"Fire!"
Shaking everything within ten city blocks, a large blue pulse let out an ear bleeding screech as a shockwave flew down the city roads sending shards of wood, glass, and gravel pellets everywhere. A trail of fire had permanently burnt the ground where Lecca directed her disruption field causing all hostile magicians to suddenly loose the ability to cast magic. Those unlucky to be close to the path of the pulse were either vaporized or burnt to a crips by the blue flames.
The sudden pulse had lit the surrounding area on fire causing an inferno. Buildings collapsed as their support beams burnt away, ash and embers once more filled and blocked out the sky. Mike stood just behind Lecca; he was acting as her immediate guard while the others had token positions of hard cover to make sure they weren't caught in the blast.
Beads of sweat ran down the side of both his own and the Princess's face. The intense heat almost made him fall back onto his ass, yet he held onto a nearby piece of stone wall while he nursed the pain his chest had. The pressure from the blast would've been enough to knock him out, yet due to his position behind the silver-haired woman he was safe.
Lecca's silver hair slowly settled on her body as she kept her arms in the upright position towards the enemy, her materialized blades slowly burnt away into nothingness. Slowly the gravel around her shifted as her soldiers, her Reclaimers, moved into a v-formation behind her, Captain Thompson by her side. They all stood with their weapons pointed downrange, a trail of fire lighting themselves and a new foe.
Opposite to them at the far end of the street that led to the town exit, four masked men and their leader, maskless stood in the middle of the street. The leader walked to the center of the other four; the two behind kept their weapons raised to the sides as they scanned the upper floors of the destroyed buildings, the two in front kept their bolt-action rifles in the low ready, staring down Lecca and her Reclaimers. The man's golden-brown hair shifted in the wind as he stepped forward to the front of his group, instantly the other four moved beside him, mimicking the very same v-formation Lecca was in with their weapons raised.
Princess Lecca looked at her captain wordlessly. The man was just as confused on what was happening, yet he forewent giving any directions in favor of seeing how the sudden turn of events would play out. Turning her head back, the princess raised her left hand in a cupped manner, the men around her waited for the order keeping themselves steeled for an immediate firefight.
The fact that one had not broke out yet even with both parties' hostile intentions was a mystery, the leader on the other side looked at Lecca and her men tiredly. His and his men's brown uniforms strongly resembled the English battle dress uniform during the first world war, yet each had a slew of pouches more commonly found during the Vietnam war. Looking upon the soldiers from Yondel, the man's eyes narrowed as the black sludge within Lecca's belt pouch slowly slithered up her left arm, much to the dismay and confusion of the troops around her. The man held a conflicted gaze as he blinked several times attempting to make sense of what he was seeing. He too lifted his left arm, his left hand.
Both tilted their appendage at the same time, towards each other. Each of their soldiers moved at the same time, towards each other.
Each footstep was silent under the burning flames of the town around them. No one said a word as the gap between them closed from one-hundred-seventy meters to one-hundred meters. Getting closer Mike immediately saw that the men surrounding the unknown leader were masked in a tight-fitting black cloth. Their facial features could be seen, yet they had no eyes, no mouth, no skin. In the exact same manner, anywhere there should've been skin showing, only a black fabric was shown.
Now at sixty-five meters apart the two leaders held a clenched fist up stopping both groups of soldiers. Silently the two stared at each other, Lecca looked at the man's facial features; his dirtied skin, tired brown eyes, golden-brown hair, and his shaved but visible facial hair.
The man gazed upon her own brown eyes, dirtied silver hair, and her clothing. He breathed slowly as his mind came to a conclusion. Much like Lecca's nullification magic, the man materialized a white bolt-action rifle in his hands, forged of a red fire instead of blue. He sharpened his gaze as he held the rifle in his left hand by the top and her raised his right hand to the sky.
Staring with wide eyes, the silver-haired Princess remained stunned that the man before her had just cast magic in order to materialize his own rifle. She was unsure what would happen if she came across someone with nullification magic, and she feared what would happen next as the man looked up as he placed his thumb and middle fingers together.
Looking down with his eyes, the man held a contempt look as he pressed the fingers together making them snap.
Mike felt his whole-body freeze. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't see, he couldn't think. Time had seemingly stopped, and then suddenly it resumed as a flood of light entered his eyes. Blues, cyan, purples, whites, flashes of red, and green suddenly forced their way into his head only to stop.
He stared at himself.
It was himself at his once former home; white button-down shirt, black slacks, accompanying black dress shoes. This was him from another time. As he blinked, more images of his past flashed over his eyes; high school – post graduation, boot camp, Ranger School, RASP, the War for Africa, Haiti, Pakistan.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"