Priya's eyes shot open.
Darkness hung all around her. With the Crimson Rain falling so heavily, technology had almost no chance of working properly, so there were no lights to take advantage of.
Instead, she could only sit in the darkness, not even lighting candles in case that drew attention to her.
Just now, she had felt something shift, an oddity hanging in the atmosphere as though the Godsfall was turning violent.
Ever since Zarek had told her about taking more time to sense energies outside of her body rather than just absorbing what she could at the fastest speed possible, she had been growing the strength of this sixth sense of hers.
And she recognized this sort of change.
Battle.
Someone was fighting or gearing up to fight.
She stood from her and Zarek's bed. Her gun had been on her lap, its safety off, but she seamlessly slotted it into her palm as she moved to the curtain, pulling it to the side with a finger and looking outside.
As expected, she couldn't see much. As dark as her room was, the red moonlight wasn't helping the outside world to be much better.
Her thoughts spun for a moment, and she thought about exit strategies as she scanned for any changes down below.
The Godsfall Steel bullets are limited. Zarek and I have been preserving them, and I've been mostly using his duplicates. But I still only have…
Priya's gaze shifted to the bed. Pulling up a fanny pack from the bed, she clipped it around her waist, then slid a small, familiar shield onto her off hand.
The parrying shield was small enough that it didn't affect her ability to aim and fire at all. It was a bit heavy, but her stats were ample enough now that her strength was far beyond a normal teen girl's already.
Move.
Priya made a decision quite quickly.
The condo only had one exit. The floor plan was quite open-concept, making it difficult to defend as well. As appealing as the option of just waiting until someone opened the door to fire was, the moment she let off the first bullet, it would practically be a blaring warning that she was here.
At that point, she'd either be overwhelmed by numbers or run out of bullets. She wasn't as good a shot as Zarek to be confident in killing one person per bullet, let alone multiple.
So she chose to move.
If Zarek was correct, these people were mostly here to sow chaos. In that case, she just had to make sure that she wasn't an easy target to kill.
She left the condo and flicked the fire alarm switch. Nothing happened as the circuits couldn't complete, but with any luck, there'd be a brief moment where it did trigger.
She vanished down the stairway.
…
Zade was still thinking about his last interaction with Zarek, feeling that there was something particularly dangerous about the young man he couldn't put his finger on. He had no idea how an 18-year-old could make him feel so…
Inadequate.
There was a flash in Zade's eyes as he suddenly moved a hand to his hip, pulling out a series of rods that snapped into a polearm and extended out a blade from both sides.
Zarek had already told them that firearms would be near useless. All he'd have to rely on would be this weapon in his hands and the crossbow hidden in his sleeve.
They were ready for this raid mostly thanks to Zarek. However, what happened next still caught Zade somewhat off guard.
Van Hollen walked straight in through the front entrance, his face obscured by what looked like a thick mesh of blubber oozing with Crimson Rain.
Zade wasn't alone. Around him, there was a crew of fighters as well, including a familiar fat and skinny duo that were holding their own weapons. But they were surprised as well.
That was because Van Hollen was the only one that entered. All alone, he stood there, no weapon in hand, his face obscured to all of their sights.
All they could see was the cold light of his eyes as he sank into a battle state.
And then he moved.
Zade's expression changed as Van Hollen split into a dozen figures, all moving independently as the main of them faced off against him.
BANG!
Suddenly, the clones fused back into Van Hollen's main body before the battle could even commence, catching all off guard.
Zade felt as though he had truly been punched by twelve men. Not having expected the sudden change, his rod bent out of shape with enough force that the fist and the rod itself still slammed into his chest.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Zade was sent flying, his spine nearly cracking over a long receptionist's desk behind him, before he flipped out, landing heavily on his head and neck.
The world spun around him, his body feeling as though it had just completely shut down. What was that?
Zade wasn't weak in the slightest. However, GFI had split their attention, Zade coming to man this building, while the bulk of their forces were actually in the main company building, headed by Marx and their companions.
They had all expected that any attacks they suffered tonight would also have split attentions, but the reality was completely outside of their expectations.
Pensare didn't attack their holdings at all—just the barriers of their territories. And the Sakks and Dalton Firm didn't split their forces either. They sent their entire army at the main company building and only sent one man to the condominium high-rise.
Van Hollen was his own army.
—
Name: [Van Hollen Sakks]
Role: [N/A]
Core Stats:
>[Strength: E+]
>[Dexterity: E-]
>[Intelligence: D-]
>[Endurance: F+]
>[Charisma: E+]
Talents:
>[Resonant Clone: D-]
[Abilities: Split]
[Divide yourself in clones formed of energy. Each one will carry 20% of your Core Stats at the cost of 10% of your energy reserves]
[Abilities: Sudden Fusion]
[In the instant your clones come together, gain all of their Core Stats for the duration your body can withstand. Instantly explode in strength and suppress your enemies with a sudden boost of Speed or power.]
>[Unawakened]
>[Unawakened]
—
Van Hollen suddenly split into clones once again as he was assaulted from all sides by Zade's team, the latter too broken to stand up any time soon.
The lawyer moved as though an acrobat, the arcs of his body fluid. Even though he didn't seem to be relying on any external items, his fists and kicks were lethal, and his control was immaculate. He looked like a man that had been using this ability all his life already.
From time to time, a clone would suddenly fuse back into his body, not only replenishing the Godsfall he had used up to create it but increasing his strength in an explosive burst that caught his opponent off guard.
His main body floated around the battlefield, picking them off one by one as his clones kept them occupied in a stranglehold of his own creation.
Zade tried to stand again but wobbled, falling down again. His legs weren't cooperating, his head was spinning, and his entire chest felt as though a sledgehammer had just been taken to it.
For the first time, Zade tasted the danger of this world. A single misjudgment seemed like it might cost him his life.