12 Chapter 12: Bandits? Marauders? Who Knows!
Lucas remembered something as they walked.
'How could I forget?' He thought as he quickly turned and looked at Lina. Well, not specifically Lina but more or less what was above her head. After some squinting, Lucas felt energy soar through him when he saw what he was looking for.
<Lina: LV: 1>
'What?'
A look of disbelief spread across Lucas's face as he realized the full impact of what those words meant.
'She is so powerful... and only level one?' Lucas thought to himself as he opened his mouth to ask the obvious question before something cut him off.
It was a type of loud popping noise in the distance. Lucas knew what this sound was instantly as he ducked behind a nearby car with Lina in tow.
"Why are you-?!" Lina protested before turning to see a bullet explode into the ground where they were moments before.
A look of fear instantly filled her face as she started shaking.
"B-But why?" Lina stuttered.
'Man, I guess living in shady places your entire life really pays off.' Lucas thought to himself as he grimaced.
"I don't know why but someone seems to be after us."
'Perhaps they want to drain us for XP as I did to all those other people?'
'Now that I think about it there have been fewer and fewer beasts traveling the city the farther we move away from the downtown district... Perhaps there is an actual reason?'
As Lucas was thinking to himself he heard the sounds of footsteps pounding on the ground in the distance.
"Oh great, they have men on the ground." Lucas sighed as he grabbed Night Bat from his back in one fluid motion.
"I wonder how bullets do against my high Endurance stat?" Lucas asked to seemingly no one as a smile appeared on his face.
"Mind providing back up Lina? If you can of course..." Lucas asked the kid who was currently shaking in her boots once more.
Lina looked at him but something in her eyes seemed to contradict her body's disposition. She nodded and raised her wand into the air before casting a smaller version of the bubble forcefield on him again, this time it being directly pressed against his skin.
'Hmm... This version of the skill seems to make it to where I can move at the same time... But she is only level 1 so she should only have 2 skill slots. One active and one passive. So how can she cast two different spells?' Lucas asked himself before shaking his head and clearing his mind. He had a task at hand and it needed his full concentration.
'So there is at least one long-distance gunner and one man on the ground. I don't know much about guns but from the movies, I've watched maybe the gunner is a sniper? I didn't see him while walking so he must be a distance away so it could make sense.'
Lucas closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. He could feel the car he was leaning against and the smooth exterior of it. He could feel the small vines traveling up it and causing overgrowth.
'Hmm...'
Lucas could feel the sweat rolling down his skin in the hot summer heat. It was nothing he wasn't used to at this point but it wasn't very helpful as it distracted him slightly.
Then something peaked his senses. There were two sets of feet in the distance! Not one. Meaning that two men were on the ground while another was in the distance.
"If I don't make it kid... Hide." Lucas said while looking away from Lina as he rushed into the street looking at his surroundings for the men in the distance.
'One girl and one man.' Lucas thought to himself as he squinted into the distance.
The man had a pistol out in his left hand and was sprinting at an unbelievable speed. He was wearing camo clothes and seemed to be rather ripped as you could faintly see the muscles bulging underneath his camo t-shirt as he ran.
The girl was holding a shotgun and lagged behind the man as she seemed to be struggling to carry the cumbersome weapon and sprint at full speed at the same time.
<User has the option of learning the common skill: <Sensory Overdrive>. Learn?>
'Sure, why the hell not?' Lucas thought to himself as he found his vision and clarity suddenly increase by a high amount.
---
<Sensory Overdrive>: Tier 0 / LV: 1 / Rarity: Rare> Requirement: Focus your vision and senses to a high degree.
The eagle sees all but you do more than just see. Increase all senses by 50% for a small amount of mana and stamina per second of use.
---
'The drain doesn't seem too high... Should be fine to keep on for now.' Lucas thought as he felt his vision clear up.
The man had a tag that glowed slightly brighter than the females and showed the following:
<Unknown: Age: 26 / LV: 26 total.>
While the girls showed this:
<Unknown: Age: 19 / LV: 12 total.>
'So level 26 and 12 in their classes all combined. My combined level should be 16 so how the hell are these people at such a high level? How do I have the highest stats?' Perhaps it's that title... it did give me 40 points divided by two of my stats which is equivalent to four levels. So I have the stats of a level 20. With <Sight of Nyx> that gives me 35 stat points divided into all my stats it's another 3 levels.' Lucas thought before shaking his head and focusing on the task ahead of him.
It was something that didn't make sense but he was sure that the answer would come to him eventually.
The man looked at Lucas and his face went from one of confidence to confusion as he saw Lucas calmly running down the street towards
'Is this guy an idiot?' Thought the man with the gun as he simply stopped and aimed the gun at Lucas and fired before Lucas could react.
The bullet whizzed through the air as if controlled by magical strings as it twisted and turned at the last second with a bright red color flaring behind it.
'They can control the bullets somehow?' Lucas thought before realizing that he couldn't dodge or block this blow.
"Ugh, this is frustrating." Lucas thought before just continuing to run forward while continuing to think of what to do and evaluating the situation he was in.
'The sniper should have hit me if he had an ability akin to the man in front of me. So I should be able to easily dodge the sniper/long-range combatant.'
'The girl has a shotgun, which is a relatively short-range weapon. So in the meantime, I shouldn't worry about her.'
'That leaves this guy and his fucking magical bullet.' Lucas thought as the bullet got closer and closer. He was running out of time.
'Looks like I just have to test the strength of a gun head-on. I haven't tested my defense against other people yet but against beasts, it seems useless. At least for the powerful ones which are all the ones I've been up against...'
Lucas held his bat in front of him as he prepped to try and deflect it and as the bullet came closer Lucas felt a massive boost of speed overtake him.
<User has leveled up the <Dodge> Skill to level 4>
"SHUT UP!" Lucas shouted as the bullet came closer and closer.
The bullet was just about to hit the bat before suddenly curving once more and zipping around him towards his back.
'That's his strategy, eh' Lucas thought as he felt a tap on his back.
Lucas turned around in a hurry before noticing that the bullet had simply dented and fallen to the ground.
"What the-," The man in the distance said before continuing his sprint.
"Miss Lu, he survived my full-powered shot!" The man yelled towards the woman who was lagging behind.
Lucas could see the girl nod in response as she sped up her pace to keep up.
"She must be the heavy hitter, He's the one who does the trick shots and the one at the range must be the one that takes people by surprise... Pretty solid arrangement. Too bad they ran into someone like me." Lucas thought to himself as his smile got bigger.
'This is gonna be fun if that's what a bullet does to me.'
As Lucas ran forward to meet the squad.
Lina peaked her head out to see what had happened and instead of continuing to shake she became calm and began to root Lucas on.
"You can do it! Lukey-poo, make sure to make them eat poopoo!" She screamed as Lucas only smiled wider.
A look of fear appeared on the man and woman's faces at the look of Lucas barreling towards them.
'Who the hell is this guy?!' was the only thing that ran through their heads as he approached.
