Fatal Shot

Seven hours later, the sky finally turned bright in the east.

Feng Luo’s shirt was wet with dew as he lay on the hill beside the canyon. The air was somehow freezing but fresher than ever. Although this was not the first time he had experienced dawn, he was still be amazed by the authenticity of the graphics in the game.

The next minute, he and Dan Hen saw several bright lights shining through the forest behind them, along with the humming noise of energy military vehicles. The arrivals of these vehicles put an end to their long night of waiting.

“They have finally come!”

Dan Hen turned over and sat up straight while taking out army-green binoculars from his backpack. He looked in the direction of the sounds as he half-lay in the bushes at the edge of the hill.

Scouts in the game of War were equipped with multifunction binoculars that consisted of detection, forming images, and even detecting heat signatures. Compared to a sniper, who observed by using his rifle’s scope, Scouts were able to detect targets in a shorter time frame, as well as scan for hidden individuals in the vicinity of the target area.

These multifunction binoculars certainly would have been suitable for Snipers, but without a Scout’s professional training, they could not be utilized as effectively. Therefore, most of the Snipers in War would team up with a Scout player, because the Scouts in the game could perform the same function as a spotter in real life.

A few minutes later, two dark green energy military vehicles equipped with bright white headlights arrived from the gravel road outside of the canyon. There were also eight energy motorbikes with two soldiers each surrounding the energy military vehicles. There were around 30 rebel soldiers.

Feng Luo had one of his eyes closed, and he placed his index finger on the M110’s trigger. He then turned the rifle scope slightly away from the opposing light source to get a clearer view of the rebel army from 1,000 meters away. Although the light was bad at the moment, the target vehicles were clearly visible. Through the magnified view of the rifle’s scope, none of the rebels shows any signs of alert on their faces. Clearly, there was no advanced warning of the ambush plan.

As the military vehicles drew closer and closer, Feng Luo and Dan Hen did not fire a shot. Instead, they only took out their weapons to prepare for their upcoming maneuvers.

Even the drowsy Marauder Swordsman, who was clad in purple, took out a purple two-handed alloy sword after being woken up by the system alert. He lowered his body down to the ground and carefully hid in the bushes.

Now was not the time. They had to wait for the enemies to step into the ambush. Only then could they engage, after the NPCs started making active attacks.

The rebel convoy was moving quickly, and their formation was scattered. Feng Luo and Dan Hen took a glance to each other. They knew that the enemies weren’t prepared for what awaited them.

Since the Town of Exiles was completely surrounded, it was indeed impossible for the enemy to know that a large group had set up an ambush on both sides of the canyon. Moreover, unless an inside man provided information, there was no reason to suspect that the enemy would know the exact time when their fleet would pass by.

Just as the entire rebel convoy had entered the canyon, something happened to the first energy military vehicle.

Boom!

A huge sound suddenly erupted from the ground of the canyon. At the same time, a light blue, electromagnetic field burst up from below the vehicle, vibrating with pulses of energy. The energy was nearly blinding in the pre-dawn light.

The electromagnetic landmine explosion created a disruption in the magnetic field. It not only caused the operating systems of the energy military vehicles to go idle, but a few of the motorbikes suddenly malfunctioned, causing the rebel soldiers to fall heavily to the ground. One of them even crashed into a giant rock at the side of the road, reducing two of the riders to sloppy flesh.

The aftermath of the landmine explosion was a two-meter-deep hole in the middle of the road, blocking the way for any other vehicles. But the explosion did not stop there. Two huge noises came from the hills behind the rebel troops. All the rocks and trees collapsed as the noise ended, blocking their only way out.

“Attack!”

Without the need for any commands, the players all started to attack at the same time.

Zoom! Zoom!

There were bullets everywhere. The sounds of gunfire resounded through the entire canyon. The sounds of bullets echoed off the cliff walls on both sides, creating the illusion that a single weapon was more than ten machine guns firing at the same time. In addition, colorful energy skills blasting down from the sky. Countless fireballs, light green wind blades, and transparent frozen arrows created a marvelous scene in the dull atmosphere. There were even players who were casting skills with areas of effects, such as Meteor Rain, Hurricane, and others. All the skills were cast toward the rebel troop again upon completing cooldown.

“Ahh! Ahh!”

The most unfortunate rebel soldiers were those who had been thrown from their bikes to the ground. They were totally exposed, without any cover to hide from the attacks. They were still recovering from the dizziness when five or six of them were swallowed by peppered bullets and skills, leaving only screams behind.

“Defend! Retreat!”

The continuous ambush and attacks had put the rebel troops into a state of chaos. However, as a part of the escort team, they were obviously trained professionals. After the first attacks, they got into cover and started to fight back using the weapons in their hands.

On top of the military vehicle that was still working, there was an XM214 machine gun similar to the one the armed Guards had used to defend the town. One of the rebel soldiers climbed up and started firing the XM214 machine gun, sweeping across the battlefield. In just two seconds, the bullets had formed a wall with a wide coverage area.

“Argh!”

Some overexcited players who had hopped out from the ambush point to cast their skills were instantly wiped out by the machine gun.

Based on Feng Luo’s experience of slaughtering the Beetle Boss, he knew that the power of the machine gun bullets was indeed stronger than the guns of the players. It would only take two to three shots for a normal player to be defeated.

Furthermore, this powerful machine gun had rounds larger than 15mm. If one were to get shot in the arm or the leg, it would be a “Critical Hit.”

The suppressive power of the XM214 machine gun was awful. With the support of its tremendous firepower, the rebels could actually fight on par with the players and the Guards, using the two energy military vehicles as cover. Certainly there were still a number of players who had chosen not to unleash their full power.

That’s weird, thought Feng Luo. I thought the commander was supposed to show himself by now.

Feng Luo had his finger on the trigger of his M110, but he hadn’t fired a shot because he had only one target: the commander of the rebel army, Harry Luden.

In order to retrieve the remaining four parts of the “Eye of Thunder,” he would have to obtain the level of First-Class of Honorary Citizen from the Town of Exiles. Therefore, he had to get the “Final Hit” against the commander of the rebel army. As for rewards gained from defeating random thugs, they were nothing to Feng Luo; he had already obtained more than 2,000 medal points. Therefore, he chose not to attack. Instead, he waited patiently for his target. If a Sniper were to simply fire a shot and reveal his position, it would reduce half of the threat to the enemy.

The first round of mad bombardment caused the deaths of 12 to 13 casualties on the rebels’ side. Eventually, a man with an energy robe and a silver mask emerged from the middle vehicle. He held a magic staff as he stepped out of the vehicle. As his feet touched the ground, his magic staff flashed, and a green transparent energy shield appeared around him.

Furthermore, there were four fully armored Heavy Armor Warriors hopping down alongside him, raising four shields to cover the man and protect him from attacks in every direction. They immediately escorted the man to the foot of the mountain.

Part of the rebel soldiers stayed with the energy military vehicle, shooting at the players and Guards with their weapons. The rest were charging in the direction of the four Heavy Armor Warriors.

It was impossible to completely lock down the huge canyon because the Guards and the players were limited in number. During the first round of combat, the rebels had spotted the loopholes in their ambush. Now, they were heading toward the point where the firepower was the weakest. However, the rebels did not know that the soldiers were only appetizers for the ambushing players. The main dish was the Wind Controller wearing the silver mask.

“The Boss is here!”

“He finally decided to show up. I thought he had already escaped.”

“Attack! Attack!”

The next moment, the sky was covered in bullets raining down. Dozens of multi-colored energy skills started to change direction, speeding toward the commander of the rebels with firepower that was twice as strong as the previous attacks. Within seconds, the Wind Controller and four of his shielded Heavy Armor Warriors were completely overwhelmed by the various attacks.

Even though Harry Luden was a Level-55 Wind Manipulator, his energy shield’s defense wasn’t high. After all, among the four types of Energy Manipulators, the defense level of the energy shield of a Wind Controller was only slightly stronger than that of a Fire Controller.

As the players’ ambush points were all on high ground, most of the attacks came from above the rebels’ heads. Therefore, although the Wind Controller was protected in all four directions by the Heavy Armor Warriors, his energy shield still got hit a few times. After a few seconds, the shield wobbled and faded away.

“We have broken the armor!”

Every one of the players was excited. Without the protection of the shield, the Energy Controller was a lamb awaiting the slaughter. No matter how great his offense was, low defense and low HP were critical weaknesses, just as it was for monsters.

Feng Luo, who had contributed a huge part of the fight with three continuous shots from his C-grade custom-made armor-piercing bullets, felt confused by the results.

There’s something strange about this mission, he thought. Is this supposed to be so easy?