novelraw Chapter 298: The Ghost Gunman
Chapter 298: The Ghost Gunman
The shadow of death descended from above.
The prayer bell weighing hundreds of pounds transformed into a lethal projectile under the force of gravity.
The terrifying kinetic energy it carried could instantly smash an adult water buffalo into a pulp of flesh and mud.
"Gerhard! Dodge, now!"
The Iron Cross captain let out a furious roar of shock and anger!
But it was already too late.
The burly team member Gerhard, wielding the steam-powered warhammer, had just snapped out of his stunned confusion from the matchbox explosion at his feet.
He looked up dazedly, seeing the immense black shadow carrying death whistling towards him, rapidly magnifying in his pupils.
"BOOM——!!!!!"
A deafening roar echoed, making the entire ancient church tremble!The massive bronze bell smashed down hard onto the spot where Gerhard had just been standing!
The wooden floorboards of the church instantly shattered into pieces.
Countless splinters and dust mixed with the bell's deep, drawn-out mournful toll, spreading out in all directions.
"Gerhard!"
Another slender team member wielding twin sickles let out a terrified scream.
The dust settled.
A giant bronze bell lay quietly upside down on the floor's wreckage like a tombstone.
And at the edge of the bell, a horrifying sight emerged from the gap: a mangled, bloodied lower leg clad in a black military boot, and a severely deformed power hammer emitting white steam.
One strike.
It couldn't even be called an "attack."
The strongest heavy hammer responsible for frontal assaults in this notoriously iron-blooded Iron Cross squad had just been absurdly crushed to death by the church's prayer bell before everyone's eyes.
Silence fell within the church.
The anger written all over Brewer's face was now replaced by stunned disbelief.
He somewhat wondered if this church was haunted by ghosts.
As for the lofty Iron Cross captain, his face displayed a mixture of horror and violent rage.
He abruptly looked up, his blue eyes fiercely scanning the deep, dark shadows on the church's second floor where light could not reach.
"Who is it?! Who's there?!"
The Iron Cross captain's voice became somewhat hoarse, "If you have the guts, come out! Face me in an honorable duel like a true warrior! What kind of skill is it to hide in the shadows and take cheap shots?!"
But the only response was the echo of his own impotent, furious roar reverberating endlessly through the church.
And then...
"Ding."
This time, the sound came from the other side of the church, near the altar.
A row of huge silver candlesticks, each over two meters tall, stood there.
The base used to secure the candle on one of the candlesticks suddenly snapped!
The entire heavy solid silver candlestick lost its balance and toppled over with a crash towards the slender team member whose nerves were stretched to the breaking point!
"Ah!"
The team member let out a shriek, performing an extremely clumsy roll on the spot, narrowly dodging the fatal blow.
The Iron Cross captain's heart sank.
He finally realized what kind of terrifying "monster" he had provoked!
It was a ghost that could make bullets completely vanish into thin air!
An environmental assassin who treated the entire church as his personal arsenal!
He wasn't attacking the enemies themselves, but the inconspicuous, easily overlooked environmental objects around them that could deliver fatal consequences at the most critical moment.
Hanging bronze bells, old candlesticks, broken glass, even a small pebble underfoot.
In this dilapidated church full of unstable factors, anything could become his weapon in the next second.
This tactic sent chills down his spine.
"Hans! Fall back! Return to my side!"
The Iron Cross captain roared!
He understood clearly that splitting up in this situation would only allow the "ghost" hiding in the shadows to pick them off one by one!
They had to form a back-to-back, 360-degree defensive formation to have any chance to catch their breath!
The slender twin-sickle wielder Hans scrambled frantically towards his captain.
But how could Lin Jie possibly give them this opportunity?
His wrist holding the Serene Heart behind him made a slight adjustment.
"Pfft."
Another soft sound came from the direction of the confessionals.
A minuscule bullet hole suddenly appeared on the edge of the already somewhat loose floor tile under Hans's feet.
With a "crack," the entire tile was flipped up at a tiny angle by this extremely precise impact.
Hans, caught completely off guard while sprinting at high speed, tripped over his own feet, losing his balance and tumbling forward.
"Opportunity!" Brewer's combat instincts were displayed to the fullest at this moment.
He didn't need any instruction from Lin Jie.
At the exact instant Hans fell, his Spencer shotgun roared!
"BANG!!!"
A standard buckshot shell filled with steel pellets swept over the entire area where Hans had fallen like the scythe of death!
"Ah——!"
Hans let out a piercing scream.
Dozens of scorching steel pellets tore a bloody, mangled wound across his back.
Although these injuries weren't fatal, the intense pain and the fear from blood loss had completely stripped him of all combat capability.
"Hans!"
The Iron Cross captain's eyes nearly burst from their sockets with rage!
He raised his Discipline pistol and pulled the trigger towards Brewer!
The special ability of Discipline activated at this moment!
The fired bullet traced a bizarre homing arc in the air, bypassing all obstacles, heading straight for Brewer's heart!
Yet no panic appeared on Brewer's face.
He leaned backward, and right behind him, the ever-silent White Ghost had appeared there at some unknown time.
He extended his prosthetic limb made of brass.
Emptiness!
The surface of the prosthetic rippled, then phased through Brewer's body like a phantom, meeting the deadly bullet carrying the "homing" effect!
The bullet didn't collide or explode upon contacting the ethereal arm.
Like mud entering the sea, it silently sank into that "void" and disappeared.
"This... how is this possible?!"
Genuine terror surfaced on the Iron Cross captain's face.
His Grotesque Armament, Discipline, with its unerring homing shots, had just been "swallowed" in a way he couldn't comprehend at all?!
And while he was caught in a brief mental freeze from this unimaginable scene—
A roar brimming with Texan cowboy bravado exploded in Brewer's ear!
"Bastard! My turn now!"
After confirming his safety, Sheriff Brewer seized the moment of the enemy captain's distraction to launch his own furious counterattack.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Brewer fully demonstrated the terrifying suppressive firepower of a former Texas Ranger, pouring all his bullets towards the only enemy still standing.
The Iron Cross captain, flustered, dove to the side, but was still grazed by the buckshot's area-of-effect damage, receiving minor cuts on his hand.
"Very well..." he squeezed two words through gritted teeth, "You... have successfully angered me!"
Using the momentum of his roll, the Iron Cross captain crouched low, employing a professional tactical evasion maneuver to break line of sight, and charged towards Brewer!
But halfway through his charge—
"Pfft."
Another soft sound.
This time, the bullet's target was the dust-covered carpet beneath his feet.
One bullet precisely struck the edge of the carpet, flipping up a corner, while another followed immediately, hitting a patch of melted wax on his forward path, making that area treacherously slippery!
"Damn it!"
The Iron Cross captain forcibly twisted his charging body at the last moment.
With a clumsy yet agile move, he narrowly dodged this simple trap made of carpet and wax.
He then slammed heavily into the wall of the oak-paneled confessional booth on the church's side wing.
What he didn't know was that all this chaos, all this movement, all these seemingly coincidental accidents...
Were all within Lin Jie's calculations!
White Ghost, who had blocked an attack earlier, had already infiltrated the confessional booth on the church's side wing.
He had been waiting.
Waiting for the optimal moment to strike with a single, fatal blow.
And now, that moment had arrived.
The prosthetic Emptiness penetrated the confessional's thin oak partition.
Then accurately grabbed the Iron Cross captain's unsuspecting spare magazine pouch hanging at his waist.
The Iron Cross captain felt a sudden lightness at his waist.
He instinctively looked down. The leather magazine pouch loaded with Discipline's special alchemical rounds was gone!
The Iron Cross captain's heart, encased in iron-blooded discipline, was finally shattered by fear.
He had lost.
Lost to a group of "inferiors" he had always looked down upon.
"Snap."
A strange sound rang out.
The rifle sling his last team member, the gravely wounded twin-sickle wielder named Hans, was using to support himself was precisely severed by a bullet.
Having lost the advantage of ranged firepower.
Facing an invisible sniper.
Facing a phantom-like thief.
This always-arrogant German captain still made the only rational, yet most humiliating, choice.
"We... retreat!"
He squeezed these words through gritted teeth, then hoisted his demoralized teammate from the ground and, in a disheveled state, rushed headlong out of the church that had given him his first taste of humiliation in life, disappearing into the green miasma.
Peace returned to the church.
Brewer watched the two German hunters fleeing in disarray, then looked at White Ghost in the confessional who had saved him, finally turning his gaze towards Lin Jie beside him.
An expression of profound admiration appeared on his face.