Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other 26 (Patreon)

Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other

Chapter 26

-VB-

Alan Marris

One of our clones hissed behind a makeshift barricade as he pulled out a medical syringe and jabbed it into his forearm. 

The bleeding arrow wound on his chest quickly closed on its own and he let out a sigh of relief as the pain went away. The arrow would have dug in deeper if it wasn’t for the armor. 

BABABABABABABABANG - !

On the other side of the barricade were the two other clones, laying down suppressing fire as the last two clones quickly carried Jaehwa and Chyeh across the corridor that had been under siege by the royal guard just seconds ago. 

The king had died earlier today, and the new king had used this chance to arrest his half-sisters. 

“LET ME DOWN -!” 

The Rude Princess was shouting as we carried her away in a bride carry. 

They attacked when we were far away from our rooms, which meant that a lot of our equipment were currently on us.

But we always carried our medical syringes, guns, and ammo.

So we were hightailing across the palace to reach our rooms where our portal generators were. 

The suppressing fire clones quickly jumped over the wooden barricade as a rain of arrows fell down where they had been just seconds ago. The clone that had just been healing himself got up from behind the barricade after the arrow barrage ended and opened up with the HMLMG. 

RATATATATATATATATATATATA - !

The other two clones quickly reloaded as the Korean royal guards quickly got out of the line of fire. 

“GRENADE!” one of the clones shouted as he pulled out a pin and flung it. The the green grenade spun in the air and then tumbled on the ground twice before it exploded, sending wood chips and dirt everywhere. 

People screamed, some almost quietly and others shrilly. 

We booked it. 

We made sharp turns in the hallways, and shot at anyone who held a weapon.

“GRENADE!” one of us called out again, throwing the grenade behind us toward the chasing soldiers this time. The grenade went off with a sharp boom, and more screams erupted. 

And the clones at the front didn’t even bother to stop at the door and just barged through the paper wall of our room. And froze.

Our room had been ransacked. There was nothing left.

Gritting our teeth, we turned around as we dragged the two princesses into the room. Our other clones quickly took up positions at either side of the hallways leading to our room.

These seven needed exfil.

---

Back at Earth Nun, one clone reached the armory and pulled out a single portal gun. Then casually jogged out until he was outside the main compound and opened a portal from there to the signals given off by tinkertech equipment all clones had.

---

Princess Jaehwa

There was a Crack next to her, and she jolted and spun to see what the cause of the sound was. She froze, though, when she saw … floating water? No, it wasn’t water. Water didn’t behave like that. 

Or show a verdant forest on the other side.

“Alright, that’s our exfil,” the mercenary closest to her and her half-sister said with words that she didn’t understand. Then he grabbed her hand and pulled her through. She flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, ready to get wet… but she didn’t.

She opened her eyes and found herself quickly squinting as she came face to face with a huge valley with trees everywhere and …

Her eyes drifted to the side and up.

Her jaws dropped as she found herself staring at a metal fortress.

“Welcome to Earth Nun, Your Highness,” he began. “A whole different world from where you were born.”

She looked back down and saw the mercenaries… who all took their helmets off.

Her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets when she saw that they were all the same person. Including the one who was here when she came through.

… Her heart dropped.

There was a ghost that stole people’s faces. The Egg Ghost. Was she surrounded by Egg Ghosts right now? Was her face about to get stolen?

“Why did you bring us here? Father already signed the treaty.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t keep you here. As soon as we establish better defenses where your late father has given us land, we will allow you to return to where we control the land.”

“... You need us as your tools of legitimacy.”

Jaehwa turned and saw her sister coolly looking at the closest one of the mercenaries. Chyeh… how was she maintaining her calm while surrounded by otherworldly beings? 

Most of the face-sharing monsters turned toward Chyeh.

“Legitimacy? In a way, yes. It makes life convenient, but no, we don’t need you. Not when we are so far above your hermit kingdom militarily.”

Chyeh just raised an eyebrow. “Are you not still mortal at the end of the day?” she asked casually. 

The monsters giggled - giggled like little girls - and then one of them pulled out their guns.

Then pointed it under its chin.

BANG!

Jaehwa jolted and nearly screamed, only barely holding on by tightly gripping her dress with all of her strength.

The monster’s headless corpse keeled over and the other monsters didn’t even bother to look, even though a few of them were splattered by their kin’s blood. 

Then the doors to the wall surrounding the metal fortress opened up and a nearly naked man walked out… with the same face as the rest of the monsters. 

“At least it’s quick that way,” the latest monster remarked as he walked over to the corpse and … the clothes disappeared from the corpse and appeared on the newcomer’s body. Then when he was done, he grabbed the corpse and dragged it away. 

“... then why even bother with us?” Chyeh asked, and Jaehwa definitely heard a little bit of tremor in her voice. 

Oh.

Chyeh was just pretending. She was trying so very hard to keep up the facade.

“Because our words are our pledge,” the monster in front of Chyeh replied to her. “The late king essentially sold us those lands for your protection because he loved you two very much. We are not so heartless as to not take in two girls. Besides, if we really wanted, there are other means of fighting,” he said and then gestured to his side. 

There was nothing ther-?

Both she and Chyeh froze when crackling lightning dimly lit the space where the monster was pointing to, and slowly, a form of a man wearing some kind of metal armor showed itself.

But as more of the man became clearer for her to see, the more she realized that the man wasn’t a man. 

He was more metal than man. Those arms weren’t armored in metal. They were metal.

“I was not kidding when I said I am so above you that we are so above your hermit kingdom that it isn’t even funny.”

Chyeh took a deep, steadying breath in and let it out slowly.

And then gave bow to the monster.

“I thank you for your generosity. You do your parents and home proud with your integrity.”

“Don’t mention it. We’re just keeping to our words. Now, let’s get you to your temporary rooms. Are you two thirsty? We have quite the selection of drinks…”