Chronicles of the Wasteland Samurai

Ch. 3 The Final Piece of an Unnatural Luck

Chronicles of "The Wasteland Samurai" 

CH.3 

The Final Piece of an Unnatural Luck

It was the end of a great and the start of a legend. It was a duel people talk about to this day. There were even some supposed spectators of this whole stand off, but that's all bologna. Not a single one of those stories was entirely accurate. And so here he was, Zeke Vs. The great Cowboy Rodeo: Jack Switcher. Seems a little like a one sided fight, sword versus guns. Yes guns, as in plural, because Switcher always had his two Colt revolvers on him. Yup, this was one hell of a fight, and you can bet anyone anywhere near it didn't survive except the battles victor. 

And so, as Zeke Shinzuo stood up, Mr. Jack Switcher could see a difference in him, one that the sword itself had caused. It was like an aura of some kind had engulfed Zeke, slowly after he had destroyed the marble counter, until his whole body was surrounded by it. This appearance that was now bestowed upon Zeke scarred Jack. It scarred him down to the core of his being, and at first that fear paralyzed him. It wasn't until Zeke stepped back across the threshold of the store entrance that Switcher snapped out of his trance and grinned. He tapped his gun handle a few times and shouted to Zeke "Well boy, ya happy to have yer prize? Now can we get to the killin? 'Cause like said before, I'm startin' to get tired, and the killin' part is always the fun part. Gets the blood pumpin'." Switcher gave a grin, which faltered as he noticed the smirk on Zeke's face. They stared each other down, Zeke and his twisted smirk and Jack with a bewildered yet focused expression. But what was under Zeke's smirk was emptiness, because he had no idea what to do. Gun wins when facing a sword from a distance, and you'd have to be really fast to close a gap this large before being shot. As far as Zeke knew, you couldn't dodge bullets and you couldn't get hit by one without feeling it. So at this moment in the face off Zeke Shinzuo, our hero of the story, was scarred ten times worse than Switcher. They stayed like that with the same expression for at least five minutes before anything happened. But when it did there were more than a few amazing events that happened in the fight. 

Zeke could hear a faint whispering sound that seemed to come from nobody in particular, that wasn't really behind him as he tried to stare down Switcher. He wondered if Jack could hear it too, but knew he couldn't focus on it while in this position. So he stared switcher in the eyes waiting for his move, and when Jack's eyes twitched the tiniest bit he took it. Immediately Zeke cart wheeled to the side and back diagonally towards the store and some cover, just in time because Switcher had pulled a revolver and was firing it at that exact moment. Zeke knew, as he made his cover area, that when a man fires a gun he cant change his aim for that bullet so instead of dodging bullets he'd have to dodge a man aiming at him. Jack began to get irritated at Shinzuo's strategy of rapid movement to stop his aim, and the use of debris as coverage. He shouted to Zeke after a few minutes of this "Hey boy don't you run and hide. Face me like a man you little twerp. Your already a dead man so you might as well get it over with sooner rather than later." Then Switcher began to hurl insult after insult at Zeke who hid wherever he needed and whenever he needed, and seemed to not even be listening. It was the whispering that had caught his attention, the whispering heard before yet louder now. As he concentrated harder he started to hear it more clearly, and all the while he kept that sword in his hand. "you...must believe....in....to...me properly. . . ." The messaged repeated itself until Zeke could here it clearly and found that it was the sword that was speaking to him. It said " You must believe in me to wield me properly, you must become my body and spirit, my protector and my friend. We need to become one in our mind and our bodies will follow suit. Now Zeke, oh brave warrior of the wastes who has never wielded a gun, me and you shall show this man what a true weapon can do." Apparently Zeke was so astounded by this that he actually had a bullet cut his left arm before he realized that Jack had found him and was shooting once again. At once Zeke rolled out from his hiding spot, gripping his new partner in its sheathe in his left hand, and jumped up facing Switcher instead of hiding once more. 

The sudden change in attitude actually caught Jack off guard and he was sort of frozen in spot for a second as he eyed Shinzuo. Suddenly Switcher started laughing at him and after he caught his breath shook his head and said "So tired of running I guess. Ok lets just get this over with so I can go back to town and have just a little fun." During Switcher's little 'end speech' Zeke was busy listening to the sword once more and focusing all of his essence into the sword. To him it felt miraculous the effects caused by such a thing were only heard of in fantasy, and that's when he remembered that when a warrior become one with his weapon he can be unstoppable. Now Zeke grinned as Switcher slowly took aim and started to yawn. Then Switcher grinned and quickly pulled the gun up and shot at the same time sending a bullet straight for Zeke's head. But through Zeke's eyes the bullet was in slow motion and he saw exactly where it was going. Quicker than before Zeke drew 'God's Blade' and that is when that luck of his hit a homerun. Zeke knew what he was doing, though, because the sword had told, it had said "We can block that bullet and every other one he sends at us. We are one and as one we are invincible." The Bullet was at the tip of the blade, grinding on the blades edge as Zeke wanted it to. The bullet slowed and as it did Zeke used his sword and threw the bullet into the ground. Just the sight of this made Jack almost faint, but the look on Zeke's face afterwards, made him want to run. Suddenly the tide of the battle had turned and now Switcher was on the defensive. Jack pulled his second Colt and started blazing both guns, but Zeke calmly kept blocking the bullets. Zeke was actually enjoying his new found ability but was getting tired of being shot at so he started to slowly make his way towards Switcher. Jack Started to back away as he fired and Zeke drew closer to him, but with each step Zeke began to speed up and jack started to run out of bullets. It was then that Zeke made his move, now running at full speed towards Switcher as he reloaded one Colt. Zeke blocked about three shots in between the distance of the run and when Jack finished reloading snapped the trigger back and took better aim with it Zeke passed him slicing upwards with the blade. All Switcher could do was stare at his Colt as most of it and his left trigger finger fell to the ground. For a second he didn't even realize what happened, but then he began screaming in pain and rage, turned around, and started shooting where Zeke was a moment before. Now it was Zeke's turn to have fun as he ran circles around Switcher who was shooting wildly behind Zeke. Every five seconds of running Zeke would run in and cut Switcher in a different spot. When Zeke was a kid he had read a book about a clan of people who would kill someone in battle this way, who would kill their opponents with a hundred cuts. Each and every cut Zeke made was different in depth, area, and even length. Blood splattered everywhere with each one, and it wasn't until the blood tripped Zeke up that he finally felt the burn of something hitting his right leg. Switcher had apparently got him this time and was now drunkenly stumbling as he shot due to his loss of blood. Finally as Zeke slide in the blood and rolled behind a rock he figured he should end it. His leg burning from the bullet hole, his heart racing from adrenaline, and his clothes and body covered in blood Zeke jumped from behind his rock and ran head on at Switcher who was doing his best to regain composure. Switcher began to fire but had his bullets miss or get block by Shinzuo. At four feet from switcher Zeke Shinzuo launched himself into the air slicing the last Colt directly in half. As he did this Jack got him with another bullet in his side, but as Zeke fell back towards the ground he spun in the air and made another quick slice. Landing on one knee Shinzuo wiped his blade on his leg and stood up as Jack Switcher's head began to roll past him. Blood was everywhere and Since he didn't want to get caught out in the open like this Zeke picked up Switcher's head and body and brought them into the store with him. Before sleeping that night Zeke bandaged his wounds and put incents and perfumes on Switchers body, then he had himself a long rest for another long day tomorrow.