Infinity Legends

Chapter 39: The Sniper

“Is permadeath active to anyone?” Takol asked rolling to cover behind the rock he had recently used as a bed.

“No!” Kramen yelled.

“Negative,” DM3 buzzed.

“Sure hope not!” Ybor screamed.

Gurm and Serry both shook their heads as they too took cover.

“Did anyone see where the shot came from?” Kramen asked.

“I saw! Or I felt,” Lord said as his respawned body ran out of the ship, somersaulting to loose the sniper’s aim and avoid dying again. Once the bard was safely hidden behind a rock, he stopped to look at his own dead body on the grass. “Dang, do I make a good-looking corpse!”

“Focus!” Kramen snapped. “Where did the shot come from?”

“Somewhere on that mountainside!” Lord pointed in the general direction of one of the many surrounding mountains, miles away.

“That’s way too far for NPCs,” Takol muttered.

“Well, that’s one asshole player, then!” Ybor muttered. “If he can’t permakill us, why the hell is he attacking?”

“Does it matter?” Gurm said. “Let’s just get on the Infinity and leave!”

As soon as the word’s left the sage’s mouth, another laser exploded against the rear of the Infinity. Usually, a regular shot would do little to a ship’s hull, but that attack had been both powerful and accurate enough to make the ship’s life-support panel erupt in a blue smokescreen.

“There goes that idea,” Takol hissed.

“Can’t we still fly?” Gurm insisted.

“Not without repairs,” Ybor said, dusting off his flowery shirt. “I know, I know. You’re lucky to have me and my drones!”

“Wait!” Kramen interrupted as the sniper took another potshot at the group hiding behind the rocks. “The sniper’s baiting you out. He’ll shoot you while you work.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it,” Serry spoke. “The ship’s landed by the river. I can use the river water to raise an ice shield for the drones.”

“Smart and pretty!” Ybor shot finger guns at Serry. “Let’s go, then, just wait for it…” Ybor waited for the sniper to take another shot, then dashed out of cover, dragging Serry along.

“You should go with them,” Kramen told Takol. “It is your ship.”

“Got it,” Takol nodded. “What about you?”

Kramen peeked out of cover in time to see the point from which the next laser beam originated.

“DM3, Gurm, Lord and I will head for the sniper,” Kramen answered. “Pressure and distract him so you can work faster.”

 “Distance to target is substantial. Approach should be lengthy,” DM3 said.

“I’ll speed us up!” Gurm waved her staff.

“No,” Kramen said. “Lord will sing a speed-boosting song. Gurm, you are on healing duty. DM3-C4 will cover our advance, but if the sniper is strong enough to damage a ship, he will be strong enough to damage our tank.”

“However statistically unlikely,” DM3 buzzed again, “that is empirically probable. Ready to commence offensive maneuver. Please hop on.”

***

At first, the sniper was hellbent on attacking the repair crew, making Serry sweat as she attempted to keep the icy barrier up with shot after shot of energy melted it down. Twice the enemy had managed to cut through, once hitting a sturdier portion of the hull, which had little effect, but on the second time he had evaporated one of Ybor’s drones.

Luckily, as the group riding on DM3’s back approached the sniper’s nest, the assailant’s focus started to shift as Kramen had predicted. For every shot fired at the ship, he fired one at the approaching tank. That allowed Serry to regenerate her barriers just as quickly as Gurm undid the damage taken by DM3.

At some point, however, the pressure applied by the tank’s approach was enough for the sniper to entirely ignore the ship and simply rain fire over the eight-legged machine. Every shot burned through DM3’s hull and circuitry, but the low firing rate provided Gurm with enough time to rewind time and cancel the hits.

Things got more complicated as the shooter’s precision increased and he successfully shot the joints in one of DM3’s legs. Gurm was still figuring out how to properly reunite the parts using her powers when a second shot blew off another leg, forcing DM3 to a bumbling halt.

Fortunately, most of the distance had already been covered. Kramen could even see the nose of the sniper’s rifle now, sticking out of a small cavern on the hillside.

“Damage impairing progression,” DM3 spoke to the people still taking cover behind his shielded body.

“What now?” Gurm asked as a shot bounced from DM3’s side.

“We run the rest of the way,” Kramen said. “Lord, Gurm, can you stack your speed boosts?”

“Sure can!” Lord said, still playing his lute despite the concern weighing on his face. “Go, go, go! Charge!”

The trio ran the rest of the way, Gurm’s time manipulation and Lord’s motivational tunes pushing each of them to race like the wind, the low grass zooming past as the mountainside drew closer. The sniper was just above them now, closer to his targets than ever, but even his eagle eyes failed to keep up with the blurs that were the bard, the Spawn-Master and the time mage. The last sniper shot only burned the vegetation behind Kramen.

Soon, the three Infinity Riders were standing just below the sniper’s nest. On one hand, they were in a safe position that left the shooter no angle to aim at them, but on the other hand there was a massive stone wall separating them from the enemy.

“Time for you guys to do your parkour thing!” Gurm said.

“What parkour thing?” Lord asked.

“I saw you run up a wall when we met!” Gurm reminded the incident in the Winner City alleyway. “And Kramen, you did pretty well on the Trial Spire in the Temple of Light!”

“There’s no grip,” Kramen ran his hand over the stone, looking up. “And it’s too steep… Wait, what is that?”

Lord and Gurm followed his eyes up the marble wall until they saw a small blinking spot several feet up. The three of them realized they were looking at a demolition explosive at the same time, and soon after it went off.

The detonation made the whole world tremble, and just as Kramen and his companions collapsed to the ground, a rain of boulders descended upon them. Kramen and Potathunder hurried back to their feet and took off before they were crushed, but Gurm stood still, staff raised to the coming rocks. At the very moment the first stone touched the floor, all the others stopped in the air, suspended in time by Gurm’s dark-matter manipulation.

“Hurry… up…” Gurm grunted between clenched teeth. “Climb!”

Kramen and Potathunder looked at each other, then nodded in agreement. The boulders formed a perfect path up the wall, provided Gurm could hold them still long enough.

The bard went first, nimble leather boots pushing him from one floating rock to the next, propelling him through the air like a green butterfly in a golden hat. Kramen came right after, eventually needing to be pulled up by the more agile companion, but ultimately making it to the top. Once the two jumped to the entrance of the cave where the sniper had been, Gurm allowed the boulders to crumble upon each other with a sigh of relieve.

***

Potathunder ran through the dark cave, following the hints of sunlight and the sounds of long-range laser fire. Kramen followed with his gun ready.

Soon, the pair came upon an opening on the rock. A small breach, overlooking the valley, from which an orange reptile of the same species as Takol fired at the Infinity and its crew.

“Surrender!” Kramen pointed his pistol at the sharpshooter and pushed past Lord.

“You survived my trap,” the stranger hissed, then pulled the trigger. Miles away, Serry fell dead in the river. “Headshot.”

“You…”

“I surrender!” the alien raised his hands and slowly stood up. Kramen approached cautiously, watching the enemy’s arms to ensure he had no more tricks up his sleeves.

But it was not the sleeves Kramen should have been watching.

The reptile’s tail shot up, slapping Kramen square across the face and pushing him onto Potathunder. The bard rolled under the stumbling cyborg and jumped to his feet on the other side, swinging his lute at the sniper. The hostile blocked the first few blows, then produced a combat knife from his belt. He slashed the air where Potathunder had been, missing for a split-second and the pushing on the offensive.

Lord retreated, dodging one s***h at a time and eventually hitting the opponent’s arms with his lute. The instrument technically had more reach, but it did far less damage than a serrated blade. Lord had just smashed the lute against the reptile’s shoulder when he stabbed again, forcing the bard to lunge backwards.

It would have been a perfect dodge, if Kramen was not laying on the ground just behind Lord.

The bard collapsed over his friend, and the enemy kept coming.

The sniper was already on top of Lord and Kramen when the sound of engines reverberated through the small cavern and a sweeping gale raised a curtain of dust around the three. Covering his eyes, the reptile turned back to the breach in the rocks in time to see a repaired Infinity rising along the mountainside. First the hull, then the engines and lastly the airlock, where Serry stood with her palms open.

In a second, the stony cave was covered in white, and the three combatants had been turned to statues of ice.

***

“C-couldn’t you be m-more s-selective, S-Serry?” Kramen asked, clacking his teeth together while seeping hot coffee specially prepared by Gurm and so kindly brought to him on the infirmary when he was unfrozen.

“Quit whining, dork,” Serry tossed him a warm blanket with which to cover himself. “I didn’t even damage your health. Would you rather be stabbed?”

“F-feels l-like you d-damaged my health,” Kramen went on.

“You’re just cold,” Serry argued. “Lord wasn’t such a cry baby when we unfroze him.”

“Yes, he was,” Lord barged into the infirmary and sat next to Kramen. “It get’s better after the third cup of coffee. Trust me. How’s our new friend?” the bard nodded to the still frozen orange sniper.

The stranger had been positioned across the room. To one of his sides, Takol pointed his rifle at him, while to the other side Gurm held her staff ready to freeze time. Serry was ready to act at the first sign of trouble, as well. Meanwhile, DM3 and Ybor’s drones rounded the frozen sniper with their heatsinks slowly melting away the ice.

In a matter of minutes, the alien was free. His skin was still pale from the cold and his movements impaired by the dormant muscles, but he was free. Slowly, the stranger looked up to all the people around him.

“We have questions for you, punk,” Serry spawned an ice dagger in her hand and walked up to the humanoid lizard.

“And I’ll answer them,” the stranger said in a low, shaky voice. “In due time. For now, my name is Gahagan Vitrius. Experienced sniper, infiltrator, tracker, saboteur and explosives expert.

“And I would be honored to join your team.”