Advent Of A Gunslinger

Meanwhile, in Klugetown…

Not a peep could be heard. There was not a single soul stirring amongst the reaches of the abandoned wasteland of a town. The population was still present though. However, everything had come under much more…strict regulations.

All around the little city, the undead deerfolk were posted around various points. Some of which were given minotaur-like properties and anthropomorphized, able to stand on two legs without issue. This made them that much more intimidating, as they not only had the magical capabilities of deer, but the physical capabilities of minotaurs--fauns essentially.

The animal folk of Klugetown were put under heavy watch to ensure that Zula would be aware of the first instance of Axel’s arrival. Citizens weren’t allowed to leave their houses unless supervised, and no one was permitted to enter nor exit the city unless accompanied by one of the deerfolk.

Klugetown had essentially become a police state at the paws of Zula, all in an attempt to suss Axel out and bring him to her. There was no way to get in or out without being spotted.

“Perrrfect…” she purred to herself while watching the city from Rongu’s old home that was situated on a hill overlooking the city. “Axel will have to come back at some point. A goody-two-hooves gunslinger like himself won’t be able to resist the pressure that’s being applied to the ‘innocent’ citizens.”

Moments later, Typh hovered down from the sky and landed next to her. “Got some good news. Apparently your crazy idea’s worked somehow. The Aionite or whatever--it’s been farmed.”

“Grrrreat,” she gave a satisfied purr in response, “How much do they currently have?”

“About twenty tonnes so far,” Typh replied, “Now all we need to do is figure out how to weaponize it. The current weapons we have aren’t compatible with that stuff.”

“Maybe…maybe not…” Zula muttered as she put a finger to her chin. “But what if we made something entirely new. Something that could withstand the extremely potent ions that aionite contains.”

Typh folded her feathered arms and raised a brow. “I’m listening.”

From one of her pockets, Zula pulled out a blueprint for what appeared to be a mounted turret operated by a hand-crank. “Until we get Remington’s plans, our conventional weapons won’t function with such energy. However, if we were to go bigger…” she offered the plans to the eagle woman…

…who took them, and looked them over carefully. It was essentially a gatling gun that could fire energy rounds at high speeds akin to that of a railgun.

“Hot damn!” Typh squawked, “I gotta admit, this is impressive. Whatcha call it?”

Zula took back the blueprints and replied, “I call it the Baburi Shiguti 88,” she pocketed them and flicked her tail, “Or Baguti for short. Its high caliber can even pierce through wood, metal, skin, bones--even minotaur hide if need be.”

“Deadly,” Typh looked over the horizon, observing the ghost town that Klugetown had become. Nothing but quiet, desert ambience could be heard alongside the occasional tumbleweed. “Is that why you’ve kept everything under a tighter leash?”

“Don’t want any collateral damage,” Zula said with a roll of her eyes, “It’d just be more disgusting messes to clean up. I don’t have time for that. The last thing I want is more bodies piling up than necessary.”

“‘Than necessary,’” Typh repeated the tiger lady’s words back to her with a suspicious glare in her direction. “Just what are you up to, missy?”

Zula clenched one of her paw-hands into a fist and exposed a toothy grin from her lips. “What else? I’m going to take back what was once rightfully mine. Abyssinia was my country to rule…”

“I see. Well, whatever you do doesn’t matter to me,” Typh went on, “As long as I can still rule the air with my own weapons and gain some extra money on the side…” “Not to mention get rid of my brother.”

“Just make sure you do your job right,” Zula commanded the eagle woman, “I don’t want to risk any more loose ends.”

Typh waved her claw in a sarcastic manner. “Alright, alright. Relax. Speaking of which, where’s the hellhound lass?”

“Oh she has her own position, don’t you worry. Hellhounds are practically invincible, so she’s best suited to the front lines,” Zula explained while overlooking the entrance of Klugetown with a pair of binoculars. “That way, no matter what happens, she’ll be able to buy us some time and stall whoever tries to threaten us.”

“She’s certainly sure of herself…” The pirate-bird captain thought to herself, wondering just how far Zula would take this for her goals. “Locking down an entire city just to spite what’s left of one man’s family…she’s got her sights set on something and won’t quit, I’ll give her that. If only my worthless brother would realize that he's on the wrong side of the situation…”

Without any further words, Typh flew off into the air once more, leaving the crazed tiger woman to her own devices. “...She’s insane. But I really don’t have a choice.”