"Don't you agree that they're loud, heir to the Gravesmith?"
Hearing the tattooed woman's words, Ester's mind whizzed with possible responses to her words before settling on one.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
Denying any connection to the old man.
As much as he was interested in the tattoo's that looked strangely like a ward scheme, pretending to be someone else took priority.
Slightly lowering the power sling aimed at the woman's face, he continued.
"Why the void are you bringing up some guy I haven't even heard of?"
"Huh?"
Seeing the confused look on her face, Ester pressed forward with the denial.
"At first I thought that you guys were just bandits that thought that we were easy targets, but seeing as you guys haven't stopped targeting us despite me destroying eight of your cars when they would usually stop at the two to three mark, aren't you bounty hunters? Well sorry to say, the person you're looking for isn't in front of you. So do us both a favor and just buzz off before the cost outweighs the gains."
"...You're lying."
"What?"
"You're lying to me right now."
"I don't know why you think that, but I don't think I am."
"Then what about that bit of grey hair poking out of your hood?"
Flinching from the mention of his grey hair, Ester forcefully suppressed the urge adjust his hood when his eyes flickered to the woman staring intently at him.
She was watching to see his reaction.
Ester felt sweat bead on his forehead.
If he had reflexively moved to adjust his hood and hide his hair, it would've confirmed to her that he was the heir to the Gravesmith.
He was on the verge of being tricked.
Despite being the leader of a bunch of idiots that were on drugs, she was as clear headed as could be.
Hiding his unease, Ester shrugged his shoulders.
"What grey hair are you talking about? Last I checked, I had the black hair of a starless. And you know that we can't dye our hair colors like we do our clothes."
The woman's ever constant grin grew wider.
"Really? Then you wouldn't mind proving that you don't have the grey hair of a-"
Ester pulled the trigger before she could finish her words.
Swiftly responding to the movement of his fingers, the tattooed woman's forearm tattoo's glowed a bright red as she caught the metal ball slung at a speed sufficient to crush bone.
Catching the metal chunk with her hand, smoke rose from her palm as she gave a toothy grin that further exposed the Aether crystal that replaced her right tusk.
"Didn't the Gravesmith teach you it's rude to interrupt someone while they're talking?"
"Pretty sure that a large portion of people were sent here because they did just that."
"Fair enough."
Shrugging her shoulders, she tossed the metal chunk backwards where it merged with the landscape, swiftly falling behind the other vehicles trailing at a set distance behind the Driller.
"So heir." She cracked her knuckles. "Would you like to hear my offer?"
Lowering his arm with the power sling since there was no more ammo to shoot with, Ester placed his arms behind his back. Feigning confidence.
Seeing right through that feigned ease, the woman adjusted her posture to better stand atop the vibrating Driller, her already wide grin growing wider somehow.
"So what is the offer?"
"You come work for the Tork family or we'll take you by force. Mind you, the treatment will be vastly different depending on what you choose."
"Is this offer anyway affected by the fact that I totaled eight of your cars while killing all of the guys within plus one?"
"We can recover people, we can't recover skills, knowledge and experience."
"Quite pragmatic."
"So what will it be Heir? Willingly come under the Family and live a life of luxury? Or be taken by force and worked like an ant?"
Ester hid the tremble in his fingers rattling against his metal arm.
"...May I know who I'm talking to before I make my decision?"
"Mei, Enforcer of the Family."
"Well Mei... would a no suffice?"
"I see."
Suddenly bursting into a sprint from her relaxed stance, having expected this, Ester pressed on his arm.
The Driller roared underneath their feet as it suddenly sped up.
Belatedly reacting to the increase in speed of the Driller, the Gangsters loaded up on the five vehicles behind the Driller let out surprised shouts as they pressed on the gas.
As for the two people atop the Driller, they were reacting in their own ways.
Having expected this in the first place, Ester quickly reacted to the sudden increase in speed, roughly grabbing and crushing the metal plates coating the top of the Driller.
The Enforcer on the other hand overcompensated for the sudden change in speed, stumbling over her own feet.
But should he say as expected of an enforcer of the Tork Family? She quickly recovered from the stumble.
'But can she react to the power sling while recovering?'
Seizing the moment where she was stabilizing her lower body, Ester aimed and haphazardly fired the metal chunk within the Power sling.
Letting out a harsh whistle, red light belatedly formed around her arm before it disappeared and formed around her skull, especially around the crystalline tooth.
Even more belatedly, the red light spread around her neck just as the metal chunk came in contact with her skull.
*Bang!
Stumbling backwards to follow her head which had snapped back from the force. Smoke the same color as the sky rose up from her head.
"That was scary, I could've died."
"For someone who says that, they look pretty darn alive."
"Hehe."
Chuckling as she raised her body, green blood dripped from her forehead.
Plucking the metal chunk lodged within it, a fresh spurt of blood colored her vision.
But unlike what the wound suggested, Mei's eyes burned even brighter.
"I'll try not to hit you in the head to hard."
'Can you just not hit me in the head at all?'
Leaving those words in his heart unsaid, Ester hurriedly responded to the woman bursting into a dash as if she hadn't just been shot in the head.
And as much as Ester wanted to shoot her in the head again, the fact that he was a stupid dumb head that forgot to bring the ammo with him and the fact that she wouldn't give him the time to do it were both factors keeping his weapon in check.
So he just had to have hand to hand combat with a spliced woman skilled enough to become an enforcer of the Tork family while having a weird warding scheme etched into her body powered by an Aether crystal tooth.
'The goal is to die later. Preferably in the stars.'
Vowing to himself as he raised both arms, the Enforcer from the Tork family swiftly closed the distance between the two of them, aiming to punch his head.
Dodging the rather straightforward attack, Ester instinctively wanted to respond with a punch to her neck before his eye caught sight of the crystalline crystal replacing her tooth.
'That's going to be a problem.'
Pulling back his fist before it could come in contact with her body, red light briefly washed over where he would've hit before disappearing.
The Aether crystal between her teeth dimmed slightly.
"For an Heir you move like a kid in an oil slick"
"What a weird compliment."
Grinning and showing off the Aether crystal replacing one of her tusks, Ester ignored the amused look in Mei's eyes as he scanned her body.
'Just what is that ward scheme? No, is it even a ward scheme?'
Dodging the arm sent straight for his skull, Ester scanned the black lines on her green skin.
Not to speak of the fact that the Ward scheme was currently being applied to something as complex as the similar to human body in front of him without any problems, more and more questions formed in Ester's head as he scanned the tattoo's covering Mei's body.
'How in the void is the ward scheme working without a boundary line?'
Searching for the boundary line that set and limited the area of effect, when he couldn't find the line Ester's mind wandered to the shape of the sigils lining the knee aimed for his skull.
'They don't look like the glyphs I know.'
Scanning her outstretched forearm and comparing the sigils he saw to the ones he knew, Mei suddenly pulled back and opened her mouth. "You've been staring at my body so openly that I can't help but ask. Are you interested in my body?"
"Can't say I'm not."
Several buzz's shook his arm causing Ester to widen his eyes and rephrase his words.
"What I actually mean to say is that I'm interested in the tattoo's on your body. Not your body perse."
Smirking at his slip, she slowly walked towards him, her arms at her sides.
"Do you want to know the method to make Sigils?"
"Is that what they're called?" Ester tilted his head as he watched her come closer. "Would you tell me how they're made?"
"Maybe if you join the Family."
"Hmm..." Ester angled his head to look up at the face of the tall enforcer who stopped a step and a half away.
"I don't exactly need to know how to make sigils when the entire planet's about to go to shit do I?"
She tilted her head in confusion. "What are you talking abo- Ugh!"
Hurriedly blocking the metal fist heading for her abdomen, was it instinct? Red light flowed through both her hands and abs.
'She won't die from this, it'll hurt like a bitch though.'
Sending more Aether than he usually would into his right hand, light briefly leaked out the insides of his arm as it flowed through the new Celesteel wiring.
Was that why? The sound of something breaking entered Ester's ears just as Mei's body rose up and flew off of the Driller.
Blankly watching the sight of their boss fly through the air before rolling onto the ground behind them, belated shouts escaped the Tork Family's mouths as they stopped and turned their vehicles around to catch their boss.
Watching the Tork Family get left behind, Ester released a sigh of relief that he didn't even know he was holding.
Staring at the trash riddled horizon, Ester rubbed his right arm.
'This was more effective than I thought.'
He knew that the new arm lodged into his shoulder blade was more effective than the previous one, but it seemed that he underestimated how high the output could go.
'And considering how it isn't very hot, this isn't even its limit yet.'
Thank you slum rat with a dubious background.
Talking about dubious backgrounds. Daniel.
'Just what in the void is that guys aim?'
By now it's basically confirmed that the sigil for the Carnivorous flowers help he gave them was a tracking device, elsewise it wouldn't explain why both, the Tork family and the Beforetimes were able to know that where they were.
It was dubious to say that it was confirmed, but it also seemed that the people Daniel was selling the information to didn't know that there were two heirs of the Gravesmith still running around.
What wasn't confirmed was Daniel's aim.
If he was aiming for a pure profit, it was easier to have kidnapped them way back in Ashtown so that they could be auctioned on the marketplace.
If he was aiming for something else... Well, Ester didn't know what it was, but it certainly didn't sit well with Ester.
'If only that guy would appear in front of me again... Hm?'
A buzz shook his arm as he was lost in thought.
'Oh yeah, the Anchors.'
Removing his grasp on his warm limb that was swiftly cooling in the toxic air, Ester walked over to the side of the Driller.
There was a lot to do before they reached the Stars.
---
30 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
+++
From a Chinese point of view, the numbers in the title are quite inauspicious
Tree who's battery life is measured in minutes for reasons unknown to him