“Not done yet!” he crowed through the pain. He squeezed the trigger finger of his right hand.
The order came from his brain, sending a virtual signal to his finger.
But no bullet came out of his gun.
“Huh?”
The long and heavy FD338 succumbed to gravity, toppling to Lux’s right. It struck the stone wall and fell to the floor, clattering twice.
“Huh? Why?”
His eyes dropped to the right, where he found his answer.
On the ground with his gun was his own arm.
The arm was covered in familiar camo, its cross section just a polygonal wire frame shrouded in red light. It had a firm hold on the grip of the FD338.
“What?”
He looked farther to the right and up a bit, at his right shoulder. There was nothing coming off of it.
“Are you kidding me…?”
A shot had hit him on the arm without a bullet line.
And it wasn’t from the antitank rifle.
But it completely severed his arm.
“Aaah! It’s her! The exploding-bullet sniper chick with the pink shrimp!” Lux surmised correctly. He twisted and reached for the gun with his left hand.
Because the other hand was still holding the grip, he had to pry it loose with his left and toss the offending arm over his side.
Tossing your own arm over your shoulder was an experience that was hard to replicate outside of virtual reality. It was not something you wanted to do, ever.
Lux lifted the long gun with his left arm alone, rested the front atop the short stone wall, and pressed the stock against his left shoulder.
“I’m not done yet!”
He resumed firing with his other arm. It wasn’t possible to aim closely; he just had to wait for the bullet circle to contract as far as the naked eye told him and place it over the other tower.
“I’m not done! I’m not done! I’m not done!” he shouted with each shot, just as loud as the gun’s report.
Finally, he had emptied the magazine, and the bolt was locked in the rear.
“Not yet!”
The moment he dropped the empty magazine one-handed was the moment that Shirley’s next bullet put a hole in his trademark sunglasses.
A split second later, the bullet exploded in Lux’s eye socket.
✦ ✦ ✦
The woman who took the shot said, “Whew… He was tough…”
She pulled the bolt handle on the R93 Tactical 2 back. An empty cartridge popped out on the right side and started the long fall 150 feet to the ground.
“Did you get him, Shirley?” Clarence asked.
“Yeah.”
“Can I let go now, then?”
“Of course not!” Shirley snapped at her. She wanted to believe that Clarence was joking, but this was the kind of thing she would do. “Just pull me up already.”
She was hanging on a rope over the edge of the spire.
Shirley had tied her own rope around her torso and thighs as a harness, then dangled down on the north side of the tower, out of sight from Lux and the rest of MMTM. Once she was hanging down there, she planted her feet on the wall of the tower and pressed her rifle against the side to stabilize it for shooting.
This idea had come from one of the snipers working for Fire during the SJ4 battle in the shopping mall. The man with the XP-100 had climbed up the pillars with a rope and tormented Shirley.
Her acrobatic feat ended with two successful shots on target, but she was now dangling six feet from the edge of the open space under the spire, meaning that she couldn’t easily get back up with her rifle in her hands.
“All right, fine,” Clarence said. “Heave-ho!”
With the help of the SHINC trio, she pulled Shirley back up inside the tower.
Tohma took a look at her and noticed, “You got shot!”
There was a wide red damage effect on Shirley’s side.
“Oh, you’re right,” she murmured. She’d been so focused on shooting that she never noticed she’d been hit. Her hit points were cut in half.
“Gwaaah! Are you gonna die, Shirley?” Clarence asked.
“Why do you sound so excited about that?” Shirley demanded.
She replied, “We don’t need to get into that. Just use your med kit.”
✦ ✦ ✦
David learned about Lux’s spectacular death through the change in his status bar.
“Lux is down,” he announced to his squadmates, who had their guns pointed at the entrance to the tower.
David, Kenta, Jake, Bold, and Summon were hiding behind barricades, each one spread out at least thirty feet from any other.
They were a few dozen yards away from the tower itself.
If they were any farther back, other barricades would block their line of sight (and fire) and prevent them from aiming at the entrance. But if they got too close, the height of the barricades would no longer help, and they’d be susceptible to gunfire and grenades from over the top.
Only speedy Kenta kept on the move between barricades, ensuring he had visibility and could check on their rear. His G36K was ready to fire if anyone came up on them.
The other four kept their guns trained on the entryway to Llenn’s tower. Jake had his HK21 machine gun on a bipod, ready to attack at any moment. If there was any hint of movement, he would open with continual fire. The bullets that killed Tanya earlier were his. That was the power of a machine gun.
“Watch out up above. Don’t poke your head out if you can help it,” David instructed. Without Lux up there, the enemy had nothing stopping them from attacking from above.
Jake hunkered down lower and lowered his HK21, too.
“I’ll stay posted on it,” Bold said, Beretta ARX160 in hand, taking over the watch on the entrance.
David had an STM-556 with a grenade launcher attached to the underside of the barrel. He was ready to shoot a grenade at anyone who tried to leave.
“Switch to Incoming Channel Two,” he said, a preprogrammed voice instruction. It caused the comm to switch to a different channel. “Can you hear me?”
“I hear you,” said a lady’s voice.
“We’ve got Llenn’s group trapped in a tower. The northernmost one. Can you make it here?” he asked Vivi.
“Of course,” she replied. “I’ll ‘convince’ the others around here and be on my way as soon as possible.”
Her voice was the very model of refined grace, smooth and patient.
“We’ll be on our way to eliminate the pink demon’s companions soon.”
✦ ✦ ✦
