His arm came too close to the swipe. It caught against the infected's attached blade, and a thin red line bled onto his blue sleeve. No mind was given. No hurt registered. Nigredo merely pulled back and threw his weight forward, swinging the butt of the rifle fully into its face. Momentum was taken, and the boy stepped around for space and aimed.

When he finished, his "sibling" died screaming. Blood gushed from the heaping mass until the latter disappeared altogether, but Nigredo afforded no time to watch. His waveform resonated in light of another's presence; it would be wise to continue. To set aside thoughts of blood splatters and act as he promised.

Only this time, there were two. The back of his mind saw this as worrisome. A variant could normally handle both with relative ease, but a variant also had the luxury of untapped potential. Here, Nigredo was restricted. Here, his anti-U-DO waves provided potency at a lesser level than even the standards'. All that could be relied upon was what he had claimed to earlier: his use with a firearm.

But that was enough. Gunslinger of a brother he was not, but with the right tool and motive, he could be more efficient. The child shot at the one in mid-air--hoping the flurry of bullets would knock it off track--before sprinting forward toward the other, pivoting the rifle to block the incoming blade. The weapon would hold; the Federation had a thing for resiliency.