Sword Art Online - Volume 6 - Phantom Bullet

by Reki Kawahara

  And as for the Pale Rider, who chased Dyne, was one not to be taken lightly, to be honest, Sinon never met him before, and of course, never fought against him. Was he really that strong? Was it that the weapon suited the landscape? Just when Sinon felt suspicious, the satellite in the sky seemed to be gone, and all the lights that were on the map were flickering. The Intel would disappear in about another 10 seconds.

  Sinon raised her hand in reflex, ready to count the 18 dots that were far away. But just when her index finger was about to touch the screen, that hand clenched into a fist. That’s because she found a special name she was looking for.

  “…Who cares if he’s alive, that guy.”

  Sinon muttered softly. There was no need for her to worry about that kind of guy—whether that despicable light saber user «Kirito» was alive or not. Right now, she should focus on the prey that’s entering the Hecate’s range. If Kirito entered the range, she should just aim, fire and end his life immediately without any feelings.

  The flickering lights finally disappeared silently. Sinon placed the terminal back into her pouch and again ran through the forest.

  Below her was a gradual hill, and opposite it was a lush forest. Right now, Dyne and Pale Rider were in a deep part of the forest, moving from Sinon’s right to her left. Both of them should be aiming for the river that split the area in half and the bridge that spreads across the river. The cautious Dyne must be trying to avoid a high risk forest battle and chose to fight on a bridge where the range of vision was great to take on the pursuing Pale Rider.

  Sinon was closer to the bridge than them. If she ran off now, she should be able to reach a sniping position first. She wanted to watch their battle from there and snipe the victor once his guard is down.

  Readying the Hecate on her right shoulder, Sinon lowered her body and ran through the forest again.

  The girl successfully managed to pass through the red tea-colored hilly region, snaking her way through the middle of the entire map as she ran north before disappearing within the abandoned city that was clouded in clouds.

  On the opposite side of the river was a forest that had lots of old trees, and slightly below the trees, she could see a meandering rocky path. The path reached the river 200m north of where Sinon was sneaking, and links to a simple metal bridge. At this moment, those two players should be running down the path—

  Her intuition seemed to be correct since, a figure came running out from the shadows of the large old trees that’s growing on the way between the path and the metal bridge. Sinon hurriedly readied the Hecate on the floor and brought her eyes over before she even lined her eyes on the rip-up cover of the scope.

  That body was wearing a woodland patterned clothing, and his chin could be seen from below his helmet. Also, the SIG assault rifle confirmed that this was Dyne. He ran smoothly down the path like a veteran, and after leaving the forest for a few seconds. He quickly ran 50m down the metal bridge, over to the side where Sinon was hiding and immediately got down on the floor, proning.

  “…I see”

  Sinon muttered with some respect. In this situation, he could attack the enemy who wants to ran across the metal bridge. However, he was still too careless. To an enemy who may be hiding on the riverside, he showed his back in a completely defenseless manner.

  “You have to watch your back no matter when it is, Dyne.”

  Sinon muttered as the crosshairs lined itself and caught that somewhat rough-looking face. Now she could take direct action without even waiting for Dyne and Pale Rider to fight. Though Pale Rider would notice Sinon’s existence, he had to cross the bridge if he wanted to force his way. Sinon was only 200m away from the metal bridge, and even if the enemy ran with all he got, she had the confidence that it’ll be a sure-kill hit.

  ‘’—Of course, I’ll just be sorry to those who were watching live from the gallery.’’

  Sinon thought as she silently placed her finger on the Hecate’s trigger, but at the next moment…

  There was an icy chill behind her.

  There was also someone behind her.

  —Idiot! I forgot to watch my back because I was focused on sniping!

  As Sinon was screaming this in her head, she quickly moved her right hand away from the Hecate. She turned 180 degrees like her body was a spring and used her left hand to pull out her support weapon, the «MP7» sub-machine gun. While doing all that, her mind lets out flashes of interrupted thoughts.

  —But how could there be anyone behind me? There was only Lion King Richie when I checked the «Satellite Scanner» a few minutes ago, wasn’t it? That guy can’t have possibly ran down the mountain. And I can’t possibly not notice the enemy’s footsteps if he ran in with a heavy machine gun. Speaking of which, it’s practically impossible for any enemy other than Richie to get behind me in such a short time. What’s going on—who is it—

  Even though she was really surprised, Sinon reached the MP7 right behind her, and placed the black muzzle right in front of her. Of course, she wasn’t paying that much attention to things; she couldn’t believe that someone gotten the jump on her.

  Right now, she couldn’t dodge this assault. They would soon use up all their bullets in their magazines to reduce each other’s HP—Sinon got ready to squeeze the trigger after preparing herself for this.

  But just when she was about to pull the trigger and fire the bullet…

  The attacker muttered softly as he raised his right hand, looking like he wanted to stop Sinon,

  “Wait!”

  “Uehh…!?”

  Sinon widened her eyes and turned to look from the muzzle to the enemy’s face.

  She immediately saw that long waist-length glamorous black hair, and the white tender skin even when under the sunset, and the long narrow eyes that were sparkling.

  Her arch-enemy Kirito seemed to be half-sprawled on Sinon, wielding the FiveSeven pistol with his left hand and aiming at her.

  After realizing the current situation, Sinon’s heart had several feelings combining together to form a flame. She forgot the muzzle in front of her eyes and subconsciously gritted her teeth, giving a malicious look and intending to fire the MP7 in her left hand.

  But Kirito again said with a cool voice that made Sinon stop exerting the force on her fingers.

  “Hold on. I have a proposal.”

  “…What’s there to propose in this situation…”

  Sinon argued back with a soft voice that was filled with killing intent.

  “What’s there to propose and compromise in this situation!? We’re only waiting to see who dies first!”

  “I could have shot first if I wanted to shoot!”

  Kirito’s words were abnormally tense, causing Sinon to shut up. It felt that there was something more troubling to him than this faceoff at gunpoint.

  And though she wasn’t happy about it, what Kirito said was right. If he could get near easily, he could have back-stabbed her by firing bullets or using the lightsaber.

  “…”

  Facing Sinon, who was forced to remain silent, Kirito again continued to speak softly,

  “I don’t want us to attack each other here and let the other two hear gunshots.”

  Kirito’s eyes immediately turned to look behind Sinon, at the metal bridge where another battle was about to begin.

  “Uehh…? What do you mean…”

  “I want to watch that battle on the bridge until they decide the winner. Before that, please don’t take action.”

  “…Watch? And what do you intend to do after that? Are you going to say something stupid like, let’s start attacking each other after that?”

  “We have to watch the situation…but I should be leaving then, so I won’t attack you.”

  “But I may snipe you from behind, you know?”

  “That can’t be helped. Please understand. It’s starting!”

  As Kirito anxiously turned to look at the metal bridge, he actually put the FiveSeven in his left hand down. Even
though the enemy was pointing the submachine-gun right in the middle of his forehead, he still placed the handgun back into his holster.

  Though she was angry, Sinon felt that it couldn’t be helped, and her shoulders relaxed just like that.

  If she exerted a little more force on the finger that’s on the trigger, the 24 0.46mm MP7 bullets could shoot out all of Kirito’s HP. However, Sinon had already viewed Kirito as her biggest enemy, so she was really unwilling to end her fight against him in such a half-effort manner.

  ‘’If it’s Kirito, maybe he can dodge the Hecate’s snipe without even a trajectory’’, Sinon had already planned for this and thought of all the ways she could use to fight him head on. If they had to fight, of course she would hope for Kirito and herself to be the last two standing amongst the 30 players and then fight an intense deathmatch that would use all their heart and soul.

  “…Will you fight me properly if we do this over?”

  “Ahh.”

  Kirito nodded his head, and Sinon puts down her submachine gun after watching his eyes for half a second. She knew that it wouldn’t be likely, but to prevent Kirito from suddenly attacking her, she still didn’t move her finger away from the trigger. However, Kirito himself immediately relaxed his entire body and proned himself in the bush beside Sinon. He took out mini-binoculars from his belt pouch and started watching this battle.

  This attitude of not even paying attention to consider her a potential threat at all made her angry and reluctant at the same time. Why must this guy watch someone else fight? Speaking of which, when did he appear? There wasn’t Kirito’s name within 1km around her when she checked the «Satellite Scanner» a few minutes ago.

  However, Sinon still swallowed her doubts back in and placed the MP7 on her left waist. She then carried the Hecate with both hands and used the scope to watch the two people who were fighting.

  On the long metal bridge, Sinon could still see Dyne in a prone position near her. The SG550 that was stuck on his face wasn’t moving at all, and this uninterrupted concentration of his showed that he wasn’t someone to be underestimated. Of course, the Pale Rider who forced Dyne into such a tough situation couldn’t possibly appear easily from the forest across from him.

  “…The battle you’re so looking forward to may not happen.”

  Sinon muttered at Kirito, who was beside her, in a mocking manner.

  “Dyne won’t remain proned there forever. Once that guy gets ready to move, I’ll snipe him first.”

  “In that case, you can take action…no, hang on.”

  Kirito’s answer was tense out of a sudden. Sinon moved her eye away from the scope on reflex and turned to look at the metal bridge with her naked eyes.

  At this moment, a figure sudden appeared from the path that’s deep within the thick forest.

  It was a tall and skinny player, wearing mysterious blue and white camouflage clothing. Since he had a black helmet on, they couldn’t see his face. That person was armed with only the light «ArmaLite AR 17» shotgun. This guy should be—no, he’s definitely the «Pale Rider» who was chasing Dyne.

  Dyne, who was lying on the other side of the bridge, immediately went tense on this shoulders, and this abnormal atmosphere spread to Sinon who was far away. In contrast, she couldn’t feel any pressure from Pale Rider’s standing position. He didn’t seem to be scared of that SIG in Dyne’s hands as he merely crossed the bridge easily.

  “…That guy’s strong…”

  Sinon couldn’t help but say that, and beside her, Kirito suddenly moved his body slightly. Sinon glanced at him for a while and found that the side-face that looked just like a girl was giving of a very tense presence. In other words, Kirito was watching that Pale Rider? Even though it was Sinon’s first time seeing this certain player’s name and appearance, his actions showed that he did possess a certain amount of ability.

  Thus GGO had the «Bullet Line» assist prediction ability that that couldn’t be possible in real life, it’s not easy getting near an enemy with a fully-automatic machine gun. Normally speaking, there would be an obstacle for the person to hide behind to run from one cover to another cover, using the lateral movements to close in on the enemy.

  However, Pale Rider merely stepped onto the metal bridge in a defenseless manner casually. There was nothing, no landscape or objects to block the bullets. Even Dyne, who escaped to create this situation could only remain prone on the floor, and a slight doubt could be seen on his back.

  However, Dyne was a leader of a squadron for quite some time, so his experience made him abandon his inner doubt. A second later, his SG550 assault rifle fired with the sturdy sound that fit a Swiss machine, and immediately spread throughout the river surface.

  However, Pale Rider himself dodged those numerous 0.55mm bullets that were fired over in a manner Sinon didn’t expect. He actually ran to a cable that was supporting the bridge and used the left hand to climb up. Dyne hurriedly tried to aim the gun at him, but it’s tough for a person in a prone position to aim at an enemy above; as he missed the second shooting, Pale Rider himself used the recoil of the ropes to jump onto the bridge at a position that’s rather near Dyne.

  “A STR type, and he used light equipment, and boosting 3-dimension mobility…his skills points are rather high too.”

  As Sinon muttered, Dyne got up to show that he wouldn’t be tricked a second time and squeezed the trigger for the third time. However, this attack of his was anticipated by Pale Rider. Thus there was a little gap in the firing line and the ground, that blue and white profile immediately rushed in without falling by using his left hand to support the ground and doing a barrel roll forward. He was only 20cm away from Dyne when he got up.

  “Damn you…!”

  Dyne let out the familiar cursing and tried to quickly change the 30-bullet magazine that was empty. However…

  The AlmaLite in Pale Rider’s right hand let out a silent flash.

  Under such a distance, the bullets of a shotgun couldn’t miss completely. Dyne immediately fell backwards as the special effects lighting spread all over him. But remarkably, he didn’t stop as he reloaded and got ready to put his gun at this face—however, there was a second gunshot.

  Pale Rider again got near and shot for the second time to cause Dyne to lose his balance. This was the terrifying part about this weapon called the shotgun; It causes a high delay beside ordinary damage, allowing people to be continuously attacked helplessly.

  —There was no need to bring the SIG to the face, as the muzzle flash that’s aimed while holding from the waist would be extremely powerful.

  However, Sinon’s thoughts couldn’t spread to Dyne’s brain, and it was too late. Pale Rider continued to close in and slowly reloaded the AR17 before squeezing the trigger right in front of Dyne for the 3rd time. The 12 gauge bullet exploded, releasing a rain of bullets and bringing Dyne’s remaining HP to zero.

  Dyne, who was on the floor lifelessly, had the large word [Dead] in red on him as it slowly spun. Now he’s eliminated from the finals. He wouldn’t be able to log out during this time as it was to prevent players from exchanging information in the real world. This «corpse» could only watch the live broadcast in his conscious state until the match ends.

  “That blue guy’s really amazing…”

  Beside her, Kirito said with a soft voice. Sinon was subconsciously about to nod her head in response, and immediately pricked her eyebrows on hearing what he said next,

  “…Is that guy…one of the guys we talked about on the list…?”

  Sinon felt extremely suspicious, but immediately remembered that «Pale Rider» was one of the three numbers Kirito was worried about. In other words, Pale Rider could be that target, both of them tried to kill each other in that VRMMO game Kirito played before, and that game’s name was—no, maybe it’s that one that became infamous…

  At this moment, Sinon forced herself to stop thinking.

  Kirito should have his own problems too, but those were his own probl
ems. Nobody else had a way, not should they bear responsibility for it.

  Sinon seemed like she wanted to shake off this little doubt and turned off the safe of the Hecate before saying softly and simply,

  “I’m going to snipe that guy.”

  Without waiting for Kirito’s response, she placed her finger on the trigger. After Pale Rider eliminated Dyne with an exciting attack, he left the bridge and was ready to head north. Sinon’s crosshair immediately caught sight of his skinny back, and considered the wind direction and distance before readying herself.

  At this moment, Kirito finally answered with a hoarse voice,

  “Ahh…I understand. But, if he’s that guy…”

  —So what if it’s that guy? You’re telling me that in less than 300m with his back turned, he could dodge my sniping specialty the «first shot without a bullet line»?

  “…Stop joking around.”

  Sinon merely moved her lips to answer Kirito and fired the trigger without hesitation—

  But at this moment…

  Sinon saw an unbelievable sight in her scope.

  A little bullet exited the right shoulder of Pale Rider’s blue and white camouflage, and this tall and skinny guy was knocked to the right like he was knocked aside from the bullet that hit him.

  ““Ahh…!””

  Sinon and Kirito, who was watching the scene with his binoculars from the left, shouted out at the same time.

  Though surprised, Sinon still focused on her hearing instinctively. Of course, this was to check the gunshot that sniped Pale Rider, where it came from and the sound quality. However…

  No matter how Sinon pricked her ears, all she could hear was the dry wind and the water flowing in the river.

  “…Did I miss it…?”

  Sinon muttered, and Kirito, who seemed to be thinking about that, silently responded,