Inferno
"Marcus?"
Aria looked up into the distance, the sharp light from a sniper rifle, as it barreled down at them.
Bang!
She ducked down as another bullet came spirling past.
Wooosh!
Luna turned around, she saw the bloodied Marcus, his shoulder pierced by the bullet. She then turned back to the sniper in the distance.
"Damon get-"
Bang!
She jumped at Damon, tackling him to the ground as the bullet grazed past them again, striking the hard asphalt road.
Aria looked down at Marcus, his shoulder bleeding, his face stunned and sweating.
"Can you stand?" she asked him.
He slowly crawled away from the open street as Aria rushed over picking him up by his left arm and lugging him over to a destroyed truck. They sat down next to each other, her hands holding his bleeding flesh.
"Stop... I'm not gonna die from this... Don't worry about me. I'll just sneak away while you three go on ahead. It's your mission anyway."
He smiled like this was all planned beforehand.
"Don't look at me like that."
"What am I supposed to look at you like?"
She pulled down his beenie using it to soak up the pouring blood.
"Fine, you stay here and we'll go on ahead... Can I have your gun?" she asked.
Marcus gave her his gun, "use it well."
"Yeah, they don't call me Sharpshooter Aurora for nothing."
He sighed, "can't you be serious for a second? And nobody calls you that."
"Yeah yeah, just sit back and watch."
She peaked out from the wrecked truck.
Luna and Damon were both huddled behind another totaled car as bullets whizzed past.
"Marc, can you peak out, get a good image of where the sniper is?"
"I'm already on it."
---
Out on a rooftop near the edge of the small town. Three guys laid out flat, one holding a sniper and the other two holding binoculars.
They scanned the area for anyone approaching or trying to leave the town.
"Fin, they're split up into two groups, take the shot carefully, try to draw out the ones in front," suggested Jay as he stalked the movements of Luna and Damon.
"Should we really be taking out stragglers? We've already killed most of the competition," said Kyle, a man in full camo with a red eyepatch resting on his left eye.
He watched as the sky scrolled by, as the clouds turned to fizzles of grey, passing from one eye to the-
He turned to his sniper friend Fin, "let's dip. This is a waste of time. The test is supposed to widdle down the competition on its own, not wipe it out. Barely anyone's passed yet. We've killed almost everyone in this town trying to make it out. Wouldn't it be good with a little bit of competition?"
Jay stood up, with a determined gaze, "right now we are weak. Unlike you Kyle, I don't come from a Witch Family, and I don't have a contract. This is our only chance to fight back against the system. To kill the Immortal Horses and the Chain Family. We can become gods!"
"I don't see it. The plan would be simple if we joined up with the others, but becoming spies... We should rather train and find another way to kill the True Immortals."
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Fin fired off three more shots as the two teammates argued in the background of the flat-roofed building.
Jay laughed, "there is no other way? We've already had this talk. The Immortal Horses rule the world. No other family has been able to step up to their place. And if they couldn't do it, then neither can we. And once we get in, the Chain Family won't be on our backs anymore, we'll finally be free."
"What about the Witch Hunters? We could always team up with them. They have the resources, and the Immortal Horses don't like messing with them and their Ice Magic. If we join them we could even hide from the Chain Family."
"We don't have time for that, man. We did some crazy shit when we went rouge and left. They're after us as we speak. Just think short-term. All we have to do is pass this test. And I'm telling you. We're one hundred percent safe here. The Immortal Horses would never let any outsider affect their competition, even if they are allies," explained Jay.
Fin spoke up from his sniper position, "are you sure we'll even be able to pass? I heard that those that don't get enough points are turned into slaves for the Five True Immortals."
"Slaves?" questioned Kyle as he looked off into the distance.
He watched as three trucks pulled into the town. Each one pitch-black and rugged in design, with a white insignia of a Pegasus on its sides and front.
"That's really odd, why would the Immortal Horses be coming toward us? Is the test already over?" pointed out Jay.
A distant bang erupted.
Crash!
Slunk!
Both Jay and Kyle turned to Fin. His face shattered, blood scattered across his slathered skin, his lip busted, his mouth torn to shreds. A bullet right through his brain.
They looked out at the empty street. Aria stood in the center of the blood, with a Glock in her hand. Her sharpshooting skills allowing her to hit her mark directly on the spot. Directly on Fin's face.
"Those... They'll pay!" Jay jumped forward, he picked up the sniper and aimed down at Aria.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
He missed every shot.
Aria shot back.
Pop-pop...
Whoosh...
She missed her first two shots.
Clink!
But her final shot hit the sniper directly on its barrel.
Click-click-click...
"Fuck it's busted!" Jay turned to the dead Fin next to him, he then turned back to Kyle, "do something!"
"Yeah... I got it!"
Burn Spell: [Flaming Sword]
---
Aria looked out into the distance. A small flickering flame erupted from the rooftop where the sniper shots came from. She looked closer. A man in a red eyepatch controlling the orange waves.
She aimed her Glock at him, but it was out of bullets.
"Shit!"
She turned to Damon and Luna.
Luna looked up. She saw the flames rising higher and higher, turning into a pillar.
"It's a..."
The flames turned into a sword of heat, a mountain of fire.
"It's a Witch. A Burn Witch!"
Aria tossed the Glock back to Marcus. She held out her hands, pointing her pointer finger at the incoming inferno.
"This is gonna cost me some of my fingers... But it's worth it..."
She readied herself to cast her magic, but just as she was about to-
Fwooosh!
Burn Spell: [Erupted Explosions]
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Sudden explosions erupted across the town. A burning man floated high in the sky. He snapped his fingers, all pointed at the flaming sword.
Burn Spell: [Concentrated Explosion]
BOOOM!
Aria, Luna, Damon, and Marcus, all watched as a massive explosion struck through the building, blowing apart the structure and sending the flaming sword to infinity.
"What just happened?" asked Luna.
"I don't know, but this is our time to run," suggested Aria as she started bolting toward the destroyed debris, trying to get past the destruction before they were caught in it.
Damon and Luna followed.
They ran past the falling ash, past the bloodied bullet-riddled streets echoed in the sounds of incoming vehicles.
Damon looked up into the sky, he saw the man on fire, his body floating, flying, "Aria, what should we do about him?"
She looked up to the sky, the man looking down on them, his body on fire, ash falling from the heavens. He started to descend. The trucks started to pull into the town, all on them, on all sides, on all ends. They were trapped.
A burning man descending behind them, military trucks in front of them.
"Aria? Where do we go now?" asked Luna.
Aria just stood still, her palms sweating, her face in shock.
She watched as the burning man descended on them, as the trucks pulled up in front of them, stopping in the bloody messy street. The insignia of the Pegasus. A majestic horse, with wings, like an angel, and a body of a white horse.
The doors to the trucks opened wide as men and women in black suits stepped out. They surrounded the landing zone of the Burning Man.
Fwoosh!
He touched the ground. His flames burning hotter than magma. The blood-littered surface boiling to the touch. He looked at the three people in front of him. Damon, Aria, and Luna. He looked at the ten suited men and women, their gloved hands, watching with their tinted glasses in the sun.
Suddenly a man in all red stepped from one of the trucks, his face serious and stern, with short pulled-back white hair and a scar that ran down the side of his face. He tightened up his red gloves and walked up to the burning man.
The orange flames covering his body started to dwindle, revealing a charred, buff, naked man in his mid-forties.
"It's you?!" pointed Aria.
"It's who?" asked Luna back, confused by these mysterious figures.
Aria slowly started to step back from the scene. She watched as the man in white walked past his line of suited soldiers. She watched as he walked up to the naked, burned, sizzling skin man. His face covered in dark black ash. His skin pealing in the cold air. She watched as he stood tall, glaring.
The man in white spoke up first, "what are you doing here Mr-"
The Burning Man interrupted, "I'm done here."
Luna tugged on Aria's suited sleeve, "who are these people?"
Aria pointed to the men and women in black suits, "those guys are from the Immortal Horses. They're called the Immortal Army. The strongest Immortal Witches in the organization. And the man in front of them, the man in white... He's... I think he's a True Immortal, not like the fake ones behind him, but a true one that can never die..." She pointed to the charred man, "But the man that was on fire... The one who flew in and killed the snipers. He's even more famous... He's called the Burning Man. A man who lights himself on fire. A monster on the same level as a True Immortal. And he's... He's also the most gifted Burn Witch in millennia, the head honcho of the Burn Witches, and the leader of the notorious Chain Family. His name is Mr. Chain."