Advent Of A Gunslinger

Meanwhile, with Kora…

The smaller, much more nimble Abyssinian had to deal with fighting the larger, more muscular diamond dog woman. It was much easier said than done when looked at from a bird’s eye view.

Kora’s speed in combination with her sharp claws and teeth made her deadly. Her agile martial artistry allowed her to avoid most of Ejei’s much slower attacks. With each time the hyena woman threw a punch, Kora would be ready to parry. Countering by grabbing her arm and thrusting her palm against her elbow to temporarily lock up her joint.

“AGH!”

SLICE!

She quickly followed this up with an upward slash of her claws that traveled from the dog woman’s abdomen to her neck. They didn’t penetrate deep enough to draw blood, but it was just enough to cause a shooting pain through the entire front of her body--specifically where the four claw marks had left long, red, irritated incisions.

But Ejei was quick on the uptake, and forcefully pushed Kora backwards, causing her to stumble. Then, she spun and delivered a powerful roundhouse to the cat lady’s abdomen, causing her to fly clear across the room and slam into the wall.

CRASH!

“HHHHHH!” Kora hissed upon impact. Her body had left an imprint in the metal wall, causing it to dent with the shape of her body left as a result.

“You’re nothin’, honey,” Ejei taunted her from where she stood, watching as Kora fell onto the floor of the labyrinth. “You may as well give up now while ya still can.”

Kora defiantly rose up to one of her knees, not one to stay down forever even in spite of her fears. “No…I won’t…I won’t allow myself to fall victim to your kind. Not again! In the name of my sister!”

Ejei paused upon hearing that little detail. “...Your sister?”

But Kora refused to give an answer. She simply rushed at the dog woman with a flurry of claw swipes and kicks the same as before.

It wasn’t long until Vido and Stratus, following the noise from the other hallways, had found their way into the room where the abyssinian and diamond dog were fighting. Needless to say…it was not exactly a fun watch from their perspective.

“Ay caramba…” Vido muttered as he watched the two animal gals brutally rip and tear into each other. “It’s like a cyclone of violence…”

“W-what should we do?” Stratus mumbled whilst shivering and cowering behind the griffon. “We have no chance against her!”

“Maybe not. She seems to be far too tough for out gata’s attacks,” Vido replied while he raised his rifle and aimed it in their direction, “But she can’t out-tough a bullet.”

“A-are you sure that’s a good idea?” Stratus was quick to point out the obvious flaw in Vido’s plan: potential friendly fire. “What if you hit Kora?”

But Vido didn’t seem to be concerned at all. In fact, he was confident. “Relax, hombre. We’re professionals…”

Meanwhile, with Axel in the room above…

The gunslinger and bulldog boss had reached the point of negotiation. Since Axel was out of bullets, he had no choice but to solve this matter by talking. As a result, Kolasi knew right then and there that she had the advantage.

“Thank god. I really don’t feel like fighting right about now,” she thought to herself as she mused ways to take the conversation. Once her mind was made up, she spoke aloud. “Alright then, Mr. Gunslinger…since you’ve got nothing left to shoot, why don’t you and I make a deal?”

Make a deal with slavers? Like that would happen so easily. But of course, our intrepid gunslinger was already thinking a step ahead. “Might as well play along. Then as soon as I get an openin’...”

“Well? What’s it gonna be?” Kolasi called out.

With his claws up, Axel came out from behind the crates to show that he was now unarmed. “Alright, alright. I’m willin’ta call a ceasefire.”

“That’s a good boy…” The bulldog woman turned and pushed a button on her desk which activated a loudspeaker. “ATTENTION. CEASE ALL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE HIPPOGRIFF’S GROUP, AND RETURN TO MY OFFICE IMMEDIATELY.”

Down with Kora and the others…

The announcement had just come through a nearby speaker and Ejei had gotten off of Kora immediately upon hearing the order. “Hmph. Guess we’ll call it a truce for now. Boss’s orders.” She stepped away with several scratches all over her body and blood oozing from the wounds.

“Wh--are you---rrrgh!” Kora hissed to herself as she watched the big hyena woman limp away. “A ceasefire?! Now?!”

Vido approached her with his rifle lowered. “Shhh. Calm yourself, Kora. This might be part of the boss’s plan.”

Kora shut her eyes for a moment, and gave it some thought. “Of course. Lord Remington is supposedly playing into her paws in order to strike them down at an unexpected moment. It’s foolproof.” With her mind now relaxed…somewhat, she was able to think more clearly and accepted Vido’s words. “Fair enough…let us see what they have in store for us.”

Once everyone went up to Kolasi’s office…

“So…it would appear to me that you all trespassed, broke and entered, and caused minor destruction to our land with explosives, hm?” the bulldog boss recounted the events up to that point. “All so you could try and save one man?”

“He wasn’t my priority. Didn’t even know he was here,” Axel explained, “I’m here’ta collect a bounty and find out if my folks are still around. Ya said ya’ll took ponies from Appleloosa, right? Well that’s where I was born from. If there’s a chance that my folks are here, I wanna see ‘em and get ‘em outta here.”

Kora started thinking about the mare she had spoken to. “Wait a moment…her accent. And she said she was missing a brother. Could she be…?” For the moment, she decided to stay silent on the matter so as to not get Axel’s hopes up. That mare could’ve easily been any random Jane who was removed from her home…

Ejei stood behind Kolasi without saying a word…

“I see…I see…” Kolasi muttered as she thought over how to handle this situation. “Alright…say that, hypothetically, theoretically, your family members are here. What would you be willing to give in return?”

“...”