Total Destruction

"Commander! ...Commander!!!"

They're calling for me.

"Commander Kane!!!" 

"Shuddup! I hear you already, jeez..."

Bright abruptly stops yelling as I slowly step out of the RV, lodged deep in the ditch on the side of the road. I was trying to gather my thoughts after what happened but I guess I can't even have the peace and quiet needed to do that. How could I be so stupid? I wasn't paying attention and now I've crashed one of the rebellion RVs. God, I'm gonna be in so much shit...

"Bright, can you call HQ and tell them to send another RV?" I turn to Bright.

"Got it commander." He bows his head before turning his back and dialing HQ.

"Alright everyone, it seems we'll have to remain in this little town for a bit until reinforcements come. Don't go too far." I say to the group.

Cyrus hits his fist against his palm.

"I'm gonna go find that dumbass who was in the road and give him a piece of my mind!" He says before stomping off.

"Oh! Let me come!" Otto quickly runs after him and together they storm into the bar the man walked into.

I notice Link and Emerald sitting beside the crashed RV, not doing much of anything.

"What do you two plan to do while we wait?" I ask them.

Of course, Link is the only one who responds.

"Well, we might go see if any nearby stores have anything good to eat. Emerald's stomach was rumbling earlier." He grins.

Emerald punches his arm.

"Was not."

Link chuckles and I turn back to the town.

"Reinforcements are on their way with another RV commander." Bright approaches me after finishing his call.

"Good. You can go exploring if you'd like now." I say to him.

"No that's okay. I don't have too much interest in exploring."

"Why'd you apply for this mission anyways?"

Bright looks down.

"Well it's kinda embarrassing but... I've always wanted to be a military commander, like you. I figured I might as well apply for something and put my arcana to use. I have to start somewhere y'know?" He rubs the back of his neck.

"I see. Well you're a good soldier Bright. I'm sure you'll make it there eventually." I pat him on the shoulder.

His face lights up as he smiles from ear to ear.

"Thank you sir!" He quickly bows his head.

"Haha, and stop calling me sir. Kane is good enough." I say to him.

"Yes! Of course! Kane!" 

"Atta boy." I say to him before stepping forward to check out the town.

It's an old looking town, with buildings made of wood and not a lot of people walking around. There's a bar to the right and a few shops on the left that Link and Emerald seem to be browsing. Emerald seems quite interested in the bag of nacho cheese flavoured chips. There's a motel in the distance that seems to be one of the only buildings you can refuge in this town. 

An old man slowly approaches me and starts a conversation. He seems to be a local.

"Were you the one responsible for that accident across the street?" He asks.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention and almost crashed into some man in the street." I reply.

"Was it Rush?" He tilts his head.

"Rush? What's that?" I ask him in return, sounding confused.

"Oh, he comes into town every few days and has a drink at our bar. He doesn't talk much but he's known for being quite reckless. It could have been him in the street. Oh, I'm glad he's not hurt..." He mutters before wandering off.

"Rush huh? Sounds like an idiot to me." I hear a voice from behind me.

It's Link coming out of one of the nearby shops. Emerald follows closely behind him, her hands in a bag of nacho cheese flavoured chips.

"Say, his head was covered in blood on the street there right? You think he got into some kinda fight? He seemed pretty out of it." He says casually.

"Head covered in blood... Yeah, I remember. I guess that explains why he didn't know we were coming. Must've been delirious." I say.

I pull the piece of bone out from my pocket and take another look at it.

"That's the skull piece right?" Link asks.

"Yeah. I assumed it must've broken off the spectre during the attack."

I think back to the question Link asked in back in that field of ashes. 

'Do spectres bleed?'

"Do spectres... The hell?"

We suddenly hear a commotion coming from the bar where Cyrus and Otto followed the man who seems to be known as Rush. It sounds like Cyrus yelling.

The three of us, with Bright closely behind hurry into the bar.

"Cyrus! What the fuck is going on here!?" Cyrus is grabbing the man by his shirt collar and attempting to hoist him upwards.

"This guy ain't apologizing so I figured I'd beat some sense into him! Seems he already took quite the beating earlier judging by all that blood on his head haha!" He grins.

Otto is standing behind Cyrus, seemingly scared by the sudden confrontation.

"My, my, you have quite the unsightly attitude..." 

Max enters the bar after us. 

"Max? Where the fuck were you?" I turn to him.

"I was busy cleaning off the mud that got on my shoes earlier thank you very much. And by the way, that's Maximilius Edmund the Seventh to yo-"

"Guys, we have a situation." Link calls out.

We all turn back to the scene with Cyrus to see black flames beginning to form around the man Cyrus is holding.

"...Hand's off..." He mutters.

"Cyrus!!! Otto!!! Get bac-"

I can't finish my warning before the black flames erupt and explode throughout the entire bar. The flames are intercepted by another, this time blue fire spreading around the bar, just barely shielding us along with Cyrus and Otto. Fire that came from Link's hand. The explosion from the fire knocks me and everyone back.

I quickly try to pick myself and look around.

The bar is in shambles. Burning wood is falling from the ceiling in black and blue flames. Emerald gets up beside me and readies her bow, while Bright barely manages to stand up, looking around in shock. Link is standing in front, seemingly never being knocked down.

"...It's always fire..." He chuckles.

"Ughh... What the fuck...?" Cyrus slowly pulls himself up, holding his head.

It's a miracle he's even still alive. Otto crawls over to where the rest of us are.

"C-Commander? What's happening?" He gets up, sounding worried.

"Stay back everyone! I shall take care of this myself!" Max steps in front, acting like the explosion didn't knock him back farther than anyone else, and out the goddamn bar.

At least he has guts. I pull him back behind me. 

"Get back here. Nobody do anything reckless reinforcements will be here soon." I finally look up at the man, Rush, the source of all this destruction.

He's floating upwards within all the black fire, his black hair and black beard along with his skin all burning away. Once the skin is all gone, all that remains is a white skeleton, with spiky protrusions sticking out of his joints. The skeleton is surrounded by black flames, like the flames are a part of his body. He has a piece missing in the upper left portion of his skull.

A spectre. No. Not just A spectre. This is the one we've been looking for.

"Spectres... can take human form? What the hell?" I say.

Rush looks over at me before muttering something.

"...A new ability. Gifted by the new king..." 

"New king? What the fuck are you talking about?!" I tell.

"...That information is not necessary for you to know... You are... irrelevant." He says.

His voice is deep, but it almost sounds as if he's still learning to speak.

I grip my left hand around my sawed-off shotgun. Suddenly, a green, glowing arrow flies past me and hits Rush directly in the forehead, knocking him back.

"...No more talking. Fight." Emerald says.

Rush begins to float back up, and right before I prepare to fire off a few rounds at him, Otto flies past me, using his arcana to slide towards Rush.

"Otto!!! Wait!!!" I scream.

"D-Don't worry commander! I got this!" He calls out, sounding almost like he's trying to convince himself more than me.

He pulls out two daggers from his back pocket and immediately closes in on Rush, he jumps in the air, and just as he's about to attack-

"NO!!!" I yell at him.

Rush stops the attack by the grabbing Otto's face, and his entire body is instantly engulfed in flames.

"OTTO!!! O-Otto...!" 

There's nobody in Rush's hand. All that remains is a pile of ash on the ground in front of him.

"T-The kid..." I feel my face going pale.

I'm not the only one. Nobody knows how to react. Link stares in shock and Bright slowly backs up. Only two stand their ground.

Another green arrow flies past us, this time narrowly missing it's target and hitting a burning shelf behind Rush. Emerald jumps behind a counter. Cyrus' armband forms into a baseball bat in his hand and he slowly approaches Rush, a nasty expression on his face.

"You fucking bastard... I don't know who the fuck you think are but..."

He swings the bat with all the force he has.

"YOU'RE DEAD!!!" He screams before the bat makes contact with Rush.

It shatters on impact. Completely shatters into thousands of pieces. Cyrus' face goes completely pale as he watches his bat get completely destroyed on Rush's body. Rush stares ahead and lunges his hand forward, nails first directly at Cyrus's throat. 

"Sh-Shit!!!" I fire my shotgun at Rush in a last attempt to stop him but it's too late. 

The round barely makes him twitch and his hand stabs right through Cyrus' throat, the life leaving his eyes almost instantly. As if that didn't kill him already, Rush uses his other hand to stab through his stomach before throwing his dead body to the side.

"God fucking dammit..." I remove the glove on my right hand.

"Everyone get back. Now."

Link jumps behind the counter with Emerald and Bright and Max continue to step back.

"Commander... What do we do...?" Bright asks, his voice shaky.

"Hold out until reinforcements come." I say before readying myself.

I hold out my right arm for defence, made out of solid steel. I lost my arm in an accident around 10 years ago, and since then it's been replaced by a metal one, perfect for combat.

Rush goes on the offence, lunging towards me at superhuman speed, attempting to stab me with his hand. His hand collides with my right arm and is immediately deflected. I retaliate with a strong punch to his chest, knocking him back a few feet. 

Rush seems to decide he'll save me for later, and he quickly lunges elsewhere. Directly at Max.

"NO!!!" I yell.

Max attempts to create a barrier out of roses, but it's immediately burned away by Rush's body. Rush grabs his head and repeatedly slams it into a nearby counter, before throwing him to the side like Cyrus.

I lunge back in and throw another punch, but it's dodged and Rush begins moving towards Bright.

"No you don't!" 

Link jumps in and slashes Rush with his katana, which is immediately followed up by a perfectly coordinated shot by one of Emerald's glowing arrows. Link continues to slash at Rush while also dodging the many attacks Rush is throwing his way. Whenever Rush attempts to throw fire at Emerald it's blocked by Link's blue fire.

Bright joins in by attracting a large metal wrench to his body, which slams full force into Rush making him wobble. This draws Rush's attention to Bright and he once again begins lunging towards him, kicking Link into a table on the way.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Rush grabs Bright and slams him into the wall, his fire keeping me and Emerald back while Link is trying to recover from being hit.

"BRIGHT!!!!" I scream.

'Well, it's kinda embarrassing but... I've always wanted to be a military commander, like you. I figured I might as well apply for something and put my arcana to use. I have to start somewhere, y'know?'

I remember.

I can't let him di-

"C-Commander!!! K-K- Kan-" 

He can't finish his sentence.

Rush, while keeping him pinned to the wall, let's out an eruption of fire. Before any of us know it, Bright's body is gone. Turned to ash.

By now I'm used to having squad members die but...

"Kane get up!" 

I didn't even realize I'd fallen to my knees. Link quickly dives in a moves me out of the way of an incoming attack from Rush.

I hear cars outside.

"We need to go Kane. We can't fight him right now we need to regroup." Link says.

I look over as Rush begins charging something up. A big orb of black fire glows from within his skeletal body.

"Run! He's gonna incinerate the entire town!!! Get to the RVs!!!" I scream before turning and sprinting outside towards the RVs in the distance. 

Emerald follows after me but Link remains behind and checks the two bodies that weren't completely turned to ash.

"Did you hear me Link!?!" I yell back.

"He's immune to fire let's go!" Emerald says.

"Survivor!!!!" Link calls out.

What? One of them is alive? It would have to be-

"Cmon!!! Quick!!!" I scream.

Me and Emerald make it to the RVs but before jumping in we turn back to see Link desperately running towards us, an unconscious Max on his back. His long blonde hair is a mess and he's bleeding profusely from his head.

The fire from Rush's body explodes outwards, engulfing the entire town and almost reaching Link and Max. 

At the last second, Link takes Max off his back and throws him over to us, where multiple soldiers quickly pick him up and load him into the RV.

"LINK!!!" 

The fire catches up to him, but like Emerald said earlier...

"Phew..." He crawls out of the fire, completely unscathed.

Emerald pulls him up, before the three of us turn back to look at the town we left behind.

Or, what used to be a town.

Because what stands there now is nothing. It's an empty lot.

---

CHARACTER PROFILES

NAME: Kane

RACE: Human

AGE: 39

HAIR COLOUR: Black

EYE COLOUR: Grey

ARCANA: N/A

WEAPON OF CHOICE: Sawed-off shotgun and metal right arm

ATTIRE: Black leather jacket with a white undershirt and black jeans

---

NAME: Rush

RACE: Spectre

AGE: Unknown

HAIR COLOUR: Black (In human form) N/A (In true form)

EYE COLOUR: Black

ARCANA: Spectral Fire (Black)-

Emits a black uncontrolled fire from his body

WEAPON OF CHOICE: Arcana

ATTIRE: Black vest and black undershirt with blue jeans (in human form) N/A (in true form)