Bull's Eye! II

Bee's Utility was called Bull's Eye.

When she noted a target's position visually, any attack she sent their way, be it in projectile form or otherwise, would never miss its mark as long as it had force enough to reach the target's position.

To maximize the power of her Utility, Bee trained in the use of projectile weaponry and other long-distance attack forms. While wielding any type of gun, she was easily one of the deadliest people on the planet.

However, there were several limitations that she faced, especially when she was assigned missions with multiple targets that could defend themselves, or when she was on a time limit and couldn't afford to slowly pick off her targets one by one. Most of her limitations had to do with her targets fighting her in close quarters and disrupting her ability to shoot.

The Violet Spark tended to have drawbacks because it only gave its user a singular ability. Because of this, most Violet Spark users limited themselves by unconsciously developing tunnel vision; they only grew in one way, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

In Bee's case, to remedy some of her shortcomings, she used her J.U.N.K.

The mannequin beauty pulled from her large, black case a large firearm that looked like a pink and blue X95 Sniper rifle, but on a sizable amount of buff, metallic steroids. It had two nozzles at its face, one large, one small, and when Bee flicked its three safety nodes up, the rifle groaned mechanically and whistled shrilly.

All the Agents froze.

A custom combat weapon?!

But these were rare!

Julls immediately dashed backward while cursing Rhos.

'These people are way beyond our pay grade! This was a bloody suicide mission after all!' he thought while dripping sweat. He zigzagged and disappeared from view.

Bee languidly raised her rifle. She made it seem as though it didn't weigh close to double her weight.

She then addressed 'Elijah' who gulped hard at the sight of the absolute unit of a gun.

"This is Binky. Don't worry, she's on our side."

The gun hummed as Bee took aim at one Agent who had fired a shot at her only for it to be blocked when Bee hurled her black case at it.

J.U.N.K was the unofficial term for weapons that enhanced individual Utilities in the Ryduun household.

This was one of the few things that Bee was allowed to define when the family was still together, and J.U.N.K was her acronym of choice.

Jibe Unit for Nuking Knaves.

Oddly enough, the day Bee gave this name, she had been rejected by a handsome, middle-aged man whom she had been stalking for days and had finally proposed to. Apparently, he was married and wanted nothing to do with her.

Bee denied that the acronym J.U.N.K and its meaning were in any way related to the events of that day.

That said, as weird as the name was, the power of custom weaponry was not to be underestimated.

The moment she blocked the enemy's bullet, Bee turned a small knob on Binky's side and then pulled the trigger.

The gun roared, and a significant portion of light seemed to drain from the surroundings.

A greyish glow that spread as a deafening explosion erupted where the target of the assault had been standing!

All of a sudden, the ground, the fence, and the trees in front of Binky's large nozzle were eaten away by a voracious force that was hidden by the momentary glaring brightness. Only a trail of scorch marks sprinkled with molten rock, and a blaze in the forest remained, hissing tales of what was.

The Agent who had been in the line of fire was gone.

However, all this was a descriptive luxury afforded only to a canon observer.

Bee had already turned to another target, her finger adjusting the knob on the side of the gun. As she swished the rifle behind her, she pulled the trigger and from the large muzzle, a continuous stream of greyish, scorching energy poured out in a thin, bendy line!

In an instant, all the remaining Agents were sliced up as though bisected by a laser. Even if they leaped at the last second, the beam turned convex to include them in the after-life express!

When yet another scorching hellscape was left in Binky's wake, Bee finally turned her attention to Julls.

She could have started by dealing with him, but after seeing how stunned he was at her strength, she decided he could wait for a few seconds while she deleted his entire posse. Besides that, she assumed Julls was quick enough to get out of her range, unlike his fellow Agents.

By now, Julls had retreated a fair distance while preparing another Mudra that would allow him to face off against the demoness before him.

He pushed his open palm forward, his fingers erect and pressed together.

At once, a cocoon of gold outlined his figure while spewing flakes of pleasant energy.

The Abhaya Mudra.

For a Blue Spark User like Julls, it took some time to internalize and manifest the effects of a symbol or gesture. Doing it on the fly was a very rough process. The tension of the situation dragged Julls into the zone, much to his disbelief.

He gritted his teeth, pushing all his focus into the Mudra.

The Abhaya Mudra denoted pacification, reassurance, and protection. Julls was particularly interested in the protection bit and that was what he manifested as the glow around him.

He then gathered up Fint from the atmosphere as he had done before, which attracted Bee's attention. And also, like before, she followed suit, sensing what Julls was about to do.

Soon, she and Julls Phantasmed at the same time!

Their figures warped forth and nearly clashed in the middle. The space between them sparked and expanded, stretching like rubber before pushing away both combatants!

Bee was unharmed and this time, Julls was also not subject to damage because of his application of the Abhaya Mudra. He panted, half in excitement and half in fear.

When two Utility Users Phantasmed at the same time and their paths met, the erased space between them would experience expansion instead and reject both their attempts at closing distance.

This was a rather common thing. Most experienced fighters used this phenomenon to prevent enemies from coming up on them by Phantasming.

Space itself, even after bearing a bout of Phantasm immediately repaired itself so no lasting damage was left behind.

'He's smart,' Bee thought as she saw Julls bolt towards her normally. 'He knew I was going to aim for him next, so he disrupted my aim by forcing me to respond to his Phantasm. And now…'

Julls broke his Abhaya Mudra and clasped his fingers together with one thumb out.

The Linga Mudra.

Normally, it was meant for raising the body's temperature in order to help with sinusitis, and ease a cold or a fever, but he mastered exaggerating its effect.

His body turned red and his hands hissed of heat, steam rising from them!

After coating his whole body with dark Fint, Julls hurled a steaming palm strike at Bee.

The mannequin beauty kept her pallid expression as she blocked the attack with Binky, but Julls leaped and sent a roundhouse kick streaking toward her neck. Bee ducked and pushed her rifle into Julls who met its full force and weight in the gut and nearly froze when he saw Bee's fist barrelling towards his face a second later!

His hair stood on end!

If he met that punch with the lousy amount of Fint guarding his face right now, he was going to die!

At the last second, Julls focused a large amount of Fint toward his head, but when Bee's fist crashed into him, he felt a surge of pain and then his vision turned black.

When the darkness parted after an amount of time he wasn't too sure about, Julls found that he had traveled two dozen meters away and was being nursed by a large tree that his entire back was lodged into firmly. He tasted blood in his mouth, but couldn't feel his teeth… or his nose.

"Argh…" he groaned weakly.

VHUUUUMP!

The deep hum of a gun sounded in the distance and Julls looked up to see Bee aiming Binky at him from just beyond the fence. The gun's thick muzzle turned bright.

Julls' eyes bulged… but then they drooped.

He knew there was no escaping this.

When a horrific, fast-traveling, ghostly beam flashed towards him, promising a cheap cremation, he closed his eyes.

Yet, when two seconds passed, he was shocked to find that he was still in one piece.

"Get up," he heard a familiar voice call to him.

Julls opened his eyes to see the sweating figure of Rhos standing before him with a molten shield and a charred arm.

"Don't go feeling sorry for yourself now. Even with a face like that, you can still net yourself a couple of ladies," Rhos said with an odd, pained chuckle.

On the other side, Bee tilted her head and heaved her gun onto her shoulder.

"There's still more?" she said to herself before squinting deep into the forest. She sighed in relief when she saw the pile of smoking bodies close to Twist. "Not much more, I guess."