Advent Of A Gunslinger

Indeed there was.

When Axel flew up to find out who had fired shots in his direction, the culprit was easily identifiable to his eagle-eyes. “...Another one?!”

Another one indeed. Another monkey goon with an intent to kill. With another loud bang!, she fired off another shot from the marksman rifle up at the flying hippogriff.

Fortunately, Axel was skilled enough to dodge gunfire from a lower position. In fact, he had the advantage thanks to the issue of wind resistance against bullets flying upwards. With a quick flick of his wrists, he fired off a few shots in retaliation, but the monkey had escaped by down and off of the building.

“Oh no you don’t, varmint.”

His plan was simple. Axel flew down with the intent to cut the goon off from behind the building.

However, things didn't go his way this time.

As soon as he landed, he was met with a large, burly figure from around the corner of the building. A black-furred, yellow-eyed abyssinian who had far greater muscle mass than the ones he had dealt with previously.

“...Wh...what’re--I knew it…” Axel glared at the tom.

Said tom was casually leaning against the side of the building with an unreadable, neutral expression on his face. “Axel Remington, yeah? My associates have been looking for you.” He stood upright with one of his hands in his pockets. “We can make dis simple and keep anymore blood from being shed unnecessarily.”

The hippogriff narrowed his eyes, glaring at the tom with his guns drawn. “I don’t cotton’ta nobody’s beck and call,” he growled through his mask, “So you better mosey yerself right on back to where ya came from before things get nasty.”

Alade gave a small, annoyed sigh. He ultimately knew it would come down to this and that Axel wasn’t going to comply easily. “I expected such resistance from you. In dat case--” The tom immediately dropped all pretenses of politeness and lunged at the gunslinger like a panther with his fangs and claws out.

“...!” Axel’s natural reflex was to leap back and shoot at the same time. With two bullets fired from his guns, they were aimed directly at the abyssinian’s chest.

PWANG!

...What he did not expect, was the fact that the bullets would have absolutely no effect on the tom. More than that, it was the fact that the bullets bounced off his seemingly indestructible pectoral muscles as if they were tiny seeds!

“What in blue blazes?!” the gunslinger called out.

While he suffered almost no damage, Alade still flinched ever so slightly. “Ergh--hm...not bad. Not bad at all. You’re quite the shot that everyone said you were…” He puffed out his chest--seemingly ready to take any and all forms of punishment. “But I know your weak points. Only when a gunslinga’s weapons are ineffective does he consider otha means of combat.”

“...Ghh..” Axel grit his teeth beneath his mask, unable to think up a reasonable means of attack. The problem was: If bullets had no effect on this large cat man, then what did?

From nearby, Chang had been watching the entire situation and was also at a loss for what to do against such a strong opponent. "Think you fool. Think..."

At the same time…

Over on a building near the docks, Kora had been actively working the enchantment and had made some progress. The private yacht had started to fall apart and fray in some areas. The spell was working!

Unfortunately, it was also taking a toll on her body. The spell caused an extreme level of stress on her mind, to the point where the blood vessels beneath her fur started to throb. “Ngggh! Just a little longer…”

Just one block away from Kora…

Sun and Topaz had continued making their way down the back road towards the docks, leading the captured ponies by force.

“Think your māo rén can keep us safe on our way to this boat of yours?” Sun asked, “I think I heard a few more shots.”

Topaz raised an eyebrow, confused at first. But then realized the monkey gal was speaking in reference to Alade. “Hm? Oh, yes. He haz everyzing under control. Come now. Let’s get to ze boat and load everyone up. Hopefully he iz done by then.”

But just before they could round the corner to make it to the docks…

Vido descended onto the ground in front of them with a rifle in his claws. “None of you move. Stay right where you are, and no one gets hurt.”

To say that Sun was surprised would be an understatement. She scoffed and pointed her staff at the griffon. “Tch. And here I thought I had gotten rid of such trash like you. Why are you still her--” All the sudden, she paused mid-sentence and took a closer look at the weapon he was holding. “Wait a minute--how did vermin like you get your nasty claws on our prized weaponry?!” Her pupils shrank a little bit as she grit her teeth and screamed, “Aaaah! Give it back now!”

“Yikes. Does she value this weapon that much?” Vido thought to himself in a split-second, “...I can use this to my advantage.” With a confident grin on his face, the griffon held the gun by its trigger, pointing it to the sky. “Alright. No problema, simia. Simply release all of those ponies you have there, and this gun is all yours.”

Some of the ponies in the group looked distantly hopeful at the possibility of escape with their ears and tails flicking.

“...” Sun was visibly shaken, and clutched her staff tightly as she stared at the ground--as if hoping an answer would pop out to her. On the one hand, she didn’t want to risk losing a major sale. On the other, letting one of their prized weapons fall into enemy hands…

Only to be interrupted by a perturbed Topaz. “Ahem! I don’t zink so!” she shouted as she stomped her hoof on the pavement, “You aren’t going to get away with somezing like zis so easily. Zis is my chance to make hiztory!” Her horn started to glow a deep blue hue as she prepared her magic, causing the monkey next to her to yell.

“What are you doing?! Don’t risk making a fool out of yourself!” She then glared at Vido. “And you. Don’t listen to her. I’ll be taking that weapon back.”

“...Time to divide y conquistaras.” The griffon narrowed his eyes, shooting her an uncertain expression. “Is that so, hm? Guess I know who’s really in control here.”

“That’s right,” Sun replied as she took a step forward, “It’s--EEK!”

ZAP!

With a flash, Sun was forcibly pushed out of the way thanks to a blast of magic from Topaz. More specifically, it was a magical bow and arrow that was the same blue color as her aura. “We are not giving zem up!”

“Are you sure you want to play that game, señora?” Vido asked while pointing the rifle in her direction, straight at her head. “I don’t think you want to find out what this thing is capable of.”

Stumped in her frustration, Topaz wasn’t able to react right away. “Dhhhhrgh…!”

Which gave Sun the perfect opportunity to strike back. Seeing them distracted by each other, she decided to get up and immediately go after the griffon to get that firearm back.

And from the corner of his eagle eye, Vido could see the monkey gal silently recover and leap towards him--!

BANG!

He quickly reacted with a quick spread of his wings and jumped into the air before she could reach him. He fired the gun in her direction. With a loud crackle into the air, a bullet flew and went straight through one of her knees, causing her to scream.

“AAAAGH!” she cried and stopped in her tracks and collapsed on the ground. Her kneecap had been completely shattered by the bullet and it rendered her unable to move, but it wasn’t enough to kill her.

ZAP!

As soon as Vido turned to shoot his attacker, Topaz would take advantage of it and fire multiple arrows into the air which exploded and transformed into dozens of smaller arrows that lodged themselves in the griffon’s wings.

“AWK!” With a horrified screech as they were punctured, Vido’s wings locked up completely. As a result, he was forced to fall to the pavement where he hit the ground with a thud!

With her opposition incapacitated, Topaz put her bow away and got prepared to move the pony slaves once more. “Hm. Now zat zat’s settled…”

That is, until…

CLICKCLACKCLICKCLACK!

A loud stampede of galloping hooves thundering against the ground started to get close and closer near her position.

“Merde!” Topaz thought to herself as she heard the noise, “Zis is a complete dizaster! We have to go. Now!”

Ultimately, the unicorn decided to forgo the plan altogether, and bolted away in a fierce gallop from the situation.

What caused all of that noise?

It was the Imperial Royal Guard. Monkey soldiers clad in red and yellow robes with plated armor underneath and riding on mountain goats as their mighty steeds. They all came to a stop when they found the slaves and the elusive Sun Gao injured and on the ground. As well as a hurt griffon.

The captain of the guard, the largest of them, spoke to his troops. “Zhè jiùshì Sūn Gāo! Lìjí jiāng tā qiújìn qǐlái, jiāng nàxiē xiǎo mǎ dài rù shéndiàn yǐ qiú ānquán!” To translate, he had ordered his group to get Sun imprisoned and to make sure that the ponies were taken to the temple safely.

Then he laid eyes on the griffon, wondering why he was there. “...Nǐ shì shéi?”