Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 577: Black Skull. (Part Nine)
The Sorcerer took the initiative and revealed himself, and that was enough for Dante to recognize that he was bad news.
Nevertheless, that didn’t make him any less in a rush. He needed to get moving right now.
"OUT-" pulling back his right fist, Dante activated both Force and Impact Amplification. "OF MY WAY!!!"
The sorcerer held up the short sword he was pushing with and met Dante’s punch head-on. At the very last moment, it tilted ever so slightly, causing the glowing green fist to veer off course without shattering the place.
A cacophony of sharp clangs resounded through the intersection as fists met swords. Dante pushed himself to the limit, unleashing a combo he seldom uses, but his opponent looked unperturbed, responding with combos of his own. Neither managed to land a single hit, continuing to parry the other’s attacks.
With each strike, Dante’s frustration grew stronger. Three lasers rained from different directions, but the sorcerer jumped back at the right moment, evading all three. The air above him stirred, gathering into three cones that exploded forward like missiles. Parrying two and evading the third, Dante returned his attention to his opponent only to see that he was gone.
[Dante! I just lost connection to another Android! Volcan’s panicked voice sent a cold chill down his spine. [They are targeting those in the area!]
As they were offering long-range support, the androids had been stationed on the higher floors. No matter how fast, the sorcerer he clashed with just now couldn’t have been the one to take them down, meaning there were others. There had always been others.
’Shit-’
As if to remind him of that fact, another silent bullet entered the range of his Absolute Awareness. That one didn’t belong to the Shirogane Sorcerers—those bastards knew how to mask the presence of their projectiles, so it would have been impossible for Volcan’s Sources to pick it up. The silent sniper was likely another one of the hunters who joined the fight for his head.
Another alarm went off in Dante’s head, and his body moved on its own, blocking another invisible attack right after dodging the silent bullet. The worst part about it was that he couldn’t even tell if the counter he followed landed or not. It was becoming clear by the second that beating them without his armor wasn’t possible. He needed to find a way to change without exposing himself, but that was going to be very difficult when he didn’t even know if he was being watched.
’Hold on...’
Dante was attacked the instant he was about to return to the battle, which would mean that the damned Shirogane Sorcerers saw him change the Module of his MBI. That already put him at great risk. It wouldn’t be difficult to link him and Ghost just by seeing him equip an armor even once, so even if he got the chance to do it, he wouldn’t be able to change after that.
’No...’ Dante blocked another invisible attack. ’This isn’t the time!’
Volcan’s being unable to connect his androids in the Sanctuary was really bad news. The androids were equipped with an autonomous AI for situations where their resident AI couldn’t reach them, but this wasn’t one of those. Their current location wasn’t isolated in any way, which could only mean that the problem was on the other side.
Whether the androids had been destroyed or not didn’t matter. Volcan hadn’t said anything about the surveillance systems around the Sanctuary, but the very fact that his connection to the androids had been cut meant that there was no other way to check on them, and that something very bad was about to happen. There was no time to waste on the current battle.
"As I said-"
His feet digging into the ground, Dante spun in a snap and blocked. Just like before, the air before his deformed in a haze, and a man dressed in all black appeared, pressing a short sword against the green alloy of his bionic arm.
"You aren’t going anywhere!"
The Sorcerer, as he pushed down, Dante felt that he was losing the contest of strength. Fixing his opponent with a glare, Dante pushed with everything he had, but the force going against him suddenly vanished as the bastard jumped back. As he began to disappear, Dante’s danger sense went haywire. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
Several invisible attacks reached him at the same time. His body reacted, but countering all of them when he couldn’t even tell their nature was impossible. The bastards must have figured that his legs were his weak points, which is why they focused their attacks there. He blocked those, but the two aimed at his head and torso landed. Though they didn’t deal a lot of damage, they were still enough to disorient him.
Biting his frustration, Dante took off running. A missile fell on him from above, and though he evaded the explosion, the debris blown by it still got him. He did his best not to let it slow him down, but another round of invisible attack forced him to a halt once more.
Blocking another sword strike, Dante snarled at the enemy he wasn’t entirely sure was there.
"You... bastards... What are you..."
"You really are something..."
The voice came from behind Dante, but when he turned to attack its source, he sensed another attack coming from behind him. He was in no position to react to it by then, and the blade cut deep into his flesh and subdermal armor.
"Able to react to our Silent Breath. Guess your martial arts were as advanced as they seemed."
"Spare me your bullshit, Ching Chung!"
Dante lashed out, driven by haste and anger. His attacks were easily blocked, and the bastards managed to sneak in some of their own, even though he countered everything thrown at him. The Sorcerers retreated, and a salvo of missiles fell from the sky. Looking up, Dante gritted as he finally noticed that they were the same missiles the obsidian Cyborgs had used.
Running from the explosions, Dante swore that he would be the one to kill whichever bastard salvaged them. The eastern bastards were all too happy to let the fires do the job for them, which is why they waited for the moment he was safe to attack again.
