Chapter 43 Double tap
It hurt. It hurt like hell. My eyes were in pain I'd never experienced before. Pain, that I had nothing I could draw a valid comparison too. By the time I fired the first shot and moved to correct with another one, the pain rapidly spread all over my body. In a certain sense, it felt as if somebody was pulling out my fingernails... but from all over my body rather than just the tips of my actual fingers. But between this pain and the pain I would feel if some fucker managed to pierce Fay's delicate skin and cause her lovely face to twist in pain...
A shudder moved up my body, allowing me to bear with the pain for just long enough to align the iron sights of my pistol and the very middle of Fay's assailant's forehead. And then, by simply ignoring the pain and using all my willpower to continue, I pulled the trigger again. In fact, I sort of hesitated. Right as I was about to do the deed, a single doubt appeared in my mind. After all, I was about to claim a human life. Something that I would never be able to get away from. Even if no one in this or my home world would pursue me for this murder... It still felt wrong to conclude someone's life. And that's where I had nothing but praise for my body, which didn't give in to the doubts and simply executed the procedure of shooting my gun twice as if extracting ersatz of how one was supposed to shoot the gun from all the movies and series I watched. And just like my body paid no mint to the hesitation on the mental side of who I was... it also didn't have even the slightest bit of trouble perfectly executing every step of the shooting procedure. And that's where I had nothing but praise for my body, which didn't give in to the doubts and simply executed the procedure of shooting my gun twice as if extracting ersatz of how one was supposed to shoot the gun from all the movies and series I watched. And just like my body paid no mint to the hesitation on the mental side of who I was... it also didn't have even the slightest bit of trouble perfectly executing every step of the shooting procedure. Double tap. In spite of the pain, I dared not to trust just a single bullet. What if the gun misfired? What if, with a complete lack of practical experience, I would whiff the first shot? Or what if something else would happen that would make a single bullet insufficient?
I realigned my sights yet again, pulling back my finger right as the second archer drew the string of his bow back... And a fireball the size of a healthy bull suddenly appeared out of nowhere. What's more, rather than forming while static and only then starting to fly toward me, it formed while already rushing in my direction!
Sensing the approaching danger... I simply gritted my teeth, and dumped all my free points into my endurance with a single point, before pulling the trigger twice yet again. "AS IF!"
Fay's mom finally managed to step in, taking a measly second to react from when she landed. I couldn't really afford to turn around and look at what she was doing, as interesting as it might be. What I could tell, though, was that the fireball that was about to swallow me whole... simply fizzled out and vanished, as if it was never there to begin with!
"GET HER!" I screamed from the bottom of my lungs, having more trust in Fay's mom's athletic ability than I had in my own. I couldn't look at her, though. And it was all because my eyes were drawn to one thing I noticed when I confirmed that once again, the first bullet I shot broke the archer's barrier before the second one ended his misery. The now-dead archer managed to pull his bow back, though. And when the rapid injection of a lead bead into his brain caused his entire body to go numb, the bowstring slipped out of his fingers... And sent a deadly allow flying through the air. Thump. I could only watch in silence as the arrow drew an arch in the air... before striking me squarely in the heart.