Aria was still pretty close to him, so he immediately rushed towards her location. Only to see her on the shoulder of a tall guy. He was extremely muscular and intimidating, but Keith silently took out his revolver and pointed at the guy.
After all, no matter how strong a person was, there was an extremely low chance of them being able to fight against a firearm. But that was where he was wrong.
The buff guy looked at Keith and smiled, "Oh a gun. Well, that's fun."
And as soon as he finished his sentence, thick scales grew out from his skin and covered his entire body including his face and head.
"You think you can harm me?" he asked and Keith wasn't really confident anymore. Even then, he pushed the coin to remove the makeshift safety on his gun and cocked the hammed back before firing twice in a quick succession.
First one was a blank shot, but second one went out with a loud bang before ricocheting off the guy's scale armor.
'Fuck.' he cursed inwardly before immediately turning around. Without wasting even a second, he ran. As his luck would have it, he heard heavy footsteps behind him, but he didn't dare turn around. Instead, he put more effort into running.
He continued to accelerate until he got to a speed where he was unable to control his balance. His whole posture was in a mess as he was leaning forward, which was not a good thing in the slightest.
To his dismay, the sound of footsteps behind him just got closer no matter how fast he went. Even though he was unstable, he continued to run as he used to momentum to keep himself on the ground.
He felt his heart beating hard and loud, but the sound of footsteps was just behind him now. Left with no choice as fear gripped his heart, he jumped forward and stopped worrying about his balance as he turned around, ready to make one last gamble.
The grip on his revolver was tight as he spun around and immediately pulled the trigger. This time, he went absolutely mental and did it thrice, emptying the cylinder before fell to the ground.
Bang Bang Bang
Clang Clang Skrshh
First two bullets ricocheted off the scale armor just like the previous one, but the sound that Keith heard when the last bullet hit the guy was different. He didn't know where it hit him, but from what he could see, the guy lost his footing and fell forward.
Keith used the momentum that he had built up to roll over and this prevented him from sustaining any grave injuries. But when he took good look at the guy in front of him, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Blood gently flowed down from the guy's left calf and Keith used this opportunity to his advantage.
"Run!!!"
Hearing his shout, the Aria didn't know how to respond as her ankles had been cuffed. Keith on the other hand, didn't give a shit and just ran away.
The scaly guy grunted as he stood back up and limped towards Aria, "Fucking bitch, all this trouble and we only get four Zen."
"I'll give you five!" she exclaimed when she realised that there was a bounty on her head. The theatre and black market technically belonged to the Golden Church, so as a Priestess, she knew about the businesses in the black market.
Though the black market was under the Golden Church, it didn't stop them from going for their own people as even the official members used the bounty hunters to target fellow official church members. That was how corrupt and chaotic the Golden church was.
Hearing her words, the guy thought for a bit before nodding as this was a common occurrence in his line of job. This was also the reason why he gladly took on the bounty for an official member as the chances of getting bribe money was high.
"Sure, but I need double. 10 Zen."
Aria nodded and took out a few silvery grey notes from her pocket but before she could count them, the guy snatched it all. He then bent down and was about to unlock the cuffs when he heard a series of loud gunshots behind him.
The next instant, he felt immense pain in his lower back. He hurriedly got up, but since his left leg was injured, it immediately gave in to his weight and he fell back down, kneeling. This was enough time for Keith to get close as he was only a few meters away, just hiding as he reloaded his gun a few seconds ago.
He pounced on the guy and increased his sensitivity to the max as he dug his finger into the bullet hole on his calf. The guy twitched violently before passing out and once he was out cold, the layer of scales gradually sunk back into his body.
Keith went straight for cuffs that still had the keys in them and unlocked them. He then took a quick glance at the system screen which said 49/50 danger escapes.
He didn't think too much about it and pulled out one of the knives that he had hidden in his trench coat before pointing it at Aria, "Go take the money that's in his hands. If not, I'll kill you."
"Y- yes." she stammered as she rubbed her ankles and then rushed towards the fallen guy. The moment she grabbed the money that was in his hands, Keith grinned.
"I don't need that money, but I want you to take this guy to the theatre and hand him over to the people there." he said and was about to leave the place when he saw her fall to her knees and bow down to him.
With her head almost touching the ground, she spoke, "Is... is the holy one satisfied with the results of my trial?"
Hearing this, Keith stared at her silently as the gears in his mind turned. A few seconds passed as Aria waited, hoping to hear some good news.
"A new god that grants people unimaginable power has been born. His name unknown, but we call him, the God of Systems."