"Anti-piercing ammo isn't cheap."
"Fair."
The force field flickered back online. Shun frowned. A bug? He decided not to overthink it and kept eating.
The ground kept shaking with explosions behind the dome.
"Aren't they having too much fun? It's only six gunkies."
"Latest magiteck can push gunkies to Shepherd level. Makes sense they're struggling."
Shun grunted. With demons growing bolder and hunter numbers dropping, corporations were pouring money into magiteck implants so ordinary humans could fight too. Of course those same tools ended up in the wrong hands.
"You've got no augments at all," the vendor noted, eyeing Shun's plain arms.
"You only noticed now, Uncle? I buy ice cream here every single day."
The vendor snorted. "I only remember the weird ones who refuse upgrades. Especially the scholarship kid in the fancy uniform who's clearly not rich."
They were still chatting when Shun spotted a small girl trapped inside the force field, far from the fight but still in danger.
"Poor kid," the vendor muttered.
"No one's going to help her?"
"Deactivate those drones and you're looking at terrorism charges. Public safety law."
Shun nodded. People outside the dome watched with pity, some already recording for views.
"Ghost you, Uncle."
"Thanks for the business."
As he slipped into a quiet alleyway, white particles gathered in his palm and formed a white porcelain mask decorated with blue vine-like patterns. He slipped it on, then pulled a red cloak around himself before leaving the backstreet.
Beyond the mask, Shun sighed inwardly.
I really need to stop doing this.
He materialized a tiny drone, plugged it into the nearest barrier drone, and typed at blinding speed. Holographic screens flashed. Seconds later the adult-sized force field flickered and died.
The little girl's eyes lit up. "Thank you, mister!"
She started to run—then an earthen tentacle shot up and coiled around her ankle, flipping her upside down.
"Mister!" she screamed, reaching for him.
Shun stepped inside the dome, white particles forming a curved blue sword in his hand.
"Coming."
In a blur he sliced the tentacle clean through. It crumbled to dust. He caught the girl, slung her over his shoulder—she was shockingly light—and sprinted for the exit.
The ground erupted again, blocking the way.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave the party," a deep voice growled.
Shun turned. The three hunters glared at him, fangs bared. Behind them the surviving gunkies held a strange glowing cube that pulsed with sound waves.
"Look, I don't want trouble. I just want to get this girl out."
One gunky laughed maniacally. "Jackpot! It's Neo!"
His comrades looked confused.
"Who?"
"You idiots never read the underground reports? That's the cold-blooded mercenary they call the Maestro of Magiteck. Supposedly he can kill Shepherds. Machno himself put a massive bounty on his head."
Neo—Shun's codename—tilted his masked head. "Big fan, huh?"
"Fan? Please. I know it's all hype. Shepherd killer? Yeah, right."
"You could ask Machno themselves," Shun said.
The gunky holding the cube smirked. "Oh, I can skip that part."
He raised the cube. Purple light flared. The three hunters' eyes turned blood-red. They attacked at once—earth, fire, and razor-sharp paper blades.
Shun calmly set the girl behind a small metal cube he'd thrown down. Translucent barriers snapped into place around her.
"Maximum output: 100%."
[Succeed.]
He vanished.
The earth spike slammed into the barrier. It flickered but held. Shun reappeared directly in front of the cube-holder, hand clamping around the man's throat like a vice.
The man gasped. "Let… me… go…"
"What a waste of a life," Shun said softly. "Death will be a mercy."
Their gaze locked. Memories flooded into his mind—every rape, every murder, every scream the man had caused. Shun watched them like a movie, detached.
[Memories successfully converted to STR and SPD.]
The man went limp. Shun snatched the cube and tossed the body aside.
The remaining gunkies panicked and opened fire. Bullets and projectiles froze mid-air two meters from Shun, then dropped harmlessly.
"A psychic magiteck?!" one screamed. He smashed a small hoop on the ground; it expanded into a portal.
Before he could interfere, the paper-blade user blurred in front of Shun, surrounding him with lethal blades.
Shun clicked his tongue.
"Release."
[Succeed.]
Blue translucent energy cloaked his body. For the next three minutes he stood at the absolute peak of Shepherd stage.
The paper blades slowed to a crawl. He slapped them away in a blur of sparks, then appeared behind the user and drove the hilt of his sword into the back of the man's neck.
"One."
He turned to the earth bender. The flame hunter above him unleashed fiery tornadoes while the earth bender hurled spinning red-hot spikes.
Shun carved through the spikes like paper, leaned and twisted through the storm, and closed the distance in a single leap. His hilt cracked the earth bender's jaw.
"Two."
He vanished again and reappeared in front of the flame hunter, hand locking around the burning throat.
"Surprised? New toy I made. Heat-proof skin."
He dragged the man down from the sky, punching him repeatedly in the head.
"Sleep. Go to sleep."
The hunter's flames flared hotter—still useless. Shun smirked, then slammed a final punch into the man's cheek. Eyes rolling back, the hunter plummeted fifty meters and hit the ground with a sickening thud.
Shun landed beside him, scooped up the little girl, and vanished from the scene.
After he made sure to erase any possible trace, Shun finally let the desolate stretch of land swallow them.
Patches of dry grass rolled out under a bruised sky, broken only by a wide lake whose surface caught the last of the dying light in silver shards.
No drones. No sirens. Just the distant growl of traffic and the occasional rustle of rats in the underbrush.
He dropped to one knee so the girl could slide off his back. The moment her feet touched the ground, the blue energy of [Exceed] flickered and died.
The backlash hit like a hammer to the skull. His vision tunneled, knees buckled, and he barely caught himself before face-planting into the dirt.
The little girl stumbled a step away, then froze. She was shaking so hard her teeth clicked together.
Not from the cold—from everything she'd just seen. The tentacle around her ankle. The paper blades. The three grown men crumpling like paper dolls under his hands.