Elizabeth and Evelyn analysed the situation and surrounding. Currently they were moving inside one big wasteland of scraps at western outskirt of aston city.
It was named wasteland because all the litter and wastage of city were thrown around here, Making this place hard to be hospitable with foul smell and disgusting view. There were multiple warehouses, To weed out the possible recyclable items out of this dump, and to exterminate the trash by various methods.
But by the foetid stench itself one could guess, nobody bothered with this place. It was government authorised facility that shut down when worker refused to work, while propaganda displayed as it was too unhygienic to work but real issue was money.
By the luck this illegal organisation had set this abandoned place as their operation of base, Controling various branches here and there.
While mountain of dump obscured the vision literally and metaphorically- Their base laid exact at centre of mountain of dump and unhealthy peaks of mountain range hid it perfectly- They experimented on humans, asuras and monsters alike and didn't bother to care for life, that was evil and illegal.
Their base was large, Large enough as small town but there was nothing but broken half warehouses here.
" It's getting difficult." Said Elizabeth, casually sitting on blood stained box with straight thin sword in her hand. Her sword as well as her clothes were stained red though she didn't look concerned.
" Yes, We crossed around 2 miles towards the centre, Enemies barely possess rank green and cyan but their numbers seem to have no end. Good thing most of them are only second rate warriors." Elizabeth nodded to her words, it was true that they had advantage of rank but facing so many at once was not pragmatic. But they didn't knew extent of this organisation's power as well, that's why they were here, to investigate.
" Another few miles to center but I highly doubt, it'll be as easy as before." Said Evelyn as she cleaned her own straight sword.
What she described was in no way easy but Elizabeth couldn't agree more. Situation so far was under control and that was both good and unnerving.
" Let's not waste anymore time, night's approaching. That should give us another advantage." Elizabeth looked at her dress, feeling pity but then she was concerned no more.
Evelyn rolled her eyes as to what that expression meant, She observed her with curiosity but she as well put it aside, coming in zone to surrounding. They started walking to their goal.
They were walking between corpses as they left the warehouse yet didn't look much troubled by it, not even by rubbles and mismatched structural changes that was done so after unleashing their power. They walked, Each step like a walk in park as they jumped around and above bodies, stones and rubbles.
Their expression no longer showed much change afterwards, even when more numbers of enemies presented themselves with more dangerous weapons.even when they were surrounded by armed men.
" They have MR3, MR5 and even some MR6, Sniper too who can hide his presence and we don't know his weapon but you can bet it doesn't favour us." Said Elizabeth with little concern.
MR series were Rifles, but unlike normal this weapons were made to be enhanced by mana. Every bullet shot had power to penetrate cyan rank's defence with ease, But every bullet shot also rapidly depleted users mana. That was true for all artifacts, weapons or items that was made with and was intended to be used with mana.
" So what?"
Evelyn could agree, Their weapons did change how they needed to approach this fight but in grand scheme, it changed nothing. They still needed to fight and win.
And before they could rest more, replenish what little amount of mana they'd used, let the tense muscle relax a bit, another wave of attack began.
But this time much more precise, they didn't blindly jumped in. Instead used rifles to rid them of their advantage in close quater combat. dozens armed men shot simultaneously, bullets flew with power and soon the warehouse was shrouded in cacophony of gunshots. Bullets whistled in air, ready to punch holes through their target.
But Evelyn and elizabeth both reacted instantly and simultaneously, moving and dancing between the bullets. Their moves agile, feets swift and body flexible enough to dodge everything. On the surface It seemed as they didn't struggle but both dodged flurry of bullets by hair's width.
Every cultivator in zone sees the world much slower, while world doens't slow by cultivator's reaction speed makes it possible to notice even regular mundane bullet passing through air and it would look like watching it in slow motion. But this series of weapons were made to deal with high stage cultivators to begin with, It shot with destructive speed and power, enough to remain outside their target's vision and by luck even if they managed to see it, it would be pointless. Such was their speed, hard to dodge.
It was troublesome, And right now Bullets rained unceasingly. One could only pity those who were trapped in situation such as this.
Every second gone started increasing pressure on both Elizabeth and Evelyn.
Both were strong, Much stronger than those who shot the bullets but mana enhanced weapons didn't care and neither did their enemies. They were hell bent on killing them both.
Even by mistake, misshape or by bad luck, but if they would get hit. Resulting in possible major or minor injury, and injury nonetheless of it's severity would make them struggle, screw up even more which would eventually result in death.
Not even single mistake was in option, But they weren't just dancing in between. They were advancing forward as well but then not everything was meant to be that easy.
BAM..
Loud bang sounded in distant, allerting all those in vicinity. Elizabeth's instinct ringed sharp, She desparately pulled her head left in very wrong momentum. Only by an inch that she got out of sniper's trajectory and missed the shot. Bullet was shot behind her head but she somehow managed to predict it, only by an inch though. Bullet missed her and moved towards armed men, killing two unlucky men and then got stuck in concrete floor.
Yet it's function hadn't ended yet, once stuck it remained unmoved bun then,
BOOM...
Explotion blasted few nearest men to pieces and sent distanced men flying back only to get cought by their companion, wind howled with heatwave, even Elizabeth and Evelyn felt the heat tinge their skin. But heat didn't bother them, something else did.
" Behind MS 9." Evelyn shouted in panic, Her steps fast as she took advantage of enemies momentarily frozen state to reduce the distance and she succeeded, before masked men could make sense of situation she was already wreking havok in their herd.
Elizabeth didn't follow her, instead she ran on opposite side. As she ran mana flowed freely from her body forming a giant shield for her to wield. Shield made of ice with no pattern, symbols and ornaments to do it justice of artistry but that was not why it was made in first place. A soon as it was formed, it was hit by sniper's bullet which exploded Just as powerfully as the one before it, Though shield didn't move back.
Elizabeth held the shield tight, crouching as she hid behind for cover and more than few ice picks held shield at place, immovable. Though front of shield showed cracks.
' One more and this would shatter and so would i.' Elizabeth thought with a grunt, Afterall that explotion was no so easy to handle as she made it out seem. It shook her inside, strained his shoulder and arms.
' Luckily, There's no need to hold this anymore longer.' her though were fast just as her action, She slightly shifted ice shield to an angle which reflected setting sun's rays to temporarily blind the sniper. As absurd as it seemed, plain glossy shield although not completely obscured his vision but it did managed to hide Elizabeth in rays of orange setting sun. Just as she expected, Sniper shot blind, hoping she would be idle where she was but she had moved.
Bullet Missed the target entirely, hitting his own men and creating another chaos of explotion that took lives of his comrades in crime.
And simultaneously it gave Elizabeth time to channel large amount mana and counter attack. It all happened in an instant as ice javelin formed before her and shot through the ceiling, travelling far with lightning speed. Ice spear pierced the head of prone man on distant Terrace of high watchtower.
Piercing his eyes, brain and skull to other end and within few second of contact, javelin burst with cold energy, Freezing everything within few meters of vicinity on the rooftop he laid hidden. His body, MS9 gun and large portion of ceiling turned ice only to dry scatter in the air next, now it looked as there was nothing there to begin with, only unfinished construction.
Elizabeth didn't waste any second to enjoy the kill, she had much to do and very small window of time.
Evelyn had similar thoughts and she was working on it hard, her presense among the enemies blinked as she jumped from one place to another, one kill to another, sometime killing few in one swoop but such occurance were very rare. Which also made her realise that this whole situation stink, almost as if they were being invited in but she had no way to clarify the answer.
Gunners had lost their advantage, They could not blindly shoot now that their own men were within the range of Target, ofcourse some didn't care for such compassion and shot reckless, only to get killed their own men. Few understood that reasoning while some didn't, Suddenly there was civil tension in their crowd. All while Evelyn rampaged in centre, soon even Elizabeth joined in as her backup, standing back to back as they watched out for each other. Their strength was bound to rise now that two were fighting together, it gave opportunity to counter much more strategically and skillfully, reducing percentage of risk significantly.
Everything was going smooth, as smooth as it could be. Unfair match ups were never easy to begin with. There was still lurking danger of sniper, If there wasn't then it was fishy and if there were more then it was dangerous.
' Any sniper you sense.' Through the chaos, Evelyn pierced the guy who tried kicking her face with more annoyance than usual as she asked Elizabeth telepathically.
' Not that I can sense, but I wouldn't be careless..' Elizabeth used one man's momentum as an advantage to cut other man's arm in which he held gun and used his hand as a weapon in one hand while other hand took the gun.
Decapitated Hand blurred in the air as it counter attacked, meanwhile Elizabeth's right hand pulled the trigger. Another flurry of bullets whistled, killing everyone cought in the trajectory.
' True, We would be lucky if the sniper out their have compassion for his companions or he'll get us in trouble, irrespective of collateral damage.' Evelyn too had taken some unlucky's gun, shooting as she maintained constant motion to not get targeted by sniper and changing gum when she ran out of bullets.
' But If we're talking being lucky then let's hope there isn't any sniper anymore.'
Though Evelyn would want to agree with her, yet not for a second she discarded the possibility of another snipers. It was matter of life and death, She wouldn't be idiotic enough to place her bet on luck.
By the another few minutes, Every masked men were killed or wounded. Evelyn and elizabeth were tired, though first half of fight strained their mental and physical fortitude, later half with the help of gun in their hands was comparative manageable.
" We got really lucky." Said Elizabeth, And instant that she earned a death glare from Evelyn.
There was unwritten rule to never say it out loud, She broke it. And as superstitious it was, It turned out to be true.
Every inch of their skin crawled, making their hair stand up with fear as instincts of unseen threat buzzed loudly in their ears.
With minisecond to act without any thoughts, they dashed out desperately. To get Away from where they stood with maximum speed they could achieve but just as their they stepped outside, A beep ringed once. As if world was voiceless for a moment and only single bip could be heard, as if time had stopped for eternity yet it passed in an instant just as any moment pass, and then
BOOOOOOM....
Large explosion shook the dumyard, powerful enough incinerate the 200 meters of surrounding. Shockwave of such explosion caused even more destruction to the nearby building, those who were nearest were turned to black dust and those of far reach turned to rubbles. Ground shook for a moment as power settled through distance, destroying few distant building as well.
To the centre, Large amount of intense flames and wind rushed to set free and as they did, surrounding changed hellish. Ground literal lava, air that would burn the lungs and Heat strong nough to incinerate normal human to ash at first touch.
Dark smoke shot up in the sky, while heat spread around.
Ground turned charred, cracked with solidified lava glowing between them. Such was the catastrophic might of mana bomb, It was small, easy to carry, easy to hide and most of all, much powerful than normal explosives.
Unluckily Elizabeth and Evelyn were cought up in it, Luckily on the last moment Elizabeth manifested a a meter thick shield behind their back which saved them from direct and deadly touch, even their absolute might would shatter as their bodies would blew apart if they were to touch such power. But luckily, Though hastily made shield was shattered in mere seconds, it held on as impact of blast blew them far but rapidly spreading heat didn't spare them. Her quick thinking and Shield literally saved their ass, even though minor burns on arms,neck and back made them itch, they were just glad they made it out alive but they still needed to stop. Their bodies flew in the air like ragdoll, unable to stop as their eyes refused to make sense of high speed moving vision and finally they fell down.
Elizabeth casted another spell, Simultaneously, grabbed Evelyn in her arms as she postured her legs straighten, mana enhanced heels pointed on ground to lock for the brake. From her heels the ice begane to cover them like a cartridge, sharp end of the cartridge shell took the blunt force of ground and dug deep, stopping them both.
Icy shell reduced the impact by much but there was still half impact to deal with, and elizabeth did so with her feet.
And soon as she expected, her heels dug on the the shell, taking the much lessened force of impact. But they finnally stopped, as her spell wear off and ice melted.
Hahh...
Hahh..
Evelyn supported Elizabeth whose knees felt shocked and refused to stay steady, But as few second passed she regained her balance. Their hasty breaths calmed, and heart trembled with anticipation.
' That was MB 9.' Evelyn couldn't risk exposing their location by talking outloud, Because unlike before they weren't just targets of bullets.
MB 4 was mana bomb, one of the named in category of explosives.
' MB 9 huh, I guess I should've kept my mouth shut.' Eliezabeth groaned in pain, her insides were all shaken, even some muscle showed minor tearing but it didn't hurt, not yet.
' One rule Ellie, never jinx it.' Evelyn took Elizabeth to another warehouse where they've been sent flying and she didn't reply, Elizabeth didn't believe in such omens but right now, she didn't had strength to argue and for a momemt she even showed sign of possibility of truth to it.
Their steps were slow, alert and silent even in such ragged state,
But suddenly,
"I threw everything I could and you still crawled out like cockroaches." A menacing voice shook them from behind. They hurridly turned, taking out the weapon out of their respective storage rings.
The voice came from nothing, Atleast what seemed like nothing in the flames and heat but there was obviously someone right before them, hiding. More troublesome to find as night had unveiled completely.
Elizabeth's balance faltered, rendering her to fall but then she stabbed her sword on the ground for support, never betting her eyes as she observed the fire that pricked her face.
Though explosion had settled, Heatwave had vanished, the fire still held the intensity.
" Who are you?" Evelyn asked with calmness, atleast as calm as she could act. Her face showed only contemp yet under that superficial anger laid rattled fear. The voice she heard contained every bit of spite one could wield and she didn't like it, not one bit.
Even more troubsome was the fact that such enemy was hiding and doing so with skills that they couldn't understand.
" You bitch make me sick, Oh the audacity you scums have." His words were roaring, coming straight yet he remained hidden.
" Oh yeah, Only bitch here is you who's hiding like a scared shit that you are." Evelyn shot her own provocation, hoping to get a reaction and it did.
" You whore, You dare mock me." His figure became visible among the dancing flames,
His body was encased in brown scaled armour from top to bottom, That of dragon but something was unusual. He didn't had horns.
His hands were clutched hard in anger, enough that his claws dug in his own palm yet he showed no care for pain or he just didn't realise it. He was mad, he deformed his helm. Dragonic scales that hid his face vanished as he willed it, revealing his face.
Just like his words, his expression showed pure disgust and contempt for everything and everyone, especially those who stood before him. And to make it more worse, his face had healed scars that made him look old, dangerous and awful to look at. With one glance some would mistake him for middle aged man but after careful observation they would also realise that he is not that old. His hair is lustrous black and face though aged but mostly due to rough texture and scars. And he is not a vampire but human.
But then suddenly his demeanor changed, from vulgar to elegance, Wild to calm.
" All this people, All this weapons and even a bomb, all for nothing." Even the way he postured himself changed, As if someone complete different individual. His words contained disappointment, rather than spite for failure. Different from how he originally showed himself.
Elizabeth was bewildered and so was Evelyn, one moment sane and another maniac. They had fair share of experience with such split personality enemies but not to this extent. And one thing that remained unchanged almost all the time was that they all were very hard to deal with.
" No matter, I've already called for backup." He smiled lecherously as he eyed both women from uptodown, uncaring.
" Almost double the numbers you fought and even more weapons" then he chuckled to himself with arrogance,
" Though I can handle you both at the same time, It would be fun to watch you struggle, to maintain your dignity among wild men." Though his manner of speech might have changed, He still wanted kill two women.
Suddenly he shook his head like feral wild animal And then he reverted back to his old self, distorted and disturbing.
" I'm gonna kill you two bitches right now and drink your blood." He dashed ahead out of fire, strength of his leap left ground cracked as he cleared the distance between them in instant.
Elizabeth and Evelyn both were surprised, he spoke of backup then attacked himself yet not for second both women faltered. Though surprised they more of less expected the unexpected.
' Here it comes' Evelyn said, As she anticipated for her opponent to show his power, Was he more stronger or just cheap knockoff with screws loose up in the head.
Though she had advantage of number, A fight without knowledge was loosing game and she didn't like it one bit.
Just as her words dropped in Elizabeth's head, Scaled monstrous figure of madman appeared right before them. he had no weapons, only sharp claws to rip his enemies to the bone. His eyes held fury yet now it was hidden behind the scaled helm.
With speed he showed, both women could estimate rough measure of his power. His hand was a blur, ready to cut anything in his way with his claws.
Evelyn met his attack with her sword, to gouge out his strength and elizabeth was ready to finish him off with one powerful swing while he was locked in arms with Evelyn.
But ofcourse it didn't follow as they hoped, his claws failed to pieces evelyn but the sword that stopped his hand felt the brunt of his power and so did Evelyn, her hands trembled with agonizing pain. Winds roared behind her as remaining force of power made surrounding shudder.
Her sword had nicks, more of this and it would crack. Elizabeth could feel tension in evelyn's responce, she could see his strength much more prominent than they originally expected but she wasn't afraid, she had her own role to play.
Momentarily distracted madman ignored Elizabeth, it gave her chance to attack with full freedom and she did. she ran to him and leaped in air, her hands raised above as she brought down mountain crushing sword down to slice his head apart, but on the last second he managed to turn his head to side and leaped back, Sword failed to cut him clean but it did managed to shatter scales of his shoulder. His injuries weren't visible but there had to be contusion.
" Aghh..."
Pained groan left his mouth as he receded back, his bloodshot eyes held even more hatred now that he felt pain.
But pain was one thing in this world that most were aware of, He knew it and he knew how to endure it as well. Ignoring the fact that he could've died of carelessness, he ran again. His claws ready to tear this women to shreds.
Elizabeth and Evelyn knew that they were outmatched, power of his attack made it very clear and elizabeth with all her strength failed to pierce through his armour. They also knew that key to their only chance at victory laid in teamwork.
And to apply it, They were ready to meet him head-on. While his claws seeked skin and flesh to rip, evelyn's sword rang loud as it clashed with those scaled claws. Their image was blur as they moved with high speed, ready to kill the other. And everytime sword clashed with scaled claws, it rang loud. And without much delay, Surrounding was filled with cacophony of loud clangs and wistling winds.
Evelyn knew how to dodge, parry and counter attack but right now difference in strength didn't allow her to counter attack, contrary to it she barely managed to defend herself of his wild attacks.
But again, attacking wasn't in the list of her to do list anyways, that was left for Elizabeth.
While Evelyn dodged his attacks on purpose which earned her to most attention most hatred and most brunt of raw power, that's what she hoped for. While madmen focused on her, she parried, defended and dodged as she created opportunities for Elizabeth to intervene.
Elizabeth too was a powerful sword master, on par with Evelyn. When evelyn's defence shook, she was there to save her all while she searched for opportunity to take this madman's life.
But unluckily, Despite how crude and superficial his attacks seemed he was a warrior. No matter how beastly, violently and rashly he jumped in, he always managed to get away on perfect timing. He was a menace with raw skills and beastly instincts, Truly dangerous.
Elizabeth, Evelyn and madman were locked in battle, Jumping around burned ground with effortless steps. It showed all of their experience, not once that they faltered through rough terrain and always managed to stay on toe. Though shockwaves of their clash had already crashed several nearby buildings.
Madman attack endlessly, his strength never running out even when he attacked with such intensity, every action of his attack made ground crack and tremble.
Desperately or so Elizabeth knew they were running out of time, she had to finish this fast
Because while they had advantage of number, it didn't help much in time.
Beside their stamina and mana was rapidly draining out, supplying mana to every crany of body to constantly maintain the borrowed strength was both physically and mentally exhausting. More long this dragged, more chances of their misshape became possible and less chance of their victory became possibility.
So taking the risk, Evelyn roared as she met his next attack with all the strength she could bring out, and more. Her sword didn't falter or vibrated through her arm as she pushed him back with strength she called out of her will, but she didn't stop and striked again and again.
Madman was momentarily overwhelmed, before he could regain his posture to defend, Evelyn had already kicked him in the air.
Elizabeth didn't lag behind much either, just as he left the ground her sword pierced his heart. She had poured every bit of strength and mana she could call out to her arms and sword. Her strike sent madman flying back.
Elizabeth and Evelyn stood at distance with tired expression on their faces, hungrily gasping for breaths as their chest rose up and down.
After a good minute or two,
Though Elizabeth wanted to ask something she didn't, instead looked at Evelyn for confirmation but she too had confused eyes.
Their expression turned worried, Anxious when the presencethey wanted to erase showed a sign of life.
Last remaining life, or so they thought.
At distant, madman stood up. Drawing out the sword out of his heart like nothing mattered. But unlike before he wasn't mad, his expression were calm with bone chilling smile over it and he looked intrigued.