Clem tipped his comically large hat to Tom and stood, the spurs on his boots clinking lightly as he made a hand gesture pointing at the team. Tom's eyes widened as he shouted just before diving to cover behind a crate in the room.
"SCATTER!" He yelled at his team.
Everyone tried to find cover as quickly as they could, the chickens being the exception to the rule, darting out to find their next victim regardless of the danger. Many of them were shot down, but a few made it to the edge and began to latch onto victims. Both James and Jay were struck in the arm as they dove for cover, but Derek and Tom used healing spells on them to bring them back to full health.
Pinned down with no end to the barrage of bullets, Tom looked at the edge of the wooden crate he was hidden behind and saw it was losing pieces to the shots being fired at an alarming rate. Suddenly there was a "tunk" sound followed by an explosion and screams as Kiera managed to fire off another grenade at the enemy. More screams came from the other side of the room as well, followed by a trumpeting sound telling Tom that Bron was in the fray.
With the brief reprieve from so much fire, Tom leaned around the crate and fired a few rounds from his handguns at the enemy as well, killing two more fishmen. Rolling back behind the cover as more shots rang out, Tom tried to look around both sides of the box to see if he could get a glimpse of Pecos Clem. When he finally did, the man was still standing in the exact same spot with his arms folded over his chest and a confident smile.
Boiling with anger now at the man's callous approach to their slaughter, Tom bellowed out a yell and stood from his hiding spot, pointing his guns in opposing directions and unloaded on the fishmen. Shots whizzed past his head, and one hit him in the chest, but his armor seemed to be doing an excellent job of stopping bullets. Though they hurt like hell. Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, Tom ran at some of the first enemies.
With the fishmen, now having a solid target, the fire began to shift toward Tom. Kiera noticed this and popped up to begin her own assault with a fully automatic rifle and began to cover Tom. James also peaked his head out and began firing at the enemy. Kevin and Kirsten saw an opening and moved to attack the left side of the fishmen with their axes. Jay was nowhere to be seen. Which Tom appreciated.
"Can't be a good ninja if we can see you," Tom thought to himself as he continued firing.
Derek was using his shield to rush to the right side of the room to help Bron with his massacre. The large elephant man now bled from several places on his body, showing he wasn't completely immune to the bullets. Derek let out a shout to let Bron know he was coming up behind him. Bron seemed to be able to tell help was coming and sidestepped right as one of the fishmen tried to punch him and the punch landed right in the middle of Derek's shield.
A crunching sound could be heard from the being's half-fin half-hand appendage and he let out a scream of pain just before Derek bashed him across the face with the shield sending him sprawling. He then brought his gun out from behind the shield and shot the creature in the head, stopping its movement.
Bron continued through his sidestep, dodging a second attack from a man who appeared to be half-octopus half-man and almost stopped his other attacks, but the suction cups on the creature's hands and arms stuck to Bron and his weapon. With one fluid motion, Bron grabbed the man by the neck in one hand and swung him into another gang member, then began to use the octopusman as a sort of flail as he switched to holding the creature's ankles instead of his neck.
The morale of their opponents began to drop as they saw the devastation that Bron was unleashing using one of their compatriots as a weapon. The octopusman's head exploded somewhere around the fifth or sixth swing, and seeing how effective the method was, Bron tossed the body away, stowed his weapon in his inventory, grabbed two more enemies nearby, and began using them as make-shift weapons.
"What...What is it?!" One of the fishmen asked staring in horror and Derek and Bron whirling through the enemies like dancers in a bloody display of finesse and strength.
"It's a monster! We gotta get outta here!" Another yelled and the fishmen broke as they began running in all directions.
Pecos Clem was fuming by this point. He thought he had the absolute upper hand in this battle and was now seeing his men begin to panic. His fists clenched at his sides and he let out a primal roar in his anger.
"EEEAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" Clem bellowed out as he drew his pistols. "I will not be made to play the fool in this here situation!"
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He aimed and began firing at Tom. The first couple of shots went wide, but one hit Tom in the back sending him sprawling to the floor.
"TOM!" Kiera shouted as she took aim at Clem and fired.
Pecos Clem ducked and hid behind his throne as he began firing again at the team. Tom groaned and got up off the floor. His armor hadn't stopped Clem's bullets, so as he stood up, blood began to leak from the bullet wound in his back. He turned to see Clem firing at Kiera and his vision went red. He fired off shots toward Clem who ducked even further behind his throne and took aim at Tom.
"Keep the others off me! Clem is mine!" Tom yelled as he ducked behind another crate, pieces of wood splintering off in all directions as Clem's more powerful bullets took a toll on his hiding place.
"Son of a fucking cunt-bred shit stain!" Tom heard James cry out from in the distance as he was hit by a bullet as well. "Eat a bag of dicks you giant bukake smear!"
"Sit still you fucking princess. It's not that bad." Tom could hear Kiera telling James, so he focused back on the battle.
Clem had a gun out from behind the throne and was aiming it at Bron when Tom popped out from his hiding place. Aiming his own weapon quickly at the gun, he fired. Luck was on his side as the bullet struck the gun, blasting it from Clem's hands. The fishman swore and looked at Tom with a blazing hatred.
"CLEM! Let's settle this like men! You and me! Mano-a-mano! No guns!" Tom said standing up and walking toward the raised platform. "I've been dying to punch your fucking lights out."
"You think you can take me? In a fight? HA! Let's go little boy." Pecos Clem said, standing up as well to meet him.
The two began to run at each other and met at the bottom of the platform with fists flying. Both of their first strikes were blocked by the other, but they punched each other in the face at the same time with their second punches. Both men stepped backward, imprints showing on their faces where the other had hit.
Both men glared with hatred at each other, standing there in a fighting stance. Rushing each other again, Tom went for a defensive approach as Bron had been teaching him, and blocked punch after punch by diverting them to either side of his body with the backs of his hands. Clem pulled further back for more power in a punch and as it rocketed toward Tom's head, he deftly diverted it with one hand as he shifted his stance lower and punched at Clem's head with the same diverting hand. The man was ready and blocked the strike with his other forearm, but suddenly felt the wind knocked out of him.
"Yamazuki bitch!" Tom yelled as Clem took two steps back, catching himself before he fell.
Clem let out a growl, then stepped forward to continue the fight. His punches grew more wild with each strike, and Tom was easily able to divert each one. One especially powerful punch came toward his head again and Tom sidestepped as he grabbed onto Clem's forearm. He bent down as he twisted his body, pulling Clem's arm over his shoulder. Lifting his back leg between Clem's legs, Tom threw the fishman over his shoulder, smashing his back into a crate as he flew over him in a Judo-style throw.
Not giving Clem a chance to recover, Tom jumped onto him and, after quickly equipping the brass knuckles Derek had advised purchasing, began punching him repeatedly in the face. First, his lip began to bleed. Then there was a sharp crack as his orbital socket fractured. Again and again, Tom smashed his fists into Clem's face as all of the anger and frustration of the past weeks came flooding into him at once. When Tom finally stopped, Clem's face was a ruined mess of flesh and missing teeth.
The room had gone nearly silent as the rest of the fishmen had given up on the fight when they saw Clem go down. They were all standing against the walls with their hands up in surrender, staring wide-eyed at Tom and what he had done. His team was also looking at him with slight concern. All except Bron that is, who was beaming with pride at his performance.
"You good?" James said limping over to him.
"Yeah. I'm good." Tom said breathing heavily. "I'm good."
James offered Tom a hand to help him stand and Tom took it happily, rising to his feet and stepping over Clem as he moved. Clem suddenly let out a small groan and moved slightly.
"FUCK! ZOMBIE!" James yelled as he equipped one of his handguns and shot six rounds into Clem's head and three into his crotch faster than Tom could follow.
"It's dead, Jim," Tom said putting a hand on James' shoulder.
"You know I don't like being called Jim," James said to Tom.
"I know. But it wouldn't have been the same." Tom replied chuckling at his joke and James.
"You look like shit, dude," James added, smiling at Tom.
"Then I'm finally down to only twice as good-looking as you," Tom smiled back.
They both stood there for a minute, catching their breath as the adrenaline began to leave them.
"Is this a moment? Are we having a moment?" James began.
"No," Tom said sweetly, still smiling at James then patting him on the cheek before walking away.
"Alright, everyone. We can't take prisoners, so you know what to do." Tom said as he moved toward the entrance.
Sounds of pleas for mercy and then gunfire followed as the rest of the fishmen were killed.
"That was a bit harsh wasn't it?" Petunia asked as Tom reached the doorframe.
"Would you rather I let them go to stew in anger and then come back to seek their revenge? I get to leave here after this. You all go back to town." Tom said looking at Petunia with absolutely no expression on his face.
"Well...no, I suppose not," Petunia admitted as she stared into his eyes.
"OK. Then let's get you young ladies back home." Tom replied as he continued walking.