Continuing from volume one [quote]"You have been spared." The beast spat out, then heaved its mighty hammer into the side of my head. Blackness. The dark burned. In my dreams, I could hear the screams of the forum members as they were attacked by the ninja's and their hammers. the sight of our vale on fire haunted my nightmares until I awoke. Sand was everywhere. I sat up to find myself half covered in it. all around me, there were the bleached bones of my fallen comrades, buried in the sand inside the burned out husk of the building. the sun sat high above, peering down through the singular shingle of a roof. I slowly picked my self off the ground, grunting at the pain still in my head. As I turned to face the only wall left, I caught my reflection in the mirror. The right side of my face was scarred a red-pink with the imprint of the hammer still visible. The wound was white hot and burned like magma to the touch. I turned away from the mirror and started to shuffle towards the door. Right before I exited, I heard a click behind me. turned around with a startle. On the other side of the room, was a bandito named Slim. In his hand, he held a six-piece, aimed right at me. "I've been watchin' yuh for quite some time. Looks like yuh muss' right smart af'er yuh took that 'it to thuh face." Slim said. "Oh, you must be the smart one." I said, then pointing towards one of the skeletons, "For a second I could tell whether it was you or that one over there." "yuh best watch yur mouff son. I ain't been waiting on you to wake up just to exchange insults" Slim retorted. "Look, look, I'm sure you were not waiting just to see my pretty face either. so what where you waiting for?" "to offer yuh some 'protection', parts round here got a lil' rough af'er the purge. For some money, I could keep yuh safe." As he finished this statement his face broke into a smug little smile and he re-aimed his gun my way. backing slowly to the left to avoid his aim, I spied a fallen ninja' hammer. I slid my toe under the hilt and said. "protection, huh, how much would that cost?" He paused for a second, relaxed his aim on the gun and began to explain his costs of protection. right as he opened his mouth, I flicked the hilt of the hammer up with my foot, caught it, and hurled it at Slim. before he could so much as oof, the hammer hit him solid in the chest and disintegrated. He laughed at me re-aimed his gun and said "well, you thought yuh were gonna git away with that, well I aughta..." but he crumbled to dust before my very eyes, the last of the power of the hammer had done its job. I shuffled over to his remains to see if anything of use was left. Only his six-piece and gunbelt remained. I strapped it on and felt the weight of the gun in my hand, it felt good, familiar. a weight by which I could measure a man. I picked up a wide-brimmed hat, set it on my head, and walked out of the busted door frame, into the desert that once was offtopic.[/quote] © 2018. John "HoTh" McWaters. All rights reserved Let the standoffs begin!!!! Tell me. what do you think?