Chapter 7 The Pilot
After a dreamless sleep, Caster woke up and opened his tent before remembering last night´s events and groaning.
"Hey kid, I wanna tell ya, I had nothing to do with Crazy Cadence´s plan."
That pilot has a smooth punchable face…
"To make it up to you, I´ll take you under my wing for today´s Gungeon run!"
Caster scrapped his plan of revenge for this free shot.
The Pilot had the worst weapon ever, it was a discarded mini engine that shot to the left and right and sometimes even straight. His so called "trusty" lockpicks sometimes made it impossible to open chests. He did manage to charm Bello into selling him stuff for lower prices but overall, Caster felt like he was carrying the run with his advanced spells. In fact, he felt super on his game, making mincemeat out of Bullet Kin left and right.
They even rescued a tall lady from Gungeon Proper, though she had refused to talk to them directly, she had informed them through her guards that she was a sorceress, so Caster was very excited to meet her, only if he failed that is.
In the Blackpowder Mines, their luck turned around upon when they found a rainbow chest containing a whopping 8 items, one of which was a black hole gun which helped make the run a cakewalk. The Hollow proved to be trivial with their arsenal. The Pilot was so excited he shut up and focused. After reaching the boss chamber, the Pilot proposed to take a break from all the running and catch their breath.
"Luckily for newbies such as yourself, most of the grunt work was done by us."
"What do you mean?"
"The first one to reach the Forge met with the Blacksmitch who made the Gun, she told him that she needed to forge more bullets for it and that the materials were scattered across the Gungeon, we worked together to gather them all and now everything is set to go to the Past. At least, if anyone could make it past the Forge and find the Blacksmith, wish I knew how the Marine had done it and what monster he had to face down in that hellhole…"
Inside of the boss room was a cloaked figure with a single pistol sticking out of its blood red hood. The Pilot gulped.
"The High Priest."
It screeched, and bullets went flying out of its arms. Caster felt the urge to take cover only there was no cover to be found.
Meanwhile, back in the Breach, the Hunter was glaring at Cadence who was lying down and being fanned by Ox. She yawned to look even more mocking.
"You know why I´m here."
Cadence stopped smirking.
"Why are you so protective of that weirdo?"
An idea occurred to her and she slyly glanced at the Hunter.
"Oh, I see. You liiiiiike him, don´t you."
Without missing a beat or changing expression, the Hunter shook her head as she hopped over the counter.
"It´s called friendship, not that you would know what that is." Laughing even.
The shop owner flushed and balled her fists.
The Hunter looked at the room, at the shelves full of items to purchase, countless amounts of strange items and even stranger guns lying about on display. For the first time, she wondered just what reasons Cadence had for staying here other than cash and her sister. She discovered a letter shoved in-between item stacks that had beautiful handwriting on it and speedread it. Cadence growled about privacy and lunged forward to get it, naturally the Hunter reflexively sidestepped her.
"Your sister doesn´t want you to stay here, yet you´re waiting for some silly prince. Makes me giggle, on the inside."
"Shut up!"
"Caster sure isn´t a prince, but that was a very cruel prank to pull."
"Well he lied to me! With his stupid fake appearance!" Crossing her arms like a spoiled child only proved the Hunter´s thoughts more.
"Selfish views indeed. Did it ever occur to you that he does that for himself? Or are you just plain stupid? You put on makeup! Altering one's appearance his way is just a step further." She turned around and left, saying that Cadence was a waste of her time, leaving the girl to frustratingly read a magazine.
Throwing rapid fire cursed flames at the High Priest, Caster felt a personal hatred for the thing as it had reminded him of his past. Determined to kill it, he growled as it vanished once more and proceeded to take pot shots at them. It reappeared and died to the Pilot´s Rubedyne Prototype. The two of them were breathing heavily. Caster noticed an update in his book of spells but kept it a secret as he couldn´t believe what he had read.
The spells of the High Priest…? No, surely, I wouldn´t be allowed to get away with having those, I must be seeing things…
Neither of them wanted to say anything as they rode the elevator to the Forge.
It was hell, sweat from the heat made his hands slippery and the goddamn hammers that would appear and burst fire were annoying to deal with, the enemies were craftier and there were more of them. The usual routine, opening chests, surviving rooms, complaining about the dearth of ammo, finding the boss room.
Neither of them knew what was waiting for them.
Neither of them knew what would happen afterwards, as there was only one Gun that could Kill the Past.
Neither of them wanted to say that aloud.
If he doesn´t die during this fight, I will let him have the Gun, I´m confident I can make it to this point again, he´s been cooped in here far longer than I have.
There was nothing in the room but a pit of fire. A large mechanical hand clawed its way up from the fiery abyss, then another. A maw and wings came up afterwards. The dragon roared and the two of them released their breath.
"Ancient and venerable. The High Dragun."
Dragun? For rea-? You know what, I´m not even going to question it.
It breathed bullets. They scattered. It threw enormous daggers onto the walls that actually SHOT at them. They were quickly overwhelmed because they had to shoot the daggers, Pilot blanked the bullets being fanned from the beast´s wings and switched to the stinger while Caster pulled out the blooper. It was a long fight. It pulled out an enormous grenade launcher that demanded very precise dodging. Then it pulled out two more guns and began firing arcs.
Intense was the only way to accurately describe the fight.
It turned grey and roared as lava began to seep from its pores. It roared and with its wings, blew a blizzard of bullets towards them with the smallest of gaps. Dodge rolling was essential indeed. The drake´s heart was revealed to them, and they blasted it with everything they had. Caster even murmured a curse onto it and the Gungeon may have allowed it to work as the Dragun bit the dust, exploding. Its spine fell and formed a bridge to the next room. No reward spawned. The Pilot shot its head and collected a weird purple casing.
"The last ingredient… I´m so close to victory."
So close to victory…
The Pilot had a mad hunger look in his eyes as he clutched his void marshal and the casing to his chest and looked at Caster, pointing the gun at him.
"I can´t live with the guilt and I can´t wait anymore."
Caster threw his arms up and dropped his weapon.
"I was going to let you keep it anyways, figured it was fair."
The Pilot lowered his weapon a bit and looked sheepish.
"Sorry about the scare, don´t know what came over me there."
Caster looked the Pilot and kept a stoic face as he thought about how little he actually knew this smug-faced Flash Gordan who had ruined his street cred and his date and thought about his own Past.
He quick swapped to his witch pistol and fired, but the Pilot had anticipated the move and gotten out of the way. He looked enraged and pulled out the stinger as the room closed and the announcer´s voice boomed.
"The Pilot Vs the Spellcaster!"
Caster was furious and held his hand to the sky, tracing the letter "N" and firing. Sidestepping and retaliating with a missile filled with bees, Caster aggressively swatted them away from him after rolling away from the explosion.
The ground shook, breaking their balance. Caster´s weapons and items were removed and given to the Pilot. He pulled out his wand and his book.
The Gungeon is no place for compassion indeed.
Caster knew he couldn´t defeat the Pilot without any weapons and his spells were easy to dodge for
someone as experience as him, so he went for the old-fashioned way of fighting. Rolling through the second missile and dreading the inevitable bee assault that came with it, he sprinted and wrestled the stinger out of the Pilot´s hands, the casing dropping as the two struggled with the gun as the bees harassed Caster who wouldn´t relent. He kneed the man in the balls and got the launcher in his grasp. The Gungeon made it vanish yet again as the Pilot pulled out the Blooper. Before he could shoot with that deadly shotgun, Caster kicked him in the face, hard, shattering his nose before unleashing a storm of bullets from his hand like the High Priest.
The Pilot got over his bewilderment and shot, missing as Caster used the enhanced dash of the Priest to maneuver behind the Pilot who rolled through the cavalcade of bullet waves appearing in the corners as Caster vanished. When he reappeared, he conjured up a barrier and some flying skulls, the Pilot got hit due to the smaller room he was in not giving him enough space.
"You traitor! Die already!"
Caster used the High Priest´s ghostly sprint to dash forward and knock the Pilot square in the jaw, flooring him again. Caster stomped on his neck and almost demonically ignored his wounds as he lifted his beaten-up body, dizzy from the hit to the noggin, arms flailing about, and tossed him into the fire.
The Gun appeared and shot the Pilot back in time.
I just killed a man. He´s not dead, but if this had happened outside of the Gungeon, his corpse would be melting.
Am… I a monster?
No. No. NO.
That bastard got what he deserved. The Gun is mine! I must find the Blacksmith.
Rooms were a cakewalk with the High Priest´s abilities. He walked inside and immediately noticed that
the Blacksmith was not only a beautiful woman, but that she must have been related to Cadence somehow because they shared such a close resemblance. She was working on a gun and didn´t even look at him as he approached, wondering how she could sleep in the bed nearby with this heat.
"You must be here for the Bullet, have you slain the Dragun?"
He nodded, dumbstruck and handed the casing over. She quickly worked on a strange glowing bullet in the span of a couple of seconds and handed it over.
"Good luck." Droning on her current project, she said nothing more and acted as if he weren´t here.
Caster stood in the room and saw the treasure chest up ahead, he didn´t pay attention to the weird, massive, floating bullets around him and ran up single-mindedly to the gun. Opening the chest, his thoughts froze in visible confusion.
The Gun that can Kill the Past was a basic revolver, with a hinge that pointed at the person shooting it.
Caster pursed his lips and decided not to comment while he reloaded it. He aimed forward and the golden crosshair that appeared whenever a Gungeoneer died was now under his command. He charged up and watched the clock turn counterclockwise.
He shot.