Soul Spark

4 - Soul-shot Roulette

The morning of the next day came. In the more northern parts of D.C., the sky wasn’t surrounded by as many clouds. The sun shone its careless and peaceful beams, warming up the intense battlefield. Being the epicenter of the war, the state had taken quite significant damages.

However, most damages were done by the soulfuls themselves. The teams that were busy hunting and exterminating soulfuls usually left no trails. The Heisei’s soulfuls, however, ravaged those units, having no regard for collateral damage for the most part.

“How boring...” Danny sighed to himself, strolling along the ruined streets. A group of soldiers was following him, similar to the one that followed Hermann. They were only there to handle the “light work”, which was eliminating soulfuls who couldn’t properly fight back. The Adler Group’s main strike force was responsible for destroying the Heisei. They came up with a strategy similar to that of the Heisei - separate, control and conquer.

He occasionally got distracted by the sounds of explosion in the distance, and the jet engines roaring across the skies. He had to keep his eyes on the ground as to not stumble over debris or sometimes even human remains. It was annoying.

“Who cares about reinforcements...I can stand my ground just fine.” Danny thought. “Why do I even have these soldiers? They’re just revealing my position. I feel like they’re staring at me all the time.”

“They’re so dull anyways...”

“Hey, you.” Danny said, facing the soldier closest to him. “You wanna kill me, don’t you?”

“Pardon?” The soldier replied.

“Here, look at ya face. You wanna kill me, don’t ya?” Danny teased him. “You wanna put your rifle to my head and dump the clip into me, ya soulless pig. Look at you, Shellerist little piglet.”

The soldier was getting visibly frustrated, his comrade put his hand on his shoulder to stop him from acting irrationally.

“You know that Otto is really, really upset with Sheller, right?” Danny said. “That’s right, the guy paying your salaries might get his ass handed to him. And there’s nothing you can do about it, you weaklings.”

“Piece of shit...” The soldier mumbled, clenching his fists.

“Now that’s more like it!” Danny said, drawing his soul-bound weapon. It was a slick silver revolver with a six-bullet chamber. He aimed it at the soldier’s head.

“Bang!”

To even his surprise, the soldier collapsed on the ground. Blood poured out of a tearing hole in his throat, and his lifeless carcass decorated the careless concrete beneath. His brothers in arms quickly took position and aim. One of them even pointed their weapon at Danny himself.

“Hey, that wasn’t me!” Danny said, confused. The soldier that tried to act up was also shot dead, and a few moments later, another one met the same fate. The rest of them started running towards a building.

“There were no bullets, just the sound of the impact.”

“Could it be...?” Danny’s face lit up with excitement.

The building which the soldiers decided to hide in collapsed after a few moments of rest. Danny couldn’t see it, but there was a faint axis-like shape on it moments before the devastating impact. All of the targets were killed, and the destruction caused large clouds of smoke to engulf the area. Once they were dispersed, Danny saw the huntress.

He felt a rush of adrenaline. He looked up at the balcony of the top floor of a tall building across. There she was, the cold-blooded assassin that laid her eyes on her prey, glaring at it with utter concentration. Fınd the newest release on novel·fire.net

“The legendary gunslinger of the Heisei...” Danny looked up with adoration, as if meeting his idol. A moment later, he felt like he was being targeted.

“She’s the true captain. Everyone knows it.”

And there it was, a powerful explosion that launched him away, scarring his body. He slowly got up, impressed with the trail his body left on the ground. He smirked in excitement.

“Six bullets.”

Six types of ammunition appeared in his palm, and he swiftly loaded all of them into the revolver.

“I’ve loaded them in a predetermined order.”

He took the first shot, the bullet’s impact causing a major explosion at Jian’s location. She crouched, and heard the second shot that was aimed at the wall. To her surprise, Danny appeared right next to her.

They clashed in a brief close quarters exchange, Danny tried to pistol-whip her, but his attacks were all dodged with grace and ease. Jian threw a front kick and pushed Danny away, who fired off another bullet at the ground. It had the effects of a smoke grenade, covering the balcony with thick smoke. Jian aimed at its direction, but soon felt a sharp piercing sensation in her right shoulder.

“Ah, damn it!” Danny complained, shooting twice at the ground. “My own smoke ruined my shot, would you believe that?”

Jian quickly changed targets, instead of targeting Danny, she targeted the balcony. The two fell down.

“Reload.”

Danny chucked another sequence of bullets into his gun. While in freefall, he fired at the ground, and soon enough appeared there. He aimed at Jian.

“So that’s how it works.” Jian thought. “He chooses the order. Teleportation, explosion, piercing rounds, smokescreens...and two unknown ammunition types that he likely didn’t want to reveal.”

“I’m far away from the action going on everywhere else. I’ll kill him on my own.”

“I have to.”

She quickly pushed herself away from the wall, and while in the air, aimed at Danny. Danny himself tracked her with his revolver, however, Jian was first to attack. Instead of targeting Danny directly, he targeted the ground beneath him - which erupted into pieces and threw him away. Danny missed his piercing shot, which would’ve caused some major issues to Jian if it had hit her in the right place. Danny regained his stance, but at that point, Jian was already on the ground.

Danny fired at the ground, creating a smokescreen, and fired off a pair of bullets while concealed in it. As Jian targeted him, Danny fired the last bullet at Jian. She managed to protect herself against the impact, but the explosion knocked her away and damaged her arms.

“How fascinating.” Danny said. “Just like in the Wild West.”

“Reload.”

Jian pointed her finger guns at him. And Danny, after loading his weapon, approached her and aimed at her. They entered a standoff under the dazzling sun, and the gentle wind had Jian’s beautiful hair dance to its unpredictable tunes.

“Ya like cowboy movies?” Danny asked. “Things like these happen all the time.”

“No.” Jian coldly responded.

“Do you have any...uhh...favorite weapons?” Danny asked again, getting a little nervous. “If you could choose one weapon to use for the rest of your life, which one would it be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Gah! She’s just as cold as they say!” Danny thought, taking aim more carefully.

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“He definitely has the piercing round loaded in. It's his strongest ammunition type by far. That’s why he’s inviting me to a standoff.” Jian thought.

“The more I stay locked on to him, the more I can enhance either the area and amount of shots, or their strength. Why is he letting me do that? Does he plan to shoot me before I do that?”

“I’ll figure something out...”

The birds chirping in the distance had no idea of the ongoing war of power and wits. Their innocent chirps acted as a signal for the duel to commence. Danny knew that with the time Jian had to aim, even if he took the shot, he’d be destroyed as well. That’s why he chose to opt for a different strategy.

The smokescreen round was unique, as soon as the trigger was pulled, the smokescreen appeared. It was a special type of soul prowess-imbued smoke that perfectly concealed Danny. And that’s why he used it.

“A smokescreen?!” Jian was taken aback.

“My line of sight was shut off for good now. The axis is completely lost now!”

The second round Danny chose for this attack was the instant transmission round. He fired it at Jian’s general location, and despite the bullet not doing any damage, Danny himself closed the distance and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

He mixed up gut punches, gunbutt attacks and other boxing techniques to gain the upper hand for a bit. Jian responded with a left jab and an elbow strike, but Danny evaded both. Jian then went for a spinning hook kick, which landed almost too perfectly. Danny quickly pointed his gun at her, but Jian lowered his hand. The explosive round struck the ground, launching both of them upwards.

Jian kicked Danny down, and once she landed herself, she kicked him as hard as he could in the leg. The second kick struck him in the head and was followed by a flurry of strikes. She was only using her left hand for some reason. Once Jian went for a left jab again, Danny pointed his gun.

“He keeps the concealed rounds as the last two all the time.” Jian thought. “One, two, three...this one has to be the piercing round.”

Jian sharply dodged to the side. She almost lost balance, but at least she avoided the impact of the bullet. Danny fired the weapon, and...

“I knew you’d fall for it.” Danny said. All he shot was a blank round. Taking advantage of Jian’s shocked state, he closed the distance and put the gun’s barrel right on her forehead.. Thankfully, Jian managed to punch Danny’s hand down, and the piercing round only went through her stomach.

She growled in pain, and Danny looked confident. But she never took his eyes off of him.

“You didn’t notice it either.” Jian said. All this time, her right hand was by her waist, partially concealed by her uniform. It was focused on delivering a lethal blow. Once the shots were fired, a large chunk of Danny’s torso was torn off and completely destroyed. He was knocked back, and while somehow standing up, looked like a bitten apple.

“I’m glad.”

“I’m so glad I saved this one. Maybe she’ll recognize me as a good sharpshooter?”

Danny, using his final breath, aimed the gun at his own head. The bullet went off. But there was no point of exit or trail of blood. The grave wound started to quickly heal itself. A few moments later, he looked fresh as new.

“Hey, not bad, right?” Danny asked.

“The regeneration round’s revealed...shit, I gotta leave. She’s just as strong as I heard.”

“I’m tired...the regeneration round’s property of accelerating my natural soul regeneration instead of just healing me risks exhausting me.”

“Sure. The blank was a smart play.” Jian said, sounding completely unimpressed. She pointed a finger gun at him, and Danny quickly regained his focus, despite internally collapsing from the compliment.

“Reload.”

Jian quickly dashed to the side, and rushed to the entrance of a nearby building. Danny instantly unleashed all six bullets of the revolver at the building, destroying, piercing, decorating and doing everything under the sun to it. Jian was confused by such a maneuver. She looked out, only to see Danny...fleeing?

“So I did have the upper hand, huh? My own injuries are pretty bothersome...”

“I’ll have to catch him.”

“Without failure.”

Jian charged at Danny, chasing him down across the streets. The latter tried to navigate the terrain and throw her off course, but the skilled huntress kept up just fine.

“Reload.”

He fired off a smokescreen round. Instead of continuing to rush forward, he crouched in the smoke. What he didn’t realize, however, was that his soul presence, courtesy of his great excitement, was giving his position away with ease.

Jian flanked around him and kicked him out of the smoke. Danny fired the piercing round, missing it completely as Jian juked him out. She closed the distance further. And instead of attacking Danny directly, she grabbed his gun and pointed it at herself.

“Go ahead, shoot.” She said, gripping Danny’s wrists, trying to get him to pull the trigger.

“W-what? Are you mad?!” Danny asked, trying to free his weapon. “Let go! This isn’t what you’re supposed to do!”

“Then how come you’re scared?!” Jian said. She kicked Danny in the leg and hit him with a knee to his ribs, throwing him off balance. Her hands opened up Danny’s and were close to accessing the trigger itself.

Eventually, Jian managed to overpower him, and pulled the trigger. The round that shot Jian did no damage. In fact, it did the opposite - her wounds healed.

“I knew it.” Jian said. She kicked Danny away and instantly aimed at him.

“He tried to bait and ambush me with the smoke and piercing rounds. I guessed that he’d have this loaded in as a fail safe.”

“Even if it was any other round, I’d be fine. The biggest danger is the piercing round.”

Danny quickly fired the next round. The explosive impact dealt great damage to Jian, knocking her back. But she persevered. Not losing her composure for even a second, she charged in and slammed Danny into the ground with a hip throw. She put her index finger on his forehead.

Danny barely held the gun. He aimed it not at Jian, in the far, far away tall buildings behind him.

“There’s a 50/50 chance.” Jian thought, holding him down and preparing the killshot. “I know roughly where he could appear. If I lose my line of sight for just a few moments, I can still preserve the attack. But only if I’m right.”

“Either it’s a blank and he stays here, or it’s a transmission round and he goes there.”

“Damn it, it’s all up to luck...”

“Which one is it...?”

“Which one is it?!?!”

“He used a trick with the blanks last time. He’ll probably refrain from using them this time, to trick me. That’s it!”

“It’s a transmission round!”

“It has to be!!!”

As soon as Danny fired his revolver, Jian let go of him and turned around. She aimed at the building that she thought Danny was aiming at. But he didn’t teleport. The realization of her mistake distracted her even more. The axis she mapped on Danny’s head was lost.

Danny quickly looked into the other direction and fired his last round. Before Jian could even grab a hold of him, he was gone. There was no point in chasing him around anymore, he would just keep on cycling through transmission rounds and fleeing the place. At last, that cycling landed him on top of a tall building.

“Holy shit...” he said to himself, his breathing completely erratic. He was sweating, and he had some pretty nasty cuts on his face from the beatdown he had to endure.

“I knew that she would think I’d reverse bait her...so I baited her reverse bait...” Danny said, sitting down on the roof. “Who am I kidding...I just got lucky.”

“I won a fucking coinflip...that’s all I did.” Danny said. He smiled with satisfaction, before bursting into an almost manic laughter.

“This is the type of stuff they feel in the movies...”

“When they put their life on the line, be it a duel or shooting yourself and surviving...this is the great high that they feel.”

“It’s what keeps me alive and kicking!!!”

“I should probably regroup.” Danny slowly stood up. “They’re getting active in the northern parts. I’m tired as shit but I gotta help.”

“It’ll grant me this feeling again, won’t it?!”

...

Jian was completely still. Her breathing was calm, natural to her preserved and beautifully contained nature. A gentle wind blew on the battlefield, the cold air seeping into her eye and causing it to tear up a little.

She slapped herself. It was the best way she knew to get her frustration out of her body, and to soothe her from her sense of self-hatred. Failure was what she detested the most, and to fail to catch her target in such a situation, due to a miscalculation...

“Lieutenant-Commander, are you available?” Ichigo’s voice spoke from her earpiece.

“Copy. I apologize for failing to neutralize the target.”

“That’s...uhh, are you alright? Did you sustain any injuries?”

“Does it even matter? I failed.” Jian said, her voice bitter. She quickly recollected herself and continued. “I apologize for violating comms protocols. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I just...I wanted to confirm where Otto was so I didn’t run into him before neutralizing other targets. I’m glad that you’re safe, Lieutenant-Commander.”

“Ah...I...” Jian thought for a while, as her composure started to crumble once. “I have no intel on that. But...thank you...”