The key to archery is humility

The next day arrived and Hugo wasn't feeling as refreshed as he wanted to be. The words Kiter said still echoed in his brain as he dreamt, which in turn led to his severe lack of sleep.

His brain wouldn't let go of those words because he knew they were true:

"You may not know it Hugo, but you're the reason you are not able to get stronger. You may think you have no enemies, but in truth your biggest enemy is yourself."

'My biggest enemy is myself. That makes sense but then again, it doesn't.'

He sat cross-legged on the bed, trying to come across some sort of epiphany while in that stance. His contemplation died at an early age because of Kiter's interruption.

"You can stop your train of thought now and start making some real progress. I'll explain what I mean as soon as you come out."

Kiter's head retracted slowly as he gave Hugo a knowing look. Hugo's eyes hardened along with his determination and he prepared for any sort of insult that might come his way.

He stepped out the door of the guestroom and into a hallway that was kind of clean compared to the outside, but Hugo knew it wasn't always like that. Before he slept the previous day, the entire hallway was littered with darts of different sizes.

With the way his house and compound was, there was no doubt he'd have at least one or two nukes in his private spaces like room.

Sweat appeared on Hugo's forehead as he thought about it.

'Why is a guy like this so focused on humility, anyway? He's the last person who should speak about this!'

The more Hugo tried to convince himself that Kiter was arrogant, the more self-centred and haughty he became.

After some navigating, he eventually reached the yard where Kiter stood among the hundreds of projectiles scattered on the ground.

"Since you're finally here, I can explain to you what I meant yesterday."

Kiter's stop was him waiting for approval from Hugo.

"Go on."

"As I was saying, Archery isn't something you can learn without humility. We can shoot birds down from the sky from the ground and above ground, we can kill from thousands of miles away."

"There are some marksmen who can stay aloof and keep an optimal level of skill, but those kinds are rarely seen. Perhaps you can pull it off, but while you're learning with me, you have to be humble,"

Hugo understood that train of thought and appreciated it even more as he thought about it.

'Then he's one of those who can be arrogant.'

Kiter gave a small smile as if he read Hugo's thoughts and cocked his head over to the piles of weapons littered everywhere.

"Pick a gun and shoot at the centre of that tree over there." The tree he pointed at, had a bullseye symbol on its surface.

Hugo wasn't sure what kind it was, but it was huge.

"Successfully hit the middle and we'll go on to the next step,"

He stopped his gesturing and sat on the chair closest to him.

Hugo stepped forward, about to select a gun from the pile but froze upon getting near the closest one, and Kiter took amusement to that.

"Come on. We only have a few weeks before you go to meet that snob, Liam!"

Hugo shook off the hesitation and replaced it with calm, his next action was selecting the gun he was most familiar with.

"Phew, I can do this."

His hand shivered upon gripping the cold handle of the gun. This was one of the few guns he'd ever seen during his entire seventeen years on earth.

"Nice choice. But are you sure you want to go with that one?"

He'd encountered that old-fashioned pistol the day before, in the hands of the one who awakened his fears.

"I'm certain." He steeled his voice as a show of determination, but his hands still shook from that fear.

Kiter didn't find satisfaction in his performance and reprimanded him, "Hey, I said being a marksman should not involve arrogance, but that does not mean you should be a complete coward either. There's an obvious line between the two."

The Dancer had no qualities befitting a teacher, but he could still knock a bit of sense into his student's brain.

"Alright. Hahh."

His words gave Hugo a strange sense of calm, and he regained the usual cold and calculating demeanour that complemented his fighting style.

He employed a two-handed wielding style and steadied the revolver while his fingers also tightened around the cold metal of the trigger.

"Hu!"

Hugo took a large breath of air and pulled the trigger; a bullet flew forth from the gun amidst the gunfire.

*Bang!*

In the blink of an eye, a huge chunk of the tree's side blew into bits, flying in all directions of the park.

"Hey, hey. That's not bad for your first attempt at shooting, but what a pity, you missed the mark. So, until you get it, you'll be practising your aim."

Hugo dropped the gun at the realization of the gross amount of power the weapon had.

"Just like that, it blew part of the tree to bits. What if it was that kid's head instead?"

"Calm down. It's only because I modified the gun. The bullets are better and I increased its durability but you should feel its recoil right about now."

No sooner than Kiter said this, did his arms start aching.

"Should it be this painful?"

"No, not really. The modifications played a huge role in this, but the pain is still part of my training,"

Kiter picked up an arrow from the ground and used it to draw a cycle that explained it to him.

"It's like this; the more you get used to it, the easier bow-drawing will be for you. A bow, especially strong ones need stronger strings, and in turn, those stronger strings require better strength to draw. I invented this method, by the way."

"Any more questions?"

Hugo shook his head and moved on to another tree within the plethora marked with the bullseye mark.

"Now, keep practising."

. . .

Somewhere within City A of Alpha

A loud commotion took place within the bustling roads of City A and the people hoping to go about their normal activities noticed the obstruction.

Multiple barricades prevented normal civilians from going onto the road, and only personnel with high enough clearance had access to the situation.

Another type of person that had access to the area were people who were indirectly involved, like victims relatives.

"Madam, calm down! Our team is looking for your boy at this very moment." A police officer dressed in bright red spoke held back one victim's relative.

"He didn't get lost. I know because the kidnapper sent me this note!"

The woman held up a tiny slip that had a line of blurred words on it.

"There's nothing here ma except a bunch of ink smudges. And with all due respect, I find it hard to believe that our suspect uses such an old fashion method as writing notes."

The mother tried her best to justify the smudges, but the officers wouldn't hear a word of it.

"Come on men, let's move out!"

A select group of officers hopped on hover cycles and went on their patrol.

The woman was distraught, unable to even think straight from the sudden disappearance of her child.

The chief of security of Alpha walked over to help her up, "Don't worry Ma'am, we'll find your kid."

But his words were little more than empty consolations to the woman.

'Hmm. Why did this psycho kid resurface? Goddamit, Cluez! I spent all that time getting your traces erased, and you had to come back and make this mess. I can't really blame him, though. His nemesis reappeared in these parts of Allegro.'

Though the chief had a look of somberness on the surface, once stripped off, the exterior would reveal a smiling face.

Though he had an alliance with the villain, the chief of security still needed to fulfil his role in society.

"All units search for traces of Cluez!"

"But, sir. Isn't he already dead?" A low-level officer asked, knowing well the status of the horrific man.

The chief of security frowned and issued another order.

"For this mission, all of you are to treat Cluez like an alive man armed with multiple weapons. I don't want anyone dying because of carelessness!"

"Yes, sir!"

And for the first time, the hopeless woman looked at the chief of security with a hint of trust in her eyes.

"I'll repeat my earlier words, Ma'am. We promise to find your son."

With those last words, he departed to fulfil his duty as the chief of security. Perhaps maybe the last one before old habits resurfaced.

. . .

Somewhere unknown

"Hoho, they should be on their way by now. I left one little clue on the roads, though. It won't be easy to get here."

It was the terror of the man with an A-level threat rank; Cluez!