The first thing I did when I heard the explosions was to draw my repeater out from the holster at my side and start loading it. The Rooks had warned me against exactly this but given the circumstances I didn’t care anymore.

Zari certainly didn’t seem to mind, she shot straight into action too by starting to shout orders to the other Rooks in the building. I watched as a couple of tired looking men and women made their way out of the sleeping quarters and started to arm themselves.

“How many people do you have?” I hurriedly asked Zari, instinctively making my way over to a window in one of the wooden walls.

I couldn’t make anything out, so whatever was happening hadn’t reached the Rook headquarters building just yet.

“Counting myself and the two that just rolled out of bed? Five.”

I could hear Sean laughing in his cell, but I did my best to tune him out as I finished loading the magazine of my repeater and turned my attention to Kate. She had scurried into the corner of the room furthest away from the occupied cell as soon as the explosions started.

“Is there somewhere safe she can hide?”

“This is probably the safest place there is right now, hard to say until we find out what’s happening out there.” Zari was instructing the two other Rooks in the building while she grabbed some weapons of her own.

In one hand she wielded a large blue crystal rapier, and in the other she held a long revolver. The other Rooks likewise had armed themselves with revolvers and one-handed weapons. A sensible choice when they didn’t know what they were dealing with.

I still had the revolver I had taken from Sean, but I couldn’t effectively use it with my repeater.

“You want me to have someone stay here with you and her?” Zari offered.

As tempting as it was to just accept the offer, protecting Kate was my job. From the sounds of it the Rooks would need all hands on deck to deal with whatever threat was attacking the town. I considered volunteering to join them, but I had to put my employer first.

“Kate, what do you want to do?” I rushed over to where the researcher was shifting about uncomfortably in the corner as another explosion rang out.

“I don’t know Cy, are we safe here?” I rushed back over to the window by the cell where Sean had grown strangely quiet.

I was still unable to make out anything other than the swirling starsand and some of the basic wooden walls bordering the town, but I did hear an all too familiar hissing noise along with several gunshots that made my blood run cold.

“Honestly I doubt it, if we believe our friend here this could be the worst place to be.”

“But Zari said…”

“Zari would normally be right, but after what we saw I don’t think we’re dealing with normal anymore.” Kate took a deep breath and closed her eyes at my words.

“What do ya we think we should do?”

“I have to prioritise keeping you safe, but it sounds like there are creatures out there. I think we either need to go on the offensive or get the hell outta dodge.”

“I don’t think we can just run away from this one.” Kate grimaced.

“Can always get you out of the Scorch, back to Lunar Heights.”

“True enough, but that would feel wrong…” Kate bit her lip as the sound of the distant fight intensified.

“Right now I think other people need help a lot more than me Cy.” Kate clenched her fists as she spoke.

I could tell she was afraid, but with all that seemed to be happening outside she couldn’t ask me to stay hiding with her while people fought for their lives. I personally trusted the Rooks. Towns came under attack from crystal creatures all the time and they handled it fine, but this situation was clearly different and I had to agree with Kate.

The best way I could keep her safe was to stop this threat before it got anywhere close to her.

Plus, despite having told Kate I was no hero, when I was put a situation like this where I could save people? I would do what I could for the town. That wasn’t heroics, just my responsibility as a crystal gunslinger.

I nodded wordlessly to Kate, heading for the door and readying my gun. Kate followed close behind and I turned back to her before leaving.

“Hide in the barracks while I’m gone. If anyone comes for you that isn’t a Rook or me don’t be afraid to shoot or zap, whatever’s easiest.”

I made sure that Kate still had the dark metal revolver we had taken from Sean, quickly showing her a basic two handed grip for working the hammer and steadying the recoil.

Her hands were shaky, she had likely never fired a gun before. I still hoped she wouldn’t have to. I really wasn’t overjoyed at the prospect of leaving her in a building with the mysterious and clearly dangerous criminal, but he was at least locked up.

I doubted he could go about cutting through the metal bars of his cell with his hands cuffed behind him, especially not with his only tool being made out of obsidian. If he tried to use it on the bars the brittle blade would almost certainly shatter, but with how confident he seemed I couldn’t trust that he didn’t have some other trick up his sleeve.

Even if he did miraculously get loose, Kate was at least armed with the totally safe combo of a gun and unstable magic.

She had dealt with him once before, I hoped she wouldn’t have to again but I didn’t see any other option short of taking her with me, which would almost certainly be much more dangerous.

“Good luck out there Cy…” Kate took a few steadying breaths and I started for the door, turning back to give her what I hoped was an encouraging smile.

“Don’t worry about me. Once all this is cleared up, I’ll give you a proper lesson with that thing if you want.”

“I’d like that.” Kate did her best to return my forced smile.

I ducked out of the barracks, puling my goggles down from my hat over my eyes and raising my repeater as I rushed out into the town. From the sound of things, the fighting was taking place on the north side of town close to the saloon. I started to run over, the sounds of gunshots and hissing growing ominously louder as I approached.

As I went I made sure to carefully check my surroundings for any threats that had broken away from the main fight. Sky seemed clear, so I probably didn’t have to worry about crystal vultures or buzzards. I also didn’t spot any smaller creatures like rats or spiders scurrying through the darker spaces between the buildings.

“We got a Rook down!” I heard Zari cry out just as I rounded the Ruby Rest, the fight finally in view.

In short, it was chaos. Three Rooks, Zari included, were taking cover behind a large wooden caravan while several others were laid out on the dirt road in pools of their own blood. Zari was hastily tending to the wounds of one of the Rooks I recognised from the jail while the other was clutching his arm, leaning out of cover every few seconds to fire off a shot from his revolver at the attacking force.

I couldn’t tell how many attackers there actually were from my position, as they were taking cover behind an enormous crystal serpent. Its body was covered in dark red crystal scales and it was large and long enough to easily wrap itself around one of the buildings like the saloon several times over.

It was currently wrapped in a tight coil around a couple of men in frighteningly familiar black masks, armed with rifles, who were poking themselves over the body to fire off shots every few seconds. One seemed to be fiddling around with a bundle of dynamite, and from the craters in the starsand and holes in several surrounding buildings I could tell he wasn’t afraid to use it.

Anyone could see it was a losing battle for the Rooks, so it was a good job I had arrived when I did. The first thing I did was shoulder my repeater and take a shot at the serpent as it started to rear its head up, baring long crystalline fangs. The Rooks could at least keep the attackers with black masks in cover with their guns, but if the serpent tried it could easily swallow the caravan they were hiding behind whole, or worse just crush them all.

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As the resounding blast of my repeater firing filled the area, all gunfire and shouting stopped for a few seconds. Time seemed to slow for me as I watched the rubyshot explode free from the barrel in a beautiful plume of flame and smoke, the pointed projectile rapidly accelerating through the air before crashing directly into the head of the snake and detonating with another blast like a cannon.

Every shot I took with the repeater, it really was like the gun was exploding in my hands, the force contained and channeled by the thick red gemstone. Unfortunately, the snake was made of ruby too so it was far from a killing blow, but it did do some decent damage.

I had managed to get a clean shot on the center of the creature’s head, and while the rubyshot had failed to smash through the crystal, it had cracked it before detonating, leaving the monstrous snake blinded.

“Get out of there!” I cried out to Zari and the other Rooks as the snake let out its loudest hiss yet and started to writhe about wildly.

I heard panicked cries from the black-masked individuals as their near impenetrable cover started to turn against them. Whatever mysterious force had been keeping it in place had clearly vanished as soon as my rubyshot had detonated, and it was now uncoiling without care for those sheltering behind it.

“I can’t leave them!” Zari was the lone Rook not to hobble away from the quickly deteriorating situation.

She instead rolled out of cover in the direction of the two downed Rooks. It was pretty clear that if they didn’t get medical attention soon they would likely bleed out.

I watched as she skillfully dodged out of the way of the snake’s massive head as it came crashing down onto the caravan, utterly destroying it under the weight of several tons of ruby.

Several of the black-masked bandits that hadn’t been crushed under the snake had recovered enough to raise their rifles at Zari. I hastily worked the lever action of my own gun, aimed and took a shot at the ground a couple of meters in front of them.

They barely had time to collectively cry out as my repeater lit up once again and the rubyshot detonated close enough to send all three attackers flying backwards.

It seemed that the one fiddling with dynamite had been crushed under the long slithering body of the snake along with his supply of explosives, so at least my blast hadn’t chained into one strong enough to be lethal. Probably.

The masked men all took a pretty heavy hit when they collided with the slithering body of the crystal snake but they would likely be walking away with just a few broken bones if they were lucky. Unfortunately for them, the snake they had been using as mobile cover was still writing about wildly.

Its huge body ended up rolling over and crushing the trio as the creature hissed violently, heading straight for where Zari was heaving a Rook off the ground.

“Leave them!” I yelled out as I started to run toward Zari, taking a shot without stopping.

It wasn’t nearly as well aimed as my others, but the snake was a big target. I hit it on the side of the head this time, breaking off one of the long fangs it was baring and causing it to let out another deafening hiss as it turned from Zari to me.

It couldn’t exactly see me through the crystal eyes that were dented and cracked by my first shot, but it had other powerful senses that were much harder to take out. If I had to guess, it could smell the gunpowder and was smart enough to go for the biggest threat to its own survival.

“Not happening!” Zari snapped at me with more emotion than I had seen from her all day.

I skidded to a stop and started running back the way I had come.

“Fine! I’ll lead it away!” I yelled back.

“Yeah, you kinda have to if you want to live!” I heard Zari call after me as I rounded the Ruby Rest and started sprinting full speed.

I didn’t need to glance behind me to tell that the snake was still following me. I could easily hear the hissing growing closer, the sound of it slithering through the starsand adding to my spiking adrenaline. All I could do was keep on sprinting through the center of town, keeping the ruby reptile clear of the buildings on either side where the settlers were hiding.

Even though I wasn’t out of breath yet, I knew I couldn’t keep running forever. The snake was slowly gaining and all it would take was one slip for it to catch me and swallow me whole.

I only had one real shot at getting out of this one. If I just spun and shot with my repeater I was only going to piss it off without doing any real damage.

I needed a kill shot. Something the snake couldn’t just brush off before using those deadly jaws on me.

As soon as I could hear the hissing right behind me I readied myself for action. I still had five shots left in my repeater but if all went well I would only need one. Fueled by adrenaline and barely suppressed fear I waited until I could hear the jaws of the snake stretch wide-open behind me, and then I dived forward into a roll.

My momentum carried me far enough that I had just enough time to spin around and take a shot from a traditional kneeling position, one of the first stances I had learned while training with my repeater.

I didn’t have long to aim but it was hard to miss a large target like the snake’s wide open jaws at such close range. As soon as I pulled the trigger I extended my legs again, hopping backwards as my shot soared straight into the maw of the ruby snake.

It was almost perfect. The rubyshot had a clear path into the mouth of the snake, drilling into the roof where the crystal was thinner than the more densely armoured outside.

The round cracked right through and detonated in the skull of the creature, taking out enough vital organs to end its life right then and there. Unfortunately, despite my efforts to clear some distance, I had still been too close.

I cried out in pain as the top of the serpent’s head exploded right in front of me. My duster and goggles covered me from a lot of the smaller shrapnel, the razor sharp crystal chunks hitting me hard but bouncing off the thick leather.

The larger chunks flying at me did a lot more damage. Some wickedly sharp crystals propelled by the explosive force of the rubyshot shredded right through the leather and my skin, leaving deep gouges that made me cry out in pain. I instinctively tried to twist away but the damage was done.

At the very least none of the lethal crystal shrapnel embedded in my chest because of my quick reflexes, but I still took several extremely painful hits. One particularly large shard cut through my right side, easily tearing through my duster and shirt to slice me open.

Blood trickled onto the starsand as I shouted out and went to clutch the injury, but that was unfortunately far from the worst of it. One of the serpent’s fangs, a wickedly sharp crystal blade the length of a soldier’s sword, rocketed through my right arm with enough force that it sent me spinning to the ground.

I barely had time to register what had happened, the pain so overwhelming it was all I could do to scream in agony. I shakily looked over at where I had been punctured just above the elbow and felt tears welling up in my eyes.

I almost couldn’t believe it was real, the huge and slightly curved fang shimmering in the sunlight, jutting halfway out of my arm. I lost my grip on the trigger of my repeater and dropped it to the ground as I gritted my teeth, trying and failing to withstand howling out in pain.

While this wasn’t the first serious injury I had sustained, there was no denying that it was the worst. I hoped that I had been lucky and the bone hadn’t broken, but from the intense pain coursing through my entire body I felt almost certain it had.

Doing my absolute best to shut out the pain, I tried to analyse the situation I was left in. That was by no means an easy feat, but there was more than a good chance I wasn’t out of the woods just yet. There would be time for the pain later. All too much time.

I had saved the Rooks and taken out the crystal serpent along with the black-masked individuals that seemed to be controlling it, but was that all there was to the plan? Sean seemed overly confident he wouldn’t be in the jail long, so was there something we were missing? Was it all a distraction?

I tried my best to pull myself off the cold starsand, picking up my repeater as I did so. I winced just trying to lift it up with my impaled arm. It was hardly a weapon I could use well one-handed, so for the time being I stowed it in the holster at my back with some difficulty.

I was losing blood from my arm at a worrying rate. It had gone slightly numb, but I would have to worry about that later. For the time being I drew the revolver I had taken from Sean and held it in my left hand.

A small gun like this was far from what I was used to, and didn’t like my chances of hitting anything too far away, but it was infinitely better than nothing. At the very least, the feel of cold iron in my hand was comforting to me as I staggered over to the Rook headquarters.

The pain made it difficult to stay steady, and I knew I was on a timer before I lost consciousness altogether, but I managed to fight through it and stumble my way through the door.

“Kate!” I called out, letting out a grunt of pain as I instinctively tried to steady myself with my injured arm.

Holding my revolver shakily, I rounded the corner and pushed open the door to the barracks room I had left her in. There was nobody inside. I shouted again, in case she had decided to take cover under one of the beds, but there was no movement.

The room was lit faintly by glowing emberlite lamps, allowing me to make out a small object glittering on the wooden floor in the spot I had last seen Kate. It was her guild badge. The small silver sigil in the shape of an open book with her name inscribed across the pages.

I bent down to pick it up, then made my way toward the jail as fast as I could, thumbing back the hammer of my revolver as rage and pain flooded through me.

“KATE!” I shouted once again, to no response.

Once I kicked open the wooden door to the jail, it all became clear to me. The snake had just been a distraction.

While all the Rooks and myself were across town, someone had snuck around to the back of the jail and blown a hole in the wall of Sean’s cell.

It wasn’t enough for Sean just to escape though, he must have gone into the next room with whoever had helped him break out and taken Kate, probably knocking her out so that he didn’t need to worry about her Soulgate. Of course, there was every chance I was wrong about how it had happened, but I was fairly confident Kate was alive at least.

She had either surrendered or struggled, her pin perhaps left behind as a message to me. I stared out of the hole in the wall of Sean’s cell for any sign of her and her captors, but she was long gone. I had failed her.

Looking down at my arms I could see that they were both trembling now. At some point I had dropped the revolver without even noticing. I had been running on sheer adrenaline after the fight and now that it was fading there was no barrier protecting me from the absolute agony wracking my entire body.

The crystal fang piercing all the way through my right arm was slick with blood, but I could barely feel the limb anymore. It was numb and cold, and when I pulled off my glove with my teeth I could see my fingers were starting to turn black.

“Crystal venom, huh?” I almost wanted to laugh as tears welled up in my eyes.

I was always so confident in my knowledge of the crystal creatures of the Scorch, but in the aftermath of the fight I had forgotten that some serpents still carried a dangerous venom despite their fangs having become crystallised.

As with everything else, the Scorch had warped the substance into something far deadlier. And now my body was so weak that it was too late for me to do anything about it but slump to the ground, my vision swimming.

As I felt the liquid pain pumping through my veins, burning away at my nerves until it became too much for me to stay awake, I looked out across the shimmering starsand. It glittered in the sun, faint hoofprints barely visible on the surface being quickly covered up as the sands shifted in the wind.

When I left the waking world this time, I didn’t dream of home. I didn’t dream at all. It was all just pitch black and the dull throbbing pain of the venom.