Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 226: Clean up

Stanley held a gun in one hand and his sword in another. He had a frown on his face, not from the sight, but from the feeling.

As a Nova, he could sense every soul that had died in the explosion, and there were quite a few. This was no different than when he attacked the other Gang’s building where he had met Max. This was the same feeling he had gotten there too, so he could tell at least a few dozen of these people had died. Assuming that 10% of them were Dulls, that was close to 50 or more people.

And every second the number slowly increased as more people died. He was gaining their souls.

Next to him, Fred held his guns in both hands, ready to shoot anyone that came out.

Behind them were a dozen different men and women, following them under the commands of their new boss, Nova.

Another dozen and a half men would be on the other side of the explosion, dealing with the ones that tried to escape from here.

They looked at the mess in front and couldn’t help but feel somewhat bad for the people. Only half and ran into the building to look for the people to kill. The rest were going in as well, but they were slow about it.

As such when the explosion happened, quite a lot of them were still outside. That did not stop them from getting hurt, but most managed to survive.

Stanley and Fred walked into the front yard of the warehouse which was covered in broken rocks and standing metal rods.

They could hear cries from in there and a couple of people that started to drag themselves out of there, bloody and bruised.

"Everyone, hands above your head. No funny business please," Fred said, looking at each of the people. "Your leaders are dead. Surrender and we won’t kill you. You will merely be our prisoners for a while until we know you can be brought into the gang. Understood?"

The people grunted in pain, a few even glaring at them. However, none of them did anything hasty. They stood there, waiting for someone else to take charge.

None of them wanted to do anything.

"If you don’t surrender, then we will have to—"

Fred’s words were cut off by a sudden gunshot with a flash of red. He flinched a little when he saw the shot, but Stanley’s sword had arrived in front of his chest before the shot could.

The gunshot ricocheted to the side, stunning everyone at how fast it all had happened.

Fred took the briefest moment to get over his shock and pointed at the man hidden behind a rock to shoot him.

The red bullet flew at incredible speed to fly past the man without hitting him at all. However, at the next moment, it took a large turn around and hit the man behind the rock in the head.

"Thanks," Fred said to Stanley and looked back at the people. "As I was saying, if you don’t surrender and try to fight back, then we will kill you."

The people no longer waited for someone else to begin giving up before they did. They surrendered, with their arms up high. At least the ones that could lift their hands did.

The ones that couldn’t move their hands just laid on the ground, face down, waiting for those people to come to get them.

"Well, that’s easy," Fred said. "Cuff ’em up. We’ll take them with us."

The dozens of people behind them nodded and walked up front with a gun in their hands and started cuffing everyone. Fred stayed back, looking out for anyone to shoot.

As they watched, Stanley saw something with his future sight. He quickly ran forward and struck a flying grenade, sending it flying high into the sky where it exploded into a decently sized explosion.

He quickly looked in the direction of where it came from but found nothing. The others were alert, and ready to shoot at a moment’s notice, causing the tension of the entire area to rise.

"It wasn’t them," Stanley said. "It came from inside the building. There are still people there, alive. And I don’t think they plan on coming quietly.

Fred came up to him. "What do we do??" he asked.

Before Stanley could say anything, someone came out of the rubble in the distance and shouted. "Fight you bastards!" the voice said. "I’m still alive!"

Everyone recognized the one who spoke. It was a woman with prosthetic arms. Leader of the Matrix Runners.

Fred didn’t hesitate and shot 3 times back to back. All three bullets hit the woman in the head, but a glowing field blocked it.

"Die, your bastards!" she shouted, her hands two hands suddenly flipped open at the palm to reveal two barrels. And through those two barrels, she shot.

Stanley slowed down time before she even began shooting. He took the opportunity to think of what he could do. Even in the slowed-down time, he didn’t have much time to consider his moves.

He punched the jewel on this sword, lighting it up as slowly as it could happen. Then, as he lit it up again, as the two grippers on the side of the sword came loose, and the sword turned into a massive blaster.

She pointed the sword in the direction of the woman and shot it.

There was currently only one direction he could shoot where he, Fred, and the others wouldn’t be in danger of randomly getting struck by the bullet.

It was not her head, nor was it her body, as those parts were protected by the shield and that could be a problem.

The only part he could shoot at was her feet, and he did.

Stanley shot at her feet the moment she started shooting. His attack landed a fraction of a second before her attacks started.

By the time her bullet left, there was already an explosion underway. She threw out a few bullets and was immediately thrown away by the exploding ground.

He then kicked a rock to the side where it stopped one bullet, put his sword to the side where it stopped another two, and the final one he stood there and took to his chest.

He simply couldn’t move away in time and took all the attacks to the chest. He already knew he could survive a shot to the chest anyway.

His body skidded along the floor, slamming on one of the rocky debris before he was stopped. He quickly got back up and started coughing as time returned to normal.

To Fred and all, all of that took place after one heartbeat stopped and another one started. They felt a gust of wind, a spray of dirt, and then an explosion.

When Fred opened his eyes again to look at the woman, he couldn’t find her at all. Just a cloud of dirt where she had been.

He looked around and finally noticed that Stanley was missing. "John?" he cried out, turning around. That was when he saw Stanley slowly get back up with two holes in his chest and his skin bleeding.

"John!" he shouted and ran up to Stanley. As he did, he shot once into the sky, the bullet curving halfway through to find the woman from before in the distance.

"Goddammit!" Stanley shouted.

"What happened?" Fred asked. "Those holes, were you shot?"

"Yes," Stanley said. "Dammit! That girl shot me right where I got hit two days ago."

"Are you alright?" Fred asked. "Stay down, I’ll have someone get you medical attention."

"No, I’m fine," Stanley said, standing up. "These are just graze wounds. I’ll be fine, I’ve been shot before."

"Oh," Fred said. "You’ve been shot before?"

"Yes," Stanley said. "One of that assassins shot me."

"Oh," Fred said and was about to turn around when he paused. "Wait, you were shot by the assassin? When?"

"When he—" Stanley paused. What was this? Why could he not remember who shot him?

The girl had stabbed him and failed, and the man he had killed outside without ever being shot. Then who had shot him? Why did he think he could the bullets with his body?

Why could he block the bullets with his body?

Stanley frowned a little, unsure of what was happening. Why did he believe something he didn’t know about or had experienced about yet? What was going on?

’A new power?’ he wondered. He would be happy if he gained a new power, but the period in which he had new powers but wasn’t fully awakened was some of the worst.

"I don’t remember being shot, but I have a feeling that I have been before," he said. "I’m probably out of my mind, or someone is using some powers on me. We’ll have to be care—"

He immediately dashed to the side and arrived at a random location by a young woman who was on their side.

"Aargh!" she cried out in panic when she saw him come out of nowhere with his sword in hand and fell back to the ground.

At the same time, the ground undulated as a man with tanned skin and braids came out of the ground with two plasma swords in hand.

Stanley waited for the moment he was fully out and struck down with his sword, striking the man’s head.

His protective field flickered for a moment before it was broken through by Stanley’s attack as the sword carved through his body and struck the ground so hard that it left a small crater.

Stanley pulled out his sword and swung it to the side to get rid of the blood.

"As I was saying," he spoke, lending a hand to the young woman. "We have to be careful."