on a small planet somewhere.

a boy was sitting in the midst of a ruined city. he looked young and innocent, but his body was splattered with blood. the blood was evidently not his, as the corpses of girls wearing frilly clothes lay all around him.

other than this jarring sight, it was calm all around. *almost too calm.* the boy thought to himself.

he stood up, deciding to leave this place that was making him uneasy. the moment he left the city, he felt the terror of death lock on to him. he quickly stepped back in the city confines, and the feeling disappeared.

*so i'm being watched. by someone strong too.* the boy pondered. *but why won't she come out and face me directly?*

almost as if reading his mind, the feeling from before locked on to him from afar. he quickly dodged sideways, and a glowing golden bullet narrowly missed him, making him break out into a cold sweat.

*no way this backward planet has someone so strong!* unconvinced, he ran towards where the bullet had come from. when he reached the source, all he could sense was a strange energy left hanging in the air, showing that someone had been here before.

*i don't recognise this energy, just like the ones that came before.* the boy frowned. another bullet shot at him, but he dodged it easily, now that he knew it was coming. he stopped for a few seconds, but nothing happened.

*so, she can only shoot one bullet at a time. that's convenient for me.* he thought with a smile. wanting to test another theory of his, so he ran over to where the bullet had come from, like before. when he got there, a bullet shot at him, which he dodged once more.

*she changes her location every shot, like a true sniper. however, she can't teleport and has to physically move.* the boy's smile grew wider. *in this case, i can probably win!*

the battle continued like this for a few hours. the boy came to another conclusion. *she's moving randomly, but she never goes to the same place twice, even if the next spot is taxing to get to. in that case, i can predict her next location!*

after running around for a few hours, he had memorised the city's layout. he habitually dodged the bullet and ran towards the next location he thought she would go to. when he got there, he didn't find anyone.

*so, not here.* a bullet came flying at him while he thought, which he casually dodged. he then ran over to the next location.

this time, he found his target. a cute girl with braids tied and lying over her shoulder, wearing black frilly clothes with a golden edge to them. even from afar, he could tell how powerful she was.

he stepped hard on the ground, causing it to crack, and dashed towards her. the girl raised her rifle, an SVDK model, and aimed down at him. the boy felt a stronger sense of danger, even stronger than before,  lock onto him. he forcefully changed his direction and hid behind a wall. the feeling didn't disappear. as he hid behind the wall, he had a sudden thought, and jumped as high as he could. the next second, a golden bullet broke through the walls, leaving behind a massive hole.

he sighed in relief as he fell through the air, but then he stiffened. the girl was aiming directly at him, and he couldn't dodge. feeling desperate, he formed a symbol with his hands, just as the girl fired at him.a figure appeared in front of him, but was instantly turned to golden dust before it could react. part of the golden dust landed on him, but he didn't mind since it didn't feel dangerous.

he landed on the ground and rolled to break his fall. he then placed his palms on the paved road below him, and mana began to flood his surroundings.

"clone army." from the mana around him, figures began to form and dash towards the girl. she shot down a few, but her firing rate could only take care of a few, and eventually, some got close to her. as it threw a punch at her, she raised her rifle to block it. behind her, a black orb with golden lines appeared, blocking the sneak attack from behind her. with a pulse of energy, it pushed away all the figures surrounding her, but more came in to attack. some of them were holding swords too.

the boy laughed, still maintaining his stance. "you can fight against one, but what about a lot of people at once!" he was overjoyed, but then his elation turned into disbelief, and then shock. the girl was holding her own, blocking with her gun and pushing away those who came close with a golden shockwave.

he watched as her movements got more complex, as though she was adapting as she fought. she then jumped onto the shoulders of one of the clones, and jumped into the air. the orb flashed, and the gun in her hand started to glow and change shape.

when she landed on the ground, a P90 was in her hand. it was black with golden highlights that glowed softly. the floating orb turned into another P90 which landed in her outstretched left hand. she aimed around her and began to fire recklessly. golden bullets flew everywhere, destroying the clones, only their swords and the golden dust floating in the air showing they were ever there.

she then aimed at a particular wall, where there seemed to be nothing there, and focus fired at it. the boy appeared from that spot and fled in a sorry state, covered in golden dust. as he was fully focused on escaping, he was out of the city in no time.

looking behind him with a feeling of dread, he saw the girl standing on the city wall. she didn't do anything else and only stared at him as he got further away. soon, he could no longer see her anymore. as he looked back at the city once more, he thought he saw a flash of light for a second, but he dismissed it as a hallucination.

he began to swear vehemently in his mind, cursing his bad luck. in his decades of life, he had never encountered such resistance when conquering a planet. he swore he would get his revenge.

suddenly, he was back on the alert again as bullets began flying all around his. it was the same rifle bullets as before, but they seemed to be falling like rain towards him. in the rain of bullets, he could barely dodge. his clothes had turned to dust, and he had lost a large chunk of his hair. soon, the bullet rain stopped, and the boy fell to his knees, exhausted.

he took deep breaths, trying to recover as much energy as possible. then, he felt the barrel of the SVDK press against his chest, right where his heart, and his spark, resided. he froze, and didn't even dare move.

"you killed my friends."

then, she pulled the trigger, and a cloud of golden dust exploded in the air, eventually merging with the sandy surroundings.