey, I see the girl is still alive below the bridge."
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I pulled the gun chamber and released more hot shells; I kept count of how much more ammo I have left. I silently cursed to myself when I saw that I hadn't had enough bullets left to shoot at the enemies.
Roth: "two more people coming at Alpha three" when I heard his words, I looked over the scope and found them.
Joseph: "contact," I said while redying my self to shoot my rifle,
Roth: "check parallax and mill then hold over" when I heard his words, I slowed down my beating heart and talked to Roth.
Joseph: "ready to shoot," I said while my eyes pupil went smaller like a camera to get a better sight.
Roth: "take a shot when you are ready," he said, which I didn't delay and squeezed the rifle's trigger. Then I pivoted a little bit and shot the other guy who was next to the man who I just killed.
All of a sudden, I saw a man running towards Lara when I was looking over my scope. My heart quickened and squeezed the trigger to kill the man who was running toward Lara. I shot the man, but his body kept moving forward, pushing Lara off the bridge.
When I saw that Lara was falling, my heart stopped beating as I saw her fall to her death. But thankfully, she grabbed onto something and started climbing back up again. Without delay, I was going to shoot more, but my mag was empty.
Joseph: "reloading," I said while taking the mag out of the gun and replacing it. Then I pulled the chamber and released the shell inside. Roth told me the next target, and I started shooting more people.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone