Free Web NovelChapter 104: [104] Aggressive Dispute Resolution, The Hostile Floor
Arthur didn’t move to collect his chips. He just set his champagne glass down.
From the shadows of the casino floor, dozens of heavily armed pit bosses stepped out. They were not wearing cheap suits. They wore thick, starlight-forged security armor. They carried crackling plasma rifles and heavy stun batons.
They surrounded the table in a perfect circle, cutting off all exits.
Vane’s hand dropped to his waist, his fingers twitching toward the spatial ring hidden in his pocket. His jaw was locked tight. "We are surrounded."
Cassia didn’t look scared. She just stood up straight, letting her hand drift down to the slit in her crimson dress where her stun pistols were strapped to her thigh. "Looks like the boss finally noticed us."
Arthur stayed in his chair. He casually dusted a speck of lint off his lapel. freewebnovёl.ƈom
"Exactly," Arthur smirked. "Time for our meeting."
A heavy, wet slithering sound echoed from the dark VIP corridors at the back of the casino.
Something big was coming.
The heavy slithering sound grew louder. It sounded like wet meat being dragged across the plush carpet.
The circle of armed pit bosses parted respectfully.
Sliding out from the VIP corridor was the floor manager. It was a massive, multi-eyed snake entity. It had the lower body of a thick, green-scaled python and the upper torso of a bloated, pale humanoid. It wore a garish purple vest covered in gold chains.
Four distinct eyes blinked independently on its flat, reptilian face. Its tongue flicked out, tasting the air.
"Well, well," the manager hissed. Its voice was a wet, bubbling sound that grated against the ears. "It seems we have a very lucky guest tonight."
Arthur Sterling did not stand up. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. He looked at the massive snake with pure, unadulterated boredom.
"I’m not lucky," Arthur stated smoothly. "Your wheel has a fourteen percent bias toward the inner track. Your dealer android has a micro-stutter in its left servo, causing a predictable release velocity. Your entire operation is sloppy."
The snake manager’s four eyes narrowed. The thick coils of its lower body tightened, crushing a nearby stool into splinters.
"You admit to counting the wheel?" the manager hissed, its fangs baring. "You admit to exploiting the house?"
"I admit to doing the math," Arthur replied coldly. He tapped his finger against the massive mountain of glowing platinum chips sitting on the dead table. "I won. Fair and square. Cash me out."
The armed guards surrounding the table tightened their grips on their plasma rifles. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Cassia let out a low, amused hum, her hand resting casually near the slit in her dress. Vane stood perfectly still behind Arthur, his broad chest rising and falling with slow, steady breaths.
"Cash you out?" the snake laughed. It was a horrible, rattling sound. "You walk into the Neon Exchange. You cheat our tables. And you think you get to walk out with the Consortium’s money?"
The manager raised a thick, scaly hand.
"Kill the men. Take the woman to the back rooms. We will recover our losses from her hide."
"Try not to break the slot machines!" Arthur yelled over the sudden chaos. He didn’t even draw his sword. He just gripped the edge of the heavy Aether-Roulette table. "I own them now!"
"CRACK!"
With a brutal surge of raw physical strength, Arthur flipped the massive, reinforced gaming table straight up into the air. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
The heavy metal and crystal construct slammed directly into the two closest pit bosses. The guards shrieked as they were crushed beneath the weight of the table, their armor sparking as they hit the floor.
"HAAAA!"
Vane roared. The scarred frontiersman didn’t hesitate. A flash of light erupted from his hand as his massive, chipped broadsword materialized from his spatial ring.
"Fvcking corporate rules," Vane grunted. He remembered Arthur’s strict ’no lethal force’ policy to avoid the Destruction Tax.
He didn’t swing the sharp edge of the blade. He stepped forward, planting his heavy boots, and swung the flat side of the broadsword like a giant steel baseball bat.
"CLANG!"
The heavy metal slammed into the chest plate of a charging guard. The sheer kinetic force lifted the man entirely off his feet. He flew backward through the air and crashed into a row of glowing slot machines.
Sparks rained down as the machines shattered.
"I said don’t break the machines!" Arthur snapped, ducking under a wildly swung stun baton.
"Tell them to stop standing in front of them!" Vane yelled back, parrying a plasma rifle butt with the hilt of his sword.
Arthur’s eyes went dark. His million-fold multiplier was still locked away behind the system’s firewall. He didn’t have his pseudo-ascended speed. He didn’t have the reality-bending comfort of Absolute Order.
But he didn’t need it.
He had the foundational muscle memory of Caden Cross’s ten million perfect sword swings. He understood distance, leverage, and human anatomy better than any god.
A guard lunged at Arthur, thrusting a crackling plasma baton aimed directly at his face.
"WHOOSH!"
Arthur didn’t dodge backward. He stepped inside the guard’s reach. He raised his left arm, letting the crackling energy of the baton glance harmlessly off the reinforced metal bracer hidden beneath his suit sleeve.
Before the guard could pull his weapon back, Arthur pivoted on his heel. He generated immense torque from his hips and drove his right elbow directly upward.
"CRACK!"
Arthur’s elbow smashed into the soft, unarmored joint of the guard’s throat. The man gagged, his eyes rolling back in his head as his vocal cords and windpipe spasmed. He dropped the baton and collapsed to his knees, completely incapacitated but alive.
[Ding!]
[Hostile target incapacitated. 0 Destruction Tax incurred.]
Arthur didn’t pause. He grabbed the falling baton out of the air and spun, hurling it like a javelin at a sniper taking aim from the balcony above. The heavy metal handle struck the sniper square in the helmet, knocking him over the railing.
"PEW! PEW! PEW!"
Cassia didn’t stay on the ground. The moment the table flipped, she moved like a blur.
She vaulted off Vane’s broad shoulder, using the tall hero as a springboard. She soared into the air in a backflip, her crimson dress fluttering wildly.
In mid-air, her customized stun pistols cleared their holsters.
She rained hyper-condensed plasma bolts down on the guards. She didn’t aim for center mass. She aimed for the armor servos.
"Sizzle! Sizzle!"
Knee joints melted. Elbow hydraulics fused together. Half a dozen guards shrieked and collapsed to the floor, entirely immobilized by their own ruined armor.
Cassia landed gracefully on the central crystal chandelier hanging above the pit. She crouched like a gargoyle, providing perfect over-watch fire.
The floor manager watched his elite security force getting systematically dismantled by three people who weren’t even using magic.
The snake’s four eyes bulged in pure panic. He realized these were not ordinary gamblers. This was a highly trained strike team.
"Hold them off!" the manager shrieked, its lower snake body coiling tightly. It spun around and began rapidly slithering back toward the VIP corridor. "I need the vault! Lock down the vault!"
Cassia fired a shot, but the snake’s thick scales deflected the stun round.
