"Go to the authorities and tell them what you and your group are going to do here. Confess your crimes," Ning said.
"Yes, master," the man said and walked away.
"Alright, since the prince is in trouble, let's go save him. That will hopefully get me on better terms with the royal family," Ning thought.
Just then, Ning heard something through the speakers that were laid all over the Zoo.
"Attention Everyone! We are the Great Raiders group, and we have taken over the zoo. Any attempts at running away or fighting back will get you killed. This is not a joke."
The man spoke no further. He was on the point and short. Ning continued walking after hearing that and saw people along the way.
There was a group of people huddled on the floor next to a giant glass window. In front of them was a man with a gun.
When he saw Ning, the man didn't attack. Instead, he looked at him first. Ning looked at him as well.
'Did he get the zoo staff's uniform from someplace else too?' Ning wondered when he saw the man's clothes.
It took the man almost 5 seconds before he realized he wasn't looking at his ally. This was someone he didn't know, an actual staff.
"Hands in the air," the man shouted as he pointed his guns towards Ning. The people on the floor made wimping noises.
Ning looked at the man carefully and used Aether Analysis on him. 'Aether Starter? Not even an Aether Student?' he thought in surprise and confusion.
'Shit! There must be way more people than just the 16 that guy mentioned. There should be a lot of henchmen for the lower-end work,' Ning thought. The situation was a bit more dangerous than he had at first expected it to be.
"I said—"
The man was about to say something when he felt a force tug on his body. He slammed against the wall opposite the glass and dropped to the ground.
Ning walked up and grabbed his gun. Then he looked towards the huddled-up people and asked, "Are you guys okay?"
The people were so scared that they couldn't even speak. One of the kids in the group finally gathered up some courage and said, "Yes, we are fine."
"Alright, sit here and don't go anywhere. There are a lot more bad guys and since they should be wearing Zoo staff's clothes, you can't tell them apart. Although, they shouldn't hurt you as long as you don't move or act stupid, okay?" Ning said.
The people there nodded.
Ning nodded back at them. He tied up the terrorist and left the place. Along the way, he found another few people in the same situation. He saved them too.
'Geez, this is starting to remind me what happened back in the Five Professions academy,' he thought. 'I hope it's not a similar situation as back then.'
After a few minutes of taking care of the terrorists, Ning came across the first bigshot of the group. It only took him a single Aether Analysis to realize that he was an Aether Magister, a step above Aether Grandmaster, and was an Invoker at that.
'This should be one of the 3,' Ning thought. He was curious how Invokers fought in this world now. He hadn't met a lot of them.
Ning realized that the man was in charge of stopping the guards of the zoo. The guards were huddled up in a corner, covered in some sort of slime that was making it impossible for them to move out of.
"Who are you?" the man asked the moment he took notice of Ning. Not for a second, he thought that he could be their men.
'This is a clever one,' Ning thought.
The man immediately took out a gun and pointed at Ning. 'Eh? He's not going to use Aether?' he thought.
BANG
Without any notice, the man shot Ning. Ning immediately twisted his body to get out of the bullet's way, but the bullet still grazed his arm.
"Dammit!" he cried and glared at the man. When he did, he noticed that the man already had the next shot ready.
BANG
Ning jumped out of the way to dodge the bullet, and when he looked up, it was time to dodge once more.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
Four more shots came one after another, all shooting at Ning with the intention to kill. This man didn't care about keeping hostages for his demands at all. He was ready to kill anyone that posed the slightest threat to his plans.
"Goddammit! I will kill you," Ning shouted at him while holding his left shoulder where one of the four shots had landed.
'6 shots done, that should be—'
The man cocked his gun again and pointed at Ning. Ning's eyes went wide.
BANG
The man shot for the 7th time, using a gun that could only hold 6 bullets in total. Ning was caught off guard and got hit right in the legs.
Then the man cocked his gun again and pointed. Ning wasn't going to let him shoot this time.
Ning swiped his hands and even as he did, the man shot. The aim was already off due to Ning's interference, but the fact that a bullet even escaped through the nuzzle surprised him.
'He's creating bullets directly into the gun,' he thought. That was not very different from creating arrows to shoot with a bow, but the composition of a bullet was far different than that of an arrow.
The fact that this man was creating them so effortlessly was not only because he was used to it, but also because he had the talent for it.
'I need to stop him now,' Ning thought and immediately forced the man's arms to straighten up sideways like he was ready for a hug.
The man showed no reaction and simply did something, however, it didn't work. Finally, the man's face changed. It went from confusion to worry in very quick succession.
"What… What's going on? Why can't I feel your enchantment?" the man cried out.
Ning let the bullets in his body fall to the ground and stood up with a fully healed body.
The man was about to question what was happening once more, but Ning didn't let him.. Instead, he slammed the man to the side of the wall as well and dropped him unconscious.
