act10mini

We can't beat that shit! Are they all like her?!

Save it! Go for the Infected ghetto, the layout's all screwy there, we still got a chance!

Did we shake her?

Shut up, keep it down!

She didn't see us. We hide here, we're gold.

Son of a bitch, something's wrong with this Mount. How the hell did she even find us?

You save your breath.

Who are... you?

Huh?!

Where'd the brat come from?!

This is Miss Witch's house. What are you doing in here?

Shut her up! The Mount's right outside!

Stupid little punk, I oughta...

I get it! You're bad people!

The immature witch extends her right hand, and a purple thunderbolt leaps from it.

(Shoot, where'd they run?)

Hello... can I ask if you've seen—

Just as the Kuranta officer starts talking to a nearby resident, two men dressed in black fly out from the window of a building not far away, hitting a wall with two heavy thuds.

Hot-hot-hot! Little shit!

Cavolo, stupid Infected, I'm gonna get her...

Great! So this is where you two holed up.

Shit! Cheese it!

Where the hell to?!

The abandoned section! There's a safehouse there!

November 28th, 1097, 8:59 P.M.

Disused border sector of Caladon

The two black-suits huff and gasp as they run through the deserted streets.

And the pint-sized Kuranta officer is hot on their tails.

I think we lost her.

My ass we lost her! You think you can lose a Kuranta officer in the city? Keep running!

How much farther?

Almost there! Right up front.

Made it. In here.

Our contact was here? This safehouse is shot to hell!

Save it. They said they'd ready up any clothes and fake IDs for skipping town, put 'em here. There's a hidden passage through the old logistics channels. We'll find a way to slip out.

Hiding in a building, huh. Not planning to give up?

Don't test my patience, alright? We're on the edge of the city. You can't fall back any further now.

And let me remind you two, hiding in that building to ambush me isn't going to do anything for you, okay?

Keep resisting, and you'll only keep piling on the charges against you.

Put down the crossbows and bombs, and surrender this instant.

What the hell, where is everybody? The lights are dead?!

This room's a goddamned mess! What's all that piled on the ground? I can't even tell.

You just knocked something over! What the hell's that smell?!

It's too dark! I can't see anything!

Why'd they pile up all this crap? They tryin' to pull something?

This stinks to high heaven! Where's our contact?!

I don't like this! This building ain't right!

If you still won't come out, I'll have to break in by force.

About time you witnessed a Mounted Officer's true strength.

The pint-sized officer reverse grips her pike and lowers her body. She lifts it over her head, Originium Arts coalescing at its tip, the pike wholly bathed in a dark red luster in the black of the night.

I haven't used this maneuver in a long, long time. Don't blame me if anyone gets hurt, alright?

Do something! She's gonna break down the door!

Don't panic! Calm down!

Flashlight! You got it or not?

What kind of mook carries a goddamned flashlight around?

The firebombs! You had one left, right?

You gonna burn the place down?

Dumbass! You throw the bomb in there first, we escape before the fire spreads! The house goes up, and that beat cop ain't gonna follow us! Two fowls, one stone!

Makes sense! Let me see...

The imposing black-suit pulls the ring on an incendiary meant for military use, and tosses it into the depths of the pitch-black room.

However—

The moment the flare lights up is the moment they finally realize just how stupid a decision they've made.

Within the cramped, dilapidated room sits a great pile of Originium explosives and hazardous chemicals.

The bucket they knocked over earlier was filled with high-concentration raw keton, now spilled all across the floor.

I'm going to count from three, and that's your final chance!

Three!

Two!

One!

The collapsible military pike shoots forth like lightning, smashing apart at least ten centimeters' worth of concrete wall and tearing through the structure.

But in the following instant...

The sound of an explosion as grand as thunder rolls across the entirety of Caladon.

Harsh firelight follows a mushroom cloud straight into the skies, shining over the abandoned plate, through the Gododdin night, and across the southwest harbors of Victoria.

In the wake of the cabin's explosion, the surrounding ground caves in entirely, crashing down to the city plate's structural layer.

And that layer being in deep disrepair, it continues its collapse, dropping down and down, letting out an unending rumbling roar.

Where the cabin once stood now resembles a direct strike from a high-speed battleship bombardment. Only a massive pit filled with thick smoke remains to tell the tale.

The suspects, the evidence, and the truth are all blown away into the black smog along with the abandoned building, trailing high and away with the wind.

Wh... What happened?!

Blown head over heels by the shockwave, the Victorian Mounted Officer now stares in bewilderment at the entire sight before her. Nothing that just happened has processed for her yet.

November 28th, 1097.

Nighttime in Caladon City finds itself exceptionally lively.