Zarek's eyes sharpened as he felt a ripple of Godsfall. It was so subtle that it barely pricked against his skin, almost like a feather tickling at the small hairs on his body.
It grazed up his forearms, sizzling against his heated flesh.
It only took Zarek a moment to take all of this into account, but his movements weren't slowed in the slightest. There was a fire blazing in his eyes right now that seemed to pull his body into auto-pilot.
He dipped down to a knee, crushing a piece of glass with his forceful descent. With a scoop of his kevlar glove-covered hands, he pulled it into his palm, squeezing down hard as he unholstered his gun from his hip in the same fluid motion.
His finger grazed along the barrel of the gun, stabilizing it for a brief pause before it landed on the trigger. Zarek didn't even see the enemies before he fired. And yet, the instant his finger was squeezing down, the first of them had rounded a corner, raising an assault rifle with the intent to aim and fire.
A bullet pierced right through the center of their head.
Zarek pushed off from the ground, diving up. With two strides, he had already lifted himself up with a leap, soaring over a large, semi-circular receptionist's desk just as the bullets began to rain down.
The team was stalled by the fall of their vanguard, but they clearly had some experience themselves, stepping over the corpse without the slightest hesitation.
"Left," one of them growled in a cold voice. As he spoke, he made a motion with his hands that Zarek wouldn't be able to see while taking cover.
And yet in that same instant, Zarek peeked up from the desk, firing once before rolling out again.
A second bullet pierced through a forehead. The hand motion of the operative froze in the air, his body shuddering as he fell back in a heap.
DING. DING. DING. DING. DING.
The sound of bullets spraying across the surface of the desk echoed. Sparks flew, and bits and pieces of marble rained down.
Zarek's eyes sharpened from behind the desk as he suddenly stood again. But this time, his crushed glass-filled hand whipped out.
A man rounding the corner to the side under the cover of the bullets screamed, his eyes suddenly filled with bits and pieces of crystal glass fragments.
He wildly unloaded his clip in Zarek's general direction, trying and hoping that he would hit something. But the long barrel of his gun was too predictable. Zarek had already side-stepped, slamming an arm against his elbow and wrapping his gun-wielding arm across the man's chest.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Two echoes sounded, and then a third. It was this third one that took the man's life, one bullet wound straight from the bottom of his jaw up and out the top of his skull, courtesy of Zarek.
As for the first two, they fell into the group ahead. Full kevlar suits or not, they dodged out of the way, scattering like flies on fruit.
Zarek seamlessly took control of the assault rifle strapped to the now-dead man's body. Holding up his corpse like a shield and aiming the rifle with his free hand, he pressed down the dead man's finger again and again.
It was a one-sided slaughter. So cold, so calculated, so unfeeling.
One bullet, one death. One skull after another was split.
The gap in experience, in decisiveness, might as well have been an unfathomable chasm.
Before the last man even fell, Zarek had already kicked his shield's corpse away, letting him fall to the ground in a dead heap. There was only one bullet left in that magazine, and he didn't care to pick it up.
Zarek stood there for a moment, his thoughts flickering by with great speed.
'Old Grizz.'
Zarek's sensitivity to Godsfall right now was exceptional. Old Grizz had great control, and most wouldn't have sensed it. But Zarek knew exactly what he was dealing with now.
He was facing off against an enemy with the ability to map out the entire building in real-time. And it seemed to have been amplified somewhat.
The trouble was that Zarek didn't know how it was being amplified. At this stage, Old Grizz shouldn't have the ability to map out such a large area at all. Something was fishy.
It seemed that… he wasn't the only one that could change his tactics.
'Interesting.' Zarek's grin grew wider as he looked toward a camera hanging in the corner of the foyer.
If Jiade was going through all this trouble, leaving Old Grizz behind despite having made the assumption that Zarek would be entering the Godsfall Tear with him, that meant that whatever the Herald was protecting here was likely even more important to the Angel gang's success than Zarek's Skill.
'Seems I haven't lost my touch.'
The only reason in Zarek's estimation that Jiade would make such a choice was if he didn't know the truth… that truth being that the Skill Zarek loved so much wasn't just great because of its own power, but because of its ability to unlock a Role Quest down the line…
The true reason for Zarek's strength in his past lives.
But Zarek couldn't confirm this with 100% certainty, not until he saw what it was Jiade was hiding here.
'Alright, Old Grizz… let's see what you have.'
…
Old Grizz stood in a circle of pulsing Godsfall, his eyes narrowed almost into fine points. Zarek looking at the camera was meaningless, they were off and didn't have much use right now at all.
But it symbolized something.
It was Zarek telling him that he knew that he was here. After just one exchange, he knew.
Jiade had warned Old Grizz that Zarek was unpredictable. He liked to play the role of class clown, claiming himself to be far more street smart than he was book smart.
But if you took his clownish behavior at face value, you would end up accidentally stabbing a knife into your own heart without knowing what happened.
This… this was where the real game began.
Watching Zarek charge up the stairs, Old Grizz took a moment to compose himself before he sent out a new round of orders.
A beast like this couldn't be caught in one sweep. He had to be weakened first…
Only then could the trap fall into place.