酷视

This battle was never supposed to happen. No one really planned for it… And yet, some sorts of tactics still came into play, forcing me to re-evaluate my opinion of the humans of this world.

As such, while the enemy to my left was pretty well exposed to my line of fire… The same couldn\'t be said about my right flank. And as if to make matters worse, it was the right wing of my formation that was quickly starting to crumble under the constant pressure of the endlessly expanding line of the enemy.

\'Just a little bit longer and they will start to break!\'

There was nothing the celestials and divines on my right flank could do.

They could still fight in a formation for as long as everyone remained within arm\'s length of the other… But with the local number advantage of the enemy reaching into four and five times, the cavalry could simply outstretch their line to the point where my allies, by matching it, would turn into a bunch of scattered warriors as opposed to an organized line of defense.

\'I need to move some people over to the right!\' I thought, turning my eyes back towards my own lines while already twisting myself on my heels to aim my weapon back to my right and lift some of the pressure on my collapsing wing.

BOOM!

This time, the shock of the explosion was much greater than any before. The noise was too great.

The shoot was way too close for my comfort, even with the neu-grand in the eyes of someone as perfect for it as Fay!

Unable to ignore this threat, I turned my eyes…

Only to see flames engulf a kneeling man as the charge of the condensation round went off within his barrier.

\'Didn\'t I shoot him already?\' I thought, struggling to keep my thoughts straight and focused, as if something continued to ring in my head, trying to force my attention away from the battle.

I was sure about that. Half of the series I haphazardly released to my left went to that man, just due to my gut feeling. And for Fay to risk such a close shot…

As the fires and smoke cleared, the air around the threat flickered a little before returning to normal and allowing the dust to dissipate properly.

[

And, against all odds, the man survived.

He was all battered down and covered in blood, currently busy vomiting out even more of it to pay me any attention.

\'He survived that shot?\' Coldly analyzing the situation, I turned my gun to the man, eager to finish him off, just in case.

I pulled the trigger and…

Click!

The conveyor mechanism within the gun found no further projectile to feed into the tiny mass accelerator.

\'Shit.\'

Cursing under my breath, I reached back to my backpack, quickly pulling out a fresh cartridge with the firing needles while pressing a special pin on the handle that ejected the empty one.

Over a few meters away, the powerful man continued to cough blood while desperately trying to slam himself in the chest.

\'Is he suffocating?\' I thought, a sense of guilt filling my soul.

It was one thing to kill one\'s enemies. But I\'ve got no personal beef with them. As such, causing them pain and suffering…

I pressed my lips together, quickly exchanging the cartridge before smashing it in place. Ready to cut the man\'s suffering, I raised my gun and aimed…

\'FUCK!\'

The time slowed down, allowing me to watch with horror how the man, despite all his bleeding wounds, was just a few inches away, his arm outstretched, the blade of his axe quickly cutting through the air that kept it from my throat…

The axe moved slower and slower, cutting through the last few remaining inches… Only to stop when the time came to a complete stall.

A hand\'s with away from my skin.

My skin started to rupture all over, my blood breaking the restriction of the stopped-flow of time and quickly pouring out of my wounds. And to be perfectly honest, my pain receptors didn\'t seem to be influenced by the time stop, exploding with a fiery power all over my body.

The prize for using this crutch was great. But right now, only my blood tribute kept me from literally losing my head.

\'Move!\' I cursed myself, ignoring the pain to the best of my ability while pushing my extremely heavy body through the thick, viscous fluid the air had turned into.

My skin continued to break open in more and more places. More and more of my blood evaporated on the altar of my skill. But, bit by bit, I managed to lean back, pulling my throat out of the swinging path of the axe.

\'Just a little bit longer!\' I gritted my teeth while swimming through the inferno of pain and the thick slurry of the air.

Then, everything collapsed.

Unable to offer any more of my blood, I had no other choice but to drop the spell.

The axe swung by, scrabbing just the tiny hair on my throat…

I finally managed to press the finger on my gun\'s trigger, pulling it all the way back and holding it even when my body followed the momentum and fell to the back.

When my back struck the ground, I instantly rolled away, dropping the smaller gun to let it dangle on the strap of my neck while I reached out for my shottie.

Against a man who could survive a shot from neu-garand, those tiny needles of the neu-p90 would hardly do any harm.

My only choice right now, my best bet at survival… it was all the overwhelming force of the slugs!