Gunshots had been the only hint to Alex about what had happened when he finally got back to the store. Sam was nowhere to be seen, and he could see tracks of men in the dirt following after someone toward the water tower at the center of town. If he hadn't rushed over, he might never have found her. If he hadn't heard gunshots, he might have been slower.

Sam looked bad. Her mouth was bloody from a cut. Purple spots were already forming on the left side of her face. He didn't see any gunshot wounds, but he assumed that was related to people inside the saloon Silvertooth had walked out from.

Alex locked eyes with Silvertooth. Silvertooth looked at him with a mixture of anger and disbelief. Alex held his staff ready, opening his gate and embracing the magnetic fields around him. He had been taken by surprise during their first fight. He wouldn't let that happen again.

"How're you still alive?" Silvertooth demanded, pointing his gun at Alex. "I checked your body after the fight. Your arms and legs were broken clean off. You didn't even have a pulse."

"I drank a lot of milk as a kid," Alex said, twirling his staff through his hands as he took a stance. "You know what they say. Milk builds strong bones."

Judging by his confused look, Silvertooth was not inundated with the same commercials as Alex was when he was a kid. Granted, from what Alex understood, his version of Earth was just one of many, and not all of them were anything like Earth. That was assuming that Silvertooth wasn't a native of the world. Alex didn't have any way to tell.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Four shots, the same as the two Alex had heard before, echoed through the road. Alex raised his hand, generating a repulsive field with his already open gate. He couldn't do the trick from earlier; there were too many bullets, but he could deflect them.

Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting.

All four bullets ricocheted away from him. The color drained out of Silvertooth's face as he dropped his gun and reached for his whip. Alex smiled. They were on a more even playing field this time.

"You're cursed."

"As are you."

"Split!"

Lights cascaded around Silvertooth, and in a moment, he had six copies, all armed with whips, at his side. Alex leaned forward, grasping his staff as he charged. He kept the first Silvertooth in mind as he ran in. He needed to test an idea he had about the deputy's curse.

"Step."

Alex instantly crossed the instance between them, thrusting his staff at the deputy's heart without a second thought. He had a moment to see the shock on the deputy's face before the face went slack, and whips crashed beside him. The Silvertooth Alex hit shattered into shards of light, and a cutting pain crossed his shoulder.

Thwip. Crack.

Another whip cracked across Alex's back. Sharp shards bit into his duster, and a stinging pain ran across his back. As soon as Alex's foot hit the ground, he didn't wait.

"Step."

He reappeared a distance away from the deputies. Now there were six, each one armed with a whip, and one of the whips already bloodied. Alex looked through the eyes of each of them and noticed one was smirking already.

"Only one is the real you," Alex said, planting his staff on the ground. "The rest are copies made out of light."

"Pretend that helps you," one Silvertooth said as he cracked his whip on the dirt. "Split."

The downed copy was replaced in a flash of light. Alex tugged on a piece of metal near one of the buildings. A small, sharp, and rusty nail floated up in the air. He had an idea.

"Step."

Alex feinted a charge forward but tilted to the right at the last second.

Whips came down on the ground where he would have been, cutting into the dirt as he appeared next to one of the buildings. Alex pulled on the nail, lining it up with the Silvertooth who had spoken last.

"Grah!" Silvertooth let out a yell as the nail hit him in the back.

There wasn't enough force to pierce anything deep. Alex wasn't nearly accurate enough for something like that with such a small object. There was a reason he favored a staff over just random bits of metal.

"The one you inhabit, while you're in it, you're flesh and blood," Alex said, searching his senses for more metal.

He noticed that metal bolts held up the water tower, which gave him another idea. He was sure he had most of Silvertooth's powers figured out, and he could beat the deputy.

"Whelp," Silvertooth said, his eyes relaxing before that body faded into shards of light. "It doesn't matter what tricks you use. You can't beat me. Split."

Instead of replacing the broken copy, ten deputies were now on the road. Alex smiled, holding up his staff. Without Goldfist to back him up and the element of surprise, Silvertooth didn't have that many tricks.

"How about this, then?" Alex said as he wound up and threw his staff like a javelin: "Rail Gun."

He pushed on it with his magnetism as he threw it, accelerating the strike. He ran forward as it careened toward the Silvertooth who had talked last. It charged forward like a bullet, crashing into that Silvertooth and breaking him into shards of light.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Step."

Alex didn't wait for his staff to return. He stepped toward the left Silvertooth first, cutting the distance between them to zero as he threw a hard punch into the man's gut. The copy shattered into light shards. Alex pivoted, swinging his other arm and hitting the next copy without pausing as hard as he could. Even as that one shattered, Alex took out another, carrying the momentum of his punch into a hard kick across the third's abdomen.

A whip cracked, and Alex stepped away, this time toward the water tower. He had taken out four of the clones in just a few seconds. The time it took for Silvertooth to transfer his consciousness gave Alex time to act.

"They're fragile. Your ability is a glass cannon."

"Shut up!" Silvertooth spat. "Split!"

Six turned into twenty deputies.

"You think you can take me? I'll make an army if I have to."

Alex was already manipulating the bolts of the tower behind him. It didn't take long before the bolts on the front side were loose. All it would take was a solid hit to bring the entire water tower tumbling down. The only real problem was Sam was in the way on the road.

He reached out in his field for his staff, rolling it across the ground with a push toward Sam. It rolled up against her leg, and she looked down at it. He hoped she would take the hint.

"You're wide open!"

Crack. Crack. Crack.

Three whips crashed into Alex. Two of them succeeded in wrapping around his arm and biting into his duster, while the third cut down his chest. Alex gritted his teeth but stood still. He only needed a few more moments. He focused on the bolts behind him, making sure that all of them facing the deputy were released.

"I don't know what you can do," Silvertooth said as he walked closer, drawing a knife from his belt. "Your curse seems to have something to do with moving stuff with your mind. You also know one of the Five Paths. I'll make sure you die a painful death, even if I have to put a knife in your gut."

"Be still my beating heart," Alex whispered as more of the deputies grabbed hold of his arms, and others drew their knives. "What makes you think I only know one of the Five Paths?"

"You're bluffing. Even a vice-captain at most knows three. Not that it matters."

"Two," Alex said. "I know two of the five."

"Stop lying," the main Silvertooth said as he grasped Alex's shoulder and pulled the knife back.

"Might."

Alex's muscles bulged, and he tore his body left and right. The copies holding onto him were flung to the ground far in front of him. Silvertooth jumped backward to get out of the way, exactly as Alex had wanted. Alex didn't stop at that, turning away from the deputy and running to the water tower. He punched the water tower with one solid hit to the nearest support. The wood exploded out in a shower of splinters before Alex's muscles relaxed to normal.

Groan. Snap. Snap. Crash.

The tower tilted as it crashed to the ground over him. Alex was lucky to be where he stood. He was close enough that the water tank wouldn't hit him. It crashed to the ground in front of him, sending water cascading in all directions as the wooden tank shattered on the ground.

"Might." Alex jammed his feet into the ground as the water washed over him, his body taking the hit like a slap to the face.

It didn't matter. His body could take a storm without moving with that technique. Silvertooth wasn't as lucky. As Alex had guessed, the deputy's strength was focused on his curse and his curse alone. His lungs burned, and dizziness wrapped around his head, but the pain was worth it. As the water receded and the water tank fell in two, Alex could see only one very wet Silvertooth on the ground, coughing and sputtering up water as he pushed himself up from the ground.

"Who are you?" he asked as Alex approached him.

"'Tin Man' Ortega," Alex said, balling his hand into a fist and lining up a kick to the deputy's face.

The man's face went as white as his teeth as Alex kicked at his face. Alex saw the light in his eyes fade before the hit. Silvertooth shattered into shards of light as Alex's kick connected.

"Couldn't get it," Alex whispered as he looked around.

Sam had managed to limp away with his staff. She stood near an alley where she could still see the fight. Alex gave her a nod and a smile, but she didn't return it.

It felt like his entire body was on fire with a fever, and his muscles ached with every movement. If there was ever a time he regretted breaking out of the laboratory before he had learned the other three techniques, it was now. If he had at least mastered the Path of Breath, he wouldn't be nearly as drained from using the Path of Might. The Path of Step wasn't nearly as draining, but he couldn't use it all the time.

"You alive, Sam?" he asked, limping over to her.

"Barely," she whispered, gripping his staff like a lifeline as she leaned against the wall. "What about Thomas and Joel?"

Alex raised his eyebrow, but he didn't ask. Instead, he limped his way over to the saloon and looked inside. Two men lay on the floor. A woman was putting pressure on one of their wounds while another man held a cloth to the other man's shoulder.

"Both alive," Alex yelled before he walked into the saloon.

Sam nodded to him and collapsed to the ground. Alex felt the same but couldn't afford to collapse just yet.

"You got a doctor in town?" he asked the two people working.

"Doc Brown," the woman said.

"Go get him. I'll help out here." Alex took her place next to the wounded man.

Once she was gone, he looked the man over. It was a shot to the gut, and the bullet was probably still inside. There would be shards of metal all through his intestines if the bullet had shattered. It wasn't a good sign, but Alex wouldn't just rip out metal with his curse in that situation.

"Help's coming," Alex told him as he gripped his shoulder and helped him hold pressure on the wound.

"Thank you," he said as he looked up to Alex. "Is Sam alright?"

"She's beaten and bruised but alive," Alex said a tight smile on his face. "I take the deputy shot you."

"For just trying to be neighborly," he said, gritting his teeth.

"Hey, you're the best kind of neighbor."

"Joel, you going to be okay over there?" the man asked, turning his head over to the other man who was shot.

"I'll be fine," Joel said. "Can't feel my arm, so I don't feel any pain."

"Lucky. You got a name, stranger?"

"Alex."

"Did you kill the deputy, Alex?"

"No, he got away. He's a slippery thing."

"That he is. Listen here, Alex. I need you to get Sam and get out of here. Silvertooth will be back with a vengeance if you didn't kill him. He might even bring Goldfist with him. I don't care how strong you are. That isn't a fight worth taking while Sam's at risk."

"Understood." Alex looked over to the uninjured man. "You. Come help hold the pressure here. That guy will be all right."

He waited for the uninjured man to come over and start holding pressure on the man's gut. Alex stood up and looked down at him. There was a faint smile on his lips.

"You have a name?" Alex asked.

"Thomas."

Alex walked over to the bar and grabbed one of the bottles. On the front of the bottle, he noticed a black turtle with a long snake's tail. He brought it over and set it next to Thomas.

"Take a swig if you need it. I'll go and get Sam somewhere safe."

"Stealing my alcohol, too." Thomas grimaced but didn't refuse the bottle.

Alex nodded and walked out of the saloon. A simple reconnaissance had exploded into a blown brawl that wrecked the town's water tower. He didn't imagine that things could get much worse. He made it over to Sam and picked her up despite her protests.

"We're getting you to the cart and getting out of here," Alex said firmly. "I've got a good five minutes in me before I collapse. Can you get us somewhere safe?"

"I can," Sam whispered after a moment's hesitation.

"Good," Alex said as he walked her back toward the town's entrance.