Kane shoved Zoe aside, taking the next hit himself. The sharp metal projectile bit deep into his shoulder, and he grunted softly. It was rough. Most guns, and most bullets, weren't made with stopping power like that. It was easily going fast enough to pierce him, but it stayed lodged inside, obviously spitting something into his system.
Kane spit on the ground, the liquid a bit darker than it should have been.
Electromagnetic poisoning. Made for guardians.
So it was them.
Not many people, even in the associate families, knew about them. Anarchist idealists who opposed slavery in every form, and believed the institution of guardians went against that, they took every opportunity to attack members of the associate families, harrying them as much as they could. These self-named "freedom fighters" often came from a distantly connected bloodline, one who didn't have enough of a chance to have the power that high-ranking members did. So they betrayed the associate families and searched for a way to punish them.
However, doing what would be most harmful, namely, outing the associate families and/or members of them to the general public, was far too much trouble for what it was worth. It didn't work in any meaningful way anyway. Anyone who tried was just another voice screaming into the maelstrom, and they would quickly get hunted down and silenced. Or, worse, brought to the Lenox estate.
Kane wouldn't wish that on anyone. Experiments, the like of which only Lenoxes could perform with any level of sanity intact. Unmeasured and unmatched cruelty, along with a desire to learn so intense that it was simply unnatural. And after Lenox, they might even be sent somewhere worse.
Somewhere where light didn't dare to shine, where shadows thrived and the sun dimmed its rays, as sheepish as a schoolgirl. The moon was the brightest source of illumination, and Kane had had to carry a miniature candle for his lamp, so that he could see what was happening while he lit it. That was in the first few years. He had adjusted eventually.
Sure, it was technically a second chance, but he had murdered enough people in the deep, dark halls of that obsidian manor that he knew their odds of making it through the gate with their body intact weren't large, and after that their fate was sealed.
If they went there, they were told that if they won three fights, they would be able to leave. That way there was some margin of error, and the victims were a bit more relaxed. After all, if they were told outright that they would go free along with a generous financial gain, which was the offering for winning three times, from just winning a single fight, defeating a single opponent.
But Kane hadn't lost a single time. Ever. Most people didn't.
It was theoretically for giving their apprentices training against commoners, people who barely ever knew anything really about martial arts. And it worked in that aspect. But it was like a capital punishment penitentiary as much as it was training.
The thing was, some people toed a thin line. They had a tenuous peace with the associate families, the heads of which acquiesced to ignore them so long as they didn't do too much. The associate families were beginning to cut majorly into their corporate funds, so they had been pushing the mercenary business even harder than usual. That meant less time to worry about small fry and more to be nervous about larger fish.
So, as long as they didn't speak out about the associate families, they were allowed back into normal society, and sometimes even occasionally attacking a guardian or their master was on the table.
That happened quite often. But this manufacturing was a little different. A gun powerful enough to pierce more than halfway straight through his shoulder? That wasn't a normal gun, and it wasn't a normal bullet.
And that wasn't even considering the toxin that it had injected into him.
It was obviously custom. That much could be seen from the bullet alone, and as for the launch power, paired with such a preserved impact force, it became even more obvious.
But whose was it?
Kane looked up at the figure atop a nearby building. He turned and ran.
That was probably a good idea