Chapter 125 Something New
After teasing Xavier and laughing so hard that their stomachs ached, Karim, Connor, Achara, Zack and Sam were all confused as to why Xavier was so composed and serious. They weren't expecting him to get annoyed much, but he would usually react to their taunts or laugh them off. Yet there seemed to be something on his mind that outweighed their jovial attempts at getting to him.
'So this Expert Precision gives me everything I need to have Expert Precision, but I am still in the driver's seat,' Xavier thought to himself while remaining standing there with the gun aimed at the target, despite previously failing to fire it.
Despite knowing that the safety was still on, he still felt the effects of Expert Precision, which seemed to be transferable to things other than firearms. It was even greater than he expected and the world seemed to move and flow slower while he was in that state. He even felt as though his body and senses had become one and were in sync with each other.
It was a difficult sensation to explain, but after remaining still and deep in thought for a few minutes, during which those around him had settled down and observed him with confused expressions, Xavier finally snapped out of it.
"So the safety was still on. Silly me."
With a wry smile, he turned to face the others. They all let out sighs of relief seeing as Xavier appeared alright, but his zoning out for so long was unusual, to say the least.
"I guess I'll just have to try again."
After he said that, he turned back around and made sure the gun was ready to be fired, before re-entering the still-state Expert Precision allowed him to access. A state where anything other than his target and the obstacles he'd have to overcome to hit it was blocked out of his mind.
He was eager to experiment with it and see if he could lock onto multiple targets and use his Expert Precision in other ways. His thoughts, however, were streamlined in that state. It was almost as if his subconscious was continuously urging him to hit the target, and his mind and body were doing all they could to do precisely that.
Bang!
Xavier was surprised by how strong the recoil was, but his forearm and wrist withstood the impact with relative ease. It was absurd to think he had shot a gun with a single hand and wasn't affected in the slightest by recoil. However, despite how impressive that was, they weren't as impressed with his aim.
He had completely missed the target that was only 10 metres in front of him and once he did, Zack let out a sigh of relief. Then, just as they were about to start laughing and teasing, they were all gobsmacked and realised what had just happened.
There were 3 distances of targets, and 30 metres away were moving targets which were the most difficult to hit. Realising that Xavier had been aiming for one of those targets and had even ended up hitting it the first time, they were left amazed.
Xavier, on the other hand, was disappointed with himself and had just barely hit the target.
Taking a second to evaluate what he had done right and wrong, he realised that he had underestimated how much recoil would affect the bullet's trajectory. He had also overestimated how much he would need to adjust the angle he fired at in order to hit the target.
Finding where he did wrong was easy with Expert Precision, which allowed him to hone in on anything he saw fit. Then, without even giving the others a chance to praise him or understand what had just happened, he began firing the gun once again.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Firing repeatedly, after the gun ran out of bullets, he grabbed another and found that he had to make slight adjustments, but it was all the same. He sought to understand his surroundings and gauge distances rather than simply becoming proficient at using the weapon. That way, precision would become a transferable skill he could use in any way he needed.
And it was only after emptying a few of the loaded guns that he stopped and turned to the gobsmacked group that he had entered the firing range with.
"What? Is there something on my face?" he asked, seeing them lost for words and gawking at him.
"Firing a gun can't be that difficult. I just needed a moment to gauge exactly how it'd work," he continued, before giving them all a shameless smile.
He had utterly proven them wrong, and despite being wrong, they were overjoyed and even more amazed by their young boss. The more bullets he fired, the closer he got to hitting the targets' centres. By the end of the few minutes he had spent adjusting to the use of firearms and Expert Precision, he no longer missed a shot, even on moving targets.
"H-How?" Achara managed to get out, eager to learn as much as she could from Xavier.
As soon as she did, the others prepared to listen in. They also wanted to improve as much as they could and find out what exactly it was that allowed Xavier to excel at almost everything.
"Well, I just focused on the target and blocked everything else. Once I did, I used the fine control of my upper body to adjust enough to start hitting targets. After a few shots, I was confident in my skills. Now the chances of me failing to land a shot are extremely low," he explained, but it still didn't make sense to the others.
In their minds, that was not how life works. Even the most talented individuals had to work hard to hone their skills in any area of life. Yet Xavier seemed to be the exception to that rule. That's not to say that he didn't strive for greatness, which made him a force to be reckoned with.
And while the rest of them stood there deep in thought, revering their young boss, Xavier was still trying to experiment with his Expert Precision. This time, however, without using a firearm.
Suddenly, he burst toward Zack, who would react the slowest of all of them. Xavier rushed in to gouge his eyes out. He found that when he focused on his target hard enough, he experienced that same sensation. He felt as if everything else was unimportant and as if his body automatically locked onto his target.
Just as his fingers neared Zack's eyes, he stopped and began thinking up other ways he could use his Expert Precision. Zack hadn't even seen Xavier coming, and the others were too slow to react, even if they wanted to, but they knew he wasn't actually planning to harm him.
Instead, they were curious about what exactly was going on with Xavier and noticed that he seemed to be developing something new.
'If I studied the weak points in human bodies or learned how to find the pressure points of my opponents like in the novels, would I be able to paralyse my opponents by using a few finger strikes?'
But then when he thought about it more realistically, he was better off just sticking to his usual fighting style and trying to implement Expert Precision through it.
'Overwhelming speed, power, combat prowess and now accuracy. I wonder what's next.'
Before he had the chance to think about it any longer, Achara and the others challenged him to a competition of who could hit the most targets. It seemed as though his display of skill had ignited the fire in their eyes and reminded them that they could always improve.
Obviously, he accepted, and before they knew it, they had run out of ammunition and all of their hands were shaking after firing so many guns for so long.