Chapter 38

Hawk complained about it, but they ended up with her and Iain watching either side of the street while Kyra and Cora piled up the corpses between them. The big girl liked butchering an amount that was probably concerning, but she was the only one of them besides Iain that was gonna be any good at using [Bertha]. Cora was strong enough right now, but funnily enough, giving action heroes LMG’s had gone out of style in the 80’s and she had more or less zero experience with one.

Plus, Cora had {Harvester I}. She’d also leveled up, and had immediately tried to upgrade that to {Harvester II}, but apparently that took 2 skill points. She’d sighed, popped all her attribute points into [Cha], and consoled herself that at least she was getting prettier. At Cora’s suggestion, Kyra had also taken the first level of {Harvester} after {Stat Focus: [Dex]}, seeing as this would probably be the division of labor moving forward as well.

The crocodogs were a nice surprise. Both their skin and teeth glowed faintly in {Harvester} vision, and, despite how tough they were in life, you could basically peel them like an orange, and pluck their teeth out with your fingers. Cora had an inkling these were probably basic crafting materials, but wasn’t sure how much they’d fetch at the Bazaar.

The goblins, however, were overall a disappointment. Nothing in them glowed, save for a single one with a faint glimmer in its stomach area. Cora cut in, and found a long, shiny knife that couldn’t have been in there while the thing was still alive.

Fucked up way to drop loot, bud.

I DIDN’T DESIGN IT!

[Rib Cutter] [Uncommon Longknife]

[+5 [Dex], and +5 eff. [Str]]

Nice, this is a [Integrated] weapon?

YEP! PRETTY SHIT AS FAR AS THESE THINGS GO, BUT STILL WAY BETTER THAN ANY NORMAL PIG STICKER.

“Hey, Kyra, present for you,” Cora said, waving the knife at the girl, currently trying to wrench a particularly stubborn section of skin off of a crocodog. Her eyes widened at the sight of the knife, but she looked first concerned, then annoyed.

“Keep it,” Kyra sighed, confusing Cora. Kyra gave her an exasperated smile, explaining; “it doesn’t count as a karambit, I’d lose my bonuses from the mastery skill, and honestly the shape and size is all wrong for me anyway. Makes more sense for you.”

Cora hadn’t expected that. She’d wondered about the Mastery skill, sure, but Hawk’s {Improvised Weapons Mastery} was a rare breed. Kyra’s own {Karambit Mastery I} only gave a measly +2 to [Str] and [Dex] when wielding the preferred weapon.

That said, the second Cora had dropped a knife in the fight, and gone to gun in one hand, blade in the other, it had felt right. That was an action hero fighting style. She weighed [Rib Cutter] in her hand, admiring its long, razor sharp blade. It was a bizarre thing to pull out of a goblin’s stomach, shiny smooth steel, with a comfortable shellac’d wooden grip that felt nice in her hand.

She fell into a modified Weaver stance, gun butt resting on the back of her off wrist, knife pointed outwards. She grinned. She was certain this was something one of her military consultants would have railed against for lack of realism, but some shit just looked too goddamn cool on film.

Her plate carrier already had a sheath, and she discarded its mundane occupant in favor of [Rib Cutter].

As far as the night’s main goal went, however, they’d only bagged one Shimcore. The larger crocodog Iain had killed had let one roll out of its mouth as it died, but there were no more to be found.

Welp, not like these things were as tough as the Shimmies anyway. Didn’t get that crazy burst from any of those.

YEAH, SHIMMIES ARE BASICALLY WATER BALLOONS FULL OF SHIMMER. WAAAAYYYYY MORE THAN YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO GET AT ONCE AT YOUR LEVEL.

Figured it was somethin’ like that.

Cora found the next task unreasonably cool. With a wave of her hand, a blue box appeared in the air, then seemed to ‘slide open’ on a void. She fed the Shimcore and a few monster parts into it, then asked [Big Sys] to tell Lux, and Jocasta by proxy, to retrieve them.

A moment later, she opened her storage space again to find it empty, with confirmation from [Big Sys] that the goods had made it home safe. They did this with everything they’d collected, and also tried to shove a goblin through for study, but the thing just wouldn’t fit. They made a makeshift satchel, and slung the thing across Hawk’s back instead.

“So? Whatcha thinkin’, Lass? Call it a night, or keep on keepin’ on?” Iain asked.

Cora took stock. While that engagement hadn’t exactly gone to plan, the group had emerged largely unscathed. Only Cora and Hawk had taken any real hits at all, and they were both back up to A1 condition with their [Vit] boosts. Add that to level ups, and Cora’s new knife, and they were more dangerous than when they’d left.

“Not sure, I feel great to be honest but I’m worried about pushing our luck. This could have gone way worse. Either of you get anything cool on level up?” Cora asked. Iain shook his head, but Hawk grinned wide.

“Fuck yeah I did! Check this shit out!” She walked casually over to a wall, flipped [Bertha] over to hold her by the barrel, and the tattoos on her arms began to glow. That incandescence grew for a moment, before with a roar Hawk slammed [Bertha] forward into the wall, which fuckin’exploded.

Rubble flew everywhere from the blow, and as the dust cleared, there was a hole in the building like a fucking bomb had it it.

“Holy shit Hawk, what the fuck was that!?” Cora asked, hoping this had been one of the many uninhabited buildings in Light’s Fall.

“{Brutal Blow}!” Hawk exclaimed proudly. “Says its a [Racial Active] on my stats. Makes me 4 times as swole for a single hit and fucking look at this! That’ll be all it takes! I’m already strong as fuck, boi!”

A quick look at Hawk’s status confirmed it. Her stats had also jumped considerably. Basically all physical stats getting at least 1 point added per level.

[Tina ‘Hawk’ Tagliari][Level 3 Brute (III)]

[Str:15+25(Predator Combat Pack)]

[Dex:11+10(Predator Combat Pack)+5(Bertha)]

[End:10+5(DuraDerm Implants)]

[Vit:12+10(Predator Combat Pack)] 

[Agi:9+5(Predator Combat Pack)]

[Int:4]

[Will:9]

[Cha:8]

[Racial Actives: {Brutal Strike}]

[Skills: {Killer}, {Brawling Proficiency II}, {Heavy Weapons Proficiency}, {Improvised Weapons Mastery}, {Psycho}, {Posessor}]

[Relationship Stats]

[Anger: 5(Permanent)/20]

[Devotion: +/-34/60]

[Affection: Possessive]

[Cybernetics: Receiver Array<Cora Casanova>, DuraDerm Implants, Predator Combat Pack]

[Equipment: [Bertha]]

“Goddamn girl, look at you! Gettin’ all big and strong ‘n shit!” Cora admired while Hawk preened. The girl liked praise, good to know.

“Oh, I’ve been big ‘n strong,” Hawk chuckled, that blatant danger in her eyes and smile making Cora reconsider wanting to go home.

Down, girl, she scolded herself.

“Too fuckin’ true,” Cora agreed, and met her friends eyes in turn. “I think we keep going. Kinda wanna see what that kind of hit does to a body, and we’re all okay, right?”

Nods and smiles. The others were loving this just as much as she was.

A crackle snapped her head up, listening to see if it sounded again.

Another moment or two of silence….

Then again, the clattering rattle in the distance.

“Gunfire, right?” Cora asked Iain, looking to the old soldier for confirmation.

“Ayup,” Iain agreed, eyes hard as he came to the same conclusion Cora had.

“Probably nobody else here shootin’ off besides The Chains, right?” Cora asked, this time looking to Hawk.

“Nobody I can think of,” the giantess agreed.

“Well, then, what the fuck are we waiting for?” Cora asked, giving the group a savage grin and heading in the direction of the fighting.

‘ReMemBER tO RIp aND TEAR, COra!’

They moved more carefully this time, mindful of the fact that at least one of the threats out here could do a decent impression of Kyra’s stealth. That said, they were also more confident. They’d gotten ambushed, and had made the attackers pay. How much better would things go when they had the advantage?

There were a couple more brave crocodogs on the way, but Iain’s keen eyes spotted them quickly, now that he knew what he was looking for. He pointed them out to Kyra, and the girl would cloak, quickly eliminating them before the group had to make a racket doing it themselves.

The goblins were still around, but kept their distance. Cora wanted to take a potshot or two at the sickly yellow eyes that peered at them from stairwells, but the last thing they wanted was to warn the Chains they were coming. Instead she just flipped them off. These things seemed weirdly intelligent, maybe they’d get the message.

After a while of slow moving, another burst of gunfire sounded, far closer, maybe one street over. Cora and Iain locked eyes, and he pointed at two parallel alleys. Cora nodded, tapped Hawk, and shuffled off towards one, Iain and Kyra heading for the other.

The sounds of fighting only grew louder the further they crept through the narrow alley. Gunfire, sure, but also clash of tooth and claw against steel, cries of pain both human and inhuman.

They reached the end, and Cora steeled herself before poking out her head.

It was fucking bedlam.

There must have been 20 Links to begin with, though that was at best an estimate. It looked like these guys had the same luck as Cora’s group with keeping themselves from getting ambushed. Crocodogs darted around the legs of the harried men, killing where they could, biting where they couldn’t. A few goblins laid about with clubs, and more lined the rooftops, pelting the combat party with stones.

Far more pressing than any of that was the massive crocodog, easily twice the size of Hawk, plates of bone jutting out at every angle. Also of note was that it was currently thrashing against glowing chains, the ends of which led into the middle of the group of slavers.

“Hold you fucking idiots! Give me time and this thing is ours!” The voice was vaguely familiar, but Cora didn’t recognize it until Hawk hissed a single word; “Donovan.”

Her former companion stood in a tight circle of Chain-heads, fairing much better against the crocodogs than the Links were. Donovan had glowing chains wrapped around both hands, straining against them as the massive crocodog struggled on their other end. Slowly, a blood red hue was creeping from him to the enchained monster.

Cora focused on him.

[Donovan Huss] [Level 5 Slaver (III)]

Well shit, if Hawk got a superpower at level 3, looks like all the Monsters do.