BANG
Letting off a round to kickstart combat, Kya vanished from the spot at which she was originally stood leaving behind nothing but the ringing of a fired pistol. A small flourish of the weapon in her hand had left it pointed backwards behind her and, though that meant she would be blasted in a predictably straight forward line thanks to Bullet Dance, it was impossible to keep an eye on her as she blitzed across the street. The robots were momentarily frozen as their target had eluded them and disappeared for a fraction of a second before she reappeared right next to one of their own. Her hand gripped the robot's head and she hung from it, with her knees bent and dangling in the air, like it was a ledge as she aimed her gun down and below her, ready to fire again.
BANG
As little more than a blur, Kya spun around the robot multiple times before finally landing crouched on its shoulders, above and behind it, with her gun pointed squarely at the circuitry wired messily and overlapping in its brain region. What came next didn't need to be elaborated on as Kay fired a single deadly round with pinpoint precision, smashing the robot headfirst into the ground with a hole in its head while she was sent flinging upwards towards an awning up above. She'd picked this robot first because it was in a position that offered her a way out on the off chance the robots were quick to react and surround her. Luckily they weren't but, from where Kya was currently, with her feet on the overhang and her body crouched up against the roof, she could fire herself off in any direction comfortably without getting into trouble on the way out. It was an unnecessary precautionary measure, the robots weren't high quality enough to process Kya's speed and react accordingly, but this was also a position that allowed her to reengage cleanly too so it had been the best option regardless of whether its defensive utility played a role. One needed a keen awareness of their surrounding to use Bullet Dance, yes, but one also needed to be aware of other people's position relative to the environment too so that the optimal line to follow, or vantage point to reach, could be arrived at comfortably after being flung away from multiple different places. Picking this robot to kill first specifically was a sign of careful consideration from Kya but, from here on out, she could afford to be a bit more lax and not have to put as much thought into utilising walls and objects to their fullest potential because the robots were pretty weak. It was really truly only the overlord that was worth being cautious around, the preliminary reports from the cult stated as such given the specs of the old antique in comparison to these experimental models, but being safe instead of sorry was Kya's modus operandi. She dashed around at high speeds but she was slow, thoughtful, meticulous, and clearheaded when it came to macro decision making. She was able to maintain her rationality in tough situations, her training under the cult wouldn't let her wind up any other way, but that didn't mean she felt the need to throw caution to the wind and jump into hot water headfirst needlessly.
Kya was subject to gravity so her time hanging upside down on the awning was up and her feet began to slip from above her. She'd already calculated her next route, number of shots, and method of downing all who stood immediately in her way but, first, just for fun, she gave a two finger salute / goodbye wave to a nearby camera a few inches away from her. There was plenty of surveillance in this little village but nobody left to keep an eye on those cameras from behind the scenes. She wasn't waving to anybody really, she simply had a habit of entertaining herself in silly little ways like this that she thought was cool during downtime. Shooting finger guns in mirrors, humming 'that one song she heard on the radio a couple days ago', tapping walls as she walked, all little habits of hers to fill the quiet in her head. God forbid anyone ever saw her doing this, though, her face would flush red on the spot and she'd go find a hole to hide in for all eternity. Looking like a cool huntswoman, roaming the halls and whistling to herself, was her own little fantasy she played out in her head; this quirk of hers being seen by someone else would be the ego death of her for sure. Not that she really had much of an ego to begin with. She knew she was talented but rarely reminded herself about that. After a particularly exhilarating Bullet Dance, in which she acted in the heat of the moment to overcome a powerful foe and entered a zone of high concentration? Maybe she'd slip in a 'nice' in a small whisper after the battle, or perhaps her head wings would waggle a bit in self satisfaction, but otherwise she made use of her talents far more than she spoke of them.
Speaking of, it was time to get back to work after perching up on the roof for a few seconds. There were still plenty more robots left to scrap so Kya shot at the corner behind her and barreled straight towards the ground, transitioning into a slide and coming to a halt after kicking the toe of another robot. Like a stepped-on rake, her body rose upwards sharply and she used that momentum to throw a kick at the robot's head while swivelling her body to face down towards the ground and firing another shot. Her foot pummelled the robot and pierced right through it as Kya was sent blasting through the air where the robot's head had been a second prior. A mid air flip corrected her alignment and allowed her to take stock of the situation around her. Of note was one robot trying to run up and swing at her unguarded flank but that was a simple matter. Before landing Kya aimed a shot towards a nearby oil lamp hanging off a dirty windowsill and knocked it down with a well placed bullet. The angle of her shot sent her down to the ground at a diagonal angle and a second shot around the robot who swung at empty air and missed with its target now directly behind him. A third follow up shot lifted Kya off the ground and she placed her foot against the robot's back while firing blindly behind her to kick the robot forward. It stumbled and tripped as the falling oil lamp struck it on the head, leaving it flailing around in a dizzy tizzy as Kya took a running start and leapt over its fallen body with a cartwheel. She left a single gun shot behind in her wake to propel herself upwards while ending the robot's life swiftly, putting her sky high as she looked around once more, making note of how many opponents were left to tackle. There were still a few so Kya opted to ramp up the speed a bit and get this trifling warm up over and done with. The overlord was the real fight here and these small fry were just the start.
Singling out her next target, Kya shot in the opposite direction to crash down towards it like a black and red blurry meteor. This robot was able to react in time to the approaching force of nature and swung wildly in a desperate bid to fend off the attacker. Kya saw this ahead of time and used a neat little trick referred to as 'spin stalling' to halt herself in mid ait. The trick was simple, spin and shoot as fast as humanly possible. The orientation of the spin doesn't really matter as the point is to shoot in every direction, in a 360 degree rotation, as close to simultaneously as possible, thus creating a sort of momentum vortex that glued the Bullet Dancer in place. It was hard to pull off correctly, especially in the heat of battle, but enabled the Dancer to effectively just 'stop' and hover in mid air while also letting out a flurry of bullets into the surrounding area. Intercepting an incoming Bullet Dancer got pretty tricky when they could cancel their forward momentum on a dime while also spraying bullets everywhere like a madman. Point in case, the robot missed Kya completely and was rewarded for its efforts with a bullet to the dome that staggered it and left it reeling. Like an opportunistic vulture, Kya shot herself directly at the robot, clamoured around to its back, and leant even further backward to bring the robot tumbling down. Before hitting the floor, Kya shot the robot's brain and slid along the ground, spinning on her back to face the nearest robot while performing a kick up aimed at their chest. The sole of her metal plated foot smacked against the robot with thundering force, knocking it into the nearest building with a loud THUD. Kya, left floating in mid air after the kick connected dead centre, shot away from the robot which sent her fumbling into it at a messy angle but that was her intention. There was no need for finesse here when brute force also worked. Her body was treated like a hefty projectile and she banged into the robot hard, ramming it and herself through the wall. None of the robots saw what came after but the sound of another gunshot was heard and Kya flew through a shattered window on the second floor of that same building so it didn't need to be stated who won the fight inside.
Kya happened to be landing right next to another robot but she took umbrage with this one in particular because it had come to the closest to actually hitting her so far with a wide and wild swing of its arms. Getting hit by any of these robots would be a stain on her reputation, even if she was still just playing around and nobody was here to see it, so she took this one foe a bit more seriously than the rest and vowed to make it pay. As soon as her feet touched the ground she ducked under a straight fist, gripped the arm under her own armpit, and raised her other hand to shoot the robot in the face. Its head blew backwards as the bullet connected but the body was dragged alongside Kya who skidded across the street with the robot in tow. Kya fell backwards and pulled the robot with her, locking them into a ball as she shot again and sent the two tumbling across the ground. When the two were next visible, Kya was on the floor with the robot held above her in a tricky hold. Her foot was planted firmly in the middle of the robot's back and both its arms were held in place, rendering it impossible for the robot to fight back or move no matter how hard it struggled to free itself. She kicked the robot up and into the air, aimed both her own weapons at the floor to lift herself off the ground and chase it, and then began a mid air assault on the helpless robot. After every strike with her metallic shoe or clawed hands she shot and repositioned herself around the robot like an annoying gnat travelling at supersonic speeds. She blitzed the robot and demolished and dismantled it before it even landed, rendering it dysfunctional and decapitated with all its limbs scattered around the floor. Kya was a menace and that only became more and more true the more she actively used her weaponry. Bullet Dancing with one pistol was great and all but if she used two her speed and ability to change directions on the fly improved drastically. Typically, when using two weapons with a Bullet Dance, one controlled the speed while the other controlled the direction. That being said, if both were dedicated to the same task, the results could be explosive and the robots were finding this out the hard way.
Kya had chosen to aim both guns straight backwards and charge directly at the remaining robots one by one at maximum speed. She'd fire them both, magically appear in front of a stunned robot, perform a swift takedown with a mix of clawed scratching, gun-fu, and momentum based dodging and counter attacking, before then approaching another target elsewhere. She became a ghost in broad daylight, visible for split seconds at most before her form became practically invisible and intangible once more. The only thing that signalled her presence was the crumpling of a robot's form and scattering sparks signifying it had been thoroughly decommissioned alongside the telltale BANG of fired guns. Soon enough, there were only five robots left standing and Kya's goal was to take them all out in one fell swoop. She ran circles around them and gathered them up like farm animals in a pen, as though she were some kind of shepherd dog, before making her move. She ran straight at a robot but fired sideways at the last moment and flung herself towards the nearest wall to dodge a kick coming her way. From there, she pushed herself off the wall and threw herself at the robot, clinging to its head with her arm wrapped around it. She let her legs swing forward as she fired multiple rounds at the other robots nearby, turning the one she was holding into a lead dispensing spinning roulette. The force of the shots made the robot twirl like a ballerina while the attached Kya swung in circles, kicking and shooting the remaining robots one by one as a typhoon of death. When only the robot she was holding was left standing, she let the spin wind down, placed the gun's muzzle right up against its head, and fired the last shot of this altercation. The robot collapsed in the middle of the street while Kya twirled through the air and landed gracefully, quietly, and without disturbing or kicking up even the faintest trace of dust.
This was how Kya fought her fights for the most part and it was usually effective. Against tougher foes her gadgetry aspect, lightning pillar, and soul related magic would help push her lethality over the edge in various ways but, usually, Bullet Dance was the core of how she went about slaying opponents. It only really took a back seat during apotheosis, as she had stronger options available at that point, but it's not like it was off the cards entirely even then. It was likely she'd have to dive deeper into her pool of talents to beat the overlord, Bullet Dancing alone wasn't going to cut it. Kya would rather not have to use her apotheosis if she could avoid it, it was tiring to the utmost and there was a non-zero chance she'd receive another mission after the completion of this one. Her communications device had been buzzing incessantly so chances are she was being called upon for something important. She sent a response asking for another twenty or so minutes to wrap up what she was dealing with here before answering the call and hadn't heard anything since but as soon as those twenty minutes of silence were up that device would start beeping again no doubt. Point being, there was no need to waste her apotheosis against someone, or something in this case, that didn't necessitate it. Though she didn't exactly like using it, her soul powers would be more than enough to kill whatever was lurking in the pits of this facility because they amplified her deadly talents by an amount that was hard to ignore.
Kya kicked aside the robotic parts strewn around near her feet and waded her way through puddles of leaking oil until she arrived at the fence that entrapped her when she was knee high. Nowadays she could vault over it with minimal effort but back then it had been a real hurdle. Part fo the reason she learnt and preferred Bullet Dance was because it got her over the fence before she learnt to fly with her innate wings. Rather than relying on them, though, they became a tool in the background, another option to facilitate Bullet Dancing rather becoming something central to how she moved. Maybe it was strange for an aevysquall to not rely excessively on free flight, it was their race's defining trait after all, but Kya felt at home on the ground and never really liked that feeling of weightlessness that came with defying gravity. It probably stemmed from the daze she was in back on the operating table, wherein her mind was pure white and filled with clouds like she was floating through the sky and high as a kite. Regardless, she could fly but chose not to unless it was needed for whatever reason. Even if she did want to take to the skies her apotheosis had a much better way of going about it so flying, unless it was through space to reach a destination, was a rare sight regarding Kya.
With a single shot from her gun, Kya pushed herself over the fence with ease on her fist try. She messed this up a lot when she was younger, and even got tangled in the fence and caught by the guards more often than not when she first started out, but it was so easy now in comparison that it made her chuckle lightly as she looked back at it. How high a wall it once was was laughable to the now fully trained assassin who walked away, humming to herself with her thoughts arranged in a more orderly fashion than before. What happened her was tragic, sure, but she still wasn't upset. Not because she was told not to be but because it was done. There was nothing she could do about it anymore and, though that was sad, she was at least now capable of preventing such a thing from ever happening again. It was a silver lining at best but it was true so, maybe, going forward, she could find something she actually cared about and protect that instead. The souls inside her would have wanted that. Now that's not to say she had any such plans in mind, her whole world revolved around the destruction cult currently, and her older sister would be on her case like a ton of bricks if she tried to abscond so leaving now was troublesome, but it was a potential hope for the future that had been sparked by visiting this place again. She was the one who lived, and became as strong as she was, so it was only right for her to make the most out of the opportunity the world had gifted her and become the embodiment of those who could not be here today. She wasn't going to live on their behalf but she would live a life worth living for the sake of them, that seemed reasonable. Revenge would be nice but it wasn't the real goal and, though it was somewhat dismaying, Kya didn't feel any anger towards the cult. Again, that had been berated out of her long ago, her rage was disarmed and thrown into an abyss of no return, and it was hard to find the motivation to claw it back... But that was ok. Rather than go on a bloody rampage through the clan and her family, she'd much rather just disappear somewhere and never be found ever again. That wasn't an option right now, the cult were good at tracking deserters and her own sister was an expert in that regard too, but she had a plan now in mind at least and could work towards getting away from these crazy people. She'd long since been freed from one cage, the fencing that could no longer hold her was proof of that, soon enough it would be time to find a way out of this one too.
But that aside, work was work and right now Kya was working. She had to take a certain number of jobs to fill her quota or there would be hell to pay so she had to focus and get this all over and done with. It was rare for her to find jobs she didn't mind taking as most the cult offered involved killing random people who didn't deserve it as far as she was concerned so there was a great deal of hesitation in accepting anything that came her way. Part of the reason Kya was always so close to failing to meet her quota was because she didn't really believe in what the cult were doing from the get go, she simply had nowhere else to go and wasn't vehemently offended or disgusted by their goals thanks to multiple reprimands over multiple years. She viewed them as well meaning psychopaths and terrible people so it was best to remain on their good side while she was incapable of getting away from them. She only really got an inch or two of freedom recently after completing a sufficient number of tasks at an acceptable level so it's not like they weren't keeping an eye out on her and aware of her brewing dissatisfaction. This job, in many ways, was the perfect one for someone in Kya's position because it was just hurting a bunch of non-organic, non sentient entities and so she snapped it up before it was ever posted for others to see.
Also, Kya was a prodigy of the cult and so giving her a difficult task like this, or what would be difficult to most others anyway, was arguably correct. The cult were partially aware Kya was avoiding killing innocent people, or wreaking terroristic havoc, but as long as she was doing the jobs others would struggle with or didn't like there was no reason to drag her into the more ugly side of the cult just yet. Maybe they'd try being more forceful eventually, her own sister had been encouraging it to whip her into shape, but for now she was still young enough to be let off the hook. It's not like her family didn't care for her at all but they definitely felt more pride than affection and were worried that making Kya do what she didn't want to would affect her performance... At least that was true of everyone other than Kya's sister, anyway, as her view on Kya was different. Her sister's affection was real but warped in that she wanted Kya to be a part of her life, this cultish way of thinking, and to share and revel in the future they were crafting by ironically destroying brick by brick of society. Thus, Funnily enough, Kya didn't much like the one family member who did truly love her with purity of intent but it was valid in her eyes not to reciprocate that kind of family bond as it came tied with a whole lot of pressure and expectations she had no interest in meeting. Kya felt like she was the oddball in her home but objectively speaking it was everyone else that was crazy and she was the only normal person. Still, it was hard to maintain that rationality in her head because everyone she ever knew told her the opposite constantly. Being told to drink the Kool-Aid every day, with no dissenting voices anywhere in sight, did complicate things but she was mentally strong. Having all these souls funneled inside her was good for learning how to forge an iron will if nothing else. Again, though, now wasn't the time for this. Kya had consulted with her map of the layout of this facility and arrived at the lab hosting the overlord experiment. There was no real way around what came next so she was just going to have to suck it up and let the souls loose; she could go back to fantasising about freedom afterwards... Though she was unaware her next job would drastically alter the course of her life and give her precisely what she wanted.