Lou recognized his opponent as Alizeh Chimera, the avatar of the Sylph.

Lou flicked his wrist to pop the cylinder of his revolver out. Lou spun the cylinder; as it spun, bullets began appearing in each of the empty chambers. Lou popped the cylinder back into place.

Trying to overwhelm Alizeh with sheer speed, Lou fanned the hammer as fast as he could. However, once again, Alizeh was able to react to Lou’s attack. The bullets Lou had fired lost their momentum as a howling wind opposed them.

Alizeh smirked. “You can have these back.” With a flick of her hands, Alizeh used the wind to spin Lou’s bullets around and launch them at him.

As the bullets flew toward him, Lou acted quickly. He reloaded his revolver, and fired another six shots that collided with the six Alizeh had fired.

Lou dashed toward a nearby boulder which was large enough to cover his body. He figured that so long as Alizeh could react to his attacks, then she could stop them, and he’d have no chance of taking her out. Therefore, he needed to stop her from reacting.

Alizeh used the wind to lift rubble off the ground and bring it toward her. A vortex of stone orbited her. As Lou headed for cover, Alizeh ripped stones from this orbit to hurl at him.

Every time a stone was launched his way, Lou was able to shoot it out of the sky. His bullets were powerful enough that they shattered the stone completely upon contact. Alizeh’s bombardment of rock proved trivial for Lou to endure as he blasted each stone out of the sky.

Lou grew confident in his ability to stop Alizeh’s projectiles. This was a mistake. Lou’s confidence bred negligence as he failed to properly consider his surroundings.

Just as Lou was about to make it to the boulder that could break the line of sight, Alizeh launched two more chunks of rock at Lou. Lou easily shattered the projectiles into pebbles with two shots from his revolver.

However, during Lou’s run toward cover, Alizeh had conditioned him to only expect attacks from the front.

Suddenly, Lou felt a heavy impact across the back of his head, and spine. Alizeh had manipulated the wind to send two rocks from behind Lou directly at him.

The back of Lou’s head immediately became warm as blood streaked down it. Lou had taken much worse hits before, so he managed to remain conscious, but the surprise was enough to make his footing slip.

Normally, Lou could catch himself, but a strong gust of wind knocked him off balance, and onto the floor.

The boulder Lou was running toward began to slowly rise off the ground to reveal Alizeh lifting both her hands to the sky.

“What’s your favorite genre of music?” Alizeh asked. “Personally, I’m a big fan of rock.”

Alizeh slammed her hands down. As she did, the boulder she had lifted using the wind began to fall upon Lou.

Lou’s enhanced reactions took over, and for him, time slowed to a crawl.

“Pretty sure it’s rock,” Lou said, rolling just out of the way as the boulder crashed into the ground, “and roll!”

Lou braced his back against the boulder. He had successfully cut off the line of sight between him and Alizeh, so she wouldn’t be able to react to his shots.

Lou opened up his revolver’s cylinder and popped out all but one of the bullets into his hand. He then threw the 5 bullets into the air.

Once again, time slowed down for Lou. Looking at the bullets carefully, Lou saw that in one, he could see the reflected, surprised face of Alizeh staring right at it.

At that moment, Lou shot that bullet. Lou’s shot ricocheted off the bullet, and directly toward Alizeh. There was no way for her to see Lou fire it or tell which of the 5 bullets Lou would have ricocheted his shot off.

Lou created a scenario where Alizeh couldn't react.

However, Lou heard no sound of his shot impacting its intended target. Instead, another howling wind blew over the entire cavern.

Lou peeked around the boulder, only to see the bullet he had just fired being launched right back at him. Lou snapped back behind cover to avoid the shot as it streaked right past him.

This didn’t make any sense to Lou. Alizeh had no way to tell where Lou’s shot was coming from or when he would fire it.

That’s when Lou recalled something strange. Previously, when he had fired at Alizeh, and time was slowed, he noticed that she began motioning with her hands only after Lou had fired. Normally, a trained combatant would react the moment they saw the gun aimed in their direction.

Moreover, Alizeh was a new avatar with little training; her reaction speed couldn’t possibly be fast enough to react to a bullet after it's been fired. Unless of course, her mythos was helping her.

Lou had found it strange that Alizeh managed to detect his presence despite him being entirely hidden. Initially, he had attributed it to his poor stealth skills--Tay had made them abundantly clear in training.

However, Lou suspected Alizeh wasn’t just capable of controlling the wind, but reading changes in it as well. It would explain how she noticed his presence when hidden, and why she only reacts after the shots are fired since that’s when they are streaking through the air.

Wait, Lou thought, if Alizeh can read the wind, then she would know Lou’s exact position at all times. Even when he was hidden, and thought he was safe, like right now.

Lou looked up just in time to reload his revolver and shatter two rocks that were careening toward his head. The boulder Lou had taken cover behind, started to lift off the ground.

Immediately, Lou backed up, but not fast enough. Alizeh dropped the boulder back onto Lou crushing his right foot underneath it.

With Lou immobilized, Alizeh launched the entirety of the stone orbiting her at Lou. Acting quickly, Lou fired at the boulder, cracking the area that was on top of his foot.

He managed to wiggle his foot free just in time to dive backward, and onto the ground as the onslaught of stone whizzed overhead. However, Alizeh was in full control of this miniature asteroid belt.

As Lou dropped to the ground, Alizeh shifted the wind current. Suddenly, all the stones took a sharp 90-degree turn and plummeted straight down onto Lou.

Taken by surprise, Lou was only able to shoot a few out of the sky as the rest smashed into his body. Brushing off the rubble he now found himself buried under, Lou forced himself to his feet.

Alizeh could react to whatever Lou threw at her. Therefore, Lou reckoned he just needed to launch an attack that no matter how she reacted to would hit.

Lou knew that if Alizeh could, she would’ve been throwing around the larger boulders that littered the cavern instead of the smaller--but still sizeable--rocks. There was a limit to her control over the wind, and that gave Lou an idea.

Lou fanned the hammer, unloading the six shots in his revolver at Alizeh. Alizeh rolled her eyes and raised a hand. A sudden gust of wind brought the bullets to a dead stop.

Then, Alizeh sensed something impossible. Six more bullets were now streaking through the air at her. However, Lou didn’t reload his revolver since firing the six she had just stopped.

Raising her other hand, Alizeh managed to summon another burst of wind bringing the other bullets to a stop as well.

“How’d you do that?” Alizeh questioned, her voice strained.

“Haven’t you ever seen an action movie?” Lou asked. “Heroes don’t need to reload.”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

As it so happens, Lou learned of his mythos, Billy the Kid, through action movies about the character--in fact, Lou was a fan of all action movies. Moreover, as in most action movies, several times the number of bullets fired without reloading often exceeded the amount of ammo that could be held by the firearm in question.

Lou had noticed this detail and ever since believed that heroes simply didn’t need to reload their weapons. Therefore, his mythos manifested such that his guns never needed to be reloaded.

Lou reloading it throughout the fight was a way of tricking Alizeh into believing he could only fire six shots at a time--a tactic that Varrick had recommended to Lou.

Lou continued to fan the hammer. Since the bullets were a manifestation of Lou’s mythos, this barrage drained his stamina extraordinarily fast; however, it was necessary to overwhelm Alizeh’s defenses.

A hail of bullets rained down upon Alizeh. She did her best to stop them all, but Lou was firing them twice as fast as she was stopping them.

Alizeh’s control grew weaker and weaker. The wall of bullets that had formed began to inch closer and closer toward her. Eventually, Alizeh gave up as she could no longer keep the bullets at bay.

A storm of bullets flew toward Alizeh. However, none of them made an impact. As the bullets came into contact with Alizeh, her body turned to air, and the bullets simply passed through her now incorporeal form.

Alizeh rolled up her sleeves to reveal pale white tattoos of wind lines all across her arms. “You know, Sylphs are wind spirits. That doesn’t just mean they control the wind. They are the wind.”

Alzieh reached her hands out behind her and stopped as many of the bullets that had passed through her as she could. She twisted her hands, and the bullets turned around. As Alzieh launched her hands forward, the bullets took off toward Lou.

Even though they were manifestations of his mythos, Lou couldn’t cause the bullets to disappear as they were currently being affected by Alzieh’s mythos.

Facing a doom of his own design, Lou fired at as many of the bullets as he could. Time slowed, and he could see them getting closer. However, Lou was too drained from manifesting these bullets to shoot them down.

He tried to dodge out of the way, but Alizeh used the wind to blast Lou back into the pathway of his bullets. The impact felt like getting hit with a hundred hammers.

Following up on this attack, Alizeh mustered all the wind she could and blasted it toward Lou sending him flying into the tunnel’s wall.

As Lou slammed the back of his head against the wall his whole world faded to black. Then, to fill this empty void, a memory came to Lou.

Ada, Tay, and Lou had just been informed that they would be members of the infiltration team to capture Draumur Chimera. Therefore, Varrick took it upon himself to personally train each of the members.

Varrick had just sent Lou flying across the room during their spar, causing him to collide with the wall. Lou was sitting with his back against the wall he had just impacted as Varrick walked over to check on him.

“You alright?” Varrick asked.

“I’ll live,” Lou replied, rubbing the back of his head. “Don’t get how I’m supposed to beat you.”

“You’re not,” Varrick said. “The point of this is to see how you act in a hopeless scenario.”

“Well I’m trying,” Lou replied, annoyed at his weakness.

“And you’re failing,” Varrick said.

“You said I’m supposed to fail,” Lou responded.

“I meant in terms of how you’re acting,” Varrick clarified. “Maybe you come up with a cool idea or two, but when those don’t work, you fall back to brute force. Then if you can’t outspeed the person with your quickdraw skills, you crumble.”

‘So what am I supposed to do?” Lou asked. “Don’t have infinite stamina or willpower like Ada.”

“If you can’t keep attacking the problem head-on, then get creative,” Varrick suggested.

“I ain’t the smartest,” Lou admitted. “If you want someone creative, go talk to Tay.”

“It’s not about what you are, or whether you can do it,” Varrick said. “It’s about trying even though you’ve been beaten a billion times, you’re dead tired, and you don’t have a single idea in your head.”

“Why try and do something you know is impossible?” Lou said, defeated.

“Do me a favor,” Varrick said. “If you’re gonna give up that easily, then do it now, when there aren’t lives on the line.”

“You just said it’s impossible, so giving up sounds about right,” Lou replied. “Besides this is the raid TEAM. Where we work as a, you know, team. We’re meant to overcome impossible obstacles together, right? So why am I here alone?”

Varrick stared Lou dead in the eyes. “Because in the moments that matter most, when your whole team needs you, you’ll only have yourself to rely on. Giving up then, even if it is impossible, means giving up on your team.

Depending on your team members, and benefiting from them are two entirely different things.

Teams are built on trust. Learn from your team, so that when they trust you, you don’t let them down.”

Lou blinked his eyes as the world slowly became visible. He could feel the blood from his head streaking down his back, and his whole body cried out in pain. Alizeh’s ability to meld with the wind and become incorporeal meant she couldn’t be hurt by any of Lou’s attacks.

Lou needed a plan, but that was always Tay’s forte. However, Lou recalled that Tay would always close her eyes when thinking. When Lou asked her why she did it, she said it let her see everything she was missing with her eyes.

At the time Lou didn’t understand what she meant--he still didn’t--but out of ideas, Lou closed his eyes. Strong gusts of wind still blew through the cavern. Then, he heard something strange, what sounded like rushing water; Lou realized his pants were cold and wet.

Opening his eyes, and looking around him, Lou noticed that some of the bullets that had missed him had cracked the cavern wall behind him. Water was pouring out from behind the cracks.

Lou remembered that this base was underneath Backwater, which was surrounded by water. Behind this wall was an enormous amount of rushing water.

Lou looked at Alizeh to see she had just lifted an enormous boulder bigger than Lou’s entire body.

Alizeh looked at Lou and smiled. “Catch!”

An immense blast of wind hurled the boulder at Lou. He could shoot at it, and destroy it, but then he would never have a chance at winning.

Lou tried to move out of the way, but the pain in his foot from the boulder that had crushed it prevented him from making any sudden movements. There was only one option.

Lou manifested his revolver, turned around, and fired as many shots as he could into the wall behind him. Cracks formed in the wall, weakening it even more, and causing more water to start pouring in.

As the boulder flew through the tunnel toward Lou, he recalled a conversation he had with Ada once.

It was after the two had finished a sparring session.

“Hey,” Lou had said. “Your shield may be indestructible, but don’t you still feel the force from each attack?”

“Yeah,” Ada had replied.

“How do you deal with all the pain?” Lou had asked.

Ada had shrugged. “I just grit my teeth, and remind myself of things that make the pain all worth it.”

Smiling, Lou gritted his teeth and braced for impact. The boulder slammed into his chest. Lou tried desperately to ignore the sound of his cracking bones.

As Lou was sent flying backward with the boulder, the momentum of the boulder was enough to smash the tunnel’s wall wide open. A torrent of water flooded the tunnel in an instant.

Lou fought every impulse in his body to stay awake. Now in the frigid waters that surrounded Backwater, Lou swam underneath the boulder that had just impacted him. As he managed to make his way back into the tunnel he saw that Alizeh was underwater.

This is what Lou was hoping for. With both of them underwater there was no longer any wind Alizeh could use to read or block Lou’s attack. Alizeh swiftly realized her mythos wasn’t working underwater.

However, she knew that she would be fine. Bullets couldn’t travel far underwater, and Lou was a good distance away from her. This relief would be short-lived.

Lou dismissed his revolver. Though it may be his most famous weapon, a revolver wasn’t the only weapon Billy the Kid used.

Lou manifested an ethereal green lever action rifle--the same color as his revolver and bullets. While this new weapon would provide greater force, it still wouldn’t be enough to propel bullets far underwater. Fortunately, Lou wasn’t firing a normal bullet.

Taking inspiration from Ada’s spear, Lou manifested a spear-tipped bullet designed to cut right through the water--much like a harpoon.

A mixture of salt water and blood burned Lou’s eyes, but it didn’t matter. He forced them open and aimed his sights right at Alizeh. With a pull of the trigger, the sound of water being torn through permeated the space.

An ethereal green bullet that resembled a spear tip more so than a normal bullet, streaked through the water toward Alizeh. Being underwater there was no wind for her to manipulate or transform into.

The spear bullet pierced straight through Alizeh. Her blood poured into the water around her turning it red, as the pain caused the air to leave her lungs.

Panicking, Alizeh tried to make it to the surface, but it was too late. After he had fired the spear bullet, Lou swam over to close the distance. Lou fired a single blunted bullet from his rifle directly at Alizeh's head.

The impact force, even underwater, knocked Alizeh out cold.

Lou rummaged through his now-drenched clothing and dredged out a pair of underworld cuffs. Using them to restrain Alizeh and prevent her from using her mythos, Lou grabbed her and breached the surface.

The water had yet to completely flood the tunnel, but Lou needed to move quickly before it did. Fortunately, the Chimera family had sealed off each tunnel from the rest in case one of them flooded, so this incident shouldn’t compromise the rest of the operation.

Before he left, Lou dove back underwater and managed to get a look at the vault Alizeh was protecting. He saw an unprecedented amount of dollar bills, and books that were now all ruined. Importantly, there was no sign of Draumur.

Lou took hold of Alizeh and began swimming back to where Charon was to regroup with everyone else.

That was one possible location for Draumur checked, leaving four more to go.