Volume 4 Chapter 5: Weakness Crosshair

“The infrasound hurts his heart and lungs! He can’t use it continuously. Everyone attack together, knock him out!” Skorzeny shouted fiercely, lunging forward again.

The Lieutenant Colonel truly lived up to being the commando leader; the infrasound affected him the least. Sprinting to the giant’s front, he leaped high, narrowly dodging Leo’s fist as large as a siege hammer. Curling his body mid-air, he sailed over the giant. With a kick against Leo’s nape, the giant, who was just about to unleash another burst of infrasound, swallowed it back. Once entangled by Skorzeny, who was skilled in close combat, Leo found his infrasound unusable.

The giant stumbled to his knees. A figure flashed suddenly before him. A pair of iron fists grew rapidly larger in his vision. Thump! Leo’s head jolted, little stars dancing before his eyes.

The giant reacted quickly. After taking just a few punches, he instinctively shielded his head and face with his arms. Barely regaining his senses, he immediately swung a punch.

Boom! The giant’s fist was swift and powerful, producing a faint shockwave in the air like a pile driver. The figure before him clearly hadn’t expected Leo to recover so fast and was instantly sent flying.

Thud! Grant slid down the sewer wall like a pancake. A spiderweb of cracks appeared in the dent behind him. Ptui! Grant knelt, spitting out a fierce mouthful of bloody foam. His right shoulder was now flattened; the bones and muscles inside were surely crushed into paste like filling for a Chinese hamburger.

Yet, countless tiny nodules of flesh sprouted from this flattened mix. Entangling and rapidly swelling, the shoulder shattered by the giant visibly returned to normal before everyone’s eyes.

“Immortal body?” The Baron von Wurdenbeller, worst affected by the infrasound, had shifted back to human form. He stroked his chin, observing Grant’s strange transformation.

“Or parasitic control?” The nearby Qin Lun also pondered thoughtfully.

“Hey, hey! Are you forgetting something?” Grant pointed irritably ahead. “The Lieutenant Colonel is about to lose it!”

Von Wurdenbeller and Qin Lun turned towards the fight. Indeed, they saw Skorzeny, while grappling with the giant Leo, glaring furiously at the two of them.

“Ha, ha ha ha!” Von Wurdenbeller forced a dry laugh, shook his hands, and dashed towards the fray.

Qin Lun reached up, pulled the brim of his army cap around to the back of his head, drew his Luger pistol from his waist, and held it steadily.

This Luger pistol wasn’t Gerthard Heinrich’s original sidearm, but an FN-500. Apostle equipment in this world was disguised by the laws of Shattered Starry Sky. For example: The two forms of the FN-500 were disguised as a Luger pistol and a bayonet. The leather army boots appeared to be German leather boots produced by the Stuttgart arsenal. The Shahbakh Ring seemed like Gerthard’s wedding band. The Combat Gauge looked like the windproof goggles commonly used by snipers.

Pistol in hand, Qin Lun’s expression turned distant. His eyes lost focus, pupils covered by a layer of green light. He stepped back with his left foot, aimed the pistol with one arm at the giant.

“Predictive mode activated. Commencing combat model construction. Entering specific calculations…”

“Wind force: Class 1. Kill target: 12 o’clock. Height: 3.2 meters. Distance: 11.2 meters. Angle of elevation: 17 degrees…”

“Time for target to turn sideways: 0.22 seconds. Step speed: 7.2 meters per second…”

“Interval between target’s punches: 0.2 seconds. Upper body muscles tense upon punching. Chest muscles relax and spread after 0.2 seconds. Self reaction time: 0.2 seconds. FN-500 hammer fall time: negligible… Shot solution evaluated: Shoot 0.2 seconds later. Impact point: Target heart!”

Bang! The crisp report of the Luger pistol echoed in the sewer. Suddenly, a jet of blood sprayed from the chest of the giant Leo.

At this precise moment, Baron von Wurdenbeller, attacking in front of the giant, felt a sudden chill and a deep sense of dread. Lifting his arm, he saw a small bullet hole in his formal attire just below the armpit.

It was just a pistol bullet… Why did I sense danger? Von Wurdenbeller looked at Qin Lun in surprise.

ROAR! The shot giant roared furiously. The bullet hadn’t pierced his muscular defense, only leaving a one-inch deep hole in his chest from which blood flowed freely.

“Target superficial defense exceeds projections. Adjusting FN-500 energy intensity levels…”

“Calculations suggest current energy intensity can breach defense at existing wound depth but cannot penetrate heart…”

“Activating pre-set shooting ability – Weakness Crosshair. Elevating firing angle by 0.22 degrees. Adjusting impact point to aorta…”

Qin Lun seemed to transform into a statue, body turned sideways, pistol held firm. His glowing green eyes concentrated like precious gemstones, resembling two translucent pieces of jade. If anyone could have seen through that green light and looked into his eyes, they would have noticed a tiny crosshair sight appearing in the center of his right pupil.

Apart from the enraged Leo, the others in the fight suddenly felt a shiver crawl down their spines. It was as if Death God had opened its eyes somewhere unseen and was staring intently at them.

Whoosh! Von Wurdenbeller instantly dispersed into a large cloud of bats filling the air. Grant raised an arm to cover his face, curling into a ball, rolling clumsily out of the combat zone.

“Don’t shoot!” Skorzeny leaped away from the giant, yelling anxiously at Qin Lun while still in mid-air.

“Receiving external audio signal. Judged as second-level control command…”

“Combat Model detection: Host not in danger. This control command supersedes firing protocol…”

“Shooting solution aborted. Exiting Combat model…”

The green glow in Qin Lun’s eyes gradually faded. His pupils regained focus as he awoke from his trance-like state.

“We need Leo for this operation!” Skorzeny gave a brief explanation and lunged back towards the giant. With the others having pulled away, Leo seemed to sense an opportunity and was bolting towards another part of the sewer.

“After him!” Skorzeny’s gaze flashed. He led the chase with Grant close behind.

“Lieutenant Colonel! Let’s herd him into a narrower spot, trap him with the terrain!” Von Wurdenbeller’s bat swarm, like a dark cloud, covered Leo’s head, steering his panicked flight.

Qin Lun hesitated, not following the trio. Skorzeny forbidding him to shoot essentially crippled his offensive power. He didn’t have an immortal body. If that giant landed a punch on his slight frame, the outcome would be the same as those two military policemen who died in the villa.

Truthfully, the original Gerthard Heinrich hadn’t been selected for the commando solely because of defeating two squads of military police in a bar fight. It was his exceptional marksmanship, honed in the mountain infantry.

The Finnish campaigns and the Soviet-German war saw intense activity by countless snipers from all three nations. An interesting pattern emerged: when a nation was at a disadvantage, its newspapers heavily reported impressive sniper feats to boost national morale. During the Suomussalmi battles, the most celebrated snipers came from Finland. In the Eastern Front conflict, the heroes often featured were Soviet soldiers. However, the most ruthlessly efficient snipers from all three nations tended to be concentrated in Germany’s Gebirgsjäger – the mountain infantry divisions.

For instance, the top three German sharpshooters appearing in newspapers – Matthias Hetzenauer, Sepp Allerberger, Helmut Wirnsberger – all belonged to Germany’s 3rd Mountain Division.

But only the Soviet and German high commands on the Eastern Front knew the deadliest assassins served in the Special Brigade of Germany’s 1st Mountain Division.

Gerthard Heinrich’s elimination record within the Special Brigade stood at 607; nearly doubling Matthias Hetzenauer’s score. He ranked thirteenth overall, surpassing any sniper featured in the press.

Among the twelve above him, five had already fallen on the battlefield. Two retired due to injuries, instructing recruits back home. Only five remained active. The strongest was Brigadier Matthäus, the Brigade’s Chief of Staff, also the only one with eliminations exceeding four digits – the ultimate champion.

By late ’44, Matthäus sustained an injury to his right eye. Though he stayed in uniform, active sniping ended. Promoted from Colonel to Brigadier, he assumed the Brigade staff role. His final tally was 1,053 enemy combatants neutralized. One of only twenty-seven warriors awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross adorned with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.

In simpler terms, Gerthard was the fourth ranked active German sniper, with his tally close to the others ahead. He was also the premier marksman Skorzeny could realistically recruit for classified missions.

Becoming a Moonlit Elf transformed Qin Lun. Not only had he gained Night Vision Ability, his eyesight vastly surpassed his former human limits. Combined with intermediate Shooting Proficiency and sensitivity to wind element, Qin Lun had devoted countless hours at the Training Ground diligently absorbing statistics. Within the framework of his Death Notice ability, he painstakingly pre-programmed two dynamic firing models he christened Weakness Crosshair and Spiral Shot.

Weakness Crosshair utilized his sharpened Elf vision to refine target points. It would mentally simulate anatomical visualization to pinpoint critical damage zones within the target for a decisive lethal strike.

Spiral Shot, meanwhile, integrated atmospheric conditions and minute ballistics variances via wind elemental sense. Through hyperfast full-body rotations or intricate wrist torques, he accelerated the bullet beyond its rifling-induced spin axis, adding complex gyroscopic rotations to its trajectory resulting in feats of curved “arc shooting.”

Of course, this particular feat remained incompatible with FN-500’s instantaneous discharge and confined solely to standard fire modes.

Neither technique constituted a standard Apostle Skill. Instead, through meticulously coded Combat Model constructs within his psyche, Qin Lun maximized integration of his physical attributes, bloodline capabilities, fundamental expertise and gear functions until achieving these terrifyingly abnormal firing modes.

Mastering Weakness Crosshair finally allowed Qin Lun’s shot craft to match the original Gerthard Heinrich’s lethal reach. It blessed him with the capability for precise termination out to distances exceeding a kilometer. This precise capability stood paramount as Skorzeny’s core rationale selecting him into the commando’s roster.

Qin Lun lowered his pistol. He bent down to help Dr. Keller rise from the sewage and gently shook her awake.

“Doctor, you alright? I’ll get you topside first!”

“No! Take me to Leo… I have sedatives… Harassed him intent on enhancing mastery over Gigantification before mission launch… Never intended this outcome!” Dr. Keller coughed harshly while retrieving an injector cartridge from within her jacket.

Supporting her, Qin Lun led the woman forward. Barely had they walked several yards when visibility cleared. A gruesome tableau emerged. Herded by the Lieutenant Colonel’s trio pounding away relentlessly, the titanic frame of Leo had been inexorably forced backward into passageways progressively tightening and cramped.