They say that when you get thrown into water, you either drown or learn how to swim. Whenever I chose this approach in the past, it led to nothing but suffering. The method I always preferred was to carefully plan and prepare for something. But back then, the water got thrown onto me. And I came out swimming.
"Your turn? Please... what makes you think YOU have any chance? I can stop time itself. Compared to that, I am afraid your abilities are a little lackluster." I felt an invisible grasp around me get tighter and tighter. I couldn't move a single muscle.
"Now, shoot him, if you'd be so kind," Jack ordered the Gunslinger. I took a deep breath. All I needed was an image in my mind. This was a story. My story. If I kept writing, my life would keep going.
"But your magic doesn't work against those from my world." I felt the grip loosen just before a glowing bullet flew right past my head.
"How?! My Creativity makes every one of my shots hit its mark. No matter your reflexes!" Gunslinger shouted at me.
"Yeah? Well, mine gives me the ability to dodge what you shoot. Quite a pointless fight if you ask me."
"Deal with him! I do not have time for this! He cannot dodge forever." Jack turned towards the hills. "Eventually, he will slip up and run out of luck.
"I'm not letting you anywhere near them!" I immediately wanted to rush at him, but judging from Gunslinger's posture, he wouldn't let me get anywhere close. At the last possible second, I managed to jump into cover behind the hotel building. Glowing bullets were raining all over the place. I was surprised he could even pull the trigger so fast.
Before long, Gunslinger's bullets started bouncing off of various metal parts of structures in the town, and they were all heading right towards me. The wooden wall of the hotel cracked under the attack. The whole interior was decimated within seconds. Only then did the gunshots stop. He didn't know where I was. That was my only chance. This newfound power allowed me to dodge his attacks, but Jack was right, there was a limit to it. No matter how fast I'd be, I would never dodge every raindrop falling from the sky during a storm. This was similar. Even if the power wouldn't fail me at all, I could only push my luck so far. And I knew that the moment I'd go after Jack, the Gunslinger would turn me into Swiss cheese. If I wanted to stop him, I had to first get rid of the Gunslinger.
It was time to act. I noticed the windows leading into the rooms on the ground floor of the hotel. I had to get inside, but they were all closed.
*The new hole in the wall will make the wind flow into the rooms and blast the windows open!
I never thought such a thing could actually happen, but out of nowhere, they all obeyed my imagination one by one, swinging wide open with so much force they stopped only once they turned all the way outward and hit the wall. The result was a lot more powerful than I had anticipated. I jumped into the room and looked around. A few bullets were flying through the city's alleys as the Gunslinger was desperately trying to find me without leaving his spot. I needed a plan, and it had to be a good one.
Plates were sitting on the table in the room. Quite a few of them actually. I immediately knew they would be useful. Anything can play a role in your story if you have a rich imagination. And mine was going wild right now.
I ran out of the room and quickly disappeared into the next.
*There will be plates there as well.
Indeed they were, although not as much as I'd hoped. That power really wasn't fully obeying me quite yet, or I didn't know how to use its full potential. Through the window in the room, I saw Jack climbing up the hills in the distance. I had to stop the Gunslinger and go after him, no matter what. There was no way I would allow another death to get killed.
"Come out, Eddie!" Or I'll just mow down the entire town if I have to! Your death will bring peace to this world!"
"Is that so?" While he was shooting around and shouting, I carefully crawled to the entrance of the hotel, to avoid being seen in the windows.
The moment he heard my voice, the spraying started. I ran as fast as I could towards the saloon, right across the street. It was suicide to think I would make it there without getting hit. But what the Gunslinger didn't realize was that by the time he noticed me, I no longer had the plates in my hands.
*Bang!
I heard the bullet as it landed right next to my head and hit a ceramic plate that seemingly fell from the sky. I threw them up before grabbing his attention and gave the world my command.
*They will fall exactly where and when I need them to avoid being hit by the bullets.
And so they did. Each of the shots hit one of the plates, instead of my head. It was scary to think how many times would the Gunslinger succeed. This was his weakness. I finally found it. His projectiles were magical in nature. A metal bullet would make its way through the ceramics without problems, but the glowing ones seemed to only cause small explosions upon contact, instead of piercing their target. As the last of the porcelain shards fell into the sand, I dove into the saloon head first. Everyone's eyes turned toward me. My anxiety returned when I realized how much the local attention shifted toward me. I slowly felt the newfound power disappear from my body.
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"No, not now!" I mumbled to myself.
"AAAAAAARHG! DIE ALREADY, WRIGHT!" I heard the Gunslinger hollering across the whole town. It didn't take me long to realize what was about to happen.
"Everyone! Get down!!!" I threw myself flat onto the floor and covered my head. Others looked at me with expressions filled with confusion and laughter. Then the bullets landed. It was a storm like no other. They tore open the wooden walls, shattered the glasses, and splattered blood all over the floor. As the house was crumbling and falling when it lost its structural integrity, the shots managed to shred even the debris into tiny little rocks and splinters. I was lying there, on the ground, waiting for it all to end. It took at least a whole minute. I couldn't tell at the moment, but the Gunslinger was screaming his lungs out, filled with rage. He always killed everything with one shot. My existence was driving him mad and the fact that I managed to defend myself just by using some food plates didn't really help when it came to his mental state. For Jack, the sounds of that cursed revolver, accompanied by the shouting of his comrade, were nothing more than a gorgeous symphony, echoing from somewhere behind him.
When the dust finally settled, I lifted my head off the ground and looked around. The saloon was no more. Seeing something like this felt as if somebody rammed a wooden spike into my heart. Everyone inside was dead. Obliterated with no chance of survival. I couldn't even make out who was who. Most bodies didn't even stay intact. Those guys weren't the best people in the world, but they didn't deserve what happened to them. I knew most of them. Not personally, but from the writing. They were all side characters, but I wouldn't forget a single one. They had their lives, hopes, dreams, and hobbies. They had everything a normal person would have. And this creature murdered them all.
I stood up and looked at the Gunslinger. He was breathing heavily, seemingly out of exhaustion, but it seemed that he didn't feel anything towards the ones he just killed. His gun was glowing yellow, with steam coming out of the barrel. "Overheating perhaps?" I thought to myself.
"Why? They had families. They were people. You wanted me, not them. So why did they have to pay?" At that moment, I didn't feel the same as before. There was no shouting, no fury, no sudden urge to kill my enemy.
"I don't care! If you would've just stayed in one place and died, none of them would have to suffer. Their blood is on your hands!" The Gunslinger lifted his revolver again and aimed it towards me.
Something woke up in my head. I was angry, but the urge to let that anger burst out violently was simply not there. I stomped on the ground. A loose wooden plank rose up and blocked the bullet that would've found its way right through my skull. The splinters scattered all around me, yet I didn't flinch. What I felt back then was like an ocean. An endless sea of wrath and rage, but calm on the surface. It was quiet water, but one that would drown everything in its depths.
"Just die already!" More gunshots flew through the air. I simply took a step back and fell to the ground. How lucky. There was a hidden hatch right behind me. I tumbled my way down the stairs into this long-lost basement. It didn't hurt too much and I, fortunately, got no injuries.
Gunslinger's footsteps were getting closer and closer. I could hear him approaching. The moment his head appeared in my line of sight, I sent him a few greetings from Elizabeth's revolver. That startled him. He backed away for a while and allowed me to keep running through the underground passage. It was a narrow space, so it was only a matter of time before he'd realize that I'm actually at a disadvantage. That enlightenment came much sooner than I thought. Not only was he a fast draw and shot, but he also knew how to make the bullets perfectly ricochet off of various metal surfaces, meaning sure that they'd always find their mark.
I could see red light bouncing off the supporting pillars and lamps, and flying towards me in a seemingly unpredictable pattern. Seemingly.
The difference between a bullet that is bouncing around like that and a bullet that is coming straight for you is that the latter is always much faster. Shooting down those projectiles was child's play. At least as long as you had inhuman reflexes and accuracy, or if you were able to get them at least temporarily.
I kept retreating back throughout the passageway, blocking all of Gunslinger's attempts at killing me, while also sending some presents to him as well. Meanwhile, he found his way downstairs and kept slowly walking approaching. At that moment, the underground was filled with bullets, both normal and magical, flying left and right. We were canceling each other out. For a while, it seemed that our powers are equally matched, but then I finally hit the dead end. There was a round stone wall right at the end of the tunnel. There was nowhere else to go.
"End of the line, Eddie! It was fun, but you can't match me in shooting skills." I couldn't help but smile at that sentence.
"Maybe. But I can do so much more."
I pushed one of the bricks and the entire wall collapsed, revealing behind itself the deep but empty well.
"Heh, how is that gonna help you? You fall in there and you die." The gunslinger mocked me.
"You really don't know how the power works, do you?" I leaned back and let the gravity take me down. Before the Gunslinger disappeared out of my sight, we sent three more bullets against each other. Not that they did anything, but it was a good attempt.
*This well was dry for over fifty years. But now, Jack's plantation is damaged after my visit. Which causes a new flow of water!
Suddenly, I felt the strong stream erupt from the ground and carry me upwards and back to the surface. I covered my face as the water burst through the lid of the old well. The moment Gravity went to take me back down from the air and onto the street below, I pulled yet another divine trigger.
*The secret hallway is now unstable thanks to the water and will collapse.
The ground shook as I saw sand and rocks on the street sink into the ground and onto the head of the Gunslinger, who was still down there.
But killing someone who has Divine creativity is not so easy, even if all they possess is but a fragment. A loud scream echoed throughout the whole town and red bullets started flying from underneath the street soon after. They were blowing away the crumbling rocks and clearing the area nearby. When the dust and sand finally settled, I saw a rather large crater where the secret hallway used to be, and in the middle of it was the Gunslinger. His breathing seemed even heavier than before. To my surprise, there was a second revolver sitting in his left hand, looking exactly like the first one.
"Ugh... Alright, ya bastard! Safety wheels off!"