Chapter 384. Sniper.

  As we walked, I could hear a series of pops and see flashes of light in the distance. My time training with the military told me that a gunfight was happening. Sharog was probably in that factory somewhere and I needed to get there quickly if I didn’t want her to get caught in the crossfire.

  I was on foot, but my stats gave me power and endurance greater than the best athletes on the planet. I began to run, my minions following right beside me. For now, we stayed on the road, since there was really no cover or way to hide our approach from anyone that was looking.

  My hope was that whatever battle was going on at the factory kept everyone’s attention focused there. As I got closer, I could see what looked like an old previously abandoned factory, and the vast parking lot around the building was empty, save for a half dozen cars and SUVs pulled up to the main entrance. The car taillights I had spotted earlier turned out to be three more luxury SUVs that were now moving to join the others at the entrance.

  When the trio of SUVs pulled up, men poured out. They were all decked out in winter clothing of various styles, and each carried a rifle, submachinegun, or pistol that was ready to go. I’d seen enough movies to make me believe these guys were some kind of criminal organization, mobsters, or the like. This many armed men out of uniform, told me they were bad news.

  From one of the windows near the top of the factory, a fireball was launched. The flaming sphere hit the last SUV in the group, and the explosion caught two of the armed men in its blast. I was getting closer and could hear their screams as the magically created flames clung to their bodies and cooked them alive.

  Crossing through gate at the parking lot entrance, I heard a man shout in Russian, and the crack of a high-powered rifle echoed through the area. My giant crab minion shrieked as the shot punched through its exoskeleton, and the monster turned to face the still hidden shooter.

  “Hold up, I’m not sure we’re enemies,” I shouted, counting on the system to translate for me. For some reason, I didn’t think what looked like a group of Russian gangsters was responsible for an interdimensional kidnapping. I could be wrong, and if this sniper didn’t cool it, I had no problem with my minions taking him out.

  “What is that creature? Who are you?” a man called out. My drone stood pointing its grenade launcher at where the man was hidden. I couldn’t see him, but at least the crab and the drone seemed to have spotted him. Elida had done the smart thing and dropped to the ground like I did once the shot had been fired. The man was calling out from the opposite direction the shot had come from. Whoever these guys were, they had us bracketed.

  “I’m here to rescue a young woman that I think is held inside the factory. These creatures are my minions, and I appreciate it if you didn’t shoot holes in them,” I shouted back.

  “You mean to tell me that you’re not one of those freaks in our factory?” the man asked.

  “I’m not one of them, in fact, I’m going to take them out if they’re the ones holding the person I’m looking for,” I said, slowly crawling after speaking so anyone taking aim at the sound of my voice wouldn’t have an easy target to hit.

  “We should just kill him and then move to the others, he’s one of those alien things that the news and politicians are all talking about,” the voice shouted so he could be heard by everyone, including the sniper flanking us.

  “Shut up, Lev, can’t you hear his accent? This is an American if I’m not mistaken. I don’t recall any of those freaks in my factory having the same accent. Tell me, American, how did you wind up here?” another voice asked.

  “You got it, I’m an American. My name is Rico Kline and like I mentioned, I don’t think you’re my enemy unless you kidnapped a young woman and are holding her inside the factory. If you’re following the news, you’ve probably heard about summoned beings, I’m one of them. I was summoned back home on a rescue mission,” I called out.

  “No, we have no hostages at this facility, this place is used for other purposes. Also, since your monsters haven’t attacked us yet, I think you might be who you say you are. I’ve heard of these summoned beings, tell me, Rico, have you been in any of the major incidents?” the Russian, the one who had chastised Lev and was obviously in charge, asked.

  “Yes, there was a pack of rabbit monsters in California, and a couple of dungeons around my country I helped to deal with,” I explained.

  “Lev, Google those incidents and see if there is any mention or video of this man. You, Rico, stand up so I can see you,” the man demanded.

  “As long as you do the same, and I should warn you, I have resources at my disposal that would make trying to snipe me a very bad idea,” I said, keeping a Switch and Replace spell ready to go in an instant. I slowly stood, and about twenty yards away, an older man with two armed guards stood. He was unarmed, but both guards held AK-47 variants. They had been hidden under a white tarp that blended in with the snow.

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  The drone crafted a pair of crossbows from his chest for its shorter arms to wield. My minion aimed one crossbow at the older man, and one back where the sniper had shot from earlier. My ice crab just clacked his claws menacingly. I noticed the wound caused by the bullet was almost healed, and as I watched, the actual bullet was pushed out of the wound to drop onto the snow. The troll regeneration scroll seemed to be working as advertised.

  “Boss, I found a list of summoned beings, and he’s on it. I’ll send you his picture, the man, Lev, said. The old man looked at his phone, then over to me.

  “I see, you aren’t lying about who you claim to be, and you say you’re here to rescue someone?” the old man asked.

  “Yes, and while I’m not 100% sure, I think they might be in that factory, unless you know of another building within a mile of here. She’s probably being held by whoever is fighting your men,” I replied.

  “So, what is it that you propose, summoned man,” the old man, who still hadn’t offered his name, asked. He had a sly smile on his face, and a look of confidence that I didn’t think was entirely justified given the power of my team.

  “Let me get in there, and I’ll deal with whoever is inside, gather the hostage, and be out of your hair,” I offered.

  “Not good enough, you and your menagerie are trespassing on my property, and it’s only polite for you to offer some compensation for your actions,” the man demanded. I should have expected a gangster to try and extort me for money. This was taking too long, and with the ongoing firefight at the factory, Sharog was in danger.

  “I’m not paying anything; I’m going in there whether or not you give your blessing. What I am offering you is a chance to have me enter the building without cutting you all down on my way there,” I said.

  Pulling on my mana, I muttered a Fail Weapons spell under my breath. The two guards and the old man were targeted, but I still couldn’t see the hidden shooter. I felt the spell take hold, and moved closer to the old man, taking the opportunity to place the drone between me and where the shooter’s position was indicated.

  “Why don’t you have your two men here try to shoot me, their weapons won’t work. If the other man fires, my drone will kill him,” I said. The old man nodded and the two guards both pulled the triggers to no effect. A shot rang out from the hidden sniper, ricocheting off the drone’s armor, denting, but not penetrating the armor. The drone responded by dropping a grenade on the area where the shot had come from. With a snow-muffled whump, the grenade went off and the hidden shooter began to scream.

  “What did you do?” the old man said, looking scared for the first time in our conversation.

  “Like I mentioned before, I have powers you can’t understand. To prove that, I’m willing to heal your wounded man if you’ll agree to let enter the factory unmolested,” I offered. The old man stared into my eyes, trying to force me to turn away. While I might look like an average Joe who would be easily cowed by the harsh gaze of a Russian mobster, I had probably done and seen far more killing than this criminal had. There was no way a two-bit gangster was going to intimidate me.

  “Fine,” he said, breaking eye contact. “If you can heal my man as you claim, you’ll be granted safe passage. But I will take whatever those trespassers have on them as compensation for my time and loss,” the old man said.

  “You know, I can live with giving up half since it is your property and you’ve suffered a loss. Since I’ll be doing all the heavy lifting, I should get at least half. Do we have a deal?” I asked. The man looked at me and my team for a few moments before nodding his agreement.

  “Da, we have a deal. Now heal my man as you claim to be able to,” he demanded.

  I still couldn’t see the sniper, but I was able to cast a Health Bloom over the area where the injured man was lying, walking over with old man to check on the results. Since the Russians were no longer hostile, the magic took hold, slowly repairing the damage the grenade had caused. One of the guards rushed over to the man, pulling a small first aid kit from his pack.

  “Don’t move him, he needs to stay in that area for the magic to have its full effect,” I warned, worried they would try to whisk him off to a hospital or something, pulling him out of the healing aura. Doing so would probably kill him given the amount of blood the weakly moaning man was losing.

  “Incredible, this magic I hear on the news, this mana, is real,” the old man said, for the first time, sounding a bit astounded and not quite as threatening as his injured man’s wounds slowly closed. The spell ran out of juice before he was completely healed, but the man was out of danger.

  “Yes, and things are going to be a bit crazy as our world is integrated into the rest of the multiverse,” I said. While I wanted to make sure everyone was ready for the coming chaos, I wasn’t sure that preparing gangsters to exploit the coming integration was the best thing for Earth.

  “Yuri Belinski, and we have a deal Rico Kline,” the old man said reaching out to shake my hand. He had a firm grip and tried to prove dominance by squeezing as hard as he could. Unfortunately for him, his power was nowhere close to my strength score of 17.

  “Is there anything you can tell me about who, or what, is holed up inside the factory?” I asked.

  “All I know is that I got a call from this facility, telling me it was under attack. When my men responded to the threat, we were hit with strange flame thrower weapons, which I now suppose are magic of some kind. I know we’ve killed a few, but they were all covered up from head to toe, hiding their identity. It’s an ongoing fight, so recovering dead bodies to check their identity will have to wait. For now, things are at a stalemate, which I think you are about to break for us,” Yuri replied.

  “Is there another way into the factory? If you don’t mind more damage to the building, I can probably even make my own entrance,” I offered.

  “Go ahead, as long as you don’t bring the building down, I don’t mind an extra hole or two in there. After today, it’s not a location I can probably use again,” Yuri said. With one of Yuri’s men following to help us get through their perimeter, I ran with my gangster escort toward the back side of the building, and away from the ongoing battle.