It's 2075. A lot has changed since the old days. Cybernetic enhancements are relatively commonplace, the rule of law has been largely replaced by corporate decree, men and women can cruise a fully VR Matrix or overlap their day-to-day with Augmented Reality. Despite all of that, some practices and traditions going back thousands of years are still in practice today.
When the Awakening brought magic back to the world in the early part of the 21st century, a lot of these traditions gained new life. Hermetic magic, shamanism, and ancient martial arts disciplines that fuse magic and physical combat all have new adherents. Drex was about to give the wageslave mercenaries that had fired on us a lesson in some of that.
She was standing now, and a malicious grin stretched across her face as she cracked her knuckles, "All right, boys," she said, her voice soft, "Who wants it first?'
The two of them looked dumbfounded to one another, then back to Drex, before reloading their guns without another word. I chuckled from my hiding spot, "Go for the guy on the left. I don't like the way he parts his hair."
Drex nodded and, still smiling, dropped into a fighting crouch as her whole body began to glow. Literally. She was emanating a soft, golden light in waves that made small bits of dust on the floor spin around in a thin vortex around her.
You'll have to take this next part on my word, because I didn't experience it myself, but later she described it to me.
She closed her eyes, shutting out the enhanced visuals usually provided by her cybereyes, and allowed her other senses to extend outward. She smelled the oil in the guns, the sweat on the mercs foreheads, and the powder in their ammunition. She felt the shifts in the air around her as they began to raise their weapons. She heard their fingers tense on the triggers. She could taste the pressure change as the miniature explosions that sent the bullets from the barrels went off. Then she moved.
Watching her was like watching ballet. She danced through the air as they began to fire, filling the air with leaden death. She twirled, spun, jumped, and dived over, under, and around their bullets as she made her way toward them.
After an instant that felt like an eternity she landed in front of Lefty, her eyes still closed, and snatched his gun from him by the still hot barrel. Absently, she brought it across her body, tossing it into Righty's face. There was crack as his nose broke and he staggered backward, but Drex wasn't nearly done yet.
Like flowing water she continued to move, her eyes still closed, as her free hand curled into a fist and found it's way into Lefty's windpipe. From where I was sitting, I could almost hear it crunch and collapse, and Lefty fell to the ground. Righty came at her, blood running freely and mixing with tears as it ran down his face, and swung his gun at her like a club. She dodged lightly, ducking down and coming back up so that her shoulder slammed into his extended elbow. Her hands came out of nowhere, one moving down and the other moving up, and using her shoulder as a fulcrum she snapped his arm nearly in half.
The glow faded as she opened her eyes. She smiled at me, "C'mon, Gavin. Let's get what we came for and get the frag out of here."
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4
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