OLD-WORLD EXTRA

***

[Looks like he's accepted you kids' little game~.]

[To be honest, I dunno if that's a good thing or not, but we're about to find out, haha!]

While Arthur ran for his life, his two AIs commentated as if watching the usual hunter death match they had up on the holoscreen every weekend.

[...]

He didn't bother replying to them, focusing all his being on defining the word 'fast.'

His every step was a hundred percent effort, trying to catch up to the half-cyborg in front of him.

Each turn of theirs was intentional, heading further out of the slums and towards Elijah and his group.

Arthur could barely hear his own breath, his heartbeat loud in his ears.

It was almost as if he was an inch away from experiencing a panic attack.

Turning left, both students couldn't help but glance behind them, wanting to see how close their "enemy" was.

And close he was, about to join them in their run through this alleyway.

"Fuck!"

Quinn, unlike her cursing baitmate, was already near the next turn and she wasn't worried about Emir catching up.

In fact, she was waiting for it, as she had pulled herself into cover just as she went right. Bang! Bang!

At that moment, two shots rang out, aimed at Arthur, but they completely missed, hitting the walls on either side of him.

The boy flinched, almost fumbling his next step, which caused him to fall, but luckily he dove into the corner, getting away from Emir's sight.

However, he wasn't fast enough.

Bang!

Due to his momentary pause, Emir managed to get another shot off.

This time, it got close, grazing Arthur's shoulder, and sending a sharp pain through his body. "Ahh-!"

"Out of the way!"

Emir turned around the corner at Quinn's interupting scream, and with his arrival came a hail of bullets from her gun.

Snickering, he stepped back and left, dodging the first volley.

"You're not getting away!"

But as she tracked his movement, he stepped hard onto the ground, snapping up a jagged wall of concrete that momentarily protected him from the bullets.

A few hand-fist-sized rocks made their way to them, all missing Arthur and reaching Quinn, either grazing or hitting her body, some even smacking her straight in the face.

"Ugh!"

That stopped her from shooting for a second, or so she wanted Emir to believe as she simply tanked the hits, only stopping to bait him out.

"Cute~."

But it seemed that she had forgotten who she was up against.

"You ate that up pretty easily, but how about trying something that needs a bigger bite?"

Emir kicked the slab of rock, launching it into the girl, which sent her flying into the wall before she could even react.

"...You... basta―ugh..."

Her face would've been crushed in, but fortunately for her, it was all simulated, her pain only internal.

While she was dazed, Emir's attack caused him to lose his cover, giving Arthur the opportunity to attack.

"I'll kill you!"

As the boy flipped around on his stomach and aimed his weapon at his professor, the man himself was already prepared, firing a burst of bullets before his finger could even touch the trigger.

The first bullet missed as well as the second, but the third managed to strike his left shoulder, which would realistically be embedded deep into him but simply bounced off while commanding Arthur's brain to experience an incredible amount of pain.

"AHHHHHHH!"

Clicking his tongue with annoyance, Emir was about to kill him with his next few shots, but another scream came from behind, interrupting him.

"Now!"

Elijah sprung forth out of the shadows, leading the charge.

Behind him were Max, Aria, and Ava, all aiming their guns at Emir.

Once they got close enough to where their bullets would be guaranteed to hit, they pulled their triggers, and a hail of bullets was let loose.

Emir raised a brow and then Flash Stepped back, going along with the trajectory of the bullets. The bullets chased him for a moment, but as he landed on the ground, he jumped up, narrowly avoiding being hit, the bullets grazing the underside of his feet.

As he flew up, reaching the building's roof, he spotted Junior waiting for him, prone on the ground around twenty meters away.

"Got you."

Those two words marked the beginning of the student's real hunt.

Elijah knew that the insurance bait would try to kill Emir, so he switched up the plan after the start of the round without their knowledge, slowly stepping closer to them.

Now his plan paid off.

Emir was caught off guard...

Or so they thought—until they saw him block the first bullet with his arm, disabling it while protecting his head, and then dodged the second shot by leaning forward, reaching the building, and pushing himself out of harm's way.

Landing on the roof's edge, he clambered up, causing it to tremble, threatening to collapse.

Ratatatatatatatat!

A stream of bullets followed his every step as Junior emptied his entire magazine, desperate

to hit him at least once.

But he failed-the empty click of his gun announced it.

"Ah~."

Emir stopped, pivoted on his left foot, turned around, and aimed his gun at Junior.

"Nice try, kid."

Junior chuckled.

"I tried my best, Sir."

Bang!

The bullet went right in between his eyes, dropping his head to the ground.

Though Junior failed, the plan wasn't yet over.

It was only the second step.

Bang!

Emir snapped his head toward the origin of the sound, quickly spotting Sofia.

She was positioned at least a hundred meters away, lying prone on a taller building, the glint

of her gun reflecting off his shades.

His smile widened, and his inky eyes darkened.

Leaning forward slightly, he angled his head and bit down.

Crack...

Smoke began to flow from his mouth as the bullet seemingly struck his face.

But in the next instant, when the smoke faded, it was revealed to her that he had caught the

bullet with his teeth, biting down on it with an audible crunch.

"...Just what?"

The sheer audacity of the move left Sofia in disbelief.

Her finger hovered over the trigger, unable to press it, momentarily paralyzed by what she

had just witnessed.

That moment of hesitation was all he needed.

Without missing a beat, Emir smoothly raised his gun, his eyes locking onto her stunned

figure as he squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

The shot rang out, echoing through the still air.

Sofia barely had time to react before the bullet found its mark, 'ending' her life.

As her body slumped against the rooftop, Elijah and Max showed up, managing to climb to

the roof.

But... they were too late.

Bang! Bang!

They were 'dead' the moment their heads peaked out.

Their bodies dropped in front of Aria and Ava, who stood below in the alleyway. Unlike the guys and Sofia, those two lacked physical athleticism, and the augmented suit didn't help with that, so they stayed beside their friends' bodies, waiting for Emir to show

himself.

And it didn't take long.

The moment those two were subtracted from the total remaining students, he dropped down,

behind the still-struggling Quinn.

"You coward!"

She had just managed to get herself off the ground, so she wasn't in any shape to attack, her

roar cracking under the pain.

"Thanks."

Emir stabbed her in the neck, 'killing' her at once, then threw her body at the blondes,

blocking them from shooting.

"The hell?!"

"You can't do that to your students!"

They jumped back, barely avoiding being hit.

And just as the 'dead' Quinn hit the ground, two shots rang out.

Bang! Bang!

In a wobble, they stumbled around and fell face-first into Quinn, joining her on the ground.

Chuckling, he turned to look at Arthur, noticing that he was already 'dead.'

His own teammates had killed him in the crossfire.

"Touche~."

He took a breather as he said that, his eyes calmly scanning the area.

At that exact moment, the buildings around him began to tremble, and in the next one, four

loud bangs were heard.

It appeared that even with all the 'named' dead, Elijah's plan was yet to be over. The very ones he saw as useless came at him as a collective, springing their "major" trap, which was the utter destruction of the four buildings he stood in the middle of.

"Using one of my old strats against me, huh... not bad."

In under a second, they fell over each other, debris, rotting beams, and columns falling all

around him.

Nothing touched him as he easily dodged everything, but that was fine, they didn't fail yet.

Their plan was not to kill him with those buildings, they knew his capabilities better than

that.

They just wanted to pin him down.

When the dust began to settle, all potential escape routes became completely blocked off, and Emir, who now stood on top of shaking rubble, continued scanning his surroundings, searching for the remaining students.

Ten or so meters away, he spotted a few of them making their way through the inside of a

fallen building, trying to get the height advantage over him.

Then, he noticed another group that cut through rubble circling around to get behind him.

"Surrounding me, I see..."

Emir smiled at his own words, almost happy that his students were something more than just nameless sacks of living meat.

"But it won't work against someone much stronger than you."

To teach them a lesson, he sprung forth, attacking what he saw as the weakest point of the encirclement, which was the small group maneuvering inside the building.

They were not yet in position which made them easy targets.

"Stop him!"

"Fire!"

"We need to keep him in!"

Leaders of the other small groups surrounding him reacted quickly, commanding their

teammates to attack.

And attack they did, dumping their magazines without any care for saving ammunition.

He tried to outrun their bullets, but some students directed their fire to cut off his route forward, pinning him down and forcing him into cover.

Though their shots were far from accurate, they did their job, stopping him from 'killing' their weakest link.

They knew it wouldn't last long; their bullets were already running out, yet it didn't even

come to that.

Emir didn't spend his time behind cover idling without purpose, no, he had been listening closely, noting the clinking of their guns and the direction of their fire.

Just as a few students on his right stopped to reload, he rushed out, using a large slab of

concrete as a shield.

Two or three students continued firing, but the slab protected him from the first few bullets,

shattering only after he escaped their trap.

"Follow me."

As their taunting professor got inside the building, the students snapped out of their

stupefied state and hurried after him.

"Chase him!"

"Dammit, you guys fucked it!" "Keep up the pressure, c'mon, c'mon!"