Monster Brethren - Interlude - Dragon's Mound 

I parted way with Haris and his new and very unique acquaintances at the train station. I waved them goodbye and quickly gathered my things. That gunner had been sitting outside the building for days and had, had me pinned down. With Haris’s arrival he made a mistake and retreated for the time being. He’ll be back however and with more. I have little doubt that Haris’s electric force field thing freaked them out big time. It sure surprised the heck out of me. I suppose I should just be glad the kids alive. Even if he is an idiot more than half the time.

From behind the counter I grabbed my bag and slung the strap of my rifle over my shoulder. I hated taking the big guns out in front of the kid because he always seemed to freak out and I actually really wanted to see how the hulk's cousin. Welcome I think his name was, weird name. I wanted to see how effective his hand cannon that mimicked a handgun was. Though the caliber of the thing was so ridiculous it’d rig my damn arm off if I’d tried to shoot the stupid thing; it seemed to work surprisingly well for the big guy. Not sure why you’d need a caliber that large though. 

Rummaging through my bag I pulled out a box and took a few round for my hunting rifle. I say hunting rifle but the things an old Mosin-Nagant I got for gun enthusiast cred. It was a nightmare trying to get it past customs but eventually I managed to pass it off as a hunting rifle. Even got a few hundred rounds for it and the whole lot of it only cost me a few hundred dollars. Worth all the trouble it caused me with having to get the licenses for it. Yeah, multiple licences, I had to get a hunting license, then a hunting rifle license, then a license for storing rifles in my home, followed by a bullet license for the 7.62x54R rounds and lastly another license so I could actually fire the damn thing called an active fire rifle license. Australian gun license laws have just been getting more and more ridiculous ever since all those nut jobs started shooting up schools. Fuck those guys because they make everyone else with a gun look like a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode.

I loaded up a magazine to capacity and stored it in my jacket pocket. Loading another a slapped it into the rifle and slung my bag over my shoulder. I just have the classic magazines for the Mosin-Nagant, five rounds per mag before reloading. After using up both I’d need some time to dig into my backpack and refill them from my ammo box I have weighing down my bag like a block of lead. Yeah, yeah I get it, it’s stupid the carry it around like that but where the fuck am I gonna put it where I have easy access to the stuff? Unlike Haris I go through the dangerous streets much more often, put my life on the line with nothing but my itchy trigger finger to rely on. I can’t even count the number of retarded wannabe gang-bangers I’ve shut down in the last three fucken years. Before all this shit happened I'd just finished my holiday and was at the airport to catch a plane over to the orbital elevator and be stationed on another ship for the next ten years to do God knows what. They wouldn’t tell me but the rumor mill amongst the people I talk with were saying I was being sent to the frontline. Maybe I dodged a bullet in that regard but it would have been more meaningful to die fighting fucking aliens than to die at the hands of these fuck-ups.

If not for Haris I’d run over to the military and report for duty right this second. I’d have a lot of explaining to do and I’d be in a lot of trouble; but I’d come out the other end. My father’s doing everything he can to make sure I don’t however. Once he’d found out I’d befriended Haris he’s had people shadowing him everywhere he went so that with a single phone call he could have him killed. This is what I get for becoming friends with an idiot. I sighed and shook my head at my blissfully stupid friend. Why do I even care for the stupid kid? He’s so ignorant I feel like I’m gonna have a seizure just thinking about it. 

Before leaving I made sure my pistol was loaded, I’d hate to reach for it and realize I hadn’t loaded the damn thing. I ducked out of the building and quickly made it to cover by store front. I heard a few people shout and the zip of a bullet flying through the air before it struck the concrete footpath near my feet. I edged back further into cover behind the brick of the storefront and worked on smashing in a corner of the bulletproof glass. It took a little effort but within twenty seconds I’d managed to smash and bend the multi-layered plastic, glass and reactive gel that made up the clear screen. I ran through the empty store to it’s back door and could actually heard my muscles creak as I tensed them and kicked the door straight off it’s hinges. I took the entire door frame and some of the brickwork down with the door and ran through the disturbed dust towards a back alley across the street. Bullets zipped by but mostly struck the asphalt as I ran faster than humanly possible. My eyes contracted as I ran a corner and came up on a ganger running to cover or maybe away from me. A gravely rumbling escaped my throat as I rose my rifle and shot a single round center mid-back between the shoulder blades, severing his spine. He dropped to the ground with a weak groan and didn’t move.

I cocked the rifle and pulled back the bolt the let loose the spent round before pushing it back to load the next. Fluidly I spun on another joker on the roof top who’d only just noticed I wasn’t across the street anymore and shot mid-left upper chest. Collapsing the left lung and potentially destroying the heart. He dropped off the store rooftop and stopped moving shortly after. My ears twitched as i heard boot scuffing dirt on concrete. I lept halfway up the two story store and dug my fingers into the brickwork of the wall before scurrying up to the rooftop. I came up on a store keepers rooftop garden and ducked down amongst from flowers and pot plants. I kept low as I’d immediately noticed an idiot who wasn’t paying attention a few rooftops away with some kind of scoped rifle. I couldn’t tell from this distance but it’s intention was clear. I gripped my rifle and slowed my breathing as I aimed down the iron sights of my rifle. He was near six-hundred meters which was way further than I was comfortable to aim with just an iron sight actually I wasn’t comfortable aiming with iron sights at anything further than sixty meters. My sight was never incredible but the military's combat suits visor adjusted for prescription automatically so it was never an issue until I found myself needing to make accurate shots without it. After a few slow breaths I pulled the trigger, it struck him in the arm and I cursed. Quickly I pumped the rifle and fired again after taking a short moment to slow my breathing again. This one struck the lip of the buildings brickwork and I cursed again. Screaming he dragged himself into cover and didn’t bother trying to retrieve his rifle which had fallen off the rooftop during his screaming.I’d have to watch him incase he decided to retrieve his rifle. For now however I couldn’t afford to not keep moving.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I gripped the brick fence of the rooftop and let myself fall from the second story. I landed on the concrete without any issues and scurried deeper into the back alleys towards where I’d heard some idiot shouting. Rounding a few corners I came across a group of three that were huddled up and keeping low. One was screaming into a phone calling for backup and during the panicked plea for help I heard they were North Band. As expected but nonetheless a sadistic smile stretched across my face with the confirmation. These sick fuckers, I’ll enjoy putting down these rabid dogs. Without another thought I walked out from the corner I’d been peaking around. One hand on my pistol and not even needing the stability of two hands I fired a rifle round into the phone guy. He was too pathetic so I figured I’d put him out of his misery. The other two jumped at the gunshot and screamed when they realized their friend was dead, really too pathetic. Without giving them a chance to defend themselves I swung my rifle to my back and brought up my my other hand and fired two to three rounds in each of their chests. Not really caring whether or not they died quickly I ran up and kicked away each of their guns before leaving the alley.

I stood for a moment in silence as I listened for any signs of movement of breathing. I closed my eyes and slowed my breath until I couldn’t heard anything at all but the wind and the rumble of clouds in the distance. It wouldn’t rain here today those clouds were destined for somewhere else. I knew so because the air didn’t smell like rain. The air tended to have a pungent smell when it was going to rain but I never knew how to describe it. My mother always said it was my aboriginal blood that let me smell the rain before it came but I didn’t believe in that hocus pocus mysticism crap. I was a hard fact kind of girl and one very critical fact I’ve learned is that magic is real. I scowled and refocused my mind, now wasn’t the time to let it wander or to think about my mother misguided belief she was a shaman of some kind. I heard it, a rapid thumping, panicked and shaking breathing. The heartbeat stopped suddenly and I heard a scream. My eyes shot open and like a flash I turned and raised my scaled arm to shield my head and upper torso. I knew the right kinds of people and they weren’t far from here. I could survive until I got help if it was a stomach wound. Shots fired one after another, after another. The bullets sparked brightly as the chipped off parts of my scales and deflected off to the sides. Don’t ask me why they spark like some kind of movie FX against my scales. My assailant emptied their entire clip on me and cursed when they saw me still standing. They’d only gone for head shots like every other dumb shit gangster that disgraced the earth by walking it’s surface.

I didn’t bother I trying to reload my pistol or reload my rifle. Instead I bolted forward and let loose four years of military training. The jackass wore all black and shades with slicked back hair and look as much like an idiot as he was. When I reached him however he smirked and vanished in a puff of black smoke. Magic or something? Rather than uselessly looking for him I reloaded my pistol and made sure a round was chambered. I was ready this time as the dumbass appeared behind me again. I shielded my head and upper torso again with my scaled arm and shot a few rounds in his general direction from over my arm. My scales sparked again as they chipped and deflected the bullets again and the shooting stopped. I peeked out from behind my arm and saw a bloodied dumbass sputting and coughing up blood and he slid to the ground. He looked at me like he couldn’t believe he’d just been shot and I sealed his ticket to who the fuck cares where with another bullet.

Without blinking an eye at the people I’d just killed I headed to the south of the city. Anyone who associates with the North Band isn’t worth mercy. Nor are they worth troubling myself over. If I were a bit crazier I’d say they didn’t even register as humans to me but I would be lying if I did say that. In the end when it came down to it they wanted me either dead or alive long enough for them to play with. They were the enemy and I needed to distance myself mentally from any guilt I might feel for killing other humans. This wasn’t the first group of idiots that thought they could get a shot in on me and wouldn’t be the last. 

End of Part 1___________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHOR comments: Just a shorter interlude part thingy this time. As you might be able to tell this was from the perspective of Ashley Timber. I decided to write this chapter because she won't be showing up around the MC for some time. I actually decided to write this about midway through the next chapter of the main story so... I ended up delaying a bit so I wouldn't be so rushed. I really wanted to just trying writing a pure action chapter though mostly and felt that Ashley with a Mosin-Nagant(Which in this setting is a slightly over four-hundred year old gun design made in the late 1500's and gives massive gun-nerd cred to anyone who owns a replica.) would be a good character for it. There will be more parts of this latter as Ashley doesn't show up again at all in this Arc.

As you might be able to tell! In addition to many things I am not confident in my action scenes. To me they always seems lacking in a lot of ways and at time I feel I'm missing the point to the entire battle. So I really have no confidence in my ability to write an interesting action scene as it is from what I have seen incredibly hard to do so.

Also I admit to maybe miscounting how many times Ashley shot her rifle and am just too lazy to reread and check to see whether she shot it more than five times. If she did indeed shoot it more than five time or even less than five times than that needs to be fixed. I'll do it another time though because I'm sleepy and need them sweet Z's.

Before I go I just wanted to say that the gun law stuff in this chapter is a load of bullshit and I actually know nothing about gun laws in Australia or any country. I just tried to think of something that I thought would be as convoluted and annoying as possible for gun owners. I actually know very little about guns so forgive me for the wrong use of gun terminology and such as I am an ignorant lout in regards to guns and many other things.