Pumpkin Hunt

"OK, I'll bring them down." Victoria replied to Haraka's request. She was glad to do so because she had a feeling that they were actively shielding the dude with the pumpkin head from attack. If the crows were not removed, the two mages could throw the strongest spells they had at the man until the crops grew back but would not hurt him because the crows would just form up and block the spells. It was a good thing that the Sabertooth mage had a Light Machine Gun as a weapon. It was the best non-explosive weapon she could use against them because a Heat-Seeker rocket could clear the birds away with ease, but the flame from the explosion would result in the field catching fire, the very situation she was trying to avoid.

Its power and rate of fire would make for quick crow removal, but she would would have to watch for any retaliation from the man because he would quickly catch on to their plan and do his best to keep from losing his avian shield. Victoria would deal with that when it came. Besides, she had the Caduceus Shield to protect herself. It could take a couple of good hits before breaking, but the shield was only a shield. It could not completely protect her from the consequences of half-baked plans or recklessness.

Victoria raised the weapon to her shoulder, took careful aim, and opened fire on the pumpkin-headed dude. She fired a full-auto burst just to see how the crows would react to their master being shot at. As she thought they formed up into a flying shield and took the bullets for their master. Five of them fell to the ground and landed on their backs, kicking the sky with their feet as they died. However, there were still a lot of crows to go before the shield was completely down.

As predicted the pumpkin-headed dude caught onto their strategy and prepared to retaliate. Victoria kept firing at him and the crows dutifully circled to catch the bullets before they could hit their target. He raised a glowing red hand and glared at her with palpable malice, then fired a flaming pumpkin projectile directly at her. Victoria lowered her weapon and raised her left hand, then cast Caduceus Shield to block the pumpkin. It exploded on contact and raised a giant fireball that soon dissipated, but not before impressing the mage with the intense heat that it could give off.

Victoria dropped the shield and raised the Light Machine Gun, then aimed at the man and fired on full-auto again, not bothering with Five-Round Bursts because in this case precision was not necessary. All it took was firing in his general direction for the birds to instinctively defend their master. Victoria planned on exploiting that behavior so that Haraka could get a window of opportunity to hammer the enemy with their spells. A prolonged burst resulted in sixteen more crows leaving the mortal coil. It also resulted in the man preparing another counterattack.

His hand glowed red and he formed a glowing orange tennis ball-sized projectile in the palm of his hand, then he drew his arm back and thrust his hand forward. The projectile was launched towards her and Victoria raised the Caduceus Shield. She watched in surprise and horror as the projectile burst three-fourths of the way to her and lashed the ground with fire. The fire had gotten around her shield and licked at her feet and legs, forcing her to drop the shield and scramble to safety. The man laughed at her as the crows circled around him and cawed.

The flames went out quickly, but Victoria had been lightly burned by the fire. Her bare legs were in mild pain, so she was still in the fight. She needed to knock down more of those birds so that Haraka could give the pumpkin-headed dude a beatdown. She raised her weapon and fired one last prolonged burst, knocking down fourteen more birds. She needed to treat her legs before resuming the attack.

"I'm gonna need a little time before I try again. Do you think you can hit him?" Victoria asked Haraka. Her legs burned like someone was jabbing them with red-hot pokers. She quickly formed a Field Surgery spell in her hand and cast it on her legs, healing them and curing the burn.

[Word Count: 750]
[Total Word Count: 8,044/8,000]

Victoria stood back and let Haraka do his thing. The West Fiore Trading Company mage endured the attacks of tried to land an ice attack on the man, but a bird took the hit instead and Haraka's attack was wasted. Victoria could practically feel the frustration emanating off of her companion as he said what he did. She was right there with him. Those birds had to go before they could stop the pumpkin-headed man for good.

Victoria was reluctant to employ explosives because of fear of igniting the field with the heat from an explosion, but now might be the best time to use them. A rocket from the Rocket Launcher would be more than enough to fry the protective birds, but the issue of collateral damage came up again. She could try tear gas, but she was not sure if birds were affected by tear gas and it might not work fast enough to make a difference. Something had to be done because her arsenal of bullet-based weaponry that was sufficient for any other threat was not doing enough to clear away the birds. Then she slowed down to think the matter through a little more and came upon a solution.

A Bunker Buster.

A Bunker Buster rocket from her Rocket Launcher might do the trick without endangering the crops too much. From what she recalled, armor-piercing anti-vehicle rounds tended to exchange explosive content for the ability to punch through armor before exploding. That meant the blast would not be as big as the one generated by a normal rocket. However, that in turn brought up its own set of problems.

Anti-armor fuses needed a minimum amount of armor to punch through before they went off. There was a big flock of birds surrounding the man, but it might not be thick enough to set off the fuse. Still, the sheer velocity of the Bunker Buster would punch through the crows and definitely hurt the man because it was a projectile fired at high speed. It was worth a shot, so to speak.

Victoria dispelled her Light Machine Gun and brought out her Rocket Launcher. She took aim at the man and his swarm of feathered friends and was about to fire a Bunker Buster when he saw what was coming and opted to beat her to the draw. He raised his hand and cast another one of his fire spells at her. Victoria slung the launcher around her shoulder and raised the Caduceus Shield to avoid getting burned.

The projectile exploded against the shield and generated smaller trails of flame that nearly singed her feet. Victoria quickly stomped out the fires before they could spread to the crops and readied her counterattack. She took a knee, aimed, and fired a Bunker Buster, banking on the velocity of the projectile to at least hurt the pumpkin-headed man.

The anti-armor rocket raced towards the target and the birds instinctively surrounded him to shield their master from the attack. As predicted the birds were not thick enough to set off the fuse, but the rocket turned some of the birds into red mist and knocked the man quite a distance back, far enough away that the crops would be safe if the rocket went off. That was unexpected but welcome because now she had finally done something to the enemy who was protected up until that point.

"He's away from the birds! Get him, Haraka!" Victoria called out. There was a short window of opportunity to hammer the enemy before his birds came to the rescue and made him hard to hit. Hopefully Haraka would take it and close in with the man to end this fight before it went on any longer.

[Word Count: 632]
[Total Word Count: 8,676/8,000]