Casualty

Knights Marco, and Eugene drew their blades as the fell in behind Mike and the princess. In a steady pace under indirect fire Mike guided Lecca behind both himself and the scattered carriages and wagons. Two stray bolts of light skimmed over the top of a carriage and the white cloth caught on fire creating an intense heat. Letting go of Lecca's arm, and covering her head with his torso, Mike moved with the group away from the wagons.

"Contact left!" Green called out raising his rifle.

Three members of the Corps engaged a total of five goblins that rushed an opening within a defensive line established. The three killed two of the goblins, yet they were not fast enough to catch the other three. Being smacked in the face by one of the goblins, Malkovich fell to the ground as Green swiftly shot his attacker in the head. Mike moved backwards while firing his pistol at the second goblin that rushed him. He missed his shots and he stumbled and fell with Lecca on the ground as the goblin jumped on him. Wrestling with the monster, it was only when Lecca manifested a short dagger that he had any fighting chance. Reaching over Mike grabbed the knife and repeatedly stabbed the goblin, red blood squirted out and covered his, and Lecca's hand.

"Keep moving! Off the ground!" Eugene said as he punctured his sword through the abdomen of the final goblin killing it instantly.

"Son of a bitch!" Mike said as he pushed the dead body off him while grabbing Lecca by the forearm. Fumbling with a magazine, he momentarily let go of Lecca to reload his handgun.

"On your feet! On your feet!" Marco yelled.

"Fall back to the forest! Get out of the kill-zone!" Malkovich groaned as he forced himself off the ground.

Moving right, the multi-colored bolts emerging from the forest slowly shifted towards their location in the convoy. Miraculously, perhaps due to the range and foliage around, no one was hit directly, but a single piece of molten wood slammed into Lecca's breasts making her fall to the ground screaming in pain.

"I'm hit!" Lecca cried out as she gripped onto the point of impact.

"Baker be advised we have friendly elements moving into the western tree line. Location is marked with grey smoke!" Mike said over the radio. He withdrew a smoke grenade and pulled the pin as he tossed it into the burning wagon.

"Copy, I've got hostiles at least one-hundred meters inside the forest, break… providing small arms coverage to the east forest."

"Copy! Legging it to the settlement 600 meters north! Out." Mike said in return as he let go of Lecca's arm. Grabbing her hand, he placed the handgun in her palm with an additional magazine. "Seven bullets per magazine. Press this button to release it, then insert a fresh one and rack the slide. Basics, finger off the trigger until you aim at an enemy, stick behind cover, and let us know if you need help."

"Randall, we're on the double!" Malkovich said walking further into the forest. "Eugene, Marco, stayed glued to her ass."

The group sprinted into the forest completely disengaging from the enemy that still took occasional pot-shots at them. Whatever the enemy was using was strong enough to burn through the center of a tree but was not accurate enough to be used more than one hundred to two-hundred meters for anti-personnel combat.

Fumbling with the gun in her hands, but eventually mimicking the way Randall held it, Lecca followed the men in the center of the formation. The burn mark on her chest burned like hell but compared to what she saw her fellow warriors go through, she considered herself lucky to escape with a small mark.

"Contact!"

Green's voice pulled Lecca's attention away from the burning sensation on her chest and made her refocus on the hostiles ahead. Her eyes widened as she saw four humans in full armor running alongside three goblins. Her hands tightened around the handgun she held in her hands, as her hearing went deaf from the bullets Mike fired from his rifle as he moved for cover.

"They're headed for the Princess!" Marco called out as he saw one of the humans begin casting a spell.

"Kill theses bastards fast!" Mike shouted as he shot and killed a goblin with three bullets. Quickly dislodging the magazine from his weapon, he counted the remaining bullets he had, twenty-four, then he slammed it back into the rifle.

Grasping the tan colored pistol with both hands, half of Lecca body emerged from the tree she hid behind. She used the blocky white sights and aligned the with her right eye. Twenty meters ahead stood one of the armored humans that was peeking around a small rock with his sword in hand. Her finger snaked around the trigger, and she tightened her facial muscles.

Squeezing, the firing pin bolted straight into the primer of the .45 ACP bullet sitting within the chamber. A thunderous roar emanated from the barrel of the gun, and a plume of gas escaped as the slide slid backwards. The spent cartridge flew out the side and the bullet had long pierced the metal chest plate that the man was wearing and had long been captured in his chest.

Hunched over with his hand over his chest, the armored man lifted his hand one last time and casted a bolt of fire that headed straight towards Mike. Slimming her finger over and over into the trigger of the handgun, Lecca expended all the remaining bullets within the gun. It only took three seconds, but it was three seconds to late.

Her hands stung, and her eyes burned as she watched the sergeant slump onto the ground.

"Mike!" She cried out springing from her position of cover.

"Peel back!" Malkovich roared as he placed two more bullets downrange.

A fair amount of blood exiting from Mike's mouth began to mix in the dirt, turning his combat shirt and vest, a deep brown. He laid on the ground gasping for air as he used his hands to claw at the fire bolt that had just been absorbed by his plate carrier. The temperature of the bolt was dangerously high, and it immediately set his chest alight, but thanks to his body slamming into the ground, the fire was extinguished, yet a burning sensation raced over his torso.

Gasping for breath, he watched as Lecca slid into cover right beside him. She held his pistol and another object in each of her hands, but he paid it no mind as a flurry of new brass casings littered the grounds next to him.

"Sergeant! You alright!?" Green asked as he lowered himself, exchange his spent magazine for a full one.

Before he could let out a strained response, Green suddenly stumbled backwards as the last remaining goblin jumped over the log the three hid behind.

"Shit!" Green screamed, shouldering his rifle, and peering down the holographic sight siting in front of his eyes.

Shooting two bullets into the chest of the short-green-monster, chunks of flesh hit the muddy ground behind, yet the demon pursued Green as if the bullets did nothing but piss it off. The goblin let out a tremendous and pained roar as it jumped on top of the Private-First Class, clawing away at his plate carrier with great difficulty.

Fearing for her own life, and the life of the men under her command, Lecca stood from the ground and loaded the only magazine she had with great difficulty. With a shaky hand she completed the reload in five seconds, and aiming the pistol with the white brick sights, she once more pulled the trigger seven times. Three bright flashes came from the barrel at the end of her rage-induced mag-dump; her head throbbed with immense pain, and her ears rang from the gunshots that suddenly came to a stop.

Nine gaping holes laid in the now deceased body of the final hostile, the final goblin. Her breaths were haggard as she fell to her knees, the pistol falling into the mud beside her. Reaching out a hand to the injured sergeant, a blue haze grew around her palm.

Green shoved the dead body off him with a pissed-off expression, but his emotions were shoved aside as he watched the embers on Mike's plate carrier fade. It only took thirty seconds, but the embers completely disappeared under the emanating blue hue of Lecca's magic.

"What did you just do…" Green asked aloud. He flinched when Lecca swiftly glanced at him with tearful eyes, and a pale face.

"Nullification magic…" Was all she could muster out as she collapsed unconscious beside the blood-covered sergeant who was grasping at his neck in an effort to relieve himself of his burnt plate carrier.

Green's mouth was left agape as he stared at his plate carrier. Turning over his hands, he looked at the stained gloves that he adorned before his name was called out in the distance.

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Publicly Available Information: Ambush Tactics:

Used by an unknown foe, the main goal of their ambush tactics is to kill any and all personnel in command of lower soldiers, and to eliminate logistical, and support elements.