The glint from Viper's scope was a declaration of war. It was a tiny point of light on the tallest skyscraper, a malevolent star in the sky. He was not just an enemy; he was a final boss, looking down on his entire level. Anya and I were just two players caught in his view.
Before I could even process the threat in his message, he fired.
CRACK.
The sound was a whip crack that echoed across the open air. The shot was impossibly fast. It was not aimed at me. It was not aimed at Anya. It hit the concrete rooftop right between my feet. A small explosion of dust and grit erupted upwards, stinging my legs.
I froze, my blood running cold. It was a warning shot. A display of power. He was not just trying to kill me. He was showing me that he could kill me, at any moment he chose. This was a message: I am in control. You are my prey.
"He's toying with you!" Anya yelled, her voice sharp with alarm. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back, hard. We scrambled behind the solid metal bulk of the air conditioning unit that had saved us before. "Don't give him a clear shot! His position is a fortress. He can see the whole map from up there."
My heart was hammering against my ribs, but a surge of anger cut through the fear. He killed my teammates. He was going to kill us. I was not going to let him play with me. I had a Phantom rifle too. I could fight back.
"I can hit him," I said, my voice tight.
"Be careful, Leo," Anya warned. "He's not like the others."
I ignored her caution. I set up my rifle again, resting it on our cover. I looked through the scope. I found his sniper nest. He was not even trying to hide. He was sitting calmly behind a low wall on the edge of the skyscraper's roof, a dark silhouette against the bright blue sky. It was like he was daring me to shoot.
I took the dare.
I did everything right. I controlled my breathing. I thought the command, Hold Breath. The world in my scope became perfectly still. I centered the crosshairs on his head. I accounted for the bullet drop. I squeezed the trigger.
The Phantom roared.
The moment my rifle fired, Viper moved. He did not duck. He did not flinch. He just took one smooth, casual step to the side. My bullet, flying at supersonic speed, passed through the empty air where his head had been a fraction of a second ago. It was like he knew exactly when I was going to fire.
He fired back instantly.
The return shot was so fast I barely had time to register the muzzle flash in my scope. The CRACK of his rifle was simultaneous with the bullet slamming into the wall next to my head. The impact was violent. It sent a shockwave through the concrete, and a piece of it broke off, hitting my cheek hard.
The message was brutally clear: You are too slow. You are not a sniper. You are no match for me.
I pulled back from the scope, my heart pounding with a new kind of fear. It was not just the fear of death. It was the fear of being completely, hopelessly outclassed. This was not a fight between equals. This was a master toying with a novice.
A new direct message from Viper appeared on my HUD. The white box was a stark contrast to the chaos of the battle.
[YOU AIM WITH YOUR EYES. I AIM WITH MY HEAD. YOU ALREADY LOST.]
He was inside my head. He was right. I was just reacting. He was thinking ten steps ahead.
Then, the psychological warfare began.
He started shooting the environment around us. A bullet shattered a large glass panel on the side of a building above us. Shards of glass rained down, forcing us to cover our heads. Another shot hit a small communications antenna to our right. It sparked, broke from its mount, and crashed onto the rooftop near our feet with a loud clang.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Each shot was perfectly placed. Each one was designed to terrify us, to make us feel helpless. He was herding us like animals. The entire rooftop was his playground, and we were the toys he was breaking.
My confidence, so newly won, was shattering. The skill I had just learned, the power I felt after my first sniper kill, it was all useless against an opponent this good. He was on another level entirely. I was just a gamer who got lucky. Viper was a true predator. My hands started to shake again. I was losing control.
Anya saw it. She saw the fear in my eyes. She grabbed my shoulder, her grip firm.
"Leo! Snap out of it!" she yelled, her voice a lifeline in the storm of my panic. "This is what he wants! He wants you to be scared. He wants you to give up. We can't win a sniper duel. It's impossible."
She looked around, her eyes darting from one piece of cover to the next. Her mind was working, formulating a new plan.
"We have to move," she said, her voice firm and determined. "We have to break his line of sight. We need to get to the lower levels of the district. We can use the buildings as cover. He can't shoot what he can't see."
Her plan was simple. Run and hide.
The objective was no longer to fight Viper. It was to survive him. We abandoned our position near Point A. We abandoned any thought of fighting back. We just ran.
We moved from one piece of cover to the next. A large vent. A low wall. A cluster of solar panels. Each movement was a terrifying dash across open ground. We were always aware of that single, all-seeing eye watching us from above. I could feel his scope on my back. I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.
We finally made it to the side of the building. There was a service elevator there, its metal doors dented and covered in rust. It was our way out. Our escape from the deadly rooftops.
"In here!" Anya shouted.
We scrambled inside. The elevator was small and dark. It smelled like oil and old metal. Anya frantically hit the button for the lower maintenance level. For a moment, we thought we were safe. We were out of his sight.
As the elevator doors began to slide shut, a final bullet punched through the thin metal.
It passed through the exact spot where my head had been a second ago. I had moved instinctively, leaning forward to see the buttons. That small, random movement had saved my life. The bullet hole was a perfect circle at eye level.
The doors closed completely, plunging us into darkness. The only light came from the dim glow of our HUDs.
A final message from Viper appeared, glowing in the dark.
[RUN, LITTLE MOUSE. THE SNAKE ENJOYS THE CHASE.]