

Eodem Chapter 20: Return to Sender "Pull!" Reid yelled as the soldiers fell back from their positions. It was dark, tight and heavily close quarters in the underground tunnels beneath the mountains. The Marines were buying the demolition team time to properly set the explosives to bury the entire place. King Martain's skeletal warriors have so far been a significant help in bogging their attackers. Gunfire was exchange by arrow and magics from the Slaegians as the UFE scrambled for cover. The bright magical missiles thrown from Carliah and several accompanying battlemages suppressed the marines to the pillars. The Rules of Engagement states by order of Major Holyfield is to leave no survivors... "Damnit! I am down to my last mag!" one of the marines yelled. "Switching to secondary." Yelled another. "Firing!" an AT soldier warned as his Rocket Launcher blasted out of his shoulder. It zipped passed the marines straight into a shielded formation of Slaegian Legionnaires obliterating them where they stand. "For the Empire!" rally cried one of the Knights as he charged into the fray. He and a couple dozen or more medieval fantasy troops advanced at the Marines. They were under the covering fire of Magic Missiles launched by Carliah and her mages in a rainbow display of magical prowess. The projectiles struck like rain falling on a roof at the tunnel's walls and pillars. Some exploded in a expulsion of fire, others made the ground it made contact with explode in freezing cold ice. "Aaagghh!!! It stings like a motherfucker!" one of the marines cursed and gnashed his teeth as he dove down to a nearby pillar for cover and looked at his forearm. It was struck by one of Carliah's Magic Missiles in the exposed part of his rolled sleeved army fatigues of his right forearm. The wound was similar to a bullet entry wound with the additional effects of a cauterized skin with 3rd degree burns and the wound was bleeding like a leak in a pipe. The rifleman luckily had a bandage on his pocket and with a little bit of dexterous movements from his uninjured left arm which was weaker than his right, he applied himself first aid and was back on the fight but in a reduced combat effectiveness posture now resorting to using his pistol to return fire. "Filthy Sorcery! Feel God's Wrath upon you!" Bishop preached as he unloaded several shells of his Master Combat Shotgun at the Slaegians. To Reid and the Marines credit, he was fighting just as or even more intensely than they could do. The old priest was also albeit in a disparaging display of foolhardiness a he was letting himself be exposed right out in the open field. Yet as if from an act of divine providence, arrows, javelins and even a couple of magical projectiles narrowly avoided him. "Your Priest friend... I like him." King Martainn commented. "He reminds me of this crazy druid I knew who was my tutor." "Well glad to know you are getting along with the last person I expect you would buddy up with but we got a tunnel to blow up!" Inspector Reid yelled. "How much longer Sarge?" Reid called out to one of the Demolition Engineers. "ETC, two minutes. Keep em away from us." The engineer replied. "Begone back to whence you came Spawns of Hell!" a distinctly armored man carrying with him a shiningly bright blade of a pale orange color struck down a whole squad of King Martainn's Skeletons. He was backed up with a dwarfish man with greying hair dual wielding a hand crossbow and an axe. "Findrum! Flying Angel!" Petur said as he began to feel overwhelmed with fatigue and mana burnout. He had one more card left to play that he uses when the fight hangs in the balance.