Arcadia

Your Smile

The temple floors rocked and vibrated intensely. In the midst of the disturbance, one of the walls came through and broke apart, with several cultists being thrown back. It did not take too long before the ones responsible for the wreckage showed up.

"Come on, push!" A person, dressed in black military attire and a gray kevlar vest, waved at his other companions from behind. He fired off some more rounds from the gun he held, targeting the cultists, who responded with their magical barriers. 

The leader of the group inputted some commands in a mobile device he held. Upon pointing it towards the enemies, the device created some plasma sparks, breaking the enemy formation. 

"We must protect Mistress Shirayuki! Just a little longer... a little longer... victory will be ours!" 

In response to this rallying statement, the rest of the hooded people launched their own attacks. With the limited magic power they have, they shifted to combine their attacks into a sizable stream of energy. 

The energy blast shot through the hole made in the broken wall and knock the attacking soldiers back. More notably, it hit and destroyed the mobile device which negated the shielding magic. 

"Fall back! Hold off the assault!" ordered the commander. 

"Tsk! What poor excuses for a military force! You're lucky Freya doesn't have me in charge of you pushovers!"

Erika spat on the ground and kicked the commander aside. Silence fell all over the dozen or so Freyan soldiers. Even the commander looked at Erika, unable to mutter a single word.

Erika positioned herself in front of the enemies. "Outta my way! I'll show you weaklings how to do it!" She aimed her assault rifle towards the middle of the group of people. Her lips curled upwards into a smile as she held onto the trigger. 

The surprised cultists gathered together and re-formed their barrier.

Erika's numerous bullets seem to be doing no good against the barrier. However, when the commander of the Freyan soldiers held the mobile device towards Erika, she snapped back at him.

"Get lost! I don't need your help!" Erika stopped firing and inhaled. 

This surprised the cultists as well. Nevertheless, they continued maintaining their barrier as Erika snapped her rifle into two. 

"Let's obliterate them, Gale Stinger!"

As Erika called out her weapon, the two split halves of the former assault rifle rearranged themselves and formed two individual guns, one on each of her hands. The Freyan soldiers stare at the two guns in Erika's hand which looked like Uzis. 

"Time to rock! Hah!" Erika's eyes widened, giving her a deranged look as she held onto both triggers hard, spraying the entire area in front of her with bullets. "If firepower doesn't work... you're simply not using enough of them!" 

The soldiers stepped back. They could feel their hearts throbbing alongside Erika's mad laughter as she continued open firing on the enemies. In due time, the cultists barriers give way and they felt the brunt of the Investigation Team member's bullet rain. 

Erika smiled in joy as the wounded cultists all fall back and scamper about. "Running? Nope! Hahaha!"

She held onto the trigger, but was stopped by a strong hand on her shoulder. The strong hand pulled her back, which caused her to drop Gale Stinger. Her momentum also sent her falling on her back.

"Hey, what's that all about? I'll kick your ass!" hissed Erika before even looking at the person who pulled her back. 

"Now, now, don't get too excited."