Advent Of A Gunslinger

So instead of trying to figure out how to deal with it, he settled for going with what he knew that he could carry out. Axel wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but his reaction skills and the ability to think on his claws is what kept him alive for this long. Through many a bar brawl, showdown, and gunfight.

But this was something he hadn’t dealt with before. And of course, he didn’t want to just shoot the lady cow. This wasn’t her fault. She was under the influence of something she couldn’t control.

“May as well use this here rope Clara gave me,” he thought as he unraveled the rope off of his left wing. “Ain’t never rastled no minotaur, but I guess there’s a first time for everythin’. And then...I’ll try and calm her down, I s’pose.”

With the rope raised, he started to spin it in the air. Soon enough, it was spinning fast enough to carry momentum.

The blue minotaur woman couldn’t think for herself. All she could do was huff steam from her nostrils as she got prepared to charge. She scraped her hooves against the dirt whilst cracking her knuckles.

The air was filled with a heightened sense of tension as the two stared each other down. Axel continued to spin his rope as fast as he could, and even hopped through it once, twice to ensure that he had his wrist properly into the flow of the rope.

“...Still got it. Now let’s see if I can get you, missy…” he lifted his hooves off the ground, and started to hover.

With an angry huff, the minotaur took off from where she stood, and ran towards Axel. Each of her hooves impacted the earth with enough force to shake all of the corn stalks around them. If Axel was still in contact with the ground, he surely would have been forcefully knocked onto his back from how much of a quake her overwhelming, thunderous weight caused.

“RRRRRGH!” she let out a mighty roar with steam coming from her nose as she closed in on the hippogriff.

But he had no fear. To the untrained eye, he was either brave or foolish to stand up to something far bigger and deadlier than he was. Axel preferred it that way, though. To be in the thick of it.

As soon as the minotaur got close, he flew upwards and flung the rope downwards so that it would lock into place perfectly around her neck with a snap!

“MMMMAAAAAGH!” the cow brayed an unnatural squall that was hellish upon the ears.

But Axel did not let this impede his progress. With the minotaur properly roped, he flew back down while following the rope to give her a swift, piledriving kick directly into her spine.

“EEGH!” The minotaur let out a shrill shriek, and lost focus of where she was going with the rope around her neck, and crashed headfirst into the brick wall of the side of the Madam’s building with a loud crack!

Surprisingly, despite her size, she didn’t go through the wall. Instead, she crashed into it directly and almost flattened out from the distribution of force. She hit the wall so hard that she was knocked out cold and fell backwards, hitting the ground with a loud thud that shook the entire area.

Axel landed on the ground nearby, and checked to make sure she wasn’t in critical condition. Thankfully, the blue minotaur was only knocked out for the time being. And more importantly, the runes on her body had disappeared…

“Oh? Did I get that curse off’a her? If so, I wonder if I can take on the other two the same way…”

There was no time for that, though. He had to get over to that greenhouse and ensure Matha’s safety before he did anything else. So he grabbed up the rope, and flew onwards with his guns still at his side…

Meanwhile, on a hill overlooking the Madam’s building…

Topaz casually observed the situation down at the farm from where she relaxed. There was a sort of satisfied smile on her face as she watched Axel tame her rabid cow. “Oooh...not bad at all, Monsieur Remington…”

The possum beside her expressed her concern with a nervous squeak. “M-Madam Topaz...don’t you think we should start to fall back? The chances of him taking down the other two are likely. And what if we get spotted here?”

“Rleax yourzelf,” said the unicorn, “Zere iz nothing to fear so long as everything goez to plan. Our friend should be returning any second now…”

BOOM!

A powerful set of flaming buckshot would blast the rock they were hiding behind clean in half. This completely disrupted Topaz’s mirror spell and exposed the brown unicorn and her possum servant.

The one behind the blast was a somewhat annoyed cow-girl. “Gotchya’ll asses. Ah knew somethin’ fishy was up when Ah walked into somethin’ hard that I couldn’t very well see.” She aimed her shotgun down at them both with her finger itching to pull the trigger. “Now talk. What’re ya’ll doin’ here?”

Despite being face-to-face with two barrels that could spit molten death, Topaz wasn’t bothered at all. In fact, she appeared to be bored more than anything else. “Ah, merde. Of course you would find us out eventually. You are smarter than you look for a piece of cattle.”

Roseanne would nudge the barrel of her weapon ever closer to the unicorn’s face. “Ah asked a question. Ya’ll got about three seconds’ta answer before I blow yer face’ta kingdom come ‘n back.”

“M-maybe we should at least tell her,” said the possum as she hid behind her master, “N-no harm in at least doing that much, right?”

“Hm. If this face of mine is to be removed from existence, then it should at least be with a weapon that isn’t barbaric.” Disgusted at the thought of losing against a hefty, oversized firearm, Topaz was willing to cooperate and explain herself...for a time. “Alright zhen. If you muzt know, it’s simple. I’m conducting a bit of an experiment here. Thiz does not concern you, vache.”

The young minotaur woman didn’t take her words very lightly. Admittedly though, she didn’t exactly understand what that last one meant. “The hell’d you just call me?!” she yelled angrily, “And ya’ll are the reason for all them noises that came from inside?! You rotten little hayeater!”

“Uch! Pardon?!” Topaz stomped her hoof. “I’ll have you know zat I do not consume such lowly grain!” She raised her nose upwards in a pompous fashion. “You know what? I don’t even have time to deal with ze likes of you. Ahem, chatte!”

At her command, the Abyssinian from before leapt out from behind the hill and cast a bolt of lightning from her fingertips.

“What the--?!” But Roseanne was faster. Despite her stocky, Tauren figure, she was able to dodge with a quick leap backwards and wasted no time. She retaliated with another quick blast from her shotgun, and reloaded in the blink of an eye. “Dammit…!”

Topaz took the opportunity to leave the scene, trotting casually as if it were a lazy Sunday's walk. “Come, dear Possu. Our work here is done for ze day.”

Her little servant followed diligently. “O-oh! Yes Madam Topaz!”

“Hey!” Roseanne shouted, and aimed her gun at the unicorn. “Ah ain’t done witcha!” She pulled the trigger and with another loud bang, sent flaming buckshot in Topaz’s direction.

Unfortunately for her, her Abyssinian adversary cast a barrier spell that blocked her shots, and kept them from reaching the unicorn which allowed the latter to make an escape. “Not bad,” said the hostile she-cat, “But not good either. I can’t let you interfere.”

“What kinda vague bullshit is that?!” Rose screamed as she pointed her gun at the cat-girl. “Ya’ll tryin’a make mah kin go crazy ‘er somethin’?”

“...You could say that we all have something to prove here...and to shut down potential threats. Boss’s orders.” She put her fingers to her mouth and whistled…

PHHHHEW!

That’s when about six other Abyssinians--all with black fur and yellow eyes--appeared and surrounded the minotaur.

Despite the numerical imbalance, Roseanne was confident in herself as she readied her weapon, pointing it to the sky. “Welp--guess the odds are even now.”

Down in the farm itself…

Axel approached the greenhouse. With his guns at the ready, he approached the door and heard more of those destructive animal noises. If Martha was here, then she was most certainly under attack, helpless against two enraged bovine beasts.

“Just hang on, ma’am…”

So for him, it was now or never.

With a hard smash, Axel kicked the door to the greenhouse down. This gave him an extra advantage down to the slightest few milliseconds. He could see the two minotaur ladies--one dark gray, and one caramel-colored--both with solid red eyes just like the blue one he had dealt with previously.

They turned their heads to the door, and immediately rushed in towards his direction, jumping over the plants and the fountain in the middle of the greenhouse’s garden.

Now he was in his element. In the heat of a situation where he could think on his hooves and claws clearly. In less than half a second, he looked up and found planters filled with what appeared to be vegetable seeds in big, ceramic pots hung from chained arches above them both.

With a swift flick of his wrist and a bang-bang, he fired off two shots from his guns, which struck the chains with a loud chink and richochet off. The chains would be broken and allow the planters to fall from where they were once held.

CRASH!

The pots shattered directly onto the heads of both minotaur ladies. Hard enough to knock them out almost instantly, and send them falling onto the floor where they would land with a loud thud.

“Whew…” Axel took a breath, and spotted the office at the far end of the greenhouse. While he wasn’t entirely certain if that had done the trick, he wanted to make sure that Martha was unharmed.

He flew over the unconscious cow ladies, and down to the office on the other end. The door was locked, so he had to knock first. “Miss Martha? Are ya alright?” Since she was the owner of this place, Axel had expected her to be quite large or very foreboding in appearance.

The door was unlocked, and he heard a voice from inside. “...Wha--hurry up and get in here!”

Before he could blink, the door swung open and he was pulled inside. The door was then shut and locked back immediately after.

“Whew...safe. I’m surprised to see anybody actually come on out here,” the female voice who had pulled him in spoke. “I’m still trying’a figure out how I’m gonna deal with my girls without attacking them…”

Axel paused for a second and looked down, only to realize that the ‘minotaur’ talking was actually short. And actually, she wasn’t a minotaur at all--though she was still in the bovid race. Her face was more sheep-like than her workers. Specifically, her nose and snout were much thinner and shorter than a bovine’s--more in line with caprines like goats. In short, she was actually a species of sheepish-goat-creature known as a faun.

Shorter than Kora even. Though, her figure was still mature--she had wide, rounded hips and a slightly above average bust all combined into a rather short package. Colloquially known as a shortstack. Her body was a shade of light gray, and she wore a purple business suit that clung to her figure, pushing her breasts up.

But to the gunslinger, he had no idea who this was, and assumed she was someone else. “...Er, are you Martha’s younger sister or somethin’?”

She paused, and turned to glare at him with fire in her eyes. Her short head of gray hair looked like it was about to burst into flames. “Little sister?! I’m 62-years-old, boy! I’m older enough’ta be yer gran!”

His jaw dropped. Despite her age, her figure was in extremely good condition and betrayed her years. “...Say hwhat?”