Fire and Ash.
That was all the man could smell and see as he woke to the taste of blood in his mouth. He sat up amongst the pile of debris where he lay, the heat and ash in the air stung his eyes as he opened them.
His head was pounding from the concussive blast from the volcano reaching high above the city, a nasty gash on his forehead that worked its way down his right cheek to his chin was bleeding mildly. He grunted in pain as he tried to move, and found that his body haven't fared much better.
His left arm was broken, his right shoulder dislocated, and his rib cage heavily bruised from being tossed like a rag doll. He couldn't feel his legs at all, but he saw they were trapped under a sheet of fallen brick wall.
He called out a name, or at least he tried. His voice fell silent as he choked on the heavy smoke that was quickly filling the air. Each attempt at breathing became harder to achieve has he continued to call out a name, then another, and a third, then all of them in random order until he could not.
Finally, over the initial shock and fear of waking up alone and coming back to his senses, he mustered nearly the last of his breath to mutter the words of a shielding spell over his face, acting as some sort of magical filter to prevent him from breathing as many deadly particles as possible. Partially regaining his composure, the man reopens his eyes for a seconds look in the surrounding area.
Not that it's mattered, the sky was nearly pitch black ash the lighter debris and volcano ash filled the sky, and blocking out the sun. The fires around him provided little light, but enough to see that no one was around, but he could now head the wailing sirens in the distance, an all too late warning to the people of the city of the eruption.
Realizing that his time was short if he stayed, the man attempted to lift the sheet of collapsed wall off his now broken leg, the man willed himself to focus his mind and calm his breathing. His mind now focused of the rhythm of his heartbeat, the heaviness of the brick, the thickness of the rolling clouds of ash, even the pulsating fury of the mighty Mount Khann-Al.
He then could feel tiny strings of mystic energy in his grasp, for which he let settle and attune to his touch before guiding them to make a ring of symbols slowly turning from invisible to blindingly luminescent in a dark violet glow.
A color he had never been able to create when weaving a spell together, but had seen a few of the Royal High Mages cast before, and had no idea why he was able to now, the highest color tier he had ever been able to cast was a light hue of blue, a whole three tiers below the high magic he was casting now.
The magical light show, while surprising, never threw the man off of his task to bring enough strength to his legs for that wall to be kicked away and get him on his feet. Under normal circumstances, the strengthening magic he used would have only allowed him to remove the debris that had crushed his legs, but the overwhelming presence of the Volcano's violent release of magical world energy had significantly boosted the effects of the low tier spell.
The spell had also numbed up the throbbing pain in his legs, although after it's application he still felt a dull heaviness to them. He ran around the caved interior where he had been meeting with his old friends whom he had graduated from the magical academy with many long years ago.
Now there was no sign of them while he began to dig for them and any other survivors. After ten minutes he had found two of them, and dragged their bodies out from under the rubble. Both of them lifeless and nearly unrecognizable, the third no where to be found under the limber and stone that covered the floor of what remained of the building.
Staring at the bodies of what were once his friends, full of life, energy, and irreplaceable camaraderie built upon years of struggle and accomplishments. The action proved to be too much for the man to bear as he knelt and wept at the passing of the people he loved the most, whom had rekindled his will to live, to fight, and provide.
What was once a tight knit group of friends that equaled the love of family, was gone in a blinding flash.