A figure dropped from the sky, bending his knees to cushion his landing.
He picked at the cracked Ice Mask on his face.
"Someone's even using a heavy sniper rifle..." A bloodstained bullet slowly pushed its way out of Louis's mask.
He had no idea which direction the shot had come from. It had pierced his mask and lodged in the bone. Any more penetrating power, and he would have been dead.
He lacked a ghoul's powerful regenerative abilities. If a bullet pierced his brain, he would die without question.
He had been flying along just fine when a sudden impact struck his face, knocking him off his glider. Flying through the air really did make him too conspicuous.
"Well, well, isn't this the Ice Mask from last time?" Ayato bared his sharp teeth at the newcomer. "Did Nico scare you into running with your tail between your legs?"
Apparently, Nishiki Nishio wasn't the only one with a foul mouth.
"Didn't Irimi scare you off too?" Louis glanced at Ayato, then at the badly injured Nishiki Nishio and Touka behind him.
Touka, in particular, had her clothes in disarray. On her pale back, the spots where her kagune usually emerged were a bloody mess.
"Try treating your big sister a little better, will you?" Louis formed a crystalline blade right in front of Ayato.
"Then try making me! If you've got what it takes!" Ayato wasted no more words. A brilliant kagune extended from his back, his eyes turned crimson, and he charged at Louis like a demon awakening.
Before he even reached him, the crimson wings on his back attacked first, launching a barrage of kagune spikes.
"You think I'm going to go easy on you?" Louis neither dodged nor ducked. He extended his left hand, forming a level-two