"Jamal, snap out of it!" a voice shot out in the dark, causing the man to jolt up from his sleep.
Except, Jamal was actually greeted by the sight of a battlefield between two forests, as the city forces were clashing against the Reserve Guard stationed between the quickly formed trenches. For a minute, the man had to question if he was in a dream until a loud boom made him assume that it was real. Looking around and taking into account how he got here, he managed to see a large column of tarrs several hundred yards away from the frontlines, waiting to be used. Being cautious of the possible horrors that the machines could bring, he aimed his hands toward the machines as he ignited himself on fire. Quickly forming a large fireball, Jamal wasted no time launching it away, as the attack passed through each one, bringing them all on fire with little effort.
"Nice one!" a woman's voice rang out next to him, as Jamal turned his head.
Her familiar skin tone and face reminded him of Ula, he couldn't help but look until Jamal watched the woman throw a spear of darkness into a charging soldier. Wait, he thought, that should be impossible? There was no way Ula was even physically able to fight properly or even as effectively as the rest of the Viligantes. Or even the more critical question, which was how did she manage to get out of the city?
"Wait, Ula?" Jamal began to make his way towards her, as the woman followed behind a group of city soldiers and pushed into the incoming woods.
Passing through other soldiers of the city, Jamal was quick to find himself entering the thick woods, as screams of agony could be heard from within. The sound only caused him to rush faster, before an opening of another trench line revealed itself. He could see dozens of men on both sides slaughtering themselves, with Ula cautiously attacking from behind, as those with rifles lit up the ones closest to them.
"Ula!" Jamal yelled towards her, causing the woman to look his way. "What are you doing?"
"Huh?" the woman managed to impale the neck of a downed Reserve member as she spoke.
"Where are the kids? You were in the city! You haven't even fought like this in years, and you're moving like when we were younger? Are you still brainwashed by Youden?" Jamal began to go off in confusion, grabbing her arm.
"We can worry about that later, just need to clear this trench first." Ula chucked disks of darkness into the remaining troops, causing their bodies to fall apart in half.
"No, we need to discuss this now." Jamal stared her down, as he launched a blast of fire in the opposite direction without looking, more cries of pain answering its effectiveness.
"Damn, there's way too many." Ula continued to ignore, as more reinforcements from the Reserve Guard were careful to make their way in. "We need to clean this out together."
Just nodding, Jamal didn't even wait for Ula to be by his side, as he rushed towards the enemy, holding two medium-sized fireballs in his hand. Ignoring the sight of them crouching down and firing their entire load in his general direction, Jamal was essentially flying through the air above them, before throwing the balls straight onto them. The two balls managed to collide with each other before hitting the ground, causing a decent-sized explosion to rock where those troops were just holding out at. Seeing that no more troops were to come at least for now, Jamal fell back onto the earth to see Ula have a large grin on her face.
"You liked that?" Jamal spoke with a hint of his special charisma after doing all the work.
"I've seen better come from you." Ula was already at his face, looking straight at his eyes.
"Oh yeah, where at?" Jamal was moving closer as he said those words.
"I think you know where." Ula managed to say, before the pair started to make out with each other.
It felt as if nothing was going to ruin the moment, despite the battle happening several meters away from the site, as Jamal continued to press his lips to hers. Ula could only sigh with relief, as she took a quick breath before moving back for more.
"I wish we were back at the complex right now." Jamal managed to get out after several more seconds. "Just me and you."
"I want you to really-" Ula began to flirt even harder before a shot broke their conversation.
Turning towards the sound, Jamal could see what appeared to be a sharpshooter with an older model of a taboon, which the man simply flicked a fireball to kill the person with relative ease.
"So as you were sayin-" Jamal turned back to the woman, only to be greeted by the worst possible sight.
Ula was standing still, as there was a clean bullet hole in the side of her temple, blood rushing down. Before Jamal could even process what had just happened, she collapsed on the ground, not making a sound.
"Ula." Jamal crouched down to make sure he wasn't seeing this, until it started to click. "Wait, no, Ula! Ula! Ula, no!"
Panicking, he looked around for any help, as he could see a few of the city soldiers moving past the occupied trenches the pair were in. Not wasting time, Jamal was quick in attempting to get their attention.
"Help! Please, guys, help!" Jamal already had tears coming out of his eyes, as he was reaching for the closest one.
Managing to reach for the person's arm, Jamal could do nothing but witness his own hand phase through the person and fall face-first into the mud. Confused for a brief moment, he pushed himself back up, and began chasing down the group again, giving it his all to catch up.
"Guys, help me! I need medical assistance! I need to save her!" Jamal tried grabbing them again, to no avail.
His hands kept going through them and they didn't even acknowledge his presence, as if he was a ghost to them. This couldn't be possible, was someone's power affecting the area? There was something wrong about this all, as Jamal moved back toward Ula's body. Once he was close enough, the man could see her lifeless eyes staring into the sky above, with the occasional fly trying to get a quick meal. Shooing them away, Jamal fell down onto the ground and attempted to lift her up. But she was essentially stuck on the ground, as no matter what Jamal did, the dead woman would refuse to move an inch.
"What did I do to deserve this?" Jamal finally gave up after several minutes, knees on the ground. "She didn't deserve this."
"Yeah, you're right. She deserves someone not acting like a little bitch." a voice similar to his spoke near his ear. "Get your ass up."
Adjusting rather quickly, Jamal moved in a circle to see no person around him. Why did it sound like him, was he losing himself, the man started slapping his head in confusion. He had to be going through something right now, because it only caused his head to pound even more.
"You see, this is why you won't be able to defend the ones you love. You're playing stupid games and getting stupid results. Instead of utilizing that power you had inside of you, you want to waste it on love and be the reason why the person you put everything into dies. Just pathetic." the voice explained once again, as Jamal was finally able to get a good look as to who.
Seeing a dark figure, Jamal could see it being that same being that looked like him those weeks ago. Was this all fake? Was he imagining things? Was this some sick type of joke?
"You sick fuck!" Jamal roared in fury, causing his flames to instantly ignite.
"Nah, you're the one that couldn't defend a woman out of all people. What type of man is that?" the figure moved closer to Ula, before kicking her body.
Jamal could only watch as the body moved a few feet, as the dark figure of himself looked back at him. This thing was starting to really piss him off, as bits of the dark flames began to pick up.
"Ah, there we go! Finally had enough?" the figure laughed in Jamal's direction. "Too bad you didn't put this energy towards her. You're a complete failure."
With that final word in his maddened state, Jamal was already clenching his fists tightly, his tears becoming steam in the wind, before letting loose a loud roar of a very powerful beast. His flames at this point were turning towards that borderline black and red color, as the aura was beginning to extend wildly.
"Yes, actually be the man you were meant to be! Stop being a little pus-" the figure managed to start up again before Jamal was quick to his face.
"I've had enough!" Jamal gave him his all, before sending a punch straight toward the figure's face, "Go die, you little-."
.....
"You little bit-!" Jamal was saying, until the fist he launched in his sleep brushed against the ceiling of the tent.
Hand still up, the man turned to see the four other advisors with him staring as if this had been going on for some time. Confused, Jamal looked to see that he was no longer in the forest in the first place, or any sign of Ula anywhere.
"You've been doing that for the last hour. Are you alright?" one of the advisors said to him, to which Jamal had managed to calm down before nodding. "Good, cause we're trying to get the last three hours of sleep. We still have lots of work to do, so try to keep the energy for the battles ahead."