The final round was held at a forest. The forest was in the middle of a valley. The participants was brought with a vehicle to the edge of the valley. From there, they should walk to into the forest to reach their bases. Once all participants reached their bases, the round was started. It would go for 24 hours.
Quint watched his device once again before he stepped his foot to enter the forest. The device was given by the committee to support the game. There was a map that showed a location of particular participant's base included the participant's current location. When the game started, the device would display the participant's score.
Quint didn't have much of a luck. His base was almost in the middle of the forest. It should be a great advantage for him if only there was no rule that allowed participant to shoot each other. With his base being in the middle, which meant it was in the bottom of the valley, other participants would easily target him.
There were only 2 more base located in the same level or area with him. If he were lucky, the two other areas all be occupied by other participants, thus he would only need to worry about the other two participants. However, Quint didn't believe in luck. So he assumed all his rivals' base were above him.
Even though his base located the furthest from the edge of the forest, with his capability Quint actually could reach it the fastest. After observing the target area, he prepared his stationer riffle. on the ground. He then pressed the checkpoint button on his device to signal that he was on his base already.
Waiting for the gate to start, Quint sat quietly on the ground with his eyes close. He could here some movement somewhere far behind him. But that was just about it. The forest area across him was so far that he couldn't hear any noise from there.
He took the map he bought yesterday. The map now had 9 circles that indicated 9 location s of the bases he figured out with the help of the teenager. His base, the F location, was in the right of the forest in the map. Whoever moving behind him was going to base C or I. The teenager said that his base could target almost all of the bases.There was only one location for that, was base H. This base was on his upper right, almost at the edge of the forest. From there, someone should be able to target any other bases except base J. Unless, of course, if that teenager lied to Quint and he was actually on base B, one that he didn't know the location.
Half an hour later, the device was vibrating, signaling that all participants were on their base and the game would start in 5 more minutes. Quint laid behind his weapon. He closed his one eye to watch from the surveillance lens above the weapon. He could see some animals were being released and started to enter the target zone. Anything alive in the target zone could be shot.
The device beep once to notify that the game was started. Five minutes later, there was no one started the shot. Quint remembered what the teenager said about the siblings. They usually brought down their opponents first, in this case were Quint and the teenager.
Quint waited for another hour. He hoped that one of the siblings had thin patience thus finally started a shot. However it was futile, as he predicted. He could actually waited for another two or even three hours, but it would only waste time and point since he knew the animals on the target are would be sleeping after eating.
Quint finally decided to voluntarily showing his position. He chose the wild boar since it had the smallest point among the other targets.
SWUUUS!
His bullet flied and a split second later pieced the boar' skin. The poor animal cried in pain before fell on the ground. Quint stretched his neck forward to look on the target. He did it to deliberately showing his target on his helmet.
Not even a second later, his profound power warned him. Quint immediately put his left hand over his target and dodged his head. Unfortunately, his dodge wasn't quick enough.
"Ouch!" Quint hissed in pain as he felt a bullet pierced his left palm. Another bullet also stuck on his helmet, but f few inches away from his target.
Quint withdrew himself to the nearest tree. He winced in pain but didn't make a sound when he pulled out the bullet from his palm. He groped his backpack to find the first aid. With one hand, he bandaged his wounded hand. Then Quint took the magic capsule the little girl gave him. He knew this is not a life threaten situation, but he needed both of his hands to win this competition.
Leaning on the tree, Quint checked on his device. His point now was -800. He had 200 from shooting the wild boar, and he had -1000 for covering his target. However, that minus point gave him some advantages. First, his opponents, if figured out that they missed his target, wouldn't shoot him. They definitely wouldn't want to share his negative points. The second, the most valuable, was he now knew the locations of the other two opponents of him.
He opened his map.. His opponents were on base A and G. The third one was on C or I, and the teenager, well.. he assumed on H. Thus, he would gain most advantage if he moved to base D where he could aim all the four locations.
Quint cleaned up his riffle and equipments. His left hand was not fully recovered, so he could only did it with one hand. After finished, he started moving to base D.
The forest was so quiet. The siblings might still wanted to allure him out or maybe afraid that he might revenge them. The latest was more probable, since only a retard would do the earlier.
Suddenly, a shot was heard. It was from base C's direction. Maybe that person was testing the water. Quint smirked. Now he knew exactly where the third person was.
Quint quickened his steps. Once in a while he heard a gun shot from three locations, A, C, and G. Only the teenager still didn't reveal his location. He seemed to stick to his plan, to let others gaining point as many as possible before he robbed them by shooting them down.
Around ten minutes later, Quint arrived at the base D, He checked point himself and turned on point displaying on his device. He had hid himself by turning off that option all this long. When a participant chose to hide their point, thus he could also not see others points. Now, he wanted his opponents to know that he was still in the game and that his point was negative. Quint could see the other three siblings' points on his device, but not the teenager. This guy was like a ghost. Well, but not for long, hopefully.
After his riffle was ready, Quint once again laid himself behind his riffle. From his device he knew that one on base A had the most points, 2300. while one on base G had the least, only 1200. Quint aimed his weapon to base G. This way, when he shot him, his point was still negative, thus others would still hesitate to shoot him.
Quint breathed slowly to slow down his heart beats. While doing it, he measured the wind speed and the distance between him and base G. He peeked at surveillance lens. He saw target mark from his profound. He smiled a little. His index finger was on the trigger. He took a deep breath then exhaled it slowly. Right at the end of his breath, he pulled the trigger.
SWUUUS!!
Quint glanced at his device. His point now was, -200. Two siblings to go. After a careful consideration, Quint decided to have the base A sibling as his second target. That's because he already knew that person shooting capability. One in base A was one that hit his hand. While the C's person was still a mystery. Another reason was because the one on base A had more point than on on base C. Thus, if somehow the teenager decided to 'help' him by shooting the his other opponent, the teenager would have less point.
Quint moved the angle of his weapon to the left. With the same technique, he then shot one in base A. With that bullet, his point reached 1300. Quint's profound alerted him once again. Quint quickly dodge his head. A bullet flied only a hair away above his head. The bullet then stuck into a tree behind him.
Wasting no time, Quint moved his riffle's angle to base C's direction. He only could peek a split second before another warning from his profound came. He hid his face to the ground right when another bullet nearly touched him. He then moved his finger, not even making another peek.
A second after his bullet flied from his riffle, his point changed into 2500. Quint huffed. The siblings were now out of the game. This is only between him and the teenager. That teenager wouldn't hit him now because he would only have 1250, while the person on base A was out of the game with 1500. Thus the winner was still that person.
With his current point, he was controlling the game now. He won't be stupid enough to increase his point by shooting the targets below only to be robbed by the teenager. Thus, with him stayed in 2500, whether the teenager shot him or not, the teenager couldn't win this round. Unless of course, the teenager changed his strategy and started shooting the target to gain some points for himself.
Quint moved away from his weapon. Sitting under the tree, he stared to open his lunch box and ate. The forest became quiet again, only animals' sounds were heard. Quint took his time finishing his lunch. He needed not to hurry since all he had to do was waiting for the teenager's next step.
After lunch, Quint climbed a tree to rest. He didn't really sleep, just closing his eyes while circulating his energy to replenish the old cells in his blood quicker.
An hour later, a sound of gunshot was heard. Quint smiled to hear is, as if it was the most beautiful melody he has ever heard. Another gunshot was heard when Quint climbed down the tree. The sound came from base C. So the teenager finally changed his base so he could shoot some targets.
Once again, Quint cleaned out his equipments and walked his feet to base A. It was stupid to stay at the same base since he would be an easy target for the teenager. Furthermore, base A al though further, but had more convenient and clearer view to base C since they were face to face.
While walking toward the base A, Quint was keeping track of the gunshots sound. They were about eight more before there was a sudden silence. Quint frowned. That teenager was really efficient. He only shot as many as he needed. Quint fastened his steps. A thought crossed his mind and he needed to confirm it first.
Once he was on base A, he quickly took out his weapon. Without even putting it on its station, Quint peeked through the surveillance lens. He was right. There was no movement on base C. It meant that the teenager was moving again. Quint realized it was opponent hunting time.
The teenager was a good strategist. With that to be said, his words are also couldn't be reliable. He probably knew more bases than he said to Quint, most probably including base B that Quint didn't know.
Quint stopped to think for a while. The day was getting old. The sun would be set soon. Al though there was still more than 10 hours left in this round, the round would be finished when there was only a participant left. So, Quint could hunt the teenager in this vast forest to win this category as fast as possible, or he could just wait for the round to end.
Quint chose neither. He decided to hunt the teenager, but not blindly. He needed to figure out where was the teenager first. This way, he didn't waste his energy. Current time, the teenager's point was still way below him. Thus, the teenager might do two things. One, he might hunt the animal below, or he might hunt him.
Once again, Quint sat under the tree. Cross-legged, he closed his eyes, activating his other senses. From his interaction with the teenager yesterday, Quint had recognized his scent. With that knowledge, Quint was hoping he would able to sense the teenager from the scent brought by the wind.
As the sun went down, the darkness was quickly dominating. Quint heard noises from below. From how it's sounded, he knew it was the movement of some night animals. a wind breezed from uphill. Faintly, Quint smelled something. It was so faint that he couldn't point a finger to it. It could be the teenager's scent, but.. there was no base above him. Except of course... the missing base B.
Suddenly a gun shot heard, but not from above him, instead from base E on his right. Quint quickly approached his riffle. He regretted not to enhance his riffle to have a night view. But still, he aimed his riffle to where the sound was heard. Weird, his profound didn't show him anything.
Another gunshot was heard from the same location. Quint, al though didn't have his profound guided him, decided to pull his trigger and shot to that location. There was a clang sound, but no other voice. That was super weird.
There was something crossed Quint's mind. But before he could digest it, another side of his brain rand an alarm. Reflexively he turned his body around. Still, a sharp pain was felt when a bullet scratched his right shoulder.
In hurry, Quint took his riffle from its station and put it on his wounded shoulder. His profound immediately showed a marker somewhere in the dark above. His brain rand an alarm again. However, instead of dodging the bullet he couldn't see, Quint pulled the trigger with the loud cry as the jolt of his riffle crushed his wounded shoulder. Only after his bullet flied away, Quint turned his head away right when a bullet hit his helmet.
A second later, Quint heard a loud venting from above. Quint checked his device. His smile was widened when he saw his point was increased. He won.
@@@@@ AUTHOR's NOTE @@@@@
I have to admit it was fun writing this chapter. Do you like it ? If you do, please vote with power stone. Thank you :)