Canterlot Academy Trials

Earlier, outside of the tower…

The team from Block Sigma had rushed along in order to catch up with Uziel the goblin. The latter had rushed off on her own when she heard one of her sisters was in trouble without thinking her actions through. However, goblins weren’t exactly known for being easy to take down without a fight.

As a result, when they arrived at the tower entrance, they saw a little green monster fighting off multiple cat warriors at once. She casually reflected the bullets they shot out of their guns, and knocked their weapons out of their hands before beating them down to the ground.

“...What’s the plan, Fang?” Rufus asked as they all stopped on a hill overlooking the tower, “Should we jump in to help?”

“...I don’t think she’s the one who needs help,” Spearklip muttered as she pointed to the violent goblin tearing up the guards around the fortress.

With this in mind, Fang decided to split the group apart in order to cover more ground.

“Lee. You’re with me. We’re going to infiltrate this fortress and see what we can find,” Fang commanded while glancing at the monkey woman.

“Shì de--ready!” she replied with a confident salute.

Then Fang turned to Spear and Rufus. “You two make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. Back her up as much as possible.”

“On it, boss,” Spear replied as she rushed down the hill.

“Leave it to the King!” Rufus cheered as he leapt after the zebra.

Once they were off, the dalmatian took a look at the primate. “This way. I suspect you have skill with stealth, yes?”

“Of course I do,” Lee replied with a smile as she followed Fang around the outskirts of the fortress. The two would circle around and avoid the attention of any further guards, allowing Uzi and their teammates to serve as the perfect distraction to let them get inside.

Soon enough, they’d find an opening via one of the tower’s windows, allowing them to leap inside and jump onto a platform that overlooked a small foyer area beneath. But what they were about to see…was not at all what they had been expecting.

This was right around the exact same time that Bullet had told Laurent to stay put below a set of stairs that led up to this room. A foyer with old wooden floors. Crates and barrels strewn about as the monkey man walked gingerly through the room…

“...”

The next thing he knew, he was ambushed by a cougar woman that slashed at him with her claws. Bullet dodged just in time, bouncing off of his tail as he slid backwards and fired a gunshot to her kneecaps, then another to her neck, causing her to squeal and hiss wildly as she fell to the floor.

Just then, a spotted leopard man jumped out from behind one of the barrels and fired a few shots off from a jade-plated lever-action rifle. The exact same brand of weapon that Bullet himself used.

Such a detail registered in his mind for later as he bounced up, and used his tail to hook himself upon one of the wooden bars that stuck out from the walls to hold candles. While there, he took another shot and put a bullet through the leopard’s shoulder, and his chest.

BANG!

“...!”

Bullet’s tail was shot by a serval woman carrying a revolver which caused him to drop to the floor before clutching it in pain. The revolver bullet grazed his tails nerve endings but the blood coming from the wound near the tip meant he couldn’t rely on his tail’s natural agility boost for this fight anymore.

So he had to improvise.

For the moment, he lied there. Still. Motionless. Acting as if he hit his head hard enough to lose consciousness. The serval woman would approach him slowly, unaware of what he was planning as she tilted her head…intent on making one last shot.

Laurent, watching from the stairwell, started to panic internal, biting his lip as he started to sweat. ‘C’monc’mon’c’mon! Get up, Bullet! I know you’re not done!’

Indeed he wasn’t.

Just before the serval woman could pull the trigger, Bullet spun around on his right hand into a quick one-handed handstand where he kicked the revolver out of her paw and shot her once through her midsection with the gun in his left, causing her to drop to the ground immediately after.

“Yeah!” Laurent cheered with his tail wagging, which caught the attention of several other Abyssinian guards that entered the room. “...oops.”

“Bèndàn…” Bullet muttered as he found himself surrounded on all sides by what appeared to be six large, buff cat men.

“Hey I know you,” one of them commented, “Yeah you’re Yin Bei.”

“His head is worth at least a million bucks in ABD,” another one commented, referencing Abyssinian Dollars.

“Let’s take his tail, then maybe we could take him for some fun,” one more added with a sinister mewl.

With his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket, the monk simply scoffed with an unimpressed, half-lidded expression. Opting to not say a word, and instead gaze out upon each feline’s body language to predict their movements. Since his ammo was limited at this point, and the wound on his tail was still aching him, Bullet knew he couldn’t expend too much energy if he wanted to get Laurent to safety.

‘...this one here…that one there…yup.’

And in no time, he was rushed by two at once. With his hands still in his jacket pockets, he’d execute his next move with just his legs and his hand-like feet.

Specifically, grabbing the face of one of the thugs with one foot and, using all of his might, swung him around into the other cat thug and knocking them both into a pile of barrels nearby, injecting their faces and eyes full of sharp, rigid wooden splinters. Then the next big cat that would charge at him would attempt to tackle him, but miss entirely once Bullet dropped to the floor on his back and kicked his attacker’s knee so forcefully that a bone had broken, and the cat man had collapsed to the floor, breaking his neck in the process.

And before any of them could react or even attempt to jump in after them--

BANGBANG!

Bullet used the last of his ammo on the remaining attackers, having somehow passed his guns down to his hand-like feet, and fired them off, shooting down the last three before getting up, passing them back to his actual hands, and flipping them back into his holsters.

“Alrighty…let’s get outta here, Larry.”

“Thatwassocoolomigosh!” Laurent ran up to the primate and practically bounced around him with his eyes beaming. “The way you shoot is so awesome!”

Bullet simply sighed as he put his hand to his head. “Argh…yeah. See if any of these corpses has a cigar or something will ya?” he requested as he waved him off with his other hand.

To which Laurent replied happily, “Yes sir!” And immediately went around looting each dead Abyssinian.

“Kids…” Bullet rolled his eyes as he looked up…and noticed both the dalmatian diamond dog and…fellow Wukong primate. “...well fuck.”

“...Yin Bei…” Leelee muttered his name as she jumped down to greet him with a stern glare in her eyes. “...why are you here? Answer me.”

All he replied with was a scoff as he turned his head away from her, “...I’m here because I have to be. What’s your excuse?”