MTLNOVEL Chapter 99: Shu: Ribbit—
Glancing at the relentlessly approaching figure, Shu backpedaled, his eyes flicking down to the pistol in his hand.
For the first time, he felt the utter helplessness of a firearm.
Damn it, if only I had a Gatling Bodhisattva in my hands, I'd blast this thing to smithereens!
I dare you to blink 3,600 times a second and see what happens!
Shu cursed under his breath. The small pistol offered no comfort; in fact, the dual tachi wielded by the Honkai soldier filled him with increasing dread.
Looks like I'll be taking both swords back. One for Bronya as a souvenir, and the other for Mei… maybe I can bribe her into teaching me her family's swordsmanship.
Wait a minute, why am I celebrating already?!
A jolt of unease shot through Shu. Before he could figure out what was wrong, he tripped.
He hadn't been watching where he was going, focused entirely on the soldier. He'd backed himself up against the edge of the road and stumbled over the curb.
As he fell backward, his heart plummeted. The soldier, seizing the opportunity, lunged, abandoning its slow, methodical approach.
This is it… I'm dead…
Wait!
Shu's eyes narrowed.
I can see it!
He could clearly see the soldier's movements! Though impossibly fast, its trajectory was crystal clear.
A horizontal slash, aimed directly at his neck… What the hell, did this thing eat rat heads before it died? Why is it so obsessed with my neck?!
Gritting his teeth, Shu kicked out at the soldier's chest.
The impact jolted him. Using the momentum, he righted himself and scrambled into a narrow alleyway.
I actually kicked it! I actually hit that thing! The belated realization surprised him. The kick had bought him some distance, allowing him to escape into the alley.
It's so narrow here, it can't possibly try that horizontal slash again… Holy crap! Hacks!
Shu whirled around, just in time to see a blade flash in the darkness, a crescent of light aimed directly at his neck.
This thing definitely ate rat heads!
Ducking instinctively, Shu glanced up to see a deep gash in the wall where the blade had struck.
The alley was narrow, and he had been right about the soldier's limited range, but there was one constant.
Hacks. Always hacks.
How sharp is that thing?!
As the second blade descended, Shu raised his gun, firing point-blank at the soldier.
"I dare you to blink again… What the—?!"
The soldier leaped, dodging the bullet mid-air.
No way, conceptual skills! I didn't even know it had knees!
The attack was avoided, though. Shu scrambled to his feet, abandoning the gun. Grabbing a bulging black plastic bag, he swung it at the soldier's head.
This time, the soldier didn't dodge. With a swift slash, it sliced through the bag.
A wave of putrid stench filled the air. Shu took advantage of the distraction, sprinting further into the alley. Glancing back, he saw half the garbage bag, dripping with unknown fluids, dangling from one of the soldier's horns.
Garbage littered the ground.
Shu almost laughed, then realized he couldn't.
The soldier paused momentarily, then continued its relentless pursuit, its expression unchanged. Shu couldn't even tell if it was annoyed.
But it did have an effect.
He kicked another bag of garbage at the soldier, continuing his sprint deeper into the alley.
Another slash, another explosion of trash.
This time, the pause was longer. Before Shu could throw a third bag, the soldier blinked forward, appearing directly in front of him.
Startled, Shu shoved the bag directly into the soldier's face, the force of the impact bursting the bag open. Garbage sprayed everywhere, and the soldier stumbled backward, crashing into the wall.
The stench of rotting refuse assaulted Shu's nostrils, making him gag. He couldn't stop, though, forcing himself to run even as he retched.
Damn, this thing is tough!
Shu rubbed his aching wrist, gagging and running.
And that blink… it's definitely pissed now, right?
The dazed soldier shook its head, quickly locking onto Shu's retreating figure.
Its long-dead brain suddenly sparked with a singular, overwhelming urge.
For the first time, it felt a burning desire to eliminate a target.
By now, Shu could see the end of the alley.
A closed metal gate, and beyond it, a dilapidated wooden door.
This was the place where they'd found the guns earlier!
If he hadn't recognized it, he wouldn't have dared to run blindly into an alley. What if it was a dead end? What if another Honkai soldier was waiting?
Though this place offered little more than a dead end, at least he'd been here before!
Recalling Kiana's earlier wall-scaling maneuver, Shu didn't break stride. Mimicking her movements, he scrambled up the wall, flipping over the gate and landing on the other side.
"Clang!"
The moment he landed, a loud crash echoed from behind.
He whirled around to see the gate, bent and dented but still standing, and the dual-wielding soldier, taking a few steps back, silent as ever.
"Hah! So you can be stopped!" Shu grinned, a flicker of amusement in his eyes as he looked at the soldier with the garbage bag still dangling from its horn. He flipped it off.
The soldier paused, the vestiges of its former life stirring within its dead mind.
"Come on! Get me!" Seizing the opportunity to taunt it, Shu continued to backpedal.
The soldier stared at him impassively, then raised a sword, slashing at the metal gate.
Sparks flew in the darkness. Shu watched in disbelief as several metal bars were cleanly severed.
Shu: "..."
"You…!" He flipped it off with both hands, his loathing for these hacking cheaters palpable.
Then, without a second glance, he turned and darted through the wooden door.
He hadn't expected the gate to hold the soldier for long, just hoped it would climb over like he had. He hadn't anticipated the brute force approach.
And it had actually worked!
What kind of matchmaking is this?!