Chapter 738: Motion Sickness.

Despite it following his final surgery, the day had been especially uneventful. Wolf was busy with work, and Riot had plans, so Dante had no one to test his new Level 5 build against. Even Oliver seemed to sense the danger and decided to call in about an urgent matter he had to take care of. Because of that, Dante had been left to find his own way to pass time, and so he decided to follow up on Bella’s training.

Three drones emerged from the windows of an old building, each moving in a different direction while their barrels pointed at the same one. Locked on the same spot, they seemed to circle around it a few times until something suddenly moved. That was when the bullets went flying.

Dodging bullets wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish, but dodging gunfire was more doable. The difference lies in reading the direction the gun is pointing in and trying to avoid being in it by the time the trigger is pulled. Doing so was a little easier when fighting against humans, but against drones with auto-aim was anything but.

The target blurred several times, moving away just before the bullets kicked up a cloud of dust in the spot it had been standing in. Taking cover once more, Bella panted for air, feeling that her lungs were on fire. Her pale face and the hand she quickly clasped over her mouth made it seem as if she were sick, and that description wasn’t very off. She had been activating her SRE continuously for the past few minutes, accelerating her reflexes to move at incredible speeds, but it turned out that doing so came with a great deal of motion sickness.

That wasn’t the entire problem, however.

RATA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!!!

By the time the sound reached her, she had already left her hiding place. Running through an empty road, she gave the mental command to Equip her pistol, and as it manifested in her hand, she took aim and fired three bullets.

Just as her finger squeezed the trigger, her arm moved slightly to the left. The bullet went flying, piercing the drone’s red optical sensor.

One down. The other two immediately adjusted their aim and fired again, forcing Bella to accelerate once more. This time, she couldn’t stop it. The contents of her stomach pushed through, and she spilled them right then and there. The drones reached her just as she was about to finish, and she was forced to run again.

Slowing down didn’t mean failing the exercise alone. From the very first time, the drones used live bullets, meaning death was a very possible outcome.

Dante was well aware that he was pushing it too far, but he still didn’t pull his punches. Bella had proven to be quite capable, and so he was trying to see how far he could push her. Still, her limit seemed to be fast approaching, so he decided to end things today.

"Alright, that will be it for today."

The drone halted, and the girl collapsed onto her knees, breaking into a coughing fit. Even then, she kept all complaints to herself, never uttering a single word.

"You did good today," Dante said, taking a cold lemonade and handing it to his raven-haired subordinate.

"Th-thank you..."

Be it her SRE or the Storage abilities that came with it, Bella seemed to be getting the hang of both. She still has to work on the backlash of multiple accelerations, but that wasn’t anything practice couldn’t solve. Before long, she was going to be a hundred times deadlier than he was before obtaining VOLCAN. From there, all he had to do was find out how he could put her to use.

"Let’s head back for now."

A portal manifested behind him just as his subordinate was done catching her breath. Right now, Dante had 8-3’s entire Module equipped, giving him access to Rift Creation. Though it wasn’t exactly Teleportation, the ability was still useful enough to move between his pocket dimensions without having to bring out his armors every time.

Letting Bella pass through first, Dante stepped through the portal next. His MLP connected to the local network right away, and as soon as it did, a notification appeared before him.

[

Merry: I’ll come pick you up at 6 PM!

Don’t be late, because I won’t!

]

The text hit Dante like a brick, and he had to ask his resident AI what it was about. Turns out he had made plans with the shining hero while not paying much attention. Not in the mood for anything of the sort, he almost chose to cancel, but then he felt a little bad.

’Maybe I should turn her down properly...’

Merry was a nice girl, to the point that her being a Genome no longer disgusted him as much. If they had met under any other circumstances, he might have pursued her, but that wasn’t something he could afford right now, or ever.

-The poor girl is far too innocent.-

-Killing her is one thing, but toying with her heart?-

’This is why I like them older...’

Glancing at the corner of his vision, he saw that it was already 17:00. Exactly one hour to prepare.

’More than enough, I guess...’

As he sighed, Dante noticed that his raven-haired subordinate was looking at him.

"What’s up?" He asked.

"N-nothing." Though she quickly looked away, it was clear from the way she pursed her lips that it wasn’t just nothing. Thankfully, he didn’t have to ask again. "Say, boss... When are you coming back tonight?"

"Who knows? I might go back straight to my place."

His answer caused panic to flash on her face, which was the reaction he had anticipated. Dante was well aware that his gang had prepared something for his birthday, and they were relying on Bella to ensure that he dropped by the club later tonight. He guessed that Carlos would send him a message later, but for the time being, it all rested on her effort.

"A-actually, there is something I’ve been meaning to give you." She said, her nervousness surpassing what it was when the drones had been chasing her. "If it’s not too much, would you mind dropping by later?"

"Sure, why not?"