Let's Go

The bullet shot forth, etching a pitch-black line against the backdrop of the glistening golden sand. Luca's hand trembled after bracing the fierce recoil. As the gun vanished, his body hunched, right knee touching the desert floor for support.

In the blink of an eye, the bullet penetrated Daniel's thin body and landed far away on the ground behind him, making sand splash in the air like water dunked with an enormous boulder. Thick red blood began flowing out of the hole in his t-shirt and his body fell down on the sand like a cardboard piece.

Witnessing the scene, Marquis choked back on his own scream, his mouth left agape in shock. Sand surged from his sleeves, as if floodgates were opened, and coiled around his right hand to shape a formidable stone gauntlet. He threw a punch so hard that his upper body swung downwards; the target was Luca whose body was unmoving with guards down.

Remo was ten meters away, so he could only hurl his baseball bat towards Marquis in a desperate attempt to create a hindrance.

The bat spun like a cartwheel and hit Marquis on the face before the gauntlet reached Luca's face. Blood burst out of Marquis's forehead, he screamed barbarically but his punch didn't stop. The heavy stone gauntlet landed on Luca's face, pinning the big man flat on the ground with a blast of sand.

Blood gushed out from between Luca's lips. A part of his face got buried in the sand.

Stepping back swiftly, Marquis ripped his t-shirt apart as if it were mere paper. His gaze fixated on the small mountain-shaped Embernit inked onto his left chest. The tattoo's outlines were dark brown, and it lacked full coloring.

The Embernit's ink level was a direct measure of one's talent. Luca could be considered a High Grade talent with 60% Embernit stamina, Marquis was the same.

At the start of the battle, Marquis's Embernit had 60% stamina. After throwing 10 punches at Luca it had decreased to 40%. But that one gauntlet punch, the only one that landed, had cost him 20% stamina. It was 10 times more powerful!

"KO motherfucker! You don't mess with my homies."

The sight didn't just stir Fang Fang's emotions, but his body as well. A newfound hardness surged within him, a kind of toughened resolve. He shifted his weight, wiggled his body, and fell out of the casket. Leveraging both hands against the ground, he assumed a push-up position, but suddenly his neck slumped like a dead man. His arms wobbled, unable to sustain his weight, and he collapsed down on the sand.

'This battle is far from over since Marcello has yet to lift a finger. He must be one step above the rest.'

There was a strange stalemate as Marcello, the boss, took out a cigar and lit it. He was leaning on the front of his car. In scarcely a minute thereafter, Luca's eyes snapped wide, alert. His deep black pupils combined with the blood smeared smiling lips gave a sinister look. He rolled away from Marquis as Remo closed in to cover for him.

Remo's baseball bat had long vanished from the sand. His Embernit had ceased its glow and its ink was depleted, showing a complete loss of stamina. However, he still possessed his brawny physique, which was untouched save for the flickering sand, ready for combat.

By the side, Luca touched his jaw which was titled to one side, detached. But the smile did not leave his face.

Marcello shook his head with a smile as if he long expected the outcome. Luca and Remo were experienced gangsters who had executed this strategy effectively on multiple occasions. Luca would hide his Revolver Embernit until an opportune moment, often until feigning the need to discard his shirt due to heat. And just as the shot landed, Remo would throw the baseball bat from the other direction to prevent any counterattack on Luca.

. . .

Though Fang Fang's shout had attracted everyone's attention, this strange development was not entirely unexpected. This was evident from the fact that Luca and Remo had deliberately shifted the fight away from the casket. Even Marcello had retreated, leaning against his car.

Fang Fang, lying with his face buried in the sand, felt the warmth again, this time seeping into his back, buttocks, and thighs. It seemed the sun was the culprit behind his awakening.

Yet, mere recovering from paralysis wasn't enough to emerge victorious, he needed some form of power – the fluctuations of Qi in the world or the method to ignite Embernit on the skin. A scholar in his previous life, all he could do now was contemplate and strategize, for thinking was free, after all.

Every detail since he woke flooded back to him - from the wind originating from Daniel's heart to the gun carved in Luca's palm.

Suddenly, a burning sensation ignited in his palm. It was as though a heated blade was etching into his flesh. He barely had control over his body but he managed to twist and inspect his hand. What he saw, left him with a wide open mouth.

A black dot had materialized on his palm and it was unfurling like a calligrapher's brush drawing a soft, slow stroke. Initially, a '>' sign came into view. He predicted it would slowly turn into an Embernit.

Before he could fully comprehend the phenomenon, a similar searing sensation sliced through the flesh of his left forearm. He guessed it would be a Baseball-Bat Embernit.

'We can win, we can escape this predicament! There is always a path.' He felt an urge to laugh out loud but his facial muscles gave up, freezing his mouth in a fish-like grin.

In another effort to get up, wisps of air escaped his body. His body was akin to an incense stick burning all over. His frail arms supported the weight of his slender frame, but his fingers defied his commands. Likewise, his left leg remained unresponsive.

It was as if these weren't parts of his body yet. He wasn't used to moving; he hadn't moved since his previous life, but eventually he would be able to function. His hopeful eyes moved in Marquis's direction.

'There is a chance for victory if brother can hold on till I adapt to this body.'

In the distance, Marquis was panting, the dryness was choking his throat even more. In the corner of his eye, he could still see Daniel lying far away. Then like a thirsty man looking for hoes in the desert, he saw hope. He was ready and willing to let his pants down even if it was a mirage.

He saw the rusted doll like moments of Fang Fang. The step-brother transitioned from lying within the casket to tumbling out, attempting to stand, and eventually rising.

Oh look, the paralyzed brother finally took his first step. On the other hand, Remo was uninjured, Luca still had 30% stamina left (the same amount with which Remo possessed in the beginning) and Marcello was alive and kicking by the luxurious car.

Hope was like a lone sugar cube in the vast sea. Yet, unlike humans, ants never gave up. Even when crushed by giants, they persistently moved their limbs to rise again.

Marquis jumped into action. Sand rolled down both his arms to form a stone glove set. He directed a powerful punch toward the wounded Luca, who was clutching the metal bat.

A painful grimace contorted Luca's smile as he barely evaded the punch. He hurled the metal bat towards Marquis, but it sailed slightly wide, soaring upward into the sky.

Suddenly, Remo emerged behind Marquis, snatching the bat in mid-air and then delivering a malicious swing. Passing an Embernit weapon was like lending a gun without bullets, but despite lacking additional prowess the bat was still made of metal.

Clang!

The metal bat struck Marquis's head and bent into an inverted 'V' shape. His head dropped and a stream of blood mixed in sand began crawling from between his braids. He dropped to his knees, resembling a man resigned to his imminent execution.

The bent bat vanished from Remo's possession and reappeared in pristine condition in Luca's hand, who passed it back to his brother.

'No, no, no!' Fang Fang was overwhelmed by despair as he watched Remo raise the bat to execute Marquis. The tattoo on his hand remained incomplete so did his control over his body.

'I won't be able to stop them.' He panicked.

In the distance, where no one paid attention, Daniel sat upright with the expression of a ghost. He lifted his hand to his head, like a scholar who was in deep thought or like a man who realized he fucked his own daughter in the city brothel.

The bullet had pierced him just above his heart, grazing it. A life-threatening shot at all means. But his second Embernit had saved him. He was lying on the sand, unmoving, because of shock and… shame.

While he had been in the motel bathroom earlier that day, he had been contemplating all the possible ways in which the transaction with Marcello could go horribly wrong. They were going to meet in a secluded desert for fuck's sake. So he prepared his secret Embernit for an automatic activation.

His jerking off hadn't been for nothing. He had prepared this move from an after jerk-off epiphany. The move was called 'Fuck Me Not Him'.

The reason no one had noticed the activation of his second Embernit was because the tattoo was concealed beneath three layers of clothing: a t-shirt, pants, and underwear.

This move had the potential to redirect damage to a different part of his body.

Following the activation of the move, his heart remained unscratched. Even though there was a hole in his chest and back, he was alive but fuck! He lost one of his balls.

He snapped out of his reverie a few heartbeats after hearing the clang, his heart as sluggish as his thoughts. His gaze quickly fixed on Remo, who was poised in an executioner's stance, ready to chop a head or two.

"Motherfucker!"

His shirt burst like a paper bag blown like a balloon. Winds howled around him, lifting the sand into the air and shaping two sand chains that lunged at Remo like sine wave snakes.

Remo released the baseball-bat. He pursed his lips and wrapped his hand around his head to prevent any sand from entering his pores. Luca did the same, except he used two fingers to block his ears and two fingers to close his nostrils.

While the Mafia bash brothers protected themselves from the sand assault, Daniel, face red as a burnt tomato, was running towards the passed out Marquis. However, the distance was too much to cover.

Luca weathered the sandstorm's onslaught but his expression was grim as he saw Daniel drawing near. Feeling the urgency, he raised his hand in an executioner pose, his Embernit with 10% stamina left, glowed and the bat took shape once more.

The once ordinary metallic bat in Remo's possession now seemed to have absorbed an even darker hue, its aura more foreboding in Luca's hands. He shifted his weight, taking a heavy step forward, his grip on the bat tightening, veins screaming pain appeared on his forehead, as he brought it down with force, its trajectory aimed directly at Marquis's head, wanting to smash the skull like a watermelon.

"N-n-n-n-nooooooooo!" Daniel's voice screeched in the wind. He was still a few meters away, in that moment, the gap feeling insurmountable.

The imposing bat stuck down towards Marquis's unmoving head but it suddenly vanished just a couple of centimeters away from striking its target. Luca's eyes widened, blood gushed out of his mouth with a violent cough, an array of emptiness mixed with an aching physical pain drowned his body.

On inspecting his forearm, he noticed that his Embernit had vanished!

On the sidelines, the baseball bat materialized in Fang Fang's hands. Emotions surged inside him. The battle nearly lost was on again. Even though he couldn't freely move his body, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Let's fucking go!"

From grand scholar to grand theft baby!