New Gods of North America.

Chapter 617 Dodge
"boom!"

"Boom!"

Wayne waded through the smoke and dust amidst the gunfire, and just as he rounded the collapsed corner of the now-ruined building, he soon witnessed the so-called "Feathered Serpent."

This thing is translucent, floating in mid-air, with its tail attached to the side of a person's neck.
The design is quite eclectic, with a snake-like face paired with a lion's hairstyle, and a pair of large wings that look like either a peacock or some other bird. The colors have a gradient but are not easy to identify, appearing grayish with very low contrast.

In a minimalist aesthetic, it is composed of short, discontinuous lines, slightly longer than but not much longer than a "dot."

At this moment, it was already swooping in the air towards Brother Merlin. Brother Merlin held a lantern in one hand and slammed it down with his other hand, which was gloved with red. Instantly, a blinding white light shone forth.

This was the first time Wayne had truly experienced the so-called "light pressure." This thing was more dazzling than a flash, and it seemed to have a physical form, as if it carried a one-way wind. It could make one instantly understand what it meant for "light particles to collide with an object."
With his eyes closed, Wayne aimed at the humanoid silhouette connected to the feathered serpent amidst a mass of lines. Taking advantage of the fact that the opponent, who was directly facing the "wind," was likely also temporarily blind, Wayne raised his hand and fired a shot at the guy's butt.

"boom!"

To avoid accidental injury, and considering the need to leave one alive to assess the situation, gather information about the enemy's plans, or determine if they had accomplices, Wayne didn't immediately target vital areas when aiming, conservatively leaving some leeway for the enemy.

Under normal circumstances, no matter which direction the other person moves their buttocks—up, down, forward, backward, left, or right—they will inevitably have multiple holes in their body.

Unfortunately, this guy turned out to be quite well-trained; he seemed to have started to react and dodge the moment he realized he was about to be directly exposed to the bright light.

Before Wayne could even pull the trigger, the semi-solid feathered serpent delivered a powerful "dragon tail swing" in mid-air, leaving the creature several body lengths behind. Upon landing, it even spun around, leaving only a few craters of flying dirt around its original position.

Wayne was completely unfazed by this mechanics-defying "left foot stepping on right foot to ascend to heaven" maneuver during the battle; he simply turned his gun and continued aiming.

With his left hand, he quickly moved the joystick, following the outline of the opponent and predicting its movement route, making a series of "bang bang bang bang" sounds.

However, after creating some distance from the crowd and rolling into a relatively open area in the courtyard, the other party's actions to avoid the gunfire were indeed a bit excessive.

People can even do a "double jump" while in mid-air, and even make a tilted "Z" shape out of thin air.

Lying trough,

Although the distance of each displacement is not too far, isn't this trajectory and the speed of this sharp turn a bit too outrageous?

You're a guy who speaks with a Windsor accent, don't you really want to respect Sir Isaac Newton's academic achievements?
Fortunately, Wayne could still see the feathered serpent in his minimalist visual perspective. Even if physics was temporarily abandoned, mathematics could still be used.
The length of the line segment between the two endpoints is roughly fixed, and the distance that the endpoints can deviate from each time is also limited. The spatial distribution that can be changed is nothing more than a "sphere". Combining probability theory, we can continuously select points in "relatively outrageous" positions.

"puff--"

After another series of "bang bang bang bang," Wayne finally heard the dull sound of bullets piercing flesh, accompanied by the sensation of soft tissue being destroyed.

The humanoid silhouette lost its balance and crashed to the ground. Less than ten seconds had passed since Merlin's powerful flash; Wayne's eyes were still blurry with vision. To avoid friendly fire, the others simply closed in and refrained from firing, while the monks continued throwing nets and bottles.

But this guy had already moved seven or eight meters away from his previous position. After landing, he started rolling around like a worm again and hid behind a corner of a large warehouse.

As the crowd gradually gathered and their vision cleared, they followed the trail of blood and saw the man crash into another small wooden house in the corner of the courtyard through a side window.

"Slingshot" just mentioned that this small courtyard is ostensibly a distillery. In the dock area, a "distillery" specifically refers to a wholesale shop for cheap liquor, a place where bars and vendors buy specific inexpensive liquors by the barrel.
Due to a special tax system that taxes based on the number of stills and the convenience of shipping along the East Coast, most of these distilleries do not engage in brewing. They typically sell rum or low-quality beer that cargo ships bring back along the way, operating on a low-profit, high-volume model.

Therefore, normally, the main body of a distillery would at least be a "warehouse".
The sailors' gang's hideout was a bit more elaborate, with a "shop in the front, warehouse in the back" layout in the courtyard, and in the corner, there were also attached small wooden huts and a shed that appeared to have once been a stable. However, the sailors' gang clearly didn't put much effort into maintaining the distillery, or perhaps they had unfortunately seized the place from some unlucky soul.
By this time, the stable-like shed was leaking wind and rain, and the small wooden hut that the guy crawled into looked like an abandoned storage room.

Instead of scaling the nearby courtyard wall and running elsewhere, he hid in this small wooden cabin, which was actually a good thing for everyone.
The house that was blown into a dangerous building by high explosives was not small. If you drew a floor plan, it would be "rooms connected to rooms". So even if only the outer wall was blown, it did not collapse completely. This small wooden house looks like a "large single room". If everyone gathered around, they could probably shoot it into a beehive through the half-rotten wooden wall.

Not too close, yet no need to worry about him running around everywhere—it's practically a perfect self-selected grave.

The others present clearly thought the same thing, and without being told, they all began to find positions to surround the area. Inessa, who had chosen the furthest spot earlier, deliberately positioned herself on the side of the cabin closest to the courtyard wall this time, to prevent the guy from escaping the encirclement again.
Meanwhile, Lina quietly released Peter the giant spider, who scurried along the trail of blood into the cabin.

The minimalist lines prevent direct light from penetrating the walls, but this small wooden cabin, made of planks, is actually "light leaking in everywhere," and the feathered serpent's features are too obvious.

After roughly determining the location, Wayne, who had raised his gun again, found it easy to pinpoint the opponent's figure based on the general outline; in fact, he was quite adept at it.

Considering that the opponent is an extraordinary being in the "death" realm, and might be like that pig-headed butcher we encountered before, still able to jump around even without a head, this time we might as well just blow his head off.

As Wayne was thinking this, his spiritual intuition suddenly gave him a warning of danger. The cabin, with its simple lines, instantly transformed into a truly "leaky" space, as if someone had suddenly turned on "lights" inside.
His mind raced, and a question came to mind in an instant: Suppose there is a dangerous criminal who plants "bombs" everywhere. When he is unexpectedly questioned by law enforcement officers and suspects that his identity has been exposed, what might his subconscious reaction be?
Of course, you either run away immediately or pick up a weapon and fight back right away.

After knocking down Connor, this guy ran straight to the Sailors' Gang's stronghold. In fact, his lively and energetic route was, in a sense, always moving closer to this cabin—he had a chance to escape by climbing over the wall!
"@#$%^&&**%$##!"

As a short, urgent phrase in some incomprehensible bird language rang out, as if X-rays could penetrate flesh, Wayne, despite still being separated by a wooden wall, seemed to see a more majestic and enormous feathered serpent phantom flash by in an instant.

Wayne quickly pulled the trigger, and at the same time, several voices, both male and female, around him shouted:
"keep away!"

Beware of curses!

"Back off! Or lie down!"

Although the content is different, the meaning they want to convey is almost exactly the same. Wayne's body was about to lean forward, but then "whoosh," as if he had been whipped, he fell backward.

Almost at the same moment that afterimage flashed by, all the "short lines" in the minimalist line vision seemed to be instantly accelerated by a unified force field, spinning and spreading outwards.
The scene resembled one of those rotating lawn sprinklers Wayne had seen, with the "water" swirling and spraying outwards.

However, the "water pressure" of this thing is at least at the level of a high-pressure water gun. The walls of the cabin suddenly crumbled, and when it sprayed onto people, although it didn't break their skin, it still caused pain. Moreover, although it only went around once, the whole process was completed almost instantly.

Compared to the speed of bullets, which is "almost invisible to the naked eye," the speed of these "short lines" is limited to a level that is "visible to the eye, but impossible for the body to dodge."

"boom--"

The small wooden cabin, now without its supporting walls, collapsed even more completely than the house that had actually been bombed. After the impact, almost no one around was still standing.

The "short lines" within the impact range gradually rose and dissipated in an illusory manner, yet it seemed as if they took something away in the process. Wayne lay there, not having had time to get up, when he saw the weeds on the ground in front of him, slowly drooping and withering like mimosa plants.

For some reason, Wayne suddenly remembered Dr. John from Blackrock Town.

Guys who play with dirty bombs deserve to die...

(End of this chapter)