Chapter 12: Captured
The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the scarcely populated area of the zone that bordered the Outskirts.
Gregory's bullet dashed through the air as it formed an arc as it changed direction to plant itself into the nearby stalker.
Homing bullet-!?
Jacob thought as he parried it using the rifle, his momentum was halted as he dropped down to ground and prepared himself to shoot.
"Buddy, go and catch him."
He muttered with a distorted voice to the six-eyed creature behind him, the creature was jolted awake from the call and quickly moved to fulfill its order.
Gregory saw the creature and emptied around ten bullets to slow it down as he slid backwards evading the throwing knives from the Dewland twins.
"Woah! That was some crazy firepower!"
Vindell exclaimed before letting out a little laugh, his left eye obscured behind the black monocle glowed slightly as he focused on Gregory's figure.
On his hand were multiple gold coins that he threw up into the air letting it flip around, using the gesture of the finger gun, he quickly pointed at Gregory and commanded.
"Blast."
The coins suddenly brightened up as electricity began to dance around the golden surface as it suddenly sped up toward Gregory like a missile.
Tch.
Gregory clicked his tongue as he dodged the coins barrage with inhuman precision, each of the coins embedded deep into the asphalt road, he pulled the trigger on his gun once again as he managed to graze Philipe's cheek that managed to get close to him.
Light orange hair is on my right, the darker one is behind me, the white hair is in the upper right corner there, the masked one is forward and the last one is further back…
He noted all of their positions, his gun had reloaded itself as he released his grip from the gun and ducked. The gun fell and spun forward as it was falling, the gun's muzzle was pointed directly at Arceon's chest.
The six-eyed creature's punch missed the mark as the rune grafted into the trigger on Gregory's gun was activated.
"Fuck-!"
Arceon cried out in pain as the bullet pierced the backside of his right ribs into the lungs.
Durable. Can regenerate. Annoying.
He thought as he slid away from being surrounded as he emptied another magazine on the six-eyed creature and began to imprint yet another rune onto the last poker card.
The card burned away and suddenly a deafening noise permeated the air as heavy footsteps were heard approaching.
Unfortunately, I could only call a rather weak one to come here.
He sensed the massive figure that approached behind him, despite what he said about it being a weakling, his current state wasn't anything special either.
Though, something seemed to be wrong as the footsteps stopped after a sound of a single silenced gunfire was heard for nothing more than a fraction of a second.
I see.
He let out a sigh, his gaze landed on the figure that launched that shot and landed on a masked figure that struggled to grasp his slippery rifle.
I'm outclassed.
After all, he could sense that the thing that he called for had already been turned into nothing more than a meat paste.
Well, that would be the case if he could still shoot but as I can see, he's struggling.
He lifted his gun and fired at the rifle to knock it away.
I've only used 29 bullets.
The big man back there hasn't made any significant move.
They hadn't yet gotten serious.
Gregory lifted the gun and pointed it towards them again.
"Buddy, come back."
Jacob commanded, his gaze locked onto Gregory's composed figure, he left his slippery rifle on the ground as it slowly slid away from being pushed.
This guy's good, nice instinct and tricks, but it seems he is running out of ammunition, huh?
He thought as his eyes drifted away towards his nearest ally, Vindell, who remained steady as he seemed to be playing around with his remaining coins.
"Hey, why aren't you attacking our target?" Arceon asked with evident hostility as he stared at the carefree Vindell.
Despite being injured, he still had the energy for an argument inside him, it's not like he wasn't someone that recovered at a rapid pace as he's pretty much almost completely healthy.
Vindell's gaze locked onto him as he replied with a mischievous smile, "I mean, it's not that easy to find gold coins in the wild anymore you know? It's not like we still produced them."
Philipe stared at Gregory with intense emotions, he had already launched a barrage of slashes at him, not only that he also started with throwing knives.
All of that.
Yet he couldn't even touch him.
This guy is one of the trickiest fighters I've ever met, we couldn't just attack him casually, not only are his mysterious powers rather disorienting but he's extremely intelligent too.
Annoying fucker.
He tightened his grip towards his dagger as he parried an oncoming bullet and threw his short sword like a javelin, and as a follow up attack he also threw a black-colored axe.
As expected, he dodged them.
Gregory stood unharmed, his handgun calmly pointed towards their general direction, his cold gaze locked onto their figures, the short sword planted deep into the wall of a building behind him and the black axe stuck in the ground beside him.
"What an impressive display of spatial awareness."
Philipe clapped in amusement, a faint smile tugged on the edge of his lips as he complimented Gregory.
"Release."
He commanded with a distorted voice towards the axe.
The blackness of the axe spread out into the ground and materialized into tendrils that clung onto Gregory's limbs to limit his movements.
Ah, I didn't think it was a special weapon.
Gregory thought with a faint smile as his sense locked onto the furthest figure that he could sense.
Just like how they couldn't sense and counter my Magic, I couldn't seem to do the same for EGO and the like.
His mind raced to find a method of escape.
It's a shame.
I don't think I have any sacrifice to use for Substitution Magic to ignore the current restrictions…
Hm, wait, could I have just used bullets? I guess that's possible, but I don't expect Substitution Magic to be cheap.
He was faced with a dilemma.
Am I willing to sacrifice potentially all of my bullets aka lose a means of self-defense in case the Magic fails to work?
I don't have a choice.
"Has it been stabilized?"
Vindell asked the struggling Jacob who had finally managed to wield his rifle again with the assistance of Vindell's EGO that formed the support structure while materializing as the scope.
"Why do we need to shoot him with the tranquilizer? I mean, me and my brother can inject him directly, he's currently restrained after all."
Arceon spoke, curious and confident.
"He's smart, and we don't know shit about his mysterious tricks, better be safe than sorry, am I right?"
Vindell explained as he drifted his gaze towards Arceon.
"I guess so."
Arceon replied.
Is it just me or is this guy's shadow getting longer or bigger?
Jacob thought, due to the ridiculousness of the topic he kept it to himself.
When Gregory's shadow head reached past the group of Jacob, Vindell, and the Dewland twins. Suddenly, a humanoid figure materialized from the shadow.
The figure restrained by the axe's darkness melts into a flat shadow on the ground.
The newly materialized figure was none other than the real Gregory, he had just performed shadow substitution.
I don't have bullets now.
Welp, my magic has no capacity to be lethal with the restrictions.
This will be just my meaningless resistance, a last stand per say.
He already sensed that his attempts didn't go unnoticed nor truly ignored.
Jacob noticed but chose ignorance but not him, Gray Bondeal.
The technology user, eh?
Gregory's gaze landed on Gray's face before being obstructed by the rising ground.
"This was rather fun."
He muttered, voice almost inaudible.
Gray had kneeled down to hack into the ground and was able to control the street, he caused the whole street to shake violently as the ground was raised to capture Gregory in his inescapable grasp.
"Mission accomplished."
Jacob muttered as he pulled the trigger and shot the tranquilizer into Gregory's body.
"Space Displacement Cube, get it ready, set the location to V-002's Laophonen Corporation Research Facility."
Gray commanded Vindell, the one who held all the items given by the corporation on him at all times.
"Aye aye, Captain."
Vindell replied jokingly.
They began moving the unconscious Gregory to the Research Facility to fulfill their contract.
To be continued…