Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 222

I staggered back, shuddering as I felt yet another bullet tear through my thigh as I failed to dodge. They’d swapped to live rounds after their attempt to flush me out. Unfortunately, it looked like they were finally starting to see me as an actual opponent. Or so the several flesh wounds all over my body told me.

I flew through open space, using the shadows to my advantage as I repositioned away from the shots once more. Mid-move, I pulled a handful of knives and through them up. To a casual observer, it might’ve looked like they were just carelessly thrown.

They weren’t.

Each knife flew up, hitting the anchor points of a freight crane built into the warehouse. They perfectly struck to snap the components holding a raised shipping container in the air. With a loud screech, the container dropped onto the squad shooting at me, sending debris and a cloud of dust everywhere to further hide my movements.

I ducked into an open shipping container, pressing on my wounds to the best of my abilities as I listened to the faint steps of the search squads. I was running out of tricks to pull. Slowly but surely, they were starting to corner me.

Wrapping my newest wound proved to be a hassle with one arm and one eye. I checked my supplies as I wrapped up the bandage. Of course, my tricks weren’t limited to just a few. Although I was running out, I still had a pool I could use to buy time. I may go down, but so would they if I had anything to say about it.

I pulled out my pistol loaded with Blaze rounds and eyed the shipping containers I’d checked beforehand. Specifically, the ones marked with highly flammable stickers. There was a reason most of these were inside, after all.

I hoped it wouldn’t come to this since the inherent volatility of fire could hurt me just as much as help me, but it would surely buy me time to think up my next plan. That, and I was starting to get extremely light-headed from the blood loss. My thoughts were sluggish even with Dexterity and Cold-Blood helping.

I carefully lined up the shot.

– – –

“Sir.” One of the Netrunners assigned to help them called out across the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. Inquisitor Ligh raised a hand, calling for a halt as he listened in. “Shoot out reported on the edge of the Ryu Container Yard. The call indicated a group matching the Circle’s description.”

The Inquisitor nodded at the Squire driving as he raised a hand to the walkie-talkie. “Send it to me.”

A moment later, the HUD on the inside of his mask flickered, revealing the warehouse's location. “All squads, new location. Expect heavy enemy presence.”

A chorus of confirmations came from the walkie-talkie as he called out the location. With the siren on their vehicle–an APC usually reserved for SWAT or high-risk situations–blaring, they swiftly closed the gap to their next location. Lightning flashed in the sky as the storm intensified, pounding the roof of the APC with harsh drops of rain.

Opposed to the storm raging outside the vehicle, the inside was absolutely silent. For once, Knight Persha kept her unwanted comments as she seemed to hype herself up for the coming fight. The other two Knights present and their Squires were likewise quiet.

“Shots fired! Enemy numbers are substantial. They’ve got some kind of tree monsters blocking the way! Requesting backup immediately!” A call came from one of the Knights who arrived ahead of them. Gunfire came across the crackling line as the Knight’s voice cut out.

Just as they were about to reach the wall, a massive explosion tore through the space. A bright flash of light illuminated the night sky as the frontside of a nearby warehouse exploded. The explosion even seemed to overpower the light of the city for a moment.

A plume of debris and dust rose into the air as a large shockwave passed through the area. The stone wall and the APC protected them, but the nearby buildings? Windows shattered all along the street.

“Damn… think she’s alright?” Hope asked as she stared up at the plume of dust. That wasn’t just a minor explosion. No one replied as the already tense mood wound even tighter.

“Sh-should I go around? It’ll take at least ten minutes to wrap back around here.” The Squire, one of Persha’s, asked hesitantly. “Or we could try to go over-”

“Shtop thinking sho much. We’re in an APC. Go right through it.” Ligh sighed. What were they teaching the new hires these days? Even more of a reason to get there quicker and save his Squire.

Persha laughed lightly as her hand gripped the pommel of her sword. “You heard the man. Seatbelts on, kids.”

The Squire seemed to struggle for a moment before shakily nodding his head. He slammed on the accelerator, allowing the APC to gain speed as they rapidly approached the exploded warehouse.

A head-on collision would be brutal. At least, normally. An unstoppable object meeting a relatively stable one would always cause some damage. And indeed, as the APC slammed into the wall full force, everyone in the vehicle felt that force jerk their bodies.

Thanks to several factors, though, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The Squire just so happened to drive and hit a section of the wall that had been heavily eroded, and the nearby explosion had sent quite a few pieces of debris flying into this particular spot, weakening it ever further.

The APC slammed through the stone wall, sending a spray of debris and stonework shooting out like a shotgun blast. As the APC rammed forward, crashing into a shipping container before stopping, they got their first view of the scene.

Put simply, it was a warzone centered around a half-collapsed and blazing warehouse. The fighting looked to be three ways. The Circle cultists held defensive positions scattered around the area while the Crusade attacked from several directions. As time passed, more and more members of the Blue Crusade spilled into the large-scale battle.

Then there was the third party: the civs. They were mercs, scavengers, and insane residents opportunistically rubbing their hands together as they watched like vultures. Some were there for greed, others for the thrill. Most, however, were Chasers set off to the sides as they watched the fight with bated breath.

Chasers. It was a laughable group. They were too weak or cowardly to get involved themselves, so they lived vicariously by flocking to sites of battles between the various factions of the city, like it was some kind of blood sport.

Usually, they stayed back and at a safe distance. Usually. Crusaders had been pulled to court far too many times for killing Chasers who walked into the middle of a firefight expecting to be fine. It was to the point that there were even laws now that waived the rights of Chasers who got too close.

In such a large-scale battle, keeping sight of the enemy and noticing who killed whom was difficult. It was the perfect chance for third parties to get involved, especially as they flocked to the explosion like moths to a flame. They needed to wrap this up quickly before it got even more out of hand.

About a dozen large tree monsters lay scattered around, flailing as fire clung to their bark and leaves. Several of them were grouped up, peeking over the shipping containers as they pounded at an unseen enemy. The rest were scattered about, throwing containers to assist or otherwise protect cultists as they fired at the encroaching Crusade.

A group of cultists stood on several containers pushed together, protected by a magic field as they worked on some kind of large scale magic.

Plants of various kinds were everywhere as if a magic fertilizer had been scattered through the area, most of them ablaze. The already low visibility thanks to the storm dropped even more thanks to the constant steam and smoke raising into the air.

“Darren and O’Neil, hit the cultishts from behind. Looksh like their gathering for a shummoning magic of some kind. Shtop it.” Inquisitor Light calmly called out orders to the two Knights and their Squires that came with them in the APC.

A heavily armored Knight raised his hand slightly. "Force?"

“Lethal ish authorized.” The Inquisitor paused for a moment before nodding his head. "Command wantsh to make an example."

“Roger.” The two knights replied, spilling out of the APC with their Squires.

Inquisitor Ligh hopped out a moment later. “Persha, with me. Clean up any shtragglers and hunt for Zuku.”

They group poured out, sprinting off to take care of their roles. Hope followed a moment later, whistling to the Jaeger in the APC. It stood up, jumping out as it raised its nose into the air. A moment later, it bounded off for the warehouse.

Inquisitor Ligh took the lead as a wind blew through, luckily pushing the smoke out of the way. “Shtay close behind me.”

The first group they ran into consisted of three men in tactical gear. They were severely wounded, looking as though they’d been flung from the warehouse by the explosion. Two of them tried to shoot at the Inquisitor, their guns jamming almost immediately. The last guy’s gun exploded in his hand. The shrapnel ended his life.

The Squires took care of the two momentary survivors as Inquisitor Light moved forward without stopping for even a moment. This scene repeated several other times as they charged into the warehouse.

Not every enemy had their gun malfunction, but it was barely a fight. One guy was unlucky enough to be crushed by a falling section of the roof. Another slipped in oil and was skewered through the neck by a metal pole. A grenade bounce back even took out a whole squad.

The half that didn’t suffer from horrible accidents proved no match to the group. Most were still stunned or concussed by the explosion, making it as easy as cleaving through butter. Add in Persha’s combat capabilities and the support of Squires, and the inside of the warehouse was rapidly cleaned up.

Not that any of that mattered to the Inquisitor. He simply walked forward, following the Jaeger as though nothing could hurt him. And indeed, nothing did. There were a few close calls, but nothing so much as touched his clothes as the enemy missed every shot.

The drain started to catch up with the Inquisitor as he followed behind the metal hound. The Jaeger pawed at a shipping container that had been blown against a wall, whining sharply. Its metallic voice alerted the group that it had encountered an obstruction blocking its way.

“I got it.” Persha stepped forward, activating her sword. It started to vibrate as she lightly cut into the shipping container, tearing apart its wall as if it were paper.

Just as the wall crumbled, several shots rang out as someone inside the crate opened fire. The bullets veered around the Inquisitor, several of them deflecting off of luckily falling rubble as they hit cultists that were about to ambush the group.

The Inquisitor stood still, staring at the one shooting at him without a reaction. It took several seconds to even figure out what he was looking at, almost as if the person's shape refused to make sense in his head. A slight haze surrounded the downed girl.

Zuku lay up against the back wall, gun clicking as she pulled the trigger a few more times. She was in a horrible state, blood dripping from almost every part of her body. His Squire was riddled with bullet holes. Her clothes were tattered, with long serrations and burns peaking out.

Her face was stained with soot, and blood constantly leaked from behind a vacant eyelid. The blood cleared a trail down her face before dropping to mingle with the rest of her wounds. Not even her limbs were spared, with one leg facing the wrong direction, and an arm ending in a burned stump. The hand was simply gone.

Zuku’s remaining eye, glowing with a feral intensity, blinked a few times. The feral glow faded slightly into a more neutral tone, though it still seemed to have the wildness of an animal. A small, heavily wounded animal at that.

A weak smile sprang to her lips as her trembling hand dropped her pistol. A raspy cough made her whole body shake. “Oh, h-hey boss.”

The Inquisitor continued to look down at her for several long moments. No one knew what he was thinking, nor could anyone guess. The mask perfectly hid his face, making it impossible to even read his expression.

Later, though, after the fighting was over and the corpses were sent to the coroner's, they found something of note. About a quarter of the cultists in the surrounding area all mysteriously flatlined within a minute of each other.

The exact reason for such an event was up in the air, but the causes were everything from sudden cardiac arrest, asphyxiation as they unluckily choked on their tongues, to even multiple organ failures as if they were on heavy military stims. Tox reports came back clean.