Chapter 30: Brawl of pain

She wouldn’t give them a clear-cut answer, though.

(What’s she waiting for? The choice is obvious! Go for it, already!! Do you want to live or not??)

It pissed him off a bit. He hated when people were indecisive like that. It was hard to watch, and even harder to take a part in.

(In situations like these, it’s either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, goddammit!!!)

He clenched his fist as hard as he could. What the hell was he thinking, just giving up like that anyway? There had to be something he could do, anything! He ran through every corner he could remember of his mind to try and come up with a solution. All he needed was some skill or weapon he could use without that freak getting wise to it first and just liquidating point-blank.

Right now, he seemed at least decently distracted by Suzuka’s babbling on occasion, but it never lasted. He would often turn back to look in his direction, invariably, so trying to bank on that was impossible.

(Think, now… My skill…)

He couldn’t use it right now, but… If he were to use it, he’d be able to activate the heart symbol from any angle or direction he chose. If that was so… Who was to say he couldn’t do the same with other menus, or even inventories…?

As he fumbled aimlessly through idea after idea, desperation slowly taking old of him, Suzuka grew increasingly tense just a few feet away, as the answer finally made its way out of her mouth.

“I’ll… I’ll go… So… Please, just… Just let master…”

(What…?)

The answer confused him, but he kept his mind off it, focusing on escaping the predicament just as the man in the suit let out a hearty laugh.

“I see! That was what I was hoping to hear! Our lord will be quite pleased, once–”

Before he could finish, a deafening popping noise rang throughout, as though a large balloon had suddenly burst from within.

“W… Wha…?”

Dazed, the wielder of the iron gauntlet looked down… Covering the center of his stomach, there was a thick, ever-growing checkerboard pattern.

Much like a reflection in a mirror, that very same pattern now covered the boy’s stomach as well, though slightly wider than the man’s.

Before any of the spectators could have given any proper reaction, the exact same sound blared again, and the man’s upper chest was covered by the cloud as well, though Haruto remained the same.

Channeling his last breath into one last attack, the gauntlet guy tried to finish the boy off once and for all, ejecting the arrow directly against his forehead, but before his hand could even reach near, Haruto had grabbed hold of his arm, forcefully pulling it to the side as the arrow shot off and pierced through the cracked marble instead, while the ruffian, meanwhile, could do nothing to fight him off as his strength progressively waned with each second, soon enough having left him for good as he fell over his opponent, his body completely limp.

All hell broke loose.

“Mille cazzate!!”

“The drudge is armed!!”

“What the hell!?”

“Subdue him!”

Drawing their guns all to Haruto, the remaining thugs had started to fire at him, while he used the fallen guy’s lifeless body as best as he could to shield himself, grabbing tight hold of his torn shirt so it wouldn’t slip to the side as it was continuously filled with bullets from head to toe, some of which had managed past even the body itself and hitting him as well.

Suzuka noticed, then, the rusty gun he’d been holding right behind his back. He’d shot right through himself just so he could wound that single mob without being noticed beforehand. It was the same one she’d traded less than 500 credits for once. It was no more than desperate insurance in case something went wrong with her own skill… Well, this situation was nothing, if not desperate.

Making use of the opening Haruto had given her, she forced herself back up through a flimsy wobble, and aimed her hand at the crazy attackers.

“Assigned skill activated: Fireblast”

She was able to hit two of them with the first fire sphere, blowing them back as their bodies were completely engulfed by the flames. But as she moved on to take down the other two, one of them had gotten wise to her.

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“Assigned skill activated: Snapshield”

A large, glass-like sphere completely enveloped the two men, blocking out her flames entirely. She had no way to know whether it was actually unbreakable or would yield after a few more tries, but she had no time to waste pondering about it.

Safe inside their little bubble, those two mobs were free to start shooting at Haruto again, who now writhed on the ground, trying to crawl away as fast as he could after the leader’s dead body had shattered into tiny pieces of glass and then immediately vanished without a trace, leaving only him over the marble without any protection.

The bullets passed right through the indestructible barrier, seeming as though it would only block out elements trying to get inside it, but never the opposite. He was able to avoid the first few rounds just crawling around, but soon enough the two thugs had managed to get a few holes in, making him grunt increasingly loudly with the pain. It seemed he was already too weak to even scream by that point.

“Assigned skill activated: Damage multiplier”

She was out of options. Haruto could barely move on his own. Fireblast was all she had.

Gathering up each bit of strength she had left, she charged the remainder of her skill into a single, powerful blast. It was enormous, tall enough to even surpass the other lanky guy she’d taken out, an oval-shaped flame contained between both of her hands, now outstretched to her sides as far as she could force them. No amount of bullets would be able to stop it. Sheer, unbridled power through heat.

It was over now. Their first mistake had been to let themselves get so easily distracted.

“... Subdue this!!”

The wild, roaring fire sprang forward, eating away at everything that came into its path, leaving behind no track or remain of the two mobs aside from the agonized echo of their voices as they instantly burned to ashes, and soon, not even that, all inside their fabled little shield.

She took a deep breath, barely managing to keep herself upright. Immediately, she turned to her master, now struggling on his knees to get back up and failing, repeatedly.

Reaching for him as fast as she could, she grabbed him tightly by the arms and did her best to try and pull him up, only succeeding in keeping him there after the third try.

“Master! Please, keep it together, we don’t have time to waste!!”

“D-Damn… My body’s gotta have more holes than a sea sponge…” he mumbled, barely conscious.

She managed to move him enough to put his arm around her shoulders and start towards the gate once again.

“Master, please stay awake! I need you to materialize my motorcycle so we can get some distance, fast! We don’t have enough time for you to die and respawn, they’ll all be back before you do!”

“Yeah… Yeah…” he muttered, fighting how he could to keep his eyes wide and looking forward, despite the overwhelming pain, so strong it had rendered him numb, and the immense clouds of doom taking over most of his body. Not even the adrenaline seemed to be doing him much good anymore. “I’m still awake…”

With a shaky finger, he was able to navigate through the inventory and bring out the bike, and in just a moment, they were speeding past the gates and out of Kataki, far into the Cyberway’s empty roads. Haruto clinged weakly to her waist, putting all his effort into not falling off. He was starting to feel a bit better as the seconds went on, the damage pattern seemed to be receding, even if absurdly slow.

“... How long… will it take…?”

“A few minutes, at least. Hang on tight, master. Regeneration always takes a while.”

“Shit…”

“I’m sorry… I… I really didn’t think this would happen, master. I was sure I’d gotten rid of them… Please forgive me…”

“Oh… I’ll forgive you, alright…” he replied through a loud wheeze. “And just as well, once this is all over… you’ll show me where you hid all that loot… right?”

She sighed, nodding slightly with her eyes still on the road.

“If we can get out of this alive, then surely… But they still have the liquid spear with them. You saw it, didn’t you? That black gauntlet, it can return your soul to nothing with a single hit, you don’t even need to be taking part in a duel race. It’s over, in a single shot. Any moment now, they’ll be back for us. We can’t outrun them, and their numbers are too great. We can’t run, but we don’t have much of a chance fighting, either.”

He fell silent for a moment, seeming to consider the situation for a moment. His wounds were closing up, and his mind was becoming sharper again, bit by bit.

“I suppose, then, we might as well do both, no? If nothing else we can at least show them some pain.” he grinned. “Make sure they don’t forget this little scuffle at the very least.”

“Yeah…” she smiled back, despite being unable to see whatever face he was making at all. “Let’s give them hell, master.”

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