Chapter 6 Duel in the Sun and Moon

Oddly, Mark had been walking through a canyon with Gabe. "So, kid? What is it that you wanna learn?" Meanwhile, Gabe had been looking around vigilantly, almost like he had always been on guard. The real question to ask in this situation was, there was Leroy? Didn't he just join them? All of a sudden, Leroy appeared out of nowhere with a throwing knife in his hand, he charged at Gabe at full speed. Gabe threw a throwing knife at Leroy, which he dodged by jumping over it. Leroy was now falling toward Gabe with the knife in his hand, Gabe stood his ground with two knives at the ready for if Leroy landed. The two had locked eyes as if they were battling. "LEROY!" Gabe yelled as loud as he could. "GABRIEL!" Leroy also yelled as he possibly could. Just then, Leroy eventually was right in front of Gabe, which is where he chose to swing his knife, Gabe did the same, and they both clashed knives. Leroy's feet landed on the ground, which made the odds even. The two kept pushing each other as hard as they possibly could, but in the end, Leroy was victorious and pushed Gabe to the ground, making him use his own knife against himself. "I win. Again." Leroy smiled cockily. Mark then put his hands on Leroy's back. "Alright that's enough Leroy, you can stop now." Leroy then stopped pushing his knife, also putting his hand out so that he could help Gabe get off the ground, which Gabe took and got up. "Leroy, you are clearly naturally gifted." Mark smiled along with Leroy who smiled cockily. "Yeah, I guess I am." Leroy acted like he just won an election, just a total jerk. "But.." Mark wasn't finished talking. "You are nowhere near Renroy's level of power, not even close." This made Leroy angry, Gabe then began to laugh at him very hard. "HAHA! You aren't as perfect as you think you are!" Mark then proceeded to hit Gabe in the head. "HEY! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" Mark looked angry. "At Least Leroy is doing this training exercise with success! He is actually capturing you!" Gabe looked like he didn't like this exercise. "Drunken Master? Why do we have to do this type of training anyway? Can't we just learn some new moves that you know?" Leroy sighed, annoyed by Gabe. "This exercise is a perfect one for both of you. Think about it like this." Gabe and Leroy listened. "For you Leroy, you are training to be a better Bounty hunter, your goal is to capture the bounty as best you can and if you do, then you win and improve yourself." Gabe looked annoyed. "Alright, then why is Leroy getting all the training here and I'm not!" Mark answered. "Well, you actually are, or would be.." Gabe was confused. "Well, you have a real target on your back and you came with me for protection and also to train to defend yourself, well in this exercise your goal is to keep yourself safe from Leroy and learn to better protect yourself in the future without my help." Leroy sighed like he already knew this, which he did. "Why can't you always just defend me?" "Well, I won't always be around to defend you and it's never good to be reliant on something or someone because, in the end, it makes you weaker." Gabe thought he had a better understanding now. "Plus, many famous bounty hunters had bounties of their own and managed to take care of themselves very well. For instance, the First Sheriff had a bounty once, a high one, and he was so good at defending himself that he was known as the untouchable." Gabe was impressed, he always saw the First Sheriff as a goal. "Did anyone ever get remotely close to catching him?" "Nope, eventually the person who put the bounty on him gave up and he was free from it. Still cracks me up." Gabe got excited, Leroy on the other hand didn't care. "Can we just continue on with the training?" Gabe got mad at Leroy, he hated the training, mostly because Leroy always won. "Actually, we're gonna change things up a bit." Leroy and Gabe were confused. "Now, I'm gonna be defending Gabe." Leroy got shocked, and Gabe got happy. "Alright!" Gabe chanted. "But Master? Didn't you just say that overreliance is a bad thing?" "Well, think about it like this. Clearly, this exercise is too easy for you, so I decided to make things a bit more challenging. Not to mention, when you are a bounty hunter, you are faced with challenges like this all the time. Bodyguards, other bounty hunters who want that money, basically people who will get in your way." It made sense to Leroy, but he still didn't feel confident enough to beat Mark. "The challenge is, you are going to fake kill Gabe until the moon rises, if you fail to do so before then, I will drop you as my student." Leroy's jaw dropped, he didn't think he could ever complete this challenge. "Do you accept?" Leroy wanted to try his best to reach Renroy's level, the third most powerful man in the west, he would do anything he could to do so. "Yes sir! I will do what it takes!" Leroy clenched his fist, he was ready. Mark was excited, but deep down he had faith in Leroy. Meanwhile, Gabe was just laughing inside, he didn't really care about any of this and all he saw was that he didn't need to do anything at the moment, Lazy kid.

Mark and Gabe were walking through the Canyon, Mark was once again talking with Gabe as if he didn't care about Leroy. Meanwhile, Leroy was hiding behind some rocks in the Canyon, thinking of a strategy. 'Alright, so I am not sure about a lot of Master's techniques. I know that he is known to be fast enough to stop bullets with a knife, he is also very smart and most likely has been in this situation before.' Leroy kept thinking and thinking of ways to outsmart Mark, eventually, he came up with something.

The two were still walking like normal through the Canyon when all of a sudden Leroy jumped out of nowhere with the throwing knife, he threw it. Like the Lone Stranger and the gun, Mark quickly deflected the knife. "I expected more from you, Leroy, trying to catch a master like me off guard." Leroy just stood there, not looking nervous at all. Leroy then proceeded to throw 2 more knives, which Mark deflected with his knife again. Leroy smiled deviously, Mark was confused by this. "Fine, you've won this round, I'll go back to the mountains." Leroy then walked off, making Mark wonder what his strategy is.

Leroy's plan was coming to fruition, he then decided to start the next phase. Mark and Gabe kept walking, Gabe looked tired as hell and as if he didn't want to be there. "Drunken Master?? When are we gonna make camp?" Mark was too busy being on guard for Leroy's plan, but he couldn't just say nothing. "We'll make camp once we get out of the Canyon, mainly because it's dangerous to be in one." Gabe was suddenly scared. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S DANGEROUS TO BE IN A CANYON!? THEN WHY THE HELL ARE WE HERE!?" Mark chuckled. "First off it's a shortcut, second off it's a perfect training spot." Gabe was confused, he asked what Mark meant. "Well, think about it like this. Bounty hunting isn't something anyone can do, with bounty hunting you can't just kill somebody that easily, you have to use your brains. Think of the best possible strategy to complete your mission. The Canyon is a hard place to capture a target, and therefore it is a challenge for you two, a sort of test." Gabe finally got the gist of it. "Oh I see, so you're putting us in a hard position so we are forced to use our brains to do the training?" Mark smiled. "That's a boy! Now you're starting to think like a bounty hunting master. Just then a noise was heard, Mark gestured to Gabe to stop moving, which he did. Mark listened as best he could to see where Leroy was, but he heard nothing. Mark was going to keep walking until a giant boulder started falling above them. Naturally, Mark jumped as fast and as high as he could to smash the boulder, leaving Gabe on the ground. Leroy took this opportunity and dashed for Gabe, thinking he had won this one, only for Mark to appear in front of Leroy. 'He's so fast! I can't get past him!' Leroy then side-kicked Mark, only for him to block it with his wrist. The two engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Leroy was using a knife and some martial arts he had learned, while Mark had been using nothing but his fists. Leroy went for a punch that Mark blocked by grabbing, only for Mark to throw Leroy away and land on his feet. "You're tough," Leroy admitted as he was out of breath. "You're not bad yourself kid, clearly you've done some training on your own." Leroy smiled, he then threw a throwing knife above Mark. "You missed kid, clearly you're too tired." Leroy laughed. "I typically don't miss 80% of the time." Mark was confused, he then looked up only to see another boulder fall down. 'He must have thrown his throwing knife at some sort of trap that made the boulder fall. Clever kid.' Mark then grabbed Gabe and jumped out of the way with him. "Wow, that was close!" Gabe said, reassured. When the boulder hit the ground, it made all the dirt fly around and become dust, creating a dust cloud. 'He also used the boulder like a smoke bomb, too clever.' Mark thought he still had the upper hand because he knew where Gabe was, only to find he had been gone. 'THAT DUMB KID WALKED OFF! WHAT AN IDIOT!' Gabe was walking around in the dust cloud, trying to see the best he could. "Drunken Master? Where are you?" Gabe was oblivious to his surroundings, as he did not see that Leroy had been right behind him. 'Finally, you will see how great I am.' Leroy thought to himself.

It was now nighttime, Gabe was still calling for Mark but he couldn't hear Gabe since Gabe had walked too far away from him in the dust cloud, leaving him vulnerable to Leroy. It turns out that Leroy had brought special goggles along the trip, he was now wearing them to prevent sand from getting in his face. Leroy also wore a cloth over his mouth so he could prevent sand from touching his face, making it a bit easier to breathe. 'You're mine now.' Leroy then ran full speed to Gabe, his knife in hand, ready to catch him. Gabe heard Leroy running since it was close by, at first he thought it was Mark, but he then remembered what Mark told him. 'Bounty hunting isn't something anyone can be, with bounty hunting you can't just kill somebody easy, you have to use your brains.' Gabe thought that Mark would want him to be smart about this, not think of it in a simple way. Gabe took out a throwing knife and aimed it toward the footsteps, he held it ready to throw and waited. The footsteps began to get closer and closer until Leroy came out of the dust cloud. "You're mine now nobody!" Gabe freaked out as Leroy came out of nowhere, he didn't know where to aim since Leroy had been trained to deal with throwing knives. All of sudden, Gabe saw something in his head, almost like a dream, it was a vision of him throwing a knife at Leroy and it hit him. Leroy kept charging at Gabe when he noticed something different about him, his eyes had glowed completely dark blue as he opened them from the dust cloud. Gabe threw exactly where his visionary self threw the knife, Leroy's foot. Instead of getting stabbed by the throwing knife, Leroy had accidentally tripped over it, he then fell right next to Gabe's face-first to the ground. Gabe took this opportunity and jumped on Leroy's back, holding his throwing knife under his throat. "I've won Leroy! You lose!" Leroy was extremely angry, he had so many questions running through his head, what was going on with his eyes? Why did he all of a sudden perfectly aim that throwing knife? It didn't matter to Leroy, because losing wasn't an option for him. "Lose? HA! You wish I'd let you get even one step ahead of me!" Leroy proceeded to get up off the ground with no effort by throwing Gabe off his back since of course, Leroy was slightly bigger than him. Gabe immediately got to his feet along with Leroy, Gabe made a run for it in the dust cloud, but before he could get away Leroy tackled Gabe. "I don't know how you did that with the knife, but it doesn't matter, because I've won!" Leroy smiled. "Nope, you don't. Both of you win." Leroy and Gabe were confused as the dust cloud disappeared, only to see Mark standing right next to them. "What do you mean we both win?" Mark was smiling. "Well, first off Gabe won because he successfully tripped and put you at his mercy, implying if this was real that he would have killed you." Gabe then started laughing and chanting that he won. "Alright!" Mark cut him off, however. "But, then again I never actually did set rules to the training exercise, I basically implied that Leroy had unlimited chances until tomorrow morning, which he used as an opportunity to escape you and put you at his mercy." Gabe didn't understand, which Leroy saw. "He basically said that there was never a rule that I couldn't fake die and come back to capture you." Once Gabe understood, he got disappointed. "So what you're saying is, we both win…" Both Leroy and Gabe looked extremely disappointed. "Alright, I know it may seem like that kid, but hear me out." The two decided to listen. "I never was actually going to stop being your teacher Leroy, I just wanted to see your best, but if I said this was a normal exercise you wouldn't have taken it seriously." Leroy stopped looking disappointed and thought it was a pretty smart tactic. "As for you Gabe, you basically showed me that you aren't always reliant on other people, which is a good start." Gabe also felt better, he even smiled at Mark. "Thanks, Drunken Master, I promise to be the best bounty hunter one day." Mark smiled, he thought his students had potential and looked forward to seeing them grow in the future. "Alright then! Let's make camp and call it a night!" Both Gabe and Leroy walked with Mark out of the Canyon, moving on with their journey.

Eventually, they did make it out of the Canyon and set up camp. Gabe laid in his sleeping bag near the campfire that Mark had made, Leroy was not sitting by the fire, however. Instead, Leroy had been sitting on a nearby log, looking away from the fire, constantly on guard by the horizon. Mark had also been awake, he looked at Gabe while he was sleeping, proud of him for what happened today, but also concerned. 'Was that really what I thought it was?' It's then revealed that Mark had been there today while Leroy and Gabe were fighting alone, he was about to intervene and save Gabe, when he saw the dark blue eyes and stopped in place completely shocked. 'He's so young though, he couldn't have unlocked it now.' Mark thought about it long and hard, he knew exactly what those Dark blue eyes were. 'For now, I will just wait to see how it plays out, if it shows up again I will tell him.' Mark then decided to go to bed, but couldn't stop thinking about those eyes. 'Those eyes, they were the same as the First Sheriff's...'