Kate dashed past him out into the hall. Dan and Li followed closely behind her, keeping an eye on their respective sides as the trio ran down the hallway. Neither of them had any issues keeping pace with Kate thanks to their recent level ups.

  “I wish we could stop for better guns, but we don’t have that luxury right now,” Kate said.

  It was only now that he realized that escaping this place meant that he would part ways with his Conservative sword, allowing it to fall into enemy hands. “Well that fucking sucks. I’ll be leaving behind that badass sword I picked up,” he said.

  During their run, numerous Kodak agents emerged out of closed doors and tried taking shots at them. Dan and Li’s significantly improved stats along with his warp dancer ability ensured that no one got the jump on them. As for any Kodak agent unlucky enough to encounter them directly in the hallways, either Li or Kate gunned them down.

  “I hate the bulk and heft of this nailgun,” Li said. “But I won’t deny its stopping power.”

  Dan stopped just short of the next hallway, his feet narrowly avoiding a downward clash from a black katana. The blade itself sunk partially into the floor and gave Dan an opening. He raised his nailgun and shoved the serrated bayonets into the agent. One blade through the agent’s collarbone and the other into his neck. The agent’s body went slack and Dan kicked the asshole, separating his body from the bayonets.

  Dan shook the blood off his nailgun as best he could then crouched down and picked up the katana.

  “I was wondering why you didn’t get yourself a blade back in the throne room,” Li remarked.

  “Let’s keep up the pace,” Kate said sternly.

  The trio continued their run through the hall then slowed down at another corner. Before Kate made her turn, she stopped herself abruptly and held her hand up, singalling Dan and Li to stop.

  Before Dan could ask, a stream of minigun streaked down the hallway, lighting up the space in epileptic flashes. Intense howling of spinning metal and bullets blasting out of barrels screamed throughout the cramped interiors.

  Dan briefly thought of using his warp dancer and rushing the hall towards the minigun wielder. But the barrage of hellfire stopped, returning the hallway into an eerie quiet. The heavy clattering of metal reached his ears and he leaned out from the corner. Dan watched as the Kodak agent had dropped his minigun and was hoisted up into the air by a familiar skull-faced agent.

  Adam Torrent impaled the agent with his own set of bayonets before throwing the corpse onto the ground.

  “Should I be thankful or worried?” Dan said.

  Kate walked past him. “Took you long enough.”

  “You’re really making my job difficult Kate,” Adam said. “Looks like I’ll have to find work elsewhere.”

  “Wait a minute. He’s helping us?” Dan asked.

  “He is,” she said. “During our little jog, I explained the situation to him. He wasn’t a fan of the shard tossing me aside since… you know.”

  “Yeah I understand. If my girlfriend was about to get executed, I probably wouldn't just be sitting on my ass.”

  Dan glanced at Li to gauge his reaction. The stealth specialist kept his helmet pointed straight ahead at Adam, keeping an eye on their new ally.

  Adam sighed. “Looks like we’re all in the same boat once again.”

  “Guess so,” Dan said. While he was thankful for the extra help, he didn’t really have much to say to the Kodak agent. To him, Adam was either Kate’s boyfriend or an adversary that got on his nerves who simply would not die.

  Adam spun around and began running down the hall. Kate, Dan and Li followed behind, still watching their sides and their rear for more enemies. After rushing down the last hallway, Adam threw a grenade at the exit doors and blew them up. The doors were left jammed, unable to shut properly.

  The skull-faced agent squeezed through the gap to the outside of the facility. Kate was next, then Dan and Li. Outside, Dan saw numerous vehicles parked outside in an open space. Jeeps, tanks, and especially the motorcycles caught Dan’s attention.

  “We need something fast,’ Adam said. “And we can’t afford to be all in one vehicle. All it would take is one rocket and we’re toast.”

  “Motorcycles then?” Dan suggested.

  “Motorcycles,” the rest said, almost in perfect unison.

  The ragtag team of four ran over to the parked bikes. Kate and Adam each got on their own bike. Dan simply picked the nearest one then got a tap on his shoulder.

  “If Kate and Adam are leading the way out of this city, then we need someone to cover the rear,” Li said. “I’ll ride with you and blast away at our pursuers.”

  “Good thinking Li. Time to put your marksmanship skills to the test. Kind of like whack-a-mole but violent.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Li deadpanned.

  Dan got on his back while the stealth specialist reloaded his nailgun and took up the backseat.

  “Adam, where are we going?” Dan asked.

  “We’re taking the quickest route out of the city,” Adam said. “But we’ll be exiting out into the wasteland beyond the city’s walls. If we try any of the subway tunnels, they’ll funnel us in without trouble.”

  “Anything is better than staying here,” Li said. “I’d rather take my chances out there as long as we don’t encounter any radiation.”

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  Adam and Kate revved up their motorcycles and were already on the move out of the space. Dan pressed his foot on the pedal and gripped the handles tightly. His motorcycle belched obnoxiously before accelerating.

  “Loud and obnoxious. Just what I expect from a Kodak vehicle,” Li muttered behind him.

  The two ahead of him rushed through a gap in the gate and Dan did the same. Once outside of the gate, the rushing wind that hit his face made his heartrate shoot up.

  “Holy shit,” Dan shouted. “This is fucking awesome.”

  Dan’s bike raced down the relatively sparse streets, following a good distance behind Kate and Adam. He received an incoming call notification from Adam.

  “We got a complication on our escape plan,” Adam said. “There’s going to be a sandstorm out in the wasteland starting in about an hour.”

  “Well, how bad is it?” Dan asked. He realized that he didn’t have his helmet so that his armor could provide him a sealed environment against such a storm. Even so, he imagined that a mere sandstorm wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill him.

  “The one thing that makes the desert outside the walls is the radioactive sandstorms,” he said grimly. “Even with our enhancements, we’ll only last marginally longer than a regular man. Our deaths to radiation would only be more slow and painful.”

  Kate cut into the conversation. “Damnit. Our armor isn’t sealed either.”

  “Dan is without his helmet and I have too many punctures and breaches for the self-repair to plug up,” Li said. “We won’t last once that sandstorm hits.”

  He swerved around an abandoned jeep and made a turn at an intersection. “Do you know of any vehicles out there?”

  “Some strider tanks out for patrol,” Adam responded. “Those have sealed interiors and will protect against the storm and the radiation. But we’ll have to hijack one. It won’t be a walk in the park.”

  “Then I guess that’s our best bet,” Li said.

  “That is if we survive this chase. We got incoming interceptors,” Kate said.

  In one moment, it was only their three motorcycles burning up the barren streets. But in the next, additional enemy bikes and even helicopters flew above their heads from the previous intersections.

  “I just took one glance back there and that looks bad,” Dan said.

  The thunderous cracks from a nailgun filled his ears.

  “Already on it,” Li said.

  Dan kept his focus on the road ahead of him, swerving around abandoned and destroyed vehicles in his way. He didn’t have to turn around to see the carnage Li was dishing out. In addition to the roaring of armor-piercing bolts blasting out of Li’s nailgun, crashes and explosions behind told him the rest.

  “Alright, now they’re getting serious,” Li said.

  “The hell do you mean?”

  “One of Judith’s Bloodknights. She’s leading her own group ans she’s gaining on us. I think her name’s Natalia.”

  Dan pushed down his rising anxiety. He couldn’t afford to be distracted as he continued swerving his bike and doing his best o keep up with Kate and Adam. From the little he had seen, Natalia was at least just as good if not better than Ada.

  “Duck!” the stealth specialist said.

  Dan abruptly brought his head down, his forehead touching the bike’s handle bars. He watched as a dark blade slashed the space above him. An enemy bike had caught up beside them and the driver just narrowly missed decapitating him.

  Li blew the asshole’s head off with an armor-piercing bolt. “Out of ammo.”

  He quickly glanced at both sides and saw Natalia riding her own bike far to his right. The rest of her group were matching speed and drew their own blades.

  “Li grab, the nailgun off my back,” Dan shouted.

  The nearest enemy bike to his left closed in and lashed out with a swing. Both Dan and Li ducked their heads before Li drew his looted katana and nicked the agent in the neck. While it didn’t chop off his whole head, the Kodak agent’s neck sprayed a jet of blood into the air. Judging by the splatter, the cut had severed his carotid artery.

  Dan let out a low whistle. “That’s brutal Li. Even for you.”

  The stealth specialist grabbed his shoulder with a tight grip, swapping his katana to his right hand. “You’re one to talk, Dan.”

  In his short time as an agent, Dan had witnessed many ridiculous occurrences. Agents were enhanced to beyond human baselines and could perform all sorts of ridiculous stunts that no normal man could ever hope to replicate. Li clashing blades against two enemy agents while on high-speed bikes was yet another crazy sight Dan added to his growing list.

  Li and the other two Kodak agents on bikes swung their swords at beyond human speeds, their blades blurring in motion during the already high-speed chase. In the next second, Li struck hard against one blade and threw of one enemy agent off balance. His motorcycle wobbled loss speed, lagging behind. The stealth specialist bought himself an opportunity to solely focus on the other Kodak agent.

  Dan could barely spare a glance at the insane swordfight taking place right behind him on this bike. The chopper above maintained its altitude and began peppering the road ahead with machine gun fire. Kate and Adam skillfully swerved in between streams of gunfire from above. Adam even took out his handgun and attempted to take shots as the flying chopper.

  Li continued his rapid swings and clashes against the nearest Kodak agent who still persisted.

  “Alright, this is taking too damned long,” Li said. “This guy actually has some skill with a blade.”

  “Can you handle him? I”d rather not get my head cut off,” Dan said.

  “Give me five seconds,” the stealth specialist said, his tone becoming a strange icy calm.

  Li’s grip on his shoulder tightened further. Somehow Dan felt Li’s fingers dig into his even through the coat and armor. He spared a momentary glance over his shoulder at his teammate and what he saw caused his jaw to hang open.

  The stealth specialist swung high, seemingly missing the head of the Kodak agent. The agent swerved further away to give himself some brief distance before turning his bike fan another slash. Dan watched as the blade came right at him.

  The Kodak agent’s sword never made contact as the enemy’s bike cartwheeled and crashed. The motorcycle smashed into a building’s entrance as high speed, smashing through concrete and glass. The Kodak agent’s body skidded and flopped along the road before smashing into the windshield of a civilian car.

  Li’s low chuckled reached his ears. “He might be skilled with a blade, but if I couldn't cut him down quickly enough, then ramming my sword into his wheel would be a good alternative.”

  “Good shit, Li,” Dan said, beaming with pride for his teammate and relief that he didn’t get his head chopped.

  “Don’t celebrate just yet,” Li warned. “We got her to deal with.”

  The stealth specialist pointed his katana at Natalia’s bike, who had suspiciously kept her distance while her subordinates tried and failed to take swings at him and Li. Dan glanced back and forth between the road ahead with the chopper raining down fire on Kate and Adam and his current threat on a bike.

  Natalia swerved around parked vehicles and gradually made her way closer to Dan’s bike. Dan’s eyes widened at the sword in Natalia’s hand.

  The Conservative sword he had looted earlier was in her hands. The scabbard was on her hip facing him. His sword crackled with energy. His ears picked up the strange screeching from the Conservative even through the rushing winds in his face from the high speeds.

  On one hand, Natalia was one of Judith’s Bloodknights and would not be an easy opponent to take out. But privately, Dan was giddy with exhilaration. The thought of him or Li defeating Natalia and snatching his Conservative back filled his mind.

  “Li, I know I’ll sound insane for this, but I’m getting my sword back from that bitch,” he said. “The two of us against her. Should be decent odds, right?”

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