章節 31: Chapter 30: Hearts Ablaze
The indentured servants were always the first to die, they were the first to be thrown into battle, particularly when the army needed to storm an enemy position. When they weren't doing menial labor they were used as little more than expendable meat bags for soaking up bullets. They weren't even issued weapons, but should they be lucky enough to survive and reach the enemy position, they might be able to grab human firearms.
It mattered not if they made it to the human trenches, their lives were almost meaningless to begin with. Worst case scenario, they kept the human's busy. Best case, they create a minor breakthrough. Whenever the Redever army had an influx of indentured servants they liked to thin the heard. Lorelei was convinced the overseers wanted less mouths to feed, or were so disgusted by their mere presence that they wanted to cull the herd purely out of spite.
Lorelei was only thrown into the combat zone after the first round of death-slaves were sent, because of her Pyromancy. She was just valuable enough to try to keep alive long enough to be effective, rather than just casually being discarded. They still didn't care if she died, which was why on two separate occasions she had been sent on death runs into enemy lines.
The first she just barely survived by the skin of her teeth. Lorelei had very little memory of when it happened, or even the second time when she had been forced to crawl through piles of dead bodies just to find sanctuary in a lone crater. There were some things that stuck with her, however. The sound of being shot at was forever imprinted on her mind, never could she forget that distinct sound of near-supersonic bullet rounds whizzing mere inches past her face, or ricocheting off the ground right next to her.
During those conflicts, her mind simply went blank, focused entirely on pure survival, and nothing else. When next she could think clearly, she often found herself alone, sometimes surrounded by human soldiers. It was then that Lorelei used every ounce of energy she could muster. With the wind to fuel her flames, the entire trench line became a broiling river of death. It actually got a little out of her control, whenever she used her magic during the war. Searing her own skin, and choking her nearly unconscious, the carpets of magical fire kept her alive by the thinnest of margins. Knowing that she was responsible for killing platoons worth of human and wolfkin soldiers didn't faze her at the time, this was a war for survival after her all, but there were some nights when Lorelei swore she could hear their screams somewhere in the distance.
When the war ended, she was actually given a small decoration for her unlikely survival. Of the thousands of Redever's in indentured servitude all across the front, roughly a third found their way to freedom after the war. Lorelei was among them. The first thing she did with her newfound freedom was leave Redever lands, and head straight back to Voxsturm, where she could slowly forget about the war.
Now that she was back outside in the wasteland, it was like seeing an old friend, one that she wasn't fond of in the least. The moment they stepped out of their vehicle, and were fired upon, something inside her snapped. Her older survival instincts, dormant until now, were shocked back into full acuity.
Things were different now. She had armor, tight as it was, to protect her. She also had a gun. Granted, the firearm the humans issued her was an aged antique piece that was barely useful for hunting, much less serviceable for active combat. She spent some time cleaning the rust off its steel frame, and cleaning the firing pin, but there was only so much you could do with a standard cleaning kit. The bolt action slide was even more useless for a more modern firefight.
"I thought this part was supposed to be easy," Cassie shrieked, while leveling her enormous rifle on a boulder to better aim down the sights.
Lorelei said nothing, her back propped against a solid block of granite, as she kept her head down. Her heart was racing beneath her breast, and the air pressure was causing her ears to ring.
The wind seemed to bite through the nano-mesh armor weave, the ceramic chest plates hugged her mounds tenderly, keeping them warm and holding them firmly as she repositioned herself. Lorelei was glad that she neglected to wear any underwear with the suit, otherwise the way it clung to her body would've certainly caused them to pinch her in all the wrong places.
The air had grown thick, the atmospheric pressure becoming more dense as a newly risen torrent of reddish brown clouds reached out above them. It was a wretched smear, the supercell boiling amidst the clouds.
Lorelei let her instincts take hold, burying everything else deep down under the surface layer of her thoughts. There was no time to extrapolate on much of anything, she needed to stay focused, to do otherwise would endanger her chances of survival.
Up ahead, their ambushers were hard to discern, the flash of their gun shots gave their positions away, and clearly they had the high ground of the older trench lines.
Lorelei and her group were pinned down, half a kilometer away from their attackers. The sounds, the smells, sparked several flashes before her eyes, each a terrible memory forced to resurface.
"I count twenty!" Cassie's voice was stretched, she fired a single round at whoever was shooting at them down range, the sound from the discharge was deafening, its shockwave reminded Lorelei of what it was like to be near a grenade blast. Her teeth were shaking from the burst of kinetic energy.
If only they gave me something decent to shoot with! Lorelei wasn't surprised to find the warehouse was reluctant to arm her with anything with real range. She would even be happy with a carbine of some kind. She looked at her simple pistol, an older Athenian design from before the war, and gripped the handle tightly. Divots coated the wooden handle, allowing her a firm grip.
She took a deep breath, shutting her eyes, and a small warmth began to cradle in the pit of her stomach. Magic would be her greatest asset right now, and it had been a long time since she tested the limits of her Pyromancy. It almost felt good, letting the heat flow down her limbs, sinking into the tips of her fingers and toes. It sizzled the strands of hair on her arms and legs, and caused a loose sweat to build. The nano suit she wore seemed to change color, both from the sweat, and the magical energies burning underneath.
When next she opened her eyes, she willed a delicate arch of flame to sing in the air, and let the wind carry it toward the field before them. If she couldn't shoot the bastards, then she could at least burn them!
The scorching rays enveloped the area where their ambushers gunshots seemed to emanate the strongest. Her connection to that fire wasn't severed simply by casting it, she could feel its heat descending upon the earth, and with spread fingers, willed the flames to expand. There was plenty of air to fuel it, and as the fire grew in both size and intensity, Lorelei's fingers felt as if they were burning as well.
The nano-suit seemed to somehow stifle the worst of the magical feedback. Usually by this point she would've stopped, letting the fire continue on its own without her help. The pain from the burning magical feedback was enough to char her fingers, and could burn her to the bone if she lost control. Never before had she been able to keep her connection with the magical casting, and stimulate it, for so long. It was liberating, and a little terrifying, feeling the chaotic element obeying her will. She didn't want to stop, she wanted to feel the warmth of her blaze consuming her, as it annihilated everything else.
Just as her nano-suit began to smoke, a series of dampeners activated. Apparently, the suit had a built-in feature designed specifically to save the caster from overloading its circuitry and losing control of the power they were unleashing. A cool balm seemed to slather her skin, chilling her to the bone, and Lorelei's eyes dilated as she realized what she was doing.
She stopped, then fell to her knees. Her every joint was throbbing, every muscle ached, and her heart felt as if it were about to burst. It was exhilarating! And yet…she had the terrible feeling that she had almost destroyed herself.
"Nice aim," Konrad's voice came from behind her. Standing straight, admiring the dancing colors of death in the field beyond, he reached down to pat her on the head. "Careful now, don't get carried away."
"Speak for yourself, I enjoy a good gun fight, and she just ended it!" Cassie kept her eyes aimed down the sights, but hadn't fired for several seconds.
"Holy shit! Lori, you're awesome!" Theo's voice stunned her into silence.
Theo is complementing me! Shit, did he see me do that just now? I'm so stupid, of course he saw me! Lorelei's face was burning, a grin spread wide over her face as she shot him a thumbs up. She liked the way he looked at her, how he noticed her, it soothed her fears. It almost distracted her from the fact that he was standing up…in a combat zone.
"Get down!" Lorelei shrieked! Panic took hold, as she jumped up, grabbed Theo by the collar, and yanked him so hard that he fell safely behind cover.
Theo was taken by surprise, and nearly had the wind knocked out of him when he fell flat on his back.
Lorelei stayed on top of him, her fingers still hot against his expedition uniform.
"Just keep down!" Lorelei looked over the lip of the boulder, gazing at the fire as it started to sizzle out. She could feel something hardening against the lower half of her leg. Looking down, a very cold realization gripped her.
HOLY CRAP HE'S HUGE! Her eyelids suddenly felt heavy, and with a dizzying sensation, the young Redever fell over in a stupor.
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