10th Shot: A Time to Kill

10^th Shot: A Time to Kill

      Vincent and the girls stopped in their tracks. The rustling grew louder and multiplied. To the left of them in the tall grasses there were three and to their right there were four.

            Vincent placed a readied hand on his Magnum and looked to each side, looking for this disturbances cause.

            Just when Vincent was about to shoot into the grass a rabbit leaps forth causing Nyx and Nox to laugh.

            “Ha, you are just a big scaredy cat Vinnie. It was just a cute little bunny.” Nyx says jumping from Shiva and crouching down to pick it up.

            Nyx places a gentle hand on the rabbit and comes face to face with a red mask with a spine down the middle, sharp teeth sewn on the front, and a pair of piercing wide brown eyes.

            Vincent snaps to action and fires his gun into the grass on the right and then draws the second gun and fires into the grass on the left as well.

            As Vincent fires his gun the masks begin to move the grass and attack. They drew forth weapon from their white cloaks. Two of the figures drew swords, and another had an axe, two drew shot guns, and a final one drew a scythe.

            Vincent snatched Nyx from her feet and plopped her on Shiva’s back.

            “Vincent, what are you doing? We can fight.” Nox says drawing a gun, but Vincent snatched it from her and shot one of the shotgun wielding cloaked men in the heart. He never spoke a word to the girls. He simply spanked Shiva’s hind leg sending her in a running frenzy on the path to Shina’s home. One of the masked marauders with a sword chased after the horse but was shot in the leg before he could get too far.

            “Stand aside, we have no qualm with you, give us the girls and we will be on our way.” speaks the masked man with the scythe stepping out of the grass.

            “No.” Vincent replies blandly as he effortlessly shoots the down man from about a mile away.         

            “Why do you fight us zooanthrope, do you not know who we serve?” the man speaks again.

            “No I don’t, and neither do I care. I will not forgive what you did to those girls or what I read that you had done in the outer cities. Matter of fact I think I’ll kill you all without claiming a bounty.” Vincent declares war on the masked men and places a new clip the magnum.

            “HA, you think you can stop us, we are the arm of Oro. We are his chosen few, what chance do you have.” The scythe wielder says swinging at Vincent and the axe and sword users corner him.

            The three fighters swing their bladed weapons around Vincent as he moves to the rhythm of their swings, but some of the attacks nick and skim his arms and legs. Vincent tries moving out of the fierce but was dealt a heavy blow to the back of his head, knocking him down to the ground. He quickly rolled aside as the three stabs their weapons into the ground. The scythe user swings hard toward the ground to eviscerate Vincent but was met with the opposition of the guns. Vincent fired at them secretly watching the shotgun user who was biding his time to strike. The axe user grabs Vincent by the leg and flings him into the field. On Vincent’s fall he was stabbed through the shoulder by the sword user. Vincent rolled again and fired his guns to empty not hitting a single mark.  

Soon Vincent is caught at the mercy of the cloaked men and trapped into the three member ring. Weaponless and injured Vincent dodges the same as last time until the scythe user leaps back on his hind leg, allowing the remaining shotgun wielder to leap directly in front of Vincent for appoint blank shot. Vincent’s eyes widen as he looks over his situation. If he attacks the shot gun user the body will fall and no doubt these are the type to use a dead comrade’s body to get a fatal hit. If he leaps back the sword and axe user will cut him in two, if he slides beneath the scythe user will get him.

            Vincent assesses his uncomfortable predicament and yields to a primal inner scream in his head. He has never had to use his instinctive powers but this time was as good as any other to start.

            Vincent looking up at the shotgun user roars with the voice of, not a man, but the beast within. The roar shot forth scolding hot water like a geyser and sent the masked man flying into the sky. The water fell from the sky like rain and marked the men.

            These men are the first to ever fight Vincent as a true zooanthrope. Vincent morphs his skin to be diamond hard and scaly, with a black tent to his it. His teeth grew sharp like sharpened razors, and the hands that held the guns were now decorated with pointed white nails. Vincent looked like a true demon come to claim souls, and even scarier to the men is that they knew that this wasn’t even a full zooanthrope transformation.

            “You!” the masked men shouted in shock as the remains of his partner fall behind him. The heat from the water completely burned him down to his bone.

            Vincent began to cleave the men with his sharp nails and teeth and burn them with the lava like water from his mouth, all except the group’s speaker. Vincent saved the scythe user for last.

            “You are a son of Oro. Please grant mercy on me and my soul. I did not know.” He says kneeling to Vincent in panic and fear.

            “I am not the son of Oro; I am a zooanthrope bounty hunter.” Vincent says morphing back and knocking the cloaked man unconscious.