Ada shifted her head, the serrated blade slicing her cheek as bullets ripped through the space she’d just been.
“GET YUN TO SAFETY!” Ada ordered, Kamila taking off as manic laughter closed the distance.
Ada spun, her nodachi spinning to deflect several shots as her blade swiped the air where the laughter was.
Her assailant leapt back, avoiding the arc of the weapon with a laugh as Ada readied her weapon.
In front of her, was what appeared to be a woman wearing an exaggerated black maid outfit, a pale girl who was barely at Ada’s height with half her face obscured by a white mask with a pawn-shaped crest carved into its ivory surface.
In her hands, she held a jagged black dagger, one that glowed and sent alarm bells ringing through Ada’s mind. Whatever it was, it was dangerous.
“Oh hey! I recognize that blade! That thing belonged to Number five!” The woman squealed, twirling in place with the hems of her maid skirt flowing upwards. “Did he cry like a little bitch when he died? Did he beg? Did he go on a sob story about his whittle faMAhRy?”
Ada narrowed her eyes, her vision split between her attackers and the skills of her weapon.
[GRADE/S: Legendary Artifact: Monohoshizao]
[Proficiency: 45/100]
[SKILL]: ????
[SKILL]: Temporal Concealment
[SKILL]: Mountain Strike
[SKILL]: Swallow Reversal
[SKILL]: Swallow Slash
[SKILL]: Blade of Elegance
[SKILL]: Multi-Dimensional Strike
[SKILL]: ????
[SKILL]: ????
[DESC]: A weapon made to replicate a legend that never existed.
Suddenly Ada’s weapon disappeared, the long blade turning invisible as Kamila helped up a barely conscious Yun and fled.
“Go after them. We don’t want any witnesses after all,” The Maid smiled, turning to Jena, the woman nodding and taking off.
Immediately Ada moved to intercept, but the Maid was on her, the woman’s serrated teeth filling Ada’s vision as her dagger slashed.
****
Scurrying in the darkness, Kamila could feel her heart pounding as bullets trailed her feet.
“Leav… me… the servos in my leg are shot, I can't run,” Yun coughed, held up by Kamila who craddled the woman in her arms as she applied healing mana to her.
“N-no! I’ve got you!” Kamila retorted before another gunshot sounded, this time striking the nearby machinery beside her as she struggled to navigate the darkness.
“Stop running!” Jena called out, unloading several shots into the darkness with one grazing Kamila’s head and taking off her ear. Unlike Kamila who was basically running blind, Jena had night vision, her helmet painting her prey clearly in the pitch black.
“GO AWAY! I call upon the light of Order!” Kamila spat, turning and firing two bolts of mana at her pursuer who casually dodged the first ball of light with the second striking her with seemingly no effect.
Jena paused, shaking her head and tapping her visor before firing a salvo at Kamila who conjured a mana barrier to shield both her and Yun before turning down a bend.
“Tsk Fucking rodents,” Jena spat.
Kamila took a moment to catch her breath, propping Yun against a wall and activating mend, her healing skill slowly stitching up the woman.
“My gun… Kami. My gun. Give me my gun and leave me to go help Ada. Your level of magic won't work against her armor,” Yun said, prompting Kamila to shake her head.
“No, If I don’t heal you you’ll die!” Kamila retorted, feeling the woman’s injuries. With the flechettes digging into Yun’s flesh, her recovery would be hindered until they could be removed, meaning her flesh would continue to bleed the entire time Kamila tried to heal her.
Both of them knew this, and so did Jena.
“My gun, just give it to me,” Yun said, shifting as she looked down, noticing her blood trail. “I’ll hold her off while you heal me then.”
“O-o-ok.” Kamila said, acquiescing and handing the woman her pistol tucked in her waistband. “Can you run at all?”
Yun shook her head, her helmet looking at her ruined metal leg. “Not on this-”
“You realize that I can see where you guys are going thanks to this trail of blood right?” Jena called out, attempting to provoke a response. “What? Can't talk all of a sudden? You were yapping nonstop just a minute ago Yun.”
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Yun leaned over, firing several shots into the darkness, prompting Jena to yell “Bitch!”
“Ok, that should buy us some time,” Yun huffed, letting out a groan upon Kamila plucking out several pieces of metal from the woman's thigh. “Gentle! I'm a delicate flower!”
“S-sorry!” Kamila replied, flinching as a bullet ricocheted off a nearby wall.
Yun winced, leaning over and firing another volley at Jena who ducked behind another set of machinery.
Suddenly a boom sounded, an explosion from nearby that illuminated the cramped generator room as an unfamiliar voice barked a laugh.
“How are you with guns?” Yun asked.
“N-not good,” Kamila frowned, causing Yun to squeeze her eyes shut for a moment beneath her helmet.
“Wait,” Yun's eyes snapped open, her eyes blinking rapidly and turning on her helmets processors.
Yun reached down, unclamping her robotic leg, the woman looking up at Kamila still bleeding from her shoulder wound with steam rising.
“Ok, okiely dokiely. I have a plan,” Yun said, taking off her helmet. “Help me up.”
****
Standing with her back pressed against a wall, Jena peaked around the corner of the wall, her helmet showing the world in a greenish hue that painted her surroundings clearly.
Behind her, flashes of light, Number Three clashing against Ada who was somehow holding her own against the mad Maid.
Ignoring the battle, Jena had her own fight to finish, one that had been four years in the making.
“Yun! Kamila! Come out! I can explain why I did what I did!” Jena called out, performing a tactical reload before stepping out with her weapon raised.
Suddenly her HUD lit up, displaying Yun’s IFF a few meters away in the darkness.
“I already know why you did what you did…” Yun sent back, her voice echoing through Jena’s helmet.
“Oh yeah?” Jena said, inching her way forward towards the electronic signature. “And why's that?”
Jena furrowed her brow, eyeing the bit of metal that was Yun’s prosthetic leg peeking from around a corner.
Figured the girl just left her and ran. Typical high born mage. Jena said to herself before she paused.
“Cuz you were always a bitch,” Yun spat.
“Yeah… I get that,” Jena replied before she turned the corner, gun firing twice as she pivoted to face her victim. “Too bad you-”
Jena went wide eyed, instead of hitting her former comrade, all she shot was concert flooring and a partially dismantled helmet left abandoned on the floor.
“Shit!” Jena spun to the sound of movement, just in time to take a bolt of mana to the chest, the air knocked out of her as she stumbled back, her night vision momentarily flared from the sudden brightness with her eyes blinking uncontrollably.
Immediately her arm came up, attempting to return fire, yet she found herself struck from behind, a thud hitting the floor before the roar of a handgun planted three 45acp rounds in her back.
****
As Jena Leslie's body hit the floor, Yun lowered her gun and released the microphone in her hand, sighing as she lay on the ground slick with her blood
“Yun!” Kamila called out, rushing to the downed soldier as the fighting in the background seemed to intensified.
“Go! Help Ada! I'm fine!” Yun yelled, ordering Kamila away towards the clashing of Ada against the maid. “I-I- I just… I just need to catch my breath.”
Kamila's jaw dropped, her eyes quivering at the sight of Ada somehow regenerating at an extreme pace with the earrings she wore giving off a brilliant shine. But more than that, what surprised her more was the giant of a man she wasn't expecting to see, a warrior that held power similar to Jack.
Tenno.
The man was smirking, walking forward, the maid yelling obscenities at the unexpected foe who held Ada’s nodachi in his hand.
“You! You're supposed to be dead! The King said you were dead!” The Maid screamed, backing away, slashing at the air in a panic.
“Ah yes… tells of my death were very much… exaggerated,” Tenno laughed.
“You traitor! After everything we’ve done for you!” The maid exclaimed, retreating as Tenno advanced.
“Go on. Run, you know I like a good chase,” Tenno said, allowing the maid to flee much to everyone's surprise.
The maid hesitated for a moment, face scrunching up with at the indignation before turning and fleeing.
“Why?! Why are you letting them get away!” Ada screamed.
Tenno shrugged.
“It's funner this way,” Tenno smirked before kicking off after his fleeing prey. Ada took off as well, chasing the duo, leaving Kamila behind who spun towards Yun only for her eyes to go wide.
“Yun!” Kamila ran forward, rolling the woman over, her body barely illuminated under the red emergency lights.
Immediately Kamila's hands came back slick, the woman's wounds bleed profusely from the flechettes still stuck in her flesh.
But more than that, Kamila could feel the woman's life force leaking beneath the armor, prompting Kamila to tear off Yun's chest plate, the piece of armor saturated in warm crimson.
“No! No! Nonononono!” Kamila let out, horrified, realizing from the angle of the buckshot wound it had bypassed Yun's armor from her armpit. “Yun! Yun! Corporal!”
No response. Kamila attempted to heal the woman, to mend. But between a use of soothe, four mana bolts, three attempts at mending, and her injury being healed with cure, she barely had enough mana to activate the skill.
Still, it didn't matter. Wouldn't matter. Yun was bleeding internally and externally. Perhaps the only one able to save her being Jack who was-
*BOOM!*
Suddenly the world around Kamila erupted in a fiery explosion, her eyes going wide as flames moved to consume her.
“AH!” Kamila screamed, hands raised, her heart leaping out of her chest as the explosives left behind by the maid consumed her…
A moment passed.
Then another. Kamila sitting in mute shock with her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the heat to take her.
Yet it didnt.
Kamila slowly opened her eyes, blinking rapidly, a translucent barrier enveloping her, with a brilliant shine coming from herself, she reached up, touching the earrings given to her by Selfia.
H-huh? “H-how?!” Kamila let out incredulously before another boom sounded.
Without warning, a loud thud echoed from above, almost like a battering ram slamming into a thick wall.
Kamila looked up, the ceiling consumed in flames, no path to escape, each second passing making it harder to breath.
Distraught, Kamila looked down, hand placed on Yun’s body.
“If only I was stronger… i-im so sorry Mrs. Vichet,” Kamila cried, futilely attempting CPR despite knowing Yun was gone. “I’m! Sorry!”
“KAMILA!”
Kamila froze, turning, tear in her eyes as the flames parted to reveal…
Jack.
He was there, the concrete floor gone, her eyes going round as his muscular form hovered in the air like a godsent angel.
Kamila's jaw dropped, an indescribable feeling blossoming in her chest as tears fell from her eyes.
“J-j-jack!”