< Territoriality (Part 3) >
The long range attack of the laser rifle dealt a swift death. The Reaver whose head was pierced with the laser died on the spot.
Its a laser rifle!
Damn!
The Reavers had underestimated their opponents since they were attacking a beat up armored vehicle. They did not expect to encounter a Wargrave executor inside the vehicle.
Ratatatat!
The Reavers started shooting at Ramphil, but he was aware of all their moves. He knew who was reloading a gun, aiming a gun, and shooting a gun. Ramphil quickly took out the Reavers who were throwing the Molotov cocktails at the armored vehicle, and took cover behind the alley.
The gunners were all lying low, hiding from the laser rifle shots. As soon as the gunfire ceased, Zin moved out of the AV.
While taking cover in the alleyway, Ramphil marked the Reavers who were hiding. Zin was moving quickly to take position on top of a building to snipe down the Reavers.
Even though Ramphil exposed himself to the attack of the Reavers, he was simply marking the Reavers on the ground. Zin also moved into the alleyway swiftly. There was no reason for Zin to move quietly as he had already been spotted by the Reavers.
Boom! Boom!
Zin jumped against the wall of building, bounced off two walls, and successfully climbed up to the roof of a three-story building.
Ah crap
At the rooftop, there were two Reavers who were taking cover from the laser rifle attack. As soon as Zin landed on rooftop, he fired with automatic shotgun.
Pow! Pow!
Ngaaargh! One was shot in the chest, and the other in the head and died instantly. Zin quickly rolled to the walls of the building to take cover.
The buildings surrounding the area had similar heights. Zin had to move to a taller building to spot the enemies hiding in the alleys and rooftops.
The Reavers who were hiding were desperate. They didnt expect to face such powerful foes. One was a Wargrave cyborg soldier, and the other one quickly took out two Reavers by jumping up the side of a building.
It was clear that the Reavers had picked on the wrong enemy, they were people that they should not have messed around. Ramphil was controlling ground zero, and Zin was about to control the high ground. The Reavers were smart enough to understand the situation, and they were not dumb to continue a battle that they were going to lose.
Lets split up and run!
As soon as someone shouted, the Reavers started to move. They lowered their bodies, and started to run away through the alleyways. In urban warfare, visibility was very limited because of the buildings. Many Reavers were out quickly out of range.
However, Zin was not going to let anyone walk out alive after attacking him. He took out his AKM and started to shoot.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Reavers who moved were exposed and attacked by Zin. Four gunshots were fired, four Reavers were taken down.
Zin aimed and shot. And he made it look so easy.
Ramphil was also on a rampage. He ran into the alley, and pursued the Reavers by listening for the sound of their footsteps. He adjusted the L-20s output mode, switching it to spray mode. It lost a bit of range, but he was able to target a wider area.
It basically became a laser shotgun!
Ramphil turned the corner and quickly fired the gun at the back of a Reaver who was running away.
Flash! Booom!
As soon as the blue light flared, the upper body of the Reaver burst into flaming pieces. From a distance, the lasers beam attack pierced a hole, but the laser gun on spray mode blasted the target apart. It was a horrifying scene, and Ramphil continued to hunt down the fleeing Reavers one at a time.
From the rooftops, a hunter was sniping, and on the ground, a Wargrave executor was shooting the laser shotgun.
Its obvious where they are fleeing.
Even though the Reavers split up and ran away, they would be gathering at a point. Ramphil mainly hunted monsters, but Zin had fought against Reavers and monsters many times.
Zin knew that the Reavers planned out an escape route in case their attack failed.
More than ten Reavers had ambushed Zin and Ramphil. Ramphil continued to chase after them, and Zin was moving towards the gathering point to wipe out all the Reavers, jumping between the buildings.
Zin was not planning to go easy on the Reavers who dared to attack him!
And right at that moment-
Bang!
Zin was stunned at the sound of a gunshot behind him.
Leona!
Zin quickly turned and started running towards the armored vehicle. He was in between the buildings, and was not able to see what was going on near the vehicle.
Bang! Bang!
The second and the third gunshots were fired.
Some of the Reavers were planning to steal the armored vehicle when they saw Zin and Ramphil chasing after the others.
And Leona was inside the armored vehicle!
Zin had completely forgot that Leona was still around. Feeling uneasy, he moved quickly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The fourth, fifth, and sixth gunshots were fired. Next to the vehicle, there was one Reaver who was shot. Zin jumped off the building rooftop, and yelled, Leona! in desperation, and looked into the back of the vehicle.
Argguh
Huff huff
Leona pointed the revolver at the head of the Reaver who was lying down, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
And she shot once more at the head of the other Reaver.
Bang!
As soon as Leona killed off the Reavers, she looked at Zin. Zin looked desperate, but Leona looked calm.
Whats wrong with you? Did someone die? No, I mean yeah, someones dead now. Leona shrugged as she looked at the two Reavers dead on the floor. But not me.
Leona was as calm as if nothing happened.
Thinking that the armored vehicle was unmanned, the three Reavers ran towards the vehicle to steal it. Leona fired a shot at one of the Reavers who entered the vehicle, and hid herself behind the front seat.
The Reaver who was shot yelled that there was a small kid armed with a crude rifle. A crude rifle required reloading, and the two other Reavers jumped into the vehicle to take advantage of the reload time. Leona hid behind the front seat to take cover from their gunshots.
When she heard the bullets ricochet against the armor of the vehicle, she shot them down with her revolver.
It was a very brief fight, but Leona drew their fire while taking cover. While the Reavers were reloading, she took advantage of the moment to take them down, as they didnt know the crude rifle was her only weapon.
Leona delivered a perfect counter-attack at the right moment.
She maintained her composure even though she was attacked by multiple Reavers, and was able to take them all out.
She had good decision-making skills, and was able to survive through many dangers while living in the wilderness. Now that she was armed with a gun, she was able to fight back much differently than before.
Zin was amazed that Leona had calmly killed three Reavers, and he was feeling sorry that he didnt remember Leona when he was busy chasing after the Reavers.
Im sorry. I briefly
What? As Zin was trying to speak, Leona stared at Zin.
Im sorry that I didnt protect you. Leona did not want to hear such words. She didnt want to be treated like a kid. Leona looked straight into the eyes of Zin and said, I understand that Im a burden to you, but I dont like to be treated as a burden all the time.
To be regarded as a burden meant that one had to be protected. Leona knew that she needed the protection of Zin, but she didnt want Zin to feel sorry for her.
So dont tell me that you are sorry.
Accepting Zins apology would mean that Leona expected to be protected by Zin all the time. Although Leona knew that she needed Zins help, Leona did not want Zin to feel obligated to protect her so all the time.
Leona wanted to be treated as an adult.
Okay. Zin nodded, he understood where Leona was coming from. Then, Im sorry for saying that Im sorry.
Are you fooling around?
Of course.
You are such a jerk!
Leona gnashed her teeth, and Zin kept on laughing. The two didnt look like people who were engaged in a gunfight moments ago.
Ramphil also returned to the armored vehicle after he heard the gunshots.
It was very unlikely that the Reavers would attack again, as they were badly beaten. Zin and Ramphil looted the dead. They found 30 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition and home-made rifles, but they did not find any chips. After removing the iron wire near the bridge, they all got back into the vehicle.
Leona was looking fondly at the crude rifle that had saved her life. Zin removed the spent shells from the revolver, reloaded .38 caliber slugs back into it, and gave the revolver back to Leona.
This cute little thing could take down anybody. Its so amazing!
Leona placed the revolver at her waist, concealed under her bag.
Zin said, Those Reavers were pretty aggressive. I didnt expect them to raid a Wargrave armored vehicle.
I thought that it was strange as well. Ramphil agreed with Zins thoughts. Based on Zin and Ramphils previous discussion, these Reavers were utilizing the presence of the Wargrave fortress to raid the local civilians. It would be suicidal for the Reavers to raid Wargrave properties. Even if the Reavers succeeded in stealing the vehicle, they would be in danger because the Wargrave would retaliate.
Ramphil and Zin couldnt figure out why the Reavers would take such actions. They would not be able to utilize the armored vehicle because of the Wargrave presence, and they had suffered casualties during the ambush.
Anyways, I will have to write up a report.
The fortress would take care of the matters once Ramphil submitted a report. Ramphil didnt know the motives of the Reavers, but the only thing he had to do was write up a simple report. Wargrave did not care much as long as they were not attacked, but they would exterminate any forces that attacked them.
In any case, it really didnt matter to Zin.
—
The team dismounted the AV when they were still quite far away from the fortress gate.
Wow, totally cool.
Leona saw a fortress for the second time, and was awestruck by the height of the fortress wall. The wall was grey and clean. It seemed to represent the reclusiveness of the Wargrave.
As the team approached the fortress, a loud alarm went off near the walls of the fortress.
[Stay away. This is a Wargrave fortress. Trespassing is prohibited.]
[If you dont go back, we will shoot based on our safety protocols.]
[Stay away.]
The Wargrave did not shoot right away. Ramphil started to murmur near the wall of the fortress.
Code-349-9756-9954.
As soon as Ramphil spoke, the alarm sound stopped. The process to enter the fortress was simple. There were cameras and voice recognition devices installed around the wall, and Ramphil spoke out his military ID number. The central computer would then cross-reference Ramphils face and military ID number to check if the person was a Wargrave soldier.
It appeared complex, but it was quite a simple verification process.
[ID verified.]
[Access granted.]
The automatic turrets were briefly put on standby. Ramphil walked up to the gate, and using an intercom, he called the gatekeeper.