Chapter 10
"Skeletons, fire the cannons!! Destroy these lowlife mortals!!!!" Drake commanded his skeleton pirates loudly from the ground. The skeletons aimed the cannons in the lower part of the ship to the ground right towards Elraven and Olivia's direction, and gave them at least half a dozen shots. The two evaded the cannons' shots by running towards different direction.
"Mr. Gunslinger, you take care of Drake!!! I'll stop that flying ship!!" Olivia shouted while entering one of the buildings that still stand. "Roger that!!" Elraven replied while readjusting his purple glasses. Olivia ran towards the highest floor of the buildings, and managed to climb her way to the roof. The skeletons fired the cannons to the buildings, destroying it in the process.
But suddenly Olivia appeared in the ship, right between the skeletons. Unknown to them, she used the teleportation spell before they destroyed the buildings. "Heal!" she chanted, destroying one of the skeletons. The skeletons drew their cutlasses, preparing to kill her. They attacked her at the same time, only to be knocked down one by one by her hardcover book's smash.
When more skeletons appeared and tried to take her down, she shouted "Holy Light!!", destroying all of them. "What? She is so strong!" Geckar shouted . "Huh? You are...the thugs from yesterday, right? What are you doing here?" Olivia asked surprisingly.
"Hah! I am the one who ordered these monsters to attack this town!" Geckar answered proudly. Olivia shocked in disbelieve. "You....do you know how many people died because of this? Do you even realize what are you doing?" she asked in a deep tone. But, "Why should I care?" was the only answer she got from Geckar.
Olivia couldn't hold her anger any longer than this. She ran towards Geckar and smashed his face with the hardest part of her hardcover books. "Waakh!" Geckar shouted when the attack sent him flying right to the street of Alberta from the flying ship. He lied motionless. "Serves you right!" Olivia said from the ship.
But suddenly, five soul strikes hit her from behind. "Akh!" she screamed when she fell to the ship's floor. She turned her head to see what's attacking her, and found out that it's a ghostring. "Oh, how gentle. Attacked a lady from her behind" she muttered while trying to stand.
Ghostring didn't give a reply. But, all of a sudden he vanished. Olivia didn't seem to worry. "Holy Light!" she shouted. The attack managed to reveal ghostring's true whereabouts, as he was seen running from the light. "I won't let you run! Increase agi!" she chanted another spell to herself, while at the same time running towards ghostring.
Ghostring summoned the giant whispers and ordered them to attack Olivia. But before his whispers managed to reach Olivia, Olivia already chanted her spell, "Magnus Exorcimus!!!". The big holy light destroyed all the whispers and ghostring at the same time. Olivia panted heavily, and healed herself.
But, she quickly noticed someone tried to attack her again from behind. She deflected the attack using her hardcover book and smashed the attacker with it. It was pirate skeleton again. She saw at least ten dozens skeletons stand in front of her. "Here we go again" she muttered as she rushed towards them.
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"Well, your ship doesn't seem to attack me anymore. What's wrong with them? The crews are dying? Oh, I forgot. You are all already dead, how silly of me" Elraven said while slowly approaching Drake, who was looking at his ship. Elraven put the long metal box on his back in the street and changed his bullets into the silver bullets. Drake looked at him and replied, "I'm not worrying my ship, I was only thinking how I would kill the High Priest if she managed to come out alive from my ship".
"Well, don't worry about that. Worry about me." Elraven replied back as he readying his Tristan & Lancelot. Drake didn't reply. He drew his double barreled shotgun with his left hand and prepared his saber on his right at the same time. Elraven and Drake stared at each other. After some moment of silent, they aimed their guns towards each other and start shooting.
When Drake blocked the silver bullets by using his saber, Elraven evading the shotgun's bullets by moving his body while at the same time gave Drake another shots. Again, Drake blocked the attack by using his saber, and threw another shot to Elraven. Elraven dodged the bullets by moving his body closer to the ground and sneaking right in front of Drake.
Drake slashed his saber towards Elraven, but Elraven blocked the attack by using his Tristan & Lancelot. Elraven tried to fought back by using his two guns as a smasher. Drake managed to defend himself using his saber and dodged Elraven's guns smashes. They threw their respective weapons back and forth so many times. The two weapons collided several times as this became a close range combat.
"Summon : Wraith Dead!" Drake shouted when he dodged one of Elraven guns smashes. Five wraith dead appeared and attacked Elraven, only to be destroyed by his Desperado. Drake saw this as an opening and sneaked a right in front of elraven, swinging his saber. Elraven dodged the attack by jumping to the air. Drake's saber slash cut the building behind Elraven in half, destroying it.
Although he was quite surprised, Elraven didn't waste time when he land in the ground. He quickly threw a grenade towards drake. But Drake anticipated this by shooting the grenade with his shotgun, exploding the grenade before it reached him, making a large smokes appeared in the street.
Unknown to Drake, Elraven already prepared to launch his Aiming technique. He shot his bullets right through the smoke screen. When the smoke screen disappeared, Elraven found out that the bullet hit a Wraith Dead instead of Drake when he saw a Wraith Dead disappeared after being hit by his bullet, much to his surprise. Whereas Drake was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, Drake came from Elraven's behind while thrusting his saber towards him. Elraven managed to dodge the attack by moving closer to the ground and shot Drake at the stomach, sent him flying. But, Drake's attack managed to scratch him quite deep in his back. Blood spilled slowly from his wound. Drake quickly stand to his feet and summoned his crow, Barnes.
"Barnes, cut him in half!!" Drake ordered. Barnes flew towards Elraven, it seems that his wing is his weapon to cut. Elraven shot Barnes before he could reached him. But once again, Drake attacked from his behind. This time, Elraven couldn't manage to dodge. Drake's saber thrusted his left arm, heavily wounded it.
Drake slowly pulled his saber from Elraven's left arm. Surprisingly for Drake, Elraven didn't scream, he didn't even show some painful expressions. He just stood there calmly while a quite amount of blood came out from his wound. "So, this is the power of a gunslinger? I have overestimated you, mortal" Drake said to Elraven.
Elraven didn't reply. "But you didn't scream from that wound, huh? It was quite surprising for a mortal who exposed his own weakness" Drake continued. "What do you mean?" Elraven replied. "Being a gunslinger means you are weak when it comes to a close range combat. Didn't you realize just by holding your two guns you exposed your own weakness? Shame on you,mortal" Drake explained.
Elraven stood silently for a second. He readjusted his purple glasses while putting his guns inside his sleeves. He took four coins from his pocket and gripped them in his left hand. "I hate that stereotype" he said to Drake. "What?" Drake replied. "That gunslingers are weak in a close range combat, I despise that stereotype a lot" Elraven replied back while advancing to a stance. This time his stance is more like a Karate stance.
"Come, I'll show you what a gunslinger can do facing a close range combat" he said to Drake. "You'll die this time. I'll cut you into ha.." Drake's words were interrupted by a sudden hit from a coin right to his face. Elraven was using his Triple Action attack this time. Before Drake could react, Elraven already appeared in front of him and gave him a knee strike right to his stomach. Elraven didn't waste this opportunity, he kicked Drake with his iron boots right to Drake's head, sending Drake down to the ground.
When Drake managed to stand on his two legs, he received another coin shot to his face. Again, he received an attack before he could react. This time it was an elbow strike to his chin, threw him a little to the air. But Elraven quickly grabbed Drake's left arm, and slammed Drake right to the ground using a Judo technique.
Drake quickly stood up and prepared to shot his shotgun, only to got another hit at his face by a coin and another kick to his head. He fell to the ground again. But this time, before he could stood back he received a stomps to his face. "Ukh!" Drake screamed as the stomps goes on. He prepared to receive another stomp, but much to his surprise Elraven slowly walked away from him.
"Now, let's flip this coin" Elraven said to him while still walking. "If heads, you die. If tails, you'll...live a bit longer" he said while flipping the coin to the air. He catch the coin and saw what it said. "It's tails", he said to Drake. Drake realized what that meant. He quickly aimed his shotgun to Elraven, and pulled the trigger. But before the bullets managed to came out from the barrels, Elraven threw the coin right in front of the barrel.
The shotgun exploded. "GWAKH!" Drake screamed. His left hand was destroyed because of this. But again before Drake could react, Elraven quickly drew his Lancelot and aimed it right to Drake's right elbow. He shot the bullets with the Piercing Shot technique, exploding Drake's right elbow when he hit his target. "GUAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Drake screamed louder than before when his saber fell to ground.
Drake fell to the ground while still screaming. "So, have you changed your opinion on gunslingers now?" Elraven said calmly while readjusting his purple glasses. "Being a gunslinger, is more than shooting bullets, more than throwing grenades. It's overcoming your own weakness while still hold on to your pride and heart" Elraven continued.
"If one can't overcome his own weakness, that means he doesn't qualify to be a gunslinger. That's why, a gunslinger won't be defeated by a simple close range combat. That's why I didn't scream when your saber hit me, because I have already overcome my weakness. The attack didn't hurt me at all. You underestimated your opponents too much. Thinking it's easy to defeat them, that's your weakness. Shame on you Drake, you exposed your own weakness without even realizing it" he finished.
Drake couldn't give a reply. "I won't be defeated by a mere mortal like you!! Skeletons, pick me up!!" Drake loudly ordered his pirates. The ship changed its course, moved closer to the ground. Drake jumped to the ship when it arrived not far from him. "What's going on?" Olivia muttered to herself while still fighting the skeletons on the ship.
She heard Elraven shouted, "Miss!! Get off from the ship!! Now!!". Olivia quickly jumped from the ship and ran towards Elraven. The ship flew higher when it already picked Drake up. "Fire the cannons!! Kill them, destroy this town!!!" Drake ordered loudly to his remaining pirates. And then the ship started to shoot the cannons uncontrollably, destroying anything they hit.
Elraven and Olivia hide in one of the buildings to avoid the cannons. They saw by their very own eyes how the cannons destroyed the buildings in Alberta one by one.
"Mr. Gunslinger, we must stop them!! They'll destroy the whole town like this!!" Olivia said to Elraven. "Don't worry, I can handle them. But, can you cast your support on me first? I'm injured" Elraven replied. Olivia saw the wounds on Elraven's back and left arm. "Sure. Angelus!! Blessing! Increase Agility! Gloria!! Heal!!" Olivia chanted almost half a dozen spell she had on Elraven.
"Thanks!" Elraven said while grabbing his long metal box from the street outside the building. "Wait, what are you going to do?" Olivia asked him. "I'll destroy that ship with this special weapon of mine, you wait here" Elraven replied. "Are you sure you can do this?" Olivia asked again. Elraven sighed while smiling.
"Miss, in my country, we gunslingers of Schwaltzvalt Republic have four rules in doing our missions. The first, is do it quick. The second, is do it serious. The third is, don't do it if you think you can't do it." Elraven explained while preparing his special weapon. "What's the fourth?" Olivia asked. "Do it with style!" Elraven said while running towards one of the buildings that still stand.
He jumped to the roof and shouted loudly, "Drake!! Come over here!! I'll finish you off!!!". Drake noticed him and ordered his pirates, "Turn the ship's direction to the gunslinger!! Kill him, shoot him, hit him with this ship!!! Just, kill him!!". Elraven smiled when he saw the ship head towards him.
He quickly opened his long metal box nad revealed whats inside the box. It's a 7 ft long Soldier Gatling Gun!!!
"Wha, what is that thing?" Olivia muttered to herself while watching Elraven from the ground. Elraven aimed the gun to the ship, and said "Drake, you had your chance to finish me off but you blew it up. Now, I must bid you farewell". And then, he pulled the trigger.
DREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDEDEDED!!!!
"Waaaaaah!!!" The entire ship screamed. The Gatling Gun bullet's hit the ship more than a thousand times. The ship shook and crumbled in the air. "Captain, we lose control of the ship!!" one of the skeletons told Drake loudly. "That man is destroying the ship!! We'll fall to the ground!!!" another skeletons shouted. The ship crumbled even faster when Elraven didn't stop the shooting.
"NOOOOOO! How could a mere mortal defeat me and my pirates?!! NOOOO!!!" Drake screamed as his ship fell to the ground and exploded, destroyed into pieces of old woods. The sound of the ship's explosion echoed throughout the entire Alberta. The explosion killed everyone inside the ship, including Drake.
Elraven stopped his attack and smiled victoriously while readjusting his purple glasses. From the ground Olivia muttered to herself in disbelieve, "This gunslinger guy is a real deal".
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So as I promised, this fight is longer than the previous three. I also realized than Gunslinger is a flexible character to use in a combat. You can put him anywhere, anytime, against anyone but he'll still throw up a good fight. I guess I'll have him fight more than one opponent next time.
Thank you for the reviews (especially Adila). See you next chapter!!!
Several improvisation I made in this chapter :
Gunslingers can throw grenades, but this is different from Grenade Launcher (of course)
Gunslingers can use their guns as a smasher (inspired by equilibrium)
Gunslingers can do martial arts
I named Drake's crow Barnes, because when I wrote this chapter I was reading Karate Kid Part III storyline in wikipedia