Unlikely Skill

--Carl's Perspective--

"We have a good spot from this far up, don't we? We can almost see all of Zealous and all of Quake near the entrance," Alexia commented.

On my shoulder, I held my customized rifle called "LN-101", a gift from Fudo thanks to my insane precision.

I knew I had this ability during Orion's war when I was able to correctly predict the trajectory of a rock flying toward the boat that Lisa was carrying Aegis in. Orion ignorantly shot the rock, and their lives fell into my hands.

I call it a pure coincidence, but I'd like to think that somewhere in my brain, I knew that letting another ally die when I could do something amplified my ability to precisely aim at targets, and led me to this point. Alexia and I were stationed at a lookout tower on the very top of the mountain that blocked Zealous off from the rest of the world.

"That's right, how many domes can you put up? If we can minimize damage, that would probably be for the best," I told Alexia, tuning my scope to zoom in on Quake specifically.

I had a small curtain over the scope in front to block the sun glint that came out of the opposite end. That would give away our position very fast if they could see it.

"I'm not using my domes, not until Sky fights," She said. Alexia sat down on the inside of the lookout tower while I peered over the edge.

"Why? We should try to minimize damage, shouldn't we?" I asked her. I took a moment to look away from my rifle, watching her eyes dart around and her finger started to twirl her hair around.

"Maybe it's the Asterio part of me... but I don't give a shit about this city or the people in it. Not after the way they treated Sky the way they did. Some of the people are still so ungrateful that we're doing this for them. It's kind of annoying, isn't it?" Alexia asked me.

"Of course, it's annoying, but to be the bigger people here, we can't use revenge to get back at them. We just have to ascend higher and prove to them that what we're doing is good. You don't cure hatred with revenge, you cure it with kindness," I told her. I peered back at the front gate, watching Sky run into the forest.

"Alright, it's coming to a head, are you going to use the domes or not? I'll play off of your decision," I told her.

"You're right... I'll use them, but the dome that will protect the city from Sky's destruction will be weaker... I'll try my best," Alexia told me, peering over the lookout tower to take another look toward all of Quake.

"Hey... where's that girl with the mask?" She asked. I nervously looked around, realizing that she was missing.

She was coated in a grey type of clothing and a purple scarf that almost matched the one Austin was wearing. I looked all around, as far to the left and right as I could... but she just disappeared!

"Stay alert, I can't find her, she might've found us," I said, fearing the worst.

The downward slope on the hill was too steep to jump out of this tower without injuries, but I should be prepared for those. The only thing I'm worried about is my rifle. I only have fifteen shots in it, and I had to make them count. It, unfortunately, took too long to make the bullets required for this thing to shoot, and with my accuracy, I never saw it to be a problem.

They're packed with Essence Strands, meant to stop the wound from healing once they pierced into Quake's Members. It was supposed to weaken them, and I have two shots for every member, and one more just in case.

"HQ, we've lost sight on The Masked Girl, let everybody know to stay alert," I said into the radio.

The radio crumbled in my hands and I dodged to the left, covering Alexia as the lookout tower was split in half.

The right half had fallen down the hill, but the left half was luckily supported by a rock and didn't fall as easily.

Alexia and I jumped out and slid down the supports to the tower, looking all around. I held out my combat knife and looked all around.

"Found her," I muttered to myself.

"I figured there must've been lookouts... wow, a gun! I haven't seen a gun in real life... only the books," The Masked Girl spoke. She took off half of her mask to reveal strange eyes and dark purple hair.

"Doesn't it defeat the point to take off your mask in front of us?" I asked her with the rifle primed. All I had to do was raise it and shoot it.

"Not really, that mask is only to throw Sky off," She told us.

Her eyes looked like they were clocks. Her pupil was very small in the middle but elongated into two points that came off from the center pupil as if it was a clock.

"How does that mask throw Sky off at all? I'm confused, I'm sure attacking with a six-on-one fight threw him off enough," I told her, but she shrugged.

"Take the other half of this mask off, and you might find out why," The Masked Girl said.

Alexia came in with a golden saber, slashing upward, and before she even initiated the hit, The Masked Girl dodged to the left, caught the saber, and flipped Alexia.

I rose my rifle and pulled the trigger skillfully to shoot at her wrist, but right as my finger hit the trigger, her arm moved.

No... that's too perfect... how did she know where I was aiming?

I let my finger off the trigger and kicked a small rock toward her face.

The Girl caught it and threw it back at me at a faster speed. The rock had what looked like a tail on it of Golden Strands that accelerated how fast it was moving. It hit me in the shoulder and knocked me back a little.

I primed the rifle again and took aim at the Masked Girl once more.