Fatal Shot
chapter-19

A huge swarm of rebel army soldiers appeared. They even surrounded the players.

Feng Luo instantly understood the objective of the Reconnoiter of the rebel army. It was highly likely that it had been tracking the players and had informed their location to its commander in real time after discovering the players. Then they had set up this ambush in the path of the players.

This also explained why there had been only one or two encounters with the rebel army in the forest of exiles, which was normally populated with rebel army soldiers. It was because the rebel army in the region had all gathered in this single place for the ambush.

In the forest, there was at least one large squad surrounding the players, which totaled over 150 rebel army soldiers. The profession makeup was also very complete: Machine Gunners, Manipulators, Warriors—there were even Doctors, Snipers, and various other professions. It was highly similar to the party of players.

As for their strength, the strength of the rebel army soldiers, whose average level of 40 was slightly inferior to the group of players. On the one hand, they had a numerical advantage. Plus, the captains within the rebel army were considered Elite-grade monsters; they were several more times powerful than average players. And there were more than ten of these Elite monsters! In addition, the ambush gave them the initiative, which naturally threw the players into a crisis.

Fortunately, the players did not panic and make a grave mistake. Instead, after a shout by the commander, whose face was filled with anxiety, the players quickly set up a line of defense. They had practiced for this sort of situation in advance.

Over ten Heavy Armor Warriors with their levels in the 40s hastily raised their shields and rushed to the front to block the beast soldiers of the rebel army rushing toward them. Machine Gunners started firing away without any regard to exhausting their bullets or the heat of their guns' muzzles. Doctors carrying medical packs on their backs threw treatment packages while under the danger of the rain of bullets, trying to save those who had been injured. The battle instantly reached a climax!

Feng Luo hid behind a tree at the players' flank, observing the situation in detail. After he confirmed that the Reconnoiter of the rebel army had disappeared, he took the M110 out of his anti-gravity backpack and quickly set it up. He set the parameters and immediately aimed his gun in the direction of the rebel army.

In this massive battle involving hundreds of individuals, the responsibility of a Sniper was to kill the enemy that represented the highest level of threat. After all, a Sniper was always the best at taking the head of a general among an army of 1,000. Moreover, there was no doubt that his chance to complete the "Eye of the Thunder" gun barrel mission was right in front of his eyes.

The Elite captains of the rebel army were relatively easy to distinguish. Their outfits differed from normal rebel army soldiers, and their combat strength was also on a different level.

A rebel army captain with the Heavy Armor Warrior profession raised his large alloy shield and charged forward with a scream. Not even four or five Level-40 players could have blocked it. This sort of strength was befitting of an Elite humanoid-type monster that was over Level 45.

Click!

The D-grade double armor-piercing bullet was fed into the gun chamber. Feng Luo's muzzle was already aimed at his first target.

His aim was naturally not on the Heavy Armor Warrior holding the shield. It was instead on a Fire Manipulator who was in the midst of firing off his skills, positioned in the middle of the rebel army squad. He was a rebel army captain who wore a magician's robe while wielding a ginger-colored staff in his hand. A fireball with a diameter of around one meter flew toward the group of players. It exploded on impact and created a huge circle of flame, turning several players with dangerously low HP into white flashes of light.

As the branch of Manipulators with the most potent attacks, Fire Manipulators dealt devastating damage. A well-protected Fire Manipulator could even achieve results of over ten kills in a single battle.

The body of the rebel army Manipulator was covered by a red energy shield that blocked the attack skills and bullets of the players. However, the color of the shield gradually turned lighter after getting hit by the skills and the bullets of the players.

The attacks of Fire Manipulators may have been the strongest, but their defense shield was the weakest of the four branches. It was relatively easier to break their shields.

Feng Luo's index finger rested on the trigger. His eyes focused on the color of the shield of the Fire Manipulator in his scope. He did not even blink once, so focused was he.

For monsters at and above the Elite grade, the game system would calculate the contribution of players after the monster was killed before distributing rewards according to their contribution. Shield break, first damage, highest damage, final damage, and other special actions provided bonuses in terms of contribution. Facing an Elite-grade monster like this, if Feng Luo wanted to complete his mission, his contribution needed to be over 50 percent.

The requirement for Elite monsters was 50 percent. Commander-grade monsters required 30 percent, Quasi-Boss monsters required 15 percent, and Boss monsters required 5 percent… These were the hidden conditions for completing missions when receiving help from other players, discovered through other players' calculation.

An Elite-grade humanoid monster would not have high HP. If, before it was killed, it accumulated too much damage from the other players, it was possible that Feng Luo would fail to reach a 50 percent contribution. As such, Feng Luo had to seize the opportune moment to try and get the bonuses of "shield break" and "first damage!"

Finally, after getting hit by several skills from the players, the shield of the Fire Manipulator of the rebel army went from its original blazing red to a half-transparent red color. The moment it was about to vanish…

Pang!

The barrel of the M110 produced a dull noise!

−750!

A double armor-piercing bullet—fired at just the right moment—flew over 100 meters and hit the shield. Like the straw that broke the camel's back, it broke straight through the energy shield, which was already on the verge of collapse. As for the hard alloy core of the double armor-piercing bullet, it accelerated after the explosion and hit the chest of the rebel army Manipulator. The second hit dealt white-colored damage of over 700.

"Ha! Pretty decent luck!" said Feng Luo.

He sighed in relief. However, his finger did not stop. He moved as fast as he could and pulled the trigger, firing the second shot. After the energy shield of the Fire Manipulator disappeared, several players noticed it and immediately focused their attacks on the Manipulator captain. Several long-range skills flew toward him at the same time.

−420!

−1075!

−811!

−503!

A second after the shield was destroyed, several damage values appeared in quick succession above the Fire Manipulator's head. In one short second, he had already lost around 3,000 HP.

−420!

−2550!

This time, Feng Luo's second shot also arrived. The 7.62mm double armor-piercing bullet, rotating at high speed, accompanied by a powerful force, struck the bridge of the rebel army Manipulator's nose, flinging his head all the way back. After that, his body fell on the ground. As he fell on the ground, he lost his grip on the ginger-colored staff. It flew out of his hands.

"Mistake!" Feng Luo muttered with a frown.

He had made a slight error in judgment, having been influenced by the variety of colors coming from the energy flashes across the battlefield. The distraction had made him miss the vital point of the rebel army captain, so he had only managed to inflict yellow-colored weak-point damage. Plus, the damage was off by a little bit. It had only knocked the Fire Manipulator to the ground and put him in a state of "heavy injury!"

In the current situation, even if he wanted to fire a third shot, he would not have had the opportunity to do so because the skills of several players had already started flying toward the heavily injured rebel army Fire Manipulator lying on the ground. Unfortunately, given that the opponent had less than 5 percent of its HP remaining, any skill would be able to kill him if it hit.

"I lost the kill shot!"

Feng Luo sighed slightly. He never would have expected that at that moment, a two-meter tall alloy shield would suddenly appear in his field of vision. A pair of thick, muscular arms covered in gray hair, a Heavy Armor Warrior of the rebel army, suddenly appeared and stood in front of the Fire Manipulator.

Boom!

−179

−207

−251

−206

−67!

The sudden appearance of the Heavy Armor Warrior blocked the consecutive attacks of the players with his shield. Any one of those skills would have easily dealt with the remaining 5 percent of the Fire Manipulator's total HP if they had touched his body, but instead, they only dealt a total of less than 1,000 damage. The shield of a Heavy Armor Warrior, after all, had a base 50 percent damage reduction. Furthermore, there was a damage reduction from skills as well as his own defense. Even if he were to face off against the attacks of four or five players at the same time, a Heavy Armor Warrior would be able to hold out for quite some time.

Moreover, within the rebel army, there was a soldier with the Doctor profession with medical packs in hand, currently rushing toward the Manipulator to treat and help him recover. In this case, the lost HP of the rebel army captain would be quickly replenished. And after waiting a little longer, after the cooldown of the energy shield was over, he would have almost completely recovered and returned to the battlefield to continue to unleash his skills and prowess.

This specific Manipulator, Doctor, and Heavy Armor Warrior combination tactic was one of the most common among players when they hunted monsters. This time, however, it was being used by the rebel army—and it was being used to deal with the players.