The bolt struck the first warrior in the line and lit him up like a Christmas tree. It arched to half a dozen more all along the front line of the enemy formation. The red sheen faltered as the front rank was either consumed by the attack or fell to the ground, spasming from the electrical current running through their bodies.

The rifle fire ripped through the back ranks of that formation, like it had the first formation. In seconds, the tightly packed enemy block was gone, dead or dying on the ground.

Explosions rang out across the battlefield as dozens of grenades were thrown towards the enemy line. The grenades had a similar effect to her spell, disrupting the enemy formations and removing whatever protection the red light had offered. The second line of enemy troops melted as quickly as the first.

Except that wasn’t right. Jessica could see three figures standing tall, completely untouched by the bullets that seemed to bounce harmlessly off their armor. The third line of soldiers hunkered down behind their shield wall, the red light appeared, followed by a golden wall of force that sprang up when one of the three figures raised a staff over her head.

“Who leads this defense?” Boomed a voice louder than any had the right to be naturally. Powerful C-WIS cannons ripped the bull dragon apart mid air. It was the largest and most fierce of the six, and it had already been bleeding profusely from the damage the Warthogs had done. But with the C-WIS defense cannons reactivating and targeting the wounded creature, it fell from the sky in a rain of gore.

As the earth shook underfoot at the dragon’s crash, the man who had yelled did so again.

“WHO LEADS THIS DEFENSE, WE WISH TO PARLEY.”

“Cease fire! Cease fire!” Caldwell shouted through his radio. Riffle fire from the platoon’s positions all along the central defense of their section of wall slowly petered out until it finally stopped all together. “So, Lieutenant Brown, what do you think? Do you think they’re sincere?

“They better be, or else they’re going to get completely whipped out. Did you see what we did to the first two ranks? They can’t have that many more people to just throw at the meat grinder, Sir.” Caldwell was a second Lieutenant, while Jessica was still a ‘butter bars’ whatever that meant. She had seen more magic at work than most of the people here, though, she knew that for sure. And while magic was versatile, and allowed for things that were crazy in most people’s estimation, it generally couldn’t stand up to a good dose of fifty-caliber machine gun fire.

Jessica’s own shields she had summoned at the firebase a few months ago had only provided a surface on which the motors and shells would detonate. If the blast from any of those rounds had been large enough, it would have still reached the ground, and still would have hurt the people it was her job to protect. As it was, the shrapnel from those explosions had still impacted the concrete bunkers and outer layers of the base. No one had died or been seriously hurt thank god. That they were old school cold war weapons without cluster or flechette capabilities had saved most of the people under the dome of force she had summoned. Not her spell.