Skidding to a stop, the coffeehouse duo rotated their feet perpendicular to their path and the large group before them, effectively slamming on the brakes. Shelves lined the sides of the main pathway, serving as walls on their right side, and an expansive area of racks housing larger tools on the left. Fleeing to either side would likely be difficult, the visibility through the product holders would make them an easy target, and there was simply not a close entrance to the aisles. Roughly half of the gang members opposing them possessed handguns of similar shapes and sizes, while the others looked to be ready to engage in some sort of close quarters brawl with them. One of the latter didn't even possess an item of any sort, likely electing to fight with just his hands.
A stretch of roughly fifty meters separating the two parties wasn't nearly enough to stop Cipher from raising his designated marksman rifle to his right shoulder. The engagement range may have only been a sixth of what the firearm was intended for, but the black armament was his main weapon for a reason. Without giving much time for a preamble of any sort, his baby blue eyes stared down the scope shaped like a lowercase 'a' and squeezed the trigger not even a second later.
The expert marksman always had uncanny target acquisition, bred from all the time spent at target practice. There was no time to think and process, no time to consider who to shoot first. Things were about to get bloody and fast, he had to get off the opening shot or he may not have another chance with the short battlefield. His large caliber piece of brass buried itself into one of the gunmen's covered necks, dropping his body to the ground almost instantly. A small red puddle began to expand under the resting spot of his head, covering up some of the more aggressive scuff marks on the tile.
It was a shame that he couldn't spare a few seconds to admire the quick action shot this time, his legs already working to back him up from the rest of the seven still alive as he reanalyzed the scene once again. Maintaining the already short distance would be of utmost importance, the long rifle was already leaving the Wild Eye's deadeye at a disadvantage, and the opponents would no doubt be moving to close the gap. He could attempt to summon the silent pistol once again, but with the time requirements, that would be incredibly hard to pull off. Planting his feet a handful of meters away from his starting point, he raised up the designated marksman rifle, staring at the reticle. The barrel wavered as he tried to line up a second shot, this time much harder and much less fast than when first blood was drawn.
Seeing their comrade down and unable to get back up enraged the seven remaining Nihility members, already moving and ready to take action in the name of their fallen teammate. The three pistol grippers shifted to the left side, approaching Cipher much faster than he could backpedal while keeping his gun up. Taking a gamble with an unaimed shot, the stray round lodged itself into the ground near one of the four melee fighter's feet, making him bounce up on one foot away from the rather large hole.
Kanashima's bug making itself known as a real player in the fight, a small flicker of purple luminescence shimmered around his grey sneakers. The bright light highlighted the crucial misstep that came after, causing a loss of balance and the frightened Nihilty member to topple into his unarmed companion. The victim of circumstance landed hard on his back against the flooring, with the startled man landing on top of him in a rather provocative manner. If Haze was here, she would have a joke ready to fly off of her tongue at such a sight.
I need to hold out until Cipher finishes.
No matter how much she wanted to believe in her own abilities, at this point in time she had only managed to come out relatively unscathed from the past couple of skirmishes by the grace of sheer luck. The same way was the only reason why she could survive her trial, taking heavy amounts of injury back into New Bangkok. If she had real use of her left arm, maybe it would be easier. Now that the two uninhibited fighters were upon her, she brought up her knife, trying her best to mimic the stances of fighters she saw in her childhood stories.
The Loving Lullaby was really paying dividends for it being a stolen armament, holding up nicely in her reinforced grip to an initial strike from a much larger weapon. Mentally reaching out to the saxe knife again, Kanashima was able to reconstruct the same sensation she discovered during the police officer fight. The keen blade brimmed to life, glowing with an amaranthine luminosity matching the color of her eyes. Suddenly, the humming, almost vibrating weapon began to chew through the metal of the enemy's longsword, leaving behind wisps of purple along the laceration.
The swordsman was a few hundred milliseconds late on the upkeep. If he had noticed the cutting phenomenon earlier, he may have been able to salvage the first contact with his move. Jerking his arms back in a state of panic, something his seemingly overconfident target wasn't experiencing at this moment, he forced the rest of the steel onto the saxe knife and finished the cut. The gross amount of dynamic weight reduction that just occurred to his weapon was completely unexpected, resulting in a loss of balance and his half of the sword flinging him forward.
Her violet eyes tracked the arc of the broken blade, trying her best to avoid having yet another Nihility member fall on her, especially with something sharp and stabby this time. With full concentration, the only thing that managed to divert her gaze in the chaotic ordeal was the spark of light matching the color of her eyes in the corner of her peripheral vision. The sharp piece of tempered metal flipped in the air two and a half times, the point aimed directly at her shoe. A small note of concern settled in before the clarity permitted a rational thought to enter her brain.
Oh, that's right. The top is reinforced.
The head of the honed blade sank about two centimeters into her extended right foot, narrowly avoiding the protective piece of metal alloy positioned across the end of the boot. Somehow, it was purely a flesh wound, managing to avoid many surface blood vessels in her tiny foot. Despite the injury not being as serious as it could've been, it still hurt like crazy. Unfortunately, the surreal sense of clarity provided by Inverse Pressure didn't block out the sensations of pain, at least ones as intense as this. Then again, being painless wasn't exactly beneficial all the time, as she was rudely informed of by their captive.
Maybe it's better like this then- ow.
With the man still in the process of regaining his balance, his partner went in for a submission style move reminiscent of western wrestling. Approaching from behind whilst she was occupied by the blade, he stuck both of his arms under the padded shoulders. Thrusting the inner elbows of his arms into her armpits, the second person picked her up off of her feet, keeping her torso in the hold. No matter how much she kicked and grunted in pain, there was no wiggling out of the superior strength of the man.
Miraculously, the man with the broken sword managed to recover from his moment of unbalance, planting both feet on the ground wide for a sturdy base. As he was bringing his torso back to its upright position, Kanashima's wild kicking was getting dangerously close to his face. Dark brown eyes widened in fear, watching the severed, now serrated point of the other half of his sword coming at his face. She wasn't able to generate much force with her foot, but his eye didn't have much going for it in terms of resistance. A sharp corner of the destroyed weapon plunged into the left eyeball of the man. The person in control of her position ripped her backwards in a decision bred by panic, but it was too late. All it managed to accomplish was remove her foot, and the pointy half of the sword, out of the Nihility swordsman's head.
The blade easily slid out of the hole in the boots in flight, clattering to the gold colored tiling and leaving even more scratch marks. Whoever was going to have to wax and buffer the flooring of the building once this was all over would have to be paid overtime.
Oh my God, how did I do that?
"Be advised, Lady Kanashima. You're being aimed at. On your ten."
Wait, what?
One of the handgun-toting trio stopped in the middle of their positioning contest against her companion to ready his pistol, both of his arms extended fully and keeping the barrel steady. Keeping his gun trained on her position, he zeroed in on a non-lethal location of the human body. Given that he was a solid distance away, and she was currently incapacitated in the air, there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop this one. After managing to crane her head enough to stare at his hazel eyes, the visible fear in her eyes transformed into one of realization.
Inverse Pressure was a property of hers that, when she is under immense pressure, forces her mind to go blank, devoid of excess thought and unnecessary feelings and allowing her to focus on the problem at hand. Through the property, she ran through many possible ideas, not allowing emotions to affect the process in any way. Only one thing managed to come to mind throughout the brief moment she had, and it wasn't anything she could do. For the first time in about four years, Kanashima had to put trust in somebody else.
"Cipher! Eleven o clock!"
The first audible response that came was another loud crack of the heavy rifle roughly a second after her shout. The bullet blasted a giant hole into the skull of the man and completely destroyed the brain matter inside. From the extreme amount of force generated from the firearm, his body fell flat onto the ground, spitting grey sludge out of the wound. It was so gross, so upsetting to look at, and yet, she couldn't look away for a solid few seconds.
Luckily, the grappler she was still being held by was also distracted by the same thing, watching his companion die in such a grueling manner was almost enough to make him drop his hold. As his brown eyes continued to stare at the lifeless hazel of his comrade and friend, his grip wavered ever so slightly. His attention remained on the recently deceased Nihility member just slightly longer than Kansahima's. Once he finally came back to his senses and the fight, it was already too late for him.
Twisting the saxe knife into reverse grip, her knuckles turned white under the leather of her new gloves. Slamming the tip of the honed blade into the side of her assailant, the thin steel had no trouble slicing through the synthetic weave of the neck gaiter and sinking deep into the flesh. She had to apply a little bit more of her violet electrons into the Loving Lullaby for her to rip it out again, the same signature hum ringing in both of their ears. More ruby red liquid shot out of the horizontal stab wound, staining the floor even more.
Good shot, great shot even. I wonder if I could get that good?
Still in the arms of the dying bruiser, she wiggled out of the burly flesh restraints and dropped onto the floor again, landing on her feet. More sharp pains shot through her right leg, no doubt stemming from the nasty gravity wound from earlier. She stumbled a little bit in place, but overall managed to hold her position. The corpse behind her wasn't so lucky, the entire body collapsing onto the floor, landing with a solid thud.
Rapid footsteps clopped loudly against the flooring, not giving Kanashima a single moment of respite. The two guys finally managed to recover after their untimely collision and tangled feet, and now they were sprinting at her with a promise of pain and subjugation. Only having enough time for a glance to check in with her partner, the two much more intimidating melee fighters closed the gap. The unarmed one's eyes glinted orange, a faint swirl of matching color swirling around his tan fists.
Shit, his Intrinsic? What is it… is it a combat one?
Getting hit by that menacing energy was something Kanashima absolutely did not want to figure out the consequences for, but she feared she would not have a choice in the matter. Her underarms ached and the hole in the top of her foot stung like a giant fire ant crawled into the wound and bit some more. Despite everything her malnourished, frail body was going through, she'd have to manage somehow. After all, she survived and escaped perilous situations before and honestly, she was happy that it wasn't a restraining intrinsic this time.
Whatever his intrinsic is, gotta figure it out.