Blazing West

Act One

In the magnificent conference hall of a manor at the east end of Los Pecados, Waldo Kane was sitting high on his own chair with a cigar in his mouth. He stroked the cat in his arms with his left hand, while the iron fingers of his right lightly and rhythmically tapped the armrest of his chair.

Standing next to Kane was his precious nephew Blandy. Although he was not seriously injured, his face was looking even more gloomy because of his frustration.

The shadow of the setting sun covered Kane's face, obscuring his expression. Standing across from him were those thugs who had just been beaten up by Clint and the others. They had been standing there trembling for several hours, but they still had to wait a little longer for their punishment.

"That damn hillbilly Clint, I should have burned him to death last time." Blandy said angrily, looking at his lame leg with a vicious expression.

"Unbelievable..." Kane's tone was not loud, but it made the people who heard it shudder.

"A bunch of useless fools." The overlord of the city sat up straight from the shadows, watching everyone under the steps.

The hall became so silent you could hear a pin drop.

"Send them to Downey for some hard labor, and say hello to Downey for me while you're there." A long time passed before Kane let out a sigh of relief and announced how these men were to be punished. Downey was the most famous butcher in Los Pecados who controlled the biggest beast slaughterhouse, punching and kicking his workers at every turn. He was a very vicious character, but compared to other punishments they might have received, this was undoubtedly a huge gift.

The thugs, who had been scared silly, felt like they had been spared their lives. They crawled out to the hall for fear that Kane would change his mind and kill them.

Kane paused, lit a cigar silently for himself, turned his head to look at Blandy and smiled.

"Well, dear Blandy, now you come and tell me. What help do you need to take that gold mine?"

"Err... It's all because of that damned dog Clint..." Blandy, who had always been arrogant, only showed his cowardly side when facing Kane alone. He stuttered as he made his excuses with cold sweat running down his forehead.

Just as Blandy's nerves were fraying, the cat in Kane's arms suddenly let out a strange cry, frightening Blandy and sending him to the ground. Kane slowly turned around and looked at the entrance of the hall.

"Long time no see, old man." A frivolous and slightly cheerful voice came from the door, and Blandy knew just by the voice and shadow that this was his "brother", who he hated more than anyone else – Claude was back.

"My boy is back!" Kane flicked the cigar in his hand and revealed a sullen smile.

Claude sauntered into the hall and looked around from time to time, joking with the noisy monkey on his shoulder, which disgusted Blandy.

"I say, you bastard, why would you suddenly appear here when I've heard that you've been going around stealing things everywhere." Blandy asked Claude impatiently.

Claude scratched his head and said, "I just wanted to come back and see my old pals..."

"And the old man." Claude stretched his voice out on purpose.

"What I didn't expect was to hear about some idiots messing up the old man's affairs when I first got here, so I came especially to take a look."

"Say that again if you dare!" said the enraged Blandy and he charged forward fiercely.

"Enough." Kane interrupted the quarrel, and Blandy on the side could only reconcile himself to standing back where he was.

"So, are you here to help me?" Kane squinted and stared at Claude.

"You could say that. Anyway, we've been serving you since we were young, old man." Claude met Kane's gaze and smiled.

"Then it's settled. I'll leave this matter to you. Don't let me down." Kane said.

"I'm not like some idiots. However, I may need some manpower." Claude said as he walked out.

"You may choose who you need." Kane looked at Claude's back with a weird smile.

Act Two

After returning to this city after many years, Claude couldn't help but sigh with emotion, after all, this was where he was born and grew up. Everything here was so disorderly and dark, yet it fascinated many people. From as far back as he could remember, Claude and his little brothers, who were also fatherless and motherless, lived from one meal to the next, and were often bullied and sent on the run. Until that day they met Waldo Kane.

At that time, Kane, who only held a small amount of power, became the children's support, and he would often give these helpless children some small "tasks" to help him realize his sinful ideals step by step.

This continued until Claude was 18 years old. As long as he could complete the tasks his old man assigned him, his little brothers could have their own houses instead of living in the dirty slums. However, all of this was wishful thinking on Claude's part. This conspiracy-like missions changed Claude's life, but also led to him meeting two other people who would change his life in the future. It was with this that he also achieved his reputation as a thief.

But when Claude completed his agreement with the "Grand Thief Master" and returned to Los Pecados, he found that his former brothers were not given any preferential treatment. Some were used by Kane and abandoned, while others were straying further and further from the correct paths in life. This distressed Claude greatly, and he secretly vowed to make this "old man" pay a heavy price for his hypocrisy, something he would remember for a long time.

And Blandy's humiliation was a godsent opportunity for Claude. Claude had looked down on this idiot since he was a child, thinking that he was just relying on Kane's power, but in reality he was just a complete waste of space.

In Claude's plan, he would select his own little brothers to "solve" those troubles together, and then, together with the tribesmen who rebelled against Kane, make the rampant "Iceberg Sand Hunters" get what was coming to them.

But as he set off for Mathilda's tribe, Claude had a vague premonition in his heart: everything seemed to be going too smoothly. He had come back after such a long time, and in that time he had been to Eruditio. But Kane did not doubt his motives at all. This was extremely inconsistent with Kane's usual cunning and crafty nature. There also seemed to be a few strange faces in the group, as if Kane had sent them to monitor him.

More importantly, the sneaky Blandy was nowhere to be seen. This guy may have just been preparing to strike somehow from the shadows. These suspicions kept flashing through Claude's mind, but he had already crossed the point of no return. The group had left Los Pecados, and there was no room to look back. If he went back now, there might be rows of machine guns waiting for him.

Facing the rising sun, Claude and his party came to Mathilda's tribe, and on the opposite side was Clint who was leading the tribesmen as they stood ready for battle.

"Hey, brothers. You wait for me outside. I'll go in and talk to them. If they're willing to surrender, we can save some of our strength."

As Claude spoke, he looked at the strange faces with a smile.

Seeing that they had no objections, Claude walked into the village alone. Seeing that he was alone, the tribesmen took up their weapons one after another and surrounded him.

"Are Kane's men all dead? They sent a foolish clown in to his death?" Clint said loudly.

Claude sighed, winked at Clint, and said, "Relax, brother, Kane has hundreds of sand hunters and the biggest gang in Los Pecados. It would be hopeless for you if you went up against him."

"I've got a better idea that can help you through this crisis!"

But obviously, Clint was very dissatisfied with Claude's frivolousness, he gave a cold snort and held on to the gun at his waist with his right hand.

"Wait a minute, let me talk to him." Mathilda stopped the impulsive Clint, and walked up to Claude alone.

Claude said something aloud unrelated to the situation at hand, which was heard by the people Kane had sent to monitor him in the distance, while giving constant hints to Mathilda.

The hints were not lost on the clever Mathilda and she kept nodding her head, receiving the useful information. Just when Claude thought his plan had been half-successful, a sudden gunshot interrupted his conversation with Mathilda.

Act Three

"Watch out! Mathilda!" A bullet flew past Mathilda and hit a villager beside Clint. Clint's anger was ignited in an instant. He yelled for Mathilda to hide while at the same time drawing his gun to shoot at Claude. Meanwhile, the villagers, whose circumstances were unknown, also began to fire at the former little brothers of Claude who were outside the village, and the two sides came together almost instantly.

"Don't shoot, I have something to say."

"I'm here to help!"

Claude shouted loudly, but his voice was completely drowned out by the violent gunfire. At this time, Claude fully realized that he had fallen into the old man's trap: those strange faces were not there to monitor him at all, but take the opportunity to make trouble.

At the same time, something that had been worrying Claude even more happened. A harsh and noisy engine sound came from a short distance away. Dozens of sand hunter trucks surrounded the entire village, and the leader was the person he hated the most – Blandy.

Blandy jumped off his sand hunter truck and commanded his men to attack everyone present.

"Listen up! Grab all these stubborn hillbillies and traitors. If they don't want to surrender, just kill them!"

The cruel sand hunters filed out from the sand hunter trucks one after another in single file, attacking everyone in the tribe with various weapons, and yelling triumphantly to Claude: "Haha, Claude, we guessed long ago that you wouldn't feel at ease when you got back. You really want to collude with these hillbillies!"

Although he was struggling to avoid the bullets that were flying in, Claude still didn't forget to hit back at Blandy: "This was probably the old man's idea. An idiot like you could never have thought of it."

"Watch out for your other leg, the old cowboy's marksmanship is second to none!"

"Bring this traitor in alive. I want to take his tongue back and feed it to the cat!" Blandy was completely enraged. He picked up a cannon from a sand hunter truck and fired frantically at the buildings in the village.

Claude might have gotten the better of him with his words, but the situation was now very bad. A large number of Blandy's thugs launched an indiscriminate attack on everyone. Clint and his group also believed that these thugs were brought over by him so they kept chasing him.

"Damn it." Claude rolled to the side and hid behind a fairly solid wall, preparing to get away with the holographic mirror device stolen from Dr. Rooney. But at this moment, he saw Mathilda trapped in the middle of the battlefield, and some sneaky thugs were raising their guns at her.

"Watch out!" Claude yelled. He flew out and pushed Mathilda away. Bullets flew by Mathilda's face, cutting off a strand of her hair.

"That was close." Claude lay on the ground and took a deep breath, then hid in a bunker with Mathilda.

On the other side, Clint's situation was not much better. Their plans had been disrupted by the spies mixed in with Claude's group, and things had become extremely chaotic. Although these villagers had been trained for some time, their real combat effectiveness was completely incomparable to those experienced sand hunters.

As some fell down to the ground, even more chose to lay down their weapons obediently and become prisoners.

Clint shouted angrily and had to continue to back away. Soon, he, Claude and Mathilda were surrounded in a small space.

Looking at the scene in front of him, Clint felt anger from the depth of his heart, thinking that it was all Claude's fault. But the situation forced him to cover Claude's back. He fired shots back at Blandy and the others.

"Mathilda, I'll cover you in a moment. You find a chance to dash out." Clint called out to Mathilda while shooting.

"Hey, brother, maybe there's another way?" Claude said with a hinting expression to Dexter.

Act Four

Blandy saw that his archenemy Clint, along with Claude, who he had always hated, had nowhere to escape and were about to be captured alive, but they slipped away under the noses of Blandy's men, which annoyed the always conceited Blandy. While scolding his useless subordinates, he kicked the sand with his lame leg to vent his anger.

No matter how much brainpower Blandy expended, he never would have thought that Claude and others would use the holographic mirroring device to escape behind them and then slip away quietly.

If they succeeded in occupying the tribal village but failed to capture Clint and Claude, there would be no way to explain this to Kane.

"Humph, tie up these hillbillies and the traitors who defected with that bastard Claude!"

"Leave a few people here to stay guard and the others will follow me. I must catch those three guys."

With Blandy and the others unrelentingly chasing them, Clint, Claude and Mathilda had to escape into the desert. Under the blazing sun, the three felt immensely tired and sleepy. They took a short break.

Clint's fist slammed into the sand with a "thump". He was annoyed that Blandy had plotted against him and that he had allowed innocent villagers to be captured.

To his side, Claude was relaxed, teasing Dexter as if nothing had happened. Seeing this, Clint could no longer restrain his anger, he drew his gun and pointed it at Claude, and yelled:

"You bastard! It's all because of you that we ended up like this!"

Claude waved his hand and said innocently: "I said at the beginning, I'll find another way to solve this thing. You're too excited, my friend."

"Your conscience might be better, but your temper is as bad as Blandy's!"

"If you show even a little bit of patience, we won't have been fooled."

"Of course, I wasn't lucky this time. Have pity on my brothers. That bastard Blandy will definitely take it out on them..." Claude chattered to himself, completely unaware of Clint's uncontrollable anger.

"You're just Kane's lackey. I want to bring you to justice!" Clint pulled out his gun and aimed it at Claude. In the end, Clint didn't shoot his gun, but he did hit Claude with a backhand, knocking him to the ground. Claude hated people slapping him in the face. This made him incredibly angry. He turned around and leaped towards Clint with his gun. The atmosphere suddenly became extremely tense.

"You crude idiot!" Claude scolded him bitterly.

At this time, Mathilda, who had been silent, suddenly stood in between the two, interrupting their dispute.

"All this is a misunderstanding. It was Claude who saved me from the rain of bullets." Mathilda turned around and explained to Clint.

"He came here because he wanted to help us, and then for everyone to work together to teach those thugs a lesson."

"It's only because there were spies in his group that someone stabbed us in the back." Following Mathilda's explanation, Clint gradually calmed down and slowly put the gun in his hand down.

"It can only be said that fate is not on my side, and some people are not very smart." Thinking that the misunderstanding had been completely resolved, Claude once again returned to his slapdash appearance, and continued to chatter about Clint.

"If you talk any more nonsense, I will knock out your front teeth!" Clearly, although Clint had temporarily let go of his hostility toward Claude for the time being, his anger had not yet dissipated.

After the dispute, the sun gradually set, and the three continued to walk towards the desert, leaving long shadows behind them.

Chapter 3