Chapter 28: Gang Wipeout

"Just a lil' more, and you'll get what you want, hehe," said Brant as he kept ushering Aldrich and Valera forward. They were now at the end of a dimly lit hallway, just a few steps away from the brightly lit tech room.

The two technos notably had been ordered to stop working and hid under their counter and worktables until whatever it was that happened blew over.

"There, just across that door," said Brant as he pointed to the open entrance into the tech room. The boss is there, too. He's a real nice guy. You can deal with him. Bet he'll treat you real nice, too."

"Come on in. We don't bite. We got a bad rep cause' of our robberies and all, but we got noble hearts, you know. We only steal from rich pricks in walled cities.

To fellow nomads like you two, we only got generosity," said the boss, marked as the head of this gang because he wielded a mechanical spear-energy gun that was supposed to be the stand in for Gungnir, the mythological spear that the Norse god Odin wielded.

He stood several meters behind the door with a surprisingly welcoming smile, positioned like bait so that he was visible but none of the five baton wielding goons at the sides of the door were.

One Evil Eye was positioned in the tech room, watching everything that happened. Another was positioned outside, keeping tabs on the rest of the goons.

"Yeah, go on in." Brant smiled hungrily, waving Aldrich and Valera in.

"How about you lead us in?" said Aldrich. "We can all go in together."

"Huh? No can do. Boss likes to keep his meetings private and real personal, heh. He likes to get first dibs on clients, y'know."

"I wasn't asking." Aldrich casted [Negative Surge] on himself. Green strands of energy infused into his body, covering it with a thin, visible aura. For ten seconds, Aldrich now received 20% of his magic stat into strength, agility, and perception. In his case, this was a six stat bonus.

[-15 Mana]

[Mana: 55/84 ] 40/84]

**[Author's Note: Aldrich drank 2 charges of his mana flask prior to this]**

[Strength: 11 ] 17]

[Agility: 10 ] 16]

[Perception: (10) ] 16]

Aldrich reached out and grabbed Brant's chrome plated skull. His fingers dug into the metal, warping it with moaning cracks.

"Th-the fuck, man!?" shouted Brant.

"I go left, you go right," said Aldrich.

"Understood, master," said Valera as her eyes lit up red and her fists closed.

Aldrich leaped in and held Brant up to the left as a human shield. Two Odinsons with shock batons yelled as they slammed their batons down but only hit their fellow Odinson. Brant convulsed and foamed at the mouth as the electricity savaged him.

Aldrich threw Brant towards the baton wielding Odinsons, turning him into a human-chrome bowling ball that knocked his fellow gangsters down like bowling pins.

Aldrich glanced to Valera's side.

Valera had just taken the baton hits right to her shoulders. The blue electricity cracked through her body, but all she did was just smile. Three Odinsons just kept beating and whacking at her with the batons with shock ridden impacts.

"Is that it!? Is that it!? You can't even make me feel pain!"

"What the fuck!? How's she still standing!?" said an Odinson as he swung his baton again, this time in fear.

Valera grabbed the Odinson's wrist and snapped it like a twig.

"FUUUCK!" the Odinson went down on a knee as he let go of his baton.

"Get off of him!" said the other two Odinsons as they let go of their batons and tried to pry Valera's hand off of their brethren's wrist. None of them could make Valera even budge.

"Pathetic," said Valera with an utterly bored expression on her face. "You want me to let go of him? Fine."

Another scream of pain rang through the air as Valera tore the Odinson's arm straight off. Blood arced and trickled from the dismembered limb, and Valera patted it in her palm before using it to smash the other two Odinsons in the head, completely crushing their skulls and instantly killing them.

Their blood circled around Valera, fueling her [Crimson Furnace] shield.

Aldrich in the meanwhile disabled the Odinsons on his end.

Where Valera overwhelmed with enormous stats, Aldrich used his comparatively lesser stats to their maximal extent, using his extensive martial arts training.

He weaved expertly between baton strikes and then struck their throats, collapsing their windpipes, or gouged out their remaining eye with finger pokes before dropping them with precise, quick liver punches.

This left three Odinsons including Brant disabled and groaning on the ground, though Brant was dead, the chrome capping on his skull caved in from Aldrich's grip. Aldrich killed the remaining disabled Odinsons by stomping on their necks, breaking them to make sure there was no way they could regenerate or suddenly blindside him with a power.

All this in a sequence of just one and a half seconds, before the Odinsons could even draw their Bolter pistols or use their powers.

"Experiment success," said Aldrich. "With [Negative Surge] and my martial arts, I can beat armed Alters even as a caster. Though I guess this trash doesn't count for much of a challenge."

"Indeed," said Valera as she stomped her heels down on a downed Odinsons's skill, shattering it and splattering her pale legs with blood. The blood quickly drained away, absorbed into Valera's body. She made a disgusted face. "Even their blood is utterly foul. I was so excited to taste fresh human blood, but theirs is tainted. It tastes like rust. Like metal."

"Too many cybernetics," noted Aldrich.

"H-how!? Alters!? How did you avoid the scanners!?" said the boss as he aimed his spear gun at Valera and fired off a bolt of plasma.

The plasma scattered against Valera's energy resistant blood shield, turning into nothing but smoke and crackling electricity.

Valera turned to the boss and glared at him, her black and red eyes monstrous, inhuman, and utterly lacking anything resembling human mercy.

"W-what!?" the boss stepped backwards while his knees trembled. He clenched his fists, and his one remaining eye glowed white. A barrier of translucent white energy formed around him. His Alter power. "What-who are you two!? Heroes!?"

He looked down at the bloody and brutalized bodies of his men. No heroes would ever do this. "No, not heroes, then…villains!? Do you work for another gang!? God…it isn't about the money, is it!? We'll pay it back, I swear. The Trident will get what I promised them!"

Aldrich immediately stiffened. "The Trident?"

He heard shouting and footsteps echo behind him as Odinsons were alerted to the scuffle.

"Valera, take care of everyone outside this room. Remember: no survivors," said Aldrich. "I'll take care of things here."

Valera's Dullahan smile showed. Her cheeks split apart as her smile grew from ear to ear, baring rows of sharp, bestial teeth and large, bloodsucking fangs.

"As you wish, my master," said Valera. Her voice had a throaty, inhuman reverb underlining it now. She sprinted off as a black and white blur, and as her quick footsteps echoed down the hallway, screams rang through the air as she tore her way through the gang.

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