Hold Until Nightfall

I had more than enough points, and the purchase still wouldn't go through.

The only thing I had to go on was a single word: slot. 1/1 meant there was one slot, and right now that slot was full.

So I can't buy another gun because I already have one? You've got to be kidding me...

"Hey!! Why'd you stop all of a sudden?! Trying to become monkey food, are you?!"

"J-just wait a second! Please! Hold them a little longer!!!"

I had no choice but to inspect the gun I already had. A spent casing was jammed in the ejection port, keeping the whole thing from cycling.

Casings auto-disintegrated a few seconds after they fully cleared the weapon, same as the bullets themselves. But that only happened once they were completely out — if one hung up on the way, it could still jam. All I had to do was pull the casing free, but my hands were shaking so badly from the panic that even that wouldn't work.

"Nngh... come on... just come out..."

I tried to push the stuck casing out with my finger, but the trembling and the sweat made it nearly impossible to get a proper grip on the gun.

A spray of monster blood splashed across my face.

"What the hell are you doing?! Hurry it up!!!"

The woman was still cutting down the monsters as they poured in, one after another. She looked exhausted. If I didn't help her, she was going to hit her limit too.

No time for this! I have to get it done!

I snapped myself together and forced the casing out of the ejection port with everything I had.

"Get down!!!!"

The instant she ducked, I opened up in every direction.

I fired and fired, swapping magazines, never letting up. Then I spotted a stretch where their numbers looked thinner.

"Left side! I'm going to concentrate fire over there — we run that way!"

"What? ...Fine!! Whatever it takes, just do it!!"

Bang! Bang! Ba-bang! Bang!

The clustered ones went down in heaps. Aiming barely mattered. There were so many of them that spraying in that direction was enough — they lined themselves up for me.

"Now! Run!"

Only then did she break the stance she'd been holding the entire time and take a step. We bolted for the gap we'd punched open. A few of them lunged at us, but one or two I could knock aside with my own strength — they weren't a real threat.

"Where are you even going?!"

"Water! Toward the water!"

"Water? You thirsty?"

"No, that's not—!"

No time to explain. They were coming after us through the trees, shadows sailing through the air whipping past overhead. Individually, none of them were threatening. But there were so many, and they were so fast. Trying to thin them out by shooting into the canopy while running was a waste — I wasn't going to hit anything. I shot anyway. Every time a round cracked off, they seemed to hesitate, just a little.

"Hah... hah...."

"You're slowing down! Faster... you're bleeding from the leg."

I'd been fighting these things alone before the fox-eared woman showed up. The wound I'd taken on my leg in the process was still there, and the blood loss was starting to make my head swim.

"Eep?"

She scooped me up without warning and started running. I found myself in the air in an instant, staring at her face in bewilderment.

Why is this person so strong? She's carrying me at this speed?

A week of rolling around in this body had me thinking my stamina was even better than when I'd been a man. That confidence was taking a hit.

Click.

"Oh, come on!!"

Jammed again. Still in her arms, I racked the slide and shook the stuck casing out of the ejection port. Faster this time. Second time's the charm.

I even field-stripped it this afternoon, so why...!

I thought that about three times. All three times, no answer came.

Then a familiar sound started to reach us. The rush of water I'd been drinking from, washing in, and catching fish from for a week.

"Go in that way!"

Still holding me, she plunged into water that came up to her waist. A cold shock soaked my back and crawled up my spine.

And they stopped.

A few of them tried to follow, but they were short and hunched — wading in would put them in over their heads. More importantly, this was a stream channel, so the trees on both banks stood apart. That meant open sky overhead. I could see it: a red sky, almost fully set. A place where they couldn't do the one thing they were best at — climbing trees. That was why I'd run here.

She didn't stop, carrying us to the far bank. She climbed out, set me back on the ground, shook out her soaked clothes, and looked across the water.

"Not bad. You actually use that head of yours."

"Hah... too early to relax. See over there? There's rocks — they might cross. They're already heading that way..."

There was only one place they could reasonably cross. A few rocks jutted from the fast current, strung together like stepping stones. They were already running for it, and we had to move. We needed to keep dropping the ones in front before they could close the distance. For that, I needed more ranged firepower.

If I give her this one, maybe the slot frees up and I can buy another gun?

"Take this! Rest your finger here, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠point it at them, and pull. Do not point this end toward yourself!"

"Huh? What in the world is this?"

"No time to explain, just hurry! Think of it as a magic tool and use it on them!"

I physically put her hands on the gun, showed her how to hold it, and aimed it at them.

"Pull the trigger!"

Click.

Click click click.

Nothing happened.

"Are you making a fool of me, girl? Nothing's happening!"

"What? Is it jammed again?"

I snatched the gun back from her hands and fired it myself.

Bang!!

It fired just fine.

So nobody can use it but me? You've got to be... And handing it to her didn't even change the slot?

The plan to put a gun in her hands and double our ranged firepower was a complete bust.

Nothing for it. We'd bottlenecked their approach to a rock crossing they couldn't turn back from, where at most four or five could come across at a time. We had to thin them out here as much as we could.

"We go to the rocks too! They can't swarm us all at once, so we cut their numbers as much as possible!"

"Understood!"

We headed for the rocks. She immediately dropped back into her Battōjutsu stance, and I took a slightly off-angle position and trained my sights on them. I'd drop most of them; the ones that made it all the way across, she'd handle. I'd felt it earlier too — we actually worked pretty well together. Once you had a melee DPS and a ranged DPS, the whole thing got a lot more stable.

Ammunition wasn't even a concern. Twenty-five points a kill. A fifteen-round magazine cost forty-five. Drop just two of them with fifteen rounds and I could buy a fresh mag. Standing right here, I was never going to run out of bullets. Shoot. Mag empty, buy a new one, slap it in, shoot again. The rhythm locked in.

"I'll say this — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that magic of yours is something else!"

"Magic... ah... yeah! Sure, I guess!..."

Click.

Click.

Click.

Click.

"...Huh? Again?????"

The gun went on strike again. But this was different. It wasn't a stovepipe. The ejection port was clean. There was a round in the chamber, and pulling the trigger just gave me a click.

Just in case, I opened the Gun Shop again. And there, along the edge — a warning I'd missed because I'd been slamming magazines through as fast as I could buy them.

I'd had a couple of malfunctions already, but the gun had still been shooting. Unassembled parts, though — that was something else.

"Hey! Why'd you go quiet again?!"

"W-wait a second!!!"

There was only one way. I had to tear it down and look. Eyes and hands, all of it, on the gun. Which meant I'd be doing nothing, and the woman swinging a sword in front of me would have to hold the line alone. Again.

I didn't even know her name. We'd met less than an hour ago, and she called me knife-ears. And for the second time, I was about to put my life in her hands.

I dropped straight to the ground and got my hands on the gun.

"Give me a minute! No... two... two minutes?"

"What? Two minutes? We don't have— khh!! I don't know what you're doing, just do it!"

"Three... three minutes...."

"Aaaagh!!!"

I stripped the gun. The same thing that had cost me two hours of fumbling this afternoon. Then I forced myself to look calmly at the internals of the slide.

This... I put it in backwards?

One of the parts wasn't seated in the correct orientation, and it was interfering with the travel of the others. It looked like a plain rectangle, but one face had a protrusion. This afternoon I'd thought I was done. I'd assembled it, fired a few rounds, and it had worked, so I'd figured that was that. Then I'd gone and hummed to myself while washing in the stream.

A few rounds had been fine. A few dozen, a few hundred — that was a different story.

The woman's breathing in front of me was getting harsher. At first her cuts had been too fast to follow with the eye; now they were slowing, and I could actually see her draw, cut, and return the blade to the scabbard in a single motion.

"Faster... faster..."

My hands shook. Wet fingers kept dropping the parts.

Calm down... just seat this and get the slide back on and you're done. You've done it once — you know the order. You stared at this thing for two hours this afternoon... it's nothing....

Those two hours of fumbling were helping, at least a little.

"Khh... hey!!! Two minutes are up!!"

"Got it!!"

I raised the gun to fire — and something off caught my eye.

It was far bigger than the others. Maybe twice the size of a person, its fur not white but something closer to ash-gray. And it hadn't crossed the rocks. It had come around along the bank, angling for our backs. The monkey swarm in front of us. Behind us, what looked like their leader, closing in.

"Why aren't you using your magic?!"

"The big one's behind us! I think it's the leader!!"

"What? That thing's strong! A scrawny little knife-ears like you takes even one hit and there won't be bones left to pick up!..."

BANG!!!

BANG!! BANG BANG!! BANG!!!

A bigger body meant a bigger target. And the destructive power of modern science was not something an ape's hide was going to tank. I dumped an entire magazine into it, punching holes all over its body.

For something that looked like a boss mob had just walked onstage, it was a pretty anticlimactic exit.

"Got it!"

"Then get over here and help me already!!"

There was no such thing as a break. Even with the leader gone, they kept coming, and the woman was swinging without pause, holding them off, getting painted in blood.

Bang!

"You little—!!! It clipped past me and I cut it without thinking, but do not point that magic at me!! You trying to die?!"

"Eek!! I-I'm sorry!!"

I'd been in a hurry, aimed sloppy, and nearly hit her. But... cut it? What did that mean...

She cut... the bullet? Yeah, no. She's got to be making that up... right?

Either way, we fell back into rhythm and kept cutting their numbers down. The seething mass had thinned a little, but there were still a lot of them. Where this many of the things had even come from was a mystery in itself.

I looked at the sky. The sun was gone. Aside from a sliver of light still clinging to the horizon, moonlight was starting to settle over the land.

I wasn't the only one getting restless. They were watching the sky too. Their movements slowed.

A week. I'd spent a week of nights in this forest. And I'd never seen these things after dark. What came out at night were snakes. Wolves.

"If we just... hold a little longer, I think we'll be okay!"

"What?"

"Them! Some of them are peeling off from the pack! I think they pull back when night falls! We just have to hold until they all run!"

"...Got it! That's all I needed!"

She let out a short laugh. She'd been staring down an endless wave of monsters, and the moment a time limit appeared, some of the fight came back into her.

The fight went on for a few more minutes, and then it was fully night.

Screech! Skree!!

They all started to pull back. All at once.

"Did they... leave???"

The strength went out of my legs and I sat down hard. Blood, water, and mud were caked all over me. The scrap of hide I'd been wearing was in such a state I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was embarrassed to even call it a scrap of hide.

"You planning to sit there all night?"

"No... we should move... let's head back to my camp for now."

Without so much as a rest, we started walking.