“Here they come!” Caldwell yelled as the sounds of two warthogs burning hard for the dragon zipped overhead. The loud BRRRRT sound was nearly endless and echoed off the canyon-like walls of the fortress for entire heartbeats as the air-support unloaded on the last dragon. “Rifles up! Target officers first, followed by anyone with ranged implements, or who is glowing. Remember, glowing means magic. What do we do with mages?”

“Kill them first!” The platoon of soldiers in the bunker complex replied in unison. Jessica grimaced, and Caldwell gave her a wink and leaned in conspiratorially.

“No offense Lieutenant Brown, you’re alright.” Jessica rolled her eyes, and Max barked another laugh. Jessica pulled out the wand she carried. She had her own rather large spell library available to her, and her mana pool was nothing to sneeze at. But it was always better to use consumables first, at least that was Magic Corp Doctrine. Just as a soldier used their rifle before they used their knife, so too went the thinking that Jessica would use her magical weapons before she used her own spells.

Between the Staff of Stalwart Defense she had checked out from the armory, and her personal wand she had purchased from the Magic Items Shop she had gained access to as a reward for starting the magic collage, Jessica was ready to meet most threats. “Eyes front.” Max said quietly from beside Jessica. She complied and looked out the opening into the growing night. The sun had set a few minutes ago, and that only increased Jessica’s anxiety. She couldn’t see further than a few dozen yards.

“Can’t see shit!”

“Stow it, Menendez.”

“What am I supposed to aim at with the SAW sarnt? I’m more likely to hit grass than some old timey roman wannabees.” Menendez was on the Squad Automatic Weapon, one of the two heavy weapons issued to his squad. The other was further down the line with the second fireteam.

“I said stow it, or do I have to come over there and stow it for you!?”

“No, he’s right, sergeant.” Caldwell said. “We can’t make anything out in this. Night vision and thermal is going to be shit with all the smoke, too. Let’s get some flairs up.” He hopped back on the radio and a few seconds later half a dozen of the brightest and slowest moving flairs Jessica had ever seen erupted in the sky, bathing the ground inside the fortress in strobing daylight.

“Contact! Four hundred yards.” The sergeant yelled. Jessica saw what he was talking about. Row after row of roman legion looking fighters in tightly knit groupings of around a hundred marched along in what had once been the dark. They had gotten close by, muding up their armor to avoid glints from star or moonlight. But now, they were revealed. There were thousands of them, and the sight made Jessica’s blood go cold.

“Pick targets and open fire!” Caldwell yelled before pulling his own rifle to his shoulder and sending leaden death down range at the enemy. “Sargents, call out targets as you spot them!” He yelled into his radio. He had too. Jessica couldn’t hear anything from more than a few feet away other than rifle and machine gun fire.

Jessica watched as the first ranks of the enemy forces fell like grass under a lawnmower. The second line of formations locked their shields, and a light red sheen appeared from the shield wall. Small arms pinged off the metal, impacting in the dirt at their feet as the magic or ability they used redirected the bullet’s momentum away from the soldiers holding the shields.

“Magic, Lieutenant Brown, you got anything for it?” Caldwell asked.

“Yeah, let me try something!” She shouted over the din of weapons fire. Instead of letting up when they had seen their rifles fail, the Rangers had just increased it. Many setting their rifles to fully automatic, despite standing orders, and unloading everything they had into the enemy’s slowly advancing line.

Jessica pulled up her wand. She had tested it only once before, with only minor problems for the people around her. Now, she hoped she could overcome the little problem she had caused last time around. She examined it one last time.

Wand of Chain Lightning 1. Spell Charges: 9/10 available. Durability: 100/100. Rarity: Uncommon, Locally Rare. Effect: The user can cast 1 Chain Lightning spell every 5 minutes. Wand can be recharged by a caster ‘storing’ a Chain Lightning spell of any level into the Wand.

Chain Lighting 1: Initial target is dealt between 100 - 200 + Mental Acuity and Wand Use skill in Electric Damage. Jumps to an additional 1-20 targets depending on proximity, and materials involved.

Jessica let out a breath and pointed the wand at the closest enemy formation. Blue energy crackled down the length of the two foot long wand, before leaping out in a blindingly bright lightning bolt.