Chapter 7: Come On Cray, Slap That Willy Around!

"Eight..."

Cray found himself at a loss. He knew if one of Willy's shots tagged him, he'd have a nasty bruise to show for it.

"...Seven..."

"Hey, shorty, you look a little scared," Willy said. "And you should be. Seldom does--"

"...Six...Five..."

"a boy your age get to tangle with the likes of me..."

"...Four...three..."

"Maybe not," Cray continued to look around, feeling an odd sense of deja vu even though he hadn't quite been in a duel before. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to lose."

"Two..."

"Bring it."

"One..."

Cray sighted his chosen cover, but he was unsure if he'd reach it in time.

He was determined, though, to make advantage of his "lack of presence", as Strohs put it. He was practically forced into this anyway. He subconsciously gripped his weapon tightly, preparing for the signal, ready to act.

"Go!"
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Willy raised his slingshot directly in Cray's direction, pulling the string back. He anticipated his target would dodge, but both were pointing their weapons at one another. Cray let a shot off first, making sure to aim to Willy's left, anticipating him to dodge to his right. The teen did comply, but let off a shot in Cray's direction, adding a spin to it.

Cray instinctively ducked to half of his dimunitive height and continued to run, gritting his teeth as the rock barely sailed past him. He knew he was going to get caught if he tried to run for cover until he sufficiently distracted Willy.

The preteen planted his feet, turning around and letting off another potato.

The car sped by as John and the old man landed on the ground after the last second save. John was able to recover quickly but his heart was racing from fact that he had jumped in front of a car.

"Reckless drivers" John said as he saw the car continue to drive down the street with no signs of it stopping any time soon. Soon Johns attention went back to the old man after he heard him groan slightly.

"You okay mister?" John said as he tried to help up the old man.

"Let me go, help, help I'm being mugged!" the old man started to yell causing John to freak out slightly.

"Wa, no I'm just trying to-" John began only to be cut off by the old man laughing for some reason.

"I'm just messing with ya child" the old man said as he began to pat John on the shoulder. Now that John was up close to him he could better make up the mans details. the man had a beard but it was shortly cut and it connected with his stash. he had a touch of gray on his head but still had plenty of hair on it. He was wearing sweat pants and a long sleeve sweater for some reason. The only kind of footwear he had on were opened toe slippers.

"You need to be more careful, you were almost hit by that car" John said with a sigh as he helped the old man to the sidewalk.

"No big whoop, I almost get hit by a lot of things daily" the old man joked. despite his age the old man was a lot more cheerful than most other men his age would probably be.

"Well you fell pretty hard...are you okay?" John asked after he let go of him when they got to the sidewalk at last.

"I'm not some fragile old geezer, I'm still at my prime" the old man said as he tried to take a step only for a cracking sound to be heard.

"You Okay?" John asked as the old man groaned in pain slightly.

"No, no I'm fine" said the old man as he placed his arms on his back.

"Looks like you threw out your back..." John said trying to help the old man from falling. "Do you need any help?" he asked.

"No, you've helped already" said the old man as he tried to walk but had a hard time. "I can make it home on my own" he continued.

"But you're hurt, I can't just leave you like this...." John said as he walked after the old man.

"Well, what do you intend to do?" asked the man as he turned to look at John.

"Well...I could carry you home" John said plainly.

"You would really do that for an old man?" he asked.

"It's my fault you threw out your back, it's the least I can do" John said as he turned around as the old man climbed on his back.

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Business had slowed again after a while, Leo, Savannah, and Amara were at the table yet again.

Amara took out her phone, "Oh would you look at the time, I should really be getting home!" she said as she got up, "I'll talk to you guys later!" she quickly left.

"Well then..." Leo breathed out,

"Hey Leo....would I be able to come over some time?" Savannah asked.

Both Leo and Savannah slightly blushed, "Y..yeah. Sure." Leo replied.

Savannah smiled, "O-Okay then."
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Willy dodged the attack again, causing Cray to grit his teeth and start reloading.

"Where're you running?" Willy asked. "Duel's over here!"

The short kid knew he had to get to cover somehow, so he could take advantage of his lack of a presence, when he felt the back of his knee get pegged.

"Crap...!" Cray grunted.
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"Advantage: Willy." Silas announced, still not making eye contact with anyone.
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The short kid recovered from the attack, knowing he'd have a bruise there, and quickly dove for cover, trying to lose Willy among the trees while he tried to think of a plan...

After John had grabbed his bag, he began to make the trip to the old mans home. The man was heavier than John expected but it wasn't very hard to carry him.

"Your muscles are quite defined for a youngster your age" said the old man as he felt Johns shoulder.

"I like to stay in shape" John said.

"Your a student at Canis Academy correct? Are you in a club?" asked the old man.

"Yup, I'm in the boxing club actually" John responded "I just finished my road work test" he continued.

"Just the beginning it seems, you must be excited" the old man asked.

"I am, just hope I can train enough for whenever my match will be" John said.

After diving into the bushes, and quickly moved around to Willy's blind spot as silently as possible. Once he was far enough away, he waited.

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"I lost him." Ivan scratched the back of his head, looking around. Silas nodded. "Now that Crays got himself hidden, that glasses guy is going down..."

"Doubtful..."Silas sighed. Ivan raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? Crays got like no presence...like Kuroko..." Ivan pointed out, scratching his chin.

"Yes...but against Willy zero presence isn't enough..."

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Willy loaded a stone for a normal shot, and aimed forward. He than began to turn his arms and body. Just as he was in straight shot of Cray, he fired.

Cray saw the rock soaring at him, and panicked. He tried to move back, but the rock still struck him in the chest.

"Your pathetic...I doubt you would even be able to hit me once..."
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"I've first saw it in middle school. The ability to almost sense your preys location, only the most gifted and willing sharpshooters can have it... the Hunters Intuition..."

Cray rubbed at the spot where the rock had clipped him, and grit his teeth. He knew his situation was bad. He'd been clipped twice already, and it didn't seem like he could hide as easily as he thought he could.

"You're not even making this fun..." Willy's tone was disappointed. Another rock soared in Cray's direction, but he managed to avoid this one. "C'mon, you could try harder to make this interesting!"

Cray tried not to humor his opponent's taunts for now, trying hard to hide again, making his way for the blind spot again. He had to make absolutely sure that a guerilla approach would be impossible.

By the time he'd gotten to his preferred vantage point, however, Willy was nowhere in sight.

What the--?

"Found you."

The sting of a third rock bouncing off the back of his shoulder knocked Cray back into reality.

Sure enough...!

"Haven't you figured it out, already, bedhead?" Willy mocked, casually adjusting his glasses. "It doesn't matter how often you hide. I can find you wherever you're hiding!"

Cray started running again, firing a potato shot to try and give himself some breathing room while he came up with a new strategy...

John eventually reached the old mans house which was not what he expected really. the old mans home was a respectable size, but behind it was a large field of crops.

"You own a farm?" John asked who did not expect the man to be a farmer.

"Yup, owned it all my life" said the old man as John continued to carry him to the front door. Once they reached it, the old man pulled out a key and unlocked the door. John placed him down on a sofa chair where he could see to the back to the crops.

"Must be hard working a farm by yourself..." said John as he saw how big it was.

"Eh, you get used to it. But I wont be able to work on it till my back heals" said the old man as he turned to look at the crops. "Don't think the crops will be able to last that long" the old man continued. This made John feel guilty being partially to blame for the old mans injury.

"Now, you've been plenty help to me young man and I'm am grateful for it. I'll figure something out so you go on ahead and head home" said the old man.

Cray didn't see a way he could win. He wasn't prepared for his lack of presence to be useless. The boy had no idea what to do other than straight-up attack away. But his reload time was so slow...

I've gotta fix something about that, somehow... he thought to himself, Thanks a lot, Ivan! I've got a duel with a guy who has an ego complex!

The short kid continued his failure of an assault by aiming into the air, aiming to catch him off-guard with a mortar-style shot. As he continued to reload, he found his opponent had halted, allowing the projectile to hit the ground right in front of him.

"This. Is. Boring." Willy shot a volley of five shots in rapid succession, which Cray was hard-pressed to dodge, even with his video game-hardened reflexes. He tried to hop out of the way of the last shot, but wound up failing due to his highly scrawny form. His rival used this time to load up and peg him with a fourth shot at last, drawing pain from the arm. Cray rose to his feet faster than he ever had in his life, and began loading up again.

If I can just land one hit...!

John began to make his way towards the door but before he made it he stopped and turned to look at the crops again. The old man he injured grew his own food and probably supplies some of the products in the market as a form of currency. He wouldn’t be able to care for the crops in his condition and the crops would die out.

“What, you looking for a reward for carrying me to my house?” the old man said sounding a little angry from the thought.

“huh? Oh, no” said John “I was just wondering something” he continued.

“And what’s that?” asked the old man.

“I don’t feel right just leaving you like this” John began and the old man raised an eyebrow “I was wondering…till you heal up maybe I can help take care of your crops?” he asked.

Ivan watched as Willy shot his five shot volley in rapid secession, having had a stone in between each finger plus one that he held at the first shot.

"He didn't twist the bands for any of those shots. So it's true..." Ivan thought, itching his cheek lazily. "Those are strong shots, but take about twice as long to load, though its still only a fraction of Crays."

In an attempt to dodge a shot, Cray fell over and was hit for the fourth time.

"Cray..." Ivan said, eyes narrowing. They than grew wide as Cray shot to his feet. "He's really into it..."

Silas nodded, looking over to Ivan. As Ivan looked back at him, the sharpshooters eyes looked away. Ivan thought for another moment, as he watched Cray load. He brought his hand to his mouth, preparing to yell.

"Cray!" Ivan shouted. Cray paused for a moment, and had to dodge a shot which messed up his reloading.

"Damn it...he almost cost me the-"

"Your the underdog...everyone knows it's way cooler for them to win! So make your comeback already!" Ivan yelled.

The underdog's cool when they win? Cray thought. Huh, in video games, I've never really played the underdog. Then again, I've played them half to death already...

The potato crossbow raised, and he launched a counterattack. The potato and rock collided. The rock was much smaller, so it was eventually bounced off to one side. However, the potato lost enough momentum so that Willy didn't even need to dodge it.

His shots are stronger than mine...?! The kid thought to himself, already trying to reload as fast as possible. He kept one eye on his opponent's movements. He seemed to be tossing and catching one of the rocks in his free hand. After about four cycles of this, Willy adjusted his glasses.

"It's a bit late for you to be trying to take me head-on, isn't it?" He loaded in his rock. "You haven't even hit me once, and you're one hit away from losing this duel."

Yeah, but if I can manage to hit you even once, it'll be an altruistic victory... Cray thought, raising his crossbow.

"You don't have to do that" said the old man.

"I feel bad, you're hurt because I tackled you" responded John. Granted he did it to save the old man from being hit by a car.

"Well, it's not easy running a farm I'll have you know" said the old man.

"Where's the fun in something if it's easy?" he asked.

Cray planted his feet. It was clear now. He would lose this. But, he wasn't going to go down alone. Cray launched a shot up in an arc. He managed to shift, juking to his right by a slim amount, causing Willy's rock to miss. The short boy reloaded faster than he could ever manage, just as his first shot caused Willy to dodge. Both sighted. Both fired.

The potato and rock soared past each other. Both of the duelists were in a bad spot. The fifth and final hit smacked off of Cray's chest, but one millisecond before the pebble hit, the potato smacked straight into Willy's kneecap, causing him to crouch down, a disbelieving look on his face for a few moments as he processed what happened.

"Duel end: Score 5 to 1; Winner, Slingshot Willy." Silas announced.

Cray let himself fall onto his back, taking in everything that just happened. He had managed a hit on Willy, the best sharpshooter he had seen yet. The preteen slowly opened his eyes, for the sun to be somewhat blinding to him. But when the shadow of a hand appeared above him to help him up, he took it.

"Well, the underdog coming back for a rematch after his lose can be even cooler..."Ivan smiled, pulling Cray up. He was standing up, cannonballs still attached, but his legs were shaking horribly.

"R-right..."Cray replied, scratching the back of his head. He looked past Ivan to see Willy leaving. The boy turned his head, pushing his glasses back up at the nose. "Your still minuscule in my vision...but still... I've got my eye on you shorty..."

Cray watched as Willy walked away, and was handed his crossbow by Silas. He held it, and than spoke up. "It's Cray...Cray Green..."