A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

***

A horse's hooves hit the stoned streets of Alvareen hard and fast, causing denizens to disperse or get hit. Stop the horse was a lady whose pretty face was contorted in a mixture of emotions; Anger, annoyance, and pain.

Kayla's mana had only lasted for a few more propulsions but they had been enough for her to leave her enemies in the dust. Her escape was also better aided by her striking down the most capable creature of catching up to her. She knew this because she had witnessed the black horse's speed.

Her chest was broken and all the Healing Potions she drank did not put it back together well enough. Every time she exerted herself to cast her spells, her injuries got worse and it seemed the already fractured structure got broken further.

Fortunately, although she had spent years in the employ of Ralph Gribbo and took care of more 'posh' tasks, there was once a time she had had to fend for herself and the skills she had gained in the period had not left her.

Those skills helped her track down one of the many horses that had fled at the initial sound of danger.

The first horse she found didn't have a saddle but she could hardly be bothered to care. Fashioning herself a tendril of water, she made sure the horse didn't get away and used it as reins to steer it and ferry her to Alvareen.

And now she approached the gates of her employer's massive Estate. The security was immediately alerted and Kayla knew, that had she been perceived as an enemy, she would already be under fire from all barrage of attacks she would hardly be able to survive.

The obvious guards —the ones who stood in place and kept an eye out— were the least of worries for any trespasser. The most dangerous security measures in place in the Estate were the ones far more hidden.

"It's me!" Kayla yelled and held up a token that she infused with Mana so it flared up in a symbol that hovered above her head like a banner. She could have chosen a more discreet method of announcing herself but that would have required reducing her travel speed and time was of the essence.

Already, the fools that attacked them might have opened the cage and compromised the greatest prize of that Caravan.

The Guards stood aside and the Gates opened just in time for Kayla's horse to ride through and she didn't stop until she was close to the Estate's internal barracks where the bulk of Ralph Gribbo's private army made their residence.

By the time she was urging her horse to stop, a man was approaching her. Tall, muscled, and wearing a shirt that was open halfway down his front to show off hard pecs covered lightly with hair.

"Kayla," the man said, "You're back?"

He looked behind her and only then seemed to notice age was alone.

"Where are the others?" He asked.

"We were attacked," Kayla said.

"What?" Gareth asked in disbelief. The idea that anyone would dare attack their Employer's Caravan so close to Alvareen was almost implausible.

Kayla nodded grimly,

"Everyone is dead. I would be too had I not barely managed to get away."

"How many were they?" Gareth asked with furrowed brows.

Kayla pursed her lips and said nothing.

Gareth grew suspicious.

"Kayla?" He called.

"Forget about how many there were," Kayla managed to say then.

"Kayla!" Gareth called again, his voice slightly raised while he glowered.

Kayla ignored him and pushed on,

"I suspect they came from Alvareen and if they did, they'll be back so we need to lock down the city."

Gareth glared for a second more and then sighed,

"It's not impossible. Though I wonder who would be foolish enough to do such a thing and still return to Alvareen," he said.

"The Lord's enemies are numerous. Some might be hiding in plain sight. Their motives hidden beneath smiles."

"If you have someone in mind, I'd like to hear you say it plainly."

"How many 'allies' are truly on the Lord's side?" Kayla asked with intense eyes.

"Grave accusations to make," Gareth said with furrowed brows.

"Just lock down the city," Kayla said, "I'll provide you a description of who to look out for. I got a good enough look at one of them."

"Very well…" Gareth said and then paused as his body went stiff, "Hold on, what about 'it'?" He asked.

"They have it obviously," Kayla said with a sigh while she closed her eyes like she couldn't bear how disappointed she was in herself.

"By the gods!" Gareth let out, "That Cargo is worth more than the entire Caravan combined."

"I know," Kayla said with a groan, "But it was either stay and get killed or leave and try for reinforcements which is why I'm here now."

Gareth let out another sigh and nodded,

"I'm glad you're alive, at least," he said, "I'll lock down the City and send out men to try and get it back."

"Good," Kayla said with a nod and spent a few seconds describing the masked gunman whose gun-wielding and fairly peculiar way of should make him easier to spot.

"I must report to the Lord now," Kayla announced once she was done.

She turned her horse around and galloped to the main building. She was a few feet away from it when she leaped off the horse's back, let her water tendril/reins fade, and dashed through the large doors.

"Where's Lord Gribbo?" She asked the first worker she met on her way.

"He's in his study," the worker said, looking taken aback by the urgency.

"Alright," Kayla said and she was already pushing past the worker and heading deeper into the Estate.

"Lady Kayla," the worker yelled out after her, "Hold on, he's in a meeting!"

But Kayla didn't hear. She was already heading down corridors, and traveling up a flight of stairs until she was at a thick door against which she knocked raptly.

"Lord Gribbo?" she called out still with urgency.

"Kayla," said a soft voice from behind and the Water Mage either took that as an invitation or would have entered either way because she pushed the door inward and hurried inside.

"My Lord…" she said and then stopped short.

The study was large and stocked large shelves all stacked with books containing information ranging across all manner of topics. It seemed like the den of an intellectual.

There were two men inside. Both were dressed in fine clothes that did very little to hide their muscled bodies. One of them was bald and had a grey handle-bar mustache above his thin lips. He stroked and twisted the mustache while he stared down at the chess pieces lined up on a board laid on top of the small table between the two men.

The other man's hair was slicked back. His trimmed beard was proper— refined and he had a smirk as he watched the bald man rather than the board.

"Kayla," the man with the slicked-back hair said, "I don't remember inviting you in."

"I'm sorry, my Lord," Kayla said with a bow, "There's been a… situation."

"The Caravan?" Ralph Gribbo asked still with his eyes on his chess opponent and still without losing his smirk.

"I'm afraid we lost it, my Lord. We were ambushed at the Brieme Mountains," she said, and then to recover she added, "But we're going after it with more men now."

*Snort*

The sound came from the bald man who hadn't taken his eyes off the board. Kayla frowned at the man but dared not say a word.

"Is something funny?" Ralph Gribbo asked.

"Of course, something is funny," the man said, "I offered you an entourage of some of the best Knights of the Citadel and you declined.

That's the thing about you, Ralph, you're always so arrogant. So overconfident. You think smirking all the time makes you seem all aware. All-knowing. All capable. It doesn't."

"Ouch," Ralph said, "All that you haven't made a move in what… thirty minutes now?"

"I take my time," the man answered and finally moved a piece —his bishop— across the board before he announced,

"Check!"

"Wrong move," Ralph said, and before moving his Knight piece to take the bishop, "I never liked Clergies."

"Overconfident as always," the man said before moving his Queen piece to announce again,

"Check!"

The word had barely left the man's lips that Ralph was moving a piece to take the opponent's Queen off the board.

"Fuck!" The man said with his eyes wide at the move he had missed.

Ralph laughed then. It sounded quite good-natured but the man's bald head grew red.

"If Overconfidence is my problem. Blindness is yours, Marcus. To have stared at the board for that long and not seen this move. You're hopeless!"

"I can still win this," Marcus said and with one hand scratching his bald head, he moved a pawn piece to start the long journey to a promotion.

"That's too little too late, buddy," Ralph said and chuckled before he moved his 'castle' piece to announce confidently,

"Checkmate."

"Shit!" Marcus let out.

"That's what?" Ralph asked with a mocking attempt at remembrance, "Six to nil?"

"Let's go again," Marcus announced gritting his teeth, "I'm winning for sure this time."

Ralph shrugged,

"Set up the board then," he said and after another good-natured chuckle, he glanced at Kayla and his eyes grew cold,

"You are right though. I can be very overconfident. Clearly, I was in this case because I expected a bunch of morons led by one of my best Mages to successfully guard a Caravan to my City and they failed.

Tell me, Kayla, just how many enemies ambushed you."

Kayla shuddered and swallowed before she mumbled out a word far too low for anyone to hear despite the impeccable hearing of all those in the Study.

"I didn't catch that," Ralph said, his voice cold as ice.

Kayla's face lost all color and she trembled before she managed to say,

"Three, My Lord… They were three."