บท 67: Chapter Sixty-Seven: Conflict
The day before the next attack in Syria, Jassim entered Israel discreetly and remained in Jerusalem for the night, as Chao moved to Nazareth. As the attack began, The Six Guns remained on Israel's side until the two forces got closer and the mechs began to roll in. Syria's soldiers all held a large digital dome shield together to protect themselves. Holly monitored radio chatter, and connected in the private line as the middle-man of their direct connection. Holly began to slow updates on the radio at an unnoticeable rate. With that, all preparations were set. As soon as the mechs got within attacking distance, to prevent them from harming Shelby, Finn and Rose; whom all have cybernetic prosthetics; Siran used elemental magic to force rock spikes to come out of the ground and into the tracks of the mechs, wrecking their gears and stopping them from moving. The moment it became apparent that The Six Guns have betrayed them, Israel's soldiers turned and fired at them with their guns. However, they all got within the digital shield and also helped pitch in magic and focus to make the shield stronger. "Okay, now to get in contact with Jassim." Siran says as they fight to keep the shield up. "Holly, you keep feeding the radio chatter and pull up whatever intel you got on the layout of the base. I'll communicate the steps to Jassim over the phone. Rose, you look for an opening and then you and Finn can rush Mizrahi. I told Chao to contact us if there's any troubles on his end. I just hope this all works out."
"Looks like they're bringing in reinforcements." Blake calls out. From the distance towards the back of Israel's army, they could see a familiar force of hunters gathering. They were Ares's drones. Towards the right of where they were facing now, opposite side of where the mechs were deployed, They saw another hunter group that Israel must've just hired. "How did we miss that?" Blake asks.
"Shit!" Siran says. "How did I forget, Ares already dug his fingers into Israel? Of course they'd have access to drones!"
"More hunters too." Shelby says. "I'll deal with the ones that are still human... or- still responsive to human contact, at least."
"Good luck." Haru says. "Blake, you and Tanya help me clear a path after Shelby distracts the hunters on the right! We need to get Finn and Rose on track to taking down Mizrahi!"
"On it!" Tanya says as she prepares.
"Alright, I'm just outside of the base." Jassim says. "I see no entryway that isn't guarded though."
"One moment." Siran says over the headset. "Okay, got it. There should be an irrigation tunnel just due west of the radio tower. Go inside, there's an emergency evacuation hatch that leads near the barracks."
"Hey, hey." Jassim says, suspiciously. "That's a little too effective. Are you all like a collection of spies?"
"Just Holly at work." Siran says. "Our crew really has the best."
"I guess I shouldn't be expecting less of the crew who took down The Mages of all people." Jassim says, then came to the realization. "I can't believe I was hired to fight people this scary."
"Why do you even need money if you're a prince?" Siran asks.
"Former prince." Jassim says. "I turned down my position as heir. Then I was banished from my home. Living doesn't come free. Besides, there's nothing wrong with wanting a little... extra."
"If you say so..." Siran replies.
"Siran, we have a problem." Holly says. "Comms are lighting up. There's talk about an intruder on base."
"Are they already onto Jassim?" Siran asks.
"No?" Jassim replies in confusion. "I know what I'm doing here."
"It couldn't be..." Siran says. "Stay on the line, Jassim. I'm going to be taking another call. I'll be right back." Siran switches calls and puts Jassim on hold as he calls the contact for Chao. "Chao! Are you alright? What's going on?"
"Well, I tried knocking first." Chao answers.
"And then?" Siran asks.
"Well... if they didn't know I was with The Six Guns before, they certainly do now." Chao replies. "But, all I have left to report is, much of the outpost in Nazareth has been run down and partially demolished. An unavoidable accident, really. On the other hand, General Haddad is taken care of."
"For the love of..." Siran says. "Get out of there right now!"
"You don't have to tell me once..." Chao says, then hangs up.
"Christ..." Siran says as he rubs the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Jassim, you still there?"
"Still alive and kicking." Jassim replies.
"Move, on the double, now." Siran says. "We can delay the circulation of reports, but not for long before they catch on. Get in there, grab a disguise of you have to from the barracks, then get to Zohar right now!"
"This isn't good." Holly says. "But it can be worse. Focus on clearing an area for Rose and Finn before Mizrahi has time to retreat. We need them out there now."
"On it." Siran replies.
The crew moved fast as to try to keep any fatalities and injuries between both sides to a minimum. As soon as Rose and Finn saw their chance, they ran for it, going back behind enemy forces to where Mizrahi was. Mizrahi had set up defenses in enemy territory for his men to fall back to if for any reason they were to be pushed back. Now Rose and Finn had made it to that location to confront Mizrahi. There were a few soldiers around, but Finn was easily able to disarm them quickly as Rose aimed for open spots to hit on their body to cause pain before knocking them out. "I knew your crew was going to be trouble." Mizrahi says.
"So you hired more hunters and even used drones to take us out?" Finn asks.
"You think your crew is that smart?" Mizrahi asks. "You shouldn't have gone against us. We could've put an end to this conflict swiftly. You really want to put all of Egypt in danger like that?"
"You think I'd trust someone who holds an entire country hostage?" Rose asks.
"Hm" Mizrahi replies. "I guess you two aren't as damn stupid as I thought. But you're still not very bright." Mizrahi takes out a Kabar knife and prepares for a fight. "I'll check up on the hunters and see if they've finished the rest of your crew when I'm finished here."
Finn rushes at Mizrahi and tries to disarm him, but Mizrahi strikes through Finn's illusion wall with a distortion punch and catches Finn off-guard. Mizrahi grabs Finn's left arm by the sleeves and covers his knife in armament magic as he swipes swiftly at Finn's arm. Finn's arm comes clean off and Mizrahi head-butts Finn to daze him, then throws another distortion punch. Finn got slammed into the ground by the force of the punch as Mizrahi throws the knife up and catches it with two fingers by the blade. With a swift motion, he covers the blade in armament magic again and throws it at Finn's head. Suddenly, a flash of white flies in front of Finn's face and deflects the knife. It was one of Rose's own throwing knives. "Leave my husband alone." Rose growls. Rose takes out two more throwing knives and holds them downwards by the handles. She dashes at Mizrahi, who gets into a fighting stance. Just as Rose got into striking distance, Mizrahi threw another distortion punch and caused Rose to backflip as she continued moving forward due to how fast she ran. When she landed on her back on the ground, Mizrahi sat on top of her chest, trying to press all of his weight into the knife he picked up from Rose and push with all of his weight into the blade down towards her face. Rose crossed her arms at the wrists and pushed back against his wrists, keeping her hands away from the blade.
Finn struggles to get up, instinctively trying to use the arm that is now gone, panicking and falling back down. The shock and concussion causing him to lose focus and keep struggling. "Rose!" He shouts. "Get off of her, bastard!"
"End of the line, Six Guns." Mizrahi growls as he struggles to push the blade. "Two less idiots in the world. Two less problems. See you in hell."
"I'm... tired... of hearing you... insult my... husband!" Rose says as she struggles. Rose keeps pushing with all of her might and uses her bottom wrist to roll two fingers into her sleeves and take a small paper charm out of a hidden pocket at the end of her sleeve. "I want you... to look me in the eyes... when you... die by my hands!"
"What eyes?" Mizrahi taunts.
Rose takes out the glowing paper charm and rolls her wrist to shove it right in front of Mizrahi's eyes. "Exactly." Rose says. The flash illusion spell goes off and causes both blindness and burns to Mizrahi's eyes. The shock caused him to retract his arms and cover his eyes in pain, as Rose kicked him off of herself. Without needing an illusion spell, Rose swiped the knife from Mizrahi just like Finn would do, and promptly shoved the knife right into his throat. As Mizrahi fell to his knees, Rose gave a swift kick to the back of his head, to end his misery. "Never insult my husband ever again!"
"Rose..." Finn says, impressed. "You are the coolest! How did I ever land someone like you?"
"Oh my God, Finn!" Rose says as she rushes to his side. Rose helps him sit up and asks "Are you okay?"
"Light headed and dizzy." Finn answers. "But I'm okay."
"Your arm!" Rose panics.
"It's just my robot-whatever arm..." Finn answers. "I'm okay. Are you alright?"
Rose hugs Finn, then says "I'm alright. I'm much better now."
Shelby struggles trying to fight the pack of hunters as Siran and the others keep up the shield and take care of the drones before they go rabid. Many of the hunters surround Shelby to attack at once, but suddenly got cut in half by Shelby's tail. Her tail was hidden inside of her cloak and now that it was out, they would see the tail that replaced her spine, and extended into a long tail with a razor sharp top-side. Eventually, to keep the last couple of his men from dying, the leader makes the rest stand aside as he prepares to fight Shelby alone. He keeps his gun out in one hand and a knife in the other. In order to maintain an advantage, Shelby keeps pushing to close the gap between the two and give as little openings for him to use his gun as possible. In order to combat his knife skills though, Shelby was forced to use her knife that she brought with to kill Demetri originally. It was a family heirloom and her good luck charm. Shelby kept the hunter leader on the defensive for a while, but he was too skilled of a gunman. Eventually, he got his distance from Shelby and takes a few shots at her. She dodges, but right where he wanted her to be. The next shot was well centered on her face and Shelby barely managed to block it with her knife. The last shot had more power in it though, and caused the blade to shatter. A large chunk of the tip of the blade fell to the ground, end first, and stuck into the dirt. Shelby takes a long look at her now broken family heirloom as the leader says "I'm impressed you managed to block that. Most people aren't that swift. Unfortunately for you though, you no longer seem to have a weapon." However, as he said this, Shelby remembered what Demetri had told her before, and she smiled. "What's with the smile?" He asks. "Are you delusional or something?"
"Don't you know?" Shelby asks. "That was my good luck charm. I brought it with me everywhere."
"And now it's gone for good." the leader says with a smile.
"No no no no no!" Shelby argues with a smile. "Sometimes, a good luck charm only works once!" Then, in one swift movement, Shelby rolls out of the way of the next shot, grabs the blade tip stuck in the ground with two fingers and throws it with armament magic. The blade flies right through the hunter leader and gets stuck on a tree far in the distance behind him with a loud and echoing thud. The hunter falls over to his knees in shock, then in horror as he realizes his legs no longer work. His spine was severed by the blade, and Shelby walks up to him as the other hunters aim at her. Shelby uses digital magic to block some of the shots and shoots them back in rapid succession, knocking out the rest of the hunter crew. "You underestimated me." Shelby says to the leader. "Most do." The leader then falls over from the amount of blood he's lost. "Looks like my job is done."
"Come on, Silas!" Dana cheers nervously. "You can do it!"
"Please let this work." Carl says.
"Remember!" Athena calls out to Silas as he focuses. "You need to connect the seal like your using your own two hands, but in your mind! Don't be afraid to use the endo from the stream!"
Slowly, bit by bit, the stream seems to shrink in size until it stops becoming visible to the naked eye. Though it appeared as if it were already done, Silas continued to focus as he finished sealing the hold in the seal. After a long time and a lot of struggling, Silas finished closing the stream successfully. "Silas!" Zia says in amazement, watching the stream through a debuff spell to make sure the endo stops flowing. "You did it! I'm so proud of you!"
"Oh man!" Silas exasperates. "My body sure feels like it took a toll! Holding that position for so long as I put all of my focus on the spell! Ah, my shoulders are especially achy!"
"No way... it worked!" Dana says in disbelief.
"We're saved!" Carl exclaims. "Silas saved the world!"
"Not yet." Silas says. "There's still more to close."
"But you bought us time." Athena says with a smile. "Well done, kid. You actually pulled it off."
"Yeah, thanks for the help, Thor and Athena." Silas replies.
"Yes, thank you for the help indeed!" a familiar voice calls out from behind. McNamara walks out from the darkness slowly, with a full squad of FBI SWAT agents again. "By the way, saw what you did to my hideout. Don't appreciate that."
"McNamara!" Zia growls.
"Ah! The Witch Mother is here too!" McNamara says.
"Witch... mother?" Zia asks.
"I saw the footage of what all went down in that hideout." McNamara answers promptly. "You think I'm not aware of what your freak of a son is capable of? I mean, you did a number on my men. But that kid? That's my real interest here. What exactly kind of technique and abilities do you possess to close those vents of endo and to shift into the form of an animal, I wonder."
"You and your president have a lot to answer for!" Zia says as she gets into a fighting stance.
"Oh, I'm afraid I won't be needing you nor Siran anymore." McNamara says as he and the SWAT soldiers pull out and ready their guns. "Men, open fire."
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