Tales of Aria | Piercing Lightning

X: Bunker

The howl of a single, powerful shot echoed throughout the sandy battleground. At the same time, the man-wolf Corrupted that was ready to gnaw its mandibles at Lyria got launched to the side, hitting the wall with a thump. Lyria snapped back, shocked, upon seeing the unique got thrown away only by a single bullet. It was a shard holder's doing, she was sure. All of them flicked their sights up to see a man, revolver, barrel still smoking, in his right hand. Silhouetted by the silver moon, only the reddish-orange tip of his lit-up cigar glowed.

"Well... I sure took my sweet damn time getting here." He shouldered his revolver. "You've seen better days, holders."

Everyone seemed bewildered, not a breath of word. Shortly after, the unique got up again, long, high-pitched roar. The man retaliated with three more shots with pinpoint accuracy to its mandibles, banging it to the wall again. This time, the shots left the unique Corrupted lying dead, with several twitches and convulsions before stopping completely.

"And who might you be?" Stein called out to the man.
"Me? Ohohoh..." He chuckled whilst replenishing the four bullets shot. "Better listen close to my catchphrase here."

"The name's Jona..."

Hand faster than one's eye, he pulled out a second revolver from another silhouetted holster, and leapt down, diving headfirst into the ground below. On the way to his landing, the shard holders gaze in awe as he spun around quickly, showering the whole battleground with rapid fire from the two revolvers. The barrage hit none but the Corrupted only, clearing out a large portion of them, along with the ones surrounding the teams. The remaining four unique scurried away, backing up while dodging the blazing firestorm, as the Corrupted that got shot painfully writhed and growled as each shot of his revolvers burned a portion around the impact point. With a flip, he landed feet first, bathing the Corrupted in fire, with most of them already dropped dead.

"... I'm just a mere gunslinger." He finished his fiery catchphrase as he stood up. He spun the two revolvers avidly before slotting it back at the holsters.

Everyone eyed at the gunslinger. The man was in his middle age, with wrinkles, a mustache, and a scruffy beard showing on his face. He wore a brown western-style hat, complemented by the brown long coat, all battered and torn. He left the top two buttons of his white shirt, stained by dirt, sand, and black powder, unbuttoned. His cargo pants were beige, with brown, bulky boots below. Showing underneath his flaring coat, is a belt full of bullets. Its metallic cases shone brightly at the ray of moon's light seeping through the giant hole above.

Ray immediately ran to Lyria as soon as Jona finished off the Corrupted surrounding them. She was still terrified, legs bent, knees up to her chest. But, her weight had gradually lifted as the unique in front of her were no longer, and Ray, sliding across the final inches, was beside her.

"Are you alright?!"
"Yeah, I..I'm fine..." She answered, sighing, eyes lowered. "I... Just need to rest a bit..."
"Okay." Ray nodded firmly. "I'll deal with the rest."

"Whoaaa...!" Meanwhile, Eric started getting hyped up for some reason.
"Y..you are Jona? The Jona?" He trotted to the gunslinger excitedly.

"I believe so."
"The One-Eyed Gunslinger Jona?!"
"Oh, cut it out, kid, you're flattering me." He scoffed. "But yes, people know me better by that name."

The Corrupted started pouring out again from the broken buildings, yet this time, their numbers were thinning, but rallied up to the four remaining man-wolf unique.