Sniper Gauntlet Ascent (2)

In this game, guns are not the broken weapons they are in real life.

They have the advantage of high bullet velocity, making them hard for enemies to react to — but in exchange, they carry far fewer skills that channel mana. Guard gauge damage, in particular, tends to be lacking. Hard to dodge, easy to block. The way impact force is halved on a successful parry is a perfect example.

A straight-line breakthrough. After batting aside three direct shots, the Gunslinger bit his lip.

"Ah, this gets easy with practice. Don't think of it as batting the bullets away — think of it as placing your dagger in front of the muzzle ahead of time."

I said it was easy because it actually is easy.

Apparently my viewers just liked to overreact. A real gun would be a different story, but in-game, once the trigger is pulled, the trajectory lights up for you. It's like getting a chance to correct your answer if you got it wrong. With enough practice, even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an average player could manage it without much trouble.

Reading an aim line against a firearm character is basic fundamentals anyway. Once you're used to it, you can almost feel the bullets flying into your dagger on their own. Just like this. I shifted the blade a fraction and knocked aside the fourth bullet.

"See? Easy, right? That should leave him with one round."

Good. Being in-game made talking surprisingly manageable. Even while staying conscious of the stream, my concentration barely dipped.

A Gunslinger's sniper rifle holds five rounds total, and the last one comes with a power bonus. If Kanu loaded something like an explosive shell, even a successful parry risked taking damage. With two more enemies still waiting after this, there was no reason to eat an unnecessary loss.

The moment his bolt-action finished, I laid down a smoke screen as far forward as I could. The instant I stepped into the white haze, I drew two throwing weapons and hurled one to either side of the Gunslinger. Scattering my weapons as a distraction, I closed in under stealth.

The moment my form vanished, the Gunslinger went for the textbook response: deploying a Sentry Gun. An automated fixed turret that could lay down covering fire even when he couldn't move freely. Being magic-based, it was far cruder than its modern counterpart — but it was nothing to take lightly. That fixed turret was exactly what let Gunslingers hold their own in one-on-one fights. Even a Knight-class shield couldn't just tank that thing without a plan.

I'd already marked its position. That was enough. With stealth still active, I kinked my path toward the ceiling and set a Silver Thread. The instant I landed, Kanu's face was right in front of mine.

His reaction was a beat late, so I put a dagger into his face — or rather, I didn't. I just jabbed a finger under his chin.

"One kill? I'll let you off this once."

"…?!"

If that had been a dagger instead of a finger, the minimum result would have been a critical wound. But rules were rules. I had no intention of dealing damage with anything but a gun. I'd wanted to flick him on the forehead, honestly — the height difference just made that awkward.

Kanu's expression said something like, What the hell just happened to me?

"Excuse me a second."

While his attention was locked on my finger, I casually lifted the pistol from his holster. Checking the weight of the live rounds, I rode the shadows and closed on my real target — the Sentry Gun.

I'd never been particularly interested in the Gunslinger himself. Once I'd decided to kill with guns, close combat didn't offer much of an upside.

Infinity Black was a game in the end, and games come with a few inherent flaws. One of them: the algorithm that handles enemy recognition and the algorithm that controls firing are completely separate systems.

I lashed a rope tight around the Sentry Gun's body, then stuck one foot into its recognition range. At the same time, I sent out a clone—

"Alright. Fire!"

"What the hell—!"

It registered the intangible illusion as me — and opened fire. A storm of bullets poured out toward its own master. Hauling on the rope, I forced the Sentry Gun's aim around. A panicked Kanu canceled his skill and cut off the ammo feed, but that didn't empty the chamber on the spot. I tracked his escape path and wrung a forced full-auto dump out of the thing. He'd burned through several survival skills, but dodging every scattered round was still impossible. A few of them punched clean into his body.

The way he scrambled away was so entertaining I couldn't help a little giggle.

A fully spent Sentry Gun had outlived its usefulness. I wrecked it with a dagger so the cooldown would start ticking before he could resummon. Then I cheerfully emptied all five rounds from the heavy revolver as well.

As an Assassin, I got no accuracy correction on firearms — but the Duelist's Corridor was a battlefield with nowhere worth hiding. If you didn't think to parry, you were going to eat at least one shot.

"Pfft. Only landed one. Still, doesn't this look fun? You all should try it sometime if you get the chance."

The enemy wasn't dead, so the match wasn't over. With the troublesome Sentry Gun dealt with, I could take my time working through whatever cards he had left.

"Personally, I think shotguns have the best feel. Would be nice if I could finish this with one."

Weapons could always be stolen, after all.

Kanu was someone who measured himself fairly objectively. Spend a few seasons stuck in the same rank bracket and you can't help but figure it out — Ah. This is as far as I go. Where your limits actually are.

So the sniping hadn't come from any real malice. He'd known from the start that beating Gawol would be hard. She was the kind of opponent you were lucky to face even once. He was simply curious how strong someone who'd taken down a top-tier pro really was. And, well — he wouldn't have minded getting his name attached to a major talking point either.

Even if Gawol had landed on his team, Kanu would have played the match at full effort. And if he lost to her as an enemy, he was ready to take it with humility.

He just hadn't expected this.

"What the hell. That was a high-speed round."

From the first moment of contact, something had felt off. An Assassin who should have closed the gap immediately was taking her sweet time. Given the skill she'd shown in the Arena, he told himself it wasn't that strange. But the moment he let her get close — the moment a finger touched his chin — a real sense of crisis hit him.

This match. If I mess this up, I'm getting meme'd for the rest of my life.

This was no joke. Lately, cam streams and voice recordings had softened a lot of people's images, but this was Gawol. In the Arena, her intro video had teabagging as a running theme. And her original claim to infamy had been PK'ing streamers and pro gamers. Between Gawol and words like benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom, there was a distance that could never be closed.

But… what am I even supposed to do here?

The Sentry Gun that should have been his sturdy bulwark had turned traitor. After a pistol barrage sharper than expected, Gawol's real body came charging in.

Fast. Even answering with wide-spread buckshot, he could barely put a scratch on her. Rising shadow spikes became cover; a body that changed direction mid-motion launched toward the ceiling.

This was the opening. The same instinct that had carried him all the way to Infinity tier screamed it.

Even Gawol couldn't change direction in midair. He waited for her speed to dip just a little, finger tightening on the trigger—

Using a planted Silver Thread as a foothold, the Assassin twisted her trajectory in one fluid motion.

"Silver Thread? When did she even—"

At the start. When she'd kinked her path toward the ceiling!

He should have had three or four clean shots. One bad read, and he'd lost his aim point entirely. Now, before the Assassin closed the last of the distance, he had one final point-blank shot left.

Right now. The moment he went to pull the trigger— BANG!

A bullet fired a beat faster slammed into the shotgun's barrel. The last remaining pistol round.

Accounting for a player's superhuman strength, it was only a tiny twist. Recovering his aim took an instant — but something else came flying in as if it had been waiting, blotting out his vision. The stolen pistol, right in the eyes.

What? If she'd just thrown a dagger just now, wouldn't I be dead?

No time to think. The Assassin was already in his face, and all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that remained was to get carved up. What actually came, though, was a joint lock pinning both arms. A few buckshot blasts wasted themselves into empty air, and by the time he collected himself, his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weapon was gone.

"There we go. Got it."

"?"

Barely a single step of distance. Two fired rounds shattered one of the Gunslinger's legs each. For a moment his sternum and jaw throbbed where the stock had clubbed him. Then Gawol, completely unhurried, plucked a slug shell from Kanu's belt.

Click-clack. On the face that finished loading, there was almost a look of rapture.

"Thanks for the hard work."

Flame erupted from the black muzzle.