It was one thing for me to pull my weapons from their holsters and fire.

That thing had approached me in the most frightening way, coming dangerously close to ripping out my chest and killing me.

But I had no intention of taking a blow unprepared.

So I waited for his counterattack to come to a conclusion before shooting at him directly between the eyes.

With his hands, the elite soldier had deflected two bullets that were headed straight for him.

However, it was only a matter of time before the other bullets pierced his head. So, like a small rat, he used his remarkable moves and flew past the bullets.

He was getting much more agilent, but he was also tearing it up, from the good attacks I had made.

He didn't want to run the same danger when he saw I was going to shoot again. So he just went up in the air and while I was going to pull the trigger, he landed on top of the wooden bridge once more.

The wooden bridge swung strongly, creating many waves that made both of us clung to the point where we were strong. And even though we were meters above the ground, he kept shaking the bridge like a maniac, without fear of falling to the ground or doubt he would consider while doing it.

He wasn't affected by my attacks, not at all, nor was he caught in a psychological trap that I tried to implement on him. He was much more clever than I thought he was. In the purest form of insidiousness, just like a real fox, he was, and like a creature free of emotions, and had focused only on winning in battle.

"The speed of your attacks does not change how ineffective they are! In any case of scenario, you are mine!"

He lifted his right paw up from the floor and shook it at my head. So I made the move he made to me, pulled my head back slightly, got rid of the paw, got support from the ropes, and gave him a kick in the head. He then grabbed my kick with his exposed arm and swung his right paw in my face once more. But pulling the rope with both hands and pushing my body down, I made sure that my head got rid of the claw. And using my idle foot, I gave him a kick in the chest.

As he stepped backward, he was getting much angrier, and he tried to give me a hard kick in the chest from top to bottom.

I wasn't a simple fool to just walk towards his empty and rapid attacks.

So I pushed myself backward and got rid of the kick, that afterward hit, and had broken one of the steps of the wooden bridge.

This battle was very dangerous for this place, for the two of us. To the possibility to bridge collapsing, and leaving us to fall towards the big rocks, we were constantly losing our balance and making our moves without giving any breaks to them.

It was a fight of disharmony, that needed the aspect of ambition, patience, and to be careful and fast.

My rival, on the other hand, other than just drooling around with inhuman moves and attacks, seemed stronger than the last time we fought. And it wasn't long since it had not taken it long to recover his foot from the hollow of the broken step.

But without any sign of injury or pain, I did my part of the job, and continued shooting at him.

If I wasn't going to play the game by my rules, I was going to join his.

He was using his arms to protect himself from my bullets, running away and gradually approaching me. Was using all his secret moves, tactics, and such, trying to get as close as so he could attack, and gain the upper hand. And all of the movements were, as if he would appear on my neck at any moment.

Constant and sharp.

However, since I fired at the step he was on, right at the time he got on it, I managed to smash the step with a single bullet. And thanks to this, the elite soldier's foot fell back into the void and lost its speed of movement. So while he was hanging, because of his fall, I hit him hard on the head with my knee. I hit that scumbag's head so hard that the hardness of his skull was cogent and evident from the harsh sound he made. After on, as he took the blow, I pointed my gun at his head, right between its eyes to put him down for good. But the moves I always left to the last moment, were the unlucky ones.

So as I thought it would be, he grabbed my gun with his hand and pulled me closer to himself.

I couldn't use my head this time. It was quite close, in addition, I couldn't move my legs because he bent my waist, and the upper part of my body for the most part because he grabbed my arm. He was relentlessly trying to stop me from making a move, no matter how despicable it was.

"You are mine!"

But I pointed the gun in my other hand at his head. Pulling the trigger one more time, I switched to the other bullet and tried to shoot at him in that fleeting moment. I tried, but I couldn't fire the damn gun. He bit it, pulled it, and turning his head to the left, he blocked the shot and threw me sideways.

I was getting sick of it.

When he was going to hit me with his head, I hit him hard on the head with my elbow. I realized later that it was inevitable that I would shoot him in the head with the gun in my hand at this distance. It was impossible to even prevent it.

"It won't do much good if you corner your tail so much and run away, ya know?"

But even at that moment, he did not give up. He put his whole body down at a certain point, and using his weight, he capsized the long bridge.

Now we were both clinging to the ropes, while trying not to fall from the rotating bridge and got our bodies crushed with the pointy and hard rocks below. It was the most extreme part of our sinister duel, but even though it was such a mess, that didn't stop our bloody war.

While we both didn't give any area to move for both of us, I was trying to do something with the gun, my other hand on the hilt while one hand was holding on to the rope forcibly. He put both of us in a bad predicament, yet he still enjoyed himself. So on, we were both clinging on to the rotating bridge's ropes, trying not to fall.

And left me hoping, that I will hit that fleabag, one way or another, while we were letting out little sweats on.

I was trying to aim with my other hand and shoot, I thought that would distract him, but he also, with his other idle hand, was blocking them with his palm.

We were swinging and attacking very briskly. And my whole strength was on, that I was moving as on, a focus on my left arm. Neither the wind stopped moving in my direction and hitting me in the face, nor the small pieces of dust and wood that poured out every once then.

He was also approaching me, opportunistically and with a foaming mouth, using it when the bullets from the gun in my right hand ran out. I even tried to put my gun on the hilt and switched to my other gun and fired. But it was already over with me, I realized his distance was much shortened than I could oversee.

He hit me back with kicks. Over and over again, he would land hard and painful kicks on my face, chest, and legs, allowing me neither to look ahead of myself out of pain, nor to think logically out of anger.

He hit me pretty hard with a blow on the blow.

I was in no situation of landing a solid attack or a shot. But my short temper was the worst in the situation. So I quickly kicked him in the chest, stepping on his kicks and pulling his legs down. He wasn't too affected at first, but when he kicked again, I responded with my foot and blocked his attack.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I thought it would make him less focused on me or unsatisfied with his last move, but it still couldn't stop him.

He took my breath away by kicking me in the chest quickly from the left with his other leg. I had received a blow from such an uncertain place that, as soon as I was out of breath, the tingling sensation in my arms increased and became more sluggish. If I got another kick like that, it would be inevitable that I would fall. But he also moved once more before me and clung to my throat with his idle hand.

Squeezing my throat, he talked,

"Do you see it now? It is my fault that I have acted decisively, but because you repeated the same thing on my movements, you have allowed your own life to slip through my clutches."

He then closed the gap between us and said much closer,

"Don't you think, that was me pinching my tail and running away?"

He was pulling me down to let go of the rope, gripping my skin firmly.

It felt like my shoulders were about to come off, so on I could feel quite clearly the burning skin under my veins, and hear the sound of my bones creaking and crunching just like a door. I was holding on to the ropes with all my focus. I was holding it so tightly, so that I could not fall and stay behind his attacks.

Therefore, when my little guessing game came to an end, I've managed to figure out his movement, and quickly got on track to do it. When I realized that he was going to kick me, I took the support from the hand he had strangled me with and lifted my legs up. I had his head in a lock movement with my legs, and made him impotent to move or run.

So I put my gun to his head quickly and I pressed the trigger. But the bullshit happened to me right then and again. Being the unlucky man that I am, I was out of bullets. Out of bullets at the moment I had this little mutt right where I wanted him to be. I had caught only one deficit of it, but I was wasting my time in a despairing way.

When the elite soldier realized this, he grabbed onto the ropes and shook the bridge like the time before to get rid of my lock and once again made me lose my focus. We were swinging left and right, very quickly, but this time he lost himself a little more, which we could have hit the walls of the volcano. And when he got enough speed, he dropped his right hand and jumped to the left, so the bridge was turned back to its normal stage and made us fly almost to the top of the volcano.

We had gone up meters above, and just like a feather, we stayed right in the air. Even though moments passed, it felt like hours staring at my rival in such a vicious moment like that. Seconds passed, and even though we were about to fall to the ground like a full sack, that son of a bitch and I were attacking each other right and left. Punch on the kick. A kick on the fist and maddening attacks that came at a time when I didn't expect it.

Then, when he grabbed me, I got away kicking him, but then he gave me a spinning kick and aimed at my head. I ducked and dodged it, but he grabbed me with his fist, and then he landed a hard blow and made me go half numb.

We both gave each other a very solid hard kick almost before we fell. It was a thing about timing, so because this gave us both mobility, our kicks saved us from falling on a wooden bridge and sent us to the sections around the corner.

The elite soldier was at one end of the bridge and I was at the other. We were both on the ground and exhausted, tired, with wounds on our bodies. I could no longer continue the war with my weapons at a distance. Because I didn't have time to aim, and I couldn't figure out how to do something from this distance. Because the damn thing didn't hesitate to increase the difficulty even more. Maybe it wouldn't be surprising if he challenged me to a different melee, or a fist-to-fist. But my chances of winning in a close battle were almost zero.

"I'm dealing with a darn fox!" I had mumbled to myself, since

So I got up with a deep breath, took the rifle on my back in my hand, and went over the bridge.

And I started shooting.

Without even pausing once.

And he, on the other hand, was running towards me on all fours. Approaching me like the aggressive animal that he was, he almost flew through the hard ground, with such soft and fast movement.

He was a predator, of both dominating the area and tactics he intended to use.

But I, like I said many times before to myself, wasn't just a dumb old man using guns. I knew this little bastard every intention and idea.

Like bullets, It wasn't possible for it to disappear in front of my eyes.

He was dodging bullets by leaning and putting his paws to areas out of reach and unthinkable. He had managed to block the bullet with his hands, in between not enough time to blink. And even when I was going to make an accurate shot at his head. He soon approached me and grabbed me by the throat again, just as I knew he would do it.

*Don't you know any other things to do, dammit!*

Lifting me up, he hit my head on the wooden bridge. Again and again, hitting it about to break my own head, it broke two or three-step of the bridge in my head. And then he started choking me with both hands, throwing me over the bridge. I kicked him in the stomach, but I only tried to.

What kind of stomach he had, it was like iron made shield. It wasn't working in any way I tried.

And he was now covered in blood. Drooling from his mouth, It was the exact definition of the word bloodthirsty.

Fear, turn its form to disgust and confusion. A predator. Much closer than it should be.

But at that very moment, I heard a voice.

A voice, that has risen from under the place where we were, from the bottom of the volcano, in my difficult moments. It was a voice that echoed quite loudly, that the volcano's circular structure made it echo much more in it and it was getting closer and closer.

When I turned my head that way, what I needed to see was right in front of me.

The pirate's big flying ship, which we fought with a while ago, was right in front of me. Upwards, and sideways turned, towards the top of the volcano, it was magically rising, like an airplane or some type of invention that I have never come across. Besides believing, what I was seeing, was surprising enough for me. That there was only Captain Barlog on the ship and controlling it with such cool. And even though he saw us, he continued to rise with his ship without breaking his manner, and as if he had another purpose, he went as fast as he could.

And when the ship had risen quite a bit, it had completely turned off the light reflected from the hole, and it had made the area where we were dark again. The anchor chain, which was located under it, was also rising with the ship. I was in the dark and I couldn't figure out what to do.

But just like the ship that came out of nowhere, a sudden red light, that had to be appearing from different sides and numbers, lighted our darkness for a little bit more and approached the same direction as the ship did.

And when the red lights were just approaching, I heard a shout from the elite soldier and I started breathing again.

When the ship came out of the volcano, it was lit up again, and again it left me alone with a scene that stunned me like an idiot. Because the guy who saved me was the guy who pretended to be our ninja.

It was Shou.

With his sword, he had saved me from drowning by leaving a thin long wound on the Elite Soldier's back. He then helped me to my feet and held out his hand to me.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. Honestly, I owe you one. Partner."

When Shou again aimed, directing his sword at the elite soldier, I stopped him.

"Captain Barlog is up to something. You go after him. I'll deal with this one."

He quickly became aware of the situation. Without saying much, he did as I said, put his sword in his hilt, and turned his head towards the ship.

"Try not to die. Their attack is about to be drilled through. That's why you may need to go in for a quick attack."

"I know what to do. And ı don't really need such lessons. Just do as I say and just go help them."

After our conversation, he jumped on top of the wall, ran up, and left with a jump.

Now I was left alone with the elite soldier again. I didn't have as much power as he did, but I needed to use my head and pull him out of the way with a decency tactic. It would be the last time we would face each other, so it was impossible for us to end this in a normal way.

So he didn't decry waiting either and we started running towards each other.

At that moment, just when he was going to hit me, I jumped on the chain of the anchor of the ship to my left. Swinging on the chain, I swung towards the bridge, and when I got close to him, I guessed that he should shake his fist at me. Moving as I thought, I jumped over the bridge, lying to the left. Little did he know, the part where I kept the chain was still in my hand. So I walked between his legs, passing the chain through his arm, and found myself where he shook his fist at me again.

Then, pulling the chain out of there, I dodged his kick and pulled back, passing the chain through the right fist he threw. When he was going to throw his head, I leaned to the left and shook the bridge. The chains were messed up by the effect of my shaking. They were now into each other, getting stuck.

The elite soldier could still move his head. So, kicking with my foot, I broke one of the trinkets and pulled the chain. His foot was stuck in the stairwell when I pulled it out. As he bent down, I pushed him towards the entrance, passing the chain over his head. He started running towards me again, but the chains pulled him back while he was going to bite me. And right at that moment. As soon as we were nose to nose, he realized something.

Something that reversed the situation,

"The real hunter is the one, who always shows himself at the end. Understood?"

He had become unable to move. The anxiety in his eyes, the desperate situation in which that predatory beast was in, had now become more tragicomic than tense. I could feel his breath. There was only an inch of distance between us, and his pointed teeth could have come into contact with my skin.

So lighting my last cigar and taking one sip slowly, I turned my back from the wooden bridge to the elite soldier, and making a light farewell sign, I slowly left there.

The elite soldier tried to shout angrily and desperately after me,

"We're not done here, Cowboy! Did you hear me! You're living a life where you're carrying even bigger loads than you deserve! I'm going back to send you to the hell you deserve, you hear me!"

"It doesn't matter if its the wors place I go."

Then giving one last look, I replied,

"But I have to dig up my own way anyway, don't I?"

His last words that he heard, was his confirmation, of his loss in the battle.

Putting a bullet in my gun in my hand, I fired one last shot at the chain without looking in front of me, and without even looking at the chain. And when it finally broke from the ship, the anchor was dragged down, and together with the anchor, the whole bridge and the elite soldier were pulled down.

Never to come back.

And the last thing I heard was, him shouting, falling deeply.

"Nooo!"