# **TRUE PIECE**
## **Chapter 10: Inexperience VS Experience**
### **Center Sea Arc — Part 4 of 5**
The gun fired.
Eullian Hound moved his head.
The bullet missed his left eye by less than an inch.
It passed through his hair, crossed the summit, struck the wooden frame of the Height Bell, and shattered one of the four support pins holding the restored striker in place.
The enormous metal tongue dropped six inches.
The entire platform tilted.
Eullian looked backward.
Chief Asia fired again.
Eullian ducked.
The second bullet passed over him and destroyed another support pin.
The Height Bell groaned.
Twenty tons of dark metal shifted toward the injured members of the Peace Crew.
Hijo Albino looked up from his knees.
Mira Cale remained halfway down the steps with one arm hanging uselessly.
Tallen Vey sat beneath the bell with broken ribs and a bullet wound beneath his collarbone.
None of them could move quickly enough.
Eullian turned away from Chief Asia.
He caught the falling striker with both hands.
The metal struck his palms like a dropped ship.
The platform cracked beneath his feet.
His knees bent.
His recently stitched ribs opened again.
Blood ran beneath his shirt.
Chief Asia fired a third time.
The bullet entered Eullian's right side.
It passed through muscle beneath his ribs and exited his back in a burst of blood.
Eullian's hands slipped.
The striker dropped another foot.
Hijo's white threads caught its upper chains.
The threads tightened.
Three snapped immediately.
Tallen forced himself upright and placed one shoulder beneath part of the frame.
Mira dragged herself up the steps and shoved a fallen support beam under the striker.
Together, they stopped it from crushing them.
Eullian looked toward Chief Asia.
The gunfighter stood exactly where he had been before the first shot.
No black-silver line moved beneath his skin.
No Devil Liquid altered the bullet.
No future had been bent.
No physics had been taught a new skill.
Chief Asia had simply fired at the bell.
Eullian had chosen to save his crew.
The third bullet had been waiting for that choice.
Chief Asia lowered the revolver.
"First lesson."
Eullian pressed one hand against the hole in his side.
Chief Asia's voice remained quiet.
"An experienced enemy rarely attacks what he wants to hit."
Blood ran between Eullian's fingers.
"He attacks what you cannot allow him to hit."
Eullian stepped away from the stabilized bell.
"You knew I'd turn."
"Yes."
"Because of my crew."
"Yes."
"You could've shot them directly."
"They are worth more alive."
Chief Asia opened the revolver's cylinder.
Three empty chambers.
Three unused rounds.
He removed the empty casings one at a time.
Each landed near his polished boot.
"Your crew is not my target."
He placed three new cartridges into the weapon.
"They are my sights."
Eullian charged.
Chief Asia closed the cylinder.
Eullian crossed half the platform before it clicked into place.
Chief Asia threw the revolver.
Not at Eullian.
Past him.
Eullian did not react to it.
The weapon struck a brass lever behind the Height Bell.
The lever dropped.
A maintenance cable released from the upper frame.
The cable's iron counterweight fell from above.
Eullian heard the chain.
Too late.
The weight struck the platform between his feet.
Stone exploded upward.
Eullian's right leg disappeared through the floor.
His shin slammed against the broken edge.
Chief Asia stepped forward.
He retrieved the revolver as it bounced from the lever.
One movement.
Planned before he had thrown it.
Eullian pulled his leg free.
Chief Asia kicked the loose counterweight.
It rolled across the sloped platform.
Eullian jumped over it.
Chief Asia fired into the chain attached to the weight.
The bullet broke one link.
The released chain whipped upward.
It wrapped around Eullian's ankle in midair.
The counterweight dropped from the platform's edge.
Eullian was pulled sideways.
He struck the stone railing shoulder-first.
The railing broke.
For one breath, Eullian hung above two thousand feet of cloud with the falling counterweight dragging him downward.
Hijo's threads flashed toward him.
Chief Asia fired.
The bullet did not aim at Hijo.
It struck the stone beside his wounded thigh.
A chip of rock entered the open bullet hole.
Hijo's hand jerked from the sudden pain.
His threads missed Eullian by inches.
Chief Asia did not need to cut them.
He only needed Hijo's fingers to move incorrectly once.
Eullian grabbed the platform's edge.
The counterweight continued pulling.
His nails broke against the stone.
Blood marked each fingertip.
Chief Asia walked toward him.
No hurry.
He stepped on the chain.
The pressure increased.
Eullian's left hand slipped.
Chief Asia looked down.
"Second lesson."
Eullian held the edge with one hand.
"You speak too much."
"I am being paid to study you."
Chief Asia increased the pressure beneath his boot.
"Instruction improves the report."
Eullian's fingers began sliding.
"You possess exceptional emotional perception," Chief Asia continued. "You identify fear before trained interrogators. You recognize guilt beneath aggression. You locate the wound inside a person's motive."
Eullian looked into his eyes.
Chief Asia felt calm.
Not falsely calm.
Actually calm.
His heartbeat had not changed.
His breathing remained controlled.
No pleasure.
No anger.
No excitement.
Only attention.
Eullian searched deeper.
There.
Concern.
A small, genuine concern behind Chief Asia's stillness.
Eullian looked toward Penny.
The porcelain piggy bank rested behind a stone barrier.
Chief Asia's left shoulder turned by less than an inch.
An opening.
Eullian released the platform.
Chief Asia's eyes sharpened.
Eullian let the counterweight pull him downward.
He swung beneath the ledge, grabbed the hanging chain with both hands, and used its momentum to circle around the platform.
His body rose on the opposite side.
He flew toward Penny.
Chief Asia was already there.
The gunfighter's boot struck Eullian's jaw.
The impact changed his direction.
Eullian crossed the platform and smashed through one of the Height Bell's wooden posts.
Chief Asia returned to his previous position beside the piggy bank.
Eullian rolled onto his stomach.
Blood left his mouth.
Chief Asia's concern had been real.
Eullian had read it correctly.
He had misunderstood what the concern meant.
Chief Asia crouched beside Penny and brushed stone dust from her painted ear.
"I was concerned you would choose that approach."
Eullian pushed himself upright.
"You wanted me to see it."
"Yes."
"You can control your emotions?"
"No."
Chief Asia looked toward him.
"I can control what I place them near."
Eullian's eyes narrowed.
Chief Asia stood.
"You read the feeling correctly. You assigned it to the wrong future."
The revolver returned to its holster.
"Third lesson."
Eullian spat blood onto the platform.
"I'm starting to dislike school."
"You disliked navigation too."
Chief Asia had learned that from Vask.
Or Captain Cube.
Or Aldren.
Every person who survived Eullian became part of the next enemy's preparation.
Chief Asia picked up a loose coin from the ground.
The copper disk had fallen from the dead Height elder's clothing.
He held it between two fingers.
Eullian looked toward the dead giant.
Chief Asia flicked the coin upward.
It turned slowly in the air.
Sunlight flashed across one side.
Eullian heard a gun leave leather.
He followed the sound.
Chief Asia drew the short pistol beneath his left arm.
Eullian moved right.
The pistol remained unfired.
Chief Asia caught the falling coin with his right hand.
His left foot kicked a small brass pin from the floor.
The pin struck the dead elder's blood.
A red droplet flew into Eullian's eye.
His vision closed instinctively.
Chief Asia's knee entered his stomach.
Eullian folded around the strike.
The pistol grip struck the back of his skull.
His face hit the platform.
Chief Asia stepped away before Eullian could grab his leg.
The gunfighter had used a coin.
A sound.
A droplet.
Eullian's own blink.
No Devil Liquid.
No supernatural speed.
Nothing impossible.
Only decisions arranged too closely together for inexperience to separate them.
Chief Asia dropped the coin into Penny.
**Plink.**
"Twenty-four thousand seven hundred fifty-four."
Eullian froze.
His head turned toward the Height elder.
The old giant had already been dead.
"You counted him twice."
"No."
Chief Asia pointed toward the lower ridge.
One of the Height Hunters Eullian had thrown into a safety net hung motionless.
The net had twisted around the hunter's throat during the fall.
The man's body swayed above the clouds.
Eullian had not seen it.
Chief Asia had.
"He died eleven seconds ago."
Eullian stared.
"I didn't mean—"
"Intent is useful during sentencing."
Chief Asia's tone did not change.
"Death uses results."
Eullian's breathing became heavier.
He had thrown the hunter away from the children.
He had aimed for the safety net.
He had believed the man survived.
Chief Asia watched guilt enter him.
Then fired.
Eullian moved too slowly.
The bullet entered his left shoulder.
His arm fell uselessly.
Chief Asia had not created the guilt.
He had simply chosen the instant it occupied Eullian's attention.
"Fourth lesson," he said.
Eullian's rage surged.
Chief Asia fired at the ground.
Eullian charged through the smoke.
The bullet had struck a pouch of powdered limestone dropped by one of the hunters.
White dust exploded across the platform.
Eullian could not see Chief Asia.
He could still feel him.
Calm.
Moving left.
No.
The calm moved left.
Chief Asia had thrown his dark green coat through the smoke.
The garment carried warmth.
Gun oil.
His scent.
Eullian's fist struck it.
The coat folded around his arm.
Empty.
Chief Asia stood behind him wearing a black undershirt.
The revolver's muzzle touched Eullian's lower back.
It fired.
The bullet tore through his body and emerged below his stomach.
Eullian lurched forward.
Chief Asia grabbed his collar before he fell.
He pulled Eullian backward into the next shot.
The short pistol fired beneath his arm.
A bullet entered the back of Eullian's right thigh.
His leg collapsed.
Chief Asia released him.
Eullian fell to one knee.
The white dust cleared.
Chief Asia picked up his coat.
No holes.
No blood.
He placed it over one shoulder.
"You do not only read emotions," he said. "You follow them."
Eullian pressed his good hand against the wound beneath his stomach.
Chief Asia continued.
"That is useful among people who do not know they are being read."
He put one arm into the coat.
"Against someone who knows?"
The other arm.
"It is a rope attached to your face."
He straightened the collar.
Eullian looked toward the lower steps.
Mira remained conscious.
Her pencil moved across the Open Ledger.
Slowly.
Her broken wrist forced her to write with her left hand.
Chief Asia looked toward her too.
"She is recording."
"Yes."
"She believes the next person can defeat me using what she learns."
"Yes."
Chief Asia drew the folded rifle from his back.
Eullian pushed himself up.
"Don't."
Chief Asia opened the rifle.
The metal locked into place.
Mira saw it.
She did not stop writing.
Chief Asia aimed.
Eullian moved between them.
The rifle fired.
The bullet struck the stone before Eullian's feet.
It buried itself without touching him.
Eullian stopped.
Chief Asia had missed.
No.
There were no misses.
A second sound came from beneath the platform.
A mechanical click.
Mira looked downward.
The rifle bullet had entered a hollow support channel and struck a release mechanism beneath the steps.
The stairs folded.
Mira fell with them.
The Open Ledger left her hand.
Eullian turned toward her.
Chief Asia closed the distance.
The rifle stock struck Eullian's wounded shoulder.
Bone cracked.
Eullian dropped onto both knees.
Chief Asia rotated the weapon.
The metal sight entered Eullian's cheek.
It tore skin from the corner of his mouth to beneath his eye.
Blood poured down his face.
Chief Asia kicked his chest.
Eullian rolled backward.
Mira caught the lower edge of the collapsing stairs with her good hand.
Her injured shoulder screamed beneath her weight.
The Ledger fell toward the city.
Tallen fired from beneath the bell.
His broken weapon produced only enough force to launch a short rope bolt.
The hook caught the Ledger's strap.
The book stopped above the clouds.
Tallen coughed blood immediately afterward.
Chief Asia had made Eullian choose between himself and Mira without ever aiming at her.
Again.
Eullian stood.
His right leg trembled.
His left arm hung uselessly.
His side leaked blood through his fingers.
Chief Asia returned the rifle to his back.
"You keep standing."
"Yes."
"That is not strategy."
"No."
"It is not adaptation."
"No."
"It is merely refusal."
"Yes."
Chief Asia looked toward Penny.
"Refusal is expensive."
Eullian wiped blood from his eye.
"So are coins."
Chief Asia's gaze returned to him.
"You want to anger me."
"I want to understand you."
"You already do."
"No."
Eullian stepped forward.
Chief Asia drew neither gun.
"You care about Penny."
"Yes."
"You care about money."
"Yes."
"You care about being skilled without the Devil Liquid."
Chief Asia's eyes sharpened slightly.
"Yes."
"You're saving it."
"Yes."
"Because you think I'm not worth using it on."
"No."
Eullian stopped.
Chief Asia looked toward his injured crew.
"I am saving it because this battle is not the final problem on the island."
The answer was honest.
Eullian felt no pride beneath it.
No insult.
Chief Asia was not refusing the power to humiliate him.
He was preserving stamina for whatever came after.
The Still system.
The Height Bell.
The Center Sea authority.
Perhaps Aldren himself.
Eullian was only one part of Chief Asia's workday.
That truth hurt more than mockery.
Chief Asia saw it.
He drew the short pistol and fired.
Eullian moved before the muzzle aligned.
The bullet entered his already-wounded thigh.
The same hole.
The second impact widened it.
Eullian screamed and fell.
Chief Asia had not predicted the direction of his dodge.
He had predicted that Eullian would protect the healthy leg and move his injured side away from danger.
The shot had been aimed where pain would send him.
Chief Asia walked closer.
"Fifth lesson."
Eullian's fingers dug into stone.
"Pain is another navigator."
Chief Asia stepped around him.
"People believe suffering makes them unpredictable."
His boot pressed against the back of Eullian's wounded thigh.
Blood flowed around the sole.
"It does the opposite."
Eullian swung backward.
Chief Asia had already lifted his foot.
The fist passed beneath him.
Chief Asia stepped onto Eullian's wrist.
The bones ground against stone.
Eullian's fingers opened.
Chief Asia crouched.
"You avoid placing weight on the right leg."
He tapped the bullet wound in Eullian's side with one finger.
"Your torso rotates away from this injury."
Then the broken shoulder.
"You cannot raise the left arm above the ribs."
The cut on Eullian's face.
"Blood reduces vision on this side."
Chief Asia's eyes moved toward his chest.
"Your breathing has shortened."
He listened.
"Possible lung damage."
Eullian glared upward.
Chief Asia stood.
"You are becoming simpler with every wound."
He kicked Eullian in the ribs.
Eullian slid across the platform.
The edge stopped him.
Clouds moved below.
Chief Asia looked toward Hijo.
The Absolute Killer had begun crawling toward them.
His damaged fingers left thin blood marks against the stone.
Chief Asia fired without turning his body fully.
The bullet entered the platform before Hijo's hand.
Stone fragments drove beneath his nails.
Hijo stopped.
Chief Asia did not shoot him again.
He did not need to.
Hijo's leg could not carry him.
His broken fingers could not form a stable thread web.
The first shot at the ground had purchased enough time.
Mira pulled herself onto the remaining steps.
Chief Asia fired beside her head.
The bullet struck the wooden railing.
A splinter entered her neck.
She froze.
Tallen raised the broken remains of his weapon.
Chief Asia pointed the short pistol toward Penny.
Tallen stopped.
Chief Asia looked at him.
"If you fire, I will shoot her."
Tallen stared.
"You would not."
"No."
The answer came immediately.
Tallen's eyes narrowed.
Chief Asia continued.
"But you had to decide whether that was a lie."
During that decision, Chief Asia fired the revolver.
The bullet struck Tallen's remaining weapon.
The barrel split.
Metal tore across Tallen's hands.
The Great Liar dropped it.
Chief Asia returned his attention to Eullian.
He had defeated Tallen using a threat he had admitted was false.
The lie had not needed to be believed.
It had only needed examination.
One heartbeat.
One pause.
One gunshot.
Eullian tried to stand.
His right leg failed.
He used the broken railing.
Chief Asia watched.
"You possess greater physical power."
Eullian pulled himself upward.
"Greater durability."
One knee beneath him.
"Faster recovery."
Both feet.
"Better emotional perception."
Eullian stood.
Chief Asia pointed the revolver at his chest.
"And no understanding of sequence."
Eullian breathed through blood.
"What does that mean?"
"You experience danger as separate moments."
Chief Asia fired.
Eullian moved right.
The bullet struck the railing behind him.
Chief Asia fired his short pistol into the ceiling frame above.
A metal brace fell where Eullian had moved.
Eullian blocked it with his good arm.
Chief Asia kicked the original bullet hole in the railing.
The weakened stone broke.
The entire section beneath Eullian tilted toward the edge.
Eullian jumped forward.
Exactly where Chief Asia had left the counterweight chain.
His ankle entered the loose loop.
Chief Asia pulled the chain.
Eullian fell onto his back.
The brace landed across his chest.
Chief Asia stepped onto it.
Eullian was pinned beneath stone, metal, and the gunfighter's weight.
"The first shot was not one attack," Chief Asia said.
He looked toward the broken railing.
"It created the weak point."
Then the brace.
"The second created weight."
Then the chain.
"Your dodge created restraint."
Finally, his boot.
"I only arrived after you built your own trap."
Eullian pushed against the brace.
It moved one inch.
Chief Asia fired into the stone beside his head.
The impact made him flinch.
The brace dropped again.
"Sixth lesson."
Eullian laughed.
Blood bubbled against his lips.
Chief Asia tilted his head.
"What is amusing?"
"You have many lessons."
"Yes."
"Do people usually live through all of them?"
"No."
Chief Asia drew the revolver's hammer back.
Eullian looked toward Penny.
The piggy bank sat protected behind the barrier.
No opening there.
Toward Hijo.
Too injured.
Mira.
Barely upright.
Tallen.
Unarmed.
Vara.
Her broken leg kept her below.
Runa remained with the children.
No rescue was coming.
Eullian pushed again.
Chief Asia placed more weight on the brace.
"You are looking for another person."
"Yes."
"That is your habit."
"Yes."
"There is no one."
Eullian's smile weakened.
Chief Asia watched the truth enter him.
"You built strength around relationships."
"Yes."
"That made you larger."
"Yes."
"It also means isolation reduces you."
Eullian's hands shook beneath the brace.
Chief Asia lowered the revolver until the muzzle touched his forehead.
"You are not alone emotionally."
His voice remained almost gentle.
"But a bullet does not care about emotional distance."
Eullian's fingers slipped.
The brace pressed into his chest.
He could not draw a full breath.
Chief Asia did not fire.
Not yet.
He opened the revolver's cylinder.
One round remained.
He closed it again.
"Do you know why I have not used the Skill-Skill Devil Liquid?"
Eullian's eyes moved toward the small glass tube inside Chief Asia's coat.
"No."
"Because every power creates laziness."
Chief Asia looked toward Captain Cube's distant basket.
"Calven learned to reshape matter and stopped understanding structures."
Toward Tallen.
"A predictive shooter may stop learning wind."
Toward Hijo.
"A perfect cutting ability may replace judgment."
Toward Eullian.
"Strength may replace planning."
Eullian's jaw tightened.
Chief Asia continued.
"The Devil Liquid is a tool."
He tapped the revolver's barrel against Eullian's forehead.
"I remain the weapon."
Eullian pushed against the brace again.
His muscles trembled.
The metal did not move.
Chief Asia's position was perfect.
His foot rested where Eullian's strength transferred least effectively through the damaged shoulder.
His second foot stood outside Eullian's reach.
The revolver remained close enough that dodging after the trigger moved would be impossible.
No Devil Liquid.
Only anatomy.
Leverage.
Angles.
Experience.
Eullian stopped pushing.
Chief Asia waited.
"You have accepted the result?"
"No."
"You ceased resisting."
"I'm thinking."
"That is new."
Eullian looked at Chief Asia's stance.
Balanced.
Perfect.
Every part placed correctly.
So correctly that the entire position depended upon remaining correct.
Eullian moved his head slightly.
Chief Asia adjusted the revolver.
Eullian's right knee shifted.
Chief Asia moved his rear foot half an inch to maintain pressure.
Eullian looked toward Penny.
Chief Asia did not glance away.
He had learned that trick was known.
Eullian smiled faintly.
Chief Asia's eyes narrowed.
Eullian relaxed every muscle.
The sudden loss of resistance changed the brace's position.
Chief Asia's weight dropped forward by a fraction.
Eullian twisted his good wrist beneath the metal.
Chief Asia fired.
Eullian moved his head.
The bullet tore through the upper half of his right ear.
Blood sprayed across the stone.
Eullian's hand struck the underside of the brace.
It lifted.
Not far.
Enough for him to roll.
Chief Asia stepped off the falling metal.
Eullian rose on one knee and punched.
Chief Asia leaned backward.
The fist missed his chin.
The air around it struck his face.
The force cut his cheek open farther.
Chief Asia stepped inside Eullian's reach.
His elbow struck the bullet hole beneath Eullian's ribs.
Eullian's body stopped.
The gunfighter seized his injured arm, turned, and used Eullian's forward momentum.
Eullian crossed the platform.
He struck the base of the Height Bell.
The sound rolled through the mountain.
Not a full ring.
A wounded metallic moan.
Chief Asia's expression remained unchanged.
But his breathing deepened again.
Not from Devil Liquid.
From physical work.
Eullian saw it.
"You're getting tired."
"Yes."
Chief Asia reloaded the revolver.
"You're still human."
"Yes."
"Good."
Chief Asia looked toward him.
"Why is that good?"
"I understand humans."
"You understand emotion."
The cylinder closed.
"Do not confuse the two."
Chief Asia fired twice.
Eullian moved before the first shot.
The bullets struck the stone behind him.
Chief Asia fired a third time toward the sky.
Eullian charged through the gap.
The first two shots had missed.
The third had no target.
Eullian reached striking distance.
Chief Asia stepped aside.
The two bullets behind Eullian had struck support ropes.
The third had struck the upper hook holding them.
The ropes released.
A folded maintenance net dropped between Eullian and Chief Asia.
Eullian ran into it.
The net wrapped around his arms and head.
Chief Asia pulled one lower cord.
The more Eullian pushed, the tighter it became.
Chief Asia drew the short pistol.
He fired into Eullian's left calf through the openings.
Eullian dropped.
Chief Asia stepped around the net.
"Seventh lesson."
Eullian tore one rope.
Three others tightened.
Chief Asia fired into his right forearm.
The bullet stopped inside the muscle.
Eullian's fist opened.
"Every obstacle does not exist to stop your body."
Chief Asia kicked his wounded arm aside.
"Some exist to make strength expensive."
Eullian bit through one of the ropes.
Chief Asia struck him across the mouth with the pistol.
A tooth broke.
It landed near Penny.
Chief Asia picked it up.
Eullian stared at him.
"No."
Chief Asia examined the blood-covered tooth.
"A body part has no standard monetary value."
"Don't put that in the pig."
"The material is unsuitable."
Chief Asia threw it over the edge.
Eullian's anger surged.
The gunfighter had known the tooth would not become a coin.
He had picked it up to force Eullian's attention onto Penny again.
Chief Asia fired while Eullian looked.
The bullet entered beneath Eullian's collarbone.
His body struck the net.
Chief Asia walked closer.
"You continue responding to disrespect."
Eullian coughed.
"Yes."
"Even when recognizing manipulation."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Eullian looked up through strands of rope.
"Because it's still disrespectful."
Chief Asia considered the answer.
"Honest."
He placed the pistol against Eullian's chest.
"Unhelpful."
Hijo's white thread touched the back of Chief Asia's coat.
The gunfighter did not turn.
His revolver fired beneath his opposite arm.
The bullet crossed behind him.
It cut Hijo's final stable thread.
Chief Asia had seen the line's shadow against Penny's porcelain surface.
Hijo's hand fell.
Chief Asia did not need eyes behind him.
He used reflections.
Dust.
Sound.
The breathing of wounded people.
Every environment spoke.
Chief Asia listened better than anyone Eullian had met.
Mira called from the stairs.
"Eullian!"
Chief Asia fired at the support beside her.
The remaining steps shifted.
Mira stopped moving.
"Do not help him," Chief Asia said.
Mira's face tightened.
"I wasn't asking permission."
"You were warning him."
"Yes."
"You noticed something."
"Yes."
"What?"
Mira said nothing.
Chief Asia's revolver turned toward her.
Eullian pulled against the net.
"What did she notice?"
Chief Asia looked at him.
"You do not know."
"No."
"Then her warning only divides your attention."
The revolver returned to Eullian.
Mira had seen something.
Chief Asia was using that uncertainty too.
Eullian searched the platform.
The empty casings.
Three guns.
The maintenance net.
Penny.
The broken bell supports.
The body of the Height elder.
The copper blood trail.
Chief Asia's boots.
His right boot remained polished.
The left carried a thin line of dark mud.
Mud from where?
The summit had no mud.
The lower bridge near Vara's trapped leg had water from a broken trough.
Chief Asia had crossed it.
Mira had noticed his left step becoming slightly shorter.
An injury?
No.
The mud had entered a narrow cut in the sole.
Chief Asia's traction was imperfect.
Small.
Almost meaningless.
Eullian shifted left.
Chief Asia adjusted.
The left boot stopped earlier than the right.
Mira's eyes sharpened.
Correct.
Eullian pulled the net toward Chief Asia instead of away.
The gunfighter stepped back.
Right foot.
Then left.
The damaged sole slipped by less than an inch.
Eullian ripped the net upward.
Chief Asia fired.
The bullet struck Eullian's chest.
It did not penetrate deeply.
The tangled ropes absorbed part of the force.
Eullian continued pulling.
The net struck Chief Asia.
For the first time, the gunfighter's arm became tangled.
Eullian charged from his knees.
His forehead struck Chief Asia's nose.
Blood burst across both faces.
Chief Asia stepped backward.
The damaged boot slipped again.
Eullian's fist rose.
Chief Asia released the pistol.
It dropped.
His now-free hand caught Eullian's wrist.
The gunfighter pivoted on the stable boot.
He pulled Eullian forward.
His knee struck Eullian's wounded stomach.
Eullian vomited blood across Chief Asia's shirt.
Chief Asia drove the revolver's barrel into the open wound beneath Eullian's ribs.
Eullian froze.
Chief Asia pulled the trigger.
The gun clicked.
Empty.
Silence.
Eullian looked down.
Chief Asia had fired every round.
Mira saw it.
Tallen saw it.
Hijo saw it.
Chief Asia released the empty revolver.
His other hand caught the falling short pistol before it reached the ground.
He pressed it into the same wound.
Eullian's hope existed for less than half a second.
That was enough time for Chief Asia to weaponize it.
The short pistol fired.
Eullian left the ground.
He struck the bell platform and rolled.
Blood followed in thick red marks.
Chief Asia picked up the empty revolver.
He reloaded while walking.
No celebration.
No urgency.
No wasted glance toward the crew.
Mira's pencil stopped.
Tallen could no longer hold himself upright.
Hijo had lost enough blood that the edges of his vision had darkened.
Eullian attempted to rise.
His arm failed.
He used his forehead against the stone.
Then one knee.
Chief Asia loaded the final cartridge.
Eullian fell again.
Chief Asia closed the cylinder.
The click sounded louder than the Height Bell.
Eullian's body contained too many wounds to count quickly.
Two bullets through the torso.
One lodged beneath the collarbone.
One in the forearm.
Two through the thigh.
One through the calf.
A broken shoulder.
Reopened ribs.
A torn ear.
A split face.
Internal blood filling spaces that needed air.
Each breath made a wet sound.
Chief Asia stopped five feet away.
"You are dying."
Eullian placed one hand on the ground.
"Yes."
"Your body can no longer produce enough force to defeat me."
Eullian pushed.
His elbow shook.
"Yes."
"You have failed to protect your crew."
Eullian looked toward them.
Hijo bleeding against the bell.
Mira collapsed on the stairs.
Tallen beneath the broken frame.
"Yes."
"The Height Tribe remains under attack."
"Yes."
"The Civic Mercy is being stripped below."
"Yes."
"The Still system continues rewriting the island."
"Yes."
"Your dream is beyond your ability."
Eullian's fingers closed against the stone.
"Yes."
Chief Asia raised the revolver.
"Then fall."
Eullian's arm straightened.
His body rose three inches.
Collapsed.
Chief Asia waited.
Eullian tried again.
The blood beneath him widened.
His right knee reached the stone.
Chief Asia watched without interest.
Willpower did not impress him.
He had killed people with extraordinary willpower.
Kings who refused to kneel.
Pirates who fought after losing limbs.
Marines who continued guarding doors after their organs had failed.
Parents who held children above floodwater until their hearts stopped.
Willpower made death slower.
It did not make bullets less dense.
Eullian reached both knees.
His head remained lowered.
Chief Asia aimed between his shoulders.
"You are not standing."
"No."
"Then the distinction is irrelevant."
"No."
Chief Asia's finger touched the trigger.
Eullian lifted one foot.
His injured leg folded immediately.
He caught himself with one hand.
Chief Asia's expression did not change.
Eullian placed the foot again.
His body rose.
Blood poured from the holes in his side.
His broken shoulder sagged.
His left leg barely supported him.
His lungs refused a full breath.
He stood anyway.
Not straight.
Not ready.
Not strong.
Standing.
Chief Asia looked at him.
For the first time, silence did not belong entirely to the gunfighter.
The mountain held it too.
Mira raised her face.
Hijo's pale eyes opened wider.
Tallen attempted to reach his broken weapon.
Eullian looked through blood and one half-closed eye.
Chief Asia remained balanced.
Experienced.
Armed.
Calm.
Almost untouched.
Penny waited behind him.
Twenty-four thousand seven hundred fifty-four deaths rattled softly inside porcelain.
Eullian inhaled.
The breath failed halfway.
He tried again.
"You're the chief, right?"
Chief Asia said nothing.
Eullian smiled through broken teeth.
"Good."
His fist closed.
"I'll just punch you then!"
Eullian charged at Chief Asia.
# **TO BE CONTINUED!**
## **NEXT: WILLPOWER BEYOND DENSITY**