Gatling Fist

Gatling Fist is a Recoil-powered barrage that turns speed into a continuous assault. Yuan Guang performs it against Gayak after absorbing Gatling Man’s bullet-core, using the technique’s inherited muscle memory to overwhelm a defender who had previously been able to withstand the blows. The fight shows both the technique’s force and its demands: Yuan can execute it with his enhanced body, but stopping before Gayak falls risks leaving him unable to control the qi surging through him.

Identity and Acquisition

Gatling Fist emerges from the unusual bodily inheritance that follows Yuan’s absorption of his enemy’s bullet-core. The absorption gives him more than stolen qi: his body moves with muscle memory he never possessed, and that involuntary knowledge includes a particular technique. The narration identifies the newly available attack as Gatling Fist, linking it directly to Gatling Man even though Yuan is the one now capable of fully performing it.

The technique’s first decisive use comes immediately after Yuan closes the distance to Gayak with a Recoil Shockwave. His initial strike meets Gayak’s anticipated counter, but the inherited movements carry Yuan past that single exchange and into a sustained combination. The sequence is therefore not presented as a technique Yuan slowly develops through practice in this fight. It arrives as embodied knowledge, triggered in combat and converted into action before Gayak can regain control of the encounter.

Mechanics and Physical Demands

Gatling Fist combines the Recoil Fist with immense speed. Recoil-powered bursts drive Yuan’s fists and elbows like pistons, allowing him to deliver one blow after another with almost no room for reprieve or escape. The strikes are powerful enough to break the sound barrier. Its defining feature is not simply a strong punch, but the conversion of repeated recoil into an ongoing barrage that keeps pressure on a target.

Gatling Man had used the technique before, but lacked the skill to execute it properly. His version depended on extensive qi-powered machinery to withstand the velocity and stress imposed on his arms; he had not yet crossed the Third Coil. Yuan’s enhanced body can carry out the combination without that machinery. This difference makes the bullet-core’s inherited muscle memory more than a copy of Gatling Man’s movements: Yuan’s body can supply what Gatling Man’s technique required external machinery to manage.

That advantage does not make Gatling Fist effortless. The speed strains Yuan’s arms, and his metal skin begins peeling from his knuckles. His exhaust ports and skin struggle to expel the extra qi coursing through him. Yuan recognizes that he may collapse as soon as he stops and that pausing while the combination is underway could bring a terrible backlash. The technique’s uninterrupted rhythm is thus both its offensive strength and a danger to its user.

Use Against Gayak

Gayak initially appears capable of withstanding the barrage. His palms and gut-tentacles parry and deflect the blows, while short-lived Barriers formed at his palms weaken the shockwaves enough for him to guard. Four eyes on his chest track Yuan’s movements, helping him anticipate the attacks. Against Gatling Fist alone, these defenses threaten to create the same opening Gayak had previously used against Gatling Man: if Yuan slips, Gayak could catch his breath and break the deadlock.

Yuan answers by changing the conditions of the exchange. He breathes Black Haze toward Gayak’s chest, veiling the extra eyes in gunsmoke. Once Gayak can no longer read the barrage as effectively, one punch slips past his guard and bursts an eye. Yuan then combines Black Haze with Gatling Fist, concealing his movements in smoke in a manner reminiscent of Toshiro’s approach during their duel in the Thunderlands. The smoke does not replace the rapid punches; it makes the repeated attacks harder to anticipate and helps the barrage pass through Gayak’s defenses.

With Gayak unable to recover, the blows spread across his face, chest, and shoulders. Attempts to guard cost him his forearms; his effort to breathe fire draws an uppercut that breaks his jaw and crushes his windpipe; sidestepping only brings a counterpunch that drives him back into Yuan’s range. Pinned against Asa-Zakura’s Barrier, Gayak is battered until his skull breaks and his gut-tentacles are blasted apart. Yuan continues despite the pain and visible damage to his own hands, because he knows that stopping could leave the accumulated qi uncontrolled.

Outcome and Significance

The final blow shatters Gayak’s skull and the Barrier behind him. Yuan’s forward momentum carries him into the wreckage of the Bullet Church, where Gayak’s brain, blood, and broken bones stain his fist. The salt in the arena then vanishes in swirling colored mists along with the demon sumo who summoned it. Yuan surmises that his contract bound Asa-Zakura to serve only until Gayak’s death, and falls to his knees with aching, spasming limbs, relieved that the fight is over.

Gatling Fist’s importance lies in the conjunction of inherited technique, physical capacity, and tactical adjustment. The bullet-core gives Yuan access to Gatling Man’s movements, but it is Yuan’s body that allows him to perform the barrage without the machinery Gatling Man needed. Even then, raw speed cannot overcome Gayak’s defenses on its own: Yuan has to blind the extra eyes with Black Haze and use the smoke to hide his attacks. The victory demonstrates the technique at its most effective while preserving its cost—the assault succeeds, but Yuan’s body is pushed to the edge of failure.