Chapter 35: A broken arrow

When he opened his eyes again, he was already surrounded by the other three hostiles, just like before. Except, this time, he was outside. Just by the side of the irate road he’d been riding along just a few moments prior. The flaming husk of the vehicle he’d previously been lying in was still barely in his sight, just one or two kilometers away from there, and he was standing tall once again, not a scratch on his body, even though he could still recall the horrible pain he’d felt.

And now, he had two weapons simultaneously pointed at him. Soon enough, it would be three. The tank’s former driver was pointing a pistol at him from just a few feet to the right. The shotgun guy was fast approaching him right from the front.

And the leader, loading up his gauntlet for another round, was just done waking up on his left as well.

Another wave of panic took over the boy’s body, as his feet twisted forcefully against the thick dirt, springing him hurriedly towards the gauntlet before he could hear the other two’s shots ring out around him, the owner of the shotgun particularly activating his damage multiplying skill. As for what moved him, exactly… It could be adrenaline… Simple desperation… He didn’t care. He would take anything as long as it kept him mobile.

He rushed to the leader and tackled him back onto the ground once again, with even more force than he had managed before. It could be seeing that other guy die just a moment ago had made him more conscious of the risks of being hit by the arrow. But even that was too much thinking for him to consider.

The shells pierced through his back, sending strong, scorching jolts of pain throughout his whole body, but he kept his grip on the man’s wrist, rolling through the dirt while keeping a tight grip over his long coat. The gangster tried to push himself up against him and point the spear back at him, but Haruto was just barely able to pull him back down again, bearing the brunt of the fire as he kept his hands on the cold metal of the glove.

He didn’t know for how long he’d be able to bear the pain, but so long as he managed to keep his vitals covered, it’d take a while before they could take him out.

He pulled at the gauntlet again, placing it as close to his own face as he was able to right as the shotgun guy had been able to take proper aim of it. The flurry of pellets that followed were enough to mow down the two of them quite badly. And along with them, the gauntlet itself wound up taking a shattering hit as well.

The leader twitched and writhed in pain, his upper body now all but fully enveloped in the screeching, gray and white static Haruto already knew well. Barely able to keep himself conscious, the boy rolled on his side, too engrossed in the turmoil that surrounded him to even notice his own appearance now, almost a mirror reflection of the man’s, though his head and upper chest had gone mostly unscathed.

And as the gangster’s loose arm lay limp on the floor, covered in the messy checkerboard static as well after his ally’s misaim had cut it off at the elbow, he immediately noticed the black, almost glassy gauntlet no longer sat over it. It lay on the dirt right in between the two of them, and a large chunk of it had been shot off, reduced to countless pieces spread all around, leaving countless pieces of black scrap lying around them. The glove itself now had only the right half of its hand left, and most of the golden arrow had been shattered as well.

Catching up to the very same sight, both the former driver and the shotgun guy froze still, the latter’s mouth gaping open, while the leader simply cursed him in-between screams, trying to grasp the remains of the gauntlet with his sole remaining hand, only to realize it had now been rendered useless.

Cocking his shotgun, the nearest thug still standing closed in on the waning Haruto, taking aim at him once again.

“Damn you!! Who do you think you are!?”

The former driver, however, lowered his own weapon and started clutching at his own comrade, trying how he could to make him pull back and do the same.

“Let go!!” the shotgun guy pushed back.

“It’s useless, you imbecile!! The liquid spear is gone. This had gotten out of hand. We have to get out of here!”

Blinded by rage, however, he simply kicked the driver to the curb, bringing his hand back to the trigger.

“You… You will pay for t…!”

Before he could pull it, however, his coat suddenly caught fire.

There was a low rumble in the distance. The boy could easily recognize it. It was a certain motorcycle’s engine.

The flames quickly spread to the rest of the thug’s body, and inevitably he dropped his weapon and collapsed to the floor, squirming around for a moment before being completely reduced to ash.

Whimpering in terror, the former motorist activated his shield layer ability, trying to back off from the confrontation. As Haruto weakly struggled up to his knees, trying how he could to clear his head, the leader had already gotten a headstart on him, standing tall above him while pointing his own gun to his head.

“Don’t… move… a muscle…”

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He did not look particularly stable. Just a push might be enough to topple him over. Haruto, however, was not going to risk a shot to the head. Not because he feared having to respawn again, but because he had noticed the timer in the corner of his eye. It was nearing zero. And that, by itself, had given him an interesting idea.

Closely behind them, there was the deafening screech of slowing tires over the earth, followed by heavy, looming footsteps.

“That’s my line.”

While he couldn’t properly turn around without riling up the wounded mob, he could tell Suzuka was standing right behind him, likely with one or two clumps of scorching flames ready to send out.

“... B-Back off!” he retorted. “I… I… Your drudge here will…!”

“Do it.” she challenged. “I’m sure my master can take it. He’s gone through much worse. Right, master?”

He couldn’t help but furrow a brow at that. It wasn’t like she was wrong, there, but still… He was absolutely sure she was grinning from ear to ear just saying that.

“Gee, thanks…”

The driver aimed his weapon at her, quite unconvincingly. He no longer had the will to fight at that point. Just a few feet from him, the shotgun guy took only a few more seconds to respawn. He glanced around, confused, and immediately went for the shotgun, but he wouldn’t have the time to get it in position.

Before the leader could react to his movement, he activated his crafting ability. From how close he was to the weapon, he could already hear the trigger from his pistol being pulled as time slowed down around him. But the shot wasn’t fired. The man simply remained there, completely frozen with a moronic expression plastered over his pudgy face.

Having barely managed to regenerate some bones, he pulled himself back to his feet. Staggering a few steps, he took a glance back. Suzuka was right there, both hands covered in flames, also with a dumb smirk on her face. It was pretty funny, even with the awful throbbing of his limbs numbing his mind.

There was a pop-up message.

‘No vehicle structure detected. Find new structure to alter.’

“...”

Unceremoniously dropping to his knees, he held a hand over the broken gauntlet on the floor, retrieving it to his item listing, and couldn’t help but to grin himself as another message popped up.

‘New structure detected. Type: Rare weapon. While it can be fixed, it is of no value for mobility. Are you sure you wish to fix this rare weapon?’

“Ahhh… Now, then…”

He exhaled weakly, oddly relieved, and prompted the system to show him the gauntlet’s structural plan. It was presented to him quite similarly to his old scrap-heap of a car, a somewhat simplistic 2D schematic of the glove. While he didn’t recognize the individual parts, he could tell there were several different pieces coming together to make it work, like a messy puzzle.

Thing was, he couldn’t fix it all at once. Only one component, which was fine. The left half of the ‘hand’ area was missing as a whole, fingers included, but the most important part out of said whole was the upper portion of the gauntlet around the user’s wrist, right at the very center of the black metal structure, which was where the golden arrow, also broken, was supposed to sit, and, at least from what had appeared to him, was also the same component required by the system to make the weapon recharge.

“Well, even if it isn’t, I’ll only need one shot to look convincing.”

While the arrow itself was broken, the rear-half of it was still attached to the gauntlet, and hopefully still sharp enough at the snapped tip to properly stab someone.

He selected the portion he needed, and started to retrieve the broken pieces on the floor, storing them all in the inventory along with the rest of the bike replacement parts that remained.

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