NOVEL FROG The Centaur Merc
That centaur Merc was obviously tearing up the place with those weapons of his.
It kind of made me feel a little unnecessary now.
He also had a personal shield that must be designed to withstand a lot of hits because both sides of the gang had started concentrating their fire on him yet his shield still remained up.
That's not to say he was just standing there taking shots because he was just galloping around the market and taking accurate shots with his bow while the minigun on his back shredded anyone that tried to attack him from behind.
Well, I wasn't going to just sit back and do nothing while letting him take all the kills. I was still planning to at least have some right to the loot after this.
I continued my attack on the gang I was already near, which was made easier by the fact that most of them were occupied with trying to deal with the centaur guy.
That meant no one was even looking in my direction when I flanked them from the side and pumped six rounds into six different thugs in quick succession, dropping them even before they knew they were under attack.
By the time someone actually noticed me to let out a warning shout, I had already moved to another cover and out of sight.
They couldn't even chase after me because the centaur Merc and the others were shooting at them from the opposite side.
To chase after me would be to leave themselves exposed but if they don't, they are exposing themselves to me.
In other words, they were pretty much fucked.
I loaded in a few more shells into my shotgun before peeking out of my cover, shooting down three more thugs who had their backs turned to me before needing to duck back into cover, right as a few of them turned to take shots at me.
I took advantage of the cover to move to another location while out of sight before popping out again to fire a few more shots.
Three more thugs went down before one guy tried to turn to shoot at me, but I managed to blow his head off first before he could take his shot.
When I was looking for another target, another thug turned to look at me before he suddenly disappeared from my vision.
I thought it was a trick of the light but I realised there was something resembling a translucent silhouette moving towards me right now.
That thug must have some kind of camouflage implant but seriously, did he think that just running towards me in a straight line after literally disappearing from where I could see you?
Not really the best idea, don't you think?
I simply pointed my shotgun straight at the silhouette that was getting closer and closer which made the guy realise that I could still see him.
Too late though, as a blast of shotgun pellets pelted him which blew him stumbling back, his camouflage deactivating as he died from the gunshot.
A few shots were fired at me but my shield blocked them, giving me time to duck into my cover again before moving closer to the bulk of where the thugs had congregated at.
As I turned the corner, I spotted one of the thugs had just pulled out a tube shaped object which he pointed at the centaur Merc.
I already guessed what it was before a Merc shouted "RPG!"
Someone tried to shoot at the thug carrying the rocket weapon but he evidently had a shield since it flared to life to protect him from being shot.
The centaur Merc turned to see the rocket pointed at him and I could see his eyes widening in shock.
Guess even his shield wouldn't be able to tank a hit from something like that.
I made the split second decision to leap out of my cover and tackle the thug, trying to stop him from firing it.
Unfortunately, he still managed to pull the trigger.
The rocket propelled grenade shot out of the launch tube and flew past the centaur Merc, which brought it to where the other gang was and blew up a couple of them.
The centaur Merc turned to look at where the rocket had exploded before turning back towards me.
That was all I saw as my attention was now occupied with the thug that I had pushed down.
He tried to swing his fist at my face which I just managed to narrowly avoid by leaning back.
At this range, I couldn't use my shotgun so I reached for my Vibration Knife instead, pulling it out of its sheath before I buried its blade in between his ribs.
The blade pierced the thug's body up to the hilt with barely any resistance, pushing past skin, muscle and bone like it was made of paper.
The thug widened his eyes and let out a choked gasp before I pulled the knife out, rolling to the side just as my shield flared up from being shot.
With no time to properly sheath my knife, I had to drop it on the ground in favour of raising up my shotgun to point at my attacker.
I pulled the trigger quickly and got to watch the thug that had shot at me get his face blasted apart by pellets.
My shield flared again and I turned to see the thug I had stabbed firing a pistol at me from where he laid on the ground.
Really dude? You have a hole in your chest, you know?
I swivelled and fired my shotgun at him, putting him out of his misery as the pellets blew his chest open.
I quickly swiped my knife from the ground and stuck it back in its sheath before rolling behind another stall for cover.
There was another explosion which I did not know the source of but I popped out from my cover to shoot down another thug before he even realised I was nearby.
The number of thugs had dwindled quite considerably and the Mercs also saw this as their chance since a couple of them left their hiding spots to charge towards both gangs.
The charge must have surprised the thugs because they were a little late in responding and most had even tried to flee instead of staying to fight, allowing us Mercs to deal with them with relative ease.
I joined in and we quickly cleaned up the rest of the thugs, shooting all of them down until they were either dead or had surrendered.
Now I suppose this would be left to the police to deal with and we'll probably get paid through the Mercenary Guild.
Which meant that the place was now ripe for looting for us Mercs. Heck a few of them had even started to sift through the debris to look for things they could take even before the fight ended.
While I was in the midst of pulling out a Credit Chip from one of the dead thugs, the centaur Merc trotted up to me.
"Hey. Thanks for the assist back there. Don't think my shield could have survived a blow from that rocket."
I pocketed the Credit Chip and stood up to face him, "No problem. Mercs should help each other, right?"
He raised an eyebrow, "Doubt most people would think that. Heck, I'm pretty sure more than half would happily let me get blasted to bits so they could loot my things off my dead body."
Oof… Mercs also loot other Mercs? Then again… I guess I shouldn't be surprised…
He stuck out his hand, "I'm Horia. Solo Merc. Nice to meet you."
I grasped it with mine and shook his hand, "Tera. Captain of the Teran Mercenary Company."
"Oh, that explains how you're that good. I should have known you were some big shot."
Err… I guess to normal Mercs, the leader of a Mercenary Company would be considered someone that is more accomplished? I dunno if that's how it works though.
I waved my hand, "No, no… I'm not that big. Our Mercenary Company is newly formed."
"Ah, I understand. And before you ask, I'll have to apologise that I'm not looking to join any Mercenary groups at the moment."
"Oh? Why not?" I asked, more curious about why he would rather work alone.
"Let's just say that I prefer the freedom of being able to make my own decisions without worrying about others. Not that I have a problem with working with others but just in the grand scheme of things, you know?"
Yeah… I can understand that.
He then pulled out his personal terminal, "Still, I owe you for that save and I'm not someone who is ungrateful to my saviours. I'll send you my contact details and if you need any help from me, like maybe an extra gun on a hustle, just drop me a message and I'll see what I can do."
Well… I guess I don't mind.
I exchanged contact information with him before we parted with another handshake. He didn't even bother to loot the place and simply went to a corner to start taking off the minigun on his back.
Welp, back to looting for me then~