Already surprised by the massive mayhem, Roberion tries even to control his heartbeat to be the quiet as possible, even Brutus stops flaring his noses and breaths as calmly as a bull could. But that doesn’t stop him from eavesdropping on the conversation, if you could say that yelling and mayhem were a conversation. A group of heavily armed guard, find the nearby wall of the husbandry center and try to shut down the turrets using the ballistic way. The turrets don’t believe in defence and rain fire on the guards. The Nulls also use that as an opportunity to lower their numbers.
“Focus on the center, there is something weird in their formation, they are trying to protect it, Team Spike clean your bombs”, not waiting for their leader next orders some Nulls take bombs. Their number has taken a hit, decreased to only twenty strong, because of the surprise shooting before the guards focused on the turret. Only eight forming the Team Spike survived. The guards don’t wait even for their supposed leader. Being thirty-six, strong and better equipped, five of them focus on the Team spike.
Two shots get right through one of the Team Spike members throat, gurgling blood, he fumbles out and the bomb that was targeted to the guards goes to his foot, a blink later his body shatters like a pinata, blood raining on all the nulls near the explosion. “-Cough- focus the turret on the right”, for the first time on the guards’ side a rasping voice can be heard, probably their leader, without waiting the guards to focus again on the turret that already fell seven of his teammates by itself.
Five guards going in its blind spot, losing the cover shots provided by the dead spike member, the mini-gun already red-hot and without most of its shielding, do its last kill, shotting one in the leg and another in its head as it fell down, the turret finally shutting down.
As the turret shutdown, two of the three bombs threw hit the guards, killing more five of them, the spike team now down only to three don’t celebrate. At the end of the shoot-down, The Nulls rebels are down to only fifteen and an almost on fire turret.
The twenty-two soldiers make short work of the remaining turret, Damn these Nulls are dead, there are only thirteen of these guys alive, without the turrets they are dead, I wish they could be alive and do a little sweep in the area, after they leaved I would have time to—. “FREE THE NULLLSS—”, in the walls the guards used for defence, two wailing cries can be heard before two immense explosions.
Making brick and concrete rain with all the carnage, little pieces of meat and raining blood was seem by Roberion, Somewhat in all that mayhem two of the Nulls left with explosives, now their weird genius plan worked, genius for the surviving nulls that is, dunno how I’m the same species of these two poor bastards.
“Team, follow me, guns out but don’t shoot first, let’s see what they were protecting”, the Nulls teams follow the order of the pumped Null, approaching cautiously they fan out around the brick wall, before they could make a go at the dead bodies, two people jumps out of the place one a bloodied and bleeding woman with a guard uniform her black ponytail now all messed up and almost dismantling. The second person is the weirdest of all. A blond teenager or a young adult, using a beautiful and golden Hakama painted with a turtle on it, breaking his samurai style was a golden top-hat, this one seemingly for fashion.
“DON’T GET NEAR HIM, YOUR FILTH NULL”, the woman screams and tries to defend the young man, her left arm lies unmoving, her right arm although having a pistol is bleeding out, “TEAM DON’T SHOOT, listen if you two want to live, give me everything you have and tell me everything you know about the research facility, you two seems to be from high up…him at least”, the muscled Null lowers his weapon and gives his right hand to the young man, trying to look friendly. Good try, knowing more about the quest wouldn’t hurt, Roberion although could still see the people talking, he couldn’t perceive all details.
“Knell before me, and maybe I would deign to listen to your barking”, the young man isn’t afraid as the nulls circle him, targeting their rifles to his head. The woman, however, gets afraid. She tries to shush the young man, but stops halfway through. It seems this guy is a big shot. Roberion thought the fight was over, but now he thought better of it. If this guy had something to do with the masked person, these Nulls would make company for his deceased teammates shortly.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Listen, I don’t want any problems. I need information and equipment. If you are so sure you have what is needed to put an end on my and my team, just explain then and we could make an arrangement”, the muscled Null this time direct the hands to his teammates and try to signal for them to keep calm, the arrangement part made them fidget.
“I deny answering you, animal, I’m already courteous enough by not putting your down right now, I was forsaken to this place beneath my station, for miniscule benefit to myself and my honored clan” his fist clenches turning white, the young man now starts showing his first signals of true anger, “I don need this, I don’t need THIS, I’m a Claudius descendant of the servant branch of the Exalted Clan of ASTRA QUISQUILIAE, BANISHED to live with this scum”, the youngster lifts his left hands high in a fist, put the right hand in his heart before also clenching it in a fist, the woman guard mimics his movements, “MY SOUL BURNS SO THE EMPERORS LIGHT WILL NEVER LESSEN, BLESSED CREATION LINE, BLESSED CREATION OF THE EMPEROR”, Roberion although not near him, he listened as if Claudius yelled in his ear, the sensation was that the world was silenced in that moment, he could feel a powerful presence watching all, passive, but observant.
Claudius takes a necklace that even from far away, Roberion could trace all the curves of the centerpiece, like the Man Ouroboros. This time, however, it was a golden Phoenix made of innumerous smaller Phoenixes, like a desecration of myth to become divine, the symbol of creation itself. So these symbols have some sort of great meaning, no way of dwelling on it now though, my best bet is running from here. Although not moving, Roberion prepares to run away if the reason or a way arises.
The Nulls feel shellshocked, but before fear could rise, the muscled Null pulls his weapon again and starts shooting. A dome protects both the woman and young man, the dome is big, almost reaching the shooting Nulls, the dome not only defends but seems to shoot the projectiles back, they don’t shot precisely the same location, being random, like the bullets would enter and be expelled by the shield contractions. From the thirteen surviving Nulls, four of them die from the returning bullets. All the while, Claudius is laughing like mad.
“STOP!” Seeing that they were in a precarious position, the leader Null yells. All of them are silent. The young man laughs only increases, but after a minute of almost silence the young man gets angry again. “You woesome animals, wretched sacks of filthy meat, hapless bastards, come on keep shooting, let the blessing the emperor gave me be your end, the only noble end to animals like you, to accept the light of the emperor as your end!”. The only thing that answered his maniac speech was silence. “SO BE IT, mangy dogs. I will finish you personally. This was reserved for only the worthy ones, but it seems I will have to dirty my honor to ride the world of your filthy. This weapon is my right of succession of the branch. The branch has lost much of its honor and fortune, but as long as I’m alive, it will be reborn as a Phoenix. Bless the emperor!”, a luminous object is seen on the young man’s hands.
The silence again falls on all witnessing the act. This time, the silence seems like a normal one. The flames, the far, far away explosions and gunshots can be heard. Surprising everyone, the luminous dome that was protecting the pair falls down, a small but luminous mini firework goes out exploding in a circle around the pair, an absurd visitor shows up as the fireworks vanish. A seemingly rodent, resembling a capybara with a mustache, its fur was dark red, equipped with a knight’s armor that seemed made of metallic paper, and having a fat belly. Its equipment was a small round shield and a rapier. Weirdest of all, the short creature started to speak.
“Oh my, oh my, what a curious bunch, let be courteous, my fellow knights. My gracious name is Percival. A tea may be in order, oh I forgot to take one of my teapots. Would one of you be a dear? Maybe you, my muscled, oiled, shining friend, you seem like a chevalier, with the right ingredients I could make one of my famous honey biscuits, I could even give you the—”, the muscled man shows rage for the first time and start shooting, “KILL THEM ALL, KILL THEM ALL”, the leader shoots maddened, his teammates obliges.
The first to fall was the woman, with enormous eyes, not knowing anything about what was happening about. She was firstly shot in her stomach, but shots to the head soon followed. The being called Percival was shot more on its big belly, the armor not making any difference, blood flowed out from the gunshots, but soon after leaving the body, the blood and meat were transformed in white sparks, until it all exploded in sparks as if it seemed to get enough damage, during all that the being didn’t move or react.
Claudius was the one to survive the most. His clothes were durable enough, even showing some kind of magic shielding to his head. Soon after the rodent vanished, a light appeared in his hand, but the shooting damage accrued as the Nulls reloaded expertly and taking turns reloading their guns, soon enough, the Hakama shielding vanished, some damage was done to the Hakama but his head was this first to buckle, exploding and gray matter spewing on the floor, the shining object in his hand flying out.
The shooting stops, giving way to silence. “That was…crazy”, said one of the Nulls, nervous, not lowering his gun.