Maya bowed respectfully. "Good morning, Mr. Stark."
Wilson only gave a curt nod in acknowledgment.
Ethan’s mind raced with a few thoughts. What the hell were they doing here?
But before he could say a word—
At the exact same moment, something else happened.
Far across the city, at over three thousand meters away. Atop a high-rise building, a masked figure lay prone on the rooftop pavement.
His body was perfectly still as his eye locked onto the scope of his special sniper artifact that had this glow of red miasma around it.
He exhaled, then he pulled the trigger.
The bullet shot forward with such explosive force that tore through the air at several times the speed of sound.
It was also a special type of bullet that faced no air resistance, drag or slowdown. It simply just traveled in a perfect, deadly line.
Back at the Stark manor, Maya and Wilson’s enhanced vampire senses suddenly picked up the danger.
Maya’s eyes widened as head turned toward the direction of the incoming projectile, and in that instant, she moved.
She blurred forward in a streak of motion, leaving a trail of disturbed dust and air in her wake as she lunged toward Ethan.
Unfortunately she was over twenty meters away, and the bullet was already there.
At the same time, Ethan’s dragon senses reacted to the danger, and his body had already begun to move.
But the problem was this; even though he also detected it at the very last second, that bullet had moved way too fast.
Ethan had absolutely nothing in the required speed to dodge a projectile traveling at several times the speed of sound, which is why the bullet struck him on the side of his head.
His body jerked violently to the side from the impact, and he crumpled to the ground.
Maya skidded to a stop where Ethan had been standing, her hand still outstretched as if trying to snatch the bullet from the air.
But, she had been too late.
Wilson was frozen in shock and Valerie’s scream tore through the air.
"MASTER ETHAN!"
From inside the manor, Francesca heard the scream and came running. The moment she stepped outside and saw Ethan’s collapsed body on the ground, her legs gave out.
She dropped to her knees beside him, with her hands trembling as she reached for him.
"No... no, no, no..." she whispered in a breaking voice. "Master Ethan, please..."
Blood pooled beneath his head, and it was spreading fast.
Valerie was frozen as well , her face pale and her hands were shaking alot.
Maya turned sharply toward the direction the bullet had come from. Even with a vampire’s enhanced eyesight, there was no way her blazing red eyes could see across that full distance to the shooter.
——
Far across the city, atop the high-rise building, the masked man stood from his position. He lowered the sniper artifact, and the red glow around it faded.
A voice then echoed from within the weapon itself. It was feminine and excited.
"Target confirmed! Ethan Stark was hit successfully! Yay! You’ve completed 1,025 kills with one shot, one kill!"
The masked man’s voice was calm when he replied back, "Thank you, Katarina."
"Always happy to serve," the weapon’s voice purred before the sniper dissolved into red light and vanished.
The man reached into his coat and pulled out his Arcphone, then pressed it to his ear.
"The Stark has been eliminated, I await my balance."
Victor Keating’s voice replied through the line. "You’ll get it once I see the news tomorrow."
The masked man pulled the phone down without another word. He turned and walked calmly toward the rooftop door, disappearing into the stairwell without a trace.
——
Back at the Stark residence, Francesca cradled Ethan’s head in her lap, with tears streaming down her face.
Maya stared down at Ethan’s body, with a dark expression on her face.
Wilson had turned his eye away.
And Ethan lay still, with blood pooling beneath him and his eyes closed.
——
About ten minutes later...
Maya and Wilson still stood off to the side, with tense expressions on their faces.
Francesca knelt on the ground beside Ethan’s collapsed body, with tears still streaming freely down her face.
Her hands trembled as she shook his shoulders desperately, over and over.
"Master Ethan, please... please wake up," she sobbed.
Her hands were stained red. Blood had soaked into the fabric of her apron and smeared across her palms.
A few feet away, was Valerie who was half in tears and distraughted. Her hands shook violently as she pressed her Arcphone to her ear, trying desperately to connect a call.
"Come on, come on..." she whispered frantically. "Connect already...."
There was something wrong with cell service right now as she tried desperately to reach Eduardo.
Then, without warning, another strange phenomenon occurred.
Dark aura began to evaporate from Ethan head, precisely the side of it where he had just been shot.
And this dark aura carried within it, The bullet. It was being pushed outward from within his skull until it clattered onto the ground beside his head.
Then, the hole in his skull sealed, the flesh covering it knitted itself back and blood stopped flowing.
Within seconds, the wound was gone.
Francesca froze mid-sob, and her eyes went wide, staring at his head in utter disbelief.
Valerie’s mouth fell open as she pulled the Arcphone away from her ear slowly.
From their position off to the side, Maya and Wilson’s eyes widened in shock.
Wilson took half a step forward. "That’s..."
The only reason a bullet moving at that velocity and trajectory had been able to lodge itself in Ethan’s skull in the first place was because of his dragon physiology.
His skull wasn’t like a regular human’s. It was a supernaturally dense bone structure. Dense enough to stop a bullet that should have passed through cleanly.
In the next moment, Ethan’s eyes opened up.
He sucked in a sharp breath and sat up abruptly, with his hand immediately going to the side of his head as he felt this throbbing ache.
"What in the fuck...?" he muttered slowly.