Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Reality Check

Before I left the steamgun shop, the old man told me about an eccentric armor tailor that has a business set up just a block over, and that if I told them the Gun Nut on Brick Alley sent me, I'd get a discount. If this tailor is eccentric, what does that make the old man? But well, I didn't have much money left anyway. I'll visit eventually, armor was just as important as weapons.

For now, it was time to head to the abandoned warehouse on Northside. I walked through the streets, steamgun at my waist under the cloak. Slum dwellers were hanging around on the streets now, so I couldn't completely avoid being watched. And as I got closer to the outskirts, a group of three young adults blocked my path.

Licht: They look about as old as me. Maybe a bit younger, 20ish? Not very well equipped, but you don't need to be when you're ambushing a normal, lone young girl. Normal, that is.

He's right, they're underequipped to deal with me. I slipped my hand into the cloak slowly and took a step back. The three looked at each other with a smirk and the one in the middle scoffed as he sneered at me.

Man 1: "Kid, we ain't gonna hurt ya. Just hand over the bag and we'll be on our way~"

Man 2: "yeh yeh, just 'and it over and be a good boy."

I sighed. What a typical development. Just a trio of random muggers with no particular power. It's a shame I couldn't see their statuses for myself. But I shouldn't get cocky. They're adults and I still haven't done enough training. Let's act it out. I grabbed the bag and started trembling, holding it out with one hand.

Iris: "y-you really wont hurt me...? Just take it, please..."

Man 1: "yeah, we wont hurt ya at all. Just..."

The man in the middle casually strolled closer. Closer... Just another step.

Man 1: "We may be a bit 'rough'~" 

He said, leaning in close. That was the last step as I stopped trembling and strengthened my arms with magic, swinging out from under my cloak and piercing the man's neck with my dagger. With surprise on his face, he gurgled and slumped down as I took the knife and threw it at the second man who still wasn't aware of the situation. It hit his thigh, a poor throw, and he started screaming in pain. The third man who had been sneering at me until now gave an expression of bewilderment and rage.

Man 3: "Y-Y-Y-YOU BAAASTAAAARD!"

He started to charge me with a tackle stance, but i drew my gun faster and shot him in the head twice.

PCH PCH

Both rounds landed square, and the second man now looked scared for his life. How pitiable. They chose the wrong targets today. I turned my gun towards him and he squealed, trying to scramble away.

PCH

With one last shot, the three were now dead, and my front was soaked in blood. I sighed.

Iris: "aa-aaaah~, now I'll be late to the rendezvous."

I had to wash off the blood, otherwise it'll be troublesome. Maybe I could use a spell for it. As I was thinking of that and collecting my things, Everything suddenly started moving much faster than it should be, and my body hit a wall, knocking the air out of me. My side hurt like I was just hit by a truck.

Iris: What the hell? what happened? I was flung into a wall? By what?

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As I was trying to climb up onto my feet, I hacked up some blood and looked towards where I was a moment ago. There stood this hulking humanoid figure, twice the size of one of the men I had just killed. It's torso was a dark red and looked like a man's, but without skin, only showing the dense, thick, steel-like mass of muscles that make up the torso. Its legs were like a goat's, massive and hairy ending in steel hoofs. Then the arms, They looked like a crab's with dark red chitin and ended in a big, solid chitin sphere in each hand. And the head... Wasn't there. Or rather, I couldn't see it, because where the head should have been was instead a flush, dark red chitin dome with a seam in the middle. And just then, the dome opened up and out came something like the head of a slug, oozing out like slime as it peered about with it's singular, massive yellow eye, and as it spotted me, it quickly retracted into the dome and shut, starting to slowly lumber toward me.

I scrambled to my feet, breathing heavily. I raised my gun while backing away and shot three times, PCHPCHPCH. To no avail, as my shots bounced off the hard torso, the abomination continuing to approach without even flinching.

Iris: What hubris. I thought I was strong just because i could kill a person or two, but people were weak. Weak in the face of creatures like this, that shrug off bullets like the wind. Is-

My nihilism was cut short by Licht cutting through my thoughts like butter. He took control of my body and took out my dagger. No, it was our body. The creature raised its chitin hammer and I held the dagger in reverse grip, ducking between the legs of the beast and cutting it's leg with the blade, as where I stood got utterly pulverized.

Licht: Iris, now isn't the time to beat yourself down. We have to struggle. Or we die.

Licht's tone was cold and stern but I was given back the controls. He was right, I needed to focus. The beast was extremely sluggish as it pulled out its hammer and turned slowly towards me.

Iris: But how do we kill it? The gun didn't even scratch the chest.

Licht: Simple. We lure the eye out. You noticed now that you think about it, didn't you? What happened at the beginning.

The beast was beginning to stride closer, like a tank advancing down a cramped road. Licht was right, his thoughts reminded me. The eye slipped out at the start as if it was looking for me. So it's senses must me poor, and if I can confuse it, I can lure its eye out and attack as it's looking for me.

The beast got close enough and swung its hammer fist down, pulverizing where I stood as I lept back and threw my bag at the wall, and it made a loud THUMP sound as I crouched low. The monster turned and dug out the hammer fist before stepping over and thrusting the sphere into the wall, scattering debris all over. There were several craters in this alleyway now, and the monster stood entirely still for a couple moments. Then the dome opened and the slimy eye stock slowly crept out and looked around, first at the wall, then floor, and finally in my direction as it saw my knife thrusting into the stalk. I had robbed it of its vision and green liquid violently spurted out of the wound as I held onto the opened dome, the beast started thrashing about it pain as an unholy SSSKKKKRRAAAAAAAH spilled out from inside the dome. The creature was not dead yet, as it shoulder checked the wall with me on the shoulder, and the air in my lungs was yet again emptied. I almost let go, but held on for dear life, and sucking in a deep breath, i screamed out and covered my hand in mana, thrusting it into the dome and grabbing the stalk, digging my nails in and TEARING the eye out, RIPPING apart its insides as green blood sprayed out.

Iris: "JUST-! DIE-! ALREADY---!"

The eyestalk was now completely torn free, ripped out of the dome as the beast slowly dropped to its knees and fell to the ground. I breathed heavily and raggedly, green blood splattered all over me and red blood trickling from my mouth. Every single thing in my body hurt. My consciousness was dark. The last thing I saw before blacking out was my status.

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Iris - Age 13 - Female - Level 8

Body - Sp: 03/100 (^10) MP 20/94 (^8) Broken Ribs ×3, Punctured Lung (minor), Bruises, Dust Poisoned

Stats - Str: 11 (^2), Dex: 13, Agi: 13 (^1), End 9 (^2), Int: 20(^1) Luk: -

Skills - Parallel Thought {1}, Sword skill {1}, Gunsmithing {1}, Mental Resistance {3}, Disease Resistance {1}, Mana Control {2} (^1), Dagger Skill {1} [NEW], Physical Up {1} [NEW]

Capability: 70 (94 with PU)

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