Chains Of Pride

Clap!!

A resounding slap echoed through the room, stunning everyone within. Nefieri was holding her cheeks where a red mark and even a little swelling could scarcely be seen.

Her head was down, her face hiding her expression. Preventing all from seeing her current countenance.

"I've always warned you of these hobbies of yours and now when we're facing our greatest crisis yet, you've been indulging yourself!!?!" The Director was undeniably angry.

He had to send someone to summon her at a time when he needed all hands on deck. No one dared to say a thing. The witnesses present didn't even look as if they mean to breathe.

His eyes slid to all the spectators in the room, "What are you all looking at?! Get back to work!! Venko check with the communications team to see when Glover's team will arrive, I'll also need a quick debrief on what happened to the high Taliums."

"Yes Sir Director!" Venko went to achieve his task, making a call as he went along.

He turned back to Nefieri, whose head was still down, "I need eyes and ears on the current situation, get down to the surveillance department and tell them to fire up the new drones. Make sure they're at the maximum possible distance from the intruders, I don't want them blowing up to leave us blind again."

A perfunctory nod was all he received before she sped away. He didn't feel as if he was hard on her. Nefieri was the kind of person where if you lengthened the leash to give her space, she would take you for a ride.

Boom!!

After this explosion, the expression on the Director's expression changed once more.

"They're getting closer, the tremors are getting more intense. I wonder if 'he' will be able to stop them, he did say he wouldn't allow them to destroy this place. I hope that whatever insurance plan he has, he can uphold his word." The Director thought.

Shaking his head of any unnecessary thoughts, he ordered the personnel in Central Command to release the higher Taliums, in the east district.

…

A few minutes had passed since Rikona's team started their assault upon the association HQ. Quite frankly, she was a bit cautious, not because there were any misgivings or accidents, but for the lack of it.

This was supposed to be a place that she could only scale once she accrued enough strength and allies. Yet now they were running through the place with the spray of bullets being nothing more than annoyance than anything else.

She was actually a bit bored, the only thing that managed to make her laugh was when XIao Yu, landed a drop kick to the side of Gin's head when he threw her away some time ago.

"Big sis Rikona, we've got a message from our team in the forest," stated Numani who was currently behind the 5 Invat, Nehone was by her for extra protection. He had even received a sword from Makoto before they headed out, courtesy of his connections, seriously, that man is useful.

Rikona smiled when she heard this, and sent her thoughts to Numani. She mainly wanted to know that everything went according to plan.

However, after listening to the explanation Numani gave, her expression turned grave.

"A weapon that's able to harm Taliums, capable of being fired by a human? A single graze of it was able to cause a considerable amount of harm. A team of them boasting said weapons are back on their way as well?" Rikona could feel a headache coming on.

"How long ago have they left?" Rikona asked Numani.

"Ciren said they left around 37 minutes ago," Numani replied.

"Oddly accurate," Rikona thought. This wasn't the time to be distracted, she had no idea just what level of power this weapon can affect.

What if it's able to affect an Invata, or an Avartel? Or even worse, the level above that, a Semper Nova?

Suddenly, she began wishing for that feeling of boredom she experienced not too long ago to come back.

Life, however, had a way of crapping over your wishes. As Rikona could see a peculiar air-craft approaching from the front.

"Could that be them? If it is, then damn that was fast!" Rikona thought to herself. Still, just to make sure there was no gap in information, she passed down the details to all the Taliums below her…

"A weapon that can harm a Talium? I don't buy it, the Talium that got hurt was probably being careless. In fact, I get the feeling that Mierln was the one who got shot, he's always being slight," Xiao Yu commented.

"At least he doesn't drop kick other people in side the head to send them careening into a building," Gin griped as he looked at Xiao Yu.

"If you hadn't flung me away when I went forward to fight from earlier I wouldn't have drop-kicked you," she shrugged as if what she said were just straight basic facts.

"I'm not going to argue with you," he waved in her direction before turning to Yang Min. "Since we have a moment of calm right now, how about we just...is that it?" Looking up Gin could see the aircraft that Rikona spied just before them.

"Looks like it, wait why doesn't lady Rikona simply use her powers to crush the aircraft?" Nehone asked.

"It's probably because it's too far away, I mean think about it. The only reason why we're able to see it is because our eyesight is way better than a regular human's," Lerner answered.

Yang Min squinted her eyes staring at the craft but was unable to make out aything other than its shape, "It's still too far away, I'll ask Master Rikona if she can see what they're doing since they're hovering so far aw..."

A shrill shriek, however, went off in their heads, "Take cover!!!"

"Wait, wha-" Before anyone could react to Rikona's panicked warning, a small hole appeared in Gin's c.h.e.s.t.

"Pwah!!" A mouthful of blood was coughed up.

"Gin!!" The 4 other Invatas beside him rushed to his side.

"Damn it!!" Rikona viciously whispered to herself. She had planned to wait for the craft to come closer so she could destroy it.

However, it stopped outside her range, whether they knew where her limits lie or if it was simply due to coincidence, she wasn't sure. Still, their continued presence outside her scope caused a feeling of dread to spring up within her.

She then channeled a bit more in'essence in her eyes to enhance her vision. What she saw at that point shocked caused her jaw to drop.

The long silver barrel of a gun greeted her, the barrel alone was two meters in length! The rest of it looked so complicated that she didn't even know where to begin, some parts of it, however, gave off an intense purple glow.

It took her a while to even call the queer thing a gun to begin with. One thing was for sure, it was a gun alright, and not just any gun, a gun of the long-ass variety.

By the time she saw one of the agents in the craft fire the 'gun' she had already reacted too late.

She only came back to herself when the distant boom of the shot that was fired was finally heard. An impressive distance to say the least.

A voice of panic sounded in her head from Yang Min below her,frowning she looked down to see Gin lying on the ground, not moving.

"M-Master Rikona, h-he's not breathing!! Gin's not breathing!!"