CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Urchyn McAvi came back to his senses suddenly.
The world was still lit, so it was still daylight. He could feel the hot pain of the bullet that had gone deep in his side, but that didn’t prevent him from leaning back so he could look up.
Three of the Mudokons lay on the ground, bleeding from small wounds that indicated shrapnel damage, perhaps from a grenade. The other two were trying to awaken them, and failing right now.
McAvi felt a cold flash of fear. If the Sligs had killed Abe, there would be no reward to collect! He alone wanted to collect the excessive bounty on the terrorist Mudokon – no one else should be allowed to have that right! And if the Sligs were coming…
He pulled himself up to his knees, and then painfully onto his feet. The bullet seemed to add thirty pounds to his weight, but he managed to stand without falling, and started moving toward the Mudokons.
He raised his carbine toward them. “Hands up, Muds!”
The two Mudokons whirled around, eyes going wide. “What the Odd – I thought you were dead!” one of them screeched.
McAvi grinned wolfishly. “Good; I hoped I could prove how stupid you Muds are, and it looks like I’ve succeeded.” He switched the gun settings to stun. “Now put your hands on your heads.”
Both Muds folded their hands across their chests, shaking their heads in a stubborn fashion. “No.”
McAvi nodded, and fired two stun blasts, catching them both in the head. Both collapsed alongside their comrades.
But the Wolvark hardly had time to think about his victory before he heard the sound of roaring from somewhere up above. He whirled around to look up the canyon, and his eyes widened as he saw two dozen Sligs charging down the canyon at him, guns raised high above their heads as they ran at him. There were too many of them!
Or were there? McAvi certainly was more capable than Mudokons were…and Sligs tended to be incompetent.
He unclipped his single poison gas grenade from his belt and hurled it up the hill at where the Sligs would be in about five seconds. When the item hit the ground, it erupted in a large cloud of green gas, and almost before the Sligs knew what was happening, they had charged right into it.
Most Slig masks could breathe through gas…but not this kind. Its poison molecules were so small, they could slip right through the miniscule fans built into Slig masks. Thus, as soon as they charged into it, the Sligs came to a sudden halt, coughing and gagging for breath.
Grinning, McAvi switched his carbine back to kill settings and opened fire on the Sligs, aiming for their mainly-unprotected heads. The soldiers fell to the ground, either suffocating from the toxic gas or brain-burned from his laser fire.
It took less time than he had expected to get rid of all twenty-four of the Sligs. He only had to shoot about half of them; the others died of the gases within thirty seconds. He was careful to stay out of the way of the deadly green cloud that roiled and burned the air where the Sligs had stood.
He shook his head, switching his gun to stun. “Those soldiers could use a few years more training…if they were still alive.”
He started to turn –
And suddenly felt the cold barrel of a pistol being pressed to the back of his head, and heard the cock.
“Don’t move,” said a distinctly Mudokon voice. “Drop the gun.”
McAvi snarled as he dropped his gun to the ground. “And I thought you Mudokons were stupid and worthless.”
“Not if we can help it,” the Mudokon said, and stepped around the bounty hunter so he could see who it was, keeping the gun at uncomfortably close range.
McAvi clenched his teeth at the sight of the blue-skinned Mudokon. “Abe.”
The blue-skinned terrorist grinned broadly. “Yeah, that’s right.” He waved a hand up at the Sligs. “Why’d you kill them?”
The Wolvark laughed coldly. “Why? Were they friends of yours?”
Abe clicked the cock several times. “Don’t get stupid, Wolvark. Tell me, or I’ll shoot.”
“Fine. I didn’t want them to have the reward.”
Abe frowned. “Reward?”
McAvi smiled. “Yeah, there’s a huge reward out on your head, Abe. If I kill or capture you, I’d have enough to retire on.”
Abe’s frown deepened. “Look, bounty hunter. I owe you one for killing the Sligs up there –”
“Yeah, you’re welcome,” the Wolvark mocked.
“–but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you have your gun back,” the blue-skinned guy went on. “Instead, I’m going to let you walk right out of this canyon. Go to the other Sligs if you want, but I don’t think they’ll like you much after what you did to those others. Get out the other side of the canyon if you want, and start running.”
McAvi gritted his teeth. “If I could kill you, I would.”
Abe smiled. “Now get running.”
Growling, the Wolvark turned and hurried away. How could he have been beaten by a stupid Mudokon? There was no conceivable way it could happen like that! He was the greatest bounty hunter on Oddworld – and he would return, one way or another.
Hopefully, he could return with a bigger gun.
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