Chapter 649 (2/2)

To Naffur’s chagrin, he knocked the man into another one of the terrorist compatriots, knocking them both to the ground. The leader abruptly cut off in the middle of his demands and twisted around to look at what the cause of the commotion was. Everyone stared silently as the two terrorists were brought to their knees by a single blow. All eyes, at that moment, were locked onto the masked Naffur.

Like a rabbit, Naffur bolted for the hole in the floor to get out of the line of fire, cursing himself for getting carried away by the moment there.

With a roar, the leader twisted around and brought his plasma rifle to bear on Naffur, who was already slipping through the hole into the floor below. Out of the corner of his eye, Naffur saw the blue-white bolt of plasma rushing towards him and squished his eyes shut.

If he died like this, in front of Mareen-

Mareen!

Naffur’s eyes sprung open and he flailed wildly to seize the edge of the hole. He couldn’t just run away if she was up here alone with these mad men-

Sizzzzzzzzz.

Naffur Suite’s grab had pulled him abruptly sideways as he changed his mind and scrambled back up to the penthouse floor, but the plasma still ripped past him, clipping his right hand. His thumb was ripped away in a flash of heat and pain. Thoughts of rescuing Mareen were forgotten as Naffur howled and let go of the edge of the floor to cradle his burnt hand. He hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of himself.

Tears were in Naffur’s eyes as he heard the leader’s shout above. “Fuck! Screw it, live fire boys. Dank, take out that crazy fool below.”

“Got it.”

There was a crash as a heavy body, likely weighed down with power armor dropped back to the lower floor near Naffur. Right in front of his tear-choked eyes, thin cracks ran through the floor. Although the materials in the post System world were relatively stronger than they had been in the past, the demands put on them grew much more quickly than the building materials could keep up.

Heavy footsteps accelerated towards Naffur, who bit his lip and sprung to his feet. “Oh no, the floor it collapsing.”

Almost in spite of himself, the oncoming attacker, who was a veritable freight train in terms of momentum and weight, looked down at the floor.

Congratulations! Your Skill Deceitful Words is now Level 34!

By the time that Dank realized that the floor was holding relatively well and looked back up, Naffur had fled around the corner. The hole in the floor was probably twenty meters away from the elevators, and a little to the right, just around the corner from the hallway in front of the elevators. So Naffur dashed to the nearest cover, the corner to that hallway.

As soon as he ran around that corner, he attempted to skid to a halt as his face twisted in horror. How could he have forgotten that a man’s dead body was just laying here-

His feet slipped as he attempted to slow, and Naffur fell on his ass, soaking his pants in blood. It was a good thing too because bolts of plasma tore through the space above his head. Dank rounded the corner, with angry eyes, and Naffur did the only thing that he could think of.

He scrambled forward and grabbed the nearby dead body. Then, he threw it at Dank to distract him.

On instinct, Dank fired a bolt of plasma that ripped through the medic’s chest cavity. Melted skin and blood spattered down on Dank’s combat visor, covering it in a sizzling film of gore. Swearing, Dank attempted to wipe the gunk away with the very clumsy metal fingers of his powersuit.

Naffur bolted, hoping for an escape from this place.

Ding.

“-do you mean, the elevator can’t go to the penthouse?” A voice said, as an elevator slowly opened. A man took a step out and right into Naffur’s path. The man was speaking on a cell phone, and frowned at the floor rather than noticing anything about his situation.

Naffur slammed into the man, bowling him over. The two fell in a pile of twisted limbs back into the elevator. As they hit the ground, Naffur realized he knew this man: it was Senator Firefly.