BXBX NOVEL Chapter 179: What's a soldier's fate?
Sitting down in her nest, Fay pulled her eye out of the gun\'s scope and looked down the hill\'s slope.
Down there, Peter\'s captive was busy organizing the relief camp for all the wounded who came to seek aid.
This, apparently, was all part of the deal Peter made. And as ridiculous as it was to invite all of the survivors to the forest with just the condition of only half of them bearing arms…
Fay had to admit.
\'It\'s pretty freaking genius…\'
Half of the surviving mercenaries were allowed to bear their arms while the other half stood without a weapon. And now, safely retreated behind the first line of the trees, they were in the home of Celestials and Divines.
In fact, neither side had any interest in fighting. But it still took this careful consideration to ensure neither side would actually try to make this into an opportunity.
For Fay\'s side, things didn\'t really change. Instead of having the humans encircled on their last leg, they now had them surrounded within their forest. What\'s more, half of them had no weapons!
For celestials, this was all but a win-win situation.
On the other hand, for the mercenaries… nothing really changed either.
They were already at the mercy of the forest dwellers. But even with half of their weapons gone, they were too numerous to be taken down in one, swift attack.
In the end, they only sacrificed a few hundred meters of distance they would have to retreat in a more or less organized matter for a chance to save their skin and potentially help bring an end to the war.
\'And right now, everything rides on Peter\'s fight,\' Fay thought as she completed the procedure of changing the barrel.
\'Last one,\' she thought, sparing the last of the now empty casings a single glance before setting the gun down and turning back to her task.
For now, things were more or less in order.
After the initial clash, the entire line of battle turned into a sea of individual skirmishes.
Fay fixed all the straps on the gun and ensured the barrel sat firmly on the small pile of earth Fay had her prisoner construct before sending her off to deal with all the mercenaries.
By the time she brought her eye to the ocular of the scope, though, Fay saw the first seeds of potential disaster appear all over the line.
\'They are moving,\' she thought, tracing the movement of Peter\'s right wing.
To the left, the situation appeared stable. For now, even the right-wing held up well. And at the center, Peter didn\'t hold himself back, scattering entire swaths of enemy soldiers with those wondrous weapons of his.
For now, everything appeared to go more or less alright. But behind the backs of those clashing with Peter\'s right-wing, Fay saw more and more fresh cavalry rapidly advancing to the flank of their formation, exploiting their mounts to quickly gain ground.
\'Damn,\' Fay cursed lightly before taking aim and calmly readying herself for the shot.
She was on her last barrel. And Fay had no wish to tell Peter she broke all the available parts for his favorite toy!
Swish!
By now, Fay strangely enjoyed the whisper of the gun.
She could feel changes in its tone, depending on how hot the gun\'s barrel was, depending on the winds, and all sorts of other factors.
And by now, she hardly bothered to observe the effects of her shots beyond the point of cold confirmation of the hit.
One of the riders leading the expansion of the human wing fell down, the central part of his massive horse suddenly gone in flames, his own body peppered by the red-hot shrapnels. His sudden fall slowed down the human advance for a little… Only for someone the chaos to quickly quell under the sheer level of discipline of those soldiers.
Swish!
Fay calmly reloaded the gun with a strangely familiar movement of her wrist.
Even though she only started to use this gun very recently, she now felt as if it was an extension of herself.
\'Stay,\' Fay wished, pulling the trigger and calmly moving her hand up to the lock of the gun.
This was the gun\'s last available barrel, so Fay had to pace her shots.
And just like before, one by one, she brought down the enemy soldiers, stalling their advance for two entire minutes… Before the situation changed.
Peter now stood alone in the middle, just done clearing out a large area of enemies, singlehandedly wreaking havoc at both wings of the enemy formation at once.
To his left, he easily shredded nearly half of the enemy troops, freeing most of his relatively well-off forces.
To his right, he didn\'t really have the angle to do so. And as he was about to bring some more relief to the right wing, to stop the ongoing collapse…
\'Shit!\'
Startled by the sudden movement, Fay moved her gun and traced the unlikely intrusion in her field of view.
At first, she glued her aim to where the object was. Then, she corrected to where it would be once the shot would arrive, even with how insanely rapid it was. And by the time the object fell down to the ground, Fay already started to devise plans to force whatever it was into the path of her shots.
But as it turned out, there was no need for her to do anything.
\'It\'s him,\' she only thought when an armor-less figure all the way at the distant edge of the camp struggled to gather from the ground after a relatively agile landing.
Yet, before the man could do anything, a flurry of lethal shots came his way, courtesy of Peter\'s timely reaction. Yet, as Peter turned to help the right-wing again…
\'No!\'
She couldn\'t see the man moving. His body was still, save for him manipulating something around his chest.
By her gut alone, she felt he would move. And so, before he could, she pressed her finger instead.
\'Again!\'
Fay\'s thoughts tunneled on Peter and his immediate surroundings, quick four swings of her wrist inserted the next bullet in the chamber.
Reading her intent and worry, Peter raised his gun, and Fay opened her mouth to breathe out a sigh of relief.
\'Even if he survived my shot, he wouldn\'t handle a series from so close.
Fay\'s breath nearly started to leave her mouth, when reality snapped.
The likely leader of the enemy no longer laid down, suppressed by the overwhelming might of artillery-worthy rounds. He was now swinging his axe right at Peter\'s neck with speed greater than anything she had ever seen.
He moved from his spot all the way up to Peter in a time shorter than it would take her to press her finger. And for him to just complete the swing…
Fay\'s vision suddenly darkened as time rapidly slowed down, turning perfectly still in less time than it took the enemy leader to complete his swing.
A distant echo of pain exploded at Fay\'s core as the darkness around her continued to intensify.
Something cold, and ancient seemed to lurk in it, bristling to free itself from whatever held it within the darkness.
And Peter\'s head, by some miracle, leaned back just enough for him to avoid the fatal strike.