Chapter 294: Making a Withdrawal
A deafening alarm immediately blared in response to the explosion, as the panicked screams of the pompous and the wealthy soon accompanied that alarm. In fact the shrill screams of some of those women, and more than a few of those men, were more ear-bleeding than the alarm and actually managed to drown it out.
However a single voice cut through the noise, demanding their attention as a new figure strutted through the now wide-open doorway.
"EVERYONE DOWN! THIS IS A ROBBERY!" A cocky young man swaggered deeper into the bank, cackling to himself as he saw the doors wedged into the receptionist’s desk.
He was dressed in casual clothes, showing his love of a metal band with an incomprehensible name. He wore a mask that covered the lower half of his face, and left his eyeliner covered eyes and shaggy, dyed black hair visible.
Guards immediately burst out from all directions, swinging up their assault rifles as they moved into position and quickly surrounded the lone robber, moving like the highly trained security force they were. Nothing like the pudgy, underpaid ’mall cops’ you could see in those documentarys.
At the same time, metal pillars descended from the ceiling, rapidly unfolding themselves to reveal defence turrets that instantly trained themselves onto the target, waiting for the order to fire.
It was an extravagant amount of overkill, but that was simply because this boy was an idiot. Robbing this place alone when this kind of response had been created for the twenty man, heavily cyber augmented crews that were the usual types.
"Relieve yourself of any weapons, disarm any dangerous cyberware, and lay face down. This is your only warning." The leader of the security force barked, his voice slightly robotic in tone as its volume was synthetically enhanced.
The masked man smirked behind his mask, slowly raising his hands in surrender, as he started to speak.
"Urva Elnak Vortune Aegis." He muttered, his smirk widening, before taking a step forward.
BANG!
The security lead immediately responded, discharging a shot without a second of hesitation, and with pin point accuracy. It was aimed directly between the robbers eyes, which was clear to everyone watching, as that was where the bullet still floated.
Spinning in the air, hovering in utter defiance of gravity, a few inches away from the crease in his brow right between his eyes.
Eyes widened in disbelief, air was sucked into a dozen mouths as they gasped in horror, and the robbers smirk turned into a sadistic grin as sparks of a vile, green and purple lightning started to crackle around his fingers.
"OPEN FIRE!" The order was instantly issued, and soon a chorus of deafening gunfire followed in suit. It was more than enough to kill a normal man and turn him into nothing more than a pile of bullet rattled meat, blood and implants.
But this man tore through the bullets as easily as water. They bounced off of his invisible barrier, either crumpling from the impact or simply swerving around him to fire into the wall behind him instead.
He charged towards the nearest guard, grabbing the barrel of his gun and crushing it with his bare hands, causing the gun itself to explode as the gas found somewhere else to escape from. The robber laughed as the guard caught a face full of shrapnel and flames, and immediately lunged to the next one.
A firm slap across the face was enough to break his neck, causing his body to drop with a sickening crunch, before his comrade was launched across the room with a punch that left a dent in his bulletproof armour.
A heavy calibre bullet in the back, fired from one of the wall turrets, was enough to send the robber stumbling forwards. What should have been a moment of hope, as they finally saw a sign of weakness, actually drove the dagger of dread deeper into the hearts of those who were watching.
Those turrets had a calibre that tore through heavy armour like it was paper. Even the most advanced military grade sub-dermal armour would have been paper in front of those turrets. They were built for vehicles, not people, after all.
But what should have turned him into a fine red mist, instead made him stumble as if he was punched.
The robber darted to the side, dashing between points of cover and dashing across the open floor plan at inhuman speeds as he tried to dodge the rapid fire from the multiple turrets. Although he took a few shots that made him stumble again, he also returned fire.
Bolts of crackling green energy, like bolts of lighting, leapt across the room and struck the turrets, turning them into piles of scrap metal that clattered to the ground and crushed anything underneath them.
The robber laughed maniacally as he tore apart the place, sending a few wild bolts of the strange green energy towards the guards, and when they missed they tore through the bank and headed straight towards where many of the civilians were cowering.
"Get down!" Valerie shouted, grabbing the Bank reps jewellery adorned hand and dragging her out of her seat, just as a bolt of sickly green lightning blasted her chair into oblivion.
Supporting herself on her cane, Valerie half stumbled and half crawled, as she pushed the employee away from the desk. Twice she had to stop her or redirect their path, just before a bolt of green lightning split the air in front of them.
It almost looked as if she was psychic and could predict what was coming, but the reality was actually far more strange. At least from a normal person’s perspective.
Valerie was pouring mana into her eyes and using her mana vision to watch his movements, or more importantly, the movement of his disgusting mana. Before every plume of lightning, she could see the mana condense in his palm before it started to change, from the putrid black substance that it was into that strange green lightning. It was that that she was reacting to, giving her a vital second extra to not be obliterated.
However in her focus on the man in question, and the bank employees blind panic in an understandably incredibly stressful situation, Valerie did not realise where their escape path had led. Not until she watched the mana condense and shift into crackling lightning that streaked through the air, and struck the turret that was positioned high above on the ceiling.
The bolt tore a hole clean through the metal, setting off the bullets waiting to be fired. A chain reaction of explosions rang out, as more chunks were tore out of the turret, this time from the inside, before its half destroyed body finally dropped from its perch, Directly onto their heads.
