I didn't move all that fast, but it still took both Fay and Madam a moment to catch up with me.
"Do you even know what you are doing?!" Madam shouted out after me, rushing forward to stop me before it would be too late.
"There's no need for you to get all this blood on your hands!" Fay protested from the other side, catching up just a moment sooner than her mother and reaching out to grab my arm.
I didn't escape with my hand but opted not to stop either. In fact, I hardly even bothered with Fay for the moment, busy throwing the neugarand over my back while nestling the much simpler weapon in my hold.
This was the one piece of equipment even Makary was reluctant to sell. Only after promising him with all my secrets on the line that I would use it anywhere in the city and raising the price for this particular piece did I get him to loan it to me.
Because even when compared with the long-range assault rifle and the smaller, rapid-fire p90-based weapon...
It was the shotgun that was both the most crude and, at the same time, the most sophisticated device out of all three I bought.
In theory, its launching mechanism was simple, consisting of a short rail for magnetic drive and then a complicated mechanism covering the front half of the barrel. The muzzle of the shotgun was nearly thrice as wide as its main body, finished with a complex set of flash-breakers and recoil-dampeners.
It wasn't the gun itself, though, that was the absolute peak of the engineering.
This spot belonged to the bullets, consisting of three different elements and turning this relatively simple weapon when compared to the others of its kind into a devious machine of technological destruction.
'Even though I've only got a few words of explanation on how it works, it is hella brutal...'
I shook my head before finally allowing Fay's hands to put my march to a stop.
I expected this development. I've even called it out back when talking with Madam! And yet, when the moment came...
'No fucking way!'
Feeling the pressure only intensify as the ground started to shake under my feet, I gritted my teeth... And broke past the aura that assaulted me, turning the gun and pointing it toward the source of the tremors.
"Buy me just a few seconds..." I muttered through my gritted teeth, keeping my finger far from the trigger. Keeping it on the trigger would be no different from asking for a disaster, given how this potential enemy could make my body move against my will.
"Karlan, stand down~!"
Madam's voice echoed through the entire forest... slightly... vibrant.
As if someone recorded her line, copied it, slightly adjusted the tone of the copies, and then mixed all the different voices together.
And for but a moment, the tremors stopped and the pressure lifted.
"Before we fight, I only want to ask one question," I called out loud in the general direction of the threat.
Then, I pulled my shottie forward... only to turn along with my entire body and point it sideways, away from the threat while grinding my feet down into the soft ground to reinforce my position.
"Do you want me to use those weapons on you," I squinted my eyes, "or the humans that are coming to attack?"
Right as my words voiced out, I braced myself... and pulled the trigger, causing the weapon in my hands to explode and spit vicious fire in a wide cone starting at the end of its barrel.