Yuriko ducked underneath a ganger’s swing. The truncheon whooshed above her head, but the rotter also had the same speed boost as the one from before, and far better control of his momentum. The truncheon paused just above her head and he slammed it down.

Unfortunately for him, and a good thing for her, his sense of martial arts was lacking. Stopping the weapon instead of redirecting momentum pretty much killed any chance of the thing hitting her. She snorted in derision and slammed the butt of her Defender into his guts. The impact knocked him back and caused him all of his breath, and once there was suitable distance between them, she pulled the Defender’s trigger and shot three bullets into his guts, each one striking the same spot. The ganger had some kind of alloy underneath his skin, and while it wasn’t mostly made of metal, there was enough of the thing that Yuriko could sense it with her new metal detection technique. That meant that aside from his arms and legs, which were ‘chronian gear, as well as his spine, his torso and parts of his head were also easily detectable. She could feel his every movement with just metal detection alone, and with it, what was missing from her arsenal was back. She could observe every movement, hence, she was never blinded, no matter how fast the ‘chronians moved.

A casual swipe of the sword relieved the man of his weapons and his arms, but she left it at that since she could feel his Terror. Emotional connections fed her Mien and made her stronger. It was incremental, she knew, but every little bit helped. Her Mien would prove integral to her advancement, even though she would be treading new ground there. Damien did not have a Mien, and no other Ancient did, she supposed. After all, the Mishala Progenitor was not an Ancient, even if Damien measured her as coming close to him in personal power.

Ah, that guy wasn’t the only one attacking her, but the other three gangers weren’t the fast sort. She relieved them of their arms and moved to the back. She could feel Fluffers had just left the bathroom…

Wait. she left her stuff in the room! Rotter!

She circled around to the back, looked up and saw the wolf pup hanging from an air conditioning unit. She leapt up and perched on top of it before picking the the puppy up and kicking open a path to the room. She noticed many of the motel’s rooms had been shot into, and another hole wouldn’t make much of a difference. She picked up her stuff, shoved them into her backpack, and put them on. She did another scan of the room just to make sure nothing was left before she leapt back outside.

“Should I get my Kanegawa?” she muttered to herself. She liked the bike but it was a petrol guzzler. She pondered whether to retrieve it under the gangers’ noses or if she should follow them more surreptitiously. If so, she shouldn’t bring her loud motorbike…

“Swarmfodder, no thanks,” Yuriko muttered. She liked her bike, so she’ll get it. There were others who escaped, and it wasn’t as if she really needed to play weak. She leapt over to the roof. The corrugated roofing sheets bent under her weight for a moment, crackling disturbingly, before she adjusted her footing.

“Woof!” Fluffers barked happily, his tongue licking at her cheek as he held onto her back for dear life. She reached over and patted his head as she walked across.

“Those rotters are stealing my bike,” Yuriko muttered flatly.

She jumped down and landed on the goon manhandling her ride. He slammed down into the concrete with a satisfying crunch even as Yuriko allowed her watch to connect to the bike. The keyshard was slotted there since she didn’t have a neural link with datashard slots in her neck. The Bladedancer rumbled to life and she hopped on.

“Halt!”

Some of the gangers yelled, while others wisely opened fire. Yuriko smirked as she swatted the bullets away with her sword all while twisting the throttle. She’d switched the bike to automatic transmission since her feet weren’t on the levels. The hard twist accelerated the Bladerunner to the point that the front wheel lifted off the ground, but careful use of her kinesis prevented them from toppling over. The bike righted itself amidst a bullet storm, and any that would have scratched her ride was deflected off. A dozen seconds later, they were out of direct sight. Contrary to what she expected, she heard the roar of pursuit behind.

“Stubborn fools.” Yuriko laughed. Well, she’d play with them while waiting for the operation to complete. She spared a thought to the poor gangster victims, and probably the innocent travellers that got caught in the abduction, and wondered if she should have interfered. But then again, she was not in charge of their lives, and she was not part of this place’s military or security forces. More to the point, she was sure these people knew the dangers of travel in the badlands…

Hmmm, or did they? Raids by the Dragon Blooded could not be regular. She wondered what the city’s leadership thought of them, and a dark whisper at the back of her mind said that they probably knew and were capitalising on it. Perhaps they were even the secret leaders behind the corporations? No, that couldn’t be right. At least she didn’t think so. Her friends, Anarchy couldn’t be good for business, right? Unless their wares were more useful in such a setting. Like the top three corporations whose main line of business were guns and protective gear…

Her head a buzz and her mind spinning, Yuriko gunned her bike and they rode into the countryside. The Bladedancer’s wheels could handle off-road conditions but were not optimised for it. If it were, then the bike’s top speed on the actual roads wouldn’t be as good. As it were, the gangsters did have off-road-optimised vehicles, some on two wheels and others on four.

“Get her! First one gets to taste!”

The whoops and shouts annoyed her since it was all sexual harassment. Over the past couple of weeks, more people mistook her for a pleasure girl simply because of how she looked and moved. Her level of physical beauty wasn’t uncommon, but unfortunately, anyone who did was often those who had work done specifically to attract. And for sex work, of course. These coarse men yelled about having their way with her, and while some part of her was empowered by such lasciviousness, the Mishala part probably, the rest of her was simply turned off. Maybe if they were individually strong and brilliant, she might be interested…

As the gangsters closed in, she forcefully shifted the bike’s transmission to manual, then to reverse, held down the clutch and spun the bike around until she faced the mooks, then released her hold to fire the Defender with her left hand. Her kinesis empowered each bullet and they tore into steel, either the vehicles or the ‘chronian gear.

Bang, bang, bang!

Three shots, three hits, though only one was fatal, the one who yelled about the winner having her. The other two bullets sheared through metal and struck the engine block. The bikes, contrary to what she expected from watching the movies on the television sets, did not explode from the bullets hitting the petrol. The engines died, of course, and the bullets continued to puncture the rear wheels. That resulted in the bikes swerving and losing control, which resulted in a brutal crash. The lives of the riders were at the edge, but Yuriko’s attention was back to her other pursuers.

The bullets flew towards her, and some would have hit the front wheel. She leaned over the handlebars, let go of them, and used her straight sword to deflect the bullets, judiciously extending the blade with Anima to catch those too far from her reach. Her Anima kinesis controlled the bike and kept it in balance. Fluffer’s howls rivalled the sound of gunfire as he huddled over her shoulder.

Three down, six remained. The four-wheeled vehicles were like motorbikes except for the additional wheels. She was sure they were called All-Terrain Vehicles, but they probably couldn’t really go on all terrains, right? Her aim shifted to one of the ATVs and she plugged the rider and his passenger with a couple of bullets. She let them live since she could feel their burgeoning Terror.

Underneath her surface thoughts, instinct told her that continuing to accrue emotional links, Charm or Terror, maybe even Inspiration, would lead to something fruitful. At the heart of it though, she just didn’t feel like killing weaklings. The Anima Pride was too strong to bother fighting against, really, and as long as it didn’t take too much to spare them, it would suffice. Logically, she should have ended them, but…hmmm, she still didn’t feel like it. But if she encountered a worthy foe, she would.

Her thoughts briefly went to that trio of Ishodirians who successfully stole a bit of her blood, and she snorted at her hypocrisy. Now that she wasn’t anywhere near Ishodir, leaving those three alive so they could challenge her again seemed somewhat useless. She wasn’t even sure if she’d return to Bresia again, although… hmmm, there was a feeling that she needed to return. She wasn’t sure what it was though.

She moved her aim towards the next bike, but her trigger pull only resulted in an empty click.

“Tsk.”

Yuriko holstered her weapon, flicked the autodrive on her bike, hopped on the seat, and yelled, “Hold on!”

Then she leapt towards the nearest gangster, who gaped at her manoeuvre. She spun in a somersault, deflected a couple of bullets away, and landed with the point of her sword stabbed into the bike’s fuel tank. She kicked the rider off and used his face as a platform to get to the ATV next to it. She repeated the attack, but the passenger got a lucky hit that grazed her shoulder. She caved in that guy’s face with a brutal punch before she leapt off, landing on a third bike for a repeat performance.

The remaining three pursuers jammed their brakes and flipped their machines around. Yuriko smirked but didn’t pursue, opting to return to her Bladedancer. She landed on it easily, even though at that point, it was about fifty paces away. That was rather fun, heh.

She pulled on the brakes as she toggled the autodrive off and the machine drifted to a halt after another fifty paces. She watched the gangsters retreat for a few moments before she sheathed her sword and drew her gun. She unclipped the magazine retrieved some bullets from a case and smoothly loaded it. Once it was full and loaded, she made sure the safety was on before she holstered it.

The gangsters were now out of sight, and she just needed to wait for when they would leave so she could follow them back to their base of operation. But maybe she needed to keep an eye on the petrol station otherwise they might leave without her knowledge.

She carefully drove towards a ridge, turned off her bike and let down the stand. She placed Fluffers on the seat, patted his head and ruffled his fur. He gave her a pointed stare while his nose started twitching. Ah, of course.

She grabbed a burrito wrap and gave it to him. He removed the coverings deftly with his kinesis and Yuriko headed over to the overlook. The gangsters were still at work so she settled down to wait.

“Wonder if they’re bold enough to go after me?” Yuriko muttered, but it seemed the ones she chased off chose to save their pride.

An hour later, they finished loading up prisoners into the hauler. They left most of the vehicles behind, but it looked like they looted the small valuables. Soon enough, the raiding party left the neo-petrol station. She half wondered if they would head to another spot to continue their raid, but instead, the whole convoy went off-road and headed directly to the mountains.

Yuriko returned to her Bladedancer and followed behind them, trying her best not to get spotted.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep