47°02'00"N 119°57'28"W
It was sunset in the dry Stepped Plateau in Washington, hair waving from the slight breeze, the sun was setting, painting the sky violet and orange, with the clouds in mesmerizing patterns. From the sun's direction came a faint flicker of a flash of coral red light.
"Roze, I'm detecting a large mana signature west. Stay on guard, ok?" Sora said in a weary tone as if she had a bad feeling
"I can tell," I groan. "RESOLVE"
The GM6 LYNX materializes with each piece clicking together in a violet glow. I press the barrel latch and the barrel zips forward 8 inches, turn off the safety, grab the charging handle to pull and release to chamber in a round of .50 bmg as the coral light gets brighter, i turn on the eotech sight and flick the safety off[1]
"Target is 600 meters out, 100 meters in elevation, don't forget to look up, stay on your guard."
"Got it." I funnel my mana towards the magic circuit on my chest, activating the body barrier. I also activate the magic circuits at my lower back and feet to enhance maneuverability, and I enable the high-decibel blocker magic circuit at my nape, which blocks gunshots from causing hearing damage. The lines from all the layers of the magic circuits project a few inches above each one, glowing a pure violet that hummed at an etheric tone.
"Just don't burn your mana reserves dry, mana sickness is worse than the flu."
"Don't worry, I got the mana reserves of a gorilla on crack."
The target moved at blistering speed towards me, and I dashed back and began hovering against the relatively flat ground, moving at 150 kph. I aimed at the target, headed straight towards me, virtually perfectly still enough for me to land this shot.
"You're quite dumb for a WhiteRock merc to fly straight towards me."
I pull the trigger, and a loud boom with the shove of the recoil hits my shoulder, the muzzle flash causing a mini dust cloud from where I shot, the barrel zipped back to its position and automatically chambered another round. He dodged the first shot, landed on the ground, and chased. hovering at my pace
"miss" she said disappointingly, as if underwhelmed.
"god i love the lynx."
I raised my left arm from the fore grip while maintaining my aim on him and casted a jet of violet flame from a magic circuit built inside my glove, resembling the afterburner of a fighter jet and burning hotter than that. My glove heated due to the use of a powerful spell. The target was hit, releasing a bright coral red flash, the explosion at the target stopping him dead in his tracks, but with a dust cloud covering his position from the explosion, his status is unknown.
"You hit him!" Sora said excitingly as if winning a prize
"I still sense his mana, he's alive."
"Aww, what a shame, keep your guard up then, okay?"
From the smoke cloud, the target flashed red again, and a volley of 7.62 hit my barrier before I could react. I dashed back and maintained my velocity as he emerged from the dust cloud firing at me.
"dammed AK user"
"Now is not the time to hate on the Kalashnikov weapon system, dummy."
I shot back while maintaining my distance and strafing to mess up his aim, releasing 3 rounds with each one having 18,000 joules of kinetic energy, missed two and hit the last, his barrier flashed a bright red, the target coughed up blood from the sudden depletion spike to block the kinetic energy but continued firing.
"Hit!" she said excitedly as if it wasn't a duel to the death.
He continued to fire at me as I prepared my final shot. I lined up my shot, persisting through the fire of the heavy 7.62 rounds. I had him lined up, but wait- he is raising his left hand?!?
"BEHIND YOU" sora cried as i also sensed a mana signature behind me, the targets magic circuit emerges from his glove as a red glowing projection of the layers of a magic circuit with a 3 dimensional depiction of a cube made of 12 lines in the middle, signifying earth magic, a large section of basalt emerged behind me and i slammed into it at 150 kph.
"ROSE!" Sora screamed, distressed at my condition.
although the barrier can block most calibers, the human body cannot negate the sudden shock of going from 150 kph to 0 in an instant, several ribs breaking from the impact, i lost consciousness for a split second but it felt as time slowed down to a standstill, he rushed straight towards me with is AK directed straight at my head, but amidst the chaos I noticed a slight flicker of a scope from atop the cliff in the distance
The alarm rings, and I wake up in my bed, the glare from the sun peeking through the window shades in the dim bedroom.
"hell of a dream that was"
rubbing my eye and disabling the surprisingly calm alarm on my phone
"Good morning, Roze" she said with a cheerful tone.
sigh "Don't understand how you could be that happy after that dream, honestly. "I sat up on my bed, still tired and thinking about the bizarre dream.
"I'm glad that you're alive, you know" she pouted.
"You have a good point, although that was a really cool dream"
"Definitely! You fought well in that dream, and the LYNX was AWESOME, right??"
"yeah" I check the time on my phone, "we'll run late to school if we keep talking like this."
I stand up and head to the bathroom, passing through the hall with the sky brilliantly colored in the twilight of the morning.
sigh "I'll never get used to having another voice in my head."
"I'm not just another voice. I may not have a physical body, but I'm real. and a thoughtform at that," she pouts, annoyed at Roze
I wet my toothbrush and squeeze the toothpaste on it, and start brushing.
"I know, but it isn't particularly a bad thing. I enjoy your company."
"R-really??" she says in a clearly flustered tone, with her face turning beet red.
"Yes, you changed my life for the better and I could not thank you enough."
"t-thanks" somehow getting even more flustered, she's surprisingly cute when she blushes
I spit out the toothpaste and rinse my mouth before washing my toothbrush and putting it away, and head back to my room, "so sora"
"What's up?"
"I realized that it's been a month since school started up again and I haven't talked much to other people."
"yeah i noticed that too, but socializing with others is scary though"
"I agree with you, but we'll have to eventually recruit more members to the 25th hour to help with magic research."
"When you put it that way, it does seem like we have no choice," she sighed
I changed into my school uniform, adjusted my collar, and headed downstairs.
"You prefer anything for breakfast today?"
"Pancakes!" she said happily
"had a feeling you would say that," so I quickly made some pancake batter and heated the pan
"So Roze"
'whuddup"
"So we've been talking since July, right?"
I poured some pancake batter into the pan, the batter spread into a perfect circle, and bubbles arose in the batter
"Now that you mentioned it, it's been around 1 1/2 months since you really awakened, ahh, the memories are flooding in"
"Sorry for calling you short when we first met," profusely apologizing for the absurd first impression
"its fine, I found it humorous myself, and being 5"1 has its pros," I say in a joking tone
"I guess," she sighed.
"And also, you should probably get changed into your school uniform since you're still in your pajamas" I said while flipping the pancake, the impact resulting in a few drops of batter hitting and sizzling across the side of the pan.
sora being totally flustered, briefly disappears, reappearing turned away with her uniform on and one ear red, clearly flustered from the fact that she had been walking around in her pajamas
A long, awkward silence dawned on us, the pancakes sizzling, the birds outside chirping, the soft hum of the ventilator
"dummy"
[1] The GM6 Lynx is a bullpup semi-auto reciprocating barrel .50 caliber anti-material rifle with a 28-inch barrel that has a long recoil system to negate recoil, and to its bullpup design, it's able to be used in qcb, albeit with a 5-round mag, it usually turns targets into red mist