GalvanGal dropped off the injured soldiers at the port then bolted back into the clouds to waltz across the sky. The mall was not far, but every second counts, especially with what she heard in the distance
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The other soldiers had begun the evacuation when Zhang arrived but there were far fewer of them than was planned. They had the fugitive’s face and, while mall security helped direct the crowd, anyone coming out would have to go through the perimeter. But now it was certain that they had to contend with far worse than some beast: if the Yao-Guai have already begun their attack, then they were surely about to launch the next phase, and surely he would be here. Victory here is revenge for the fallen. Victory here is redemption for humiliation. Victory here comes before all else. Now, with Zhang, victory was assured, no matter what vileness is thrown their way.
A snap launched a bullet from a rooftop. From the very moment it left the barrel, the bullet passed through water vapor. Usually, the imperceptible gaseous molecules would be run over by velocity and mass, but here, across fractions of a second, each molecule clung to the bullet until molecules became droplets and droplets became liquid and liquid became a stream that slowed the bullets course until it submerged into a waterfall. The bullets poured out of the mall, restrained all the same by water, as Zhang plucked out the first round aimed at his head and crushed it in his hand. The crowd was in a rush now, flowing around the trucks that the soldiers hunkered behind, but the fugitive could wait, for there was a much greater evil to put down.
Once most of the path was clear of civilians, Zhang led the march forward under the cover of a water sheet that doused all incoming fire. There were still more people inside, but the thugs continued to fire with reckless abandon. To the untrained eye, it would seem useless to fire into a barrier that nullified all attacks and barbaric to hold human shields, but Zhang was taught very well that every bit of energy mattered when it came to the war of tomorrow. Even as he entered and launched upon each thug in jet streams while his soldiers directed and weaved around the civilians as they followed to support him, he knew this was all just to soften them up for the real battle to come.
The soldiers in the other parts of the mall did not have the will of water to support them, but their cybernetic implants gave them the edge over common criminals. Thanks to sensory implants, they calmly aimed through stocked aisles, kiosks, storefronts, and panicked civilians while under fire from pistols and submachine guns. A bullet to the vest would stagger a man, but their internal stabilizer let them keep forward without a misstep or skipped heartbeat. When one of the criminals ran alongside the civilians to stab an officer, the adrenals and hydraulics gave that officer the strength to overpower his attacker while coagulants closed the wound after he pulled out the knife
Despite these advantages, the mall was a death trap with many floors above and below for hostels to attack from all angles. They would all meet at the emergency rendezvous point and drown out the vermin floor by floor until the true threats are flushed out to be eradicated.
That would have been the plan, if the crack of thunder had not interrupted them. At the roar of the sky, Zhang redirected the soldiers with him to the underground floors, where the fugitive was reported to be. As much as he wanted to put down the criminals, he did have his orders, and without the Bull Demon in sight, the most important order was not to let anyone else neutralize the fugitive. If the American and the Yao-Guai take each other out, all the better.
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When the shooting started, hundreds were still coming down from the upper floors that were now stranded by the armed men that roamed amongst them. Without any explicit threats, they were hostages in all but name, forced to cower as gunshots rang beneath them.
Many were still on the rooftop, some locked inside the cabins of the Kaohsiung Eye. The triads that were once interspersed amongst the visitors, now distinguished themselves with bullet-proof vests and assault rifles. They were able to get out the heavy gear thanks to the meat shields down below and awaited the signal to mop up the mainlanders. A lightning storm reached down to seize the rifles from their hands. Before the guns hit the floor, GalvanGal struck down a dozen gangsters.
Unarmed as they were, the others still charged at her without so much as a flinch of hesitation. From that, even she could tell they were no ordinary thugs. They may not have been inducted into the Immortals, but these were true believers, or at least, trained and experienced professionals. They’ve been ready for this the whole time, both her and the police forces. They were no threat to her yet she still felt like this was all one big trap that entangled her the longer it went on.
While she dispatched the ones that closed in on her, they bought time for the others to pick up their rifles. While bullets bounced off of GalvanGal, even a ricochet could be a death sentence for other people. The triads were too spread out and mingled amongst the civilians to attack directly. So, before the coud get a single shot out, she stomped out an amethyst concert that spread across the rooftop in a flash to lift everyone off their feet. The triads were lifted higher and too disorientated to take aim, which left them wide open to be tazed unconscious. After opening up the cabins of the ferris wheel, GalvanGal moved the Amethyst concert off the roof to the relative safety of the streets.
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Only one person remained on the rooftop, one person that was too heavy to be lifted by a little magnetism—or rather, had too much magic to be influenced by soft power. They were covered up head to toe so she could make out any features. Whatever their name was, GalvanGal landed a couple meters away from them, because despite whatever everyone else had to say about them, all she saw was shivering in fear like the rest of the people were. She held her hands up as she approached them, stopping whenever they shuffled away. Their was still fighting in the rest of the mall, but this took precedence, this is what caused the mess.
“Hey,” she began, “there’s alot of people tearing up the city over you, or really, they don’t care about you, they just want a fight and they’re willing to tear you apart to get it. If you stay here, that’s exactly what will happen. But it doesn’t have to go that way. I can take you away from here and protect you and put a stop to this. I don’t know what happened to you but I know that I’m the only one here that wants to help you. I can only do that if you let me.”
They were still fidgety but they let GalvanGal get close. Close enough for her to reach out to them. They raised their head, lowered their mask, and unleashed a sonic screech that near ruptured GalvanGal’s sharp eardrums. Stunned and still ringing, GalvanGal looked up at the Orca that towered above her wearing the stretched to tatters remains of the fugitive’s clothes. Maybe she should secure the target first and do the talking later; that was the last thought she had before a whale-sized double axe handle pummeled her through the ceiling down a well-hole of the mall and crashed into the Hello Kitty section.
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Zhang and the handful of soldiers that were with him combed over the hallways of the underground floors. The few civilians they met fled to safety but there were no enemy combatants for four floors. On the last floor, only the hum of abandoned store infrastructure kept them company for a while. When they did find the enemy, Zhang sent his entourage back upstairs as they would be helpless in this setting. The Bull Demon, armor black as knight and horns perpetually drenched in blood, rose from his throne of mangled corpses taken from the war and brandished the large chui mace that broke many before. GalvanGal may have been a competitor but in front of Zhang was the menace of the people. All his purpose, training, and enhancements were to be rid of this threat. With the strength of the river dragon, he could not fail.
The Bull raised his mace and swung; the head detached from the shaft on a chain to extend its range. Zhang let loose a dragon torrent to devour the mace head, but instead it ate through the water faster than when it was swung and smashed into Zhang's forearm with the force of a cannonball. Blocking that left him reeling off his footing, which allowed the Bull to charge, clearing the distance in an instant to shoulder Zhang into a clothing outlet.
Zhang barely untangled himself from the garish and tacky dress before he lept out of the way of the mace that slammed to crack across the whole store. The Bull rushed through clothing racks, the register counter, and even the dressing room walls to maintain his relentless assault. Back against the wall, Zhang watched for the Bull to charge again so that he could slide across a stream of water under the Bull and get out of the store into the open hallway space.
“Not as ready as you thought, little snake,” said the Bull as he trampled over the store ruins, “your false bravery will run dry and your blood will freeze in your veins.”
Zhang aimed the Bull himself this time. As he came out of the store, two dragons bit down on his ankles while another pair snapped onto his wrists to chain him in place long enough for a flying kick to his hand that knocked the mace out of his grip. Zhang fell backward but was upon the Bull again with a tide of strikes that each weighted a tsunami, for nothing less would penetrate the unbreakable black armor.
The next kick was aimed at his stomach but landed into sludge that reached out to grip Zhang’s boot. As Zhang struggled to pull out, the bull opened his palm.
“Both immortals and earthlings forget,” said the Bull as the mace flew back to his hand, smashing apart the dragon on the way, “this armor is alive and shaped by will.”
Zhang had unlaced and pulled out his foot from the boot in time to dodge the mace that slammed down once again. The dragons fell away at the same time the armor released the boot. The mace was swung back up, this time with the chain released, and he had another narrow dodge, then another when the head was reeled back to the shaft. The Bull avoided the dragon that crept up behind him, but it merely brought the boot back to Zhang so he could put it back on.
Faintly, in the distance, the bull heard something burst. Then many things began to burst around him, but beyond his sight. He followed the sound of running water to see a spill come out of a nearby restaurant. Then he felt the wetness at his feet as a spill came from under the door of the nearby bathroom. The bathroom door soon erupted forth a flood that mauled him. Though it did not harm him, the whole floor rapidly rose in sea level that clamped around his calves like wet cement. Zhang flowed through the pool to plant a roundhouse on his muzzle then deftly evaded a swing from the mace to land before he returned to land an axe kick.
His limp arm allowed the mace head to dip into the water as the Bull seemed dazed from the pressure that pierced his helm. Zhang dove in with another kick aimed to topple the monster, but the Bull twisted his body to gorge the leg on his horns. They did not pierce all the way through, but the horns hooked themselves in the wound and the Bull raised his head to hoist Zhang up, his body dangled on one leg. Zhang used his free arms to direct the pool water into dragon jets with enough pressure to cut steel. The Bull was unmoved, for his flesh was beyond the steel of this world.
“Useless. Helpless. I will crucify you on the coast so you and your world can watch each other die.”
The water swirled around the mace head as if it circled into a drain. Soon the pool across the floor became a tumultuous whirlpool that thrashed against the mall infrastructure like a riotous stampede. When the mace finally swung up, it bashed in Zhang’s face with the weight of the ocean, tore him off the horns, and launched him four floors to bust through ceramic tiles, soar in the air, and crash land on a hello kitty kiosk.