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 from afar 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.

  'The small man from earlier. I don't know his name but he was smart.'

  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.

  Instructions and a sound strategy — Midi’s expression hardened with purpose.

  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 purpose sharpened by understanding.

  Dilim moved with the same brutal efficiency, icy shards coiling around his sword as he pummeled through debris and twisted metal.

  The wasp appeared before him 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.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Minimal risk — high reward.

  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 — one a blazing arc of fire, the other a jagged slash of ice.

  They carved through the battlefield with perfect synchronicity, a seamless weave of destruction and frost.

  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 ash and vapor.

  Cain adjusted his scope, leaning back just slightly to avoid the sudden glare.

  The battlefield was smothered in fog, thick and impenetrable, weaving through the ruins like 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, line of sight... All variables to consider, all pieces of a puzzle that only I could see.'

  He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the sound of footsteps ripple through the air.

  Heavy, deliberate, and rhythmic.

  'The rhino beastman’s steps... Seventeen in ten seconds.'

  Cain’s brain noted the count with mechanical precision.

  'Its angle of movement? Forty-five degrees. Not optimal, but workable. Three ungrateful rats clung to its shoulders.'

  He isolated each one with practiced familiarity — the one on the left loaded the ammunition, its hands darting back and forth with frantic speed.

  The middle one cooled the weapon, steam hissing from vents in tandem with its movements.

  The last one — was in charge of firing and aiming, its beady eyes squinting through the haze as it lined up its next shot.

  He traced the path of the tower shield they carried, its massive slab of metal lifting with each step to shield them from stray fire.

  That would be a problem.

  Or it would have been — if Cain didn’t already know its rhythm.

  He adjusted his sight, his breath coming slow and measured.

  The heat of the fog blurred his thermal sight, yet somehow, he could still see clearly.

  He lined up the shot, recalculating the movement with a cold efficiency.

  He had a window — just as the shield dipped for the rats to adjust the mechanism.

  'It would only happen once every few seconds, but I had tracked the pattern. Three... Two... One…'

  “Silence.”

  Cain pulled the trigger, but not before he whispered the incantation under his breath.

  The bullet left the chamber 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, their jagged edges a testament to past violence.

  It zipped past a broken statue of a man, still reaching skyward with one hand as if defying fate itself.

  The roar of Midi shook the air, but the bullet was already gone, brushing through his wild hair with a whisper of passing wind.

  Ting!

  The shot 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, the sound swallowed by the fog.

  With the instant severing of nerves, the sharp snap of tendon, the shatter of bone giving way to force.

  The bullet continued its path, unyielding, 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 jolted from the impact, its frame shuddering as it flung from the rhino’s back in a wild, irregular arc, tumbling end over end before crashing into rubble a few meters away.

  Cain watched with unblinking eyes, the muzzle of his rifle still glowing faintly as he rained down bullets after the other.

  The rhino lumbered forward, heavy and clumsy.

  Its vision was poor at the best of times, and the mist only made it worse.

  It didn’t know what had happened — only that its companions were writhing in pain.