I start to get up when I feel a strong arm pulling me up. I'm dizzy and disorientated, the ringing seems to be getting louder as I look up.
It's Bavarthos.
His mouth opens wide forming words, yelling something, but I can't understand over the ringing in my ears. His other hand comes up and glows gently. The ringing dulls and the sounds occurring around me come back into sharp focus.
"SIN! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!" Bavarthos face is inches from mine as he shakes me lightly.
Nodding my head, breathing deeply, I sling my rifle into place and look around at the area.
People are starting to panic, as others are still dazed and getting up.
Gazing towards where the blast came from, I notice that no soldiers are coming through. Suites has his rifle trained on the area, taking shelter behind the low concrete block wall.
The DS's are still sending shock waves of blasts at the army, but can't shoot the ones closest to us.
"Major General Sin. Captain Parks of the DS's here. Enemy troops have a long range weapon being used from the back we can't identify. Air support ETA is eight minutes. How much longer till we get the rest of the refugees out of here?"
Glancing over to all the refugees and I see that my soldiers have settled the majority of them down enough that they are starting to begin grouping them together again. Lar and his brothers work determinedly to snap the groups to quickly get them out of here.
I notice the piles of blue bottles all around and realize we're getting low, even with Lar and his brothers capabilities, it's starting to wear them down. My people are snapping only three or four people at a time.
'Shit... My team can't continue on like this.'
"Captain Parks, if you can try and zero in on that weapon, the rest need to continue keeping the majority out of here. We need every second of that eight minutes and possibly more."
"Aqui, Aqui." I gesture forward the next group of ten and snap them.
I keep hearing a strange mixed sound, of whirring, aggressive grunts mixed with metallic clings. It's like a bright light comes on again over my head.
'It's B's pets and machine. The soldiers they're here.'
"SIN! B! I think we're about to have some trouble!" Suites starts shouting and shooting off a few rounds in quick bursts.
'FUCK!'
"I NEED ALL NON MAGICAL USERS OVER HERE GIVING US COVER FIRE NOW!"
I bark out my order and the ten soldiers that were helping group up people are jogging over and taking up position behind cover to start assisting.
"THE REST OF YOU KEEP GETTING THESE PEOPLE TO SAFETY! AIR SUPPORT WILL BE HERE FIVE MINUTES!"
I look over and see Bavarthos and three mechanical sentries.
'Did he just snap those here in front of everybody?'
Looking at him for a moment, his mouth moving quickly and silently, a glow forms in his hands. He presses his hands against one machine, then the next, and the last one.
They roll forward past my small squad of soldiers and move down towards the approaching enemy.
Activating my com I radio HQ, "This is Sin, we're going to need more back up for a few minutes till air support gets here. Enemy troops are too close for DS's and air support to fire at our most vulnerable spot. We need some more ground troops."
"One moment Major General Sin." Comes the male voice over my com.
I'm scanning our perimeter and notice that the DS's have kept the Erl's forces from coming in at our sides.
'Who knows how much more ammo they had to utilize though?'
"Sin. You're going to have to wait on some ground support troops. We're stretched thin from evacuating other towns at the moment." Thietian doesn't sound too worried about us.
"Thietian, do you not see and hear what's going on here right now?! I know there are some ground troops twiddling their thumbs in places that could be sent here!"
My soldiers have started taking calculated shots in different directions that soldiers are starting to make their way towards us past the tanks and the machines.
"Sin, I'm sorry, but I don't have the soldiers right now, you'll have to try and hold out a little while longer."
'What in the actual fuck!? Is he trying to piss me off with that bullshit story?!'
I huff and end the com transmission, moving over to Suites to get a better handle of the situation at hand.
'Well isn't this a lovely sight?'
Even I am making myself sneer at my own sarcastic thoughts. Looking upon the enemy soldiers bodies that painted the street and buildings red from the machines and Bavarthos's pets who ripped them to shreds, was haunting. The ones who made it through, my men took shots at.
"Shouldn't you be helping with the refugees? So we can get the fuck out of here?" Suites paused a moment and added. "Sir?"
I look to the refugees, whose numbers were still high, but greatly reducing due every minute.
Shaking my head, "Nah, I'm going to blow some shit up." I set my sights on a tank moving our way and I send a message to Barvarthos.
"B, tell your pets to stay away from the tank."
He turns to me wide eyed as I give him the devilish smile and wink before .... I'm landing on top of the tank, dropping two grenades inside and appearing back next to Suites.
"3..2..1" I'm ducking behind the low wall as the tank explodes.
Watching as the Erl's men start to panic as they're the sudden focus of our front line of defense makes me chuckle.
I stand pulling my Katana free and put myself right in the middle of a group of soldiers trying to defend themselves against one of B's pets.
My Katana moves swiftly slicing through flesh like butter, hardly even noticing the spines that were severed.
My hands moved the steel like a diving bird of prey down from right to left, my feet keeping my stance moving as I turned reversing the movements on the next soldier. Blood pooled on the ground as I spun stabbing the soldier to my right.
Snapping to the other side of the road, I quickly sliced through the neck another, this time I felt the warm drops of blood that hit me, coating my visor. Snapping back to my men, I remove the helmet and quickly drop it off.
"Hold on to that for me." Tossing the helmet into Suites lap.
Grunting from the impact of the helmet, he forces out in a strained tone, "Sure thing."
Smirking, I turn to Bavarthos who removes his own helmet and determinedly makes his way to me.
Closing the distance between us, he leans closely whispering barely audible,"Why are we not getting more back up?"
I shrug, cocking an eyebrow at him.
'I'd like to know that myself...'
A flicker of rage shows in Bavarthos eyes as I watch his gaze, which quickly turns to purposeful intent.
'He has an idea.'
"What are you thinking, B?"
A toothy, predatory grin spreads across his face and in that second, I am reminded that this individual is not someone I want to piss off.
Dropping his helmet, he leans forward whispering into my ear his plan. I lean back, looking at him and the refugees that we still needed time to get out of here, and lastly to my team firing at the increasing amount of soldiers that try making their way down the street.
"Okay, B. Let's do it." Resolutely nodding my head as he takes my hand.
From the rooftop over the front line of enemy soldiers, I toss in quick succession three grenades.
Then at the next street up, I chuck four smoke and snap to cover, right as the last grenade goes off.
The next second, I'm down in the smoke, the light breeze keeping it out of my face and eyes and going towards the soldiers.
Bavarthos is quickly making markings in the dirt with his magic and then we both snap to the side streets, quickly dispatching any enemy soldiers who had thought they'd be smarter by going around.
Wiping the edge of my blade on the dead soldiers clothes, I move out towards the main street. The machines and B's pets work on other areas of our perimeter, that are too close for the Demon snipers or air support to fire on.
'If air support shows up in time to actually be of any use...'
Bavarthos stands next to me eying our surroundings when something comes to mind.
"Hey, B. Won't you doing this expose who you are?"
He stops, still staring straight away from me, "To the enemy, yes. To our soldiers ... no. Unless one of them know about this type of magic, it should be alright. By the way, give me your hand."
Holding out his hand for mine, I cock one of my brows up in question.
"What's the matter? Suddenly you don't trust me?"
His cynical smile that he gives me has me shaking my head and I thrust my hand into his.
He whispers something under his breath and a glow appears on my hand in the form of tiny gold symbols. He lets my hand go and the marks slowly fade.
"There you go. Now you're safe from any of my spells like this I cast ever again. I can not take your life in other words." Bavarthos smiles at me, rather dejectedly, as the corner of his lips struggle to stay up and his eyes search mine that are filled with disbelief.
"Thank you, B. I don't know what to else to say right now, except we got company coming our way." I notice the movement over his shoulder and we both shake ourselves from the moment and focus on the large amount of foot soldiers heading our way now.
"Ready for a little pick me up?" Bavarthos chuckles as the soldiers make their way into the circle of markings.