Natalia closed in immediately after Dan’s declaration as if she overheard it and had something to say. Dan released his right hand from the bike handle and grabbed the Ravager pistol off the side of his coat.
“Dan, you need to focus on the road,” Li stated. “You cannot get involved in this fight.”
“Hate to disagree, but I fought for and looted that sword fair and square. I’m taking that back with me.”
Natalia closed in and opened up with a swing that swung in a wide arc. Dan instinctively swerved his back out of the way. Both in awe and shock at the Conservative’s cutting power, he knew that if he or Li got hit by that sword, it was over. Natalia kept up rapid swings and prevented Dan from getting as close as he liked. Watching someone else wield the Conservative, he got to see the power of the blade from the other side. The Conservative seemed to cause rippling distortions in the air as Natalia swung the sword. Dan remembered the sword easily penetrating through metal crates and chopping up the cult master to pieces. He didn’t want to test out how durable his armor or bike was against such a blade.
Dan raised his pistol and fired a round at Natalia. To his shock, the Bloodknight swung and cut the bullet out of the air.
“What the fuck? Li, did you just see that?”
“I did,” the stealth specialist answered. “This one is going to be a problem.”
“Damnit,” he said. “We need to get this chick off our asses and I want my sword back.”
“I didn’t say this problem was unmanageable,” Li stated. “Bring me closer and I can achieve both.”
Dan continued unloading his magazine at the Bloodknight. But it was no use. A few of his shots missed thanks to Natalia swerving her bike at the right time and her using his Conservative to swipe the bullets out of the air. Somehow she could operate her bike at high speeds while also defending herself from Dan’s gunfire. Natalia was no joke as a Bloodknight.
“Okay Li,” he said. “I’ll leave her to you.”
Dan placed his pistol back onto his coat’s side mount and grabbed the handles with both hands. He banked to the right as sharply as he could without losing control. He and Li made their aggression clear as they both rushed closer to Natalia. The Bloodknight stretched her sword arm out and pointed the Conservative at them both.
“You both will pay for your insolence against Judith Blight,” she shouted.
“Fuck her up Li,” Dan said. “I’ll keep my eyes on the road.”
Kate and Adam turned a hard left at the intersection ahead and the chopper followed them in their turn. Dan already began turning before he reached the intersection. His tires shrieked as the move almost rammed his bike into the pole of a traffic lights system.
Unsurprisingly, Natalia easily kept pace and even matched speed while operating her bike with one hand and holding the Conservative in the other.
“I wonder what the motorcycle lessons are like in the Bloodknights,” Dan said.
“Too late to reconsider Dan,” Li said sternly.
The two bikes inched closer and closer until both Li and Natalia lashed out with their blades. Dan focused on the carnage ahead. The chopper was still raining fire on Kate and Adam as its machine gunfire shot potholes into the road and blew up several parked vehicles ahead.
Dan only spared a single split second glance over his shoulder at the duel between Li and Natalia. His eyes caught the glimpse of blurring blades between two superhuman agents, neither gaining the definitive advantage over the other.
In hindsight, he was thankful he made the right decision to give Li the other half of the artefact. Overlord and Judith had both criticized him for not taking the other crystalline shard for himself and giving him the full benefits of the power boost. But watching his teammate trade blows with one of Judith’s Bloodknights made him smile. Li needed everything he had to match Natalia.
“This is going nowhere,” Li said. “She’s better than the previous one and my arm is getting tired.”
“Then it’s my turn to get in on this fight,” Dan said.
“Wait, what are you planning?”
Dan abruptly steered the handles and smashed his bike into Natalia. It was lucky he had timed the move just after the Bloodknight had completed the full motion of her swing. Dan reached his hand out.
Warp dancer activated.
Using his enhanced speed and the disorientating effects against his enemies, he snatched the Conservative’s scabbard away from Natalia’s hip and placed it on his. He took time to take in the intricate details of the scene. Li’s basic katana had been broken at the tip and the blade’s edge had cracks and even entire pieces that had broken off from clashes against the Conservative.
His next moved would be his most dangerous if he screwed up. He had zero margin for error. If Li couldn’t bring this swordfight to a definitive end, then Dan would bring a much simpler solution to the table.
As Natalia’s arm sluggishly moved even while under the effects of the warp dancer, she attempted another strike at Dan and Li. But this worked to his advantage she brought her stretched arm closer.
For a moment, Dan let go of both handles of his bike and reached out with both hands. He snatched the Bloodknight’s wrist with one hand and squeezed. His other hand forced his way into Natalia’s hand as his fingers dug into her grip of the Conservative.
Dan finally relinquished Natalia’s hold of the Conservative and placed the sword back into its scabbard. He quickly grabbed hold of the bike handles and deactivated his warp dancer. The corrosia bar on his HUD showed him at half capacity after his daring stunt.
Natalia’s expression transitioned from focused fury to utter shock as she swung her arm without the Conservative in her hand.
“What the hell? Dan, what did you do?” Li demanded.
“Took my sword back,” Dan said triumphantly. “All thanks to the warp dancer. If I had let go of the bike handles and tried swiping it in normal time, well that wound’t have ended well for us.”
“I see,” the stealth specialist said. “Well, there’s only one loose end left to deal with. Can you increase your speed?”
“Sure,” Dan said.
He pressed harder on the pedal and twisted his handles. He gained enough speed to get slightly ahead of Natalia’s bike.
“You damaged my katana, Bloodknight,” LI began. “So I won’t be needing this anymore. Be a dear and dispose of this for me please.”
Dan glanced behind him to see what his teammate had in mind. He widened his eyes as Li lifted up the broken and damaged Kodak katana and simply released his grip on the hilt, dropping the blade into Natalia’s front wheel, causing her bike to flip over and cartwheel behind them. Natalia’s body smashed into the windshield of a car.
“Wow,” Dan said.
“No less than what they deserve,” Li replied.
The extended battle between the chopper and Dan’s two nominal allies ahead of him also reached its conclusion as the aircraft’s tail smashed into the side of a skyscraper trying to avoid a rocket from Adam. The chopper lost control and dragghed itself across the side of the building before it crashed down into the streets in flames.
“Well, that solves that problem,” Dan said.
He would regret those words as Kate and Adam swerved to the right at an intersection. Adam’s voice entered his mind.
“Another incoming chopper kid. This one’s gunning for you,” he said.
Dan had barely turned his bike at the upcoming intersection when he saw a second chopper that emerged in the air above him, hovering above the bend between roads.
“Oh shit,” he shouted.
He watches as the chopper turned to its side to reveal its mounted miniguns that began revving up.
“Hang on and keep your eyes forward Dan,” his teammate said behind him.
Dan took his eyes off the chopper that was about to shred them to pieces. He placed all of his trust in Li. He momentarily experienced a strange wave of heat behind him before all of his surroundings disappeared then reappeared with him and his bike in a completely different position.
The chopper was now substantially behind them while their bike had somehow reached right behind Kate and Adam.
“The hell just happened?” Dan said.
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“It actually worked,” Li said amazed. “The death step that I used to teleport back in the Combat Games. Looks like it can be used to teleport not just other people, but the vehicles you’re inside of as well.”
“That sounds awesome.”
“Unfortunately not,” Li said. “That stunt I just pulled brought down my corrosia to half.”
Adam cut into their conversation through the private channel.
“The wall is up ahead, but we have another complication,” he said. “Since the entire city is under lockdown from our joyride, those doors are shut. None of us have the clearance nor firepower to open up that wall.”
Dan darted his eyes at the obstructions ahead to see if there was anything the skull-faced agent hadn’t considered. He wouldn’t lose out hope on escaping. His HUD performed a brief scan of the wall and its height was relayed as a small notification in his peripheral vision.
Wall height: 62 meters.
His eyes caught the numerous parked vehicles on either side of the street. He thought of revving his bike to max speed and simply using whatever was on the road on jump on and then get himself into the air. None of them were enough to realistically perform that stunt.
But something completely absurd entered his mind. He knew that as a tier two he was naturally tougher than any normal man. Combined that with his current armor, he had something dangerous in mind.
“Hey Li, how many grenades you have left? Ideally something that gives off the most concussive force.”
“I swiped a good amount of grenades back at our escape from the throne room,” he said. “The only ones that meet your criteria are the concussives and Kodak’s equivalent to the impact grenades used by the Alpha Corp.”
“Good enough,” Dan said. “We’re going to try something dumb to get us over that wall ahead.”
He opened up a channel to all three of his teammates. “Guys, we might have a way to make it over that wall. Adam, how many rockets do you have left?”
“I’m down to my last one kid.”
“Alright then. Kate, can you make the jump over to Adam’s bike. We’re going to jump our motorcycles onto those parked vehicles. When we jump again, we’re going to use our explosives to blow up whatever is beneath is and give ourselves air time from the concussive blast.”
For a moment, no one responded to him.
Li was the first to raise his concerns about such a plan. “That’s extremely risky, even for you.”
Dan glanced behind him. “You feel like climbing that wall and getting your ass shot at? What other choice do we gave?”
“That’s the dumbest and craziest plan I’ve ever heard an agent mutter out of their mouths,” Adam said bluntly. “But in the absence of any good plans, we’ll have to take our chances.”
“I hate this,” Kate chimed in. “But I agree.”
Li sighed. “Looks like we’re actually doing this. I’ll get the grenades ready. I can’t help but feel this is eerily similar to the rocket jumping technique some green agents attempt in training. That archaic technique has its roots in early video games. Using the knockback effect of an explosive weapon to launch yourself to an elevated position that would normally be impossible to reach. I highly doubt it will go smoothly in the real world.”
“Only one way to find out Li,” Dan said.
His HUD calculated a small grouping of vehicles that would benefit his crazy plan the most. In addition to Li’s grenades, he also hoped that the explosions from the engines and fuel tanks of the vehicles could further blow him up into the air.
Ahead of him, he watched as Kate abandoned her bike and hopped onto to Adam’s. The armed checkpoint up ahead consisted of dozens of Kodak agents and a bunch of jeeps parked as a makeshift barricade.
Dan’s HUD recalculated his approach and instead placed a waypoint ont the grouping of Kodak vehicles at the checkpoint.
“My HUD is saying the jeeps at that checkpoint will make for a good “launch pad” for our stunt. Any objections?” Dan said through the channel.
“Only that this is still a batshit insane plan you concocted,” Li said out loud behind him.
“I’m slowing down,” Adam said. “We need to time this right and do this together.”
“You mean combining your last rocket and Li’s grenades plus the explosions from the jeeps ahead. Alright then.”
Li cut into the channel. “If I splatter my internal organs from this stunt, I’ll be haunting you all.”
Even with the ridiculousness with what they were about to do and the likelihood that it might backfire, Dan began laughing. The rushing winds from the motorcycle’s high speed, the armed checkpoint ahead that was ready to shoot the hell out of them and the insane plan to get themselves over the wall. Everything in this moment culminated into a strange mix of euphoria and anxiety.
Just in case, Dan activated his berserk mode. He had always been able to better handle pain while in that state.
Both Dan and Adam matched speed and they sped straight down the road, racing towards the checkpoint. Kate had taken Adam’s rocket launcher while Li primed as many grenades as he could carry in his hands. Both Kate and Adam planted their feet onto the seats as they got themselves ready for this insane plan.
“Follow my lead kid,” Adam said through the channel.
The skull-faced agent twisted his handles and his bike let out an obnoxious belch. The front wheel of his bike lifted off the ground with backwheel still on the ground. Dan replicated the same strange technique, though not as gracefully.
Tracers slashed through the air around them from the armed checkpoint.
“Next we’re going to do what agents do best,” Adam said. “Leverage our superior strength. Use all the might in your entire body and lift up the bike. Kate, Li, get your explosives ready on my mark.”
Dan watched Adam’s bike with curiosity as the Kodak agent executed his next move. The front wheel of the bike lowered itself but didn’t touch back down to the ground. Then, the agent made the bike perform a jump.
He stopped his spectating and tried the same. He gripped the handled tightly and hugged his legs against the motorcycle itself. Using the added strength from his berserk mode, he made his bike jump. Both bikes briefly flew in mid air until they hit and bounced off the roofs of the Kodak jeeps.
“Now!”
Kate fired the rocker from her launcher and Li threw down all the grenades he had straight down. What happened next was a blur of absolute mayhem.
The detonations that occurred expectedly blew up the jeeps behind them. The concussive blasts from their explosives along with jeeps sent an intense concussive wave that forced all of them in an upward arc. Any of the Kodak agents who were unfortunate enough to be close by were blown off their feet. Li had already jumped off the bike’s seat with Dan not being too far behind. What Dan didn’t account for was the gas tank of the bike getting ruptured and exploding just as he pushed himself off from the vehicle. The explosion from the bike sent both him and Li even further through the air.
The kaleidoscope of explosions sent all of them spinning and soaring through the air. Dan’s entire world spun rapidly as if he were a cannonball. While his armor provided some protection and his berserk worked to suppress whatever pain he would have otherwise experienced, he still felt his insides rolling around in his body from the consecutive explosions the rippled behind them.
He felt the wind rush past his face as his head almost smashed into the top edge of the wall. Dan’s rate of spinning slowed down, but not enough for him to completely get his bearings as his arc through the air reached its peak then began its descent. As far as he knew, he was over the giant wall and was falling down toward the desert-like wasteland just beyond the wall. His world still spun as he smashed into the sand. The landing was the messiest landing he ever put himself through as his feet smashed into the sand first, then failed to stop his spinning tumble. Dan’s head flew forward then smashed into the sand before he flipped. He continued rolling along the sand before his body smashed into something. Whatever he smashed into sounded like a shriek that came from a woman who he assumed was Kate.
The two came to an awkward stop as both had their limbs tangled with each other in the sand. Dan was thankful he didn’t smashed into Adam, or else the spikes and razor blades along his armor would have made their collision a lot more painful.
His berserk mode deactivated and Dan’s world was still spinning even though he had come to a full stop. He began coughing and spitting out sand as he stretched his limbs sloppily rolled away from Kate. The world around swayed in extremes as if he was on choppy waters. Dan was on all fours still spitting out sand when someone grabbed him by the coat collar and picked him up. He saw the silver shoulder of Li as the man picked him up and forced him on his feet.
He still swayed from side to side and could barely stand. Dan was surprised he didn’t feel any significant pain from his stunt. He looked around, even though the mere act of turning his neck made him dizzy. He caught a glimpse of Adam walking as if he had pissed himself and then coruching down beside Kate.
“We survived,” Li said. “For better or worse.”
While Dan’s head was still spinning and the desert around him still rocked back and forth, Li was somehow still standing straight.
“How are you not dizzy?” Dan said.
“It helps that I’m wearing a helmet and I was ahead of you from our bike’s explosion. I wasn’t as affected by our exploding bike and didn’t spin as much as you did.”
Dan was still disorientated and didn’t know how soon he would recover and have his senses return back to normal.
“Shake it off,” Adam shouted as he helped KAte back on her feet. “We got assholes coming from the wall.”
Dan looked around and everywhere around him was nothing but sand that took on an orange hue along with skies that were still blood red. And without his helmet, the entire area was blazing hot as if the sandy ground was exhausting heat from the Earth itself.
Dan squinted and saw small figures a distance behind Li. He saw the glowing muzzle flashes and Li immediately grabbed him and brought him back down into the sand. Tracers slashed above their heads from the squad of Kodak agents sent out after them.
While Dan still had control over his body, he was still disorientated from his stunt earlier. The ground beneath him still swayed excessively and the sky above him was still spinning. He took the nailgun off his back that somehow was still intact. He fired back at the approaching figures that grew in size. His aim was shot as he still couldn’t stabilize himself.
Li began blasting with his pistol, already taking out two of the approaching dark figures as they dropped dead into the sand.
“Move kid,” Adam shouted.
Somehow, Dan completely missed a Kodak agent coming at him in his peripheral vision. But he was too late to react. A boot kicked him in the cheek and flopped him over. Dan stopped in the sand and briefly watched as Li grappled with another agent, unable to help him. He still hadn’t regained his bearings and the kick to the face didn’t help matters.
The Kodak asshole who kicked him in the face walked toward him with his katana blade dragging through the sand. The agent raised his blade and prepared to strike him.
“Kate!” Adam shouted.
Dan was still on the ground reeling from the attack one someone tackled the Kodak agent from behind. All he saw was blond hair flying excessively in the air as Kate wrestled with the agent. Kate fought on even terms against the Kodak agent who easily dwarfed her in height by a full head. The Kodak agent backhanded her and placed much needed distance between them. He then lunged with his katana and impaled Kate through the torso.
He couldn’t explain the sudden rage he felt surging through his body.
Berserk mode activated.
The dizzying effects completely washed away as Dan charged the giant Kodak agent. He grabbed the hilt of his Conservative and his mind now operated with clarity he didn’t have moments earlier. He gripped his hilt tightly as he remembered one particular move during his training with Ada.
The Kodak agent was ready to meet his challenge as he pointed his katana at him. Dan blitzed across the sand and yanked his sword out of the scabbard in one fast, smooth motion. The blade let out a shriek as it chopped through the armor and flesh of the Kodak agent as easily as cutting through air. The bar of corrosia in Dan’s HUD read around thirty percent but then suddenly jumped up slightly, replenishing his corrosia pool by a small fraction from the kill.
The agent’s top half separated from the rest of his body and both halves fell into the sand.
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