Threads of the Soul

Chapter 455 - 455: Jurassic Georgia

Constant gun fire mixed with the screeches of the Georgia Raptors, as well as the sounds of thunder in the distance. With Yuan's help, Xander was quickly leading the group through the corn fields in a desperate attempt to make it to a more open area.Xander's arms blurred as he whipped them all around them, bullets flying as fast as he could pull the trigger. Whether they hit their target or not wasn't really important, only that it kept the Raptor's at bay while they escaped. Although the pained screeches of these oversized birds was definitely a benefit whenever he sent a volley towards some suspiciously shifting corn stalks.

That Camouflage was a true pain in the neck. It wasn't just changing colour, their footsteps were completely masked so if it wasn't for the slight movements of the corn or the gentle chirping noises they made as they talked to each other, he would never have even realised they were there.

The fact they talked to each other, was also disturbing. The intelligence beasts showed now was always disturbing, for instant the spider woman that was tagging along with them and spending most of her attention lovingly stroking the jelly she had collected. She would only actively fight whenever something lunged at her, but she was dodging more than actually counter attacking, leaving Xander and Yuan to pick up the slack.

Humanity's main advantage was their intelligence. While animals got stronger, grew killing weapons on their bodies or grew impossibly large, humans grew weaker in body and stronger in the mind.

They used their intelligence to make their own weapons to even the playing field. So the fact that so many beasts were becoming just as intelligent, just as sentient and sapient, while keeping the advantages of their previous evolution and gaining new ones on top of all that?

It just didn't seem fair.

Another Raptor lunged out of the maze of maize, landing on top of Yuan while his back was turned and forcing him to the ground. It immediately began to tear into him, it's wicked talons tearing through the Dragonoid's jade scales like they were made of butter.

A half scream, half roar escaped from Yuan's maw and Xander immediately whipped around, pumping a dozen shots into the Raptor's side. The beast let out a screech of pain, before flopping over on its side, shaking slightly as blood oozed from its dying body.

Other members of the fleeing group quickly helped Yuan to his feet, although mostly because they were scared and wanted him to go back to protecting them and not because they actually wanted to help him.

Blood flowed from the multiple deep gashes on Yuan's back and, while his natural healing was already starting to kick in and slowly repair the wounds, it was a miracle he was still standing.

'Shit... SHIT! This isn't good... This is so not good. We're almost clear, just need a little more of a push. But I can't do this alone...'

Xander's eyes trailed from the crippled Yuan down to the scared teenager sticking close to his own back. Corvus' kid... What was his name again? Something weird and spooky, just like his mentor. Depression? Misery? Ah screw it!

"Hey Kid! Ever shot a gun before?"

Woe whipped his head towards Xander in shock, not expecting the question at such a time and wondering why the hell he was even asking it. But Xander was already moving despite the lack of an answer.

His face paled as pure liquid metal started to seep from the pores of his palm. Much like the formation of Requital's, the liquid metal started to grow and rapidly take solid shape as it manifested into a new weapon.

But this was not a Requital, it was purely Xander's mutation. His transcendent mutation, in fact. His initial one had been completely useless, simply causing his body to massively overproduce iron in his cells without any of the issues this would normally bring. The fact he had to eat a lot of meat to supplement it was possibly why he evolved so fast.

It was his transcendent mutation that finally made it useful. He could control it, manifesting it into anything that he could imagine, and as a lover of guns why would he imagine anything else?

What manifested in his hand was the result of countless hours disassembling and reassembling guns for fun, taking them apart to clean and maintain so that he could try them out on the range. He had studied countless weapons of war, but there was one that was perfect for raining indiscriminate death.

A Belgian Minimi M249 LMG. He had to skip on giving it a scope, as he couldn't produce glass, but he did make some modifications to it, giving it the basic enchantments the New American Government had created to allow weapons to fire without gunpowder or other explosives.

It was hard for them to normally produce, as they couldn't consistently carve the runes and it didn't work with machining, but for him it was simple. While the newly formed weapon rested in his hands, a golden sheen rapidly spread over it.

This wasn't just aesthetics, it was the final stage of production. Enhancing and enchanting it to withstand the load he was going to put it through, and increasing the kick of the bullet launching enchantment he had built into it.

It came fully loaded with ammo, fully metal bullets as they didn't need casings. He tossed it to Woe, who caught it nervously.

"W-what? No! I've never used one of these before!"

"It's simple. Point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger."

He demonstrated by blasting another Raptor that was getting dangerously close to their group, before starting to produce more guns for the rest of these useless idiots. He just wouldn't be able to arm them all, and more guns for them meant less bullets for him.

Woe shifted the oversized gun in his hands nervously. With his increased strength, it was easy enough to handle. Pointing it out at the field, he squeezed the trigger and soon enough the repetitive booms of the explosive rune was sounding out.

DunDunDunDunDunDun

Bullets whizzed through the cornfield with no accuracy or precision as Woe embraced the true american way of spray and pray.