Advent Of A Gunslinger

The coin inevitably caught the tom’s eye which Axel took full advantage of.

The hippogriff lunged forward, slashing at the tom with his claws, only to be met with hefty resistance. Instead of a quick, cat-like dodge, the large abyssinian blocked Axel’s strike with his paw, and primed a punch with his free fist…

Only for Axel to react to that just as quickly, grabbing the tom’s paw with his other claw. Then, he turned leverage against the tom by turning and flinging Alade towards the nearest building.

CRASH!

Alade crashed back-first into the stone wall. But Axel wasn’t done there. He spread his wings and flew straight at the tom with enough force to take him through several of those buildings.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

And just before the hippogriff could mount another attack, Alade kicked Axel directly in his midsection, causing him to lose his grip. This enabled Alade to meanuever skillfully and take advantage of Axel’s loss of balance by flipping him around and throwing him down at the ground.

THUD!

A mound of dust erupted from the floor of the valley when Axel came into contact with the earth.

Alade landed on his feet moments after, silently watching the dust cloud with his sharp yellow eyes laser focused on where he had thrown the hippogriff…

But surprisingly, once the dust cleared, Axel was nowhere to be seen.

“...”

All was quiet. To the point where Alade could hear the swelling of his own blood flowing through his ears, itching to pick up any sort of noise or sound made by Axel so that he could counterattack.

But no sound came.

Alade continued to focus hard, closing his eyes to listen even further. But all he could hear was the ambient white noise of the desert combined with his own beating heart as it rapidly increased in pace. If Axel had flown upward and tried to attack from above, then he’d most certainly hear it. Likewise, the tom would also be able to detect an attack from any and all sides should Axel try it.

However, that was just it. Axel hadn’t been attempting an attack from above, or even from the sides…

POOF!

From behind Alade, Axel popped out of the sand, grabbed onto him with both claws, lifted him over his head, and slammed him neck-first on the ground behind him--a classic but deadly suplex that left the tom momentarily dazed.

After which, Axel attempted to grab the tom by the next, only to be shortstopped by his tail.

With a gasp, he started to struggle from the loss of air he was experiencing due to asphyxiation. It would seem that Alade had recovered from the blow to the head much quicker than Axel had expected. The tom rose to his feet, standing upright as he choked the gunslinger with his tail.

SHING!

With a quick series of slashes from the claws on his hands, Alade shredded through Axel’s leather armor and drew blood from his abdomen.

The hippogriff panicked, but did his best to hold back a scream as he tried to figure a way out of this chokehold. That’s when it hit him: Sever the connection.

So Axel used all he had to open his mouth without screaming, and chomped down on the tom’s tail--

“...!!”

Alade jumped back, letting Axel go from his grip, causing the hippogriff to hit the ground with a hard thud.

Axel hacked up some feathers from loss of breath, but spared no time to recover. Instead, he immediately retaliated by digging his claw into the sandy ground then flung it upwards, sending an arc of sand towards the tom to blind him temporarily.

Which worked perfectly. Alade shut his eyes and had to brush off the dust with his arm which left him open long enough for Axel to tackle him to the ground and serve him repeated punch after punch directly to the tom’s face.

After half a dozen strikes, the tom stopped both of Axel’s claws with his paws, forcing the two into a strenuous, hefty struggle of strength as they applied force against each other’s arms. The two were locked in a fierce stalemate for the moment…

All the while, Roseanne had snuck around the back of the building to quietly pull Martha, Clarabelle, and the other minotaur ladies inside so that she could free them of their bindings. Axel had served as a perfect distraction for her to rescue everyone.

However, this didn’t seem to bother the tom at all. After all, his objective wasn’t to cause any real harm to the bovine women anyway. In fact, all he had wanted this entire time…was right in front of him.

A small smile could be seen on the cat man’s face as he forcefully pushed Axel off of him, sending the hippogriff back a few paces as he took a moment to catch his breath. The strikes from Axel’s fists had left him with a few missing teeth and a sprained jaw, yet he was still standing and prepared to keep going.

Axel landed just a few feet away, and also took a moment to breathe. The scratches had caused him to lose some blood, and the damage to his wings were visible through his armor. But surprisingly, he was smiling too. Could it be that he had also figured out what it was Alade wanted this entire time?

There was only one way to find out: See it through to the end.