“I told ya I don’t use guns.”
“You’ll have to this time if you want to get paid,” Billy replied, fixing Oscar with a cold stare. “Just focus on the money and do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you.”
“Why can’t you just do it?”
“I can’t use two guns at the same time with my hand like this,” Billy responded, gesturing to his burnt hand.
“Well, if you get killed, don’t come round blaming me. Also, this ain’t in my contract, so I’m gonna want more money.”
“Take it up with the Hog.”
“That cheap bastard won’t pay.”
“Probably not, but that's for later. Now it’s time to rustle up some action. Bob, you just stay there.”
“Hhhhhheeeeee,” wheezed Bob, giving a thumbs up.
“Uhh, good man,” Billy replied half-heartedly, returning the thumbs-up.
“Alright, Oscar, on three. One, two, three.”
Billy dashed into the opening, immediately drawing the attention of the golems. Five of them were on the same side of the river as Billy, with three more plus the molten golem on the far side.
The fire golems began to launch fireballs at him, and the molten golem picked up a large rock which immediately turned white-hot and threw it, causing it to explode on contact with the ground, scattering searing hot stones everywhere. With eight fire golems in the area, the canyon soon lit up like a barbecue pit.
Billy dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged, as if his life depended on it—because it did. Had the golems had any semblance of teamwork, they would have quickly finished off the scruffy gunslinger, but he cleverly moved among them and behind them, causing them to catch each other with friendly... fire.
Billy maneuvered purposefully, getting himself into a position close to the river. Using his left hand, he pointed his revolver at the river and fired, sending an ice shot into the water, freezing it and creating an ice bridge between the two shores. An incoming fireball forced Billy to move before he could aim and fire a second shot; his rushed movement caused his foot to slip, bringing him directly into the path of one of the fire golems. Muscle memory took over, and he fired an ice round at the monster. It struck the flaming stone thorax, freezing it. Billy regained his footing as the ice crystals spread across the golem, extinguishing its fire and causing the rocky segments of its body to fall to the ground in a pile.
Taking off at a sprint, Billy put distance between him and the golems before looping around them, bringing him back toward the ice bridge. Raising his gun, he rapidly fired two shots at the molten golem—one struck the giant in its right arm, and the other in the lower abdomen. A cry of pain bubbled out of the molten rock head of the monster as the ice began to spread across its body. But just as fast as the ice spread, it started to melt again, the heat from the molten rock overcoming the power of the magic bullet.
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The now enraged colossus began to take heavy, lumbering steps toward Billy, leaving pools of melted rock in its footprints. “C’mon, you blunderin' idiot, come get me,” taunted Billy between heaving breaths.
He began to move away from the river while dodging the continued attacks from the fire golems. He fired another bullet at the molten golem to keep it angry and draw its aggro.
As the golem moved to the ice bridge to cross the river, Billy sprinted back towards the narrow entry where Oscar was hiding. “Now, fire now!” he called as the molten monster stepped onto the ice. Oscar squeezed the trigger of Billy's other revolver, shooting a fireball which hit the molten golem and dissipated harmlessly. “The bridge, shoot the bloody bridge!”
“I’m trying!” cried Oscar, as he fired again, this round striking the ground in front of the bridge.
Billy turned to watch the fireball burn harmlessly on the ground just as the golem took its first step onto the shore.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” thinking quickly, Billy unslung the shotgun from his back, raising the long gun with his left hand he fired a shock wave slug. The resulting recoil violently twisted his wrist.
The slug hit the molten golem in the chest, causing a wave of pressure to propagate from the site of impact, forcing the golem to stumble and trip backward, landing on the bridge which shattered from the heat and the impact. Seeing this, Billy took a deep breath and dove to the ground, holding his hat over his head.
The monster hitting the river created a massive cloud of steam that rolled out and filled the circular area the golems occupied. Billy kept his head down and held his breath for as long as he could.
Billy was unsure how long he stayed like that, but eventually, his lungs began to scream. Releasing his breath and then drawing in the warm humid air surrounding him, Billy started coughing as he raised his head and looked around. Seeing that the steam had extinguished all the fire golems, he rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, trying to slow his racing heart while catching his breath and trying to ignore the pain from his skin that was burned by the steam.
As he lay there, he felt water drops start to fall on his face. The cloud of steam had moved high enough to condense, creating a localized rain cloud. The cool water felt good on his burns and washed away some of the grime he had accumulated on this journey. The gentle rain on his skin made him think of better times, of dancing in summer rains with his wife and jumping in puddles with his daughter, and momentarily, he wasn’t in this godforsaken canyon. His reprieve was shattered by Oscar’s nasally, pressed voice.
“Is it…is it safe? Hello? Billy, you dead man? I think he’s dead.”
Billy took several seconds to get his temper under control before replying, “I ain’t dead, no thanks to you.”
“Right, well, that's…good. Can I get you anything? A drink?”
Billy took a deep breath in, held it for a second, and then exhaled. “Yeah, a drink would be pretty good,” he said as he slowly sat up.
Billy took a gulp of the offered bottle before coughing and spluttering. “What the hell, that's not water, it’s bloody bourbon.”
“Well, who ever said it was water?”
Billy let out a sigh before taking another drink. “Did you tumbleweeds bring any water?”
“Nah figured there'd be plenty here. Gotta say though, that plan worked damn well, damn well. Can’t believe you were worried. Sent the big guy for a swim and the steam put all the fire golems out.”
Billy felt an involuntary eye twitch as he looked at Oscar. “That went terribly. This still might come back to bite us in the ass. We’ve just sent that molten golem somewhere downriver. We better hope we get out of this canyon before it manages to get out of the water, and we especially better hope it doesn’t level up to a magma golem because the river won’t be enough to stop it then.”
“What do you need to stop one of them?”
“An army would be a good start. Magma golems get to 40 feet tall and spew lava. They generate so much heat that everything even remotely close to them burns, and they consume the ground itself to fuel them.”
“Well, shoot. Guess we should be getting a move on then,” said Oscar, looking around the clearing. He let out a low whistle when he spotted the crystal-shrouded cave. “Guess that’ll be our cave then. Even just what's on the outside would see us set for life. Can’t wait to see what's inside.”