Advent Of A Gunslinger

Before anyone had any time to react, Typh’s ship would de-cloak and reveal itself to Celaeno and everyone on board.

And standing tall on the bow was the eagle captain herself alongside a crew of a dozen deer. “You’re gonna regret not handing him over when you had the chance, ya scurvy dogs!”

“What the--?!” Celaeno screeched upon seeing the eagle’s ship make a return, and swiftly drew her flintlock pistol. “What did you do to my ship you witch?!”

Everyone else around her had their weapons drawn, and as they got ready to fire, Typh would respond in a condescending tone. “Oh? Not intelligent enough to realize that your shoddy little ship is behind the times? Clearly you haven’t thought of installing anti-magic technology into your vessel’s engine…”

“Wh--what?! You mean you were able to shut my ship down remotely?!” Celaeno shouted with a sense of panic in her voice. “H-how is that even possible?!”

Monocrow stepped in front of his captain and the others who were on board the ship. “Cut the shit, Typha! Your business is with me. Not everyone else. Leave them out of it!”

“Really, Zeph?” The eagle chose to ignore the rival captain in favor of responding to her brother. “Leave them out of it huh?” She drew a blunderbuss from her hip, and pointed it directly at his head. “Just like you left dad and me in the care of that witch of a woman?!”

“Enough, Typh!” Monocrow shouted as he took flight to be on an even level with his sister. “This isn’t the place for family counseling. Leave now before things get really messy.”

The eagle woman grit her teeth and glared at the group on the opposing ship. Her enraged expression suddenly morphed into a rather demented, crazed smile as she snapped her fingers. “I don’t think so.”

“Wha--?!”

ZAP!

Before anyone could react, one of the cannons on Typh’s ship fired what appeared to be a laser round straight through Rusty’s chest!

“AA--...!”

It happened so fast that he couldn’t blink nor make a sound. The round barreled through the air and left a trail of small rings surrounding a straight line of smoke in its wake. The vulture wasn’t struck in a vital area, but he was knocked to the deck of the ship, barely breathing as smoke left his body.

“RUST!!” Monocrow screamed with his feathers spread wide, and took off towards the ship without a second thought. “You goddamn--I’ll kill you!!”

“I tried to be reasonable before,” Typh responded with a sadistic grin on her face, “But I guess that’s off the table now, isn’t it?!”

As soon as the osprey came close enough, he was caught in a field of magic. “What the--?!”

At the same time, on Celaeno’s ship, Chang had rushed over to Rusty’s body. “He’s...severely damaged. I’ll have to focus all of my efforts on him.”

“Do what you can!” Celaeno called out, “I’ve got other business to--”

But before she could give any orders, multiple deer teleported onto the deck of her ship, all carrying magical cutlasses or flintlocks of their own with matching black uniforms that matched that of their eagle captain.

And in front, the largest buck spoke to his fellow deer. “Leave the hippogriff alive above all else. I could care less what you do with the others.”

BANG!

Without hesitation, Celaeno fired her pistol. The flaming ball of metal was strong enough to snipe one of the antlers off of another buck’s head like a knife through butter. “I don’t think so! You can’t do whatever you want to me or my ship, but harming one of my crewmates will earn you a spot in the dirt!”

“What she said,” Vido called out from above her with the marksman rifle aimed directly at the group of deer, “You ciervos have some nerve disabling her ship before we can fight back. Are you afraid or something?”

Kora exposed her serrated feline fangs, and licked them hungrily as a way to threaten them with violence. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but venison is a rare commodity. I could kill for some right now.”

This earned her a few apprehensive looks from a couple of the deer, which meant that her threats were already working.

Chang had slipped away from the battlefield, and held himself up within his infirmary to take care of Rusty.

The large buck remained unamused, repeating his reasoning. “We have no quarrel with you. Hand Remington over to us, and we’ll leave.”

But Celaeno wouldn’t budge. One could see veins pulsate upon her neck as she did her best to keep herself in order. “Over. My. Dead. Body.”

That’s when Kora realized something. Axel was no longer present on the ship. “...If I know him, I know exactly where he is.”

Where was that?

On the eagle’s ship to confront the captain himself.

“I don’t like shootin’ a lady,” he muttered just a few feet away from her while hovering in the air with his head tilted downwards.

“Really now?” Typh turned around to greet him with a smile. On the main deck of her ship, Monocrow could be seen caught and frozen in place by the magical aura of four deer. “Then that makes this easier, doesn’t it? Come quietly and I’ll release him.”

“...But in your case,” he drew one of his guns, and held it upward, pushing it against his hat to tip it up and let her see his eyes, “...You don’t deserve no mercy.”

Her smile quickly faded as she adopted a disgusted frown on her beak. “Yeech. You men are all alike. So focused on yourselves and what matters solely to you. I bet you don’t care about anyone else on that boat, do you?” she spat with a judgemental stare.

Those words forced Axel to think for a second. “...Leavin’ ‘em would be pretty selfish, wouldn’t it?” He cocked his pistol, and aimed it at the deer nearby. “I don’t know whatcha been through, and I quite frankly don’t care. I got my own shit’ta deal with. And rasslin’ up my travellin’ companions is gettin’ in my way.”

From within the magical force field, the osprey heard the gungslinger’s words. “Well I’ll be damned. Didn’t think he’d bother to come up here.” Even though he was frozen in place by the cervids, he could still move his eyes, and glanced around the deck for any sign of a way to free himself. “Come on...there has to be something.”

There were a few barrels, but nothing that appeared to be useful at first glance…

“Hmph,” the eagle scoffed, “Guess you aren’t like the sleazbag men I’ve met over the years. Too bad that doesn’t matter to me.” With a quick flick of her wrist, she aimed her blunderbuss at the hovering hippogriff, and pulled the trigger.

BLAM!

With a low, almost static explosion, the gun spat a volley of pellets akin to that of a shotgun.

Ever quick on the draw, Axel flew out of the way, and landed upon the bow of her ship. When he landed, he performed a dodging roll, and shot a few bullets in her direction.

“Fnh!” The bullets grazed her corset as she performed a dodge in retaliation. Despite the fact that they were enemies, she had to admit that he was a good shot. “You ain’t bad for an Appleloosan!” she called out from behind her ship’s wheel, and stood up to shoot over it. With another loud bang!, the pellets fired from the weapon destroyed the crate that Axel had been hiding behind.

Keyword: Had been.

The hippogriff was nowhere to be found when the wooden box was blown to pieces. “What the--?!”

Click.

Before she could say another word, she felt something hard and metallic poke the back of her head. This was then followed by Axel’s voice. “Drop your weapon and get up nice and slow.”