[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/XdrIKxq.png[/img][/center]
The attack helicopter didn't surprise him. Just because the Ebony Strykers had almost only tanks, didn't mean there were other kinds of vehicle out there in Deep Ground. The White City was the center of commerce after all, the richest guild would definitely have all the best toys. That was not to say that it didn't catch him by surprise, though. Flying so close to building level was a pretty ballsy move from someone who wasn't him, and Kosuke couldn't manage it very well either. And as much as he was probably faster than a certain airborne rocketing avatar with a name similar to fight eagle, he wasn't faster than the White Hot Varied mm Anti-Armor Shrapnel[sup][sup]TM[/sup][/sup] for Attack Helicopter grade Gatling Guns being fired at him.

He immediately jumped off his lance as the first volley shredded it to pieces. His lance wasn't rare or anything, and he hadn't repaired it in about a week or so. It went up in a small explosion thanks to his passive making it a piece of tech, which gave him a split-second distraction. He immediately equipped another lance, but it would take a full action to finish materializing so he needed to do something else or else he'd get swiss cheesed just lik his Lance.

As a Sweeper, it was a general rule of thumb that Sweepers almost exclusively hunted other players. As a result, they didn't get many rare equipment drops, but they did usually get extra EXP from their contracts which meant that they could buy them more easily. There weren't many people who used lances meaning that he couldn't even get uncommon or rare ones just from killing players. But that did also mean there were a lot of spare lances in the market for relatively cheap, so there was that.

However, Kosuke had been preoccupied with his crafting recently, and he'd been too busy trying to get as much EXP as possible to make up for the defecit from buying equip and Kosuke's crafting. Fortunately though, one of Kosuke's recent innovations discoveries in his Bounty Hunter profession was exactly what he needed for this situaion. He took out a molotov bottle, only this one was filled with something completely black. He couldn't light it from this position, but he wouldn't need to. He threw it towards the attack helicopter, and the barrage of White Hot Varied mm Anti-Armor Shrapnel[sup][sup]TM[/sup][/sup] redirected momentarily to shoot it down in mid-air.

The bottle exploded into a massive cloud of black smoke. It was no normal smoke bomb, this was a Bounty Hunter Original Smoke Cocktail[sup][sup]TM[/sup][/sup]. It used some specially crafted smoke powder which was only used for that specific recipe, so it was damn good smoke. If you fucked it up while crafting it in an enclosed area you would be at serious risk of dying from smoke inhalation, that's how thick it was.

Fortunately he wouldn't be spending too long in there, just the back-end of his first second in combat, so he wasn't at risk of dying. Unfortunately he couldn't be spending more than a second in there, meaning he'd only gotten one extra second between him and the gatling gun going straight through his torso and ending his life.

The Smoke Cocktail was expensive resource wise as well, and he'd only had one. It was necessary but he hated that he had to do it. They were behind in level, that much was for certain. In the increasingly hostile environment of Deep Ground, he could see that Kosuke had the potential to become a key threat for their enemies, but he needed to keep up for that vision to become a reality. But leveling was leveling, and dealing with an attack helicopter was supposed to be his first priority right now.

His Lance was half-way formed as he dropped out of the smoke. He put himself in a nosedive to accelerate his drop, to give himself more lee-way between him and the stream of White Hot Varied mm Anti-Armor Shrapnel[sup][sup]TM[/sup][/sup]. The Attack Helicopter had been expecting his exit position, there being only one way to go and was in hot pursuit. He quickly dropped below the Helicopter's level, and it also began descending to match his movements. He'd be able to run away if he wanted to, it wouldn't be very difficult since he could run circles around the helicopter if he wanted to. But, even with the differences between Kosuke and him, there was one large thing which made him serve his interests.

He wanted to become part of something bigger than he was, because it wasn't like he was an existence worth caring about. In the grand scheme of things, he had come from nothing, and if allowed to continue like he was, they would both end up as nothing. For the average person in today's society, they'd be handed a job from their time in Deep Ground and work that job until something happened. You could get promoted, demoted or whatever but in the end you were just another gear in society, like the old days. There were two ways to avoid becoming something like that, which was either have talent in some area and find a job outside of the one Deep Ground gave you, or get brain surgery to remove the chip in your brain that everybody had to escape into the mountains and become a hermit.

But Kosuke showed no talent or interest in anything but Deep Ground. This was the only thing they had between the two of them, and even then he wished it didn't tie down a whole generation. He loved Deep Ground and he hated Deep Ground, which is why he respected the Black King's wish to destroy it once and for all. It was never made to last, and in just over a year's time Kosuke's time would be over. But between then and now, he wanted a hand in Deep Ground's destruction, and he wanted to make Rocket Lancer legendary. The time had come for his first act, he'd show them that even an Attack Helicopter wouldn't be enough to stop him.

His Lance finished materializing while he was in his ready position and already spamming his passive to work. The gatling gun fire closed in on him, but then he did something the pilot and gunner were definitely not expecting. To put it in abstract terms, he went from 0 to 75 downwards, then 75 to 100 straight upwards.

A little tidbit about Fatal Acceleration was that regardless of how short you charged it for, even if he didn't hit a charge level the initial thrust power was still more powerful than his normal thrust. It wasn't very much more than normal, but the acceleration component of Fatal Acceleration was instantaneous and could instantly transition into normal maximum power from his rocket booster. It allowed him to change momentum extremely quickly, and needless to say it caught the Attack Helicopter by surprise.

Just as he'd hoped, he boosted through the stream of Gatling gun fire and only took three hits. Those three hits chunked him, but it didn't end him like it would've if he didn't have the element of surprise. But the surprise wouldn't last long so he needed to act fast.

After getting past the stream, he went for the Helicopter. He charged towards it, and as the Gatling Gun reared it's ugly head towards him yet again, he barreled to the side. The closer he got to the gun, the easier it'd be to match his movements, but his aerial maneuverability was second to none. He ducked and weaved, zigged and zagged, only taking a couple of stray hits before completely closing the distance.

[i][color=orangered]This isn't a great plan, but fuck these guys. They WILL die.[/color][/i] He thought.

He zeroed in on the pilot and rammed straight into the windshield.
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[@KoL]