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Wizards, Whiskey and Wonderful Things - Concluded
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2813643" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 90, “The Return of Billy Claibourne“, Saturday, March 18th , 1882, 3:00 P.M. </strong> </p><p></p><p>Luna flies up and forward. She is little more than a half-mile away and 600 feet in the air when she returns and lands on Minerva's arm. Luna returns and lands beside Minerva on the ground. Minerva calls the others over and translates for Luna. </p><p></p><p>The seven riders come around the bend. All are wearing traditional western attire - cowboy hats, cotton shirts, blue jeans. Two have chaps, four have leather jackets, and three have bandanas. All also appear to have either a rifle or shotgun sticking from the horse's saddles. They are still to far away to make out faces, which would also be true of the group. </p><p></p><p>Minerva communicates that the man who had gone upstairs at the Lucky Lady with Jake is not among the seven men riding towards them, who she saw to be no more than a third-mile from the bend in the road. She does recognize one of the men as having been at the Lucky Lady last night, playing at the other gambling table. Kate nodded and urged her horse back to her spot next to the herd, keeping her hand on the shotgun where she could raise it quickly if needed. </p><p></p><p>Minerva continues to translate as she listens to Luna. " the clothing on one man is identical to the man Lennie Wagner that I spoke with. He was at Tony Lucky's table the night before." Nanuet turned back and headed towards the cattle and mounted Kate's horse again. "Looks like it is going to be trouble folks. I am almost certain that one of those folks is Billy Claibourne and another one looks just like one of the fella's that detained Chester and myself yesterday. Be ready for a fight." </p><p></p><p>"Claibourne? I let him live once, I won't make that mistake again," Jake says to no one in particular. He moves himself around to make sure he can get to the horse he saddled earlier just in case he needs to give chase. The seven riders are now around seven-eighths of a mile distant and still riding forward. </p><p></p><p>Emery Shaw commands "Lazy-S's, Geronimo Drill Pattern B. Stow on two if they break." Ruby looks at Jake from her hiding place and whispers quietly, "Seems Mr. Shaw knows what he's doing huh? Poor Billy," she says sarcastically, "He doesn't know what's coming." </p><p></p><p>"Ruby," Jake calls out quietly, "you might want to save the best bullets for Ringo if he really isn't here." "I was just thinking the same thing," she whispers back. Ruby also moves near her horse. She loosely ties him down to a nearby shrub that is surrounded by the cattle. She makes sure the farmhouse rifle and her shotgun are easily accessible from the side of the horse and takes her regular rifle in her hand. Then she continues to wait until they get closer. </p><p></p><p>Minerva continues to sit on the ground, looking deceptively innocent, her skirt fanned out around her. However, She has her finger on the trigger of her cocked rifle, which is hidden, under the edge of her skirt. At three-quarters of a mile distance the riders begin to slow while still moving forward. Minerva watches the riders approach trying to discern what they will do and says to herself, "If it looks like there's a spell caster in the bunch, by the goddess, I will shoot them before they can act." </p><p></p><p>Kate's horse was growing restive beneath her. She consciously relaxed her body, trying to communicate calmness to the animal. Even though she was ready, Kate would not fire before they did. Looking around, she thought she might be in the minority on that. </p><p></p><p>They continue to get closer, now at around 3,000 feet distant (roughly five-eights of a mile). They continue forward. Billy Claiborne's facial features can now be made out to those who have met him before. He is riding slightly ahead of the other six. Three of the riders pull their revolvers out of belt or harness holsters. </p><p></p><p>The lead rider reaches the half-mile point. One of the men points at the group and says something to Claibourne. Claiborne raises his hand and the group stops, now around 2,500 feet away. Once Kate could see that Nanuet was right and Billy Claibourne was part of that group, she gave up any hope she'd had of getting through this without a fight. The thought that this could finally be the last time she ever saw him at least gave her some grim satisfaction, even as she wished her protection spell was still active. </p><p></p><p>The Cowboys charge. Three have revolvers in hand. Claibourne and two others grab repeating rifles from their saddle holsters. The final one falls further back behind the others and removes what looks like a two-foot long metal rod from his saddle holster. Kate had an idea what that metal rod was. Mr. Gonzales had once lent her one that wasn't much different. She snapped the shotgun up, took aim, and fired at the man with the metal rod. </p><p></p><p>Trisha Shaw pushes a stray wisp of hair out of her face with one hand, and strokes her horse's neck with the other. Then she raises and aims her rifle with a lopsided grin. "Let's do this." Nanuet gives a war cry and aims his rifle at Claiborne from his horse, taking one shot. He then moves his horse in a defensive maneuver. Trisha, straw-blonde hair flying behind her, aims at Claibourne, sighting down the barrel of the gun, and squeezes off a shot. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet's shot is true to its mark but deflects off of Claibourne's leather coat, in the same manner as he's seen them do to Jake's magical duster. The Cowboy gang all lets off a weapon's volley, but the distance between the group is very great and only one hit is one of the cows, taking a bullet in the rear flank. Surprisingly Kate's shot is close, hitting the horse that the man with the rod is carrying. The horse is wounded and stops, rearing up. The man does all he can to control the beast without dropping the rod. The other six riders continue to close, now at a distance of 1,600 feet. </p><p></p><p>Minerva quickly kneels, rests her elbow on her knee and shoots at the man with the metal rod. Then scrambles up and moves behind a cow. Ruby decided hiding behind the cattle was too much trouble. Now that the fighting began there was no point in hiding really. As soon as she hears Nanuet confirm the charge she gracefully hops up on her horse. She swings her hair to one side, out of her vision. She puts Claibourne in her sight but sees Nanuet's shot deflect off his duster. She quickly switches rifles, now using the one from the farmhouse. She grasps her rifle with two hands and takes careful aim at Billy Claibourne, letting off a shot that rings out loudly. </p><p></p><p>Minerva and Ruby both miss. Claibourne yells off a loud yell and kicks his horse forward into an even faster gallop. Three of the five riders behind him do likewise. The other two ride off to the side of the road and stop, raising their rifles. The front four are now 1,200 feet away, the two with rifles are 1,400 feet away, and the one with the rod is around 1,700 feet away. </p><p></p><p>"Oh damn!" Kate muttered under her breath, more sorry that she'd hit the horse than missed the man. She tried one more time to hit the man with the metal rod. Jake moves over between two cattle, kneels and steadies his arm on his knee. He aims carefully at the man to Claibourne's right, a brief holding of the breath and squeezes off a shot. He repeats until the man is down. Minerva's eyes go unfocused as she says a quick prayer to the goddess. Asking her to bestow her Blessing upon them. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet takes aim and fires again, this time aiming for Claiborne's horse, hoping to stop his charge. Ruby waits a moment, watching her shot miss. Ignoring the fact they are getting in position to shoot at them, Ruby again steadies her gun and with two hands and shoots at Claibourne. Minerva prays for Divine Favor and shoots at the man with the metal rod again. </p><p></p><p>Moving targets prove difficult, as Nanuet, Ruby and Kate all miss. The four charging forward all let off volleys with their firearms, one hitting and killing ranch hand Tim Kiplin's horse. Trisha is the only one from the Shaw Ranch to have fired yet. "Left Pair" Shaw yells, as he, his son, and three other ranch hands take aim and fire at the two riflemen further back. One of the riflemen is hit twice, one being a headshot, and he slumps over in the saddle. Jake manages to hit the man on Claibourne's side in the shoulder. </p><p></p><p>Trisha yells something inarticulate, spurring her horse forward, and fires at Claibourne a second time. Chester thinks, “What in Hades does she think she think she's doing? All the women around here must be crazy. I better get after her. Shaw will kill me if anything happens to her.” He urges his horse forward, since he lost his spurs to the cowboys. On the way to Tricia, he raises his rifle and squeezes off a couple shots at Claibourne calling out “That's for taking me hostage. I am not your pawn.” </p><p></p><p>Tricia's shot misses, as do both that Chester fires. He spurs his horse forward to keep up with Chester, feeling rather unprotected in just his underwear. Minerva's shot also misses. “What is that stupid girl doing?" Ruby mutters to herself, watching Tricia charge off. She switches rifles, back to her own, and begins shooting at Claibourne again, using two hands to steady the gun, aiming more towards the area of his head. </p><p></p><p>The man with the wand point it upward and a beam of light shoots high in the air. It then descends. It lands well to the left of the group, erupting in a massive fireball. This causes the cattle and rider-less horses to begin to panic. “Holy mother of Zeus“ Minerva yells, when the fireball goes off. "Flint use a stick! Minerva aims and fires at the wizard again. "Meirda!" Jake exclaims. "Shaw, kill the bastard with the metal rod." Jake continues to fire at the same man. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet sees that the others have targeted the man with the rod, which was producing balls of flame so he continued to target Claibourne's mount and fires another shot. Kate threw the shotgun to the ground, and drew her pistol. She broke off from the side of the now panicked animals and took a shot at the closest Cowboy. </p><p></p><p>Ruby manages to hit Claiborne, but it is only a minor wound to his leg. He has closed to 900 feet and she can see that Jake's shoulder shot to the man on Claiborne's right poked a hole in the leather coat and blood is oozing from the wound. Shaw and his men let off another volley into the remaining riflemen further back, who had managed to successfully hit Humphrey Shaw for a minor wound in the upper leg. The rifleman is hit in his arm and shoulder, causing him to drop the rifle. He dismounts to retrieve the weapon. </p><p></p><p>The man with the Rod uses it again, this time causing the fireball to erupt on the road 200 feet ahead of the party. Chester and Tricia's horses are closest. She manages to stay on and calm her mount, but as Chester was riding without reins and saddle he is thrown from his animal. He appears to be okay, although a little worse for the wear. </p><p></p><p>Ruby exclaims, "Damn!" When the huge fireball goes off Ruby can feel her horse start to get jittery. She squeezes her thighs tighter on the horse, to calm the animal and so she doesn't fall off. She starts talking to herself out loud, "You know, I really want that thing, it could be useful," she says to her horse. "And it does seem that if we can't hit him while he's moving, he won't be able to hit us either. Maybe Tricia isn't as stupid as she looks." </p><p></p><p>With that Ruby spurs her horse forward and uses her legs to keep him moving but not in a straight line. She rides slightly off the road. She takes another shot at Claibourne as she rides towards him. If he tries to shoot at her she attempt to move her horse out of the way. </p><p></p><p>Minerva manages to hit the man with the rod in the upper arm just under the right shoulder. Her prayer seems to have been heard and blood squirts from the wound like water streaming from a fountain. Nanuet manages to hit Claiborne's horse. The animal lets out a yell and stops, reacting to the wound. Kate misses as does Ruby. The two non-wounded enemies charge forward and ire at Tricia, both missing. </p><p></p><p>"Damn It Ruby," Jake yells, "We are going to be blow to bits! Can you think of anything?" He looks for Ruby but sees she is already gone, riding towards Claibourne. He then grabs the reins of the horse he saddles and leaps on. He puts his rifle in the holster and pulls out his sawed-off shotgun from under his duster. "Did I ever tell you how much I hate blasted heroes?" Jake screams as he rides off to the right side and out towards the Cowboys gang, going out far enough so that he isn't blocking any shots from the group. </p><p></p><p>Shaw and his men, including Tim Kiplin who is now back on his feet, let off a final volley at the rifleman who had dismounted. One shot hits and kills the horse, two other shots strike the man who falls to the ground. Ruby rides hard to get closer to Claibourne while his horse is faltering. She slows her horse and stops, again uses both hands and aims at Claibourne while his horse is stopped. </p><p></p><p>Kate spurred her horse on faster, already chiding herself for stupidity, but there was no way she was going to hit anyone from so far away. As she rode she took another shot at the man with the metal rod. As he is riding Jake keeps low on the horse and to the opposite side to keep as much cover as he can from the horse. He directs his horse parallel to the incoming Cowboys but in the direction of the man with the metal rod. Trisha veers towards Claibourne, then stops as his horse stops. Like Ruby, she aims two-handed at him. She's smiling, just a little. </p><p></p><p>Ruby and Tricia simultaneously strike Claibourne. Tricia's shot hits square in the middle of the chest but appears to have no effect. Ruby's however is just below where the leather coat ends, causing a serious wound to the abdomen. Claibourne fires back, hitting Ruby in the shoulder. </p><p></p><p>"#*&(#*^(%^%$$" Ruby screams out in pain, some very un-lady like explicative. She drops her rifle to the ground, not being able to hold the weight of it. Instead she pulls out her pistol and again spurs her horse forward in a fast gallop. </p><p></p><p>The man furthest away with the rod pulls a blue cloth from his coat pocket, which he slaps onto the wound, causing the flow of blood to immediately stop. He turns back towards the group and raises the rod again. "To Hades with you!" Minerva yell and shoots at the man again. </p><p></p><p>Guided perhaps by the gods, Minerva's shot enters his left eye and blows out half of his brains. Kate watched as her target's head exploded, but not from her doing. She kept riding and shot at the nearest Cowboy. Minerva laughs "A gift from me to you Hades, Let's see if we can give him some company." She picks the next closest target and shoots again, missing the opponent. </p><p></p><p>Jake sees the man with the rod go down so starts to focus on the Claibourne and the men charging. He tries to keep his horse zigzagging as much as possible. He holds his shot until he can get within 100 feet of them, at which time he will cut his horse a hard left and shoot both barrels of the sawed-off shot gun at the largest concentration of them. </p><p></p><p>Trisha curses loudly and in Claibourne's direction as she once again fires right at him. Wincing in pain, Ruby uses the arm that hasn't been shot to shoot again at Claibourne when she is close enough. She aims for his head and continues to shoot until her gun is unloaded. Ruby lets off the first three shots from her pistol at Claiborne, all missing horribly. He in turn fires on Tricia, hitting her left hand that is steadying the rifle for a minor wound and preventing her from being able to fire off a shot this round. </p><p></p><p>Shaw points to the man who Jake had hit, as he is closest to Ruby and Tricia's location and orders a volley there saying "Mount". The horse is hit by multiple shots and falls, rolling over and crushing the rider. The two unwounded riders have now closed to 300 feet and both appear to take aim at Nanuet with their revolvers. </p><p></p><p>Kate cut back and spurred the horse at top speed toward the uninjured men getting ready to fire on Nanuet. She fired the pistol at the closer one and kept riding at speed, intending to run full speed into the man’s mount. "Mierda! Nanuet, Look out!" Minerva turns and shoots at one of the men aiming at Nanuet. Kate and Minerva both miss. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Nanuet spurs his mount, heading off the road, hoping he is in time to provide the riders a moving target. He then wheels his mount and charges right towards the men, attempting to use the butt of his rifle like a lance to knock the closest man from his horse. Four revolver shots ring out around towards Nanuet from the two horsemen. Three shots miss but one hits him in the lower arm. </p><p></p><p>Kate gave up on shooting but didn't stop her headlong charge at her target, intending to use the horse as her weapon. With the pistol still her hand she'll try to hit the man with it like a club when she gets there. </p><p></p><p>Ruby looks down at her own arm, blood quickly seeping through her white shirt. She winces again. "This ends now," she says out loud. “Yeah, before I pass out…”, she thinks. She rides her horse hard again, gets a bit closer, then stops and unloads the final three shots in her pistol. Trisha shouts another curse and wrings her hand angrily. She carefully shoots again, wincing. </p><p></p><p>Tricia's shot is well aimed, the bullet penetrating Billy Claibourne's head and the corpse falls from the horse. The other two Cowboy Gang riders now notice that nobody is alive behind them and break to the side, with Kate, Jake and Ruby all charging towards them. Shaw has his men fire on the furthest away of this fleeing pair, three bullets fatally hitting the man in the back and neck. The remaining gang member kicks his horse into a gallop. </p><p></p><p>Ruby decides against giving chase to the last man. Kate however, spurred her horse to match his speed and tried taking another shot. Considering how many times she'd missed, by sheer probability she'd have to hit sometime. Although it is still farther away than he wanted to be, Jake shoots off both barrels of the shotgun at the last man, mostly because he doesn't want the loaded double barrel shotgun bouncing around when he draws his pistol. </p><p></p><p>The law of averages proves itself out as Kate's shot enters through the man's back and heart, exiting out of the front of the chest. The body begins to slump over as the first barrel of Jake's shotgun blasts the body's left side and part of the horse. His immediate follow up shot finishes off the horse.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 2813643, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 90, “The Return of Billy Claibourne“, Saturday, March 18th , 1882, 3:00 P.M. [/B] Luna flies up and forward. She is little more than a half-mile away and 600 feet in the air when she returns and lands on Minerva's arm. Luna returns and lands beside Minerva on the ground. Minerva calls the others over and translates for Luna. The seven riders come around the bend. All are wearing traditional western attire - cowboy hats, cotton shirts, blue jeans. Two have chaps, four have leather jackets, and three have bandanas. All also appear to have either a rifle or shotgun sticking from the horse's saddles. They are still to far away to make out faces, which would also be true of the group. Minerva communicates that the man who had gone upstairs at the Lucky Lady with Jake is not among the seven men riding towards them, who she saw to be no more than a third-mile from the bend in the road. She does recognize one of the men as having been at the Lucky Lady last night, playing at the other gambling table. Kate nodded and urged her horse back to her spot next to the herd, keeping her hand on the shotgun where she could raise it quickly if needed. Minerva continues to translate as she listens to Luna. " the clothing on one man is identical to the man Lennie Wagner that I spoke with. He was at Tony Lucky's table the night before." Nanuet turned back and headed towards the cattle and mounted Kate's horse again. "Looks like it is going to be trouble folks. I am almost certain that one of those folks is Billy Claibourne and another one looks just like one of the fella's that detained Chester and myself yesterday. Be ready for a fight." "Claibourne? I let him live once, I won't make that mistake again," Jake says to no one in particular. He moves himself around to make sure he can get to the horse he saddled earlier just in case he needs to give chase. The seven riders are now around seven-eighths of a mile distant and still riding forward. Emery Shaw commands "Lazy-S's, Geronimo Drill Pattern B. Stow on two if they break." Ruby looks at Jake from her hiding place and whispers quietly, "Seems Mr. Shaw knows what he's doing huh? Poor Billy," she says sarcastically, "He doesn't know what's coming." "Ruby," Jake calls out quietly, "you might want to save the best bullets for Ringo if he really isn't here." "I was just thinking the same thing," she whispers back. Ruby also moves near her horse. She loosely ties him down to a nearby shrub that is surrounded by the cattle. She makes sure the farmhouse rifle and her shotgun are easily accessible from the side of the horse and takes her regular rifle in her hand. Then she continues to wait until they get closer. Minerva continues to sit on the ground, looking deceptively innocent, her skirt fanned out around her. However, She has her finger on the trigger of her cocked rifle, which is hidden, under the edge of her skirt. At three-quarters of a mile distance the riders begin to slow while still moving forward. Minerva watches the riders approach trying to discern what they will do and says to herself, "If it looks like there's a spell caster in the bunch, by the goddess, I will shoot them before they can act." Kate's horse was growing restive beneath her. She consciously relaxed her body, trying to communicate calmness to the animal. Even though she was ready, Kate would not fire before they did. Looking around, she thought she might be in the minority on that. They continue to get closer, now at around 3,000 feet distant (roughly five-eights of a mile). They continue forward. Billy Claiborne's facial features can now be made out to those who have met him before. He is riding slightly ahead of the other six. Three of the riders pull their revolvers out of belt or harness holsters. The lead rider reaches the half-mile point. One of the men points at the group and says something to Claibourne. Claiborne raises his hand and the group stops, now around 2,500 feet away. Once Kate could see that Nanuet was right and Billy Claibourne was part of that group, she gave up any hope she'd had of getting through this without a fight. The thought that this could finally be the last time she ever saw him at least gave her some grim satisfaction, even as she wished her protection spell was still active. The Cowboys charge. Three have revolvers in hand. Claibourne and two others grab repeating rifles from their saddle holsters. The final one falls further back behind the others and removes what looks like a two-foot long metal rod from his saddle holster. Kate had an idea what that metal rod was. Mr. Gonzales had once lent her one that wasn't much different. She snapped the shotgun up, took aim, and fired at the man with the metal rod. Trisha Shaw pushes a stray wisp of hair out of her face with one hand, and strokes her horse's neck with the other. Then she raises and aims her rifle with a lopsided grin. "Let's do this." Nanuet gives a war cry and aims his rifle at Claiborne from his horse, taking one shot. He then moves his horse in a defensive maneuver. Trisha, straw-blonde hair flying behind her, aims at Claibourne, sighting down the barrel of the gun, and squeezes off a shot. Nanuet's shot is true to its mark but deflects off of Claibourne's leather coat, in the same manner as he's seen them do to Jake's magical duster. The Cowboy gang all lets off a weapon's volley, but the distance between the group is very great and only one hit is one of the cows, taking a bullet in the rear flank. Surprisingly Kate's shot is close, hitting the horse that the man with the rod is carrying. The horse is wounded and stops, rearing up. The man does all he can to control the beast without dropping the rod. The other six riders continue to close, now at a distance of 1,600 feet. Minerva quickly kneels, rests her elbow on her knee and shoots at the man with the metal rod. Then scrambles up and moves behind a cow. Ruby decided hiding behind the cattle was too much trouble. Now that the fighting began there was no point in hiding really. As soon as she hears Nanuet confirm the charge she gracefully hops up on her horse. She swings her hair to one side, out of her vision. She puts Claibourne in her sight but sees Nanuet's shot deflect off his duster. She quickly switches rifles, now using the one from the farmhouse. She grasps her rifle with two hands and takes careful aim at Billy Claibourne, letting off a shot that rings out loudly. Minerva and Ruby both miss. Claibourne yells off a loud yell and kicks his horse forward into an even faster gallop. Three of the five riders behind him do likewise. The other two ride off to the side of the road and stop, raising their rifles. The front four are now 1,200 feet away, the two with rifles are 1,400 feet away, and the one with the rod is around 1,700 feet away. "Oh damn!" Kate muttered under her breath, more sorry that she'd hit the horse than missed the man. She tried one more time to hit the man with the metal rod. Jake moves over between two cattle, kneels and steadies his arm on his knee. He aims carefully at the man to Claibourne's right, a brief holding of the breath and squeezes off a shot. He repeats until the man is down. Minerva's eyes go unfocused as she says a quick prayer to the goddess. Asking her to bestow her Blessing upon them. Nanuet takes aim and fires again, this time aiming for Claiborne's horse, hoping to stop his charge. Ruby waits a moment, watching her shot miss. Ignoring the fact they are getting in position to shoot at them, Ruby again steadies her gun and with two hands and shoots at Claibourne. Minerva prays for Divine Favor and shoots at the man with the metal rod again. Moving targets prove difficult, as Nanuet, Ruby and Kate all miss. The four charging forward all let off volleys with their firearms, one hitting and killing ranch hand Tim Kiplin's horse. Trisha is the only one from the Shaw Ranch to have fired yet. "Left Pair" Shaw yells, as he, his son, and three other ranch hands take aim and fire at the two riflemen further back. One of the riflemen is hit twice, one being a headshot, and he slumps over in the saddle. Jake manages to hit the man on Claibourne's side in the shoulder. Trisha yells something inarticulate, spurring her horse forward, and fires at Claibourne a second time. Chester thinks, “What in Hades does she think she think she's doing? All the women around here must be crazy. I better get after her. Shaw will kill me if anything happens to her.” He urges his horse forward, since he lost his spurs to the cowboys. On the way to Tricia, he raises his rifle and squeezes off a couple shots at Claibourne calling out “That's for taking me hostage. I am not your pawn.” Tricia's shot misses, as do both that Chester fires. He spurs his horse forward to keep up with Chester, feeling rather unprotected in just his underwear. Minerva's shot also misses. “What is that stupid girl doing?" Ruby mutters to herself, watching Tricia charge off. She switches rifles, back to her own, and begins shooting at Claibourne again, using two hands to steady the gun, aiming more towards the area of his head. The man with the wand point it upward and a beam of light shoots high in the air. It then descends. It lands well to the left of the group, erupting in a massive fireball. This causes the cattle and rider-less horses to begin to panic. “Holy mother of Zeus“ Minerva yells, when the fireball goes off. "Flint use a stick! Minerva aims and fires at the wizard again. "Meirda!" Jake exclaims. "Shaw, kill the bastard with the metal rod." Jake continues to fire at the same man. Nanuet sees that the others have targeted the man with the rod, which was producing balls of flame so he continued to target Claibourne's mount and fires another shot. Kate threw the shotgun to the ground, and drew her pistol. She broke off from the side of the now panicked animals and took a shot at the closest Cowboy. Ruby manages to hit Claiborne, but it is only a minor wound to his leg. He has closed to 900 feet and she can see that Jake's shoulder shot to the man on Claiborne's right poked a hole in the leather coat and blood is oozing from the wound. Shaw and his men let off another volley into the remaining riflemen further back, who had managed to successfully hit Humphrey Shaw for a minor wound in the upper leg. The rifleman is hit in his arm and shoulder, causing him to drop the rifle. He dismounts to retrieve the weapon. The man with the Rod uses it again, this time causing the fireball to erupt on the road 200 feet ahead of the party. Chester and Tricia's horses are closest. She manages to stay on and calm her mount, but as Chester was riding without reins and saddle he is thrown from his animal. He appears to be okay, although a little worse for the wear. Ruby exclaims, "Damn!" When the huge fireball goes off Ruby can feel her horse start to get jittery. She squeezes her thighs tighter on the horse, to calm the animal and so she doesn't fall off. She starts talking to herself out loud, "You know, I really want that thing, it could be useful," she says to her horse. "And it does seem that if we can't hit him while he's moving, he won't be able to hit us either. Maybe Tricia isn't as stupid as she looks." With that Ruby spurs her horse forward and uses her legs to keep him moving but not in a straight line. She rides slightly off the road. She takes another shot at Claibourne as she rides towards him. If he tries to shoot at her she attempt to move her horse out of the way. Minerva manages to hit the man with the rod in the upper arm just under the right shoulder. Her prayer seems to have been heard and blood squirts from the wound like water streaming from a fountain. Nanuet manages to hit Claiborne's horse. The animal lets out a yell and stops, reacting to the wound. Kate misses as does Ruby. The two non-wounded enemies charge forward and ire at Tricia, both missing. "Damn It Ruby," Jake yells, "We are going to be blow to bits! Can you think of anything?" He looks for Ruby but sees she is already gone, riding towards Claibourne. He then grabs the reins of the horse he saddles and leaps on. He puts his rifle in the holster and pulls out his sawed-off shotgun from under his duster. "Did I ever tell you how much I hate blasted heroes?" Jake screams as he rides off to the right side and out towards the Cowboys gang, going out far enough so that he isn't blocking any shots from the group. Shaw and his men, including Tim Kiplin who is now back on his feet, let off a final volley at the rifleman who had dismounted. One shot hits and kills the horse, two other shots strike the man who falls to the ground. Ruby rides hard to get closer to Claibourne while his horse is faltering. She slows her horse and stops, again uses both hands and aims at Claibourne while his horse is stopped. Kate spurred her horse on faster, already chiding herself for stupidity, but there was no way she was going to hit anyone from so far away. As she rode she took another shot at the man with the metal rod. As he is riding Jake keeps low on the horse and to the opposite side to keep as much cover as he can from the horse. He directs his horse parallel to the incoming Cowboys but in the direction of the man with the metal rod. Trisha veers towards Claibourne, then stops as his horse stops. Like Ruby, she aims two-handed at him. She's smiling, just a little. Ruby and Tricia simultaneously strike Claibourne. Tricia's shot hits square in the middle of the chest but appears to have no effect. Ruby's however is just below where the leather coat ends, causing a serious wound to the abdomen. Claibourne fires back, hitting Ruby in the shoulder. "#*&(#*^(%^%$$" Ruby screams out in pain, some very un-lady like explicative. She drops her rifle to the ground, not being able to hold the weight of it. Instead she pulls out her pistol and again spurs her horse forward in a fast gallop. The man furthest away with the rod pulls a blue cloth from his coat pocket, which he slaps onto the wound, causing the flow of blood to immediately stop. He turns back towards the group and raises the rod again. "To Hades with you!" Minerva yell and shoots at the man again. Guided perhaps by the gods, Minerva's shot enters his left eye and blows out half of his brains. Kate watched as her target's head exploded, but not from her doing. She kept riding and shot at the nearest Cowboy. Minerva laughs "A gift from me to you Hades, Let's see if we can give him some company." She picks the next closest target and shoots again, missing the opponent. Jake sees the man with the rod go down so starts to focus on the Claibourne and the men charging. He tries to keep his horse zigzagging as much as possible. He holds his shot until he can get within 100 feet of them, at which time he will cut his horse a hard left and shoot both barrels of the sawed-off shot gun at the largest concentration of them. Trisha curses loudly and in Claibourne's direction as she once again fires right at him. Wincing in pain, Ruby uses the arm that hasn't been shot to shoot again at Claibourne when she is close enough. She aims for his head and continues to shoot until her gun is unloaded. Ruby lets off the first three shots from her pistol at Claiborne, all missing horribly. He in turn fires on Tricia, hitting her left hand that is steadying the rifle for a minor wound and preventing her from being able to fire off a shot this round. Shaw points to the man who Jake had hit, as he is closest to Ruby and Tricia's location and orders a volley there saying "Mount". The horse is hit by multiple shots and falls, rolling over and crushing the rider. The two unwounded riders have now closed to 300 feet and both appear to take aim at Nanuet with their revolvers. Kate cut back and spurred the horse at top speed toward the uninjured men getting ready to fire on Nanuet. She fired the pistol at the closer one and kept riding at speed, intending to run full speed into the man’s mount. "Mierda! Nanuet, Look out!" Minerva turns and shoots at one of the men aiming at Nanuet. Kate and Minerva both miss. Nanuet spurs his mount, heading off the road, hoping he is in time to provide the riders a moving target. He then wheels his mount and charges right towards the men, attempting to use the butt of his rifle like a lance to knock the closest man from his horse. Four revolver shots ring out around towards Nanuet from the two horsemen. Three shots miss but one hits him in the lower arm. Kate gave up on shooting but didn't stop her headlong charge at her target, intending to use the horse as her weapon. With the pistol still her hand she'll try to hit the man with it like a club when she gets there. Ruby looks down at her own arm, blood quickly seeping through her white shirt. She winces again. "This ends now," she says out loud. “Yeah, before I pass out…”, she thinks. She rides her horse hard again, gets a bit closer, then stops and unloads the final three shots in her pistol. Trisha shouts another curse and wrings her hand angrily. She carefully shoots again, wincing. Tricia's shot is well aimed, the bullet penetrating Billy Claibourne's head and the corpse falls from the horse. The other two Cowboy Gang riders now notice that nobody is alive behind them and break to the side, with Kate, Jake and Ruby all charging towards them. Shaw has his men fire on the furthest away of this fleeing pair, three bullets fatally hitting the man in the back and neck. The remaining gang member kicks his horse into a gallop. Ruby decides against giving chase to the last man. Kate however, spurred her horse to match his speed and tried taking another shot. Considering how many times she'd missed, by sheer probability she'd have to hit sometime. Although it is still farther away than he wanted to be, Jake shoots off both barrels of the shotgun at the last man, mostly because he doesn't want the loaded double barrel shotgun bouncing around when he draws his pistol. The law of averages proves itself out as Kate's shot enters through the man's back and heart, exiting out of the front of the chest. The body begins to slump over as the first barrel of Jake's shotgun blasts the body's left side and part of the horse. His immediate follow up shot finishes off the horse. [/QUOTE]
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