A Black Market LitRPG

Kyle cursed to himself as he fired another pellet at a separate soldier, only to be blocked by Nox’s arm shields once again—that damn kinetic absorber. His railgun shots had only managed to take out three Nest soldiers so far, causing Kyle to decide to ditch the railgun in favour of his pulverizer, charging into the fray.

He rushed up to Nox, who also ran forward to meet him, the two of them colliding in a flurry of blows and parries. This would be the third time they had fought, and it was starting to get onto Kyle nerves how often Nox would be around to block him.

The moves felt repeated, as though they were going through the same motions as their previous duel. However, both of them had studied each other, recognizing feints and attack patterns while trying to exploit the habits of the opponent.

The clash was not a duel – ADCON soldiers, Count Leon’s knights and Nest soldiers all tried to intervene, hellbent on killing the leader of the other side. However, the skill level of the two were far above everyone else on this battlefield, both of them killing each other’s troops.

Soon a circle formed around the two of them in the wide corridor of death. Nox knew he just had to hold on long enough for the military reinforcements to enter the palace and crush the infiltrating force.

[Boss, the military are sending troops towards the government palace now!]

Kyle furrowed his brows as he blocked another hit from Nox’s arm shield, taking a step back and swinging the pulveriser right at Nox’s head, who ducked backwards as well. Kyle knew he did not have enough time – if he could not outright defeat Nox and overwhelm his troops in the next few minutes and capture Mornero, his remaining troops in the palace would soon be encircled.

Time to test my new skill. Kyle activated his upgraded version of the negation field, obtained from his Level 40 Sub-Class Upgrade.

The field expanded outwards, immediately disabling the engravings on Nox’s armour as well as the Nest soldiers, reducing the arctech armour and weapons to normal husks of metal. The sudden jarring change allowed Kyle to rush forward, his Version 0 exosuit completely unaffected and giving him a complete advantage over Nox.

Nox’s armour began to overheat itself, the stored arcia energy from successive kinetic impacts being discharged as waste heat and sound energy, unable to be converted correctly due to the disruption in arcia flow. The armour refused to budge and locked up, forcing Nox to take the next pulverizer hit head-on.

The follow-up shock reverberated through the armour and slammed Nox’s organs, causing him to gag as he was sent flying into the wall, the force causing cracks in the wall while Kyle chased, not intending to let him go.

Nox tried to activate everything he had on hand – the heating of the armour, the small amount of Agent Black, but it all failed to trigger. A few Nest soldiers tried to rescue Nox, but were immediately killed by the arctech swords and guns of the ADCON soldiers and Count Leon’s knights, who now had a superior advantage.

Nox finally knew that his time was up, causing his Nest slave engraving to suddenly trigger, attempting to self-immolate the body. However, the negation field destabilised the process, causing the arcia energy to backlash. The rampant rogue surged through Nox’s body like a rampant wave, tearing up his innards as blood began to seep from every orifice.

I need to capture him! Nox was a critical source of information, and Kyle had no doubt that Nox knew many things about Soren, Rayner as well as the Warden Drones. He needed to get more information on the hidden organisation.

Kyle quickly grabbed Nox and tore away the armour as fast as he could, finding the hinges that mounted each plate. He exposed Nox’s chest plate while the ADCON soldiers pushed forward, forcing the Nest soldiers back, who were now retreating beyond the five-meter radius, their arctech weapon working once more.

The fierce battle resumed with gunfire while Kyle quickly used his lightning sword to carve the flesh into which the engraving had been tattooed, digging deep. Kyle noticed that this engraving was a bit more complicated, but the process was pretty much the same as how he did it for Yona and the old Nest informant in Desham.

Activating his Necklace of healing, he pinned Nox down to prevent him from thrashing too much while he carved the entire engraving out, not having the arcia etcher on hand to modify the engraving to his own master-slave engraving.

Chunks of meat were tossed to the side as the ribcage of Nox was visible, with Kyle’s healing constantly sealing up. He noticed Nox had a health potion stored in his armour’s pocket as well, stuffing it into Nox’s mouth and forcing it down his throat while Nox writhed violently.

Soon, the job was done with a fresh raw piece of meat now taking place over the chest instead of a Nest engraving.

I wouldn’t really call it surgery… Kyle beckoned to two ADCON soldiers, prompting them to restrain Nox down. They extracted him out under cover, even as Nest soldiers tried to kill him to prevent a leak of information.

As well-trained as they were, the loss of their leader was damaging to their morale. However, the Nest soldiers that were captured all began to burst into flame as well and ignite the leaking arcia fuel scattered around the corridor of death, forcing the ADCON soldiers to kill them on the spot to prevent a spontaneous combustion.

Eventually, the Nest soldiers were wiped out of the palace, with Kyle heading straight for the president’s office. He only knew from Dekar that there was an elevator, but even Dekar was not privy to the exact location of the entrance.

Count Leon’s knights and the ADCON soldiers scoured the office, turning over every piece of furniture and bookshelf, checking the walls and seams for any hidden mechanism to reveal the escalator door. However, a subtle tension began to build between the two forces, both seemingly waiting for something.

The alliance was after all, temporary. Both sides knew exactly what was going to happen but still acted like allies as they searched. Everyone knew the moment the president was captured, it would be a free-for-all for control of Tenar.

“Are you not going to call for Minister Dekar to assume office?” The leader of the knights asked Kyle while they broke apart the room hunting for the hidden escalator.

“Until we have Mornero in our hands, Dekar will remain in hiding.” Kyle replied without an ounce of emotions leaked. It was obvious that bringing Dekar out and exposing him to danger would jeopardize the entire plan.

“Got it.” The leader didn’t show any reaction, but Kyle already knew that the knights were planning to kill him and Dekar. It was just a matter of who struck first. The air remained as tense as ever, with both sides already readying their body, preparing to lunge as soon as a string snapped.

Soon, Kyle spotted a weird switch on the wall, realizing it is the elevator mechanism. The very moment that he opened the elevator door with a pneumatic hiss, both sides immediately launched an attack on each other, devolving into a brawl. Kyle himself immediately brandished his lightning sword and sliced away at the leader’s head. Accelerate!

However, the leader parried it with his vambrace, the quality of his armour far stronger than Kyle had anticipated. The well-trained knights began to overpower the ADCON soldiers, their equipment and weaponry far superior in both make and strength.

There was no need for words between the two, both knowing that this would happen eventually. Pellets, limbs and screams filled the office and turned it from its once pristine state into a blackened husk of itself, as ADCON soldiers clashed against knights.

Kyle focused his efforts on the leader, who was clearly well-practiced in combat skills as every single attack by Kyle was parried. Even though the leader was not as strong or as fast, his positioning and timing was impeccable, presenting no openings to Kyle to exploit at all. Penchant for Violence, Intimidation Aura, Aero Shoes!

This wasn’t the time to hold back, as the sounds of explosions and fierce fighting could be heard outside the palace on all sides as the reinforcing military troops tried to push against the ADCON soldiers and local Nona adherents who had taken up arms.

However, the intimidation aura barely affect the knights, their strong willpower and defiance in the face of adversity honed over years. The leader dodged as Kyle lunged forward with a pierce, with the leader quickly backing off and chugging a quick sip of an advanced strength potion, allowing him to keep up with Kyle’s increased stats.

Despite the matching of skills, the leader was internally shocked at just how strong Kyle was, never expecting a wartime smuggler to possess such strength. It reminded him of his former training in Tryas, where each of the recruits of the knight order were monsters in themselves. Where did this guy come from?

Kyle didn’t see a clear way for him to overpower the leader, the two of them going toe-to-toe with neither one able to claim an advantage over the other. Instead, Kyle suddenly turned his focus to the other weaker knights, rushing through the office and slaughtering them.

The leader could not keep up with the pace, trying desperately to stop Kyle. However, Kyle’s speed was unmatched, allowing the ADCON soldiers to turn the tides as Kyle killed even more of them in swaths, reducing their numbers.

As well-trained as they were, eventually, the numerical advantage overwhelmed them. The leader considered retreating as their numbers began to dwindle, however Kyle now turned his attention to him, blocking him from leaving with his troops while his knights were slain.

The leader suddenly dropped his weapon, surrendering to Kyle. He knew he would not be able to overpower Kyle anytime soon, given the equality of duelling strength. The rest of the knights surrendered as well, their swords and guns clattering to the floor.

Kyle quickly had the remaining ADCON soldiers restrain them, wary of a sudden attack from them. He saw the knights as a potentially valuable asset, but he needed time to break their former loyalty or engrave them with slave engravings similar to that of Nest.

For now, he and ten other ADCON soldiers squeezed into the elevator, which led them down to the underground bunker where the rest of the ministers and members of parliament were hiding, desperately trying to make sense of the rapidly deteriorating situation.

In the bunker room, everyone of importance was there including the highest ranking generals, protected by Nest soldiers and military soldiers. Mornero grimaced as he continued to receive reports of losses and damages across the city. How is this happening? I did everything right! He could not conceive the plan that he had created for the last twenty years to fail, having even taken into account a potential invasion by Yual.

The speed and strength of the revolution far surpassed anything he had prepared for, his projections based on the speed of revolution under Johan. It took us more than five years to overthrow the former nobility, but I was overthrown in less than two months?!

“President, we lost contact with the palace guards!” A frantic voice yelled out as the various ministers kept track of what was happening aboveground.

“Damn it, fortify the entrance! Don’t let any rebel get through the elevator!” Mornero shouted back. “How long more till the military troops sweep the palace?!”

“President, the troops are being stalled at the entrances. The rebels are too well armed!” The head of the Versian army replied.

Is it Count Leon? Was he the one instigating all of this? Mornero had tried everything in his playbook, even using Nest to purge the catacombs and flush out the rebels. Every sign of inconsistency, he crushed. It all came falling after I tried to retake Desham…

“Pull back every troop from the second defensive line.”

“But President, if we do that, Count Leon will be able to advance right up to the wall. We will be caught in a siege!”

“As long as we hold out for a week, there will be time for our reinforcements to circle Count Leon!”

However, before the head of the Versian Army could relay the command down through encrypted radio channels, the doorway of the bunker room exploded open, cratered it by an explosive that folded the metal surface like paper.

A barrage of pellets immediately filled the room, killing everyone who did not react fast enough. Mornero ducked under the table, grabbing an arctech pistol from his belt as the death cries of the ministers and generals resounded.

Before he even could peep out from cover, a hand had already grabbed him by the collar, lifting him like a ragdoll and slamming him against the wall. Kyle grabbed his right wrist, crushing it in his grip and forcing Mornero to drop the arctech pistol. The ADCON soldiers swept the room, killing everyone else with no hesitation.

Mornero gagged, coming face to face with Kyle, though his face still remained defiant. “So it was you, Kris Greyborn. Do it! Kill me!” He spat through bloodied teeth.

“After everything you have done to me? You’re not going to get off that easy.”

M.G.Driver