Chapter 51: [51] : Bullets and Blood, The Meat Grinder

The dark warehouse lit up like a strobe light.

Twelve suppressed assault rifles fired at the exact same time. Dozens of armor piercing rounds tore through the air. They screamed straight toward Declan’s chest and head.

In the real world this was an unavoidable death sentence. Nobody dodged a firing squad at point blank range.

But Declan wasn’t playing by real world physics anymore.

"Void Blink," Declan thought.

He didn’t move his muscles. He just tapped into his stamina pool.

The world went black.

The barrage of bullets slammed right into the metal crate where Declan had just been sitting. The heavy iron shredded into pieces and sparked wildly as the rounds tore through empty air and buried themselves into the concrete floor.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" the squad leader yelled. He lowered his rifle.

He stared at the destroyed crate. The target was gone.

"Where did he go?!" a mercenary shouted. His red laser sight swept frantically around the room. "Thermal shows nothing!"

"I’m right here."

The voice came from directly behind the squad leader.

The mercenary spun around. His eyes went incredibly wide behind his tactical visor.

Declan had materialized completely silently. He was standing just inches away from the leader’s back.

Before the guy could pull the trigger Declan moved.

With thirty percent synchronization his base Agility was hovering around twenty. That didn’t sound like a lot in a video game but applied to human muscle it was absolutely terrifying.

Declan blurred forward.

He grabbed the barrel of the squad leader’s assault rifle with his bare right hand. He shoved it upward just as the gun fired. This sent a burst of rounds harmlessly right into the ceiling.

Then Declan brought his left arm around.

The heavy titanium of the +20 Black Aegis slammed directly into the side of the squad leader’s helmet.

Crack!

The Kinetic Repulsion trait triggered. The shield absorbed the physical momentum of the swing and blasted it outward as a concussive shockwave.

The squad leader’s helmet completely shattered. The man was launched sideways like he had been hit by a wrecking ball. He crashed violently into two of his squadmates and sent all three of them sliding across the dusty floor.

"He’s in the formation! Shoot him!" a mercenary screamed.

The remaining nine commandos panicked instantly. They couldn’t use full auto fire without hitting their own guys. They raised their rifles desperately and tried to get a clean shot.

A mercenary to Declan’s right fired a short burst.

Three bullets hit Declan directly in the ribs.

The cheap fabric of the orange jumpsuit tore open.

Declan stumbled back half a step. He looked down at his side.

The armor piercing rounds didn’t exit his back. They didn’t hit any vital organs either. The bullets were lodged shallowly in his skin. They looked like little metal splinters stuck in solid marble.

His dense mutated muscle fibers had caught the bullets and stopped them cold.

It stung. It felt like getting aggressively stung by a swarm of angry bees. But his health bar barely moved at all.

"That’s annoying," Declan frowned.

He reached down and casually plucked one of the flattened bullets out of his skin. He tossed it right onto the floor.

The mercenaries froze. Their brains simply rejected what they were seeing. Every single soldier’s face went pale.

"What the hell is he?!" one of them yelled. He started backing away.

"My turn," Declan said smoothly.

He didn’t blink this time. He just sprinted.

He crossed the five foot gap to the nearest commando in a fraction of a second. The guy tried to swing his rifle butt but Declan was way too fast.

Declan ducked under the swing. He grabbed the man by his heavy Kevlar tactical vest and effortlessly lifted the two hundred pound soldier entirely off the ground with one hand.

He threw him perfectly straight into the nearest concrete pillar.

The man hit the pillar with a sickening crunch. His armor dented inward and he dropped to the floor. He was completely unconscious.

The warehouse turned into an absolute meat grinder.

It wasn’t a tactical gunfight. It was a brutal close quarters massacre.

Declan moved through the squad like a ghost. He didn’t use flashy martial arts. He used raw and overwhelming stats.

A mercenary pulled a combat knife and lunged. Declan caught his wrist and twisted it sharply. He snapped the bone like a dry twig.

Another guy tried to tackle him from behind. Declan just stood his ground and let the guy crash into his back. Then Declan spun around and delivered a devastating front kick directly into the man’s chest.

The +10 Spiked Striders did their job. The kick folded the heavy armor inward. It sent the guy flying backward until he slammed into the rusted side of the dive pod.

In less than thirty seconds eleven highly trained corporate killers were groaning or unconscious on the floor. Their weapons were shattered and their armor was ruined.

Only one commando was left standing.

He had backed himself all the way into the far corner of the warehouse. His assault rifle was empty. He dropped it and scrambled to pull a heavy black radio off his tactical belt.

His hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold it.

"HQ! HQ! We need immediate backup! Alpha Team is down! I repeat Alpha Team is"

Declan used Void Blink.

He appeared right in front of the terrified soldier.

Declan raised his right foot and stomped down on the guy’s hand. He pinned the radio against the concrete.

The heavy spiked boot easily crushed the plastic casing and the microchips inside.

"Backup isn’t coming," Declan said coldly.

The commando stared up at Declan’s glowing purple eyes. He started hyperventilating.

Declan reached down and grabbed the man by the collar of his tactical suit. He easily hoisted him up until his feet dangled off the floor.

"You work for Sterling right?" Declan asked.

The mercenary nodded frantically. He was too terrified to speak.

Declan dropped him. The guy collapsed against the wall and gasped for air.

"Good," Declan said. He adjusted his ruined orange collar. "I need a messenger."

Declan pointed to the massive hole where the warehouse doors used to be.

"Go back to your boss. Tell him his guns are officially obsolete against me. Tell him if he sends another hit squad to my city I won’t just kill them."

Declan leaned in closer. His voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.

"Tell Sterling I’ll come to his office and drop a black hole on his desk. Now get out."

The mercenary didn’t need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and slipped on the dust and blood. He sprinted out of the warehouse into the pouring rain.

Declan stood alone in the dark room. He looked at the groaning bodies scattered across his floor.

The real world was bleeding into the Grid. And Declan Vance was already the boss.