The tree’s trunk absorbed the bulk of the magnetic slug round. The resulting impact caused the trees trunk to explode upward and backwards into the air. It flew close to a dozen feet before coming back down over the top of tactical specialist hunter Kronos Magnum.

He gave a momentary yelp of surprise but did his best to maintain control over himself and his best means of defense, his own sniper rifle. He mentally drew a line using both himself and the tree as two of its coordinates. He now had a fuzzy idea to where the shot came from. The tree’s branches settled in around him and he remained motionless except for the slight sway of his spying scope.

He then heard her laughing. Her voice like fingers on against his chalkboard brain. He tried to push her reality out from his own before that bastard out there could get another shot off on him. He dug his eye up into the scope of his weapon and found his adversary. He was up on the edge of a ridge. He was an idiot. His silhouette made him stand out as if he was begging to be shot.

Tactical specialist hunter Kronos Magnum took in a breath and steadied himself to fire. That was when he saw the barrel of his target, the person hunting him, recoil upwards.

The bastard had-

*

Tactical specialist hunter Kronos Magnum awoke in the regenerative chamber. He glanced down at his restored body and wondered how long he had been out.

He didn’t have long to wonder as a mortar shell slammed down in the middle of their base. Kronos Magnum to leap out of his chamber and stumbled his way towards the nearby weapons rack. He grabbed himself another sniper rifle and ran as far and as fast as he could knowing he was a sitting duck otherwise. He jumped over the still uniform of one of their own and picked up his weapon in addition to his own. It was a spray and pray and that was when Kronos noticed that his fallen comrade was Jenkins. He shook his head in disbelief that the guy had even made this far out of their base.

Another mortar round exploded not far from where he had paused to pick-up Jenkins gear. Kronos Magnum bolted once more towards the periphery hoping to lose whatever eyes might be on him.

He heard her giggling again.

He almost snapped out at the voice telling it to leave him alone. He was shell shocked enough and didn’t need any more distractions. Now being in the trees it made everything effectively close combat; Magnum brought up his saw weapon.

It was just then he heard her squealing mixed in with the sound of the incoming mortar. The explosion would have taken him out had he not jumped behind the fallen tree off to his side.

His ears started ringing only now they sounded as if they were made of her voice, a voice of glee at his near tragic death.

He almost yelled out to the voice but knew now was not the time. He needed to keep moving. His saw weapon had been destroyed by the blast but thankfully he still had his sniper rifle. Kronos bolted as fast as he could away from there not knowing exactly where he was or which was he was headed.

Off in the distance, he heard a dog barking. Somebody was nearby, he could tell. He then heard the woman’s voice, “It will be a few minutes.”

Kronos groaned as he tried to shut all of that out of his head. This was war and right now he had somebody hunting him; he was going to kill the bastard if that was the last thing he did.

He saw movement up ahead. Kronos dropped to a knee and brought his weapon to bear. He eyed the target just as he saw the target’s weapon bounced up-

*

Kronos awoke once more in the other regenerative chamber. He clamored out just as quickly with one thought on his mind. He was going to kill this son of a bitch once and for all.

This time, he was all the way across the battlefield and so knew it would take some time for the bastard to make his way over here. He had a few moments to find himself a hiding spot and try and figure this all out.

Thirty seconds later he was nestled up in what the remained of the attic in under the roof of a high-roofed cottage. This location afforded him a good view of anyone heading his way but also providing some protection along his sides. It was perfect. He allowed himself a deep breath and brought his scope up one more as he heard her laugh again. Kronos had no warning of the round that ripped his head clear off from his body.

*

Throwing his headset down on top of his keyboard; Han’s pushed himself back from his computer desk and stormed out of his office. He crossed the house and nearly kicked open the door to the room where his girlfriend’s son was seated at his own computer. There standing next him was his girlfriend giggling as she had been doing the entire time throughout the game.

He wanted answers. “How in the hell!”

He then heard her giggling again. Hans looked away from Eric and over to his girlfriend as the pieces started to come together. “You?”

She broke out in hysterical laughter.

“You… you were telling him where I was the entire time?”

She snorted as her head bounced rolled up and down while still laughing.

He wanted to punch her. He wasn’t going to but he sure wanted to.

“Not cool!”

Eric reached out and hit a couple of keys on his keyboard, “I’ll take it you never bothered to glance at the name of the person who was killing you?”

Stepping forward he took a glance at the screen, “No-” Then he saw it, clear as mud, the screens reporting the results of the game winning kill. [Kronos’s Shadow killed Kronos with a head shot.]

Eric gave a cheesy grin, “I kind of gave myself a name that might have given you pause.”

Han’s repeated the name aloud, “Kronos’s Shadow?” He exhaled, “No, I didn’t see that.”

Eric grinned, “Obviously.”

Han’s turned and left the room as he said sarcastically over his shoulder, “I hate you both.”

End