Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

'There's no way he will hit,' Tristan thought.

Instead of recharging, he left his rifle hanging on the strap over his shoulder and pulled out a handgun. Despite his earlier thought, he did all that while moving to the cover of the nearest tree.

The brief delay gave the survivor time to pull out his automatic rifle and shoot in Tristan's direction with a deafening noise of a dozen tiny explosions.

The bullets flew in a wild spray, going nowhere closer to Tristan's hideout. He was completely safe as he aimed his pistol at the desperate man's head and shot.

The much quieter bang put an end to the cacophony. The last thug fell dead, and the silence returned to the area. But Tristan's heart was still beating faster than before. Find more to read at empire

'Shit. The entire camp must've heard this. Was this the man's plan all along?'

Tristan heard shouts of alarm coming from the camp's buildings. He pulled out his phone and sent his team a signal to retreat, then began running to his previous sniping position.

He was halfway there when he heard the first shots from the shipyard camp. Not silenced shots, which meant that either his people abandoned caution and pulled out the rifles, or it belonged to the enemies.

Tristan hoped for the former.

When Tristan finally reached the spot from where he could see the entire shipyard camp, it felt like two years had passed, while in reality, it must've been a minute. He had 2419 points in athletics, he could RUN.

In the camp below, people were pouring out of the buildings, confused but armed like buzzing bees. Each bee was a glowing dot of warmth on the darker backdrop of the ground.

Tristan opened his eyes wide, frantically searching for the silhouettes of his people.

He immediately spotted one of them running by the side of the camp. Just a dozen meters away, a group of Angulos people were looking around and not noticing him.

There must've been not enough light, but to confirm it, Tristan would have to switch the heat vision off and lose visibility for a moment.

Either way, one person appeared to be safe enough. Tristan squinted and recognized his silhouette—Decker.

Then Tristan heard more shots and zeroed on the sound.

A pair of glowing silhouettes was moving from a cover to a cover. While one ran, another opened a cover fire at the several Angulos men that tried to shoot them back.

Tristan sat on one knee, propped up his rifle, and looked at the scene through his optical sight.

His two men were Cutout and Kund. The former was holding the rifle one-armed and clutching a bleeding wound on his side.

Tristan looked at the men trying to get them, counting heads—eight. Through his scope, they all looked like targets.

When the first one fell, the ones near him didn't immediately understand where the bullet came from. They looked around in confusion; someone pulled out of cover to shoot recklessly at the running men even though this opened him to Cutout's covering fire.

Tristan looked away from the optical sight for a moment.

There were still seven enemies left, and more were running toward the noise. Another group was going to cut off Cutout and Kund's route if he didn't do something—but the first group was still a threat.

Tristan frowned.

'Wasn't there a trick I heard snipers use? Yeah. It will distract them.'

He focused on the first group again. One of these people was, if not the leader, but more fit to lead.

The man who was shouting orders (too far for Tristan to actually hear) and waving his free hand while shooting with the other. That one.

Tristan aimed at this stomach and shot.

The man, still not dropping his gun, clutched his stomach. By Tristan's estimate (and it was, with his "Impossible!!" medical skill, a 99,99% precise estimate), the shot must've ruptured his liver. Lethal, but not immediately lethal.

Next moment, the man collapsed to the ground with his body writhing in pain like that of a bisected worm. Around him, his comrades were torn between hurrying to help or getting away from the—now obvious—sniper.

Tristan focused on the second group. There were only four people, but they were almost about to cross a corner and see Cutout and Kund.

He shot the one running in front to the leg. When the second man reflexively tried to help him up, Tristan shot this man to the head.

Now all two remaining people were frantically trying to help the wounded one. From the amount of blood, Tristan's shot hit an artery.

'Now the place really looks like a disturbed anthill…' Tristan thought.

His imagination supplied an image of a boy with a looking glass, setting ants on fire.

He scowled and pushed it away. Cutout and Kund were on their way out, Decker was almost there, but there was still one unaccounted man in his team—Sam. However, with more people running, he became harder to find.

A minute of search later Tristan still couldn't find Sam. This could mean only one thing.

'He's hiding inside of some building or ship. This just locks him into a corner. Damn this man, he should've really known better!'

Tristan was gritting his teeth in frustration at this point. The rest of his team has cleared the area safely enough and was in the forest.

Eventually, Cuatro Angulos was going to organize enough to give chase, even in the dark night forest. Long before that, Tristan had to blow up the bombs, or they won't blow up anyone—or even worse, be discovered. Being chased wasn't good, either.

'For Sam's sake, I really hope he didn't hide anywhere near the bombs—or anywhere flammable. Otherwise… Yeah.'

Tristan let out a breath and pulled the remote detonator out of his pocket. A single button to blow up all the activated bombs.

He pressed it.

Half a second later…

A dozen blasts blended into one. The earth shook a little. Alarmed birds screeched in a hundred voices and took off.

Tristan stared.