Chapter 33: PvP: Vagabond’s Hunt
--Chapter 33--
Title>> PvP: Vagabond’s Hunt
Bang!
The sound reached Xavier a fraction of a second too late.
By the time it rippled through his eardrums, the ground had already slammed into him.
His shoulder struck the ground first, followed by the back of his head as dry leaves burst beneath the impact.
The collision rippled through his body before crashing into something buried deep inside his chest.
For a heartbeat, his deep black eyes simply stared at the canopy overhead and the rays of light piercing through it.
The air was deceptively calm. Dust drifted through shafts of sunlight piercing the canopy, swirling with complete indifference to what had just happened.
Xavier’s thoughts refused to connect, but his instinct to survive did.
Piece by piece, the puzzle came together.
"I got shot."
Instinctively, his hand reached for his chest, and all he met was warmth and wetness.
Blood.
His breathing hitched, and his heart began pounding rapidly.
Each shallow breath sent a sharp sting through his chest. The bullet that hit him was still there, lodged somewhere between his ribs and his heart.
Too close for comfort. But if the bullet was still inside him...then his back wasn’t blown open.
Though..
It hurt.
It was definitely hot.
Just...not enough.
The agony he should have been drowning in never came.
Every instinct told him the wound should have felt like flesh pressed against burning coals.
Instead, the pain arrived muffled, distant... as though someone had turned the volume down on his own nerves.
Xavier’s brows knitted together.
Was it the game’s immersion?
Or was it Dragon Hide?
It couldn’t be either. The immersion so far had been so good that it felt like reality itself was now shaped as a game.
The draconic hide with the help of other defenses had probably stopped the round from reaching his heart, but it wouldn’t dull the pain.
Would it? It only took Xavier a little less than a second when it finally made sense.
The initial adrenaline rush might have masked the first few seconds of the impact.
But that wasn’t what this was.
His body had decided the wound was too severe for him to feel all of it.
Then it was his Demon bloodline’s pain suppression.
"...Huh?" The thought had barely formed when the system interrupted him.
[HOSTILE PLAYER ACTION DETECTED]
<< PLAYER HUNT INITIATED >>
Hunter: Vagabond X
Prey: Hunter X
[Victory Conditions]
• Hunter: Eliminate the target.
• Prey: Escape the Hunt Zone or eliminate the Hunter.
[Temporary Effects]
• Waypoint Navigation: DISABLED
• Regional Fast Travel: RESTRICTED
• Hunter Identity: REVEALED
• Hunt Chat: ACTIVATED
• Hunt Zone: ESTABLISHED
[Rewards available upon successful completion.]
Xavier read the notification while still lying on his back.
His fingers twitched towards his menu before stopping halfway. He already knew most of those functions had been unavailable to him ever since the System branded him an Irregular.
Practically every convenience a normal player enjoyed had been denied to him.
Yet the moment someone decided to hunt him...
Suddenly he qualified as a player again.
’Figures.’ he thought.
This wasn’t just a PvP battle though. It was exactly what the System called it.
A Hunt.
And if the bullet lodged inside his chest wasn’t enough to tell him which side of that Hunt he stood on, the glowing word Prey certainly was.
"Tsk."
Xavier clicked his tongue. "I’m no one’s prey."
Before the insult of that title had time to settle beside the bullet in his chest, another notification slid into view.
[The Empress of Errors watches you]
Xavier frowned.
He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. Then two more messages appeared beneath it.
[You are in my sights, darling...]
[Don’t bleed out and die.]
He only needed a glance to understand the dry humour and those choice of words.
There was only one person who would speak to him like that.
V.
She had somehow chosen the exact moment he was lying in the middle of an active Hunt, carrying a bullet in his chest, to send him another message.
The timing was almost impressive.
He almost laughed.
But right now, amusement could wait.
Survival came first.
The messages faded from his vision, but Xavier didn’t move.
Vagabond had already fired once. if a second shot hadn’t followed, it meant the Hunter was watching and waiting.
Which meant charging out now would be suicide.
And Xavier wasn’t interested in proving how brave he was to anyone.
The messages peeled away from his vision, but Xavier didn’t move a muscle.
Instead, he replayed the shot in his mind. He had caught the glint from the treeline a heartbeat before the world tilted beneath him.
Combine that with the angle of the wound and the fact that the bullet was still lodged inside his chest, it was enough to paint a rough picture.
The shot had come from somewhere northwest of his position, from an elevated firing point hidden beyond the trees.
Judging by what he knew of the Ranger class during the early game, the distance was probably between forty and eighty metres. It wasn’t an exact calculation, but it was close enough.
Whoever Vagabond was, this hadn’t been a chance encounter. He hadn’t stumbled across Xavier wandering through the forest. He had chosen the location beforehand and waited for Xavier to walk into it.
The realization lingered for only a moment before Xavier forced it aside.
If his own experience with the Ranger class was anything to go by, Vagabond would already be abandoning that firing position.
No competent sniper stayed in the same nest after revealing it, which meant Xavier had only a brief window to work with.
From a distance, he probably looked like a man too badly wounded to move, and Xavier had every intention of letting Vagabond keep believing exactly that.
Mana gathered silently at the tip of his finger. There was no flash of light, no elaborate casting circle and no chant.
He didn’t lift his head or even try to look towards the treeline. And only at the very last second did he raise one arm in the direction the shot had come from.
Bang!
A Mana Bullet tore through the forest.
***
From the fork of a towering tree, the narrow game trail below cut through the forest before bending around a cluster of exposed roots.
It was a shooting lane Vagabond had chosen long before Xavier ever wandered into it. The first shot should have ended there.
His crude sniper rifle was already slung over his shoulder as he slipped away from the compromised nest.
He had barely taken five steps when something whistled past his ear before exploding into the trunk beside him, spraying bark across the forest floor.
Vagabond stopped mid-stride and turned back towards the clearing.
The prey was still on the ground. Only one arm had moved, yet somehow the fraud had managed to send a return shot across fourty metres. It came far closer than it had any right to.
A slow smile spread beneath the shadow of Vagabond’s hood.
"Bloody interesting...but I’d win."
His eyes lingered on the motionless figure below for another second before he disappeared deeper into the forest.
This hunt might actually be worth remembering.
--End of Chapter--
A/N: Thank you guys for your support so far.
Fully grateful. T for Thanks.