Two bullets from each of Zane’s revolvers came at Sariah far faster than she could dodge.

METAL!

But she didn’t need to dodge them. Gray light washed over her body and spread outward from her like a bubble. The instant the bullets made contact with that bubble, they stopped in place, and immediately shot back in Zane’s direction.

He’d apparently been ready for that defense, having already begun to dash behind cover before Sariah’s Install had even activated, leaving him safe from the deflected attack.

Sariah took that opportunity to go on the offensive, holding her hand out towards the storage rack Zane had taken cover behind. A faint pulse of gray light burst outward from her palm, traversing the distance of the catwalk until it made contact with the rack, which then proceeded to ram itself into the wall in an attempt to squish the fanged gunman to mush. While she wasn’t keen on damaging the goods in the warehouse, she was keen on surviving this duel and taking Zane down.

“Tsk, tsk,” came Zane’s voice from somewhere off to Sariah’s right, surprising her. No, she hadn’t expected that storage rack smush to actually be the end of things, but she was surprised how far he’d gotten without her noticing, continuing to prove how potentially dangerous a foe he was. “I thought this was supposed to be a gunfight.”

“Then use your guns, not your mouth,” Sariah called back.

“Okay.”

Another bullet came flying in from the darkness of the far corners of the warehouse. Sariah rolled to the side, taking cover behind a storage rack of her own, keeping her ears peeled for where he might be moving next. If he’d managed to move without her seeing it before, he could probably do it again.

It was the ruffling of his long gray coat that her ears managed to pick up, circling around the far edge of the warehouse. Other than that, he was completely silent, moving far more gracefully than one might assume given his usual sloppy demeanor.

Wanting to catch him off guard, Sariah recalled the layout of the warehouse as best she could, predicting where he might be moving along his path. Seeking to intercept, she flicked her hand out around the side of the storage rack, sending another burst of gray energy towards him.

The blast hit the wall, causing a large sheet of metal to jut out, just as Zane was making the leap from one shelf to another. It forced his jump to come to a stop, as he had to grab hold of the sheet and swing himself over it.

That brief instant of stoppage was Sariah’s window to strike. She stepped out from behind the storage rack and fired three shots in his direction. The first caught the revolver in his right hand, blasting it to pieces. The second went for the revolver in his left, though it just barely managed to miss the mark.

The third was aimed right at his skull, but Zane’s reflexes were quick enough that he was able to duck beneath it. The bullet instead caught his hat, removing it from his head and blasting a hole through it.

Zane dropped down from the metal sheet, vanishing into the darkness of the lower floor of the warehouse. “Yeah, you’re definitely as good as I’ve heard.” There was a pause before he continued. “Hell, you broke one of my babies, too. What kinda gun you packing?”

Sariah didn’t bother answering him, though he hadn’t been expecting her to. While a part of her found him a bit obnoxious, with him currently hidden in the shadows, his voice was the easiest way for her to keep track of where he was before he could make any sudden movements, so she let him ramble on.

“Surprised you pulled out a Metal Install, though,” he said, his voice coming from a bit further away than it had earlier; a clear sign that he was moving, albeit slowly. “Seems a little basic. I heard you got some fancier ones in your arsenal.”

Her brow furrowed just a tad. His constant referring to what he’d “heard” about her was a bit puzzling. Where had he gotten all of this information, exactly? Sariah wasn’t a black ops secret spy agent or anything like that, but Zane seemed to be implying that he was familiar with some of the unique Installs Sariah had used before, which was strange considering she hardly ever used Installs to begin with. She’d pulled out the Gospel Install a few days ago in the battle at Port Rysa, so perhaps someone had seen that one, somehow? But from what she could recall, no one had survived to see her use any of her other “fancier” ones….

Her ears picked up on the sounds of him retrieving another handgun from within his coat. From what she’d seen earlier, that was the last one he’d been carrying with him, leaving just the rifles on his back as the only other weapons on his person. “You know, I just wanted to see how good your aim was in this duel, but I guess if I get to see those fancy Installs of yours, too, that’s a nice bonus.”

Before Sariah could make a move, Zane crouched behind her, and said, “You really do got a nice ass, you know that?”

Sariah reflexively whipped her arm around, completely caught by surprise by the sudden appearance of her opponent. He leaned back to dodge the pistol whip, though he didn’t immediately retaliate.

The two once again found themselves on the second floor catwalks, staring each other down. Sariah’s eyes were narrowed, knuckles tightening around her pistol. How the hell had he done that? She’d been keeping careful track of his voice; even with how fast he seemed to be, there was no way he could have gotten behind her like that from where she had thought him to be before….

It had to have been an Install of some kind, she deduced. One he’d activated before she arrived, obviously, otherwise she would have heard him set it. A sneaky play, but one that made logical sense. There were no rules and no honor in a fight to the death; you did what you had to do.

Of course, that only made it more puzzling why he hadn’t tried to kill her just then. He could have spent the time he’d used making that comment to gun her down, but he hadn’t done so.

“C’mon, show me those Installs!” Zane said, unknowingly providing Sariah with the likely reason why he hadn’t gone for the kill. “Don’t hold out on me, baby!”

A volley of four bullets exploded out from his revolvers, all aimed with incredible precision.

Once again, however, Sariah used her Metal Install to create a bubble that stopped the bullets mid-shot, turning them back around with identical force.

“Already seen that one, babe!” Zane said as he casually sidestepped the deflected volley. In the same motion, he holstered his guns into his belt, then tapped his knuckles together.

RIFLE!

Gray light danced across his hands and coursed through his fingertips until a hologram-esque rifle materialized in his hands.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Rather than a traditional bullet, the Rifle Install fired thin, gray laser beams. These beams were thus able to bypass Sariah’s Metal Install barrier, a fact which forced the G13 agent to scramble for cover.

“That ain’t gonna work either,” Zane muttered beneath his breath, fanged teeth curving into a smile. He aimed at the rack Sariah had taken cover behind, positioning it where her heart would be. He then flicked the barrel just a bit to the side, then fired.

The laser beam passed through the rack without trouble, cutting a gash across Sariah’s bicep. Zane chuckled. Ah, the beauty of Install firearms: if you were good enough with them, you could decide what their bullets (or lasers, in this case) would and would not physically hit. And Zane was definitely good enough with them to do just that.

But the laser beam wasn’t finished quite yet. Once it made contact with the wall of the warehouse, the beam ricocheted back at a sharp angle, threatening to pierce through Sariah’s chest.

She was able to avoid the deflecting laser, although that did force her back onto the catwalk in full line-of-sight of Zane, still holding his Rifle Install at the ready.

“See?” he called out, his voice dripping with self-satisfaction. “Can’t use that old Metal Install trick. Looks like you’re gonna have to load up something else, babe.”

Sariah scoffed. Switching to one of those “fancy” Installs would certainly make dealing with Zane much easier, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction with how much he’d been begging for it. No, she was going to find a way to beat him using the Metal Install.

Now, normally, Sariah would be the first to point out the foolishness of letting pride get in the way of a smart decision; of doing things for one’s ego rather than one’s safety, particularly when it came to life-and-death situations, but hell, even she knew that sometimes, you just had to flex on a motherfucker.

She held her pistol up, aiming across the catwalk, right at the barrel of his Rifle Install. “Don’t think so, babe. I can make do with this just fine.”

“Ooh, call me that again.”

She pulled the trigger.

Zane could see the bullet coming without trouble at all; not only that, he instantly recognized that he didn’t even have to adjust the barrel in order to fire a counter shot. Perhaps she had tried to be sneaky and disarm him, distracting him by calling him “babe”, but that wasn’t going to wor-

When the laser and the bullet collided, the laser exploded in a burst of purple light, shattering like glass. The Rifle Install went next, with the shards digging themselves into Zane’s hands.

“What the-?!”

Taking advantage of his hesitation, Sariah pressed her hands onto the catwalk beneath her, activating the Metal Install once again. This time, the gray light pulsed onto the catwalk, taking hold of a panel of the metal before flipping it over entirely. She remained on it the entire time, as though she were magnetically connected to it, although now she was upside-down, hidden from Zane’s view.

She brought her pistol up and fired multiple shots, each one piercing through the underside of the catwalk and flying at Zane from below. Several of them caught him in the legs and arms, although he had the good sense to grab one of the rifles on his back and shoot it point-blank at the wall beside him, using the force of the backblast to send him flying out of range of Sariah’s surprise bullet barrage, down to the first floor, where he ducked into the shadows.

“Not gonna lie, that was pretty cute!” His voice called out before his rifle let loose with several shots in her direction.

Sariah dropped down to the first floor as well, although she used the Metal Install to bring the panel of the catwalk with her, holding it in front of herself as a shield. Since he was back to using physical firearms rather than an Install, she knew she’d be safe from any laser shots this time around.

However, no more bullets came from Zane’s rifle. Instead, Sariah heard him laugh.

“You sure are something!” he called out. She could tell he was breathing more heavily than before; exhaustion had started to creep in. “What was that shot you fired? At my Rifle Install?”

Sariah didn’t bother answering him, but he didn’t seem to mind, continuing on talking. “That some new Metal Install trick I don’t know about? Amplifying your bullets or something? Or….”

There was a quick, tiny little pause as he began that last sentence. Short enough for most people not to notice or think about. Hell, earlier in the night, Sariah herself wouldn’t have paid it much attention. This time around, however, her instincts guided her well.

She spun around in place, pistol held up, right in front of Zane’s face. He’d appeared behind her again, confusingly so, but she’d caught him this time. Amusingly, he seemed to have taken the time to retrieve his hat and put it back on.

Both of his rifles were at his back again, and he was holding his hands up, with a smile on his lips. “Damn, you caught onto that, too? Very impressive….I’m falling hard for you, babe.”

Her brows knit. “Your body will definitely fall hard after I put a bullet in your brain.”

Though his eyes were hidden by his hat, he appeared to be analyzing the pistol in her hand. For a moment, she considered pulling it away to keep its engineering hidden from him, but she ultimately thought it better to keep him held at gunpoint. “Never seen a pistol like this….What brand?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“Got a feeling it’s custom,” he replied. “Well, in any case, looks like you won this duel fair and square. Feel free to pull that trigger.”

Sariah smirked. “Giving up so easily?”

“Hey, I know when I’m beat.”

“Where’s the crossbow?”

That got a bit of a chuckle out of him. “Crossbow? I know I’m getting pretty old, babe, but I’m not that old. Who the hell uses crossbows anymore?”

While Zane had certainly been the most obvious candidate for the sniper who’d shot her while she was asleep in the inn, there had definitely been a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that it wasn’t actually him, and that response had sealed the deal for her. He obviously hadn’t been trying to kill her during that duel, but that crossbow shot certainly had been intended to end her life, so they didn’t match up with one another.

Of course, that meant that somebody else in Rushuna had tried to kill her, and she didn’t have any real suspects in mind. And an unknown threat was always more dangerous than a known one.

Her mind wandered back to that night in Radecross during her investigation into the amethyst thief; when she’d been shot at by a sniper. “Did you shoot at me in Radecross?”

“I’m banned from Radecross.”

“Something tells me you’re not the kind of person to care about that.”

Another grin. “True. But nah, no idea what you’re talking about. Haven’t been to Radecross in years. You got enemies?”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

“Fair enough.”

Annoyingly, that left Sariah without many more leads to go on. So Zane hadn’t been the sniper in Radecross, nor had he been the sniper with the crossbow; he was just some additional asshole who wanted to bug her, apparently.

Before she could think of another question to ask him, however, a bullet came in from up above, blasting the pistol out of her hand. Sariah immediately dived behind cover.

Zane, on the other hand, casually turned around, dusting his pants off. “Well, looks like somebody’s decided to tag in for me. I’d stick around and watch, but I’m a little tired.”

He began to stroll towards the door, holding his hand up to haphazardly wave back at Sariah as he did. “If you decide to actually finish me off, you can probably find me at the bar. Have a nice night, Sariah Knight.”

Another bullet came in, exploding through a nearby pallet of supplies. Sariah cursed under her breath. Who the hell was this now? The one with the crossbow? The one from Radecross? Just some town sheriff who’d overheard the gunfight and came in to break it up?

Unlike Zane, this mysterious new gunner wasn’t the chatty type, keeping silent the entire time, so listening out for their voice wasn’t going to help identify them. No, she’d have to see with her own eyes, and do it without catching a bullet between them.

She tried angling her head around the edge of the pallet she was using as cover, but nearly got her head blown off in the process. It seemed this sniper meant business, and wasn’t in the mood to fool around….

Though she was a bit exhausted from her earlier usage of her Metal Install, she did have enough left in her for a bit more action. She held her hands out in front of herself, concentrating her energy. Gray light pulsed along her hands, forming a thin plate of metal between them; a metal shiny enough to nearly be as reflective as a mirror.

She slid the mirror out to the side, angling it to get a good look at where the sniper was positioned. She kept her eyes locked onto it the entire time, as the sniper would no doubt destroy it within a second, so she needed to see it the instant it captured the scene.

As predicted, a bullet came flying in, blasting the metal plate to pieces. But Sariah had seen enough, just from that one, simple glimpse. Not only that, to her surprise, not only did she see the sniper in the reflection, she recognized them as well. Her uniform, at least.

She was covered head-to-toe in black tactical gear, with the only color coming from the glowing red veins that spread throughout the suit, continuously pumping to the beat of her heart. Her face was encased in a matching black helmet equipped with a red visor, and in her hands was an advanced sniper rifle, it too primarily black with veins of red coursing through the body.

Yes, there was no doubt in Sariah’s mind.

This sniper was a member of the BLOOD Unit, a squad of murderous soldiers she’d battled many years ago….