A lot of things happened as the ravine started to collapse, but in short? Everything went to hell.

I tried to keep my eyes on the group of outlaws and creatures that had been surrounding the fiery being, but as huge chunks of rock and crystal came crashing down around us, whipping up a vicious cloud of starsand, that became next to impossible.

I tried to run forward rather than retreat, but Lucy grabbed me by the back of my duster and yanked me backwards.

“Are you crazy?!” she coughed, trying to cover her mouth and eyes the best she could as I almost lost my footing. “We’re leaving, right now!”

“Not without Kate!” I yelled back, there being little need to whisper anymore with all the gunfire, screeching and rocks crashing down.

Lucy seemed about to reply, but she suddenly shoved me hard. I went stumbling forward and tripped into the starsand, a resounding crash coming from the spot where I had just been standing.

When I scrambled back to my feet and turned about, there was a huge length of clear crystal, taller than I was, embedded into the ground. It would have easily crushed me if not for Lucy’s quick thinking, but now we were on opposite sides of the enormous crystal pillar.

“Cy! You alright?!” I heard the half-goblin cry out even over the chaos unfolding all around us.

“Close enough!” I shouted back, suddenly aware of the fact that I was likely surrounded by the majority of the outlaws and creatures we had been watching just moments before.

“Get out of there! We need to leave, now!”

“Wait for me at the entrance, if I’m not there in five, get out of here!” I carefully pulled my goggles down to cover my eyes. “Someone needs to warn Clearvein and the rooks!”

There was a moment amidst all the gunfire and crashing rocks where I was pretty certain I could make out Lucy loudly swearing to herself, then another shout came over the clear crystal wall dividing us.

“Fine, but you better make it Cy! If you die here, I’ll kill you!”

Despite the nightmare that was unwinding all around us, I couldn’t help but laugh at that. I deep as good of a deep breath as I could manage without inhaling any of the shredding sands then readied my repeater and started to run.

I didn’t make it far before I encountered an outlaw stumbling toward me, but I was prepared for much worse than just another injured human. The young woman barely had time to raise her shotgun before I lashed out with a vicious kick to her leading leg, sending her crashing to the ground.

I was pretty sure I felt the bone snapping under my boot but I didn’t stop there, swinging the barrel of my repeater around like a club and smashing it into her arm. The shotgun went flying and she cried out once again.

It probably would have been more effective to just swing for the head, but this way her mask was left intact. I reached down, briefly holding my repeater under my arm as I slid it off her face.

“N-no! Please!”

The fear in the voice and on the face of the young, red-haired woman gave me pause. I needed to knock her out so she wouldn’t come after me or alert the other outlaws, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty at the idea.

It felt crazy. I had come so far, and survived so much. I could be just feet from Kate, so close to saving her, and I was hesitating now? Of all times? And for what?

This outlaw was just like the others. She had thrown her lot in with an organisation that had absolutely no qualms about attacking a town full of innocents. Why should I care if she looked like my sister?

I only realised how badly I had frozen up when it was too late to do anything about it. There were tears in my eyes, and the look on the young woman’s face had become one of confusion more that horror.

“Alice! You OK?!” one of the men shouted, while the other leveled their shotgun straight at my chest.

Rocks and crystals were still crashing down around us, but we were fairly central in the camp at this point, so not much of the debris was landing close to where we all stood.

“Drop it now!” the man stepped forward and jabbed the long barrel of his gun into my chest.

I did exactly what he asked of me, quickly dropping the mask and my repeater onto the starsand and grabbing the underside of his shotgun with my hand, pushing it up hard.

The main exclaimed in shock, pulling the trigger even as he lost control of the weapon. It bucked hard and I felt a painful stinging from my left ear, but it was far from enough to put me down.

With his weapon pointing up into the air I stepped forward and kneed the man straight in the groin, using the opportunity to rip the gun free of his grasp entirely. I gripped it by the pump and gravity let me slide it, then I flipped the firearm and caught it by the trigger, immediately firing off a shot into the shoulder of the other outlaw.

He went spinning onto the ground clutching his wound, blood arcing through the air and splattering against the starsand. I winced at the painful recoil that came from firing the shotgun with one arm, but it wasn’t too bad. Not nearly as difficult as my cannon of a repeater at least.

The outlaw I had taken the gun from had stumbled back but quickly recovered, a pair of familiar obsidian armblades springing forth from his sleeves as he rushed me. I only just managed to block both incredibly sharp black crystal edges with the barrel of the shotgun.

They were sharpened to the point that they bit into the steel, making the gun far too risky to actually fire again, but it had already served its purpose.

Now that the outlaw was wide open I instinctively tried to punch him in the stomach with my other arm, but quickly corrected myself and instead delivered another swift kick to his side.

It sent the man staggering and I let him take the shotgun with him, dashing to pick up my ruby repeater and swinging it like a club as the outlaw regained his footing. It smashed into the side of his head and he went staggering a third time, this time slumping against a rock. Unconscious but not dead.

I briefly checked the barrel of my repeater for cracks, but it was as smooth and pristine as ever. Slightly scuffed but there was no risk of it misfiring from that. The outlaw I had shot in the shoulder was still conscious but curcled up in pain, bleeding quite heavily. I doubted it would be a fatal wound but he wouldn’t be able to shrug it off and come after me anytime soon.

With the new arrivals dealt with, I made my way toward the first one I had encountered, who was still lying prone on the ground. I pointed the barrel of my ruby repeater directly at her face, watching her horrified expression return.

“The researcher. Kate. Where is she?”

“I d-don’t know!” the young woman cried out.

Of course, I would never actually fire the repeater at this range, and if she was thinking clearer then the outlaw may have realised that. But when you’re literally staring down the barrel of a weapon that could kill a building? Rational thought tended to escape you.

“Last chance. Help me and you can walk out of here.”

“I really don’t know! We were holding her in a shed, but then the boss called us to help with… whatever the hell that thing is!” Alice gulped and pointed in the general direction that the very literal firefight had been taking place. “The boss told us all to get out of here while he held it off!”

I looked up toward where the outlaw had pointed and sure enough, I could still make out the occasional flash of fire and gunshot through the swirling starsand. I looked down at Alice, trying to decide what to do with her.

I could have drawn my revolver and put her down, or simply knocked her out, but she was in no state to fight anymore. The look of fear on her face made me reluctant to cause any more harm, so I moved away.

“Get your friends out of here if you can. Don’t come after me. If I see you again, I won’t hesitate to shoot.”

Alice didn’t reply, and that was just fine by me. I was already heading into toward where the gunfire was coming from. I didn’t look back to see how the young woman had reacted to my choice. I knew it was probably stupid, and that it could lead to me getting shot in the back, but I doubted it would come to that.

The outlaw could barely walk and the starsand in the air was still thick, reducing visibility a great deal. Coming after me would be downright suicidal. I hoped she would be smart enough to simply limp away, maybe dragging her friends with her, and leave me be, but I still made sure to keep listening for more outlaws that could come after me from behind.

I had picked up her mask before I left, and as I walked I removed my goggles and slid it over my own face. The crystal felt unnaturally cold and made me shudder involuntarily, but it seemed to fit like a glove and stay in place perfectly.

It was definitely an odd sensation, but it wasn’t too distracting so I left the mask on for the time being. I thought that at the very least, it may give someone pause before attacking me.

Visibility was tricky, and I ended up stumbling once or twice thanks to the chunks of wood and crystal that seemed to be strewn all over the place, but I had a clear target thanks to the fire creating a beacon for me through the starsand.

The closer I got the clearer I could make out the sounds of gunfire, screeching and cries of pain. It seemed like the man that I had heard described as the boss of the outlaws was losing the fight.

This left me in a somewhat awkward position. Did I take the chance to take him out, leaving the mysterious fiery creature aware of my presence? He had his crystal salamander bodyguards but they were seemingly unaware of me for now, blocking fireballs with their bodies and fiery breath.

There didn’t seem to be anything special about the man, so one shot would have done the job just fine. His creatures were far too busy protecting him from the front, and I doubted they could react in time to block a shot from my repeater.

Indecision was tearing through me, even as I raised the rifle. That other outlaw hadn’t known where Kate was. Had she already left the camp? Was I about to kill the only way I had of finding her?

Before I could make a decision, I heard a loud whistling and suddenly there was a sharp pain in my left shoulder. I grunted and almost dropped my rifle, looking down to see the blade of a long, curved obsidian dagger sticking out of me.

“Boss! We got company!” I heard a voice call out, somewhere from my left.

I dove down behind the closest chunk of crystal that could completely hide by form, wanting to avoid any further projective attacks.

Davis? I thought I told you to get out of here!

I looked around startled, a new voice that seemed to be coming from right behind me cutting through the crashing chaotic mess all around. There was nobody there.

“He has a mask! I’ll handle him!”

“Alright! Just be careful!”

The first voice was definitely the same one that had come from my left, my likely attacker, but the second was the voice I had just heard so clearly. It didn’t take me too long to piece things together whilst I yanked the knife free from my arm, biting down on the leather of my duster to muffle my pained cry.

The mask must have allowed for some kind of communication between outlaws, maybe a way of the boss relaying orders covertly over distance? Now that I was wearing one, they couldn’t use that ability without my overhearing.

It was a useful tidbit of information that did almost nothing to help me now. The burning pain in my shoulder was almost unbearable, so I hurriedly reached for a handful of herbs to chew. They would alleviate the immediate pain and hopefully allow me to fight.

That was the plan, at least, but taking the herbs had meant letting my guard down momentarily and it seemed my attacker had never lost track of my location as I had hoped. A black boot whipped out of the starsand and sent my repeater flying, then an arm came lunging out of the glittering dust, brandishing another curved blade.

I barely moved out of the way in time, the blade smoothly slicing right through the chunk of quartz behind me. That was a pretty terrifying feat on its own, but it only got worse as the outlaw emerged from the starsand entirely, whirling about and sending a kick into my chest even as he scooped up his other curved blade.

The blow took the breath out of me and I staggered backwards, almost spitting out the herbs I had been chewing. My attacker had me backed into a corner, between two massive chunks of rock, and my ruby repeater was lying somewhere I couldn’t hope to reach it. Not without being cut to pieces by the outlaw currently twirling around a pair of wickedly sharp obsidian daggers.

“Not looking so hot, Crystal Gunslinger.”

The taunt came without emotion. The man before me, Davis, spoke calmly as if simply stating a fact.

“Might be true…” I coughed hard, spitting the herbs from my mouth into a bloody pile on the starsand in front of me. “But I ain’t the one full of holes.”

Before Davis could react, I whipped the revolver free from my duster and fired three times in quick succession, rapidly working the hammer back each time. The first obsidian tipped bullet smashed into his left thigh, the second winging the side of his torso.

I wasn’t the best at aiming, and using my left hand didn’t help, but from this range the result was all but certain. My first shot punched straight through Davis’ mask, leaving him dead where he stood.

Everything hurt once again, despite the herbs doing their best to numb me. I didn’t have time to deal with the pain or the fact that I had just killed a man and that his body had just slumped forward into the bloody starsand. I limped forwards a few steps, and then collapsed right on top of him.

“Not… like this…” I groaned, the burning sensation from where I had taken a dagger suddenly reigniting with triple the intensity. “So… close…”

Then I welcomed back the darkness of unconsciousness, knowing full well that I almost certainly wouldn’t be waking up this time. In those last moments as my vision blurred, I saw something that couldn’t be real.

The fiery form rushed around the corner to where I was and seemed to shift before me, taking on a human form that was impossible not to recognise.

Kate.

I didn’t know how it could be, but she was here, and she was smiling at me. Not a kind smile, not one that let me know she was happy to see me, but a cruel expression of amusement that seemed so wrong on her face.

I reached out a hand for her, but she simply shrugged and stepped away, mouthing some words that would never reach me. Then, she turned and ran. Leaving me to the darkness.