East Meets West 3 (Patreon)

Thankfully, the town Rocco and I had come to was quiet enough that I was able to stay for a few days. More importantly, I was able to rent use of one of the town smith’s forge. I had all of the raw materials I needed to make more bullets, but attempting to do so from a camp fire was an exercise in frustration and wasted time. The blacksmith was watching me the entire time, but he seemed to relax when he saw that I knew my way around a forge.

Truthfully, I could create bullets from the power that let me do all this fantastical bullshit, but it cost less energy to empower regular bullets. More than that, barriers that blocked the constructs created by the inner energy typically couldn’t also stop lead. Combine that with specialized runes, pictographs, and the like carefully etched into the back of the bullet, designed to trigger when the gunpowder went off, and there were millions of possibilities in regards to continuing to use physical bullets.

At the moment, I was casting molds of bullets. It wasn’t something that took long, the time consuming portion was the cleaning of the outside and etching the back of them. Most of them I would just etch a general purpose enhancement on, a few I would use either an elemental boost or a holy one.

All in all, it was a very relaxing day. I paid the smith the pouch of silver coins for use of his forge and headed to the closest bar.

[hr][/hr]

The smith shook his head as the stranger left, turning and making his way back to the main part of the shop where his two assistants were.

“I guess I don’t care so long as it’s fast enough I’m not aware of it,” Qiao Yi said with a shrug, making the smith blink in confusion.

“What the hell are you two talking about?” he asked.

“Hm? Oh, just idle chatter,” Jie Yi answered. “The topic came around to death so I asked Qiao Yi how he wanted to go. How about you, Boss? You got a method that you prefer?”

The smith chuckled lightly, and then answered, “That’s easy. I want to go peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like the other people in the wagon. How about you?”

“Well it’s not going to be the easiest way to go, but I figured I’d go by suffocation. WIth my face as a seat for a woman shaped like a tribal fertility goddess,” Jie Yi responded, his gaze going distant, before he shook himself. “Speaking of women, Lady Tihua had a request for a custom order.”

The smith groaned internally, Lady Tihua had some weird interests, before asking, “Is it made of metal?”

Jie Yi winced and slowly said, “Well… no, first we’re going to have to salt cure an entire brown cow hide…”

“Jie Yi,” the smith cut him off. “I am a blacksmith. This is a forge. I work with metal.”

“I realize that,” Jie Yi tried again. “But…”

The smith picked up a metal bar and knocked it against the anvil as he reiterated, “I’m not a woodworker, not a tanner, blacksmith.”

Jie Yi sighed, “Can I at least tell you what she offered to pay?”

[center]<<Next Morning>>[/center]

The smith hummed a tune to himself as he threw salt onto the hanging cow hide, “Oh I’m a dirty money slut~. Hmm, hm. Hmm, hm. I’ll do what you say if you pay enough~. Hm, hmm hm hm.”

[hr][/hr]

The next day, I gave the smith an odd look as I walked past him, not sure what a smith is doing salt curing hide, but instead went to where Rocco had been stabled. There was apparently some manner of giant snake causing trouble nearby, so killing it and getting paid for the proof would see me secured financially for the next few months.

Giving Rocco a pat on the neck as I finished saddling him up, I hopped into the saddle and muttered, “Let’s go pal, there’s a big Critter who's been attacking caravans, and we’re going to put a stop to it.”

Rocco snorted, and then shook himself as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’

I chuckled, sometimes it was like I could hear him, and said aloud, "You know what I'm talking about, now let's get moving."

We rode out of town, and Rocco turned to the south, heading towards a small mountain range. The trip took a few hours, the desert seeming to fly past us. When we reached the mountains, Rocco slowed to a trot once again, and I watched the peaks as we approached them. I wasn't entirely sure what the snake we were after looked like, my grasp on the language only letting me get 'demon' and 'snake' when the bartender translated the bounty poster for me.

After a while, I started to wonder why we hadn't seen anything resembling the creature. I stopped and dismounted, letting Rocco walk. I decided to take a closer look at the area where the attack had happened, and I was sure that it would help me figure out where the Critter might have gone. As we neared the place, I noticed a trail leading away from the road, which led into a gully. It looked like some type of animal had dug out a den in there, but it was too shallow for the Critter I was looking for.

That didn't mean that I couldn't find something useful though. A large pile of sand had been spread over a section of the gully, and I rummaged through it, finding a number of bones, some fur, and a leather glove. Not knowing what else to look for, I gathered everything up, and left the gully.

Once we were back on the road, Rocco kept close to the edge of the road, keeping an eye on the desert. We finally began to see the terrain change as we neared the mountains, and I realized that the snake must be in a cave somewhere. Once we reached the valley between the two mountains, Rocco picked up speed, the stallion sensing something ahead. I tightened my grip on Rocco's reins, eager to put an end to whatever was plaguing these people.

As we came around the side of the hill, I saw the snake, and I yelled out a warning before Rocco could charge. The Critter turned its head towards us as we charged forward, a massive hissing coming from its mouth. I slid my rifle out of its back holster, ratcheting the lever and bringing it up to fire.

[Dive of the Eagle]

A single shot, infused with the well of power that resided within me, struck the Critter in the center of its 'chest', sending it flying backwards. Its long body coiled around, bringing itself upright, its tail cracking like a whip and causing a section of rock to split in two. That section of the mountain wall fell down, almost hitting Rocco, who reared up on his front legs and kicked the rock away, watching as the snake struggled to right itself.

I lowered my rifle, and then glanced at Rocco, asking, “Are you alright, buddy?”

The stallion whinnied, sounding annoyed, as he tossed his head and shook out his mane. I laughed, and patted him on the nose. He knew what I meant, and I got a slight nod of understanding. With that settled, I checked the Critter, seeing that it was a large one, and that while it had been hurt by the shot, it wasn't anywhere close to being finished yet. I worked the lever, catching the spent brass and loading a new round. The Critter rose up, looming over Rocco and I as it let out a furious hiss. It opened wide its jaws, revealing rows of teeth that resembled the barbs of a fishhook. I smiled, knowing that I would soon be rid of this creature.

I sighted in on the Critter's head, and brought the rifle up, placing the bullet directly between the eyes. It seemed to be trying to make sense of the situation, before its tail snapped again, a wall of stone rising up as I squeezed the trigger and blocked the bullet.

[Barrier of Stone]

“Crap,” I muttered, kicking Rocco into action. I hadn’t anticipated that it could do something like that!

[hr][/hr]

We raced off, my mind racing as I tried to figure out how we were going to deal with the Critter. What could we use against it? I knew that the Critter could manipulate stone, but it didn't seem to have any other powers. I wondered if maybe it had a weakness that I hadn't discovered yet, but I doubted I'd have time to figure that out.

There was the sound of cracking and fracturing stone behind us as the Critter gave chase. I hoped that it wouldn't follow us all the way into the mountains. If it did, we really would be done for. We rounded the bend and headed down the next slope, and I heard more cracking sounds as we went. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the Critter perched on top of a boulder, watching us. That meant we needed to get past it somehow or risk having it following us forever. I pointed Rocco at the rock, and spurred him onwards, hoping that I'd made the right decision.

Rocco and I thundered down the next slope, heading straight for the boulder, which looked very solid. As we approached, I could hear the Critter's hissing, almost like a laugh. My rifle was back in its holster, but I had something else I wanted to try. From what I’d been able to determine, the people here who used elemental techniques didn’t seem to fit the four elements, but there were some patterns I’d noticed.

As Rocco had been doing his best to keep us ahead of the Critter, I’d swapped out the rounds in my revolver for ones that had a pair of very specific symbols etched into the bullets. Two different symbols denoting metal. I had no idea if this would work, but at the very least it would let me try something other than just blasting away at it.

[Fan the Hammer: Six Shot]

Six enhanced bullets punched into the giant snake’s hide, carving out massive holes in its body. The Critter hissed, the noise echoing eerily through the mountains. It began to slide down the boulder, though I knew it was still quite capable of climbing. I figured that it was likely too wounded to continue much longer, and so we continued our chase.

With each step, I prayed to God that these would work, because otherwise we were screwed. We rounded another bend, and as we came around it, I saw a flash of movement in the corner of my eye. I whipped Rocco around, bringing him to a stop as a flying rock sailed over my head. I glanced back, seeing the Critter standing on top of a small mound of earth. It had managed to create a shield around itself, and even as the rocks fell, they bounced off harmlessly.

“No more!” I shouted as I worked the lever of my rifle, ejecting the expended shell and then loading in the replacement round. The Critter lifted its tail, the long barbed tip of its tail flicking from side to side. I aimed for its eyes, and pulled the trigger. This time, the enhanced bullet hit home, punching through the Critter's eye and into its brain. It slumped, falling to the ground as I grabbed hold of Rocco's reins and guided him towards the base of the ledge that the Critter was on.

Pulling out my rope, I easily threw the lasso around a protruding rock and scaled the ledge. Fortunately, the critter was indeed dead, and I let out a sigh of relief. Freeing the rope with a snap, I began looping it around the head of the Critter, its horns providing an ample number of anchoring points. Happy with the ropework, I hopped back down to Rocco and jumped into the saddle. Together, we made the trek back to the town, dragging a snake large enough to swallow both of us in one gulp.