Goodbye

After Carl ran around the corner at the end of the passage, she found herself in a massive warehouse filled with all sorts of machinery. It looked rather like a canned-food production workshop. Oliver and Jack had already taken cover behind a steel workbench in the distance, frantically waving Carl over when they saw her.

Oliver gripped his Nova, while Jack beside him held the Copperhead that had originally belonged to Oliver. Both had their guns trained on the corner behind Carl, waiting to blast the Maelstrom member the instant she showed herself. But despite being ready, neither Jack nor Oliver knew what Carl had just faced.

"That girl has Subdermal Armor. My Lexington can't hurt her."

Before she had even reached them, Carl shouted out the reason she had failed to deal with the Maelstrom member behind her. Hearing that, Jack answered in a booming voice.

"I told you to get a different gun."

"I'm regretting it now!"

This time, she had truly suffered for refusing good advice. The Copperhead was more powerful than the Lexington, but handguns were irreplaceable in certain situations. Accuracy alone could not make up for the difference in firepower. Carl had learned that lesson today.

Carl had only taken a few steps toward Oliver and Jack when thunderous footsteps rang out from the passage behind her. The Maelstrom member had caught up.

"Fuck, does she have to be this fast? I had a two-second head start!"

Realizing she still had some distance to cover before reaching Oliver and Jack, Carl immediately gave up on sharing their cover. A quick glance around let her spot something large enough to hide behind.

It was a dumpster piled high with scrap steel and discarded machinery.

I really do have an affinity for trash!

The instant Devil burst out of the passage, she saw Carl slipping behind a two-meter-tall dumpster. At the same moment, Oliver and Jack, positioned directly opposite the passage entrance, opened fire together.

Yet the dense barrage woven by the Copperhead and Nova failed to make Devil retreat even half a step. She charged straight at Oliver, the enemy she hated, relying on her Subdermal Armor to take the Copperhead's and Nova's bullets head-on.

"Cabrón, this bitch doesn't plan on surviving! She's going to rush us and take us down with her! That's a Crusher Kinetic Shotgun—our cover might not stop its rounds at all!"

Watching bullets strike Devil's body, penetrate flesh, and then lodge firmly against her Subdermal Armor, Jack cursed under his breath. Still, he did not dare let go of the trigger. He could only hope to whittle her down before she closed to a range where the shotgun could tear them apart.

"Her Subdermal Armor is even more ridiculous than I imagined! How much did she spend on that? Is this some brand-new model?"

Oliver was having a miserable time too. It was bad enough that this Maelstrom lunatic was charging without regard for her life, but she was also raising the pistol in her left hand and firing at him as she advanced. He did not even know her. Did she really have to pursue him so relentlessly? He had never provoked her, had he?

The impact of kinetic weapons landed against the Subdermal Armor, with most of the force absorbed by it. A small portion still reached Devil's body, but it was nowhere near enough to slow her down. In less than a second, she had reached the ideal range for her shotgun.

Discarding Tamanooto, the pistol whose magazine had run dry, Devil raised the Crusher Kinetic Shotgun with both hands and aimed it at Oliver and Jack. One second later, she would blast their bodies and their cover into pieces.

But Carl would not give her that chance.

She had not hidden behind the dumpster to flee. She had merely wanted to vanish from Devil's six cybernetic eyes for that instant. Their field of view was not easy to evade.

This was the moment. With all six of Devil's cybernetic eyes fixed forward, ready to watch her enemies get blown into chunks, Carl climbed atop the dumpster and leaped down, diving at Devil.

Devil's ears caught the sound of rushing wind, but the weapon she had raised was already too difficult to turn.

How much did an adult body weigh? Carl estimated around seventy kilograms. That weight, combined with the force of her downward plunge, slammed into Devil. Even with heavy Subdermal Cybernetics in her body, Devil was inevitably knocked to the ground by Carl.

But knocking her down was all Carl could do.

The instant her hands and feet felt the impact of the ground beneath the body under her, a clenched fist smashed into Carl's cheek. Just one punch from that fist—reinforced by Subdermal Armor, almost like it wore an iron knuckleduster—sent Carl reeling onto her back. Blood streamed uncontrollably from her shattered nose.

"Get off!"

Carl's thigh pinned Devil's other arm, so after throwing that first punch, Devil struck again with the same hand. Carl could barely endure the second blow. Her head felt like a great bell being hammered, her consciousness beginning to scatter. Yet at this final moment, she still found a sliver of opportunity to fight back.

Oliver and Jack had already rushed out from behind cover. To avoid friendly fire, they had thrown aside their guns, intending to help Carl physically restrain this Maelstrom Devil. But Carl had already gripped her gun again.

The only ones tangled together were her and the Maelstrom member. She had no reason to fear hitting anyone else.

The Lexington rang out again. At the same time, Carl took another punch to the face. Her features nearly caved in beneath that blow, but a smile spread across the battered face that had become so miserable Oliver and Jack could barely recognize her.

She had fired, and she had hit Devil's fingers.

By enduring those punches, Carl had determined that the Subdermal Armor covered, at most, the back of this Maelstrom member's hand. Her fingers had no such protection. In other words, bullets could shatter them.

Carl did not shoot the fist that could still beat her hard enough even after losing several fingers. Instead, she chose Devil's other hand, the one trapped beneath Carl's thigh and difficult to pull free. That hand still clutched the Crusher, which Devil refused to let go of even after being knocked down.

Her fingers shattered under the bullets, and the gun she could no longer hold found a new owner in the next instant.

"Nice to meet you, lively young lady."

Before Devil could throw another punch, her six red-glowing cybernetic eyes locked onto something—the massive body of the Crusher.

"Maybe we'll meet again."

"Pong!"