As soon as they exited the portal, the ground shook.
An explosion. Or two?
It happened nearby.
And with the shouting and gunfire that followed, Konrad could only wonder.
"Did I miss the mark? Sounds like we're in a warzone, not an exclusion zone."
Dmitry scanned the area with his gun raised before nodding at the building by their side.
"This is the rail depot," he pointed out. "But looks like someone's fighting over it."
Another explosion rained plaster down on them.
Too close. Way too close.
"It's the invasion?!" Konrad choked out, scrambling for cover.
Invisibility seemed very attractive right now.
But the Captain shook his head, pointing at his PDA.
"Doubt. The counter shows thirteen people, and only five dots. Including yours."
Yeah. And that could only mean one thing.
"Bandits," Konrad grunted. "Great. So much for avoiding them."
He was more upset about the wasted mana than the danger on the other side of the wall.
Until Dmitry flipped his safety off.
"Let's help the Stalkers," he said, already rushing forward.
"What?!" he yelped, peeking at his PDA. Five orange dots, with the counter dropping from thirteen to twelve. A grey dot appeared out of nowhere, too. "We've nothing to do with this."
But as if to prove him wrong, the device beeped in his hand, then began to talk.
"To every Stalker in the Garbage area, the rail depot is under attack by bandits. This is an emergency request. Anyone contributing to the defense can expect appropriate rewards."
There was a lot of static and distortion, but Konrad still recognized the voice.
"Sidorovich? So he can actually use this as a phone?!"
And in his alert logs, the same message appeared in writing a few seconds later. Almost as if they have gotten themselves a side quest in a game. One that he had no intention of taking.
"Well, looks like we do have something to do with this now," Dmitry smirked.
No, that was more like a bloodthirsty grimace.
And Konrad didn't like it. Not one bit.
The Captain slowed down, inching towards the corner of the depot, very eager for some reason.
"Wait for me, damn it," Konrad choked out. "Don't know if my barriers can withstand a bullet hit. If we're caught in the crossfire—"
"Nah, can see friendlies and hear the enemy," Dmitry pointed out. "We'll double-envelop them."
Yeah, sure. Except they knew nothing about the area, and every bandit had a gun.
It was about time he pulled out his Makarov, too, trying to stick to his friend's back.
Why couldn't he act like a normal human being?
Look flabbergasted for a while. They'd only stepped through a magic portal after all. But no.
The Hero of Kyiv was ready for more heroics, and Konrad struggled to keep up with him.
Another grey dot appeared on his PDA. This time, an orange one changed color.
What did that mean? Someone switched sides? Or died?!
"Oh, the counter's down," he muttered, realising that it was the latter.
A cold shiver ran down his spine, but Dmitry would not hesitate.
He peeked around the corner, and—
Pulled back faster than Konrad could blink.
Another split second, and a hail of bullets peppered the wall exactly where he was.
"Fuck," the Captain grunted. "Stupid me. They've PDAs too. Sneaking will be impossible."
Yeah. Konrad sighed, too.
But he had an idea.
"We're not exactly glued to them," he pointed out, shoving his into Dmitry's hands. "Watch."
His basic invisibility spell has been calling for him for a while now. He had the runes ready, and with a trickle of essence, he disappeared with guitar case, pistol, and all.
"Wha—where did you—have you portaled away?!"
The Captain waved the barrel of his gun way too close for comfort.
"Still here, idiot," Konrad grunted, grabbing the barrel before it poked a hole in him. "But I'm invisible. And not invincible. So please, don't shoot me in the back."
He couldn't even put his barriers to the test with this spell active.
One stray bullet, and—
"Drop your weapon, and walk out nice and slow," a stranger's hoarse voice demanded in a broken English shout. "If you try something funny, you'll eat a grenade. I'll count to ten."
And he did—in Ukrainian.
Konrad didn't know the numbers, but decided not to wait them out, either.
He left the Captain without a word, trying to run without making a sound—
And found three men dressed in black jackets and balaclavas, rifles pointed at the corner.
One lowered the gun only to pull out a frag grenade, while a fourth still aimed at something inside the depot. That was when Konrad realized he had never thought of an actual plan.
He had a pistol he had yet to fire, and if he did, they'd pepper him on full auto in response.
Even invisible, no way he'd survive three random bursts from all those AKs.
"Shist', sim, visim," the counting continued, and he couldn't even guess how far they had gotten.
Konrad ran, trying to circle them to give himself a little more chance, and—
"Desyat'."
That was it.
The counting stopped, and the loudest guy pulled the pin from the grenade.
So ten was desyat in Ukrainian.
He wasn't so eager to learn it.
Even if they didn't throw it right away.
It seemed like they wanted to make sure Dmitry had no time to throw it back, which was smart.
But they had no idea about Konrad or his air-cushion magic.
When the bandit finally released it, the grenade didn't go far.
It bounced back to land at their feet, three pairs of eyes going wide.
"Shcho ty nakoyiv?!"
Since they made sure it'd go off as soon as it landed, they had no time to run away.
Dropping invisibility, Konrad watched the frag throw them in the air.
From behind the toughest barrier he could cast at a moment's notice.
Well, it wasn't pretty.
Three bodies, twisting and turning, the fourth too slow to realize what happened.
He was outside the blast radius, but by the time his Kalashnikov pointed that way, it was too late.
The safety on Konrad's Makarov was off.
He emptied the magazine, lowering his smoking pistol only once it kept clicking empty.
At that point, his conscience was finally catching up.
Four strangers, killed in two seconds.
It was nothing like those sword or magic duels he got used to in Kasserlane.
They lasted minutes, and he had to put all his skills and strength to the test.
Here, had he hesitated for a moment, he would have been the one dead.
Well, those three blew themselves up with a little help. If he didn't intervene, it would have been Dmitry instead. Self-defense, in a sense, but—yeah. The fourth was a bit harder to justify.
Especially pulling the trigger 8 times.
Or rather, he kept pulling, but he only had eight rounds.
Dmitry was already by his side, peppering the ground with a hail of bullets.
He made sure that whoever was down would stay down forever. No hesitation still.
Konrad, meanwhile, dropped his empty pistol, watching his hands in complete disbelief.
He expected them to be bloody up to his elbows, but they weren't.
That was the most disturbing part.
Only when Dmitry handed him the PDA did he wake from this strange stupor.
Four more grey dots appeared next to them while the counter showed four fewer.