Falkreath - Northern Headquarters - Nightfall
Our commander-in-chief showed us a map of the Mountains of Ekko. According to some sightings, an organized group of dangerous criminals known as the Yetis had a hideout somewhere in the alps. Our orders were to locate and exterminate them. He pinpointed on the map where each of us would start our search.
"Sōnin, Jayce," said the Chief, "You'll head east, to Mountain Jhin." "You two, west, Mountain Gnar." "I want the rest of you to spread out around the biggest of them all, Mountain Draven."
Everyone nodded, no one complained. We all enjoyed being part of the Shadow Squadron, best of the best.
"If you get engaged on, take cover and quickly notify the others. Once everyone is aware, you guys set up for Sōnin. He's our sniper, he's our eyes. He'll give you the next orders."
...
"Am I clear?" Asked the Chief.
"Yessir!" We answered in unison.
"Good. Any questions?"
Kayle raised her hand, "Who's in charge?"
"Right. On Mountain Jhin, it' Jayce. On Mountain Gnar, it's you, Kayle. On Mountain Draven, it's Keith. In combat, it's Sōnin."
The whole unit nodded. All three mountain leaders grinned in hopes of discovering the Yetis' hideout. Making such a discovery on their assigned mountain would put them in charge. The ones in the elite who were regularly detailed to be leaders in the squadron's missions always sought for the opportunity to have authority and give orders. Sōnin, on the other hand , was never as hopeful as the others. It was rather known that whenever their unit would get engaged on, he would be put in charge. He wasn't very fond of that, simply because skirmishes were often rather sketchy and dangerous to put up with, especially on the Mountains of Ekko. Though he trusted his capability to control those situations, which reassured him.
Later
All of the members of the squadron began their search. Sōnin and Jayce were lucky, they had the smallest mountain out of the three. It still took them about four hours of hard and thorough searching before coming to the conclusion that the Yetis' hideout was not on Mountain Jhin. The others weren't done yet, and only half of Mountain Draven had been searched through. The heavy snow slowed them down by a lot.
An hour after, Sōnin received a signal from Mountain Gnar, Kayle had been engaged on and was hit, nothing too severe. Sōnin quickly responded,
"Guys, set up a spot for me somewhere on Mountain Draven, I need some vision on the situation," he said through the radio.
"What about me?" Said Kayle breathing heavily.
"Take cover, hide yourself under the snow and try to stop the bleeding. Josh, you locate her and provide assistance. You have a first aid kit," answered Sōnin.
"Yessir."
Once Sōnin got to his spot, he sent the others to Mountain Gnar to locate the hideout. He unlocked a big briefcase and took out parts of his sniper. Once assembled, he got into a comfortable position and picked up his radio.
"Kayle, from which direction d'you get shot?"
"Northwest, I believe?" She answered, unsure.
Sōnin was an eagle-eyed sniper. He could easily locate his targets within minutes with the help of his scope.
"Neat, found him."
"Really? Where?" Wondered Kayle.
"Silence, I need to concentrate," ordered Sōnin.
His target was dressed in an arctic ghilie suit, which made him rather hard to see, but he wasn't fooling Sōnin. The Yeti member was also a marksman, a sniper. Once he noticed Sōnin, he took a shot at him, but missed. Aware of this, he quickly got up and dashed West, sniper in hand. Sōnin carefully kept him in sight, looking for the opportunity to shoot, but the Yeti was running in zigzags. And so the professional marksman calmed down, took a deep breath, and paused his breathing. Somehow, time slowed down, as if his extreme concentration was the cause of it. His target was now running in slow motion, which made things much easier. Sōnin aimed for his head, and pulled the trigger.
"Gotcha."
Half a second later, his target was down on the ground, lifeless. It wasn't the first time he had experienced this sort of slow motion effect. It had happened many times before, he was used to it. He figured it was some kind of illusion, a product of his expertise. The only thing he never figured out was why everytime this happened, he was so exhausted afterwards. As if doing such a thing required a big chunk of his bodily energy.
