Book 5 Chapter 17.3 - Same Kind
Su's last sentence was drowned out under the deafening sound of gunshots. All of the dragonborn seemed to received a command through some type of channel, causing them to pull their triggers at the same time. Smoke and steel pellets immediately filled this place, the power perhaps not as great as the rapid-fire machine guns, but it wasn't that much inferior.
Steel pellets raged like a metal storm, sweeping through the long passage, quite a few landing in the spacious staircase path.
Gunshots continuously echoed and ricocheted through the narrow space, the rumbling sound enough to immediately make a normal person deaf. A large amount of the short and small figures behind the dragonborn collapsed, rolling and howling from pain on the ground, only the most powerful few still able to crawl back up. The dragonborn weren't completely unaffected. Their reloading process was thus stopped, hot air continuously spraying out from the openings on the nape of their necks.
The dragonborn put the emptied shotguns back into the holsters by their legs. Their three meter tall bodies had power equal to that of human ability users' seven levels of strengthening, their defensive strength not lower than seven levels either; at the very least, the alloy armors covering them from head to claws weren't any inferior goods. In addition, their movement was nimble, and they were intelligent, possessing a squad-like discipline and tacit understanding, truly extremely terrifying opponents.
However, before the dragonborn had time to return their shotguns into the holsters, it was as if the dragonborn at the very front was smashed head on by a firetruck, sliding backwards several meters, two enormous claws drawing out two lines of brilliant sparks! Its head drooped in a somewhat unnatural manner, a clear cavity appearing at the center of its four eyes, its crisscrossed sharp teeth, under the external force, deeply penetrating through both its upper and lower jaw! A figure that was so faint that it was nearly invisible appeared in front of its body: Su.
After only appearing for a brief instant, Su's figure then disappeared. Only a single dragonborn seized his whereabouts, its four pupils locking onto the last image he left behind.
With a dang sound, a thick steel rod fell onto the ground. It was already completely deformed, yet it was precisely this vicious weapon that pulverized that unlucky dragonborn's head.
The dragonborn that saw Su aimed the rapid-fire machine gun at the last place he saw him before he disappeared, its other two hands during this turning process already completing the reloading of ammunitions, actions smooth without any excessive movement. The moment the muzzle stopped moving, it pulled down the trigger.
The rotating rapid-fire machine gun's muzzle opened fire again. A metal bullet shot into the darkness from within the flames, landing on the opposing wall, producing a shallow pit in the sturdy concrete wall. Then, the barrel began to rotate, the next barrel entering the firing position, sending an artillery shell out of the barrel. A hand suddenly reached out from the darkness, this hand just as fine and slender, within its beauty similarly packed with power, but this wasn't Su's hand. This hand shot out like lightning, gripped the machine gun's barrel, and then with a forceful crush, the extremely sturdy gun barrel unexpectedly released a creak sound, completely twisting!
The shell was already moving, the expanding gas pushing the bullet through the part of the barrel that was still intact, but it quickly arrived at the crooked area. An explosion was inevitable. The dragonborn realized this, so it quickly raised the machine gun, about to toss it out. However, its movement wasn't fast enough, the machine gun raised mid-air now instead even closer to its head. The machine cannon exploded without any suspense, even the bullet chain also exploding one after another. Shrapnel rained down on the dragonborn's alloy armor, embedding itself inside. Their momentum wasn't enough to send them through the 50 millimeter thick heavy armor, but there were still a few pieces that landed on the dragonborn's head. The scales and thick skin weren't enough to stop these shrapnel's power, so it could only rely on its thick skull to stop the shrapnel from reaching its brain.
The damage the explosion of the machine gun dealt the dragonborn wasn't light, yet the blast wave didn't affect the attacker that brought about this result. Madeline had long flashed behind the Dragonborn, using its enormous body to shield herself from the flying shrapnel. Her movements were much, much faster than the dragonborn.
The damage the two dragonborn suffered was about the same, but the price Madeline and Su paid to bring about these results was different. Su brandished the rod with all of his strength while in a high speed state, while Madeline merely crushed a gun barrel, the dragonborn's injury completely originating from the exploding machine gun, so the amount of energy she used up was less than a third of Su. This was the difference in battle skill.
In reality, the injuries the two dragonborn suffered weren't that heavy, Madeline quickly realized this. After staggering a few times, they unexpectedly stabilized themselves, and then once again searched for her and Su's whereabouts. This originally fatal strike, on these dragonborn, only opened up some small injuries.
The eight dragonborn began to scatter in search of enemy traces, their rapid-fire machine guns or shotguns didn't stop their firing. However, even while firing under an enclosed space and moving, rarely were there any instances of friendly fire. It seemed like all of the dragonborn were natural top quality shooters. Even though the dragonborn were hit by steel pellets, occasionally even being hit by one or two machine gun bullets, their heavy armor was still enough to withstand this degree of damage.
Su already completely merged with the darkness. Even with the dragonborn's familiarity with the environment, they still couldn't find his whereabouts. However, they were certain that Su was still in this lobby, and he was moving around them.
Madeline who had pestered one of these dragonborn was currently sticking to one of them, using its body to protect herself. Her legs wrapped around the arms on its back to wrestle against it. Due to its extra pair of arms, the dragonborn had nearly no gaps in defense. The difference in size between Madeline and the dragonborn was extremely great, but the result of the wrestling was completely opposite of what one would predict from their body sizes.
As cracking and popping sounds continuously rang out, the arms behind the dragonborn began to twist and deform, unexpectedly being crushed under Madeline's eruption of strength. Due to their height disparity, the young lady drew force by stepping on the dragonborn's leg joint, thus causing bone fracturing sounds to sound from the dragonborn's legs as well. The dragonborn's sensation of pain was definitely dulled, because after suffering such severe injuries, it didn't even release a grunt. One of its leg joints shattered, causing the dragonborn's body to topple over.
The young lady leaned against the dragonborn's waist, and then with a bit of force, the dragonborn's body immediately flew outwards towards another dragonborn. The sudden change caught the other dragonborn unprepared, the rapid-fire machine gun in his hands continuing to fire. The flying dragonborn's body was continuously struck by bullets, the sparks flying everywhere like a rain of fire. In that instant, close to a hundred rounds of machine gun bullets bombarded its body! Not even heavy armor could stop the numerous machine gun bullets' bombardment. Piece after piece of armor began to deform and fall off, a rain of blood now added to the shower of flames.
Turns out these dragonborn's blood was also red.