Chapter 59: Guns Lead to Glory ~ 1
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"Anton, the fucker ran and left us for dead!"
"Leave him, Irvin!"
Anton had shouted the order right when Irvin had been about to turn to give chase to the man they had found in here.
Seriously, it had been a shock right up there with the explosion of the car to have found him here. Thinking about it now, perhaps that car crash had even been caused by him.
But right now, with the scream of the second gnoll rumbling down the street, none of that really mattered, and neither did the guns, especially if the man was the one responsible for the car crash.
After all, there was just not enough time for him to have moved so many guns out of the building in the few minutes that it had taken them to come down the building.
Anton had there grabbed Basil—the older man—by the shoulder and pushed him back from the shutter.
"Stay inside and see if he comes back."
Basil had finished the last of the ammunition that he had in their last fight a while ago.
Right now he would only be putting his life at far too unnecessary a risk if he tried to help them.
Basil opened his mouth, but Anton was already past him, and the look on his face made it clear there was nothing to discuss.
Irvin cussed harshly under his breath, and he went after Anton without hesitation, slipping through the gap in the shutter and out onto the street.
However, the woman hadn’t moved much.
She had taken a step toward the opening and then stopped, her hands balled at her chest, her breathing short and quivering.
Through the gap she could see the street, and on it stretched the shadows of two figures, cast by moonlight, which she had been praying she wouldn’t have to see up close again.
"Irvin, hold the one on the left," Anton called out as he stepped further into the road, "Keep it busy until we’re done."
Irvin didn’t answer, but he was already gone, moving toward it at a sprint, and behind them, in his hand, from flecks of blue light that began to condense, a dagger began to take shape within the second.
"Madeline!"
She flinched at Anton shouting her name.
Anton hadn’t turned around to say it; his eyes were fixed on the gnoll to the right that was now closing the distance toward them with long, loping strides, but the sharpness in his voice cut through the fear that had locked her legs in place.
She stepped out through the shutter and raised her hands.
The gnoll was fast. It covered the thirty metres in seconds, and Anton met it head-on.
He braced himself and caught the first swing of its arm against both of his forearms, and the impact drove his feet backwards across the concrete, a pained grunt escaping him from the hard punch.
The sound of it was like something heavy striking metal.
He pushed back, and the gnoll’s arm slid off of him. It snarled and came again, and this time Anton didn’t brace. He stepped into it, and his fist connected with the creature’s ribs.
The air around his knuckles cracked with the force of Berserk Impact, a red aura concentrating through his body, filling it with strength, and the gnoll was thrown sideways, tumbling across the road before catching itself on all fours almost immediately.
A wild, amused cackle escaped its maw, and Anton shouted once more.
"Madeline, now would be good!"
She had been standing there with her quivering hands raised and ahead of her, and her mana pooled in her blue aura-glowing palms, but she hadn’t fired off the form of the ability that had primed itself right ahead of her palm.
The gnoll was too fast, immediately pushing Anton once more, where they broke into several more blows, and in those attacks, Anton was too close to it.
"Hurry it up over there!" She flinched at the sound of Irvin’s demand from behind them.
"I can’t get a clear shot with you right there!"
Anton threw himself to the side as the gnoll lunged again, its claws raking the air where his chest had been.
He rolled and came up on one knee, and for a brief moment the gnoll was standing alone in the open, its back partially turned toward Madeline as it tracked Anton’s movement.
"Now!"
"Mana Burst!"
The mana in her hands compressed into a cone, and she released it, sending it hurtling through the air, spilling trails of blue mystical aura.
The burst hit the gnoll in the side, sending a burst of its blood out as the force of it staggered the creature sideways, tearing through the fur and flesh along its ribs.
It howled and whipped around toward her, and for a second she saw its eyes lock onto hers with all of the amusement bled out of its expression, oozing rage.
Anton by this point, was already back on his feet.
He came in from behind while it was turned and drove another Berserk Impact into the base of its spine.
The gnoll’s legs buckled, and it went down onto its knees, and before it could recover, he hit it again, this time in the back of the skull.
The crack echoed down the street and the gnoll slumped forward onto the concrete, twitching once before it went still.
Anton stood over it, breathing hard, his forearms bruised and already swelling. Then he turned toward where Irvin had gone.
Meanwhile, Irvin had put himself between the second gnoll and the direction the others had gone, but the moment it turned to face him fully, he understood that this one was different from the last one that he had barely been able to fight.
It was bigger than the other, broader in the shoulders, and it didn’t immediately charge the way that he had been expecting it to.
It came at a gradual, mocking pace while watching him, and when it had closed the distance enough that it had perhaps judged that he wouldn’t have been able to dodge unscathed, it lunged forward powerfully.
It swing was fast enough that he only barely got out of the way of taking the full impact
Irvin’s lips pursed tight as he threw himself back, and he muttered beneath his breath, "Shroud."