^^ Flintlock-Style Magic Hand-Cannon ^^

Kindle was very surprised that I could keep up with her, and even more surprised that I was able to properly hold a crossbow while doing so; and I'll admit, it wasn't the ideal scenario for shooting, and the crossbow was weak and a bit off in its trajectory, but I managed first blood, which she was also quite irritated about.

I stayed next to her instead of advancing with the others, examining the oncoming group. The enemies were spread in a fan-like situation, much like a herd of rushing deer, so collapsing a flank would cause them to collect into one place, making them easier to target. "Where are the ones I'm here for going to be? What do they look like?" I asked, realizing I didn't know.

She glanced at me, and hummed. "I have no clue, but they were injured and weakened, so they'll be at the back, most likely."

"Good to know." I nodded and sprinted off horizontally, intending to head off one of the flanks. Reloading the crossbow while I was running was easy after so many years of practice, despite the unfamiliar construction, so I continued taking potshots at the ones nearest me as I went. I aimed specifically for the ones that looked like they were holding their own, disabling their knees or shoulders to take them out of the fight non-lethally; I was only here for two of their heads, after all.

"Where we headed?" Kindle asked, keeping pace on my left, my non-dominant arm. Being that she was left-handed, it was a good match.

"Collapse the flank and the deer group up, makes shooting them easier. Harder to miss a target that size." I kicked one enemy who'd gotten too close, attempting to take his knee out from under him and instead breaking it entirely. "These boots are pretty useful, thanks for that, by the way." I hummed, and stomped on his chin, knocking him out.

"No problem." She grinned, stabbing her spear through someone on her side, cleanly going through his shoulder.

"So, is it a general, non-spoken rule that killing in this scenario is sorta not the first option? Because almost everyone seems to be fighting non-lethally?" I asked, cracking another enemy in the sternum with the butt of the crossbow, sending her to the ground as she tried to breath through the intense pain.

"Generally, yes. Otherwise it'd be a horrendous waste of life, wouldn't it?" She asked, confused, and leapt over me, using my shoulder as a springboard. On the way down she slashed one enemy across the front of his armor, ripping the steel breastplate in half, along with most of the ribs under it.

"I agree, my dear. It's a good change of pace, is all." I drew my new hammer, now that I was out of crossbow bolts, (I'd only had 20,) and slung the ranged weapon over my shoulder again.

"You should have a shield, if you're using only one weapon." She hummed, slashing the thighs of another enemy in leather armor, then using the weighted brass end cap to knock them out.

"I'd like to have one hand free, is all... and I can use the axe if I need to, this way." I explained, and grabbed a spear that had been stabbed at me, kicking the owner in the chest solidly.

Kindle winced at the heavy crunching sound from under my boot, and the person fell, coughing up blood. Immediately, a person from the Rise appeared, grabbing them and disappearing again. "That was a really good hit." Kindle explained to my perplexed face.

I looked behind me, and instead of the downed enemies I expected, there were just a few splashes of blood and discarded weaponry, instead. "Huh... those people are very good at their work, I didn't even notice them!" I backhanded the hammer into the chest of an enemy that had leapt off of something with an axe, and his momentum canceled perfectly, leaving him hanging in the air for a split second before he smacked into the ground.

"That's why they're on the Rise, yes. I used to be, but I preferred actually fighting, so here I- hey!" She clocked the chin of someone who'd interrupted her by swinging at her with a sword, sending him reeling. Immediately after he'd recovered, my boot slammed his stomach, and the force of the kick threw him into a few of our allies, who immediately began to beat the hell out of him, before realizing he was already unconscious.

I realized my plan to break the flank had been unsuccessful; the remaining enemies had grouped into several separate circles, defending themselves instead of attacking, which they should've done from the beginning, when they'd had the numbers for it to matter. With only about sixty people remaining, in two groups of thirty, they were utterly doomed to fail.

Suddenly a sound I was very familiar with rang out, and everyone looked around, confused. "What was that? A spell? Do they have a Mage?" Kindle asked.

"That was a gunshot." I growled, sprinting towards the sound and then screeching to a halt when I heard another, from the other group of thirty. "Kindle, listen very carefully; the source of that sound is a small metal cylinder held like a hand-crossbow, which spits metal at speeds too fast for any creature to see. It tears through metal, meat, and bone alike. If it is pointed at you, dodge before the trigger is pulled, that's the only way to get out of its way. You take that group, I'll take this one. Go. Go now!" I shooed her off, and sprinted again at the group, hearing it fire again.

The firing interval was very slow, which meant it was a muzzle-load... a primitive variety, hopefully a musket or a flintlock. A cartridge rifle would be a fucking nightmare to handle, but they'd be firing quicker if that were the case. A fourth shot rang out from the other circle, solidifying the reload time at about forty-five seconds.

I bull-rushed the defensive wall that was keeping the others back while the man in the center reloaded while swinging my axe and hammer, laying about myself savagely to get to him before he reloaded and killed someone else with that confounded contraption. Two people already lay dead with bullet-holes in their heads, and that only inspired me to swing harder, scattering the defensive wall with a series of hearty swings, and then charging the man in the center, who was frantically fumbling with a flintlock.

A loud 'Crack' deafened me briefly, but I slammed my hammer down on his head anyway, deciding he'd missed. As he fell, I snatched the evil little device, and then frowned at it. There was no powder pan, only a lever and trigger. The bullets on his belt were ball bearings, musket-balls, but he had no gunpowder at all.

"How in the hell is this working? It should be useless without the gunpowder... hm." A sixth gunshot startled me, and I stuffed the gun and his ammo belt into my satchel, starting towards the other circle while the broken shield wall collapsed and was quickly reduced to nothing.

The second man had a musket, instead of a pistol, and I watched it fire, as much as it itched to allow him to get another shot off, to see how it worked. Blue fire exited the muzzle, not red, and he missed, making me sigh in relief. Then he began to mutter something under his breath, and created a small bead of flame in his palm, which he placed into the musket as if it was the Powder, then the ball bearing.

"Son of a bitch it's a Magic Musket!" I growled, and threw my hammer at his head, successfully beaning him in the skull and taking him down off the boulder he'd been standing on. The hammer continued its arch, and slammed the back of the head of a shield-bearer on the other side, sending him down and allowing a few warriors through the gap, instantly breaking the tenuous wall and creating chaos.

In that chaos, I took the rifle and ammo, then retrieved my hammer, and dragged the groaning man behind me towards the Rise.

Kindle grumbled at me, rolling a wounded shoulder and following me as a horn was sounded, signaling the end of the battle. "You didn't say it was that fast." She muttered.

"Yes I did. You thought you were faster. You were wrong, own it like a big girl." I replied dryly, and threw the groaning man to the ground in front of Luna. "Is it too much to ask you to get him capable of speech? I have some questions he needs to answer. After that he's all yours."

She nodded and gripped his collarbone with cobalt blue glowing hands, and after a moment his skull visibly healed, and he blinked; still dazed, but no longer dying. "Done." She stepped back, allowing me access.

"Where did you get this weapon, and who taught you how to operate it?" I shook the man by the collar, showing him the rifle in my left hand.

"Spoils..." he groaned.

"Speak Up!!!" I shook him harder.

"SPOILS!!! Alright? Took it from that Artist... short fella, big mustache! There was a smaller one, too, we took them both, us two that won!!!" He held up his hands to surrender.

"What's that fireball you made to power it? That's not how he did it, right?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"What? No, he had, uhm... little crystals, white crystals, but he used them all, and we didn't know how to find more, so our Mage showed us a simple spell that seemed to work, but it takes longer than what he did!" He pulled my hand away from his collar as best he could, -which is to say not at all,- and then relaxed slowly, looking over my shoulder.

"Mind unhanding my Scout?" A deep voice spoke just above my left shoulder; someone just as tall as me.

"He still has answers to give. You're welcome to try to take him from me before I'm finished with him." I glared over my shoulder at the white-haired man built very much like a bear on anabolic steroids.

"Theo, set him down. That's all the time you get, for now." Luna shook her head.

"Hm... last question, then, and I let you go: Why did you attack the Artists? It couldn't have been some brawl gone wrong, or an insult turned into a Duel; you knew they were Blessed Craftsmen, you knew it was a bad idea and it would cause... this. Why?" I gestured at the battlefield, irritated.

He grinned, and shrugged. "What business is it of yours?"

"Call me an interested party... now Talk!!!" I hissed sharply, choking him with his collar.

"Theo..." Luna cautioned, and I felt a sword tap my shoulder plate, against my neck.

"If you'd like to keep your head, release my Scout." That gruff voice threatened.

"If you'd like to keep your Hand, fuck off." I retorted, unshaken by his threat.

The sword retreated, and I ducked the trajectory of the swing easily, pulling the scout forward. Everyone present gasped as the claymore cut across his eyes and a bit of his skull, but I was already turned around by the time he recovered. The old man growled at me savagely, and then flinched back as my right fist rammed his nose flat to his face, while my axe made good on my promise, chopping off his right hand at the wrist in an easy swing.

Luna and one other healer rushed forward, healing the two wounded, and I gripped the Now-blind Scout again by the collar. "Now! For the Final time, and I hope you understand I mean Final, Talk." I growled softly.

"W-We were told to fight them, it was an anonymous request... we didn't know who they were until we got to the place!!! They paid in Gold, twenty gold per Artist Head... they left it for us along the road back to our Clan!!! The Chief still has the money, for proof!!! He took it from us when we got back!!! Please, don't-"

He stopped sobbing as I knocked him out with a soft pressure on his throat, and I nodded, handing him to the healer. "Sorry for manhandling your patient, that was information I needed."

He shrugged. "I don't really care. It's my job to heal him, not play his mother."

Luna sighed, behind me. "I reconnected the bones and skin... the muscles and everything else will take a while longer. Several months."

I rounded on the big guy, and stomped one foot down on his balls, as he sat on the ground receiving treatment. He screamed in torment at the horrific pain that no-doubt caused, and I suppressed my light shiver of pleasure at the sound. "I've got your attention, I hope?" I asked, patting his cheek to get him to look at me.

He growled softly, a strained element to his voice, and glared at me savagely. "You evil little- AAAAAAAH?!?!!!" He screamed again as I pressed even harder with my boot.

"Not Evil, just mildly sadistic. Now, you're his Chief, yes or no? Nod for me." I asked, clamping my gauntlet over his mouth and squeezing his jaw until his teeth audibly creaked.

He slowly nodded.

"Did they receive payment for challenging and killing those artists?" I asked simply.

Another nod.

"Did you take it for yourself, hoping to escape the inevitable destruction of your Clan's Warriors, and be richer for it?"

A begrudging nod, and the surviving members of his clan gasped, grumbling dangerously.

"Did you intend to silence him before he could say anything, so no one knew you had the money?"

A slow, pained nod, and a boot hit the side of his head, thrown by one of his clan members.

"I appreciate your sentiment, but if you throw something and it hits me, I will gut you." I slowly glared at the group, and they subsided back to angry murmurs. "Did you know who paid the money?" I asked, looking back at him.

A slow shake of his head, difficult because of the way I was holding it.

"No clues?"

Another shake.

"I see... you have it with you?" I asked.

A slow nod.

I fished around in his pockets with my free hand, and pulled out a heavy sack of coins from his pants, under my boot. "Huh... I knew your balls weren't that big..."

A few scattered snickers and laughs, and he glared up at me thunderously, earning himself a backhanded slap across the face with my gauntleted hand.

"Last question, and then you're of no use to me, and your clan can deal with you... Did you know of the contract's existence and purpose before your Scouts took the contract? It's targets?"

He looked away, refusing to answer.

I squeezed harder, breaking his jaw slowly into several sections. "Answer me!" I advised sternly.

He nodded slowly, grunting softly in pain as he tried to hold in a scream.

"That's all I needed, then. You knowingly sent your scouts to murder a group of artists for money, and then you stole the money from them and essentially told your entire clan to go to hell, with the intention of wiping out your Warriors, who would likely protest the dishonorable course of action. And seeing as you don't know who gave them the money, you're entirely useless to me. Have fun getting torn to shreds." I tossed him to the ground near the man who'd thrown the boot at him, and then cleaned off my hand and then my weapons, as I knew they required constant care, and blood caused rust very, very quickly on non-stainless steel.

"That was unexpectedly ruthless, coming from someone who didn't want to kill people earlier?" Kindle hummed, standing to my left again.

"I don't like harming innocents. They are. He isn't." I shook my head at her questioning tone, and cracked my back with a sigh. "Now, if you wouldn't mind sending me home? Unless Luna would like to talk to me, I got everything I was going to from this scenario... more than I thought I would." I looked at the rifle in my hand, and hummed at the small bits of crystalline residue around where the flash-pan would be. "Much more."

"I would, actually... you seem to sympathize with these people, so would you mind if they moved to the Lake with the Branch Clan I'm sending to the Half-Mountain?" Luna asked bluntly.

"I don't mind at all, actually. But that Chieftain, he needs to go fuck off back whence he came; I don't tolerate Oath-Breakers." I cast a disgusted glance at the broken man who was currently being entirely ignored by everyone around him.

"Done." She nodded, reaching a hand towards me, and then paused. "May I-..."

"I'd welcome a hug, yes." I smiled, and she grinned, wrapping her arms around me tightly. A sudden pain in my ribs had me hissing, confused, and I looked down, finding the small hole just above my stomach, through a gap in the armor.

She gasped and laid a glowing hand over the wound instantly, though it wasn't bleeding much at all. It closed almost instantly, spitting out the ball which had lodged itself up against my rib, and she breathed a sigh of relief, hugging me again.

I patted her back gently, and then kissed her forehead. "Off with you, you have people to heal. You'll come see me when you're done, though?" I asked hopefully.

She smiled up at me and nodded swiftly, stepping back. "Yes, I will do that! Oh, Kindle!" She healed Kindle's wounded shoulder finally, and the brusque spear-maiden laughed at the lack of notice.

"Wow, Alright, you've been smitten with this lass for three weeks, and you forget your oldest friend? Alright, I see what's going on, I get it n-ow!" She shook her head sadly, and then grunted when Luna punched her wounded shoulder in silent retaliation.