Dungeon Sniper

Omega was no toy.

It was all kinds of guns in one package. Sniper rifle, assault rifle, laser rifle, shotgun, grenade launcher, everything... and the scariest part was that it seemed to evolve with each practice and usage as if trying to emulate my imagination and make it into a reality.

Rafaqa and I did not find any bat in the nearby caves for the night, much to Rafaqa's disappointment. We returned to Rafaqa's hideout, and I was able to examine the rugged wooden rifle more closely once I was inside and next to the fire.

The design was grotesque in every angle. It had a hooked curve that attested to its purported origin: a severed-off talon of the Last Dragon that was turning into a giant tree at the time. Other than that, it looked like a plain, nondescript branch of an old tree save for the protruding handle and a twig sticking out on the side.

The twig did not come off no matter how hard I tried to pull it out. Instead, it moved and clicked in distinctive angles, three at first and 'twelve' in the end, but more on that later.

"What does it do, exactly?" asked Elysia curiously, having listened to the latest intel on the Last Dragon and its tree-like status and now scrutinizing the peculiar rifle thoroughly ever since I handed it off to her five minutes ago.

Rafaqa drank from his crude clay cup and smacked his lips thoughtfully.

"To be frank, I do not remember clearly what I saw then. Alpha always was a trickster, but that particular weapon was unpredictable even for his usual gadgets. Mind you, it came off the Last Dragon that was absorbing all lives o this Level, meaning the shoddy stick shares about one-hundredth of the entire life force in this Level."

"Yeah, but what does that mean?" I asked impatiently.

"What does that mean?" frowned Rafaqa, "It means you are holding an immensely powerful weapon at your hands, children."

"You keep saying that but I really don't feel anything. Sure, I thought I felt something I grabbed the handle and realized it was a rifle, but other than that, nothing," I shrugged with a wry smile.

"Would a minuscule insect comprehend that it is walking on a greatsword? Would it not deem that it is scuttling on a giant metal surface?"

Rafaqa even lifted his greatsword and scurried his fingers on the blade to demonstrate.

"Right. I'm the dumb, tiny bug."

"But with a deadly sting, hopefully," growled Rafaqa appraisingly, expectantly.

The three of us had been sitting in silence except for the sound of the crackling fire in front of us when Elysia spoke up poignantly.

"When do we strike on the dragon?"

I turned to Rafaqa, taken aback belatedly by how calm and unhurried he was... and had been all along.

"Fifty years I fought the monster."

Rafaqa sighed, and the five decades' worth of fatigue showed visibly.

"There were times that I rushed headlong, several times in fact. These burned scars are the results. There were also times that I wanted to give up altogether, do nothing and starve myself to death. It was not so difficult as the food, as despicable as it is, got old very fast too. But I could not give up, not as long as my strong body was alive and resilient. And I already told you why I have to fell the dragon. To go back home, to see my family."

Rafaqa paused and rubbed his scarred, rough face with his giant palm.

"The Drakans, those pesty minions hang like fruits on the branches of the Dragon Tree. It takes three days for an army of Drakans to grow back and ripen. We saw an army this afternoon. Another army is being developed this very second."

I nodded, picturing a hundred or so unearthly, grotesque dragon soldier fruits.

"We wait for the next round of Drakans to venture here. I will take care of them, and then we march to the tree for the cutting."

"Why the wait? If we go now, the tree is defenseless without its minions," objected Elysia.

"Sharp, Elfling, and pardon me for not disclosing all of the details in one go. The Dragon Tree is capable of quickening the ripening process in danger. I learned that the hard way."

Rafaqa pointed to another burned scar on his body and went on.

"But it is not capable of birthing more than a thousand Drakans in a short time, give or take a couple hundred. In other words, after ten or so rounds of endless flying pest, the Dragon Tree is finally defenseless... although it will still be breathing fire and summoning lightning above our heads. But rest assured, I can take care of an immobile, fire-breathing tree dragon by myself. The Drakans, they're your problems now."

"So you're saying it is better to take down the first one hundred away from the tree, waste the first of the ten rounds of popping out hunky dragon soldiers."

Rafaqa nodded at me somberly, but not confidently.

"I know it is not the most efficient strategy."

"No, it really isn't," I smiled weakly.

"We don't have to kill all of the Drakans, do we?"

Rafaqa and I turned to Elysia and blinked at her.

"... You saw those ugly creatures. Don't tell me you're getting soft for them."

"Ugliness has nothing to with it... but yes, they did look rather repulsive. And I'm not getting soft for them or anything. I'm wondering what happens when those 'fruits' get destroyed or dropped before ripening fully. For instance, what if we cut off the branches and stop the growth of how-many-fruits that hang on those branches all at once?"

"Elfling, it is no easy feat to chop down a branch of the Dragon Tree. Even my Trilion requires multiple swings to break through the thick trunk."

Elysia smiled coyly, and I loved when she smiled all bratty like that.

"But what about the weapon with one-hundredth of a Level's life force in it?"

.

.

.

The next morning, the three of us set out of the cave to test out Elysia's theory and field test the Omega rifle.

"How far is the safe distance, Rafaqa?"

"The Dragon Tree is a part of this Level, or this Level is a part of it, so it knows almost everything that happens on land."

But being a tree, it is not as reactive to every movement and event. It only becomes active when it faces immediate danger, such as being chopped down by a giant greatsword wielded by probably the strongest individual the Dungeon had ever seen.

"I would say a mile or two, at minimum," said Rafaqa thoughtfully, looking around wildly and distractedly.

"Are you looking for something?" asked Elysia warily.

"Yes, I am, Elfling, something very important too."

That got our attention. Elysia and I waited patiently as the old Orc narrowed his eyes over the empty horizon with a grave frown on the face.

"There," said Rafaqa after prolonged minutes of searching and pointed to one direction.

"What's there?"

"The bat cave. Bats for our lunch."

Rafaqa was not joking.

A half an hour later, Rafaqa and I entered the cave filled with upside-down bats on the ceiling, sleeping for the day. Elysia refused to either come in with us or take any part in the hunting.

"I didn't know you were a bat lover," I said incredulously.

"I don't love them, but I don't hate them enough to kill them meaninglessly and certainly not for food."

"But we are killing them for food."

Elysia stared silently at Rafaqa.

"Well, more bat meat for us then," beamed Rafaqa as Elysia shook her head in dismay.

The bats did not stir even as a giant Orc and a normal-sized Human were standing right below them. These animals had not had any predator for a long time and did not fear us at all. In fact, they felt so much at peace that they dropped feces to the ground every few seconds. A true abhorrence, if one asked me.

"Go on, child. Use the stick. You would have to be blind to miss that many targets," Rafaqa's voice echoed around the cave excitedly.

"You really want to eat those rats with wings, don't you?"

"Do you not?"

"Wow. You're serious."

"Keep your mouth open any longer, you will get the droppings in it. Hurry up, child, lunchtime is approaching."

Meals were important in any culture, but especially so for the Orcs. Or just their hero.

"Why don't you create that giant whirlwind as you did against the Drakans and have yourself a lifetime supply of bat corpses?"

"And make the entire cave collapse and trap ourselves to suffocation? Stop thinking, or start thinking in your case, and do your thing," urged Rafaqa impatiently.

I raised Omega awkwardly and aimed at the ceiling. I had no idea what it would, but I must have subconsciously imagined that a shotgun would be the most ideal choice at the moment.

Then a burst of something—seeds, it turned out—fired from the endpoint of the wood. An opening enlarged for a fraction of a second and boom, the hundreds of bats fluttered as dozens fell onto the ground limply.

Rafaqa bellowed with a satisfied laughter while my ears rang with the loud bang that echoed around the cave for the next several seconds.

"More! Keep shooting!"

There was no trigger on the wooden rifle-shotgun.

And by now I did not know what I was holding anymore.

.

.

.

As I had explained briefly above, Omega was an all-in-one firearm. It changed to a different type of gun with a shift of the twig that could be flickered on the right side of the body.

As Rafaqa happily hummed and cooked the bats, Elysia turned her back to the abominable culinary scene and paid attention to the nonexistent physical transformation of the Omega rifle.

"Where do you think the seeds come from?" asked Elysia, fascinated and also a bit frightened by the bizarre firearm.

"It is a little freaky, isn't it?" I smiled nervously.

"A little?" frowned Elysia.

A total of twelve different 'modes' could be activated, all from my shallow knowledge and imagination of how guns worked. And I narrowed them down to four useful modes that I ended up discovering after an hour of practice. First was the aforementioned shotgun, which would come useful at point-blank range. The next was a burst-rifle mode, capable of crushing piercing inch-deep holes on a rock within a hundred yards. The third mode was my forte, a long-range sniper rifle.

And finally, the fourth mode was something drastically different. It did not use seeds. Rather, it used the sunlight itself and produced a concentrated solar beam for a duration of five seconds.

The beam was so powerful that it set fire on a dry, solid rock and left it burning for a few minutes afterward.

"What, the, f.u.c.k," I said numbly. Elysia blinked at the result too.

Rafaqa was the only calm one. No, not calm. He was eagerly chewing off the burnt bat meat and dismissed the fourth laser-rifle mode irrelevant.

"You cannot burn the Dragon Tree. It is better that you stuck with the long-range option," said Rafaqa, crushing three roasted bats in his mouth, bones and all.

"Yeah, but the Drakans. I could fry them easily if they come my way."

"... In that case, try not to burn all of the meat off. You shall not waste any perfectly good food, although I do not think I could ever go back to eating them now that I have tasted these wonderful flying rats."

Another horrific sound of bat bones crushing between the Orc's teeth. Soon. I would have to end this soon and help the old Orc gain his sanity back at his home. Godspeed.

"How long was it again? The safe distance for sniping down the branches?"

I switched the mode to sniper rifle and aimed at the far distance.

"He said a mile at the very least," said Elysia crisply.

Right. A mile. In other words, impossible.

"You seriously expect me to shoot down the branches from a mile off?" I faced the feasting Rafaqa. I did not mind that he was eating all of the bats. I had thought they were better options than the Drakans. I was wrong. I would have to go seriously close to starving to death before I brought one into my mouth.

"Not me. It was your spouse's suggestion," Rafaqa nodded at Elysia heedlessly, too busy, and happy, eating.

Elysia and I looked at each other at Rafaqa's casual comment.

"We're not married," said Elysia, blushing a little.

"No. Not yet, at least."

Elysia blinked and stared at me.

"You're going to marry me?"

"... You don't seem too excited, so I don't know anymore."

"No, I'm just... surprised."

"Is that a 'happy' surprise or a 'disgusted' kind?"

"Why would I be disgusted? Unless you feel that in any way—"

"Babe, the only thing disgusting about you is that you're disgustingly perfect."

"Try again."

"Was it the 'disgustingly perfect?"

"Take out 'disgustingly.'"

"I thought so. You're perfect. Just perfect."

"Children, as much as I hate to interrupt, I am this close to swing my Trilion over your heads and make you suck back your lovey words back, so, please, shut your mouths."

Rafaqa almost looked as if he had lost all appetite. Almost.

"Right. Sorry."

"And to think that when we do go back home, I was going to wed you to my granddaughter. That is, if we successfully killed the dragon and you did your due diligence in helping me to deserve the reward."

Uncle Raffy had no idea how alike his granddaughter was to him.

"Looks like I'll have to get married soon then."

"Nah, Orcinas do not care whether they are the first wife or the last. Our women are confident and fertile, and it comes down to who bears more children and beds with the husband more frequently."

"Yeah, I think I heard that one before."

I definitely was not picturing Moniqa's revealing t.h.i.g.hs at the moment. Or her ample b.r.e.a.s.ts. Or her muscular, taut waist. Or her apple-shaped b.u.t.t.

Rafaqa had finished his meal by then. A total of fifty or so bats. All by himself.

Full and content, he picked his teeth with what seemed to be the wing bone of a bat and looked between Elysia and me.

"You do remind me of old times. Alpha and Velonis were just like you two. Velonis, sharp and no-nonsense, and Alpha, goofy and aloof. Shady at times, but most of the time harmless."

Another Alpha story. I thought I knew enough about Alpha and Velonis, so I turned my attention to the Omega sniper rifle, letting the old Orc enjoy his reverie.

"My son, Moraqa, was barely a year-old when we made a promise. For the first time, interracial conception was witnessed. If Elf-Human hybrid was possible, why not Elf-Human-Orc mix? The combination would only strengthen our posterity, complementing each race's innate weaknesses with strengths, the real future, you see. Any of their two children would wed my son, and all of the races would see peace in such a way, truly unified—"

Okay. There was too much being said that I could not let it pass unheard.

"Just what are you talking about? What hybrid?"

I faced Rafaqa, who was still looking back in time, of what could have been, the future that never came.

"A mixed race. A cross-breed of different races. Like the children of Alpha and Velonis."

"All right. Hold right there. I remember you cursed Alpha's 'children' and race, us the Humans, and I now see that you meant those words to your heart—"

"I did," nodded Rafaqa, his hatred toward his traitor hero friend resurfacing on his face.

"Sad to pop your bubbles, old guy, but Alpha never did have any children. A hybrid of different races, yes, we saw one at Level Three. A delightful Orc-Human halfling, by the way... if not a little insecure."

Elysia nodded as if in agreement with my assessment of our friend at sea, Queeqa.

"So Orcs can mate with Humans after all," said Rafaqa in awe.

"Did you hear what I said? Alpha and Velonis never had a child together," I emphasized, concerned that the old Orc might be losing his mind after all his solitary confinement at the nothingness of Level Four.

"But they did. I saw with my own eyes. Why else would we make a pact that my son and his children would wed when the time came? Both of their children, too, although I do not remember Velonis liking the idea particularly... tried to kill me, actually, for having such an absurd thought. Fiesty, the Elfina was, and formidable too."

Elysia and I shared worried glances with each other.

"Rafaqa, I think you are mistaken," said Elysia cautiously.

Rafaqa finally saw the cautious looks on our faces and frowned indignantly.

"Mistaken? Me? Orcs rarely use their heads other than headbutting the opponents, but our memories never fail us."

"There's no proof—"

"I am the proof. Do you really think I have gone senile, making up lies, fabricate my memory, and for what? To entertain decades-old children for humor?"

"... I'm actually a hundred and twenty—"

"Quiet, Elfling, I know for a fact that you Elves age slowly just as you gain wisdom at the same pace. You are a child nonetheless."

"That's not true," mumbled Elysia unconvincingly.

"Wait, so Alpha and Velonis... had a child together?"

There was certainty in Rafaqa's eyes that made me believe his words, not at first, but for sure now.

"Twins, actually... Although I did not see Velonis give births. We had all pursued the Last Dragon while Velonis left behind."

"... Velonis was the last one to Transcend, to move on from Level One," said Elysia quietly, still in disbelief, or in dooming shock.

Velonis did not join other heroes... because she was pregnant at the time.

"This is the first time anyone's mentioned anything like this. Alpha and Velonis were lovers, sure, everyone knows that. And then Alpha left her behind—"

"His pregnant wife behind," emphasized Elysia, her voice edgy and angry.

"... If that's true, why does no one know about it?"

No one, including Benedikt.

"Not even Benedikt has told us this story."

Rafaqa seemed taken aback by my last words, but for a different reason than I had feared. I was concerned that Rafaqa's memory was unstable.

Rafaqa looked sad, because of a certain fact.

"Benedikt always carried himself an Orb, a Reptilian invention, so that he could keep in touch with what was happening at home. Did he still have one when you met him, children?"

He did. The Orb that the Dwarf hero used to spy on me, watch me develop, wait for me to come for his help... to meet his heroic end.

"No," gasped Elysia, covering her mouth at the realization.

Then it hit me a second later too.

Benedikt had known about Velonis's pregnancy. He even kept an eye out for her well-being, to tell Alpha when the good news came...

But it never did.

"She... You think Velonis had a miscarriage?"

Rafaqa looked sad, regretful.

"If the world never heard of the children of two heroes... and a friend prudently kept to himself the story that was supposed to be of blessing rather than some dark secret, something that never happened, better to be untold, forgotten..."

The old Orc looked up at the sky. For a world with nothing left alive, the sky was clear and clean, timelessly unchanging, just as the old hero's past fifty years had been.

"I have been away for too long a time. A cruel, blind, oblivious time."

The sky was clear and dry, but it felt like rain.