Eclastiedes men fought for their lives as a group of edge slingers eight strong pushed them back, lashing them with projectiles and spells as the outnumbered patrol worked desperately to retreat towards their reinforcements.

  Amazingly, they’d nearly made it and Emil and Eclastiedes jumped from the roof to make up the rest of the distance and join the fight. It was too little too late. A burst of flame saw one of their comrades diving for cover, leaving the man beside him without support as three core users fired simultaneously on him. The connection of spells and flesh was explosive, and the core user was sent flying without legs, an arm, and several chunks of torso.

  “NOOOOO” Eclastiedes yelled, screaming obscenities at the approaching band of edge slingers.

  Despite his tier 1 status Eclastiedes would’ve had a hard time winning a fight against three weaker warriors, let alone eight. Even with the support of his last remaining soldier and Emil’s rapid fire spells they were getting pushed back. More than likely the outcome would have been death for them had they been alone, but with Ozzy on overwatch they were practically unbeatable.

  Leaving his rifle propped against the half wall Ozzy drew his revolver, he didn’t want to risk the massive amount of noise the rifle would make, not to mention he didn’t have nearly enough mana to fight a prolonged fight with it.

  Leveling the pistol at the man who’d cast the burst of flames earlier Ozzy pulled the trigger, sending a slug through the man’s chest with a boom. At this distance Ozzy wasn’t confident hitting headshots, especially not on targets that bobbed and weaved through the midst of combat. Torso shots, while not nearly as immediately lethal would work just fine even if they maybe required a follow up shot there and again.

  Now with a gaping hole in his chest the flame caster began gasped as the oxygen he very much needed in his body began to escape through the quarter sized hole in his lung. He began casting spells rapidly as he searched for the source of the attack looking about wildly until his eyes landed on Ozzy. The man froze, fear entering his gaze as he recognized the gunsligner from their initial battle at the platform’s stairwell.

  Ozzy’s second shoot took the man in the throat, dropping him to the floor with a strangled gurgle as the edge slinger tried in vain to stem the flood of blow from his ruined neck. Shooting again Ozzy caught another in the center of the chest, the man falling like a sack of potatoes as the bullet severed his spine. A moment later a stray arc from a burst of lightning put the man out of his misery.

  With two of the edge slingers down the advantage of having a tier one core user finally began to show, and once Eclastiedes soldier who’d dived out of combat on fire rejoined he fight the edge slingers fate was looking grimmer and grimmer.

  Eager to finish the fight Ozzy began to shoot faster, more interested in maiming and slowing the core users so his team could more easily mop them up rather than going for kill shots. Bang bang bang bang, each shot found its mark, one of them even dropping an edge slinger outright.

  Slowly but surely, they wore them down, and for a moment it looked like all would be alright. As one by one the edge slingers fell Ozzy began to feel lighter, he could see it in the rest of them as well. Even Emil, Ozzy could see it in his friend’s step, the lightness with which he moved and the rapid rate at which he began alternating his spells, casting small fireballs left and right as he mixed in a lightning orb which conducted electricity through the flames in a terrifying display of combat synergy.

  Firing the last shot out of his pistol Ozzy slew the final edge slinger, a calm entering the street as the remaining core users took a collective deep breath and collecting their fallen companion.

  “What a fascinating weapon.” A voice smoother than silk and richer than gold floated towards him from across the room, and with a start he realized it was where he’d left his rifle.

  Raising his hands up high in surrender Ozzy turned about as slowly as he dared, coming to face a richly adorned elf, currently looking down the barrel of his rifle like a suicidal lemming. Ozzy didn’t say anything, figuring that whoever was rich enough to be practically dripping with jewelry on this platform was probably not a good dude; and hey, if this guy decided to pop himself the world would probably be a better place for it.

  Unfortunately, after several moments the elf flipped the gun, dexterously catching it and pointing it at Ozzy, finger on the trigger.

  “Not much for talking then?” The elf sighed further examining the weapon as he left pointed dead center at Ozzy’s chest.

  “I’m very much for talking.” Ozzy said, “Just not all that accustomed to doing it with a gun pointed at my chest.”

  “You must be new to Myreluck then.” The elf joked, cool as a cucumber.

  “Something like that.” Ozzy admitted, his eyes not leaving the rifle.

  “Wait really? You’re a tourist?” The elf asked, genuine curiosity entering his voice as for a moment the barrel of the rifle wavered, before the elf lowered it to the side.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Watching the rifle Ozzy saw what he was looking for, confirming with his own eyes what he’d been positive he’d done before setting the gun down. Just above the trigger on the guard there was a little black button. He’d been certain he’d pressed it but now he knew for sure, there was no red visible on its lower half, the gun was on safe.

  It was the only reason Ozzy hadn’t unsummoned the weapon the moment he’d seen it in the elf’s hands. Sure, it had been a gamble but the elf currently thought he had a weapon of point and shoot mass destruction. The moment of confusion and surprise the elf would experience would be all the time he needed.

  With a snap Ozzy’s arm was leveled at the Elf, he’d unsummoned re-summoned his revolver which was now materializing right back in his hand, this time nice and full of bullets. Yet the elf hardly moved, apparently shocked at Ozzy’s rapid reversal of the standoff, it was a bad day to be an edge slinger.

  BANG

  A round exited his revolver, only to slam into an invisible barrier in front of the elf with a thunderous crack.

  “How intimidating.” The elf said, laughing as he began to circle the room, though he made sure to keep the barrier between them. “I wouldn’t do that. If my guards think you’ve offended me they might put those dogs out there down just out of the principle of it.” The elf shrugged, an insidious twinkly shining in his eyes.

  Breaking one of the first rules of any combat scenario Ozzy turned, giving the elf his back as he leaned over the wall to look at where his team had been recuperating themselves only seconds ago.

  Laying faces down in the street surrounded by the meanest looking group of thugs Ozzy had ever seen were Emil, Eclastiedes, and his two surviving soldiers. Emil was laying still, not arguing or groveling but doing his best to be as uninteresting as possible. Eclastiedes was out cold on his side in a recovery position, and blood flowed freely out of his face from a very broken nose. One of Eclastiede’s soldiers was currently being questioned however, a brutal looking man with a drawn knife holding it dangerously close to the soldiers’ eye.

  “Tsk tsk tsk.” The elf clucked his tongue, surprising Ozzy with how close he was, standing practically beside Ozzy. “Don’t try anything, there’s a new barrier between us.” The elf said firmly.

  “This one says they killed Mikeala and were trying to finish off her patrol. Took the wayepath to beat them over here!” The thug interrogating Eclastiede’s soldier shouted up before bending down to listen to something else the soldier said. “The one you have up there is the one who killed her he says!” He shouted up again.

  The elf turned to look at Ozzy with raised eyebrows, “Can’t say I’m surprised, very lethal set of weapons this one.” He shrugged. “What’s wrong with that one?” The elf said, pointing at Eclastiedes.

  “Tried to keep this one from talking,” The thug nudged the soldier he was interrogating with the toe of his boot. ”had to knock him out.”

  “Oh, carry on then. Ummmmm, he have anything else to say?” The elf asked.

  Looking down expectantly the thug raised his eyebrows at the soldier, and the soldier said something inaudible from their position up on the roof and shook his head.

  “That’s everything!” The thug shouted up.

  “Oh, alright then, kill the rat!” The elf shouted down.

  “Wait! N-no I helped! You—” The soldier was cut off as the thug drove his knife through the top of his head killing him instantly.

  Ozzy felt his feet grow weak beneath him, the casual nature of the brutality striking him to his core. Sure, the soldier had betrayed his and Eclastiede’s trust but they’d had no reason to kill him. It felt like nothing more than a punch in the gut, an act of spite they’d acted out simply because they could.

  “Now that we’ve got that out of the way,” the elf said amiably as he mimed wiping his hands before once again hefting the gun, “I want to hear about this thing, what did you call it? A pun?”

  ***

  “Mary! My Rika! I avenged you! take my soul up and guide it to our eternal rest above! Take me ho- “

  Ozzy had to turn away as the same thug the elf had ordered to kill the soldier put a knife through the top of Eclastiede’s head mid prayer.

  They were no longer in the street, after killing the soldier the elf and his thugs had escorted Ozzy, Emil, Eclastiedes, and the remaining soldier across the border and to their territory. They had brought them into a room adorned with the riches of a hundred pillaged territories. Pieces of art that held no correlation, heirlooms, mixed jewelries, rich tapestries, even cores and shards, literal piles of them. It was all offset by the floors however, a simple tiled floor went the entire breadth of the massive room, the pattern only broken by drain covers set every thirty feet or so.

  Then the questions had begun. They’d interrogated the other soldier first, when he’d refused to speak, they beat him and left him. Eclastiedes had done much the same, going yet a step further to insult the elf, laughing as they beat him and spitting and biting at anyone who came near. He never gave in, and after neatly an hour of staggered beatings they gave up, the smug elf calling for yet another execution.

  “So now that it’s just you two let’s get down to some actual talks.” The elf said. “Obviously you weren’t truly with that fool Eclastiedes but you were, with him. If you get what I’m saying.” The elf annunciated his words as he waved around a bundle of fruits that looked like grapes on a vine, except for they were heart shaped and bright pink.

  Emil and Ozzy looked between themselves and back at the elf, both of them just wishing the elf from hell would tell them what he wanted and let them go on their merry ways.

  “What do you want to talk about?” Ozzy asked, equal parts not wanting to talk to the elf at all but also not wanting to upset him.

  “The pun of course! Terribly strange name for a weapon might I add, though it is as funny as the name suggests.” The elf still had the gun beside him, this whole time Ozzy had neglected to unsummon it, feeling any action would immediately be scrutinized and potentially punished.

  “It’s called a gun, or a firearm if you want to be a little more technical.” Ozzy explained. “That one’s a rifle, and the one I sho-, the one I had earlier is called a pistol.” He corrected himself, avoiding any mention of his prior attempt at killing the elf.

  “I suppose it’s similar to the difference between a knife and a sword?” The elf asked questioningly, and Ozzy nodded. “Fantastic! And to make it work I just pull this lever right here?” He asked, Ozzy swallowing a knot in his throat nodded again. “Like this?” The elf pointed the gun at Emil, a devilish smile crossing his face as he pulled the trigger.