Chapter 67-Begin fire

Chapter 67: 67-Begin fire

The system responded the second it sensed her danger.

WHUM!

A translucent blue barrier suddenly materialized around the entire cruise ship. It shimmered like an enormous dome of blue glass, stretching from beneath the waterline to high above the upper deck. The bullets struck it.

Ping! Ping!

Instead of reaching the ship, they flattened against the invisible force and dropped harmlessly into the ocean. Not one bullet touched the cruise ship or even came close to Aymara.

The fear inside her vanished so quickly that it left behind something colder. She looked at the barrier, then at the submarine, and felt a slow, almost disbelieving relief spread through her chest.

They had tried to kill her. They had actually pulled the triggers and yet she was still standing, untouched and safe inside her fortress.

She remained exactly where she was, still leaning against the railing, still wearing her white dress, and still perfectly unharmed. She smiled, "Thank goodness for the system."

The men froze for half a second. Then the general shouted, "Keep firing!" he didn’t want to accept defeat so easily.

The gunfire resumed.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Dozens of bullets flew toward the ship, but the blue barrier absorbed every single one. Some bullets ricocheted away from the barrier and vanished into the ocean while others simply dropped after losing their momentum.

Aymara watched the spectacle with an expression that bordered on boredom, though beneath it her heart was still beating hard.

Each shot reminded her of how close the danger had been, and each harmless impact fed a growing certainty that the general’s power had never been as absolute as he believed.

The men kept firing, magazine after magazine emptying until the sound became almost continuous. For a full minute, the submarine’s deck remained engulfed in gunfire.

However, Aymara hadn’t even moved. Her hair barely shifted, and the railing beneath her wasn’t scratched. The windows behind her were intact, and the cruise ship stood exactly as it had before the attack. It was as though the men were shooting at a wall between worlds.

Click.

One man’s weapon went empty. Another lowered his gun. "I’m out!"

"Reload!"

"I already did!"

"Again!"

The general’s face tightened. "Keep shooting!" he was growing more and more furious. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"But, General..."

"KEEP SHOOTING!"

The men obeyed, yet their confidence was beginning to crumble. One man stared at the barrier in disbelief. "Where are the bullets going?"

Another looked down at the ocean. "They’re not hitting the ship at all."

"None of them are!"

"What the hell is that thing?"

Aymara heard them clearly and she smiled faintly. They were finally beginning to understand why she had been so confident to the point of threatening them.

A tremor of vindication moved through her, followed by a darker satisfaction. They had looked at her and seen someone vulnerable that they can take advantage of and raid at will. Now they were looking at the consequences of that mistake.

The gunfire continued for several more seconds. More and more weapons clicked empty, followed by another and another. Eventually, the deafening barrage began to fade.

The submarine fell into an uneasy silence. Smoke from the discharged weapons drifted lazily across the deck as the men stared at the cruise ship.

It was untouched without a single bullet mark, not a broken window, and not even a scratch.

The general’s face had gone pale. He looked at his men, then at the ship, and then back at his men. "How is this possible?"

No one answered him, they were all bewildered. One soldier swallowed hard. "General... we fired everything we had at it."

"I can see that," his voice was dangerously low. "But nothing happened to the ship."

Aymara finally pushed herself away from the railing. The movement was small, but every man on the submarine noticed it because they had all been looking at her.

The general’s eyes immediately snapped toward her. She looked completely relaxed, almost amused, though inside she could still feel the echo of the gunfire vibrating through her nerves.

She slowly glanced at the blue barrier surrounding her ship, then at the empty magazines scattered across the submarine deck, and finally back at the general. The realization on his face was almost satisfying.

He had thought his weapons gave him control and he had believed thirty armed men were enough to make her surrender. He had assumed that because she was a young woman standing alone on the deck, she must be helpless and now he realized that he had been wrong about everything.

Aymara felt the last remnants of uncertainty leave her. She had been afraid when the weapons rose.

She had hated that fear, hated the way it had made her body tense and her breath falter. But now that fear had transformed into resolve. She would not merely survive this encounter. She would make sure he understood exactly what his arrogance had cost him.

The general suddenly raised his hand. "Stop!"

The remaining men immediately lowered their weapons. Silence returned and only the waves moved between the two vessels.

The general stared at Aymara. For the first time since he had surfaced, there was no amusement in his eyes, no arrogance, and no smugness. There was only shock, and beneath it, a colder realization began to spread.

His fingers trembled before he could force them still. The hand he had raised to command the firing now hung uselessly at his side, damp with sweat.

His mouth had gone dry. He tried to draw a steady breath, but it caught halfway down, as if his chest had forgotten how to expand. ’What kind of powerful bigshot is she?’

Aymara met his gaze. Her expression was calm and almost serene.

The general felt the deck tilt beneath him, though the submarine remained steady. Every assumption that had carried him forward: his weapons, his men, and his authority.had collapsed in less than a minute.

Aymara saw the fear he was trying to hide. She recognized it because it had lived inside her moments earlier. The difference was that she had mastered hers while was being consumed by his.

He had ordered her death with absolute certainty. Now he could not even make her flinch.

She slowly glanced at the countdown displayed on her system.

[Time remaining: 2 minutes, 41 seconds.]

The number struck her with a sudden jolt. She had spent precious time allowing him to posture, threaten, and fire. Her relief hardened into impatience. She had wanted to give him a chance to stop. He had answered that mercy with bullets. She smiled.

The general’s throat moved as he swallowed. "What... are you?"

Aymara gave him no response. She simply rested both hands lightly against the railing and looked across the distance separating them. Her palms were steady now.

She spoke, "My turn."

The words were soft, almost gentle but they were far more terrifying than the gunfire had been.

The men’s faces changed. Aymara’s smile widened. "You should have taken the five minutes warning seriously and left," she straightened. "You wasted one of them shooting at me."

The general stared at her, fear broke through his shock. It tightened his stomach and prickled across the back of his neck. His pulse hammered against his temples.

Aymara watched the fear spread through him and felt no pity. A small part of her had hoped he would stop before forcing her hand. That part had died the moment he gave the order to fire at her. What remained was clear, focused, and frighteningly calm.

He wanted to issue another order, to threaten her, and to reclaim the certainty that had made him feel invincible moments ago but no command came. His tongue felt heavy, and the words died behind his teeth.

He seemed to understand that the five-minute countdown had never been a bluff. It had been mercy and they had just wasted it.

Aymara lifted her hand. The blue screen appeared beside her.

[Hostile threat neutralization protocol ready.]

Her eyes remained fixed on the submarine. She could feel the system waiting for her command, feel the immense power gathering just beyond the edge of action.

The knowledge should have frightened her but instead, it steadied her. After everything they had done, she no longer felt like prey but predator.

"System."

The men instinctively stepped backward. The general did not move. He could only stare at the glowing words, his breath shallow and uneven, while the first true certainty of the night settled into his bones: Whatever happened next, he was no longer in control.

Aymara held his gaze, letting him see that she was not angry, panicked, and certainly not uncertain. She wanted him to understand the difference between the fear he had tried to force upon her and the fear now closing around him.

"Begin fire!"