Now that there were only two of the Nihility members putting pressure on his current position, he was able to breathe a little easier. The drastic number advantage earlier was hell to deal with, but somehow he managed to live just barely long enough for at least one of them to make a crucial mistake. That third gunman made it all too easy for marksmen of his caliber to put him in the dirt. Granted, he wasn't sure if he would have even noticed him in time if it wasn't for his companion's apt warning.
Cipher didn't really know how she knew for sure. His best guess was that it might have had something to do with the voice in her head that she had mentioned earlier. It was definitely a useful property if that's how it operated, especially in the middle of a fight. There was a small pang of jealousy in his heart.
That dumbass, standing still in the middle of a firefight? I'll take it, I won't look the gift horse in the mouth.
Retreating back to his cover in the form of a rather large display table, he spared a quick glance over in the general direction of Kanashima's fight. It turned out that his partner was doing quite okay for herself, all things considered.Somehow, she got two of them tangled up with each other on the ground, and another one of them was already down and presumably taken out. He couldn't help but let out a quiet whistle at her quick stab on the grappler. Unfortunately he couldn't spare too much more time, the firing above him had just stopped, and the pause wouldn't last long.
Now that his opponents were reloading, at least presumably, he dropped his barrel on top of the paint samples, and he emptied his magazine while being conscious enough of his shots, leaving the last bullet in the chamber. Holding his position, a few beats passed before one of the remaining gunmen peeked around their pieces of cover. Looking around the adjacent item rack, his green eye was visible to Cipher just long enough for him to move his firearm over and squeeze the trigger.
At the movement, his assailant knew to duck behind the various store racks once again. None of them were too keen on taking a fairly large bullet to the skull, lest they end up like their brother in arms earlier. With his expertise, it was child's play for him to outpace the gang member's speed, especially with an obvious movement such as his. With a flash through the air his fairly large bullet embedded itself into his shoulder, eliciting a yell of pain. It was music to Cipher's ear, not that he enjoyed hurting other people.
Matching the victim of his latest ploy, he pulled his rifle back with him, fully covered by the display once more. It wasn't exactly what he was hoping for, but landing a shot would prove to be helpful nonetheless. Dropping his box magazine, periwinkle outlines appeared to wrap around the frame. Before the metallic casing hit the ground, the virus collapsed the highlights, taking the emptied magazine with it. Already in his other hand, the same luminescent strings formed into a new one, filled completely with more hollow points. Slamming the magazine back into the flared magwell of his rifle, he pushed the charging handle forward once again. He repeated the process to get a full magazine, replenishing the missing bullet.
Okay, something's gotta change. Kanashima's doing well, but I don't like the look of that big guy. Definitely a combat Intrinsic, but what is it?
Considering he was a bare knuckle fighter, the big guy likely had some sort of formal training, possibly as a boxer or some other type of upper body martial artist. Simple Intrinsics for people of that type have been things that had made them extremely nimble, strong, durable, or all three. He definitely wasn't super nimble, him tussling on the floor with his subordinate made it super clear. With his large build, Cipher was leaning more towards durability being his specialty. He already had the build of a burly man, and his fists looked rougher than the concrete outside. Opening his own personal armament panel, he stared at the red lights inside of his eye, scrolling through the options. Pictures appeared on the right side, each pertaining to the items inside.
[Armaments:]
[Nessie]
[Silent Speaker]
[Pathfinder]
[Call of the Ghost]
[Healthy Reserves]
[Darkbloom]
[Shattering Spike]
Looking over the decent collection of tools at his disposal, his blue eyes immediately went to the vehicle near the bottom of the list. Immediate imaginary visions of summoning his sports car to plow through the remaining guys was absolutely hilarious, but there was no way he would be able to manage that. On a more serious note, he turned his attention toward the top of the list. Three of the four armaments making up the top half were guns of various sizes, the picture depicting Pathfinder being the one that he currently held in his gloved hands. Silent Speaker was the pistol he was using in the tailor's waiting room earlier, and it was one of her personal favorites. An armament that was able to completely mute the sound of shooting a firearm was incredibly helpful. Finally, his eyes lined up with the last one on the list, his thin lips curling upward.
I think it's time to finally bring her out. If you're going to spend the money on a driver, gotta swing for the fences.
Sending a mental command to summon Call of the Ghost, the panel dissipated into scarlet wisps once more. At the same time, next to his position behind cover, the virus began building the frame of the armament. After several seconds, the core expanded to fill out the skeleton with gunmetal grey tones, finishing with a sturdy, dark wood stock resting on the ground.
She still looks so pretty.
The entire firearm was incredibly large, so much so that it felt inappropriate to call his Pathfinder a long gun. The heavy class weapon was almost double the length of his main rifle. Combined with the sizable scope on top, it was abundantly clear that this was part of the sniper category of weapons. The stopping power that the large caliber generates would hopefully be enough for the captain of this Nihility group.
Running his hand across the finish of the barrel, his smile only grew wider. When Serafin went with him to purchase the sniper rifle, they tried to go to shooting ranges to give it a firing test, but no place allowed such a high powered armament in their facilities. The person selling it found it in one of his excursions through ALFA terminals, but guns weren't a good fit for him. Thus, the beauty had never been fired before, and Cipher was incredibly excited to be the first person to do the honors.
First, he had to deal with the two individuals on him. Raising his main weapon once more, he fired off a couple shots where his opponents were taking cover. After shooting twice, he paused, hoping to get clued in on what they would do next. Suddenly, three bodies began rushing his position behind the table, unpredictably shifting from side to side in an attempt to survive the charge. The erratic movements put his long range rifle at a disadvantage, but he should still be able to land a decent shot.
Wait, three? Fuck!
He didn't exactly know where the third guy came from, but at least he wasn't holding a pistol. He pushed off the table, sliding against the floor toward them as he tried his best to put more distance between them. There was no time to pay attention to the explosions happening on his right, all he could do was pray that Kanashima was holding up somewhat okay against the captain.
Ahh fuck, fuck, the sniper!
Letting Pathfinder dangle from the sling, he picked up the heavy sniper rifle by the stock and dragged it with him. He had to shift Call of the Ghost a few times in his arms before it sat about as comfortably as a sniper rifle could. He had held a different one before, but the armament was so much heavier. A whole twenty kilograms, if he recalled the description correctly.
The additional man was up on him way faster than he expected. His body shape didn't allude to him being speedy, but through one of his properties, Cipher could see the influence of an Intrinsic perk flowing through his legs. He hadn't encountered many speed type Intrinsics, but he had a good idea of how to stop one, hopefully. As long as he could recover from the surprising burst of speed and lock him into a bind, then he could hopefully get a shot in with one of the huge rifles.
Only problem. How the fuck do I lock him up?
There was no time to consider his options, the speedster was up on him and ready with an overhead strike with his sword. Instinctively, he threw up the piece of equipment in his hands, the huge rifle, to intercept the blade before it cut him down. Steel clattered against steel, and miraculously, he was able to hold him back with just that connection. Looking around desperately for an option, he dropped his left foot back and planted it into the ground. Lowering the firearm to lean him closer, he retaliated with his boot.
The question mark kick caught his opponent off guard, the harsh blow to the head knocking him to the ground. He couldn't waste even a second or else his two teammates would be interrupting their engagement. Flipping Call of the Ghost back in his hands, he pressed it into his shoulder tight. Without a need to look down the magnifying scope, he pointed the long barrel loosely in the man's direction, and squeezed the trigger. Wisps of periwinkle electrons were expelled from the massive rectangular muzzle break.
The first thing everybody noticed was the incredibly loud, ear ringing crack at least double the decibel level of his primary firearm. The dissonant sound continued to reverberate through the store, shaking even the shelves closest to them. His two other adversaries stopped in the middle of their charge, electing to crouch slightly whilst pressing their palms into their ears. Cipher wanted to do the same, but he couldn't afford to drop the sniper rifle, not yet.
His victim felt much stronger consequences than just ringing ears. Getting shot by an anti material sniper rifle from barely two meters away was not something he thought would happen to anybody, let alone himself. The huge caliber bullet blasted through his singular plate of protection on his chest and shattered it into fragments. The chestpiece couldn't slow the high velocity bullet anywhere near enough, having it rocket through his chest cavity next. Despite missing every vital organ and highly lethal location, his victim was very much dead from the impact. The corpse flew up into the air, doing half a flip before falling back down.
The exit wound was much more gruesome than the entry bullet hole. A long horizontal tear ran from one side to the other across the middle of his back, revealing a completely shattered spine and ribcage. Bone fragments stuck out everywhere, even spilling out with the large amount of blood leaking on the ground.
Holy fuck. That was overkill.
After watching their brother in arms get brutally executed, they each took a step back. Hesitation and fear dripped from their eyes. One of them looked just about ready to turn tail, while the other one was shaking, almost about to cry from the bloody display. They may have both been able to scurry on out, never looking back, if their captain's voice didn't freeze them in their place.
"What the hell are you idiots doing? She's one fucking girl, get her!"
Kanashima? What the hell, where are you?
Unfortunately, he didn't have any time to look around for his partner. The combat Intrinsic joining the fight was already bad enough on the surface, he had to ignore the implications of Kanashima's status until he himself managed to get out of here. Spending the lull in their fight to produce two more anchor points on his weapon sling, he hooked them onto the heavy rifle. Carrying the weight was not something he was particularly excited to do, but it had to be done. He had to keep Call of the Ghost summoned in the likely event he needed to use it against the captain.
Fuck! Please, be okay! Shit.
Picking up the military saber that clattered to the ground after his shot, he gripped it tight in his gloved hands. Flicking it to the side, he had to make use of this to stand up to the onslaught he was about to receive from the remaining Nihility. He wasn't trained nearly as much with blades as some of the other Wild Eyes members under Serafin, but it had to be enough. Breaking into a dead sprint forward, hopefully he could take care of at least one of them before the explosive Intrinsic closed the distance.
Afraid, but still standing there, the two of them raised their pistols up to a firing position once more. Their barrels danced in the air, shaking so much that no matter how much they tried, there was no possible way for them to line up a shot in those conditions. Still, they attempted to fire, but it was way off the mark. Their fright allowed Cipher to get up close and personal with the single edged blade to one of them.
Ha, gotcha!