Gatling Giant

Linri was crouching down together with Leslie and Gendor was down on the ground covered in dirt.

"How is everyone?" Linri shouted at the comm. It was hard to hear anything because of the continuous gunfire.

"I am okay." Hayato answered.

"Me too." Luke followed him.

"Don't know about you guys but I am cool as a cucumber." Damn! Linri never wanted to punch someone so much in his life. Okay, we get it, bullets don't hurt you but do you have to boast about it so much every time?

"Copy that. Selim, try to take it down or at least try to stop its gun. Luke give backline support!"

"Understood." Both of them answered at the same time.

Once he got the order to strike Selim didn't waste any second to attack the monster. Actually from the moment the monster appeared, he hadn't moved an inch. He just let all the debris and bullets phase through him. The whole time he was standing there, the monster was shooting at him. Selim did not need to dodge so he decided to stay still. Who knows maybe the monster would run out of bullets?

That was, however, until he got the order to attack. His blood was already boiling so Selim brought out his knives and started to rush towards the monster. The Gun's aim was following him but it was not important. Even if the monster kept shooting till the end of earth it still wouldn't be able to scratch Selim's hair.

Yeah well actually he could but that would take a long time and for Selim to stop concentrating on dodging the bullets. I mean even if Selim's weaknesses was magic he still had to see the attack coming before being able to phase through it.

Selim finally made it to the monster. Both he and the monster had a mad look in their eyes. Selim could let loose in fights like these actually he revelled in them. However this time things did not go as well as he planned. Thinking that his opponent was a big dumb monster Selim rushed towards it but when he was about to slash it with his knives the monster stopped shooting and kicked him.

If he was on guard he could have dodged it but because he was looking down on his opponent the thought had not even crossed his mind at all. So he was kicked in the stomach and thrown towards the wall. It happened so fast that Selim did not even have any time to phase himself and directly crashed at the wall and vomited blood.

After the kick, the Gatling Armed Monster stopped moving. There was an eerie red light coming out of its eyes.

"Selim Come IN!! Are you alright!" Luke shouted in the coms but there was no answer from him. Linri peaked from the corner to see that Selim was passed out.

Great! Now he had another problem to deal with. The best person suited to deal with the giant was gone.

"Look" Leslie whispered to Linri while pointing at the monster.

Linri looked where she was pointing at but the only thing he could see was the Gatling Giant standing there. Linri turned back to Leslie and looked at her with inquisitive eyes.

"Can't you see? He is re-calibrating which mean he has no self-conscious." Linri still did not understand her point to which she just rolled her eyes.

"That means the whole thing is just a big walking computer and don't we have the perfect guy to deal with that?" said Leslie and looked at Hayato.

Before Linri could answer back though, the Gatling Giant started to walk towards them.

"Hayato can you control that thing?" Linri asked hurriedly. The monster could start shooting at any minute again and this time they would be swiss cheese for sure.

"If it's controlled by a computer sure but first I need to get close to it to infect it with my nanobots and its gonna take time to hack into its system."

Well now that was a problem but at least the situation wasn't as hopeless as before now.

"Luke on my mark! 3,2,1, GO!" Linri shouted through comms and dashed out of the cover. He didn't exactly have a plan to fight that thing and during the night he didn't really have destructive powers. I mean if he could manipulate fire he could just stay behind the covers and continuously burn that thing but ice didn't have any similar properties. Best he could do was turn the ice on his body to giant icicles and shoot its legs to try to immobilise the Gatling Monster.

That was exactly what Linri did. He dashed out, converted the ice to two icicles and shot it towards the Gatling Giant's feet.

He was successful!

It was hit on both of its feet.

But Linri didn't even have any time to celebrate when monster started to fire its gatling gun towards him.

To top it all of it wasn't even bothered by the icicles pinning it to the ground. It just lifted its feet and the icicles crushed by itself. After all, it was only ice, it wasn't hard enough to pin it to the ground.

Seeing this Linri did not stop running and rushed towards the closest cover. Still, it can't exactly be called a failure as Luke and Hayato used this chance to rush out and attack it with their guns.

As a result of this, there was two new information. One was good and one was bad. The good news was the Gatling Giant stopped focusing Linri. The bad news was the bullets of their automatic rifles were not able to pierce through its skin.

FUCK!!

Its endurance must at least be a 4x Extreme. He was doomed. There was no way that they could kill a monster like that. The only way to reach the 4x Extreme and attributes above that was either an ability evolution or Ex-Burst.

The reason for that was the creator Luxor didn't want people to level up a single attribute and abuse it when they had just created their characters. So the highest a pure attribute user could get upon creation was 3x Superior. It was also same for the ability users. The most their abilities could deal was also 3x Superior Damage and even that had to come with its own drawbacks like low speed or high mana cost.

The way to get higher attributes or deal more damage was ability evolution or Ex-Burst. Evolution was when a character basically got stronger through some sort of realisation, awakening or a life and death fight in the RP club. However, that was just flavour. As players only thing you had to do was spend 20 EXP. You could acquire EXP by either fighting in the club, attending events or just get 5 EXP each month by playing. So, in essence, you could evolve a character by not doing anything and waiting for 4 months IRL. Linri's evolution was his bloodline awakening and it was still ways off so it was a no go.

As for Ex-Burst that was sorta the ultimates of the characters. It could be a transformation, single attack or even buffs or curses. Basically, it was anything you want it to be as long as admins approved it. For players, it cost 15 EXP so almost everyone got it before the evolution. Linri's Ex-Burst falls under the transformation category and it was kinda overpowered in its own right. However, since admins were such little... ahem! I mean since admins wanted it to be 'balanced' they put some restrictions to it. One of them was Linri's prana bar being empty before using it. Let alone knowing if he could use it or not Linri did not even fulfil the first condition to activate it. Yep, it was official. They were doomed there was no way to pass through that Monster's defences.

Wait calm down! If it really does have 4x Extreme Endurance then how was he able to pierce its feet with his icicles. That must mean it only had that attribute only at certain parts of its body. Or maybe it was the legs that were its weakness.

Linri was still thinking of ways to take down the monster when he noticed a certain peculiarity. No, it was not the monster. It was actually one of his allies.

Linri noticed that Leslie started to change. At first, it was her arms and next, her legs. She was in her half-demon form but that would not do anything to the monster because of the attribute cap. However, the peculiarity was that she had not stopped transforming yet. But that was not possible. Her ability was transforming her body parts into demonic forms. Logically she could only transform into a full demon as her Ex-Burst.

But that was where the peculiarity was she was not even registered at Autumnfall yet so she was not supposed to have access to her Ex-Burst or evolution yet. Unless... she already had her Ex-Burst even before attending the school but Diego found some in RP reason to not use her transformation. It could be anything ranging from her being afraid of the demon inside her to Leslie not feeling like she needed to transform in the fights.

By the time Linri was done with his thoughts she had already completed her transformation and just the look of her gave Linri the fright. Fucking Diego and his demon fetish!! Why couldn't the hot girl transform into I don't know a succubus or something? Instead, she looked like she directly jumped from the pages of a Lovecraftian horror story.

In her current appearance, there was not a shred of humanity let alone her prior appearance. Leslie's body grew larger by almost a whole meter. She had six, thin, dead branch-like arms with two elbows and razor-sharp claws. When she didn't move them they almost looked like a spider's legs. Her head was even worse if it could even be called a head. It looked like a beehive with the exterior removed and it was split in the middle vertically with giant protruding fangs. Linri couldn't even see any eyes on her head just how the hell could she see!! Even her skin had turned a shade of ash-like dark grey.

The moment she completed her transformation Leslie(?) immediately jumped at the Gatling Giant whose presence Linri kinda forgot about due to shock. She lunged at it with extreme speed. Linri couldn't even follow her with his own eyes so she should at least have 5x Uber Agility.

The monster couldn't even react before getting hugged by Leslie's deadly arms and what followed was gore that was too hard to describe with words. The monster was tough so it took a while for Leslie to completely dismember it but when she was done with it there were only pieces of meat remaining in the ground. Linri was not too sure but he could swear that he saw her eating the parts of the monster. He wanted to throw up but he did not want to as that would make him seem weak in front of the others but also because he thought if he threw up others might too.

What followed was easy. Thanks to all the destruction caused by the now-deceased Gatling Giant the found the hidden escape route and used it to reach the surface. Once they were there they immediately met up with Lance and returned to the hideout.

The easy part was over. Now Linri had to talk with Gendor and see if he was still sane. If he was not this whole plan would be for nothing.