Chapter 37: Boss Fight

The arena devolved into a frenzy, the audience thinking that the ensuing fight was part of the show. The fence surrounding the ring shook violently, the crowd cheering on the Ilysian Punk Guards and Sasha. Everyone was here to see blood.

Sasha deftly avoided the first lunge, parrying with her arm and twisting her body to deliver an elbow strike right into the first Punk’s head. An arctech aura burst out from her right hand, increasing the force of the strike and snapping his neck instantly, killing him.

The other two guards fared no better, being eliminated with precision punches all aimed at their heads. Makoa’s eyes squinted, before motioning for more guards to attack her. Who is this girl? Did the Wretches finally send one of their famed assassins?

However, Makoa noted that the fight was not just happening in the ring, but on the exits as well, with random audience members fighting against the Ilysian Punk guards. The audience members were well equipped – arctech equipment hidden underneath their clothes augmenting their strength and skills.

Makoa quickly grabbed an arctech radio handed over by a servant, barking into it: “Observers, where the fuck are the Seven Snakes now!?”

[Boss, we’ve spotted Damian at the food market, and Kyle was last seen eight hours ago coming out of the factory, but he headed into one of their dummy bases.]

Then who the hell is attacking us now?! “What are you idiots doing? Swarm them now!” Makoa roared, spurring the remaining Ilysian Guards to move down to apprehend Sasha. He also began to leave the VIP section, heading towards the armoury to gear up.

Sasha exhaled slowly, having defeated the three guards. She could already see the rest of her strike team stirring up a fight amongst the crowd against the other Ilysian Punks. Glancing up again at the VIP section, she noticed that Makoa was now missing. [Sir, target on the move.]

[Priority is to rescue Keith. Most likely Makoa will protect Keith.] Kyle replied over the wireless communication engraving.

Sasha nodded to herself, noticing two more Ilysian Punks geared with basic armour and swords, charging towards her. She nimbly avoided the first swing, pushing out with her palm against the lower chin of the first Punk, slamming his jaw into his skull and sending him spiralling onto the ground.

A sword swing swiped across her head as she instinctively ducked and spun around in a crouching position, delivering a strong kick to the shin and cracking the bone within. The second Punk screamed out in pain before Sasha recovered to a standing position and elbowed the Punk right in the face, causing him to stagger back and drop his sword.

Sasha picked up the sword and immediately slashed his neck before moving towards the fighters’ entrance, entering the hallways. As she turned a corner, an Ilysian Punk ambushed her, throwing a punch that shot straight at her face, but she spiralled to the side before slashing off the arm in one fell swoop, followed by a forward stab into the Punk’s neck.nove(l)bi(n.)com

“Who the fuck are you!” One of the Ilysian Punks yelled out from across the hallway, armed with a repeating crossbow aimed at her. He fired off two shots in succession, but Sasha simply used one hand to lift the dead body of the Ilysian Punk she just killed, using him as a pincushion as she charged forward.

Before the crossbow user could retreat, Sasha used all her strength to fling the dead body at him, slamming into him and causing him to fall over onto the floor.

In a blink, Sasha was already on top of him, stabbing downwards into his vitals in rapid fashion. She grabbed the repeating crossbow and the pack of bolts, running down the hallway and checking for Keith.

Sasha assumed that the holding cells were located below, so she took the first staircase she found that led downwards. However, as she stepped off the first flight of steps, a resounding crack echoed through the entire stairwell, causing the concrete below her to collapse.

The fall had her crash into a pile of rubble below as the soot and dust kicked up all over the base floor, obscuring her vision. Sasha quickly recovered, instinctively blocking a metallic fist aimed straight at her torso with her sword, which broke in half from the sheer strength.

Another metallic fist came swooping in fast, nailing Sasha right in the exposed ribs and sending her flying into the wall with a loud thud, her bones fracturing internally as her body slumped to the ground.

“For an assassin, you’re doing a piss poor job. Seven Snakes did not pay you enough to afford arctech equipment?” Makoa grinned as he moved towards Sasha. Arcia engravings on the surface of his two metallic gauntlets glowed purple and churned as the arcite fuel pack strapped to his belt gurgled away, feeding the gauntlets through pipes.

Makoa could tell that Sasha had no obvious arctech equipment on her save for the stolen crossbow, which made him let his guard down. However, a sudden green aura surged from the base of her spine, healing her bones and damaged muscles at a visible rate. Makoa quickly lunged to attack, but Sasha was already anticipating it, diving out of the way and performing a rolling recovery into a fighting posture.

“What the...?” Makoa was confused, but he was not given the time to comprehend what had happened, Sasha immediately firing off the remainder of the crossbow bolts before tossing it away and charging with two knives previously hidden in her clothes. Makoa raised his gauntlets in a defensive posture to block the bolts, one of it which lodged into his thigh.

Sasha tried to dash in close to stab Makoa, but a single swing of the gauntlets forced Sasha to back away lest she got slammed into the wall again. While she had an healing engraving on her back, it took arcia energy to activate it – using too much would cause her stamina to plummet.

[System Message]

Killed [Ilysian Punk Guard Captain], +400 EXP

Makoa was shocked. A pistol? No, a musket. Or a cannon. But from where?!

He patted his belt, checking and making sure it was still working. Grabbing Keith’s body, he held him as a hostage, stepping out of the wagon slowly. “I DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, BUT IF YOU TRY ANYTHING I’LL SNAP HIS NECK!” Makoa roared out into the open, his eyes frantically darting around trying to find the shooter.

No one replied, which gave Makoa even more confidence as he started to retreat into the alleyway. This way, he only has one angle to shoot me. However, before he could step back, a loud bang had a spiralling metallic ball projectile the size of a marble slammed into Makoa.

His belt activated, a personal energy shield suddenly protecting him.

However, the force sent Makoa stumbling backwards, causing him to drop Keith onto the floor with a thud. As he staggered back, two more shots were fired at him, depleting the energy shield and knocking him back even further. The belt vibrated violently, the shield flickering. Makoa’s eyes widened as he realized his shield was about to dissipate.

Fuck the hostage, I have to survive myself!

He quickly sprinted down the alleyway and disappeared, leaving Keith on the floor. Soon, the sniper revealed himself to be Kyle, walking up to the unconscious body of Keith and checking his pulse. Kyle noticed the numerous slash marks on Keith’s face, hands and legs, whipped till the skin was raw.

He glanced down the alleyway, noticing he would not be able to catch up with Makoa. The energy shield... Yet another heritage from the Galactic Era. It seems Versia is where I should be finding my answers.

[Sasha, I have Keith on me.]

Back in the collapsed stairwell, the two Ilysian Punks ordered by Makoa to clear out the base watched the raging fire. “Makoa said not to let anyone through the fire, but how is anyone going to clear this?”

Just as he finished the sentence, a human figure suddenly leapt through the fire, slamming straight into one of the punks. “GAH!” The punk gasped as he was knocked onto the floor. Before the other punk could react, a glowing right fist was already in front of his face, pummeling him right into his nose bridge with a followup uppercut, dealing a severe concussion.

The first punk struggled to see who attacked him, only to see a lady with her clothes half burnt, along with burn marks across her face healing at a visible rate. Her skin was already cauterized by the severe burns, the gaps revealing the bloodied throbbing flesh beneath. “Mon-mon-monster!“

Sasha walked up to kick his head with as much force as possible, snapping the neck in a single instant. [Do we retreat now?] Sasha replied on the wireless channel mentally, using the effects of the Designate Follower skill engraved onto the back of her neck.

[No. Kill everyone. Not a single Ilysian Punk gets out alive.]