Approching storm

"What do you do, Cherry?"

"Well, I'm the sniper of this team!"

With another cheery smile, she picks up her rectangular-shaped bag and transforms it into a 2-meter-long gun. This process is very interesting for Vero because the old world gun he's been using just materializes out of nowhere, but this thing transforms from a bag that you can carry around into a gun.

'That looks so cool!' he thinks inwardly.

Seeing Vero's excited reaction warmed her heart. "This is my personal customized gun called the Punisher MK2. I use it together with this shoulder guard to lessen the recoil from the gun."

Her point is the head-sized shoulder guard that she's wearing on her right shoulder. The design is mostly white, with a cable connection to the energy source on her back. This setup is normal for a veteran hunter to have since their gun is so powerful it can dislocate your arm through the power suit.

Cherry explains that the gun butt goes on the hole in her shoulder guard. It acts as a recoil receiver and doubles as an energy source for the gun. This concept is foreign to Vero because he's only been using the old-world model, which doesn't require any setup to use.

Cherry continues to talk to Vero to make him forget the incident where she almost killed him. She takes him through most of the group equipment and chats with the group.

The overall impression that Vero gets from this group is rather friendly. Aside from the killing stunts earlier, the group knows how to deal with an easily impressed young kid like him. If Fran were here, he would scream in joy like a little girl.

Vero makes a sad expression while thinking about it.

"Is there anything wrong? Are we bothering you?" Seeing Vero's mood change, Cherry is worried.

"No, it's nothing."

They continue the van tour.

////////

In the middle of nowhere. A storm of dust particles flew from the windy weather. Inside the dust storm lies a gigantic creature the size of a building. The creature vaguely resembles a ruin tracker, but its size and composition make it unrecognizable from afar.

Sitting on top of it is a hut built to look like an old-world structure. Inside, a hooded man is seated at the table surrounded by 3 ruin tracker scouts, communicating something between them.

"HAHAHAHAHAH," a man burst out after seeing what the ruin tracker brought him. "We have found it! Our godmother! The one who will release us from the shackles of flesh and bone! "

All the ruined trackers in the room shudder in fear after hearing his voice. The sound can be described as a mix between a ruin tracker screech and a human word. With one wave of his hand, all the ruin trackers in the room spatter into unrecognizable biomass and get absorbed by him.

A normal human would puke at the sight of this.

"Come out!" detecting another presence, the man shouted.

"Your observation is as good as ever, I see."

"You cannot mask the scent of a nonbeliever!!"

"I will keep that in mind."

A hologram appears In the middle of the room, there's a blonde guy in an old-world army outfit. The hologram here is only a projection of reality. It can appear anywhere with an old-world connection, even inside a dust storm.

"You did a good job coming up with these dust things to hide your shenanigans."

"It's the holy storm, you old geezer! and we clearly didn't do a good job since you're here! "

"Don't be so discouraged. You're simply no match for our technology. "

"If you're here only for this, then just f*ck off to your coffin."

"Calm down. We're here to offer an alliance. "

"We don't deal with heretic scum! Cooperating with the nonbeliever is a sin in itself! Our Godmother would punish us if she ever heard of this! "

"You know, we can give you something that will make your invasion a lot smoother. A high-tech jammer is required for that place. "

"Huh... We do not..."

"I'm sure your godmother would be pleased if this raid succeeds."

"Ich..."

The hooded man is interested in what the army guy offers. They bargained about the conditions and benefits that they would get from this alliance. After settling on a nice offer, the army man disappears, leaving only the hooded man in the room.

"Ol mother, please forgive us for our behavior. This path will lead us to you, and with your guidance, we will wipe out all the nonbelievers. Please forgive our action."

The man prays to a statue of a ruin tracker that's decorated with flesh and bones. With the item arriving in a month, the raid was surely a success.

////////////

Beep!

"We've got company. 11 o'clock. From how it's moving, it's a ruin tracker. "

A red dot appears on all the scanning devices that Elley is controlling. With all the information that she's able to gather, the creature that's heading here is likely a ruin tracker.

"Numbers?"

"3 They detected our presence and are about to reach us in three minutes max. "

"They aren't playing around, huh."

The atmosphere in the van changed from a friendly neighborhood to a firing squad ready for action. Cherry signals Max to open the van roof. She hops out and starts setting up her sniper.

From afar the ruin tracker approaches them with maximum speed. punching through the rough terrain with ease.

"Do you need any help?" Moro asked. He was a little concerned that Cherry might not set her sniper up in time.

"Nope," she says as she finishes her setup."Elley Info." She called out for information from Elley. Usually, hunters that have got a permanent group always have these types of calls out, which makes them work faster. This type of communication is crucial when dealing with immediate danger.

"Wind speed of 120 northwest. With the target 720 meters away, approaching us at 10 meters per second, a test shot is recommended for accuracy."

"I don't need that."

Bang! Bang!

That sniper shot shakes the van over to being a two-wheel vehicle for a split second. The powerful sniper shot caused a ripple in the air, creating a soundwave that could kill someone if received directly. Cherry has a headset that receives only the call from Elley inside the van while the people in it sit around unaffected.

This is because of the expensive soundproofing mechanics that they afford. This takes a lot out of their budget, but it's necessary to have since it would be a huge headache if they're doing an escort request.

The bullet travels to its target in a matter of seconds. The first shot hits the ruin tracker in the leg, making its movement unstable, and another shot follows, hitting it in the head. killing the monster in the process.

After killing one, she moved on to another one and wiped three of them out. Vero looks at the event through a binocular that Moro gives him. Moro peeked at the kid, expecting him to be excited, but Vero made a weird expression.

Vero looks confused.

"That's our captain. She's a little dumb when it comes to human interaction, but she's in a league of her own being able to hit that shot from this far in a moving vehicle. Impressive, right? "

"Yes, she is."

"But your reaction tells me otherwise." Moro wants to know why he reacted like that.

"Well... Does the ruin tracker normally die that easily?"

"Oh, so that then... Cherry made it look easy, but if you're a normal hunter, this would be a major problem, so act a little more impressed, will you?"

"Well... OK," Vero is weirded out by how easy it is to shoot the ruin tracker. A normal shot would have never landed if it was the basic course test. It seems like it's not the same version of this creature.