Freezing at a sudden blood-curling scream, the men turned around to see one of the Corps members being kicked off a short-sword wielded by a hooded man. It only took a second, but five more men meaterialized and walked from behind the killer. Thompson and the others not on the wooden cart rushed towards several pieces of cover just in front of them.
"Hostile contact! Don't let them break through!" Thompson shouted as several members of the Corps rushed ahead weapons drawn.
"Protect Arish!" Patterson bellowed as he watched in frustration as the two groups engaged in close combat.
"Fuck this is a target rich environment!" Richard complained moving to the opposite side of Thompson and Patterson.
"Get that fucking cart moving!" Thompson directed as two Corps members were cut down by a man wielding a large axe.
"Rog!" Malkovich called out as he climbed into the driver's seat and took hold of the reigns attached to the horse.
The cart lunged forward, and Lecca kept her head down as Mike steadied himself on a small collection of wooden boxes. His breath's remained haggard, but he kept his carbine aligned on targets beyond one-hundred meters. The only problem was the friendly Corps members were fighting in close combat, thus there was no possible way to get a clear shot without putting friendlies at risk.
"Got mages downrange!" Simon called out as he fired fix bullets towards the enemies.
"We got to get across the plaza!" Thompson ordered. "Move and provided suppressing fire! Richard, flush them out with the 340!"
Moving his left hand to the 40-millimeter, under-barrel grenade launcher under his rifle, Richard flipped up the metal range finder. Releasing his breath, a sudden "thumping" noise came from the grenade launcher, and thereafter, a bright light emanated from the ground alongside a small plume of dust and dirt. The sudden blast caught the remaining mages not killed by the blast off guard. They swiftly ran to cover as they reorganized themselves to target the princess and Rangers.
"Don't bunch up! Cover my movement right!" Malkovich called out as he, Simon and Richard moved away from the wooden cart.
"Bound! Suppressing!" Simon yelled as he let out several short bursts.
Covering each other, the three took cover next to a demolished building, several muzzle flashes came from the ruins as they engaged the mages exposed.
Lecca's hearing momentarily was distorted as the fire being fired by the Rangers intensified, but soon she was able to hear the loud voice of Mike who was directing Green, "You should be good. Cover our rear-we need rear security."
"Got eyes on three!" Patterson shouted. "I've got three mages pinning down some of our guys!"
"Well! Fix those suckers up!" Mike said crawling to the edge of the wooden cart, rifle in hand. Moving a small blanket he found on the cart, and supporting his aim on the cart, Mike aimed down his holographic sight, and he swiftly maneuvered the small red dot over the area where the hostile mages had taken cover.
"They're still moving! Get me another three-forty!" Thompson ordered, making Richard launch another one of his scarce 40mm grenades.
Firing, Mike shot two bullets towards a sliver of someone's arm he had seen. The hostile hid behind cover and further refused to peek around the corner fearing for their life. Beside him, Lecca materialized the same lever-action rifle she had used during their conflict against the Reavers. She aimed down the slim sights and shouted out to Mike, "How far are they?"
"Fuck! How far are they!" Mike parroted.
"Two-two… One-twenty!" Patterson responded giving a rough estimate. "What are you doing?"
"Giving them hell!" Lecca responded as her finger snaked around the silver trigger of the rifle she held. "I'm going to concentrate some of my mana on the targets!"
"Give supporting fire!" Captain Thompson said.
"Get some motherfuckers!" Simon shouted from afar as he began to release semi-controlled bursts on the enemy keeping their heads down.
"Beers on me after this!" Malkovich announced over the radio.
"Where the fuck would we even get them!?" Patterson responded.
"I'll buy!" Lecca said, her eyes widening as her finger slammed the trigger back.
As the bullet fired, a deafening roar emerged from beside Mike making his ears hurt even with ear protection. A small amount of pressure smacked himself and Lecca in the face, as a cloud of dust kicked up from the cart as a fireball followed the miniscule mana beam that was fired followed by gas residue. With no way to mitigate the recoil of the gun, it moved upwards smacking the princess in the jaw.
On the other side of the destroyed battlefield, thee mages remained clustered behind a wall that Lecca intended to fire at. Hitting the stone structure, wood shrapnel and segmented rocks exploded from the contact point as the bullet pierced the structure and flew into one of the three, now unlucky mages. A pool of blood exited the back of the mage, and his chest shook violently as destroyed body matter, smoke, and fragmented bone exited the front, an enormous cavity was left in his chest as he slumped to the ground, dead. The other two mages were hit by the shrapnel shed by the wall, and the force was enough to shred apart their bodies making an unrecognizable gory mess.
"Holy shit." Mike said as he stared at the red dirt through the one-times magnification of his scope.
"I think they're dead!" Green shouted.
"Captain! They're disengaging! We've got them on their heels!" Malkovich announced over the radio as he and the other two soldiers behind him pushed forward with the already engaged Corps members.
"Princess?" Thompson asked as he kept his rifle aimed at the running hostiles.
"Consolidate the Volunteers and counterattack!" She ordered hopping over the front of the cart and landing in the driver's seat. "Your men are already ahead, climb aboard so we may catch up!"
"C'mon! Let's go! Let's go!" Patterson yelled as he and Green climbed aboard the cart. Thompson followed and practically jumped up with the two catching him.
"We've got enemies to the left! Behind the rocks!" Mike said as the cart began to move east.
Enemies retreating from the endless counterattack that the Corps launched now found themselves under fire from the moving wagon on their exposed flank. Bullets sprayed from the wagon in short, controlled bursts. Several of the attackers dropped dead, they were considered the lucky ones. The others had their bodies ripped apart by the powerful round being fired.
With some of the remaining mages putting up resistance, Mike pulled himself up on his knees. His red dot sight was aligned on one of the mages aiming in his general direction, yet when he pulled the trigger, no bullet came out of the weapon.
"I'm out! Reloading." He said to the others, with Thompson taking out the mage he spotted. Fumbling with a magazine, Mike replaced the empty mag and inserted the new one before hitting he bolt release.
"Captain." Lecca suddenly said gaining his attention, "We will need a solution if the Demon Lord is already on the kingdom's doorstep."