Chapter 6

The Apostle stood still, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I could tell he was staring at me. The mages around him didn’t move, as if they were waiting for a command from the Apostle to attack. Through the fading cloud of smoke behind me, several bullets were shot out, colliding with several of the mages. The shots were from Marie’s rifle, and despite being bolt action, were fired as if they were semi auto.

“Impressive as always. Keep the mages off me while I go for the Apostle.” I said to Marie through my earpiece.

I ran forward, shooting several times with my manifestation handgun, toward the Apostle. Marie, meanwhile, followed through hole in the barrier shooting at the incoming mages. The Apostle held his hand up, easily stopping my bullets. I clicked my tongue, and fired a few more times before dispersing my manifestation, instead opting for regular magic. I threw an onslaught of blue-hot fire at the Apostle, each one impacting with a ricocheting explosion and causing the air around to warp from the heat. The grass around the Apostle was instantly scorched, burning away and leaving a circle of charred ground. Yet the Apostle simply waved his hand and brushed away the flames. He then held his hand up, and translucent ice started to form into the shape of a large arrow, which he launched out of his hand at me. I pirouetted to the side while blasting the arrow with wind magic, causing it to explode in a hail of shards.

I continued my dash forward but was cut off by another ice arrow landing in front of me, before exploding in a shower of ice. I crossed my arms, blocking the attack with a wall of mana. Arrow after arrow was launched at me, and I dodged, blasted with wind, and blocked each on that I could while I was slowly making ground. Around me I heard the echo of Marie’s rifle, explosions, and the screams of mages as some of her bullets penetrated their mana shields. As I approached closer, the Apostle stopped firing arrows at me and instead held his hand over his head, a green light shimmering out of it. Then, forming in his hand was his own manifestation; a large scythe that crackled with green electricity. He then swung it across him, slicing through the air and a crescent of cracking lightning magic launched toward me. My eyes shot open at the unexpected attack, and I dropped down, sliding underneath the wave. As it passed over me, the lightning crackling off it arched to me, zapping me and sending a current through my mana shield. It was constantly draining my mana shield, and I only had one option to rectify this. I dropped my mana shield off me, the wildly crackling green lightning dying with it as it vanished off of me. I instantly started to form the shield on me again, but then I saw the Apostle readying another swing, his scythe crackling with more lightning, as he sliced it down vertically through the air.

***

Marie ran through the hole in the barrier and immediately took a crouching pose, taking aim through a side mounted optical sight on her rifle. She fired at one mage, held the recoiling rifle perfectly still and charged the bolt in a swift motion that seemed almost inhuman. Then, taking aim at another, fired again. And again. And again. Her movements were swift, precise, and immediate. She fired round after round through her rifle taking out mage after mage. Some mage shields held firm and only caused them to get thrown to the ground from the force, while others were not as lucky, or as strong, as the bullet would pierce through their mana shield, and the bullet exploded whatever body part that held it. As their mana shield would still be activated on their body, the blood and viscera that would get torn off from the bullet stayed within the shield, covering their entire body in the explosion of flesh.

Marie skillfully dodged the return fire of magic launched at her as fire, lightning, and earth shards landed around her. She turned her rifle over, held it tight under her arm, popped out the magazine with on hand and slammed in a fresh one with the other, turned it over and fired at another mage. The entire sequence was a blink-and-miss moment. Despite not having magical talent and not being magically enhanced, Marie moved faster than a regular human seemingly could. More and more mages poured out of seemingly nowhere, and eventually Marie was surrounded. Without a moment of hesitation, Marie fired twice in quick succession, taking out two mages before diving out of the way, dodging more spells thrown at her. The moment she landed on the ground, she shot another mage, sending them flying backwards. She then held the rifle tight to her body, rolled over several times, dodging an explosive fireball. The explosion left embers on her shirt sleeve, burning it and her skin. She didn’t react to the pain and instead got up into a crouched position, and fired on two more mages, killing one and knocking out the other. More spells were launched at her, and she dodged each one by closer margins each time. An earth spell clipped her left leg, causing her to cartwheel into the air. While spinning, Marie fired three shots at one mage, two of them missing, but the third hitting center mass and piercing right through.

Marie’s back slammed against the ground as she landed, causing her to cough out blood. Her grip held firm on her rifle as she propped it up against her leg, pulling the trigger and hitting a mage that was charging her with his manifestation. The bullet pierced through the mages shield, destroying his leg. Her chest was heaving as she started to lose stamina through the fight. She gulped down air as she pulled back the charging handle and saw that the gun was empty. She let out a quiet expletive and reached the side of her leg, only to find that when she hit the ground, multiple of her spare magazines had unclasped from her and were scattered on the ground. Then, her vision went white as an explosion hit next to her, sending her tumbling across the ground. She managed to hold on to her rifle as she got thrown across the ground and struggled to prop herself up. Her clothes were torn and shredded, parts of her pants smoldering with embers. Her thigh was bleeding, and her right forearm was torn open. She reached for her sidearm, a simple pistol that would be standard issue in some North American countries and fired it at the last mage that was still attacking her. The pistol was only chambered in .45, a far cry from the .50 BMG she was using in her rifle, and she simply was using it as a last-ditch effort and kept it on her as a memento more than anything. She only expected this to buy her some time to hope that maybe Ryuki could save her, but, to her surprise, the bullets sailed right through the mage's mana shield, killing him. Marie blinked several times in surprise, then let out a small chuckle.

“That explains why that fire spell didn’t kill me.” Marie said with an exasperated sigh.

The mage was weak enough that the explosive fire spell that she was hit with didn’t kill her, only maimed her. Marie coughed several times and winced as the pain from her wounds started to overtake the adrenaline coursing through her body. She looked across the courtyard to see that Ryuki was still fighting to reach the Apostle. She then noticed that the lightning that was crackling on Ryuki dispersed. Though not magically talented herself, Ryuki had told her much about how mages work and how each element interacts with the world. She knew that lightning made from magic likes to cling to mana and won’t die out unless that same mana is removed or dies. She instantly knew that Ryuki had dropped his shield. Then, she saw the Apostle raise up his manifested scythe. Time slowed for Marie; she scrambled on the charred ground, grabbed a loose bullet, slammed it into her rifle, pulled the charging bolt, took aim at the Apostle, and fired, screaming through the pain of her broken body.