Chapter 11: The Divine Mist Heist (Part 3)

Tosaka fell to the ground. Blood spread from his head, staining the ground beneath him red.

The Royal Fleet, Time Attendant, Cao Shuo, Zhuge Zhai, Francis hiding in the distance... Everyone who witnessed it could scarcely believe their eyes. A Celestial Guard had been killed with one shot, just one bullet.

Even Gambling Snake, up in the hot-air balloon, was staring at Gunsmith as though he were an alien life-form. Many of his assumptions had been completely overturned in that instant.

Gunsmith never needed a second bullet to kill someone. As his grandfather Old Rohl was always saying, “There's no such thing as a ‘second shot’ in this world, just as you don't get a second go at life.”

In cold severe enough to numb his limbs, he would hold an old hunting rifle in his bare hands, without so much as a scope, and track his prey with the naked eye. Relying on innate intuition, he would account for wind speed, temperature, air resistance, his prey's split-second reactions, and countless other factors that could throw off a shot, finding the one way among infinite possibilities to take its life. This was what Gunsmith had learned and mastered before he turned ten. By twenty, hitting the target was no longer something he needed to think about. It was as instinctive as breathing.

Gambling Snake understood why Tian Yi had specifically taken Gunsmith off the submarine project to make a custom sniper rifle and a special bullet, then carry out this assassination at this exact time and place... Gunsmith was the only person in the world who could have done it.

As an ability user, Gambling Snake could not kill a Celestial Guard. As an assassin, he could not do it Gunsmith's way either. No sniper would dare claim a hundred percent certainty of hitting a target. Even at a distance of only a hundred meters, with the most advanced firearms, killing a person and shooting at a target were two different things.

But when that bastard Gunsmith said he'd hit the left eye, he hit the left eye. The bullet had traveled more than five thousand meters, struck the pupil, entered the brain, pierced the skull, and finally embedded itself in the steel plating of a shuttle vessel moored beside the dock.

That was how Tosaka's brains and blood had come to spatter the ground behind him. The destruction of his brain's left hemisphere had robbed him of most of his ability to make logical sense of what he saw and heard. By the time he realized what had happened, he was an instant from death.

“That really was impressive. A hot-air balloon isn't a completely stationary sniping position to begin with, and the target was so far away that even a slight tilt of his head would have affected the result. What sort of training could possibly have brought you to this level?” Gambling Snake couldn't help marveling. “No... Reaching this level must go beyond training. Is there really only a fine line between genius and idiocy...?”

Gambling Snake was holding the binoculars now. Gunsmith had known the result the moment he pulled the trigger, so he didn't bother looking through the scope. He sat there and began taking the gun apart. “What? You want to learn to shoot? I thought you liked getting up close and slitting throats and such.”

“Preference has nothing to do with it. My skill in the art of killing is a matter of fate, not my heart's desire.” Gambling Snake lowered the binoculars. “My mentor once told me that the more refined your killing skills, the closer you could get to your target. But now it seems that, at any distance, so long as you can take your technique to its limit, you can become a master.”

Gunsmith chuckled. “Heh... I'm no master. When it comes to killing, you're the one who should be teaching me. Though I have killed quite a few people. Anyway, if Tian Yi wants someone dead, I kill them. If I don't do it, those people will die sooner or later anyway. Might even meet a worse end, with some cult symbol on their face or something.”

Naturally, he took the gun apart faster than Gambling Snake had put it together, and soon had the sniper rifle back in its case.

“Get ready to withdraw,” Gambling Snake said. “I'll send the signal.”

Gunsmith acknowledged him and leaped out of the balloon onto the rooftop at the other end of its tether.

Gambling Snake stayed in the balloon, fiddling with something for a dozen seconds or so. When he was done, he stretched out and jumped backward out of it, severed the tether in midair with his hidden blade, and landed gracefully. Then he straightened up and walked briskly to the rooftop's only door. He turned the handle and opened it. On the other side, astonishingly, lay an underground parking garage.

Gunsmith followed Gambling Snake inside, taking the oddity in stride. The instant the door closed again, the connection between the two separate spaces was severed...

Meanwhile, the balloon they had occupied slowly rose into the sky. Less than thirty seconds later, it exploded in midair. Then a black flame burned a huge inverted cross into the sky, where it remained for about a minute before dispersing.

The whole city could see it. Naturally, so could the people at the dock.

After Tosaka's death, it was hard to say whether the two sides were in a standoff or simply dumbstruck. In any case, they had stood there for two or three minutes without making any rash moves. Now, all of a sudden, they saw this symbol appear in the sky over the distant city.

Time Attendant seemed to have realized something, though there was still much he couldn't immediately make sense of. Zhuge Zhai, on the other hand, lived up to his position as strategist. He needed no lengthy reflection; he understood in moments.

Neither of them could possibly have heard the gunshot from five kilometers away, but both had seen Tosaka take a bullet through the head, and both knew this shot had been extraordinary. Who in the world today could do something like that? Who could kill a Celestial Guard with a single bullet? Others might not be able to guess, but Time Attendant and Zhuge Zhai could. Even if they hadn't worked it out before, how could they fail to understand after seeing that symbol rise several kilometers away?

Gently waving his straw fan, Zhuge Zhai put on a smug expression. “Look at that, just look! That shot came from our reinforcements. As you can see, sir, we've got troops you weren't counting on! Whichever part of the Empire you're from, I've already told you the terms of the deal. They still stand. Just tell us, will you take it or won't you?”

“Heh... Ha... Hahahahaha!” Time Attendant actually threw back his head and laughed.

Only Cao Shuo understood perfectly well that Time Attendant was laughing because he had nothing to fear, rather than because he disbelieved the strategist. That shot could kill an expert of Tosaka's caliber, one of the Ten Celestial Guards, but it could not kill him...

Time Attendant soon stopped laughing, took a cell phone from his pocket, and speed-dialed a number. “Francis,” he said the moment the call connected.

“Y-yes, sir.” Francis seemed only just to have recovered his wits.

“Go aboard, find that bullet, then leave with the fleet.” Time Attendant hung up as soon as he finished, without giving him a moment to reply.

He turned and called out, “Here are my credentials.” Both he and Francis were in plain clothes, so he pulled his credentials from his pocket and, with a flick of his hand, tossed them dozens of meters straight into the hands of a sailor aboard a shuttle vessel. “I am now the highest-ranking officer here. I order the escort mission to proceed. Leave behind the little bit of mist that hasn't been loaded. All vessels may get underway. My subordinate...” By then, Francis had leaped swiftly to the edge of the dock. He came up beside Time Attendant and tried to say something, only for his deputy director to send him flying aboard with a casual shove.

Time Attendant continued where he had left off. “My subordinate will take command of the fleet. Your highest priority is to safeguard the mist aboard. Set sail for Hell Island. Execute immediately.” He turned, his gaze fixed solely on Cao Shuo. “I'll deal with these rebels.”

Zhuge Zhai had more or less expected his lie to be seen through. If that sniper really had been on Xingtian's side, he wouldn't have stood there looking so dumbfounded for so long. Seeing the situation change so suddenly, he was about to offer Boss Cao another plan as quickly as he could.

But the usually taciturn Cao Shuo made an immediate decision and shouted his orders. “I'll deal with this man. The rest of you, follow the strategist and board the ships. Take as many as you can. Fight with everything you've got. Don't hold back for fear of dying!”

That's our boss for you, Zhuge Zhai thought. At the crucial moment, he and I come up with the same plan!

He wasted no more words. Holding his fan, he bowed with clasped hands and answered, “As you command!” Then he led his brothers in a charge. As the verse goes, the spirit of slaughter gathers all day into battle clouds; the chill clang of watch kettles carries through the night. Here was their chance to fight, and every moment was worth a fortune.

Seizing the shuttle vessels and escaping out to sea with the mist had been Xingtian's original battle plan. Taking the mist on land would do them no good. They couldn't possibly transport such a large quantity of dangerous material out of the commandery. The best time to attack was when the loading was nearly, but not quite, complete. A successful negotiation would be fine, and if negotiations failed, they could seize the ships immediately. If possible, they would seriously injure or even kill the Celestial Guard. That was the ideal outcome.

Now the Inverted Cross bunch had used some bizarre trick to kill the Celestial Guard in a surprise attack, and a mysterious expert had appeared on the other side. Though the situation had changed, it hadn't strayed too far from their original plan. Zhuge Zhai was still confident he could seize at least three ships.

The Royal Fleet's officers and men were utterly unprepared for one upheaval after another. It was the ship's captain, a colonel, who acted decisively, shouting into his communicator, “All ships, weigh anchor! Get underway immediately! All combat personnel, prepare to engage!”

Seeing the fastest of Xingtian's ability users already nearing the shuttle vessel closest to the dock, Time Attendant darted toward the water's edge at astonishing speed and blocked their path.

Dozens of ability users attacked Time Attendant at once. At that moment, there might have been a thousand ways for him to die, but he needed only one move to resolve the crisis with ease.

An invisible force field spread outward in a circle centered on Time Attendant, crushing the surface of the dock and nullifying the other ability users' attacks. It even pushed the armored shuttle vessel, which displaced over two thousand tons and had not yet finished weighing anchor, more than ten meters away from the dock.

“Weaklings with no value whatsoever as subjects of observation, you are about to enter the most meaningful period of your lives, when your lives intersect with mine.” Time Attendant hovered in the air, murderous intent already showing in his eyes. “Come experience the infinite power that separates all things in this world.”