The two men were now thirty meters apart.
"Billy the Kid," Henry's voice rang out across the square. "I'm giving you one last chance. Turn around and leave now. I guarantee no one will fire a shot. And no one will pursue you for at least an hour."
A wide grin split Billy's face, which then vanished, replaced by a look of grim sincerity. "Thank you, Henry. But the only thing I live for now is the fire of the gun. So, let's do this. Bring your best. Kill me, or be killed by me."
"So be it," Henry said, his voice low. "Thor! Give the signal!"
"Ready!" Thor yelled.
BANG! His revolver spat fire at the sky.
Billy and Henry drew and fired in the same instant.
Henry had chosen his single-action Colt 1873 for this duel. As he focused his mind, Billy's lightning-fast movements seemed to slow, every detail becoming perfectly clear. His own LV 4 Handgun Mastery was on the same tier as Billy's skill, and his LV 3 Constitution put their physical speed on a similar level.
But with his new talent, his reaction speed was five times faster. That gave him a decisive advantage.
Even so, he couldn't stop Billy from getting a shot off. Billy's draw was impossibly fast, under five-hundredths of a second. The bullet from Billy's gun was already in the air as Henry's own shot left the barrel.
A hole erupted in Billy the Kid's throat, and he fell backward. At that same moment, the bullet he had fired was less than ten meters from Henry.
Henry was in a strange state. His powerful vision and accelerated senses allowed him to perfectly track the bullet's trajectory, but his attempt to shoot it out of the air failed. It was like watching a rock fly toward you; you can see it clearly, but you can't hit it with a rock of your own.
He knew that if he hadn't had his shields, his body's reaction speed would have at least allowed him to dodge a fatal wound.
For the first time, under the bright noon sun, he witnessed exactly how the pearl husks worked.
When the bullet was two meters in front of him, an invisible barrier shimmered into existence, deflecting it at a slight angle. It zipped past him, missing by half a meter, and vanished into the distance.
Don't get cocky, Henry warned himself. Just because you can shoot a stone out of the air doesn't mean you can intercept a bullet.
Huh? A new green pearl, pulsing with the light of a skill or talent, appeared in his vision.
"Sheriff," Thor cried out, his voice filled with a mixture of gratitude and pure awe. "You're a god of the gun!"
Henry just smiled. He liked the sound of that. He strode toward Billy's body. The shot had nearly torn the outlaw's head from his shoulders.
After a quick search, Henry took his money pouch and his pistol. "Thor," he said, "his head is worth five thousand dollars. Take him back to the office, notify the authorities in New Mexico, and use my bounty hunter's license to claim the reward. Then take his horse to my stable."
"Yes, Sheriff!" Thor replied smartly.
The only reason Henry hadn't aimed for the head was because of the bounty. He supposed that just as the ancient world had its martial arts fanatics, it was only natural for the modern age to have its own fanatics of the gun. But he'd also sensed a death wish in the young outlaw.
He wasn't Billy's keeper, nor was he a priest. And with a bounty that high, there was no other way for Billy's story to end. He had sought an honorable death, and Henry had granted it.
Henry mounted his horse and rode back toward the office, the cheers of the townsfolk following him.
"You're a legend, Sheriff Henry!"
"That's how it's done, Henry!"
"Blow the head off every last one of 'em!"
He smiled and tipped his hat to the crowd. "Hank," he called out, "assist Thor with the horse and the body." Then he rode on.
Back in his office, Henry locked the door, sat down, and eagerly used the new green pearl.
Instantly, the warm current washed over him. He felt an innate quickness infuse his body, a permanent twenty percent increase in his natural speed.
A minute later, he was himself again. No new skills had appeared on his panel. He had gained a new talent: Agility. He suspected the effect had been much stronger for Billy, whose base constitution was far inferior to his own.
Henry was now incredibly eager to see what would happen when he reached Level 3. If his talents appeared on the panel, it meant they could be upgraded. His power would increase exponentially.
In close combat, he felt he was already unbeatable. Even with his Boxing at only LV 1, his Dagger and Fencing skills were at LV 4. He now made a conscious decision not to practice boxing, for fear of accidentally leveling it up. If it reached LV 2, he wouldn't be able to absorb a potential LV 5 skill from a future master, and that was a chance he couldn't afford to waste.
With his upgrades complete, Henry went to the Phoenix Saloon for lunch.
He had just settled into his private room when Drummond knocked and entered.
The saloon owner closed the door and handed him a file. "This is what I have for now. The black market's archives have multiple clearance levels. My contact can only get me B-level files. Above that, there's A-level and S-level."
Henry's heart sank with disappointment. I waited three days for this?
But as he opened the file and began to read, he realized that even B-level intelligence was far more detailed than anything the Sheriff's office had.
It contained the names, genders, ages, addresses, personality profiles, and notable abilities of McKinley family members all across the country. It listed their industries and their marriage alliances. It even had a basic summary of the family's annual income, their total assets, their management structure, and their military strength—key personnel, troop numbers, commanders, and general garrison locations.
But critical details were missing: specific weapon loadouts, precise troop deployments, the commanders' combat records, the true strength of their alliances, and the factions within the family's leadership.
He also suspected that even this B-level data was incomplete, likely showing less than half of their true strength.