Arknights: When Hunters Meet (A Tacet x Projekt Red novel)

Chapter 4 - Glimpses and the Shadow of a Red Death

Next morning I was deathly tired, having not slept at all during the previous night.

It was too cold and too dangerous after dispatching the scout team so close to their base. My new, and not so insulated clothes I might add, wouldn't have fooled anyone if they found the dead owner bereft of his attire. So long and restless I marched through the night. Until in the early grey of the following morning I found myself on the outskirts of what seamed to be a very small town. Some buildings rising as tall as four levels.

It was the first time I would hear of battle in this new world. It was an interrupted cacophony of guns shots, strange explosions and other bewildering powers that were unleashed. Finding a good vantage point on a small hill I surveyed my options. Not for the first time they weren't looking so good.

The grim looking town was surrounded on both sides at some distance with a set of sharp jutting cliffs. Thus, there were only two ways in and out of that valley where the town was set in. Back where I came from or on the other end of the city. On its eastern side the land was barren, barely any grass grew there as if the soil was sick. And on its west side a sparse forest clung to the northern edge of the city, giving me a possible infiltration way, but no more cover it would offer on its southern exist.

Behind me was possibly the whole fighting force of the camp that I saw in pursuit of me. And so I found myself with a hard decision. Either make a very painstaking detour around the mountains surrounding the town itself. Or sneak through the battling sides in the city and slip through to the southern exit. My supplies were gone and thus I chose expediency.

Through my scope I could see faintly the battling sides. People in white engaging a much smaller group of people in black and blue. The latter also having formed a ring around what seamed to be non-combatants and wounded... civilians. I lowered my scope. Using my long honed skills I crept ever silently towards that town and entered it. Cunningly avoiding any combat or hot spots.

Surpassing even the fleeing group of people as they seemingly got bogged down in the town's centre. Breaking into a four level building I climbed to the top, hoping to jump onto the parallel nearby structure. It would be risky. I could be seen. But at this point the streets were crawling with the white masked figures. The sewers as I found out were booby trapped. That building I aimed for might as well have been a trap for the black clad figures. Yet it wouldn't stop a veteran like me with years of survival under his belt. The building was unoccupied, and the top was clear. There I had a good vantage point. Carefully I sneaked a peak all around my area and indeed the main force of white robed people were converging onto the overwhelmed and besieged group.

I studied them through my scope. They were desperately holding their damaged shields trying to protect one another and the civilians. There again I noticed different races in this new group but none that I could clearly name by species. That was my time to jump over the next building while everyone was distracted.

I stopped in my tracks.

''I should jump.'' I thought.

I should have jumped... Yet I couldn't pull myself to.

I sighed deeply. I turned around and prompted my M40A1 rifle on the edge and took aim. A monstrous beast man wielding a large hammer was poised to take down the main defender of the small group. I held my breath and aimed, my weapon and me proved true as the shot went straight through it's left eyeball. Its hammer slipped out of its fingers, and its torso slumped backwards as its legs gave in. Taking no break I shuffled to the next target. A menacing looking horned figure wielding a staff seemed to gather more and more light, or power, further back behind the main attack line. I took the shot and my bullet hit the core of the staff. A great explosion and fire burst out, engulfing tens of white robed people!