CHAPTER 66: HAHA FIRE GO BRRRR (1)

"What are you planning this time?" I asked that slippery eel with a frown on my forehead.

"As I said, little cub. I'm planning to commit arson~" He hummed happily.

"Details? Hello?" I turned around to look at general Emilio and Jeanne, who looked as fed up as I was.

"Allow me to explain, then," Jeanne sighed, "general Zhang wants to set a portion of their forest on fire to bait the elves over there."

"But why?" I questioned.

"Why not? Tee-hee!" General Zhang interrupted.

"Our plan is to have general Zhang distract the elves and hold them off there for as long as he can, while we sneak in from the other side to assassinate the elf king." Jeanne explained.

"Can that eel even survive against a whole village of elves? And after slaying the king, what do we do?" I felt as if my brain was about to overheat by this sudden rush of funky tactics.

"The elves strictly obey their king. They follow a hard hierarchy system. So if we assassinate the king and the royal family, they should fall into chaos, and that's where we will claim the throne," Jeanne answered me, "and as for him..." She glanced at general Zhang.

"Don't worry about me. Rather, what's more worrying is can you successfully kill the king?" General Zhang shrugged.

"You're awfully smug, eel. Don't come crying to us if you get cornered." I huffed.

"You'll see~" He giggled.

"Enough. We depart now." General Emilio gave us a glare, and we immediately stopped bickering.

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For hours upon hours, we marched steadily towards the north. The dawn sky that was slightly tinted blue had now turned into an orange sky that poured yellow hues upon the terrain around us.

But all that fatigue and boredom slipped away as soon as we caught a glimpse of the orc kingdom's castle from afar. Finally, we were nearing our destination.

"Wait." I suddenly piped up, and we immediately pulled the leash on our horses.

"What's wrong?" Jeanne asked while her right hand immediately reached for her sword handle.

"Do any of you bring binoculars? Or something similar?" I scratched my cheek nervously.

"We have those, actually," Jeanne rummaged through her supply bag, and tossed me a pair of binoculars, "here."

"Thank you." I caught them with one hand, and immediately brought them to my eyes while I looked around.

"What are you looking for, little cub?" General Zhang asked.

"Hmm wait, give me some more time... Ah! Over there!" I pointed with my index finger towards the castle.

"Yeah, that's the castle. We ain't blind." General Zhang came closer to my horse and poked my cheek.

"No, not that. Look, they have elf archers stationed at their castle towers." I shoved the binoculars towards his eyes, and forced his head to look in that direction.

"Ah. True," he chimed, "tch. So prepared. Annoying."

"Give me a number." General Emilio glanced at us with his usual unreadable face.

"I'm not sure, but I saw 1 elf in each tower," I pointed at the castle, "I think we can all agree that there are 4 towers?"

"So best case is 4 guards, huh?" General Emilio pondered, "Enzo, fly and use your--"

He flinched.

General Emilio's eyes enlarged ever so slightly, and although it was barely noticeable, he took a second to peek at his surroundings. His slightly parted lips finally pursed and he shook his head slightly.

"Never mind, are any of you proficient in long-range attack?" He cleared his throat, and inquired us.

"Me. But not this long." I waved my assault rifle in front of him. If it was a sniper rifle, I might've been able to do something about it.

"Oh, you can." General Zhang smirked, and took my rifle from me.

"Great, another feature that you purposely kept hidden from me?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't it more fun that way?" He chuckled and took out a key-like thing from his pocket, before inserting it into a small hole on the rifle's body.

'Click!'

After twisting the key, my rifle glowed blue and its parts started to disassemble, float, and transform into entirely different parts. After they had finished morphing, those parts reassembled themselves again very cleanly that I couldn't even see any marks. And all of that was done in just two seconds at most.

"How is it? Do you recognize what this thing is?" General Zhang grinned at me and tossed me my new, transformed rifle.

"A sniper rifle!? But how? They're very different--"

"Don't underestimate Koji. Do you think he only does normal blacksmithing? Did you forget that he has magic, too?" He chuckled, "and don't underestimate my money."

"Woah..." I admired the new sniper rifle he gave me, and checked its ammo and whatnot. Although the transformation was kinda showy and it may give out my position, but it wasn't bad at all.

"Alright, enough wow-ing! Now shoot, little cub!" General Zhang cheerfully exclaimed while pointing at the castle's direction.

"Ugh. Sure, sure. I can't guarantee it'll hit, though. I'll do my best," I sighed, "general Emilio, allow me to find a suitable place to snipe them all."

"Alright. Do you have a place in mind?" He asked.

"Someplace high where I can see all four of them, but still hidden," I said as I put my finger on my lips while thinking, "oh and, you better protect me if my position is found, though. It'll be a hassle to reposition."

"Sure. Follow me. I know a spot." General Emilio kicked his horse's side, and his horse began running.

"Ah, wait!" I pouted and kicked my horse's side to follow his lead.

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'Neighh!'

"This spot should be good, right?" General Emilio asked as he pulled his horse's leash tightly, halting its movement.

I looked through my binoculars, and after confirming that I had a clear view of all four of them, I nodded, "yeah. This spot should be good. Let me try."

As I hopped off my horse and readied my rifle, general Zhang stopped me.

"Hold on," he took out a piece of cloth and laid it down on the floor, "okay, go on."

"Oh? You're being nice? How rare." I snickered and laid on my stomach on the ground, with that fabric beneath me, preventing my outfit from getting dirty.

"Pfft. That's the cloth I used to wipe my horse with. Ahahaha!" He started laughing maniacally at me.

"Ah, how can you still be so childish in this situation!?" I grumbled, but I didn't remove the cloth. It was better than having to lay down on top of mud, anyway.

"Ahahahhah!" He ignored my complaints and just laughed even harder.

"Tch." I averted my attention away from him and focused on my sniping scope.

After a few seconds of adjusting, I finally had the first elf in my vision. Taking a deep breath, I felt my whole body relax as blood rushed towards my head, and I felt as if I had complete control of my shot.

Yep. This was it. This was the feeling that I felt almost every day back in my brigade.

"Die."

'BANG!'