Re: SITE EVENT: Public Enemy Number One

[Docile]

Tullus

Nodding to Tullus Horilla followed him before he realized this bandaged man had no idea where he was headed. Chasing after him and finally overtaking him Horilla began to speak.

"You have no idea where you're going do you? Follow me, I've been here before, I know the way to the rooftop and that is where I believe Cortez is."

Turning left down a corridor then running up a set of stairs, Horilla entered the stairwell. looking over the railings he could see the coast was clear, no one as heading up and no one heading down. Signalling to Tullus to follow him Horilla started up the stairs.

"Right he should be at the top of this stairwell. So lets get up there and bring his ass down."

Sprinting up the stairs Horilla felt his mission coming to an end and it was about time too.

[Serious?]

The rooftop, where he thought Cortez was hiding. What, did his room not give that good of a view so he had to sit on the roof to get a better one? Nonetheless, if Horilla knew where he was going to be, might as well follow him, could finally lead Tullus to his death. But there's also the chance that Cortez was in his room taking a nap or setting traps for the chance that someone, Tullus, should invade his privacy. And so the stranger with big iron swapped his route for a new one headed up to the rooftop, following Horilla's haste. Unlike Horilla, who immediately dashed up the stairs, Tullus simply walked up the stairs, gun dangling in his hand by his side. No need to rush, not like he was going to jump islands or anything. Well, it was the boss battle on this island now, no holds barred, one life, one kill. Maybe two, depending if Horilla does something stupid and dies.

"Culpam poena premit comes." The bandaged man simply said as he walked up the stairwell.

[Vaetric]

Well, she was ABOUT to get in the rowboat, but then her common sense came back, well, it wasn’t really common sense, but it was more a fear. The promise of money had nearly made her go past it, but then she remembered. She remembered her fear of the water. Pausing for a moment, she quickly tied up the boat again and sighed.  She’d never be able to get the amulet at this rate. Maybe they could see the village? It wasn’t like Cortez was going anywhere, all she had to do was wait for them to maybe see her, and come over. Wait, that man might’ve been the front-guard of them.
 
Maybe there was more coming? Maybe to captain was coming too, if she could nab the amulet then… And wait for them to try and take Cortez’s hideout. Maybe he could escape and then bring it to him, and even if they managed to take him.. She could sell it to a different bidder, she might have to go all the way to the grand line to get someone that rich, though. She didn’t want to go over there however, she heard the rumours. Maybe she could go to some nobles in the Goa Kingdom, there were a lot there…
 
She sighed, sitting down in the harbour and looking out to the horizon, her legs dangling above the water. She puffed her cheeks, ti was going to be the waiting game.

[Docile]

Tullus

Arriving at the roof to see Cortez sitting on the roof, Horilla gulped as he stood opposite him.

"Well, well, well. Would you look who it is? Petty Officer Horilla. And I thought we'd drowned you. So just how did you survive?"

"These ain't scars. They're gills." he said indicating his gills.

"Bravo, marine, shame I've sent my men to collect me some slaves from the gardens. But if you hang around we can do battle when they return."

Sitting back to relax Cortez smiled.

"No you beat me once, not this time."

"I wonder how the Navy would feel about having a fishman among them."

"I don't care. Let them find out."

Standing up with a grin, Cortez found this little fishman brave and funny. Cracking his knuckles Cortez raised his right hand as did Horilla. Squeezing the trigger the bullet shot towards Cortez.

The next thing Horilla knew the bullet was on the floor with no momentum. Cortez had unsheathed his blade and stopped it in place. Holding his blade facing downwards, he shot towards Horilla swinging the blade upwards.

Leaping back into the stairwell, Horilla caught a little of the edge of the blade and took a cut to the cheek. Grunting in pain as blood escaped, he remained just as eager to beat Cortez who stepped forward and sheathed his blade.

Hornet Hail

Opening a large gaping hole in his hand Cortez launched out a series of hornets which shot towards Horilla. Each hornet digging its tail into his torso painfully. Turning as Horilla stood against the railings, screaming trying to avoid each bug, Cortez returned to his chair and lifted a box of Gordon's matches. Lighting one he placed it between the mandibles of a larger hornet that he'd created from the previous swarm and directed it to carry the burning match towards Horilla.

In a matter of seconds the hornets were set alight as was Horilla. Bursting into flames and agonizing screams Cortez sat back down as he watched the fishman burn before him along with his hornets. Smiling, Cortez sat with a grin from ear to ear.

[Serious?]

Young people today and their upbeat attitude and headstrong way of thinking. Could get them killed sooner or later. Tullus thought. Never a good idea to rush ahead without your team, unless you're asking for a death wish. The stranger honestly felt like rushing up after Horilla just to give him backup cause you never know when you need it, but there was this compelling feeling where he wasn't doing too well anyways. Like there was going to be fire involved or something. He'd seen his temporary partner leap back into the stairwell for a brief moment but instantly disappear back onto the roof where, judging by all the noises and insect-like noises, that's probably where Cortez is. Hearing Horilla's screams of agony, Tullus decided to hustle and quicken his pace a little. He was hoping that Horilla wasn't too badly injured, but it looks like his fight took a turn for the worse when he arrived.

As Tullus finished the last flight of stairs and walked out onto the panoramic view of the roof, he instantly saw Horilla covered in flames. And all at once, the memories began to come back in and hit his nervous system like a freight train. He was paralyzed by fear, unable to get close to try and help his dying comrade. But what was there the bandaged man could do to help him with? There wasn't enough water on the roof to put out the flames, nor was he quick enough to make a trip down to get a bucket of water, run back up and douse him before he burns to death. The flames flickered on, and Tullus made his decision. It might not be a decision Horilla may agree with but as far as he was concerned, a bullet in the head was more merciful than ever suffering through intense flames. And so with a steady hand and a heavy heart, Tullus raised his revolver and aimed it right at Horilla's forehead. He then pulled the trigger and attempted to end the Marine's misery.

"Requiescant in pace." Tullus uttered.

[Vaetric]

Mishi sighed, she was never going to be able to get that amulet. Guess there was nothing for it but to apologise to Cortez. She stood up, and walked through the village. Damn her fear of water, didn’t she know how to swim? Maybe she should just go and jump in the sea just to try and rid herself of the fear, but… She feared it, why would she want to? She was perfectly fine just standing on solid ground, and why did the world have to have so many islands and so much water? In fact, she was sure it was all planned. Someone, maybe a God thought it’d be fun to give a bunch of his creations somewhere to live on that had loads of water, and then give them fruits that made them drown in it. She was lucky the fruit she ate back… then… was a fake. Otherwise she’d have a REAL reason to get scared of the water.
 
But now she was scared of returning to Cortez, what if he just shot her? No… Who would shoot a fence? He knew that was her profession, she wasn’t a thief, she got others to do the thieving for her. In fact, not even that. People did the thieving on their own to get to her, and she would buy and sell the items. SHE DOESN’T DO THE WORK.
 
Gulping by instinct, she steeled herself and walked the way back to Cortez’s hideout.

[Docile]

Hearing the sound of a gunshot, Cortes turned to see a bandaged man standing in front of him looking at the burnt corpse of Horilla with a smoking revolver.

"Well, well, well. Looks like I've another contender. This should be fun. Whats your name bandaged man? I remember seeing you earlier trying to get in but my ants seemed a bit much for you earlier."

Bursting into laughter, Cortez opened his hand and as a hole ripped open from his palm came groups of large bullet ants.

Bullet Ant Barrage

Launching from his palm as if actual bullets a horde of bullet ants shot towards Tullus quickly. Each ant could deliver an incredible amount of pain and as the hole in Cortez's hand closed he reached for his sword and unsheathed it. Standing opposite Tullus with a grin on his face and a wild heart beating in his chest, it was time to fight.

[Serious?]

It was done, Horilla wouldn't have to fully suffer the pain Tullus went through ever again. Perhaps the stranger was just being a little headstrong with his decisions like usual, maybe he wasn't thinking things through when he gazed upon the flaming corpse of the Marine; But one thing is for sure is that his resolve to pop some pistols into Cortez was as strong as it could be! He looked at the criminal in charge of this whole operation and he looked back at him. Two pairs of stone cold eyes meeting sky high, both ready to end each other's life in a heartbeat. Will Tullus actually do it? Yes, he thought. This man has ended his right to live the moment he committed arson!

"My name? My name is not important! But just know this: I am the one who will judge you!"

Cortez's Bullet Ant Barrage was launched towards the bandaged man, but he instinctively knew to take a dive to the floor to dodge it! Maybe years of being shot at helped form that instinct. After adopting the prone position, the stranger showed his big iron in its full, brass glory, gleaming proudly in the sunlight. Tullus pointed his revolver straight towards Cortez and fired three consecutive shots before rolling off to the right and getting up again.

[Vaetric]

Mishi gulped as she approached Cortez’s hideout. She heard voices coming from.. .The roof? They were faint, or she just didn’t want to hear them, but  shouldn’t a hideout have… Guards? She approached the door and opened it. The people around should know she was aligned with Cortez, at least.. For now. Therefore they wouldn’t really stop her if she passed them. She walked along the corridors, soon becoming a bit lost.
 
Floors…
 
Walls…
 
Corpses…
 
Floors…
 
Wait, what? She backtracked a little, some people were laying down on the floor. Were they dead? She didn’t want to be caught in a pirate’s hideout with corpses. If any of their crewmembers saw, what would they do? She did have a gun on her, but it was a single-shot flintlock. 
 
She walked away, nearly jogging from the bodies and found a set of stairs. She heard people at the top of the building, maybe she could find Cortez there? She started her ascent.

[Docile]

Tullus

Watching the ants miss Tullus, Cortez grinned as he clenched his right fist and the ants began to form a larger bullet ant behind Tullus. As the bullets that had been fired towards Cortez whizzed through the air he happily swiftly twisted his blade around allowing the bullets to slam into the wide blade of his sword.

Allowing the bullets to hit the floor, Cortez directed the human sized bullet ant towards Tullus. He stepped back and held his sword in place as he looked towards Tullus and the large bullet ant which charged towards him in an attempt to bite him.

Mishi

Sitting slumped at the bottom of the stairs was a large round man who'd taken a fool's arm earlier that day. Hearing footsteps he stirred from his sleep to find Mishi standing there. Looking towards her he waited for her to pass. hearing the sound of gunshots upstairs his brain began to scream alarm bells.

He wanted to see if his beloved captain upstairs was safe, but at the same time he was terrified to run up the stairs and intrude on the fight or even block the route this woman was taking up the stairs.

[Vaetric]

Mishi blinked as she saw someone at the bottom of the stairs, he seemed to not mind her. She took a couple of steps toward the stairs before she heard gunshots from the roof. Her heart leaping to her throat, she couldn’t just run, it’d look too suspicious! Pretty much, she made a panic-decision. “Ididn’tdoiti’msorrythankyou!” she squealed, attempting to sprint up the stairs two or even three steps at a time in an attempt to get to at least moderate safety. She can get to the roof, peek and see what’s happening, then hide in a room somewhere with her profit of five thousand beli.
 
Her mind agreed, her heart agreed and her stomach agreed. She hoped the man didn’t take her too suspisciously, why should she even bother with worrying? But what if he did and then he’d come chasing after her trying to kill her because she failed her mission? NNGHGHGHGHH.

[Serious?]

Goddamn, he fell for it once in the town and he fell for it again on the rooftop, where it actually mattered. After springing back up from his prone position, a little struck by the fact that Cortez's blade can completely negate the absolute punching power of a .357 magnum rounds, but quickly got his head back in and realized that there was another giant fucking ant behind him. On the bright side, there was only one as opposed to two, but Cortez still serves as a major threat that could interfere with his fight with the giant ant at anytime, and was probably planning to use that blade of his to sever Tullus' spinal cord.

This isn't good. The bandaged man thought to himself. Two shots left, one giant ant, one wanted criminal. Better make those shots count. Tullus rotated his body quick enough that he almost flicked himself to face the giant ant, took less than a second to aim and fire at the ant's eyes, hoping to blind the ant and render it less of a threat. This might be the day Tullus finally reaches his dream

[Docile]

Tullus

As the bullet from Tullus's gun collided with the ant's eye and it reared unto its hind legs, the ant trashed around behind Tullus in pain smashing into walls stomping on the ground.

Cortez parted the ant into several smaller ants and directed the remaining few towards Tullus. The ones that had made up the larger ant's eye were now nothing more than dead ants on the floor. As the mass of small ants rushed towards Tullus, Cortez allowed from his hand a series of stag beetles to escape. Stepping back he commanded the beetles to drag themselves together to form 3 human sized beetles which stood between Cortez & Tullus.

"Marines I wouldn't count yourself lucky, you're not going to bring me down. Give up while you still can."


Mishi

Watching Mishi run up the stairs after spurting out she didn't do it, Dash gave chase. Rushing up the stairs after Mishi, he called out.

"I don't care if you did do it or not. I don't trust you."

Placing a hand down on the stairs, Dash quickly started to inflate them. All of the stairs grew in size. Leading up the entire way to the roof, Dash shouted.

"Pamu Pamu: Starwell"

Exploding beneath his feet, Dash smirked as the stairs all exploded shaking the building leaving a large open square room with cracked walls and large open mounds of debris.

Standing among it, Dash slammed his fist into the wall shouting.

"COME FACE ME!"

[Vaetric]

Damn damn damn! She shouldn’t have said anything! Mishi’s heart leapt to her throat as she heard the person talking below her. She was close to one of the doors… She could run around the building then make it to the stairs and then go up to the roof, where all the commotion was! She really hoped Cortez would come out from wherever he was and put a leash on the stair-guy.

She felt herself rise, her step faltering she looked down as she saw that the stairs started to expand. “Wh-..!” she began, before the stairs exploded, causing her to bounds upwards and fall back down to the ground. She landed painfully, but on her behind which was much, much preferable than her head or back. Still, she let out a cry of pain, scrambling away from some debris. Her shoes were ruined, as well as a bit of her trousers, showing off her legs from feet ‘till knees, somewhat.

“N-no way!” She shouted back, picking up a piece of broken stairway, the size of a baby’s fist and throwing it at Dash, hoping to hit him somewhat. She didn’t know what caused the explosion, and she didn’t want to know. Maybe gunpowder underneath the steps, but why would someone rig it like that?

She really didn’t want to use her gun or worse, try to bribe him. Maybe she could try reasoning with him? No.. She just threw a rock at him.

[Serious?]

Well, at least Tullus knew how the ants from before came to be. Goddamn asshole of a pirate making more of them just to piss him off. As much as he'd like to pop a few caps into him and splatter the brain he misuses, he'd need to reload first. Cylinder pops out, down come the empty casings and in go six more rounds, all while insects swarm around him and three beetles about six feet tall stood before him and Cortez. They always want to make things difficult, don't they? Tullus pondered. The chamber locked back into place and an explosion shook the floor underneath the bandaged man and his opponent! Hopefully, nobody was bombing the place from the inside-out already. As much as Tullus would like to go check and see what the hell was going on down those stairs, he had to think of a game plan to get Cortez away from those beetles and vice versa. Judging by how large the beetles are, their shells would also be quite resistant to the punch of the .357 magnum, somehow, along with Cortez's blade which he'll probably stop the bullets or deflect them. Options: Limited.

"Give up while you still can." He said. Give up. That gave Tullus an idea. Instead of fighting the asshat directly, he'll give him what for and sneak attack him so he won't have any time to block his bullets. One hit to the skull and it'll pierce the brain like gelatinous dessert. And with that set, Tullus made a mad dash over the ant mass and went through the door down to the staircase, which looked like someone tried to make the stairs bigger without making the place itself bigger. What the hell happened? The stranger hesitated for a moment, but began to do his best to quickly descend the strangely modified stairwell...

[Docile]

Tullus

Watching as the fool stood still for a moment Cortez grinned. Seemed the fool was admitting defeat until he shouted give up. Cortez paused and laughed a hearty laugh. As he lowered his head he caught sight of him turning and fleeing.

Raising an eyebrow, he directed the ants to the sides of the building where they would rest relaxing hanging on to the edge. As for the stag beetles, Cortez pointed towards the stairwell and ordered them to give chase unto Tullus.

Following orders the three stag beetles made their way into the stairwell where they unleashed their wings and begun to fly around Tullus. Catching Tullus in their sights the first one made an attempt at bringing him down.

Charging towards the stairs where Tullus was attempting to make his way down, the bug shot towards it horns first in the hopes if bringing Tullus tremendous pain or death whilst the other two waited patiently for the conclusion.

Mishi

Looking at Mishi with a look of nothing but anger as the rock hit him in the head, Dash roared loud like a failed lion as he took steps towards her.

"Don't throw shit at me!" he shouted as he picked up a piece of debris which was a piece of decoration from the side of the stairs. A wooden carved lions head. Picking it up, Dash begun to use his devil fruit powers. Expanding it in his hand he grinned.

Pamu Pamu: Splinter Bomb

Exploding the lion's head exploded into a series of small wooden splinters which were sent off in all directions. The speed at which these splinters flew off in however were so bad that the splinters managed to pierce the walls and even fly to the top of the stairs where one of the larger splinters shot through a stag beetle.

Tearing it open and ceasing to fly the beetle above came crashing down towards Mishi with blood trailing behind.

[Vaetric]

Mishi’s panic started to rise, she only made him angrier by throwing the rock, she thought that he’d be able to dodge it or something, it was just to give herself some room. But then again, he blew up the entire staircase just to stop her from going up it. He started to walk towards her, she crawled backwards before bumping into something behind her, it was rough and not very high, another piece of rock from the staircase probably.

The one who was attacking her took a bit of debris. She put her hands upon her head, expecting him to throw it, but it didn’t come. She looked up and found that the thing was… Expanding? Like the staircase? Was he a devil-fruit user? But..

Mishi realised what he was doing, he made the staircase blow up and now he was going to make the lion’s head blow up, she looked behind her, it was definitely a big piece of rock, she crawled over it, only managing to keep her top-body safe before it exploded, she screamed as she felt splinters shoot through her legs, mostly knee down and didn’t hit her feet.

She felt the flow of blood through her legs, she hit the floor behind the rock and looked at her legs, some splinters stayed in, some shot straight through. She blurted out a cry of pain as she shakily dipped her hands into her suit, drawing out her flintlock. She was partially obscured by the rock, there was no time for thinking, she had to…

She gulped, flintlock pointed to where she hoped Dash’s head would appear to look over the rock to see her, blinking out tears as her legs turned crimson.

However, she saw a large one of those beetles hurtling down toward her side, where she was before that guy used his devil fruit powers. If she didn't move, it was going to half=-crush her! She tried to move, but could only get most of her upper body out of the way through using her hands, and couldn't move her right foot, causing it to get stuck underneath the beetle, as well as her flintlock, she let out a large groan of pain and despair.

[Serious?]

What the shit was going on here? This whole place looked like it ran through traffic! As Tullus hastily hopped down from step to step, he noticed the annoyingly loud buzzing noise from the giant stag beetles right on his tail. Well, shit, as if he didn't have a hard enough time dealing with all the other bullshit he got thrown at. Again, he turned his head to see how far of a distance he was between the closest beetle to him, only to find it shooting its horns at him! The stranger went to go try and duck to dodge incoming attack, but it looks like he stepped on a loose part of a step that crumbled underneath him and pulled him downwards enough to have the projectiles just miss the top of his head, at the expense of bumping his behind and his back on the surface of the stairs. Could be worse, back could've been broken.

Things are already beginning to not look good for Tullus, as he could clearly tell by the giant, projectile-shooting beetles. Quickly, he got off his butt and began to proceed down the staircase yet again, but with the thought of the beetles staying in the very front of his mind. Suddenly, an explosion happened close by, and instinctively, the bandaged man shielded his eyes in case it were too close for comfort. Luckily, he was lucky enough to avoid stray debris that flew everywhere. Looks like it's time to double-time this. Tullus hastily thought. While he was on his way down, he caught sight of a woman injured on the ground and some guy doing weird shit. He looked quite like a threat, and the stranger with big iron didn't feel like dealing with his bullshit, so he snapped his revolver at him and fired three shots to stop whatever that guy was doing. The woman looked crippled enough to be a neutralized threat anyways.

[Docile]

Missing Tullus the beetles followed him and started taking it in turns to bash into him with their horns. Number one charged towards him hoping to pin him against the wall. As Tullus however loaded his gun and took three shots at Dash the bullets landed tearing through his back and chest he hit the ground. Blood oozed out and in a matter of moments he was gone for good. Mishi was safe.

The two remaining beetles flew in front of Tullus where now at his current position. There was no stairs anymore what so ever. It was just a drop. The staircase that Tullus had managed to make it down was only quarter of the way and now the only way for anyone to get up or down this staircase was either flying or falling.

As one beetle charged towards Tullus in an attempt to knock him unconscious, the other landed behind him waiting for him to try something. Noticing how quiet things had gotten, Cortez stepped into the stairwell to see his stairs gone. Fuming he looked down to see Mishi and then looked at Tullus.

"They must be working together." he thought since Mishi didn't seem to have had anywhere near enough time to have collected his object of interest.

Clicking his fingers, Cortez ordered the ants to carry him down like his own personal lift. Forming beneath him as a platform the ants quickly formed beneath his feet and as they carried him over the edge they formed a platform reaching out from the wall beneath his feet. Moving down like a lift Cortez looked towards Tullus and held his horn shaped sword within his hand.

Looking at Tullus he shouted to him.

"You're out of your depth here sonny boy."

Scratching his beard, Cortez looked down towards Mishi and opened his left hand. From his palm a large hole opened up and out came a large creature.

Landing directly in front of Mishi standing at a height of 5 feet was a large green pray mantis. Rubbing its scythes together the creature brought one down and hacked through the large piece of cover she'd used to hide from Dash's explosion of splinters.

[Serious?]

Okay, he went down faster than expected. That was good, but a little unexpected. Anyways, stairs are gone and the only way down is to make a bit of a drop down to the floor. No time to slowly hang off the edge from his fingertips and make a slightly shorter drop as there were two beetles right on his ass at that moment, and just hopping down wouldn't be too good for his ankles in this particular situation. What to do, what to do? Options: Very limited. Chance of survival: Minimum. If he made it out of here alive with the job done, Tullus swore he would eat his own bandages from how unbelievable that scenario was. Suddenly, one of the beetles charged at him and got a clean hit on him! He was knocked off of the staircase and was sure to fall! However, he instinctively grabbed onto the first thing he got his hand on and that was the beetle that charged at him! With a blink of an eye, the bandaged man knew what to do to save himself! As he grabbed the oversized beetle, Tullus attempted to drag it down with him and flip it over so that it will take the fall first instead of him, therefore breaking the impact of the fall for himself while taking care of one pain in the ass at the same time!

Down he went, and closely following him was his prey. He pulled the beetle around his back and braced for the impending impact within seconds! A loud, crunching splat was heard very audibly throughout the stairwell. The stranger with big iron was hurt, but not as much as he would be without the organs of the beetles cushioning his fall unusually well. Jumping out of the carcass of the beetle, Tullus thought of taking a shower immediately after this whole predicament. He took a look at the injured lady nearby and wondered if she was an undercover agent for the Marines, a foolhardy woman or just got into a little argument with that guy over there. In fact, what if he was the undercover agent? Well, no time to think about stuff like that now. Cortez's voice caught the stranger's attention while he was descending the staircase via ants, and shot out a giant....mantis? Not this shit again.

[Vaetric]

Mishi saw something over the top of the rock, once she got a better look, she saw it was a massive bug again! One of the protectors of the hideout? She was about to open her mouth to ask for Cortez but suddenly it sliced through the rock like it was nothing! "Nononowait!" she gasped, she tried to tug away, but her foot was stuck underneath the massive beetle.

Looking around quickly, she found her weapon, she had to crawl toward the mantis quickly to pick it up. Wait... There aren't any bugs in any of the blues that grow that large, unless... She remembered Cortez's subordinate trying to kill her, blow her up! And now? The bugs are attacking her too, was Cortez... Trying to kill her?

It all made sense now, he didn't expect her to finish the job, or maybe he did, but once she got the amulet she'd return and then.. He'd kill her and take the trinket so he didn't have to split! Suddenly anger and rage burst through her, but her fear for the mantis balanced it. If she... Shot him, maybe the insects would go, maybe he was a devil fruit user like the other one!

Mishi gulped, no more time to think, she needed to live, she spotted where Cortez was from the direction of the mantis. She snatched up her flintlock, lined it up a bit quickly while dragging herself backwards away from the mantis.

She fired.

[Docile]

Reaching the floor Cortez looked towards both of the fools who dared step into this lion's den. Mishi seemed to be in pain & Tullus seemed to be doing well. Perhaps a little too well for his liking. As the ants escaped Cortez's feet they climbed over him dressed him in a black armour of bullet ants. Smiling as he stepped towards Mishi, he looked towards Tullus.

The pray mantis turned to face Tullus and quickly begun swinging its scythes. Swinging downwards with its right towards Tullus, the Mantis attempted to slice through him this was followed by a left which came towards his waist, after the first right the right scythe would come towards Tullus's right again this time diagonally upwards, after this the mantis would attempt a left a low blow towards Tullus's legs hoping to slice them off and the final right attack would be a repeat of the first one.

Quick and following orders from the notorious Cortez, the mantis made a move forward hoping to try and pin Tullus against the wall so he could finish him off for good.

As for the bullet that Mishi fired towards Cortez. It landed hitting the ants on Cortez's shoulder. Splintering from his shoulder the bullet ants hit the ground lifelessly. Continuing to walk towards Mishi he ignored the bruise that would be forming over his shoulder. Thankfully the ants had slowed down the impact. It killed them, but it was worth it to stop his pain.

Laughing manically Cortez felt the ants cover the gap in his bullet ant armour. Making the rest of it a little thinner he removed his sword and the ants formed a black helmet for him. Holding the stag beetle horn shaped blade in hand as Cortez reached Mishi, he raised it up and smiled down at her.

"Its all over for you." he said before swinging the blade down with incredible speed hoping to end Mishi's life.

[Serious?]

How many bullets did he have left? Three? Maybe four? No, it was definitely three. Three bullets loaded in against a man who had ants crawling all over him, literally, and a giant preying mantis. Curse these giant insects and their bullet resistant chitin! He saw the injured lady fire a shot towards Cortez and made a small hole that broke the armor. That gave the bandaged man an idea. However, no time to think as the preying mantis swung his giant forelegs at it! They looked deadly and like they could chop a wooden block in two! A quick dash backwards over the beetle corpse helped him dodge the first attack, then Tullus quickly tossed the carcass at the giant insect in hopes of momentarily distracting it so he could get far away from it. Tullus took another hop backwards and accidentally slid his fingers across a rough, broken surface of what was a staircase. He slightly flinched at the pain and glanced down to see the fingers on his left hand bleeding from a little scratch. All this diving and sliding definitely won't be good for his exposed flesh.

Unfortunately, the stranger still had to do it anyways to get rid of this oversized bird feed, cause bullets won't do jack shit to this. No trying to waste precious ammo on something that takes in bullets like a sponge. Still, he had other ideas in mind to do with those three shots. When he was sufficiently away enough from the mantis from all the sliding, Tullus took three shots at Cortez, hoping he could save this person from being executed. No shots left, need to reload, and the back of his legs were bleeding from the sliding he was doing. The pain he was feeling was just beginning to overtake him.

[Vaetric]

Mishi had shot, and hit… It was over, now she just needed to get herself fixed up. Sighing with relief, she looked over to see the damage and felt her heart stop. He wasn’t falling down. And he started to laugh, too. He’s inhuman! She flailed, trying to free her leg from the beetle, she managed to get her ankle out, but it was a very heavy thing. “W-wait! I-I’ll give you a-all of my money, y-you can rebuild y-your h-hideout!” She called dout, though he had the look of a madman by now, and he got a sword or something from nowhere!

He came closer to her, panic gripped her, as soon as he came near, she put her flintlock in both hands and attempted to kick him in the crotch with her free leg, squealing all the way. She tried to use her flintlock as a makeshift shield to protect her from the bug-blade, she may not be as strong as Cortez, but she had the floor to lean against. However, the flintlock would still be made of wood, and splinter into her hands, only slowing it down enough to not slice straight through her.

[Docile]

Watching as Tullus cast the beetle's corpse into the mantis's direction, its scythe cleaved straight through it and as he brought his scythe back into the air the beetle came with. Surprising the mantis he was caught up in a beetle and applied the other scythe to try to pry himself free. Dropping the beetle from its first scythe, the prey mantis looked for Tullus to see he'd fired three shots.

Charging towards Tullus the prey mantis wielded both scythes in the air closing in on Tullus he brought them both down attempting to hack Tullus from the shoulders to hiss toes.

Opening fire upon Cortez had been a distracting tactic. Taking the bullets into his right arm, Cortez had paused momentarily and cast a glance towards Tullus.

Bullet Ant Bullet

From Cortez's body all of the bullet ants shot off like actual bullets towards Tullus. So many it made an almost seemingly black wall shoot towards Tullus.

Turning his attention back to Mishi, Cortez loosened his grip on his sword as a foul kick to the balls was delivered. Falling slightly to his knees, Cortez grabbed at his balls.

"You fucking bitch!" he muttered in a shrill tone as his sword fell down towards Mishi without any real force other than the gravity dragging it down.

[Serious?]

The feeling of his microscopically thin ectoderm tearing and pouring out blood was very uncomfortable and quite painful too. The blood began to soak through the bandages and the pained areas were throbbing quite violently now. No matter, Tullus had to get this job done and done fast. Unfortunately, the preying mantis was still after him and wasn't about to let up for even a second, it seemed. Barely any options left to take care of this monstrosity, so the last feasible option was to eliminate Cortez? Did he already think of that? Yes, probably. One huge jump away from the broadswords that insect calls forelegs and closer towards his target later, he got up and began to quickly unload his revolver and shove in some new rounds for him to fire in.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Six rounds, ready to shock and rock. It looked like Cortez was mildly distracted with the injured lady over there, who seemed to be doing unusually well for someone who looked utterly incapable of fighting. No matter, Cortez wasn't paying much attention to the bandages man himself and the latter identified a weapon on the ground. A rock. Wasn't too large, but it wasn't too small, about the size of a brick. and, when the stranger lifted it up, it was about the weight of a brick too. Idea time. Tullus sheathed his revolver and carried the rocky chunk with both of his hands. If those bullets didn't do much, this definitely will. Armor's good for blocking sharp stuff, but that's why blunt weapons were invented. He dashed towards the dazed criminal and used as much strength as he could to try and bash the asshole's face in with the rock.

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