After he wore the demonic-looking black mask and a bulletproof vest, Atlas looked toward Rin who seemed to have brought his own mask. Atlas was stunned by his level of preparation.
He looked back and forth from Rin to Apollo with a questioning look which they couldn't see.
"How are you guys so prepared all the time?"
Rin merely put on his mask and shrugged, "I had a feeling you would pull something like this."
He ignored it and instead chose to focus on the teen's mask. It looked almost exactly like Atlas' mask but was instead red and the demon head had horns sticking out.
"What is that mask?" he unexpectedly asked, feeling a strange energy the mask emitted. Rin instead chose not to answer the question.
Apollo picked a similar mask to theirs but it was golden in colour and instead of horns, the teeth were elongated more than theirs. When Atlas asked him about it, he gave a simple answer.
"I'm only trying to continue the trend,"
Atlas snorted and grabbed a few guns. Oddly enough, the weight of the guns felt familiar. He didn't feel like he was holding a foreign or unfamiliar weapon at all. It was almost like; he was born to do it.
Rin noticed his conflicted expressions and monotonously added, "You'll get used to it, eventually."
Atlas sighed and prayed there wouldn't ever come to a day where he would actually hurt innocent people without flinching.
"Remember, we're not there to hurt innocent people. Whether they want to call us a gang or armed robbers, we will not stoop to others' level. My organization WILL be run differently!"
As he said that, he pushed the door of the van open and rushed towards the bank quickly. At the same time, the strange gang that was planning also charged into the bank, leaving very few of their members still waiting outside.
None of them noticed the other and burst through the bank's door, disrupting the peaceful flow of activities.
The people in the strange group acted first, shooting a few bullets into the ceiling.
"Everybody on the ground!"
Atlas and co looked towards them in shock and wondered how the very obvious gunmen got past their detection.
All the customers in the bank got down first. It was more than a bank robbery, more like a very unelaborate heist seeing all the people.
Atlas and the others didn't get down, though. The other set of bank robbers noticed this and pointed their guns at them simultaneously.
"We may be in the same profession, but that doesn't mean we give two fucks about you guys. Leave now and we'll spare your lives!" The man who spoke first threatened, clutching his strange-looking pistol.
His voice sounded strange and unnatural, as though it was consistently going through some voice-changer.
Atlas merely frowned under his mask and began to walk toward the group slowly. The other strange gangsters did nothing as they thought they had the upper hand. However, Atlas immediately kicked forward, hitting the first speaker right across the mask.
Another one went forward, laughing but none of the weird gunmen attacked.
"Master Heran informed me that I should be careful of a specific person. I wonder if that is you?"
Atlas looked at Apollo for an answer. The god merely laughed and explained who Heran was.
"A tiny deity that managed to achieve godhood step by step. He only claimed a minor divinity, we need not worry about him."
Atlas nodded and took it as a cue to attack. He punched the new fellow in the face and kicked a few more just before the gunfire started. He also similarly pulled out pistols and shot at the gangsters.
However, he instantly noticed their strangeness. It was almost like they weren't really living beings and were just puppets. None of them moved out of order or got in the way of another. They followed a set pattern of erratic, yet organized movement that one could spot from a mile away.
Even their shots were rhythmic.
Atlas frowned under the mask, and he hid behind a nearby table to avoid the gunshots. Unexpectedly, there was already someone hiding there.
A small frightened lady wearing glasses whimpered as she saw his evil-looking mask. She must have already been scared, but that fear multiplied when Atlas came so close to her.
The woman reminded him of his mother.
"I won't let any harm come to you!"
Atlas got out from under the table and began circulating the technique. His Level 2 physique activated as his strength and agility multiplied twofold. He charged straight through the hail of bullets, repeatedly shooting using his twin pistols.
He was hit severally but the layers of kevlar and tactical armour that he wore stopped most of it. There were about two that hit him. One in the shoulder and the other in his thigh.
One takeaway he instantly had was that the bullets were extremely strange and painful. It felt like the wounds were on fire, quite literally.
He temporarily dodged the bullet fire and looked towards Rin and Apollo who were doing a combination of protecting the innocent and attacking their assailants. Rin did most of the attacking, as he summoned a large blade that blocked the bullets.
The blade was extremely versatile and could easily change shapes ranging from super wide to super thick. Apollo, on the other hand, was trying his best not to use some of his god-like powers and instead shot rapidly with guns.
Atlas was relieved that no one had died, and once again focused on fighting the gangsters. Nothing except their strange movements had stood out, but the number of guns they had was enough to hold Atlas, Apollo and Rin back.
He felt frustrated by the slow pace of the battle and circulated the energy inside his body. He could sense that he didn't have a lot because he fainted before he could even cultivate it that morning. Hence, he focused on recycling every little bit of energy.
He jumped toward a nearby gunman and punched him in the face multiple times, before gradually moving on to the next ones. Their weird smiley face masks were extremely durable causing him to waste a ton of energy on each one.
Knowing his energy reserves were limited, Atlas chose to stop using the little he had and focused on fighting with guns.
However, just as he did so, and as the number of the black-clothed assailants reduced to half, he heard clapping that caused everyone in the room to freeze.
"Good, good good." The voice sounded sinister, and it came from the bank teller.
"Now that you've eliminated yourselves to this extent, I can finally let loose!"
The meek-looking bank teller revealed a wide grin as he outstretched his hands which sparked with a bolt of brightly coloured yellow lightning.
"DIE!"
****
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