by Victoria Sheridan 12th September 2020, 1:00 am
-One hour later-
After getting caught in a sandstorm about an hour ago the pair had had enough of Desierto to last the rest of their lives. They were hot, tired, and absolutely miserable. Their faces were caked with sweat and spots of sand that would not quit clinging to their faces no matter how hard or how often they wiped. When would this trip through hell finally end?
"I hate this place SO MUCH." Abigail fumed. Victoria was right there with her. The blonde had clearly reached her limit and the brunette was not too far behind. The blonde began to rant about the heat, the sun, and the sand that was everywhere. Victoria had not seen Abigail this angry since they had argued in Lycan Woods about Victoria's mercenary ways over a year ago. To avoid having that ire directed at her the brunette just kept her mouth shut and kept walking forward.
"I hate the sun beating down on us, I hate the constant heat, and I hate the sand. Sand, sand everywhere!" Abigail ranted. Victoria was not fond of the sun and the heat either, but she realized that most deserts tended to be hot and inhospitable. That would be like jumping into the water in Hargeon Town and complaining about getting wet. Still, Victoria knew where Abigail was coming from.
"We're almost an hour away from Berreb." Victoria tried to remind Abigail that relief was near. Abigail sighed and calmed down a little.
"Yeah, you're right." Abigail said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and tried to remove a bit of the caked-on sand stuck to her left cheek that was left over from the sandstorm. Victoria reached behind her, grabbed her hair, and wrung her ponytail out. As much as she liked her new long hair and hairstyle, this was one of those times when she missed having short hair. While short hair still got sweaty, it was a lot easier to care for compared to long hair.
The wind began to blow again and the pair got more sand blown into their faces. It seemed that some cosmic entity disliked them both and wanted them to suffer because the pair were certainly suffering. Their yells of frustration were drowned out by the howling wind that threw more sand at them before the sandstorm subsided as quickly as it came. Abigail and Victoria began trying to remove the sand from their hair the best they could and hoping that they would find Berreb before yet another sandstorm came along to add to their misery.
The pair heard the CRACK of a rifle and the sound of galloping hooves from 100 meters away. They turned to face the source and found more of the men in black with red sashes galloping after them. It seemed that Victoria's gesture of mercy had been misplace because the person she had spared had come after them with some friends. Victoria's teeth clenched and she frowned deeply.
She should have known better than to spare his life.
Victoria raised her Light Machine Gun towards the first rider she spotted and fired a Five-Round Burst at the man's chest, making him fall to the right and out of the saddle. The next man Victoria shot at she shot in the head with a Five-Round Burst. The remaining ten riders continued their charge towards the two mages, who were hot, tired, and in a very bad mood.
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Abigail fumed as she dropped to a knee to make herself a smaller target.
Victoria wordlessly dropped to a knee and aimed at the next man, who was 75 meters away and aiming a bolt-action rifle as he galloped. Victoria shot him through the head and he fell diagonally left, leaving his horse to continue the charge. A rifle shot grazed the pauldron of Victoria's right shoulder and she responded by firing a Five-Round Burst to his chest that killed him. The brunette stole a glance at the unarmored blonde and could see that Abigail did not like being helpless to help fend off the bandit attack. She focused on the next target, a man with a semi-automatic carbine leveled at Abigail at 60 meters, and fired, hitting him in the chest and sending him pitching forward.
The bandits continued to press their attack on the brunette, who was wearing bright blue armor and used a weapon that far outclassed theirs to make them pay for choosing them as a target. The surviving six were now within 50 meters of the mages and closing fast. Victoria fired at the lead horseman and killed him with a headshot. He fell from the saddle and the man to his right fired a shot on the gallop that narrowly missed Victoria's left ear.
The Sabertooth mage aimed at the man who shot at her and received a shot to the torso that bowled her over with the kinetic force behind the bullet.
"VICTORIA!" Abigail called out. The brunette groaned and sat up. She was winded and bruised from the kinetic force of the bullet, but at least the rifle bullet did not punch through the armor and pierce her flesh. That was why she always wore armor, even in the scorching desert.
The five riders continued to charge and were now only 25 meters away. Victoria sat up and aimed at the man who had shot her, killing him with a Five-Round Burst to the head. Another man fired at her and grazer her left pauldron. Now they were 15 meters away.
Abigail, no longer able to tolerate being a sitting duck, drew her Sky Blade, then stood up and charged at the bandits. Victoria, unable to rein in her partner, got to her feet and covered the angry blonde the best she could. She ignored the rifle bullets whizzing at her in favor of protecting Abigail. She spotted a raider aiming his carbine at her and fired a ten-round burst on full-auto, hitting him six times and killing him before he could shoot her.
A second raider halted his mount and aimed at Abigail as she reached for a man who had run out of ammunition and was loading a new magazine into his bolt-action rifle. The brunette aimed carefully and fired, striking the man in the shoulder and permitting Abigail to grab the raider by the leg and pull him from the saddle, then stab him through the chest with her Sky Blade before he could defend himself.
The last two riders, seeing that they were not going to win this fight, quickly wheeled their mounts around and galloped away as fast as they could go. Abigail stood over her kill while Victoria took a breath of hot air and looked towards the blonde. They had survived another bandit battle. Abigail wiped the Sky Blade off on the dead raider and put the sword away, then approached Victoria.
"Hey Vic, are you OK?" Abigail asked as she approached the brunette.
"Yeah Abby, I'm fine. I'm winded and I'm bruised, but I'm OK." Victoria replied, feeling the hole in the Azure Armor and locating it on the right side of her sternum.
"Now you see why I'm still wearing my armor." Victoria declared.
"Yeah." Abgail replied. She did not need a lecture to see the importance of armor. The blonde looked towards the weapons left by the dead raiders and saw an opportunity.
"Say, if we brought these guns and ammo to Berreb, do you think they'd have a use for them?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette grinned. She liked what Abigail was thinking.
[Post Word Count: 1,275]
[Total Word Count: 4,546/11,000]