Last Gun Alchemist

Multiple sounds crashed into each other across the entire area where the Fifth Trial was taking place.

Gunshots rang out in sharp bursts, Ground Apes screamed, their voices rough and tearing through the air, heavy pounding shook the ground again and again as massive feet struck the earth, somewhere in between, explosions flared, sending dirt and broken wood into the air.

All of it mixed together.

Not in rhythm, not in order, just pure chaos.

The boy who had been sent toward the back of the castle ran as fast as he could, his breath uneven as Cognis flowed through his body, strengthening his legs and pushing him forward faster than he normally could manage.

His shoes scraped against the ground as he turned sharply around a corner... and then he stopped.

His eyes widened, for a moment, he forgot to breathe.

The entire front field on that side... was untouched.

Not a single trap triggered, not a single broken structure, no scattered bodies like the other side.

It looked...Calm.

If not for the constant noise echoing from the other side of the castle earlier, he would have believed no wave had reached here at all, but now...Now that he stood there...

BANG!!

The gunshot cracked loudly through the air, so clear that it made his ears ring slightly.

Far, far, far ahead, he saw it with enhanced sight.

A Lesser Ground Ape running forward...Its head snapped back, body dropped instantly.

Then another.

Bang! Bang!

Each shot followed with almost no delay, each one found its target, each one killed.

”What... is going on...?” he muttered under his breath, his voice low, filled with disbelief.

More gunshots rang out from Ezra’s tent.

The rhythm didn’t break, it didn’t slow, it kept going.

”We don’t even understand it ourselves,” one of the boys from the five-person team said, his arms slightly raised as if he was still trying to figure it out. ”All we know is that we helped create the gun through joint alchemy on the first day we got here. It was arranged randomly... we didn’t even know what we were making.”

He paused, glancing toward the tent.

”But looking at this... the way the gun works...”

He swallowed.

”It might be a sniper rifle above the Adept rank.”

The messenger blinked.

”What kind of sniper would even be like that...?”

His eyes shifted toward Ezra’s tent again, curiosity pulling at him, but he quickly shook his head.

”No... that’s not why I’m here.”

He slapped both cheeks lightly.

Once, twice.

Focus returned.

”Ezra!!” he shouted.

”Yes.”

The reply came instantly.

Inside the tent, Ezra didn’t stop moving. His finger pulled the trigger again, his eye locked onto the scope as another Lesser Ground Ape dropped before it could even take another full step forward.

”Sir Veda said you should please try and finish up here and join them immediately in front!” the boy shouted in one breath. ”The number of Ground Apes is getting too serious to handle!”

Silence followed for a brief second.

”Alright,” Ezra replied calmly. ”Tell him I’ll be there soon.”

Another shot followed his words. Clean and direct.

The messenger hesitated for just a moment.

He still didn’t understand how one person with one gun was holding back all of this, but there was no time to watch.

”Okay!”

He turned and ran back the way he came, his feet hitting the ground quickly as he disappeared.

Inside the tent...Ezra exhaled slowly.

”What’s the total number of Ground Apes... and their class?” he asked without looking away from his scope.

The five exchanged glances.

One grabbed binocular quickly, others enhanced their sight with Cognis, narrowing their eyes to focus farther into the distance.

”Hmmm... about 150... I think,” one said uncertainly.

”No, closer to 100,” another added, unsure.

”What are you both even saying? It’s past 200,” Ann cut in, her voice sharp.

”Yeah... at least more than 200,” the girl beside her agreed, nodding.

”It’s way past that,” the boy with the binoculars said, his voice firmer. ”More than 340. And... there are about twenty Larger Ground Apes at the far back, behind the Lesser ones, no sight of Giant class Apes and thankfully no Colossal”

”Okay,” Ezra replied.

Then...Silence.

The five looked at each other again, unsure what he was thinking. They wondered whether they should prepare to use the catapult, or switch to the Ak-47, or do something...Anything.

Inside...Ezra was already calculating.

He said their number is 340... that’s close to the 400 I estimated. Ezra’s thought passed quietly through his mind as his finger pulled the trigger again.

Bang!

Another Lesser Ground Ape dropped.

He didn’t slow down.

His breathing stayed steady, controlled, even as his eyes remained locked through the scope.

The Larger Ground Apes still haven’t moved...

His gaze sharpened slightly.

They must be wondering how the bullets are reaching this far.

A faint pause.

But it doesn’t matter.

His grip tightened around the Barrett M107.

Without wasting a second, he tilted the rifle slightly, his hand moving with practiced ease as he released the empty magazine. It dropped cleanly, hitting the ground beside him, while his other hand reached into the side bag and pulled out a fresh one.

Click.

The new magazine locked into place in one smooth motion.

No hesitation, no wasted movement.

Cognis surged through his body again, not wildly. Controlled, it flowed into his eyes, sharpening his sight, into his fingers, steadying his pull, into his mind, tightening his focus.

Everything became clearer, quieter and as if time slowed down, he could see almost everything.

”Let’s move quicker...” His voice was low and calm.

Far ahead...The field stretched wide, filled with Lesser Ground Apes running forward in uneven waves. Their bodies moved aggressively, pushing through each other, while farther behind, the Larger Ground Apes followed at a slower pace just like the ones in at Veda’s side, they were watching and waiting.

Ezra moved; the rifle shifted 90 degrees...

Bang!

A Lesser Ground Ape slightly ahead of the others dropped instantly.

Moved 70 degrees

Bang!

Another followed, then...A sharp turn, 145 degrees...

Bang!

A third one, fell mid-stride.

His movements didn’t stop, they flowed. One into the next as if the rifle wasn’t something he was holding...But something moving with him.

With Cognis enhancing his senses, he didn’t rely on sight alone.

He listened, tracked the apes every movement through sound, watched the slight shifts in motion.

He scanned the battlefield constantly, the Barrett M107 moving with him like a guard watching every angle.

Every small lead...Every tiny gap...He saw it.

Any Lesser Ground Ape that moved even a little ahead...Even just a fraction...Became his first target.

He shot the next, then the next.

He adjusted slightly, 139 degrees...A Lesser Ground Ape that leaped forward, trying to escape... The head burst apart mid-air, its body dropping before it could land.

The rhythm continued, the more they ran, the more they fell, one by one in quick succession.

They began to notice that they weren’t getting any closer, they were all just dying one by one before reaching the marked line.

The Larger Ground Apes at the back watched closely now, their expressions tightened, brows lowered.

They could see it clearly...No matter how many ran forward...They would keep falling without reaching their goal.

Then...

They moved, massive arms reached down, tearing trees straight out of the ground. Roots snapped, dirt scattered, and the trees were lifted high before being swung forward with force.

”Two trees income...!”

A girl started shouting, but before she could complete her words

Bang! Bang!

The trees exploded mid-air.

Splinters burst outward, fragments scattering in every direction before falling uselessly to the ground.

Five of them stared in complete shock.

”What kind of powerful gun is that...?” they all said at once.

Only now...They remembered the exhaustion, drained Cognis, nosebleeds and weakness that followed after the joint alchemy.

At that time, they had questioned it, even doubted it, but now...What they created...

Was cutting and decimating through an entire army.

The Larger Ground Apes grabbed more trees.

Holding them preparing to throw again and at the same time the Lesser Ground Apes pushed forward slightly, trying to take advantage of the moment.

They raised their arms about to throw...

Bang!

A sharp crack cut through the air.

One Larger Ground Ape jerked violently. Its arm...Blown apart.

The tree slipped from its grip, falling heavily to the ground with a loud slam that shook the nearby area, sending snow and dust scattering outward.

”SKREEE! SKREEE! KRAAAH!”

Its scream burst out, loud and sharp, making the other Larger Ground Apes flinch slightly.

Too slow.

Bang! Bang!

Two more shots followed instantly.

Two legs of other Larger Ground Apes, close together, got blown off their body.

The bodies collapsed forward, crashing into the Lesser Ground Apes in front of them. The sheer weight crushed several beneath them, bones snapping under the impact as others were thrown aside.

The screams rose again. Louder, messier, but Ezra didn’t stop, not even for a second. He continued firing.

The Lesser Ground Apes that tried to use the opening...He cut them down.

One after another, before they could reach his line. The whole battlefield remained under his control.

Every step forward...Denied.

Every chance...Taken away.

The battle sense within Ezra began to tingle again, slowly at first, then sharper, like something waking up inside him, that strange and familiar feeling that been creeping into his body since the first wave, wrapping around his thoughts and settling deep into his chest; the screams around him were different from what he remembered, the voices not human, the sounds rough and broken, yet the pressure that came with them was exactly the same, heavy and constant, pressing against him from all directions.

It was the feeling of enemies marching forward from a distance without stopping.

The feeling of standing at the front, knowing that if even one of them passed your line of defense, everything behind you could collapse and even now...There was still something behind him, another battlefield, another fight waiting to break if he failed here.

That thought alone tightened his focus, it didn’t scare him, it steadied him. Ezra was excited, the same feeling he had during the fourth trial, third stage in the earth terrain.

That feeling... It made his body move better than he imagined.

His grip on the Barrett M107 felt natural, almost too natural, like it had always belonged in his hands. The recoil pushed hard against his shoulder each time he fired, the force heavy even with his enhanced strength, but he adjusted to it, absorbing it, letting his body move with it instead of against it.

It didn’t slow him down, it couldn’t. He shifted again 90 degrees

Bang!

A Lesser Ground Ape dropped instantly, then moved 20 degrees

Bang!

Another one fell before it could take another full step, then shifted 50 degrees

Bang!

Then 62 degrees

Bang!

Then 108 degrees

Bang!

76.5 degrees

Bang!

125, 127, Back to 90, moved to 94, 138, 32, 147, 136, 129, 109, 102, 110, 94, 40, 72, 63, 133, 174, 150, 166, 161, 158, 149, 120, 90, 93, 99, 85, 44 degrees...

Bang!

74 degrees

Bang!

Each movement flowed into the next without pause, his body turning, adjusting, correcting, the rifle moving as if guided by something deeper than just sight, his eyes scanning, his ears picking up the smallest shifts, Cognis sharpening everything at once as he tracked every single target that dared move ahead of the others.

Gunshots continued to echo, one after another, sharp and clean.

The screams of the Ground Apes rose and broke apart across the battlefield.

Blood splashed violently onto the dirt, spreading, mixing with the soil, little snow and crushed bodies already covering the ground.

His hands moved without delay, pulling out empty magazines, replacing them with loaded ones in one continuous motion, never once fumbling, never once slowing, the rhythm of reload and fire blending into the chaos around him.

The entire sequence... every movement... every shot...Was carried out with frightening accuracy and smoothness, there was no hesitation, no wasted motion, no room for mistakes, no room for breaks.

Every shot he took was meant to kill and it did, or a few times it made sure the target could never move again.

The remaining Larger Ground Apes changed their approach.

Instead of throwing trees...They grabbed the Lesser Ground Apes.

Alive and hurled them forward, straight toward the castle mainly toward Ezra’s position.

The air shifted as the massive bodies were thrown, cutting through space with force.

With immediate reply, Ezra reacted instantly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The flying bodies were torn apart mid-air, bullets ripping through them, breaking them into pieces before they could even get close, the force of the shots pushing what remained slightly backward before gravity pulled everything down.

He didn’t watch them fall, he had already moved back to the field, back to the advancing line, back to the next targets in fluid motion.

At the same time...He began taking down the Larger Ground Apes from behind.

No priority confusion, both fronts...Handled with perfect accuracy.

No Ape was safe, their stone-like skin didn’t hold.

Not against this.

The bullets pierced through them again and again, breaking through flesh and bone with enough force to stop their movement completely.

The speed at which Ezra was moving grew more intense with every passing second, his body working without pause, his hands tightening, his shoulders absorbing recoil after recoil, his eyes refusing to blink longer than necessary, his brain processing angle, distance, timing, and movement all at once.

The strain was there, clear and building, but he didn’t show it.

Not in his expression, not in his movements, not in his breathing.

He continued.

Shot after shot.

Angle after angle.

Switching from a Lesser Ground Ape that stepped slightly ahead of the others to a Larger Ground Ape preparing to throw...Then back again...

His rifle moving constantly, never settling in one place for too long, like that...

The numbers began to drop.

Slowly at first, then more clearly.

Bodies upon bodies piled up in front, forming uneven ground, making it harder for the remaining Lesser Ground Apes to move forward properly, their steps becoming unstable, their formation breaking without needing interference.

One by one they fell.

Finally, all the Larger Ground Apes were all taken down. None remained standing and Ezra continued, finishing off the last of the remaining Ground Apes without slowing down, his focus still locked, his movements still sharp...

Until...

The ground shook.

A deep rumble spread outward, heavy enough to reach even the other side of the castle, the vibration traveling through the ground and into the structure itself.

Ezra’s eye narrowed slightly as he adjusted his aim.

Through the scope he saw them.

First... The massive legs moving fast.

Then...

The full figures. Four Giant Ground Apes running, each step heavy enough to shake the earth beneath them.

They held the dead bodies of two Larger Ground Apes in front of themselves using them as shields, trying to block his shots.

Ezra saw it and smiled faintly.

Outside his tent... the other five panicked, their voices rose slightly. Unsure whether they should act or stay back.

Whether doing nothing was the right choice, but Ezra...Didn’t hesitate.

BANG!

The first shot rang out, louder than the rest.

The bullet tore forward at terrifying speed. It pierced through the first dead body, then the second, then continued straight into the chest of the Giant Ground Ape behind them.

A large hole exploded open, the body jerked back and collapsed.

The others froze for a brief moment from the shock.

They hadn’t expected that the bodies couldn’t protect shit and they couldn’t react in time.

BANG!

The next shot followed immediately.

This time, it slipped through a small gap between the bodies used as shields and struck directly.

The head got blown off, the massive body dropped.

The remaining two Ground Apes stopped mid-step, their movement breaking for just a second, but that was all Ezra needed.

He gave them nothing, no time, no chance.

BANG! BANG!

Two shots.

Both heads burst open, their bodies fell heavily to the ground...

THUD!

The impact echoed.

Then...Silence.

The five stood frozen, eyes wide, mouths slightly open. Unable to process what they had just witnessed.

Did we just watch one man with one gun wipe out an entire army of Ground Apes?