55 The Corridor of Death

Tia's breath stilled, and her mind focused on the clamor of descending footsteps that thundered closer with each heartbeat. With a graceful flick of her wrist, her wand materialized in her hand, its runes ablaze with ethereal light.

Her other hand gripped her gun firmly, both weapons aimed at the staircase, trembling with tense anticipation.

'Infuse linked with sharp, and enchant linked with power and heat,' she thought, focusing on the incantation as her eyes flashed brighter. The glowing runes on her wand and gun pulsed in response, releasing a torrent of magical energy that coalesced around the muzzle of her firearm and the tip of her wand. Her hair seemed to defy gravity, waving around her head, submerged in the energy gushing out of her body.

The steps almost reached her—she could hear them reaching her floor.

'Now!'

With that command, Tia leaned from her cover behind the doorframe, and fire interwoven with kinetic energy roared from her wand, ascending the staircase like a dragon's vengeful breath. The very air distorted under the effects of the unleashed energy. Concurrently, her gun erupted in a burst of light, illuminating the chaos.

Not waiting to see the outcome, Tia ducked back into her cover, retreating backward as fast as she could, pulled back by the invisible ropes of kinetic force.

A heartbeat later, the world exploded. Molten concrete rained through the hallway, deflected mid-flight by Tia's mental shield. Brilliant plasma bolts rained indiscriminately, tearing and melting through the walls.

One bolt headed straight toward her, shining like a tiny blue sun, blinding her eyes, which dilated with fear for the first time.

'So much firepower!'

Her mind moved as fast as it could, the air warping under the influence of the raw kinetic energy rushing through it. The bolt was gradually slowing down as she pushed it to the side, the immense energy within it making her sweat as it fought her power.

At last, the immense heat and power dissipated—melted by Tia's mind.

With a bang, it smashed into the nearby wall, burning a hole straight through it.

Tia's hand quivered as she exhaled, a cocktail of dread and relief mingling within her.

'This firepower...' Just the single bolt took too much of her effort to block—the idea of having to defend against salvos from multiple automatic guns brought her to despair.

The steps quickly approached as she kept retreating toward the hallway corner, the runes shining brightly once more in tandem with her eyes as her pistol recharged and her mind prepared to unleash another attack.

<Basic Pyrokinesis II (6%)> --> 18%

<Basic Telekinesis VI (34%)> --> 39%

'I must have killed at least someone.' The invisible tendrils of her kinetic force slithered from her body, winding down the corridor and sensing their way toward the staircase.

Then she sensed it—the hardness of the metal armors. She felt the entire squad, two lying on the ground, likely injured, and one crouching beside them, while four more advanced down the corridor she had vacated a few seconds prior.

'Good, at least I can get through their armor.' The fact calmed her down; her breathing once again steady and slow.

Her tendrils vibrated as something fast launched through the air, hurtling in her direction.

Immediately, Tia propelled herself backward, and a split second later, the corner she'd just left exploded into a shower of blue bolts and explosions of plasma, liquefying the floor into a molten puddle aglow with luminescence.

'Fuck! What is she doing? Why isn't she covering me?' She questioned her colleague's location, slightly angry at her inability to aid her.

She didn't know how they detected her, and multiple theories were forming inside her inhumanly fast mind, 'Maybe some heartbeat sensors or muon scanners? Or just experience and training allowing them to predict and expect my moves?'

Her wand ignited with ethereal light once more, unleashing a second wave of fire. Fueled by her kinetic force, it rounded the corner like a floodwave and surged toward the commandos. As it streaked through the corridor, the walls, floor, and ceiling cracked in its wake, and the sonic boom was so overpowering that she felt her body tremble in resonance.

Simultaneously, her kinetic tendrils darted toward the four advancing soldiers, ensnaring them like invisible ropes. The tendrils yanked the soldiers toward each other just as her flames erupted, accelerating atomic motion and consuming them in a fiery inferno.

<Basic Pyrokinesis II (18%)> --> 26%

<Basic Telekinesis VI (39%)> --> 44%

The instant she felt the collision of her kinetic wave with the burning soldiers, Tia flexed her knees and rocketed forward, and her coat, skirt, and hair billowed dramatically behind her.

Time seemed to decelerate as she rounded the corner, her radiant eyes zeroing in on the four burning soldiers who were being hurled through the air like human projectiles, compacted into a single focal point by her power.

'I got you! Now that you are so packed...' Her mind screamed with victory—she got them where she needed them.

For the first time, she saw her adversaries with her own eyes. Arrayed in obsidian-blue plate armor, black nanofibers were visible in the gaps between their protective plates. Their visors glowed an eerie blue, piercing through the swirling inferno and airborne dust.

'They are still alive! They are like a bunch of cockroaches.'

With calculated precision, she aligned her gun's scope with the cluster of soldiers. The magical runes encircling its muzzle lit up brilliantly, and a blinding flash of azure light erupted, discharging half of the gun's concentrated energy into a sun-like plasma orb that streaked through the air.

In a synchronized counterattack, the soldiers fired their rifles, filling the already chaotic corridor with additional flashes of brilliant blue light.