Five Shots, Five Graves
The world inside Kael's scope shifted.
The darkness dissolved, revealing a glowing three-dimensional grid.
Mathematical lines intersected in midair, mapping the invisible weak points of space.
Three feet above the Vanguard squad's glowing blue shield dome, a faint dimensional crack hovered.
It was tiny, unstable, and entirely hidden to the naked eye.
He didn't aim at the soldiers.
His barrel shifted sixty feet to their left, locking onto a rusted steel beam sticking out from the jagged ceiling.
Beside him, Vespera watched with wide crimson eyes, caught in total fascination.
"What are you doing, little sniper?" she purred, dragging a sharp nail down his spine.
Kael didn't answer.
He let out a slow breath.
And squeezed the trigger.
SHHHHLLLLUCK!
The second singularity slug tore out of the heavy barrel.
Travelling at Mach 4, it slammed straight into the jagged steel beam.
It didn't shatter the metal on impact.
Instead, riding the cosmic energy linked to Kael's interface, the slug struck at the exact angle needed to fracture space itself.
ZWWIP!
The heavy bullet vanished into a tiny, glowing purple portal on the beam.
Three feet above the Vanguard squad's impenetrable blue shield, a second portal tore open.
The slug materialized on the other side, bypassing the entire energy field and dropping directly inside their defensive perimeter.
Cleaner #2 was staring straight ahead, plasma cannon raised and ready.
He never saw the bullet descending into the top of his helmet.
CRUNCH!
The depleted star-metal round punched through the top of his skull, tore straight down his spine, and blew out through his pelvis.
He didn't even get to scream.
The man simply folded into a mangled heap of meat and armor, collapsing hard onto the wet concrete.
The squad flinched as fresh blood sprayed across the inside of their own energy shield.
"HE'S INSIDE! HE'S INSIDE THE SHIELD!" one of the cleaners shrieked, blindly spraying his plasma cannon into the cavern roof.
Bright blue blasts scorched the ceiling, showering them in sparks and falling rubble.
"HOW?! LOOK AT THE HUD! THE DOME IS STILL AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!" Vance screamed, his voice breaking from raw, ugly panic.
"I DON'T KNOW! HE'S IN THE WALLS! HE'S IN THE AIR!"
Sshhh-clack.
Kael racked the bolt again.
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He aimed at a puddle of stagnant water fifty feet to their right.
SHHHHLLLLUCK!
The third bullet hit the water, opened a rift, and exited directly behind Cleaner #3.
SPLAT!
The heavy round tore into the back of his knee joint.
It ricocheted off the inner plating of his thigh armor and surged straight upward.
In a fraction of a second, the kinetic force shredded his vital organs before bursting outward through his collarbone.
SPLAT!
Blood erupted inside his visor, blinding him before he even hit the ground.
The soldier crumpled into a lifeless heap.
[User 'Zark': WHAT AM I WATCHING?! THIS ISN'T A FIGHT! IT'S A MATHEMATICAL EXECUTION! 📐💥]
[User 'Star_Dust_69': GEOMETRY DIFF! HE'S LITERALLY SHOOTING THEM THROUGH PORTALS! 🤯😱]
[User 'Thorne_Hater_Club': THEY'RE TRAPPED IN A TURTLE SHELL WITH A GHOST! SHIELD IS INTACT AND THEY'RE STILL DYING! 🐢🩸]
[User 'Weapons_Nut_44': Wait... look at the trajectory! He isn't penetrating the Aegis field. He's using the micro-fissures in the cave's spatial grid as relay points. The bullets aren't breaking the shield, they're spawning INSIDE it!]
[User 'Degenerate_Deity': The way Kael doesn't even blink while tearing them apart... god, it's sickeningly hot. My heart is pounding out of my chest. 🥵💦]
[User 'GamerGrip_X': BRO IS PLAYING PORTAL WHILE THEY'RE PLAYING CALL OF DUTY LMAOOOOOO 💀💀💀]
[User 'Blood_Bath_Bill': PAINT THE DOME RED! NO SURRENDER FOR THORNE'S DOGS! 🩸🔥]
[User 'Horny_For_Havoc': The cold, ruthless silence from Kael right now... it's literally an aphrodisiac. Step on me, king. 😭🫦]
[User 'Sleeping_Bug': "HE'S IN THE WALLS!" THE GUY IS FIRING AT THE ROOF OUT OF PURE PANIC AHAHAHA THIS IS PEAK COMEDY. LMFAO THEY ARE HAVING A FULL MENTAL BREAKDOWN 🤣🤣🤣]
[User 'Next_Kael': THEY ARE FREAKING OUT! LOOK AT THEM SPRAYING AT THE CEILING LIKE BLIND RATS! 🐀🔫]
[User 'X_Void_Walker_X': Chat is moving so fast no one will see that I want Kaelen to shoot through my soul next.]
[User 'Succubus_Envy_99': Vespera's tail wrapping around his leg while he slaughters them... I am violently envious right now. Give us more blood daddy Kael! 🥵🩸]
[User 'DragonBoredom': Magnificent. Absolute perfection. The sheer terror in their pathetic voices... Watching arrogant mortals realize their total insignificance is the greatest entertainment.]
Vespera let out a soft, shuddering gasp.
Her crimson tail wrapped tightly around Kael's leg, pulling herself flush against his side as a violent shiver ran down her spine.
She parted her lips, slowly tracing her tongue over her sharp fangs, swallowing the heavy, intoxicating scent of blood and absolute panic in the air.
Demons fed on terror.
And Kaelen Cross was serving her a banquet meant for gods.
"You're a monster," Vespera whispered, her dark voice dripping with pure, feverish adoration as her sharp nails ran through his thigh.
"I want you... all to myself, forever."
Sshhh-clack.
Kael racked the bolt twice in rapid, rhythmic precision.
SHHHHLLLLUCK! SHHHHLLLLUCK!
Two spatial ricochets tore through the air, one off the cavern wall, one off the concrete floor.
CRUNCH! SPLAT!
Cleaners #4 and #5 died before they could even blink.
The first slug smashed through a man's ribs, instantly collapsing his lungs into ash.
The second struck straight through the throat, severing his head from his shoulders inside the sealed suit.
The impenetrable Vanguard Phalanx was gone, reduced to a pile of smoking, bleeding meat.
Only two men remained standing in the dim, bloody cavern.
Vance, and a terrified rookie named Miller.
Their Tier-5 Aegis shield was still perfectly intact, glowing blue, protecting absolutely nothing.
Miller dropped his plasma cannon, falling to his knees in the blood of his comrades.
"We give up! We surrender! Please!" Miller sobbed over the open comms, raising his mechanical hands in the air.
Kael didn't say a word.
He didn't accept surrenders from Marcus Thorne's dogs.
He racked the bolt.
SHHHHLLLLUCK!
The bullet bounced off a stalactite, materialized inside the dome, and blew Miller's right arm completely off his torso.
Miller screamed, falling sideways into the mud, clutching the spurting stump of his shoulder.
Vance was hyperventilating.
His heart rate surged so high that his suit's internal medical suite flooded his veins with synthetic sedatives just to stop a cardiac arrest.
He was trapped in a meat grinder with a ghost who bent space itself.
His frantic eyes darted across the dark cavern, searching for any way out.
And then, his gaze landed on Seraphina.
She was still kneeling on the rusted rail tracks where Graves had kicked her, completely hollow.
The blood, the gunfire, the screaming, she hadn't reacted to a single drop of it.
A manic, desperate spark ignited in Vance's ruined mind.
Cross was a sniper. He was treating them like sport.
But Thorne had mentioned it, Kael and the Valkyrie shared a history.
"YOU WANT TO PLAY, YOU FUCKING GHOST?!" Vance screamed, abandoning the useless shield and stomping toward her.
His massive mechanical gauntlet clamped onto the unarmored scruff of Seraphina's neck, hoisting her violently into the air.
She dangled from his grip like a broken doll, lifeless and unresisting.
Vance thrust his opposite arm forward, exposing the glowing command module embedded in his wristpad.
"I HAVE THE DETONATOR!" Vance roared into the echoes of the cavern, his voice shrill with raw mania.
"I'LL BLOW HER FUCKING HEAD OFF! I'LL DO IT RIGHT NOW!"
"SHOW YOURSELF, CROSS!"