n

n

n“What’s the name of your rifle?” I asked.

n“Ice-A,”

n“Huh?”

n“You heard me, Ice-A. It’s pronounced literally like ‘Ice’ then, ‘ah,’ He said, and as if it was the final puzzle piece, everything clicked into my mind.

nThe reason why the man looked so familiar, why the last name sounded so familiar, and why the skills made so much sense… He’s an ancestor of Aisa.

nThat light blue hair, creepy pale gray eyes, pale white skin, and the skill with a sniper that seems almost inhuman… This man could only be Aisa’s ancestor.

nI’ve only heard Aisa’s last name a couple of times when we were younger but never really heard it again after that, as it seemed she was uncomfortable talking about it.

nEven her grandpa, who was always so cheery and jolly, didn’t want to talk about it much, so I just dropped the topic.

n“Stop gawking and let’s head back,” Simo said, so I followed him right back to the base camp, where everybody was relieved to see that we were alive.

n“I’m glad you’re back safely, Sir,” One of the men said before passing out from exhaustion.

nThe man sitting beside him dragged him into the tent and made sure he got a good night’s rest.

n“Boy, how much longer can you stay up?” Simo asked.

nIt was just three other people and us out here, so I assumed that was enough to keep us safe, so I was ready to clock out.

n“I’m tryna sleep,”

n“Go ahead. In the morning, I have to talk with you in private,”

n“Aren’t we leaving early?”

n“As we eliminated the trailers, we can rest here for about another day. I only said that earlier just in case the trailers behind us didn’t appear during the time we set up base on the slope,” Simo said, so I nodded before hitting the sack.

n…

nEarly in the morning, I woke up refreshed to the eerie hooting of owls and soft chatter outside the tent.

nI was the last one in the tent, so I quickly grabbed my guns and exited the tent, ready to fight some more, just in case.

n“Boy, calm down. Just set your guns aside for now,” One of the men said, and after hearing his confirmation, I nodded and sat down on one of the wooden logs.

nOur breakfast was made up of some frozen, canned food that tasted more like dog food than actual human food.

nBut, I knew the importance of downing this, so after stuffing myself with the disgusting meal, I laid back on the snow, trying to make sure I didn’t puke everything up.

n“Boy, I need to talk with you,” Simo called out to me, so I groaned before slowly getting up.

n“Yes, Sir,”

nHe brought me to the edge of the camp, away from the other men, where he held his prized sniper tightly.

nIt seems he had reattached the scope, and the engraving on the barrel was as polished and fairy-looking as ever.

nDespite how he looked, he held his belongings very tightly, not wanting to lose a single thing.

n“What is it, Sir?”

n“Go back home. A kid like you shouldn’t be on the battlefield, it’s not good for your health, and if you think it’s badass, that just goes to show you’re just a kid,” He said.

np This talk about being a kid made me want to laugh a bit as he was the one as tall as a young teenager… but I kept my mouth shut.

n“Sir, you don’t have to test me. I will be sure not to disappoint you, and I will be sure not to hold the unit back,” I replied, and Simo just stared at me.

n“*sigh*… I thought you were going to say that. The soviets are tough enemies with their high-tech guns,” He muttered before mulling over something.

nHigh tech? Well, I guess they are high tech for this era, but these bullets could be easily disintegrated with the lightest of magic armor.

nBut, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

n“I’ve had this intuition that all of us here are going to die. I wanted to save a young man like you who could one day get married and live a normal life… But, if this is your choice, I guess I’ll teach you something that could come in handy one day,” Simo instructed before getting into a prone position on the snow.

nHis small stature and the way he shoveled snow around the sides of his body basically made him invisible… kind of like a ghost as his gillied sniper rested on the snow.

n“I’ll teach you something I discovered on the brink of death,” Simo said as he gestured for me to pull out my gun and then patted the open spot next to him.

nI proceeded to get down into a prone position next to him, with my sniper just like his, resting on a mound of snow.

n“When people say that time slows down when you’re about to die, they aren’t lying. In fact, I didn’t really believe it until I first encountered the grace with death… and it wasn’t pretty. My entire unit had been wiped out, trying to defend me, the lone sniper,”

n“But wasn’t it their mission to defend the sniper. I mean, I’m surprised we have this little amount of soldiers defending two snipers,” I said as from what I learned, there should be about fifteen to twenty people defending a sniper.

nThey are important assets that need to be defended at all costs sometimes, so the way we’re setting up our snipers is really risky.

nBut, the people here are definitely very skilled so I guess they may be the equivalent of about fifteen soldiers.

n“Yes, but that guilt weighs down on you. I’ve seen it happen many times as my very long years as a sniper. Hundreds of people break down because they were the lone survivor after running away from their unit, defending them at the costs of their lives,”

n“Interesting, is that why you turned so cold and almost dead-like?” I asked and Simo just stared at me creepily.

n“Anyway, beside that as I was running away from the unit, down a hill, time slowed down. I felt each bullet penetrate my skin. The searing burn of it cooked my insides as I ran desperately. My small stature helped out a ton, but what helped out the most was probably my breath,”

n“Your breath? Why your breath?” I asked, trying to extract as much information as possible since I knew the quest was related to a breathing technique.

n“Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you… So, as I was running, strangely, my concentration was set on my sporadic breathing. Information that I had previously forgotten flowed into my mind as my life flashed before my eyes, a very common occurrence. As I tugged the reins of my breathing, the pain from my wounds diminished and it felt as if something inside me was leaving…”

n“That sounds… almost impossible,”

nFocusing on your breath at that moment instead of surviving… only an idiot could achieve that and this man was anything but an idiot.

n“I know it does, but I somehow managed to do it. I don’t know if it was luck, or maybe talent… but something awakened in me later on. I was able to grasp that feeling after finally escaping and just managing to not bleed to death. I held tightly onto it and eventually I figured out that I had removed my emotions. I had slowed my heartbeat and adrenaline was unable to effect my mind,”

n“Did you get studied by scientists?”

n“No, I just couldn’t feel the rush of adrenaline I normally felt on the battlefield. But, the cool thing was, after a bit of practice, I was able to turn it on and off like a switch… Anyway, eventually, after a couple more years, I reached an epiphone and this feeling slowed my breath once again, and my eyesight sharpened. My muscles didn’t twitch and my concentration was so high that sometimes I would lay on the snow for three days and not even notice the passage of time,”

n“So, you almost starved to death a couple of times?” I chuckled and with a fully serious expression, he replied with,

n“Yep. Well, I almost died of lack of water as I was also eating snow in order to hide my breath,” He said.

n“That doesn’t make sense. Dropping your body temperature doesn’t mean your breath will go away…”

n“Oh, I was also trying to figure out how to get rid of the mist when I breathed and eventually I achieved it after a few more years of practicing this breathing technique,” He said.

n“So, why are you telling me all of this?” I asked though I had a gist on what he wanted.

n“I’m going to teach you this technique. It can help you hide, keep you alive in desperate situations, help you snipe better… of course, this will be once all of us die and I’m hoping you survived. Just try carry on my reputation,” He said before squeezing his chest with his hand.

nI mimicked him and watched carefully.

n