It didn't take long for almost everyone else to discover the magical abilities instilled in them. Humans and Xenaks alike were firing shockwaves of light at one another, summoned by their own energy. Their own spirit? Was this what mana was, then?
Had the explosion of the enemy flagship introduced these powers, this new energy, to the members of NYSA?
Or had this energy been a key part of them for their entire lives?
Pale white sparks spurted from the rocky ground, as a projectile narrowly missed Leonel as they were dashing back to regroup with the other units.
Phoebe let out a gasp as the impact sent her flying, tumbling down into an overgrown ditch on the edge of the hill.
"Phoebe!" Leonel yelled, rushing over to help her, lifting her up from the ground as she brushed herself off. Phoebe noticed that behind him, the glimmer of a Xenak's spell was approaching rapidly, therefore she grabbed Leonel and jumped out of danger once more.
"We're not going to get anywhere by simply defending. We need to attack." Phoebe advised.
This suggestion was met with a motivated murmur of agreement and shallow nods, followed by Juno who quickly cast a projectile towards a group of Xenaks, knocking them backwards.
The battle went onward, continuing at a steady (and dangerous) pace, though, in a way, it was faring as well as any opening battle between another civilisation could theoretically go. Not only had they not had any losses, but they obtained the opponent's only advantage that the Xenaks had over humans—their magic abilities.
However, there was one person who hadn't yet been able to harness the power of the supernatural quite yet—Purity. No matter how hard she tried, no amount the sheer amount of energy she attempted to muster, it just didn't work.
Maybe she was just a failure. Purity kept her eyes low, supposing that others couldn't see her in the intensity of what was occurring around her.
Kate, Juno and Phoebe were firing shots both through their energy guns and the magic orbs they could summon. They discovered that their magic was stronger than the man-made gun, however, their magic was slightly stronger with a higher capacity to render their enemies unconscious.
Leonel analysed the situation once more. It was probably futile to continue fighting like this—but that raises the question—how do they stop it?
Another interesting point was that neither the Xenaks nor the humans had killed anyone yet. Perhaps the magic wasn't strong enough, but Leonel wasn't naïve enough to believe this for a second. There was always the possibility that Leonel himself could grasp a potential of stronger magic, with more experience using his current abilities.
No, Leonel had figured most of the details out already. With the evidence he had, he calculated several important facts about the magic and to do with the battle itself—that they had obtained magic from the explosion of the alien flagship, that the Xenaks weren't trying to kill them, and instead, they had an ulterior motive for their attack.
Were they trying to capture humans?
Or simply gather data?
Something suspicious was certainly going on. Leonel gazed upwards at the darkened skies overhead. The clouds were thickening, seizing control of the atmosphere, and declaring the final stages of the transition from clear innocent blue skies to ominous, dark shadows of doom.
Though they obscured the sight of the atmosphere, they counterintuitively revealed the true nature of the world. They were physically and metaphorically foreshadowing their fate.
The façade of a clear blue sky melted away a while ago, and clouds of dark truth took its place.
A thin veil of strange transparency began to stretch across the sky, pulling the attention of the 27 NYSA combatants.
It soon materialised, inducing gasps of shock from all over the hill.
It was the fleet of ships belonging to the Xenaks.
The exact same fleet that had crashed mere hours earlier.
What's more, is that they were undamaged. Did they have the power to teleport? And become invisible?!
Leonel figured that there was such a large leap of knowledge they had been given this day about these new creatures, yet it seemed like they had only discovered the tip of the iceberg.
'How deep did the rabbit hole of the Xenak's magic go?' was a query that Leonel didn't have time to ponder, as the largest ship was aiming its primary gun down at the hill, making a significant, unnatural noise of the shifting movements as it rotated methodically into place.
Phoebe took Leonel's hand without warning and together they followed the others back to The Messenger to make their escape. Chaos accelerated all around them, the spaceships overhead dominating with power, intelligence, and, of course, magic.
The Xenaks had disappeared, perhaps they had fled to the ships. Maybe, they were invisible, or teleported, or possessing them as they speak.
'No, those ideas, those abilities are too farfetched,' Leonel reasoned to himself, despite him being forever open-minded in his convictions and his thought operations.
The largest ship was still aiming at the hill, despite the SP units being back at their ship already.
"All right, we need to get out of here alive!" Crawford screamed, "Just make sure we have everyone—"
Leonel began running back to the hill. Running back into the danger, Leonel moved through the terrain swiftly, effortlessly.
"Where are you going, Leonel?!" Phoebe questioned in dismay, but he was already gone.
How hadn't he noticed this?
Purity wasn't with them.