Outrun - Chapter 468 - Give It Back! (Patreon)

Anthony Sancho was undoubtedly a top level Adept. The file we were given mentioned several times that we shouldn’t go against him if we could help it. Not necessarily because we wouldn’t be able to take him down, but every moment we lingered was another moment things could go wrong. 

I drew my coil pistol and fired off a spray of shots at the man. His eyes snapped to me in surprise like he hadn’t seen me yet, and he flicked his hand forward. A dark purple shell sparked to life around him to tank a dozen shots. 

Shards of ice speared through me. I instinctively threw myself to the side with Burst Step the moment I felt Insight tear through me. I didn’t even have time to think about it, or how it should’ve been nearly impossible for ordinary projectiles to pierce my armor.

A split second after I moved, the purple shell around Mr. Sancho shattered. The broken shards of it floated in the air for a millisecond, and then snapped in my direction like heat sealing projectiles. A dozen of them, matching the number of shots I fired, lanced toward my previous location with deadly precision.

The projectiles slammed through the armor of the flyer I ducked behind, easily punching through it. That grade of armor… flyers weren’t built for battlefields, but they sure as hell could survive them. Based on Insight, it would’ve done some serious damage to me as well.

”How’s he casting so many spells so quickly?!” I ducked behind another flyer, and slammed a new round of metal shards into my coil-pistol. “I didn’t see a wand.”

Without wands attuned to his magic, each spell should be taking at least a couple seconds. He was instant casting them. That should’ve been impossible with an array of wands to use his magic through.

”Sancho’s got rings instead of a wand.” Tex answered me. The sounds of his revolver cracked out over the flyer bay. “Ronin, what shield spell is he using? I can’t get a shot off.”

Ronin, predictably, didn’t answer. He was too busy being paralyzed on the ground. Was it short sighted of me to use the Jade Dagger on him instead of saving it for Sancho? I couldn’t help but second guess all of my decisions as I hid behind a flyer.

”GIVE IT BACK!” Sancho shouted out across the flyer bay. “Filthy fucking rats! I’ll give you an easy death!”

”Well now I definitely don’t want to give it back.” Tex dodged around another spray of purple shards. “I think I got a plan. Nightshade, bait out his shield.”

”Chek.” I took a breath, and darted out from behind my cover. Time slowed around me once more thanks to Dexterity. Sancho floated slightly in the air with his hands cupped together to his side. I got three shouts off before—

Vwooau!

A crackling beam of dark purple energy crackled just over my head. The blast slammed into the ground just behind me, tearing it up without any resistance. Sancho pulled back to flick his hands forward once more. I didn’t have to be versed in magic to figure out what he was trying to do.

I broke into a slide just as another beam blasted right over me. It was close enough I could feel the air vibrating through my helmet. Even as I slid back into cover, my coil-pistol rang out with soft hisses. Shard of metal after shard slammed into the purple shell keeping Sancho safe.

I slid behind another flyer just as a familiar burst of cold hit me. This time, it wasn’t a piercing cold. With the plating of the flyer and my own armor, it only pierced slightly into my skin like a dozen needles. Still, I threw myself to the side—the side that didn’t have cover.

The moment Tex said something, I figured out his plan. As the purple shards condensed in the air, a sparking shot of pure electricity came from Tex. It was followed by a brutal fan the hammer. Each shot was precise and deadly as they arced toward the Adept.

Sancho flickered, and teleported to the side just before anything could hit him. The sparking blast from Tex’s enchanted revolver harmlessly slammed into the back wall. It was joined by the rest of his shots right after.

 Even with Dexterity slowing my perception of time by 25%, I could barely keep up with the bullets. Chrome? No, he was an Adept. Some kind of spell to auto dodge things that’d hurt him? 

He teleported just as I was about to throw a duo of knives. I adjusted my angle at the last second and flung them forward. With both layers of Sancho’s protections broken, both daggers hit home.

”Argh!” Sancho cried out and clutched at his hands. Since he had rings, I just needed to get rid of them to take care of his magic. Five detached fingers clattered to the ground just below Sancho. “Filthy rat!”

I wasn’t sure which of his spells were out of the playing field now. It looked like his shield though, as Tex started to spray wildly with his revolvers. Blood exploded out of Sancho’s shoulder before he had another short-ranged teleport just to the side to dodge the rest of the spray. 

I dropped a new mag into my coil-pistol, and joined Tex in putting some pressure on the hurt and bleeding Adept. He recoiled, and dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes as his levitating spell broke. 

“Damn you!” Beam after beam exploded out of him in a wild array of dark energy. They didn’t seem to be aimed as much as fired freely to buy him some time. I dodged one, and then slid underneath another one.

”Tex?” I called out as a void beam popped right past my head and over my shoulder. 

”Good.” He continued to fire a moment later. His revolvers rang out, though they didn’t cause any damage thanks to Sancho’s newest spell.

Dark purple spread out from around him into a sphere like a blackhole churning to life. All of the bullets shot his way were caught in the outer ring of the sphere. It kinda reminded me of my failed experiments with Gravitite, only the spell was controlled so that the pure destructive power of gravity didn’t harm him.

I cranked the coil-pistol to max power, and ran a charge of electricity through my body into the pistol. Even at max power, my shots were grabbed by the intense gravitational force radiating out from Sancho. They were pulled into orbit, where they slammed into and sparked against other projectiles likewise caught.

Sancho, for his part, just sat in the middle of the micro blackhole without reacting to us. I activated Aetherial Perception to find a horrifying amount of energy coagulating around the man. “He’s prepping something big.”

”I reckon so.” On my HUD, I watched Tex run further away from the Adept. Honestly? Not a bad idea. “Moonfall, can you get any of these flyers up and runnin’ so we can delta?”

”Bit busy at the moment.” Luna’s words came out in a rush across the comms. “The alarms woke the runners. I’m doing all I can to keep them out of the fight.”

Could anything go right? I hesitated for a moment, and then pulled out one of the summon tokens from Fox. For the first time, I really, really wished I properly learned how to adjust the token to summon one of the other eidolon’s sprites. Foxes were cute, but a bear would’ve been a lot better in terms of combat.

I split the coin, and a rift popped open in front of me. A sprite shot out of the rift, and landed just in front of me with a flip. “Yip yip!”

”Here.” I tossed the sprite a gun, and peeked around the side of the flyer to check on Sancho. He was still distracted prepping whatever spell he was trying to use.

”Y-y-yip?” The fox pawed at the gun, and then looked up at me with a betrayed look. The feather duster clutched in her tail clattered to the ground.

”You guys are smart right? You can use this?” I tapped the gun with my foot. I needed a distraction, and a sprite was the perfect solution. Not like she’d die if she got hit with whatever Sancho was charging up.

The fox sulked, and her tail flicked forward to smooth down the maid’s dress she had on. The sprite carefully picked the pistol up in her mouth—

Bang!

Her tooth caught on the trigger, and a shot slammed into my leg. It flattened against my leg guard, and clattered noisily to the ground. The fox’s head jerked back, and she dropped the pistol with a low whine.

”Hey, hey, it’s okay.” I crouched down, and patted her head. “Mistakes happen… Okay, I need you to take this, go behind him, and shoot once he starts to activate that thing. Got it?”

The fox’s tail popped into a salute, and she picked up the pistol in her mouth once more. As she scampered off to follow my orders, I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for using her as bait. That thought only lasted for a moment before I checked on the Adept once more.

I activated Illusive, and slunk into the shadows of the flyer bay. I carefully routed my way to the opposite side of the fox sprite, and climbed up the side of a pillar to get some high ground. I wasn’t sure how destructive his magic was about to be, but it was probably best to just not get hit by it in general.

A minute later, while Tex and I both hid away from the Adept, his eyes snapped open. The pulsations I could see thanks to Aetherial Perception intensified, and the blackhole protecting him broke. Bullets caught in the spell’s orbit zipped out and slammed into their surroundings without care.

”Come out, rats!” He shouted, and lifted his hands over his head. A dark purple sphere coalesced in his hands. Even just looking at it sent my instincts to flee into overdrive. 

Bang!

A bullet slammed into his back, and he lurched forward. The spell over his head flickered like it was about to go out. He flicked back toward the poor sprite that just fired the shot. “Got you!”

He slammed his hands forward, and a ball shot out toward the sprite. It was a pure, abyssal black that seemed to leech the color out of its surroundings. It traveled forward slowly, growing with each passing moment. The sphere hit a flyer that was in the way. Where it touched, the flyer just disintegrated like water washing away chalk. 

“Yip?” The fox looked up at me in the shadows right before the void sphere could hit her with a stupidified expression on her vulpine face. A bolt of guilt flooded through me as the sphere swallowed her and the surrounding parts of the boat. I’d have to bring her some treats next time I went to Nine Peaks. 

I lifted my coil-pistol, and sprayed in his direction. Predictably, he teleported to the side just before anything could actually hit him. It was fine, though. The dodge spell seemed to have a cooldown before it could be used again, which meant—

Bang!

A shot rang out, and slammed into the back of Anthony Sancho’s head. A burst of blood exploded outward, and he dropped to the ground. The void sphere he created flickered, and then dissipated a few seconds later. 

“You okay, partner?” Tex called across our comms.

”I… chek, I’m fine.” I dropped off the pillar. My drop chutes caught me just before I could hit the ground. Ronin, who’d been paralyzed the entire time and could only watch, was still okay. He hadn’t been caught in the crossfire much. “Let’s get out of here.”

”I found a lifeboat over here.” Tex waved at me. “Let’s just take this and delta.”

”Chek.” Taking a lifeboat meant being on the water… it was better than being stuck out here, though. I hurried over to him before anything else could go wrong.