The searchlight hit him a fraction of a second before the heavy turrets spun up. Kael didn't hesitate. He threw his weight sideways, diving back behind the rusted hull of the transport crawler just as the street erupted.
Deafening cracks echoed through the alley. High-caliber rounds chewed through the concrete where he'd been standing, spraying razor-sharp shrapnel into the air. The crawler's metal frame groaned, vibrating violently against Kael's spine as bullets punched through the outer plating, leaving jagged, glowing holes in the scrap. The smell of burning ozone and pulverized brick flooded his nose, choking him.
They weren't here to arrest him. The syndicate wanted him erased.
"Suppressive fire! Pin the rat down!" a distorted voice barked through a megaphone.
Kael scrambled on his hands and knees through the mud, keeping his head low. The crawler wouldn't hold together for more than ten seconds under concentrated fire. He glanced at the dead end of the alley. High brick walls lined with razor wire. No way over. But right at the base of the wall sat a heavy, industrial storm drain, capped by a solid iron grate.
He slid toward it, his knees scraping against raw gravel. He grabbed the rusted iron bars and pulled. It didn't budge. The metal was fused to the concrete rim with years of grime and corrosion.
Status, he thought, forcing his panicked breathing to slow.
[Unallocated Points: 5]
He didn't have time to weigh his options. He dumped three points into Strength and two into Constitution.
The system didn't gently bless him with power. It forced it down his throat. Kael choked on a gasp as his muscle fibers violently expanded, pulling tight against his skeleton. The cartilage in his shoulders popped, realigning under the sudden, dense mass. His heart hammered wildly, pumping thick, heavy blood that felt like liquid lead burning through his arteries. He squeezed his eyes shut, tasting bile as his bone density forcefully thickened to accommodate the new stats.
The crawler behind him shrieked as a heavy round tore through its main engine block. It was going to blow.
Kael opened his eyes, ignoring the throbbing ache in his forearms. He gripped the iron bars again, planting his boots flat against the slick brick wall for leverage. He pulled.
His reinforced muscles screamed, the tendons in his neck bulging as he put everything he had into tearing the metal free. Concrete cracked. The rusted hinges gave way with a screeching snap. Kael ripped the heavy iron grate out of the stone and tossed it aside.
He threw himself feet-first into the pitch-black hole just as the transport crawler exploded.
A shockwave of heat and debris washed over the alley, blasting a wave of fire directly over the open drain. Kael hit the bottom of the tunnel hard, splashing into knee-deep, foul-smelling water. He rolled with the impact, his shoulder slamming into a damp stone wall. Above him, the rain hissed against the burning wreckage, and the heavy thud of syndicate boots hit the pavement
, moving fast toward the drain.