The Lightning Flash

Chapter 25: Round 2 of Bullet of Bullets Pt. 4

"Let's take her out, before she even equips her weapon," stated Shino, getting in a crouching position, and taking aim at her target, through the scope of her weapon.

Before Asuna could even agree with Shino, her friend pulled the trigger, and a bullet blasted out of the weapon and shot through the air, right towards' their opponent's head. To both of their surprises, though, something large materialized in the girl's right hand and it didn't look like a weapon to them. All they could make out was that it almost looked rectangular in shape and was pitch black in color.

Thunk!

The sniper bullet bounced off of the rectangular device like it was nothing and, it was at this point, that Shino figured out that the girl had equipped her secondary weapon but...calling it a weapon wasn't entirely correct. It was a riot shield, something that could be used to block bullets and, if the player wanted, a pretty powerful melee weapon as well. While Asuna and Shino remained shocked at what they had just witnessed, their opponent made her way towards the two girls, holding the riot shield up in front of her face.

"Damn it," cursed Shino. "She's heading right towards us with that stupid shield of hers. I'm not sure how many shots it can absorb but we can't just stand here and do nothing."

"Agreed," muttered Asuna, pointing her Uzi submachine gun at the girl, despite her holding a shield.

Asuna recalled how Shino had taught her to fire her weapon and chose to hold it with two hands since her intended target was still a little far away. Asuna took a deep breath and began firing her weapon at the girl, using the riot shield. Just like Shino had predicted, all of the bullets that were coming from Asuna's sub machine gun, simply, just bounced off the riot shield like it was nothing but an idea did form inside of Shino's head.

"Asuna, keep firing at her," commanded Shino. "Don't let up."

Shino left Asuna's side and made her way to a building , that was positioned to the side of the girl, who was heading towards Asuna, down the street they were on. Asuna's continual fire of bullets at the player, forced her not to turn to face Shino because if she would have, then all of Asuna's shots would have hit her. Shino used this to her advantage and entered the building she had in her sights, climbed all of the stairs of the building until she was on the roof, headed to the edge of the roof, crouched down and put the scope of her Hecate to her eye, preparing to take a shot from on the roof. The player was getting a little bit closer to Asuna but Shino observed that her friend was still not letting up. She was still firing her submachine gun, just like Shino had told her to. She positioned the reticle of the scope over the side of the girl with the dirty blond hair's stomach which wasn't protected by the riot shield. Shino took a deep breath, just like she always did, before firing the Hecate, and wrapped her finger around the trigger of her Hecate, not wanting to waste this opportunity.

"Don't move another inch," threatened a voice, coming from behind Shino.

Shino felt something resting against the back of her head and judging by how it felt, there was no mistaking that it was a gun of some kind. Just as Shino had found an opening, another player had taken advantage of the situation and was, most likely, going to finish off Shino, with ease. This meant that Asuna was going to be all by herself, fighting both the explosives maniac with the riot shield and the player that was threatening Shino, now.

Why can't she just get stronger?

One of the voices that Shino had heard during the initial explosion resurfaced inside of her mind.

T-That's a good question, thought Shino to herself, sadly. Why can't I be stronger? I mean, look at me. I'm about to let this player kill me and simply leave the rest to Asuna and Kirito, if he's still in the tournament, right now. I-It's not that I don't want to be stronger. I do. More than anything. It's not like I want the trauma that occurred at the post office to ruin the rest of my life. What kid would want something like that...to have to experience that every single day of their life? It's exhausting, mentally. But, being stronger doesn't come so easily for some people. It requires...work...so much work...and...I've put in that work, right? Asuna and I both have worked so hard to overcome our traumas and to just give up, here, and accept my death...it would make all of that work meaningless. I'm...not going to let myself regress...not after I've come so far...I'm...not...giving...up!