Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 61: Total Annihilation (Patreon)

"You bastards! Die!"

With a furious roar from their leader, more than a dozen elite Tyger Claws charged the mercenaries, their faces twisted with murderous rage.

Arasaka TKI-20 Shingens spat fire. Smart rounds traced strange curves through the air, homing in on their targets.

The Tyger Claws' proprietary tattoo technology let them operate smart weapons without installing frontal cortex implants. Combined with the steady supply of smart weapons and specialized ammunition from Arasaka, it gave them an overwhelming advantage in small-scale engagements.

"Fuck! It's those Tyger Claws lunatics! Get behind cover!"

Hyena reacted quickly, but the smart weapons were already locking on. Most of his Wild Dogs squad had no chance to take cover.

In an instant, three mercenaries were riddled with smart rounds and killed on the spot. The survivors barely managed to scramble behind a forklift and several shipping containers, relying on their subdermal armor and the distant sniper's covering fire.

The Tyger Claws kept pouring fire into their positions, driving them back and leaving them hopelessly outmatched.

"Fuck! Since when did Jae-Hyun Lee have the Tyger Claws backing him?"

"Did he sell his ass to get them on his side?"

From his distant position, the sniper could already see the entire squad being wiped out. Even so, greed kept him from abandoning the target so close to his sights.

If everyone else died, wouldn't the entire fee for the gig belong to him?

For this operation, their captain had obtained a Nekomata tech sniper rifle through special channels. Both corporations and the government tightly controlled the weapon. Its tungsten armor-piercing rounds could shatter even the toughest armor, and it was the sniper's only hope of completing the job.

He struggled to steady his breathing. As though he'd poured every scrap of luck he possessed into a single attempt, he managed to fire the decisive shot.

Hummm!

Brilliant blue arcs burst along the electromagnetic rails. The enormous recoil shoved him backward despite his prone position, kicking up the dust around him.

In a fraction of a second, the supersonic round crossed hundreds of meters and passed cleanly through a gap in the first pane of bulletproof glass. Without losing speed, it slammed into the second pane.

Crack!

The glass shattered, and the round hurtled toward Jae-Hyun Lee with terrifying kinetic energy. He still wore the same arrogant expression, utterly unaware that death was almost upon him.

A cold flash suddenly cut through the air, accompanied by the grating shriek of metal being sliced apart.

Someone had split a bullet powerful enough to turn a human being into a cloud of blood right down the middle!

The deformed fragments skimmed Lee's scalp, giving him an impromptu haircut, before tumbling into the concrete wall behind him and lodging deep inside.

A Thermal Katana gleaming faintly blue slid back into its sheath.

A man in a Half-Ghost Mask and old-fashioned Japanese armor had appeared beside Lee without anyone noticing. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, looking every inch a serene, peerless master.

Anyone standing behind him, however, would have seen those hidden hands trembling uncontrollably. The feat had been nowhere near as effortless as he pretended.

This was the final trump card Lee had paid a fortune to secure through his Tyger Claws associate, a true member of the gang's elite: a Half-Ghost Mask.

The shot had left the previously swaggering Lee drenched in cold sweat. Once he recovered, he bowed a full ninety degrees.

"Thank you for saving my life, Lord Ichiro Yamada!"

For all his delusions of grandeur, Lee knew perfectly well where he stood. As someone at the bottom of the industry's food chain, he was already at a disadvantage when dealing with the Tyger Claws, let alone one of their elite assassins.

Meanwhile, the battle below had taken another turn.

Driven into a corner, the Wild Dogs summoned every last reserve of strength for a desperate attempt to survive. Scalding steam erupted from the Sandevistan on Hyena's back as he darted into the Tyger Claws' ranks.

Every shot from his Quasar tech pistol took another life. The two gangsters nearest him lost their heads before they could even pull their triggers.

The other Wild Dogs had gone completely berserk as well. They abandoned cover and charged through the smart-weapon fire, hurling fragmentation grenades and incendiary bombs at the Tyger Claws.

Explosions engulfed several gang members. Screams rose one after another through the flames.

On the second-floor platform, Ichiro Yamada watched the chaos with a face like thunder.

"Baka! Useless idiots!"

He swallowed his anger rather than lose his composure in front of outsiders and turned to the silent Half-Ghost Mask standing beside him.

"Saburo, kill him. Don't hold back!"

"Yes!"

The man called Saburo bowed slightly. Two rapid bursts of movement carried him straight into the center of the battlefield.

Hyena, still cutting down enemies, saw a blur. Suddenly, an unfamiliar figure stood directly before him.

Saburo raised his crimson-red tachi and brought it down in a powerful overhead slash.

Hyena's nerves were stretched to their limit. He barely twisted aside in time, then charged his Quasar for a moment and fired several rounds.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Decades of relentless training and extraordinary swordsmanship allowed Saburo to deflect the bullets with his blade.

"Fuck you! Come on, you stupid cat!"

Panting hard, Hyena pressed the attack, although his vision had begun to double. Both men carried Sandevistans, and their movements were far too fast for ordinary eyes to follow.

With Saburo keeping Hyena occupied, the remaining Tyger Claws regrouped and counterattacked.

"Fire! Don't let those little bastards escape!"

Their smart rounds curved around the cover as if they had eyes, striking the mercenaries hiding behind it. Outgunned and outclassed, the few surviving Wild Dogs were powerless to resist. They fell one by one.

Clang!

A metallic crash came from the warehouse entrance. A third Half-Ghost Mask had appeared.

A massive sniper rifle rested on his shoulder. In one hand he carried a severed head, its eyes still staring in death, while two sickly green short blades hung from his waist.

This was Jiro Yamada, the second of the three Yamada brothers. He had been sent to eliminate the sniper in the distance.

Under everyone's gaze, Jiro tossed the head into the middle of the battlefield.

Locked in combat with Saburo, Hyena caught sight of it from the corner of his eye. His movements froze.

Slash!

Saburo seized the opening. His tachi swept across Hyena's chest, slicing through his subdermal armor and scattering droplets of blood.

Hyena stumbled backward, his four cybernetic eyes fixed on the head at his feet. He could barely keep his balance.

The battle was almost over. Every member of his squad except Hyena was dead.

"AAAAAAAGH!"

A terrible scream tore from his throat. His cybernetic eyes flickered wildly as overlapping streams of garbled code flashed across them.

The Sandevistan on his back shrieked an overclock warning. Coolant and blood sprayed out together.

Another case of cyberpsychosis had been born.