Cain's mind churned through possibilities, dissecting strategies and unraveling each thread of action.
The ballista — its destructive power had been a constant thorn, dominating the battlefield with explosive precision.
'I needed it gone. Fast.'
His eyes tracked the movements of the giant, Midi, his memory flickering back to the earlier clashes.
'Flames. That was his specialty.'
Cain's lips curled into a grin as an idea snapped into place. He dug into his backpack, fingers brushing against the cold metal of his tablet.
The wasp drone tried to get close to Midi, its metallic wings flickering with a soft hum as it zigzagged through smoke, fire, and scattered debris across the projectile-ridden battlefield.
He watched from his scope, tracking their trail as they neared Midi's towering frame.
Blades of flame streaked from his sword, arcs of fire carving through the air with blistering heat.
His breath was steady, his strikes relentless.
Another slash, another torrent of flame.
He didn't relent — until a faint buzzing near his ear snagged his attention.
Instinctively, he raised a massive hand to swat it away but paused mid-motion.
A voice crackled from the tiny drone, barely audible over the chaos.
Midi's brows furrowed, but he didn't swat it. He kept his eyes on the battlefield, hands still carving through the air with flaming crescents as he listened.
It wasn't trust that held his hand — it was respect for the cunning of men.
Giants might scoff at their frailty, their thin bones and short stature, but they never underestimated their cleverness.
'If this man had a plan, it was worth hearing.'
The voice from the wasp buzzed on, quick and decisive.
With a set of instructions that slowly turned into a sound strategy — Midi's expression imperceptibly lighten.
He didn't nod. He didn't even look around. He simply kept fighting, sending blades of fire in steady arcs, but now with a lower intensity than before.
Dilim moved with the same brutal efficiency, icy shards coiling around his sword as bombarded the rhino from afar.
The wasp appeared before his ears like a phantom, its wings a blur of silver and chrome.
He almost swatted it, but the voice stopped him cold.
'The human.'
His brow lifted, curiosity mixing with a tinge of skepticism. But as the plan unraveled in his ear, his expression softened into a grin.
It was risky, but the logic held.
Dilim grunted softly, a barely perceptible acknowledgment that only the wasp would catch.
His fists clenched tighter, ice crystallizing along his sword as he prepared.
From his hidden vantage point, Cain watched it all unfold through the lens of his scope.
Midi and Dilim didn't flinch, didn't hesitate.
Massive amounts of prana surged, flames and ice swirling around their blades.
The rhino beastman, oblivious and grinning with arrogance, trudged forward with the rat beastmen still mounted on his shoulders.
They were approaching Ragta's position, closing the gap for a clearer shot.
Cain's breath steadied, his finger brushing the trigger but not pulling.
'Not yet...'
Then it happened.
Twin crescents of pure elemental energy swept through the air, carving through the battlefield with perfect synchronicity — one a blazing arc of fire, the other a jagged slash of ice.
The rhino's eyes widened, but it was too late.
The crescents collided, erupting into a flash of light and concussive force.
Boom!
The explosion roared through the ruins, fire and ice combusting with violent elegance.
Smoke billowed out in heavy plumes, thick and rolling like a tidal wave of cloud and vapor.
Cain adjusted his scope, leaning back just slightly to avoid the sudden glare.
The battlefield was smothered in thick fog, weaving through the ruins like heated spectral fingers.
'Just as planned.'
Cain remained crouched behind a fractured column, eyes sharp behind his visor as his mind raced through calculations.
Time stretched, each heartbeat a measured thrum as he mapped out the chaos.
'Angles, distance, and line of sight... All the variables to consider... I might not see clearly but...'
He closed his eyes for a moment, imagining the rumble of footsteps in the air — he had memorized the rhythm of the rhino's movements.
'The rhino beastman's steps... Seventeen in ten seconds.'
Cain's brain noted the count with mechanical precision.
'Its last angle of movement... Forty-five degrees. Not optimal, but workable.'
He isolated each motion with practiced familiarity — the one on the left loaded the ammunition, its hands darting back and forth with frantic speed.
"The one on the right cooled the weapon, aquatic primal qi gushing from its arms in cold, flowing streams.
Middle one — in charge of firing and aiming, its beady eyes squinting through the haze as it lined up its next shot.
Cain traced the path of the tower shield the rhino carried, two massive slab of metal lifting with each step to shield them from any harm.
That would be a problem.
Or it would have been....
Cain lined up the shot, recalculating the movement with cold efficiency — he was about to fire blindly, relying on raw physics alone.
He had a window — just as the shield dipped for the rats to adjust the mechanism to reload.
'Five... Four... Three... Two... One…'
"Silence."
Cain pulled the trigger, but not before he whispered the incantation under his breath.
The bullet materialized midair without a whisper, gliding through the air like a phantom dove.
Its path was flawless, a straight line of calculated perfection.
Slicing through the fog, the bullet weaved its way within three destroyed skyscrapers.
It zipped past a broken statue of a man, still reaching skyward with one hand as if defying fate itself.
Brushing through his wild hair of Midi with a whisper of passing wind.
Ting!
The shot got deflected, veering slightly to the left as it ricocheted off the rhino's tower shield, correcting its trajectory by mere centimeters.
The rats didn't even see it coming.
The alloy round kissed the first rat's fur, slipping through the wiry strands like a caress of steel.
It pierced skin, burrowed through muscle, and then cracked against bone.
The joint splintered with a sickening crunch.
With the instant severing of nerves, the sharp snap of tendon, and the shattering of bone that gave way to force — the bullet continued its path, tearing through to catch the second rat in the thigh.
Splatter!
Blood splashed across the rhino's shoulder, steam rising as the droplets met the cooling vents.
The rats that got hit screamed in unison, high-pitched and ragged, their agony a twisted chorus that pierced the silence of the fog.
The ballista misfired and jolted, its frame flung from the rhino's back in a wild, irregular arc, tumbling end over end before crashing into rubble a dozen meters away.
Cain watched with unblinking eyes, the tip of his casting rifle still glowing faintly as he rained down more bullets.
The rhino lumbered forward, heavy and clumsy.
Its vision was poor at the best of times, and the mist only made it worse.
It had no idea what just happened — only that its back suddenly felt lighter, and someone nearby was screaming.