[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/K1yaqQb.png[/img]

[b][i]The Fastest Gun in Uvera[/i][/b][/center]

[b]Flashback - Two Weeks Ago[/b]

They knew the risks; his gang could not afford to antagonize the Walton Government and the Sand King at the same time. But Al-Marabar's slavers had proven to be insolent and intrusive and more importantly, bought Uveran lives for bargain prices. If this slave trade grew enough to be recognized, if the Walton Government decided that the disappearance of the occasional Waltonian was a fair enough price to pay for getting rid of 'savages and troublemakers', then their gang's cause would be in massive trouble.

And so they had struck, ambushing slaver caravans, assassinating slave traders and their collaborators, and protecting Uveran villages and the odd Waltonian town from raiders. Ken Cooper, being Half-Waltonian himself, had been useful in brokering deals with law-abiding citizens and fellow outlaws alike to humiliate the slavers.

Which led to his bounty being raised by another ten thousand coins. This led to Howling Brook, his superior in the gang, selling him out for that amount of cash. Now he was holed up alone in an abandoned Waltonian farmstead, facing a small army of Al-Marabar Slavers with his trusty guns, a cylinder of Dendro Gunpowder, and a bag of... potatoes? 

"You'll never take me alive!" he shouted at the posse shooting at him through the farmstead main house's windows, throwing a potato that liquified and exploded into a sleeping mist at the foes, allowing him a brief opening to fire four headshots at the slavers' goons; the sand pirates were throwing their own people at him, too proud to just hire locals with more experience with his tactics - Fools, the lot of them.

Some ways to his right, he could hear the thud of axes against the home's main door; even the tables and chairs he had used to barricade it would not stand the blows from such weapons forever. So he loaded some Dendro Gunpowder into his pistols and shot at the barricade; the points where the bullets hit bloomed with green, thick vines. That ought to delay those goons for a good long while yet. Not that help will come; Howling Brook's treachery was not known... Yet.

He threw another potato through the windows, repeating his trick of turning plant matter into bombs that also doubled as sleeping gas or healing spores. He realized too late that the slavers had gotten much closer while he was strengthening the barricaded doors and that they were wearing their bandanas on their faces to avoid breathing in the gas. As he ducked beneath a hail of rock bullets, he knew that despite his bravado, he [i]would[/i] be taken alive.

Nevertheless, Ken kept on fighting, blowing open a couple of slavers' heads and causing their place to be taken by small trees. Then a loud explosion came from the kitchen where he had taken the bag of potatoes from, and armed men and women began pouring in, laying down suppressive fire as their bravest folk made to grab him for captivity...

[b]Present Day[/b]

And here he was, in the dungeons of Great Sandship of Zweidaya, about to have his first fight in the arena. His coat and his guns had been taken away, although he had been allowed to keep his Vision Crystal - A fat lot of good that did him without any living plant matter; even the smallest seed. Heck, they made sure any potatoes were cut up and stewed before serving them as part of his gruel. Assholes.

As the eighteen-year-old's door opened and he was walked to his first fight, the young man had the temerity to request, "I don't want my shirt or undershirt to be stained with blood, can I take them off before I fight? Besides, I'm eighteen, already an adult, so there's nothing improper about it while I'm fighting."

His request was granted, and that was how Ken Cooper, Fastest Gun in Uvera, was fighting bare-chested like a traditional gladiator, wielding only two 'Geo Pistols' given to him before the start of the bout, trying his damned best to survive and even give these pricks a good show - After all, who knows, maybe he can catch the Sand King's eye...

[@Sho Minazuki]