Chapter 10 Night Raid

Modred walked through the dimly lit corridors of the factory, her senses heightened. As she navigated through the factory, a faint murmur of voices caught her attention. Getting closer to the noise she found a large room where several thugs were gathered. 

"We scored big with the shipment last night!" One of them boasted as he tossed a duffel bag onto the table. 

"Who knew there would be so much Dust within those crates".

Another opened the bag and started pulling out stacks of Lien and setting them aside on the table. 

"Jackpot". Mordred said, she aimed her rifle, finger on the trigger. The men in the room had set aside their own weapons, not thinking they would need them or the fact that their base had been infiltrated. 

'Don't want to damage the money'. 

~BANG BANG BANG~

She let loose, bullets flying and hitting their targets dead on. The ones who weren't killed first tried to reach for the weapons or get into cover but they were too slow. Within seconds all of them were dead. 

Mordred reloaded her rifle and quickly approached the table.

'Now they know I'm here'. She quickly stuffed the money into the duffle bag. Once she got all of it she threw the bag into her inventory. Right on time as she heard hastened footsteps coming from the hallway.

She flipped over the metal table and sat behind it, she readied a flashbang.

~SLAM~ 

The doors to the room slammed open. Five men entered with machine guns that looked like they were poorly put together. 

"Holy shit! What the hell happened?!" One of the men yelled.

They were stunned by the bloodbath before their eyes. Using this chance she pulled the pin and tossed the flashbang at them.

~BAM~

With the thugs stunned she rose from the cover and began firing. She had to put more bullets into one guy because of his aura. 

With the room clear, Mordred slowly approached the door and peaked out into the hallway. When she was sure there was no one she started exploring the building. But she found no one. 

Heading up the stairs towards the main office of the building, she heard panicked steps and other loud noises. No doubt barricading themselves in the room. 

'What to do?'

She sat outside the room thinking of ways to deal with this situation. Then an idea came to her. She went to a nearby wall to test her plan. With the activation of mana burst she kicked the wall, destroying it and sending fragments at high speeds everywhere in the room.

"Perfect"

With her quick test complete she walked over to the door of the main office. She loaded a fresh mag into her rifle and positioned herself in front of the door. Her body bursted with red lightning, enhancing her body, she kicked open the barricaded door, sending pieces of it as well as whatever was used to barricade it flying into the room.

Mordred quickly got behind the wall next to the door, as she expected a hail of bullets, but to her surprise no bullets came. Right as she was about to peek the corner, a man came around with an ax. He made a sloppy swing that Mordred easily dodged resulting in his ax getting stuck in the wall. She raised her rifle and put two bullets in his head. 

She grabbed his body and threw it at the door opening, and what immediately followed was the hail of bullets she expected.

"FLINT!"

The thugs were stunned, thinking that they just killed their comrade. Mordred used this quick distraction and turned the corner, She emptied her mag, killing four more. Going back into cover and reloading. She heard no movement or even breathing in the room. She peeked again and slowly walked in, rifle at the ready. 

She took one more step before her instincts kicked in. She turned around and raised her rifle.

~CLANG~

She blocked a black sword. The man before her was a middle aged man with a scar across his right eye. Dressed in dirty and tattered gray leather. 

'This guys no ordinary thug, most likely a former huntsmen'.

She continued blocking blows with her rifle, The man wasn't giving her any breathing room. His sword ended up cutting into the barrel, his sword momentarily stuck. Mordred used mana burst and kicked his stomach, sending him back a few meters. 

She tossed aside her rifle and pulled out her pistol and combat knife.

"Hahaha, you're quite good, I wonder who sent you here". The man recovered from the kick and got back into his stance.

Mordred didn't answer and quickly fired five rounds at him. The man used his speed to try and dodge but three of the bullets still hit. His aura flared up but held strong. Modred holstered the pistol and focused on defense as the man rushed back at her. 

~CLANG CLANG CLANG~

She used her knife to parry his attacks. He grew increasingly frustrated and increased his speed at the cost of the precision of his attacks. Mordred couldn't block all the swings and a few connected. A swing grazed her cheek, drawing blood. 

This stunned the man which Mordred exploited and used mana burst into her fist and punched the man, sending him into a few crates. His aura still held up but was noticeably dimmer than before.

He rose from the crates and looked her in the eyes. 

"You have no aura, yet you can use a semblance! How?!"

Mordred switched the knife into her left hand and got back into a combat stance.

"Why don't you come and find out".

The man held his sword with both hands and sprung forth at her. He raised the sword above his head and swung downwards.

~CLANG~

She parried the attack, redirecting the sword to the right of her into the ground. With trained movement she quickly pulled out her pistol once more and fired the remaining bullets into his stomach. His aura tanked two shots before braking, letting the rest penetrate his body.

The man stumbled, holding his stomach before falling on his back. Mordred reloaded her pistol and came close to the man before aiming the pistol at this head.

"Ha… ha… make it quick".

~BANG~

 She put the pistol back into the holster after confirming the kill. She looked at the knife, still somehow in a mostly quality condition.

"What the hell did Mich use to make this knife".

After making a mental note to ask the man if she ever saw him again, she began to do a quick check around the building for any stranglers. Once the building was clear she gathered her spoils of war.

"Thousands of Lien, a few crates of Dust, makeshift guns, a few boxes of Dust ammunition, and this cool sword that guy was using".

Then she started moving all the items into her inventory. 

"Hmmm, I should expand the inventory soon. Well time to erase the evidence".

Mordred started a small fire in the center of the building. The fire would consume the building with the help of some fire Dust she purposely left close to the fire. She quickly exited the factory.

Sitting on the edge of a nearby building she watched the fire spread across the factory. A few minutes later she began to hear sirens, most likely the fire department. 

She got up and jumped off the building, disappearing into the dark alleyway below.

…

…

"Ah my head". A man got up from the floor, putting his hand on the helmet that covered his entire head not showing his face. A distinct orange mark painted on the side.

"I think we got attacked". Another man who wore the same helmet but with a distinct maroon color painted on the side said as he also recovered from his forced nap time. 

"Who the hell attacked us!" The orange one said. 

"How would I know, we should warn the boss about a potential intruder". The red one stated.

~CRASH~

The loud noise got their attention and they both turned around. They saw the factory that they were supposed to be guarding, the entrance drowned in flames. A part of the factory collapsed. 

They both looked at one another.

"I told you Simmons, this job was a terrible idea!" The orange one said.

"Don't blame me Grif! These guys were the only ones willing to take us in. We wouldn't be here if your lazy ass didn't end up getting our huntsmen certification revoked!" Simmons said.

"OHHH! So now it's my fault!" Grif said.

"YES! It is your fault!"

"Pfft whatever man".

They both stood there watching the flames. The distant sirens getting closer.

"Well I'm out of here". Grif began walking away from the scene.

"You're just going to leave?"

"What else am I going to do? Stay with the burning building and wait for the cops, no thank you. I'm going to find a place to sleep". Grif continued his walk.

Simmons looked at the burning building, then back at Grif.

"W-Wait for me Grif!"

…

…

"AHH! Cheers to a successful raid!" Mordred was now back inside her room, raising a beer bottle up before taking another drink. 

She downed the entire bottle.

"Ahhh!"

~plop~

She then collapsed into the bed, dead drunk with several beer bottles surrounding her.