Lobby lowered his weapon, eyes narrowing. "Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, Dwarven." His voice turned smooth, oily. "A Luzer's the only thing my crew's missing. How about it, you join me? Turn over the girl, and I'll forget all about that Sage bounty. I've even got a stash of Mechanicas lying around. We can't use 'em, but you can."
Dwarven dropped the shield, twirling his hammer around a finger through the trigger guard. "How about you hand me all those Mechanicas, and I let you keep half your men? Call it a tax for pointing that ugly piece of shit you call a gun at me."
Lobby's grin twitched. "Think about it soon the south's gonna be up for grabs, just like the old days. Only the strongest gangs survive. I've heard a enough about you, kid. You're strong, sure—but you're staring down gunfire from both ends. Be smart."
Dwarven's smirk turned cold. "The smart thing for you to do is shut your fat mouth. The last thing I want is to be another leeching, slack-jawed bandit, plaguing the world. You're the one who likes auditioning like you're on stage." He hefted his hammer, eyes gleaming. "Me? I just like breaking legs."
Lobby sneered. "Your loss, boy."
The gatling stirred to life, barrels whining as they spun. Dwarven squared his stance, pulling fire away from Jasper.
The mercs closest to Lobby raised their rifles. Dwarven lifted his hammer, Luzid energy sparking into a glowing shield, and rushed straight through the hail of gunfire.
He closed the gap in a blur of weight and force. One hammer shoved the shield forward, bracing it. The other lit with a blinding glow as he slammed into it.
CRASH.
A shockwave ripped through the street, stone splitting beneath his boots. Mercs screamed as the blast hurled them into the walls, bodies crumpling against the seastone.
The survivors opened fire. Hot lead chewed into the ground around him, sparks flying. But for someone his size, Dwarven moved with shocking agility—dodging, weaving, hammers flaring as he struck down merc after merc in a savage flurry.
Gunfire rattled from the rear ranks, bullets whining off stone. A few grazed his shoulder, his arm, sparks of blood against the dust.
Dwarven roared over the noise. "Hey!"
Jasper jolted from her daze, tearing her eyes off the carnage. She snapped her revolver up, Luzid glow licking the barrel.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
Ricochets lit the alley once more, bullets dancing madly off walls and armor, cutting mercs down as they scrambled.
She shifted her aim without hesitation, angling shots to glance just so—one round pinged off a lamppost into a thigh, another skipped across cobblestone into a wrist, a third deflected off a wagon's rim and buried itself in a man's throat. What looked like chaos was anything but; each shot bent the alley to her will.
Empty casings chimed against the stones. Jasper reloaded in a blur, the motion practiced, unthinking—metal, click, spin, snap. The revolver came up again, steady as her breath, her silence louder than the gunfire.
Dwarven winced, teeth bared. He shifted sideways, he saw only Lobby left on that side of the alley.
The gatling whirred, barrels glowing hot.
Dwarven sprinted around him, boots cracking stone, raising a fresh shield as the gunfire shredded walls at his back. Dust and smoke billowed. When it cleared, Dwarven stood firm, one hammer leveled at Lobby.
"Just me and you," he growled. "Let's have ourselves a little showdown."
But Lobby's grin only widened.
"You think this is a duel, Grave Digger? Nah."
He swung the gatling in a vicious arc, barrels screaming as they came around—aimed squarely at Jasper's back.
Jasper froze, revolver half-raised.
Dwarven's eyes went wide. "No—!"
He charged, hammer surging with Luzid light. Just before the barrels spat their first round, he slammed the head of his weapon upward into the gatling's frame.
WHUMMM.
The weapon shuddered with a low resonance, humming under the strike. Lobby snarled and wrenched it back down, trying to fire, but Dwarven slapped the gun aside with a brutal swing.
The weapon discharged wildly.
A storm of bullets ripped into the bandits clustered ahead of jasper. Screams echoed through the alley as Lobby's own crew fell beneath the spray of his fire.
Dwarven planted his boots and hammered at the gatling keeping Lobby's gunfire unbalanced, each strike leaving glowing resonance marks along its frame.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The weapon sang as vibrations built, whining higher and higher, the resonance on the edge of bursting.
Lobby roared and drove his bulk into Dwarven. The Grave Digger staggered, dropping to one knee, blood trailing down his arm.
The gatling leveled at his face. Barrels spun, grin feral.
"End of the line, pretty boy."
Dwarven's jaw clenched. He had a heartbeat, no more. He sprang back, hammer cocked, fury burning through him.
The first bullet screamed from the barrel—
—and he hurled the hammer with all his weight behind it.
"CRASH!"
BOOM.
The impact chained Luzid energy through the gatling, detonating it in a blinding flash. The blast swallowed Lobby's grin, hurling him into the wall. His body hit stone with a wet crunch and slid down, motionless, smoke rising from the shattered weapon.
Chest heaving, Dwarven staggered forward. He holstered one hammer, stooped to retrieve the other, and looked down at the wreckage.
"Yeah. For you."