Gunslinger's Gambit

The mage looked at him with an incredulous face. It was like everyone was expecting a big damage number from a normal attack. But nope. He only registered the damage and the pain.

The man tips his head to cover his face, but he doesn't seem embarrassed. "Damn. I forgot I am level 1..."

"How do you forget that?!" Marika asked, clenching her right fist and stretching her arm downward while stomping her foot. She felt scammed by this random guy.

"You do such an entrance and do that shitty amount of damage?" The mage said, then he aims his wand once more "Get the fuck out!"

A fireball gets fired from the wand and hits the mysterious man right in the chest. The number [350] appears on the ensuing cloud of sand and fire that replaced him.

At level 1, that attack was lethal.

"Now, you done back there?" Dale asked, returning to aim his rifle at Marika, "I want to go home and eat!"

"Yeah, yeah, done," said the mage, making his horse turn around.

Marika was in a tight spot right now. She was impressed by the way the gunslinger appeared that she thought she was about to see something amazing. But nope, it was a wannabe amateur at level 1. Even she could take him at her level.

"Ugh!" The mage inhaled in pain, calling back the attention to himself. From her perspective, she could not see it, but then the man appeared from the cloud of sand and jumped on top of the butt of the horse.

Before anyone could say anything, the man pulled a knife, that somehow got embedded in his flesh, from the back of the mage. Then aimed his revolver to the back of his head, and pulled the trigger.

BANG! BANG!

Two shots to the head of the mage.

[456 + Weak spot! CRIT!]

[429 + Weak spot! CRIT!]

For the gunslinger, a number that he ignored appeared, indicating he just won 450 points of XP.

"What the fuck?!" Dale yelled when he processed what just happened.

The body of the mage goes limp, dead in the act, and drops to the sand. The smoke of the revolver from the gunslinger was a grim sign of the cold way he just killed him, standing over the horse. Gun in one hand and knife in the other.

Darel, once more, changed his aim towards the gunslinger, but right before he could squeeze the trigger, Marika decided to make her move.

With a move of her wrist, a string hidden under her sleeve pulled a small mechanism that made a small magazine-fed pistol fall on her hand, and she aimed at Darel. The gun was mostly for self-defense, not high in damage, but for someone like her...

"[Disarm]!" she yelled, smiling and with an eye closed as she aimed, using a skill that helped her aim when trying to shoot someone's weapon from their hand.

She pulls the trigger and the bullet gets shot, hitting directly at the rifle Darel was holding. The gun escapes from his hands, making circles in the air as it flies a few meters from him, landing on the ground.

Darel looked at his hands and then back at Marika.

"You bitch!" He said.

Marika pulled her gun back and pointed it at the sky beside her face, playfully sticking her tongue out towards Darel. That made him angrier.

He just yelled "GET THEM!" while he ran towards his rifle.

By his side, the one holding the spear ordered his horse to charge towards the gunslinger, who was still standing over the animal.

He attacked with the spear, aiming at the legs of the man. However, the man in black was faster and jumped down from the horse, the spear missing his hat by simple centimeters.

He turns towards the path of the spearman, aiming at the spot where the horse is leading him, opens his legs to get into position, and uses a skill.

"[Three of a kind]!" The gunslinger says and holds down the trigger.

The three bullets shoot in an arc without the need to pull back the hammer of the revolver, and the spearman does not manage to stop the horse from making him pass by.

One hits his leg, one on his torso, and the last one on his head. The latter was a Weak Spot, causing more damage than usual.

The three impacts cause the spearman to fall to the ground by the side, still alive but in pain. Both horses get startled and run away from the area.

Seeing his victim alive still, although not able to stand up, he runs towards it holds his knife up, kneels on his side, and stabs his neck. Giving him the final hit and killing him.

[560 XP]

Marika was impressed. Was being level 1 a lie just to make them drop their guard? He should have died on that hit from the fireball or not shown this level of skill during combat. He is fighting like someone who is experienced in combat, someone who seems to know what they are doing. She was a few levels higher than him, and she could not pull half the movements he was doing.

The gunslinger released the cylinder to the side of the frame of his revolver and made the casings of his spent bullets drop to the ground, making clinking sounds as they bounced against the sand and pieces of rubble. His eyes are stuck on Darel, while he pulls out the knife from the spearman's neck.

As Darel was managing to grab his gun, the mysterious man reloaded a single bullet on his gun and returned the cylinder to the frame. Only one?! Marika questioned in her head. What was he trying to pull?

"Hah!" she heard then someone yelling at her.

It was the scrawny man who was always following Darel. The one that she cannot remember his name. He had a sword in his hand and tried to attack her with a vertical swing.

"Whoops!" Marika said and dodged to the side by shifting her foot, the sword cut the air from where she was. "Warning your attack is a bad idea," she said, mocking him. She was faster than him.

Then she throws the bag towards him, hitting him on his chest. By mere instinctive reaction, he grabbed the bag with both hands, grunting.

"Thank you for holding my bag" She aims her pistol at his head, uses a skill "[Stun Gun]" and squeezes the trigger.

The man receives [135 + STUN!] damage. The stun effect is enough to drop him to the ground unconscious.

BANG!

The loud sound of a rifle reminded her that there was someone still standing in the group. She turned towards Darel, who had just taken a shot at the gunslinger and was now removing the spent casing and aiming his second shot and immediately squeezed the trigger, shooting once more.

The gunslinger, who was running towards Darel, used his knife to stop the bullet. A CLANG noise and sparks appeared when the projectile made contact.

Right before reaching, and when Darel was preparing his next bullet, the mysterious man made the cylinder of his gun turn with aggression.

"[Russian Roulette]!" He yells while aiming the gun right at his forehead and the cylinder stops rotating "Number 4!"

Without pulling the hammer and only squeezing the trigger, the gun made 3 quick CLICKS as it went through the empty chambers of the gun. Darel only managed to take a step back before the fourth chamber got into position.

BANG!

[2551 + WEAK SPOT + CRIT] appeared over Darel who got thrown back by the force of the bullet that just pierced through his skull. 

Darel was now dead on the ground, killed by the mysterious stranger.

Marika was looking at him with fear and admiration. He managed to take out 3 people with little to no effort and managed to resist a hit that would normally have him killed. She was thinking about how to take advantage of the situation.

"So... that was a nice bluff, cowboy," she said with a wide smirk on her face, looking at the stranger up and down "You made everyone believe you were only level 1"

"That was not a bluff," he said while releasing his gun and putting it back in its holster.

"Well, no one can fight like you at that level" she retorted, it was impossible that he was telling the truth "And that fireball should have killed you!"

"Well, I am level 3 after killing all of them" He tips his hat with his eyes closed.

"That cannot be! You are not lower than level 10 at least!" she pointed at him with her index finger, not believing him one bit.

"Look, you can believe me or not" he answered and crouched beside Darel's body, and started to pat around "I don't give a crap"

"Ugh, fine," Marika said, defeated and rolling her eyes.

While the stranger was searching in his pockets, Marika turned towards the bag that she threw at the henchman. She quickly picked it up and, with a quick motion, revealed what was inside of it. It was a slab made of gold. She stared at it for a second, stars formed on her pupils for a second as she blushed at its sight, smiling. Then she embraced it against her chest, pressing it against her cleavage, and her tail was wagging like crazy.

"Mine! Is all mine! You are going to make me rich!" she said, smiling like a cat.

She opened her [STATUS SCREEN]

[Class: Thief]

[Level 4]

[HP: 426/458]

[MP: 189/210]

[Strenght: 120]

[Dexterity: 235]

[Intelligence: 189]

[Endurance: 126]

[Luck: 215]

[Mulars: 10]

Soon, those 10 Mulars were going to be higher than ever before! Once she managed to sell this without the gang that Darel was part of finds her trying to sell it, that is.

Then she looked back at the stranger. He was quite strong and capable as a fighter. Maybe she could convince him to help her sell it... or to do something else.

"So, how can I call my new partner in crime, huh?" she asked, putting the slab back in the bag and skipping slowly towards him.

The man found in one of Darel's pockets a journal. "I am not your partner," he said while looking at the small handbook, quickly inspecting what was inside before putting it in one of his own pockets, "and I am done here. Good luck"

He stands up. Marika looks at him with surprise. He is not even going to loot the rest of the bodies?! All he took was the journal from Darel. Even with the bounty he will get when he arrives at the Bounty Hunter's Guild, all of them might have some special pieces of gear.

"Hey! Hold on there!" she said and quickly went for him, stepping right into his path so he stopped "You still need to give me my part! You are not getting away from me that easy!"

"Your part?" He questions.

"Yes! My part!" she repeats "I shot Darel's gun out of his hands before he could take a free shot at you! I helped!" even when she was not sure how substantial that help was. "I deserve a part of their bounty!"

"Look" he was starting to sound annoyed "I don't partner with people, so you can-ugh!"

His words were cut off by a sudden lack of energy in his body. His stomach grumbled and his last ounce of power went away after that last battle. He felt like starving once more, and his body tumbled forward towards Marika, falling right on top of her.

"A-aaaah!" She yelled as they found each other on the ground with him on top "W-what are you doing, let me go, you pervert!" she raised her hand to slap him, but then she noticed that he was going limp, not moving or making any effort to touch or restrain her. "H-huh? What is happening to you? Are you okay?!"

"H-h-hungry..." he answered, his face burying itself on her cleavage.

"Agh! Get off me!" she yelled and pushed him to the side. Her face was crimson red out of the embarrassment of the situation.

He fell on his back. After taking a good look at him, she believed that he was starving.