34's subordinates quickly advanced toward the center of the stronghold. The surrounding buildings were razed, walls smashed as if by gigantic wrecking balls. In other places, fire was ablaze, disintegrating dwellings from the top down.

The low level Espers had done more than expected. Most of the human army were at the outer walls, trampled easily by the Astral barrage.

As 34 ran through the alleyways, the shattered homes were empty.

"The peasants are hiding! Find them!", 34 yelled ahead to his men.

Running between the ruined homes, the three men bolted towards the city center, emerging into a vacant open marketplace.

A gust of wind blew, blowing a tattered wicker basket on the carefully placed cobblestone. It rolled into an empty wooden selling stand, it's torn cloth awning producing a flapping sound in the gust.

34 and his men stopped for a moment to scan the scene.

Past the marketplace, a tall stone citadel pierced the night sky with it's four exterior towers. Surrounding the final keep, a thick fortified wall, This structure was ancient, reinforced by modern jersey barriers, razor wire, and steel infused concrete.

34 scoped the wall of the fortification, eyeing from a far machine guns atop sandbags, their gunners at large.

The base of the citadel was silent. Smoke rose from craters in the ground, surrounded by chunks of bloodied flesh.

"Explosives?", 34 looked back at the wall tops, scanning it's expanse. Between two battlements a soldier's arm was spotted lifting a mortar in hand before dropping it into a tube, emitting a fast puff of spoke.

"Move!" 34 cried out, alerting his subordinates as he dashed forward. A loud blast was heard, sound waves trailing after the sight of it's launch. Mortars, precisely lobbed at distant objects, fly for seconds before meeting the target. The human operators would be know this, and their aim would have to compensate for their target's position seconds from the mortar's launch.

A howling whistle of the bomb screeched in the sky. Not traveling faster than sound, the bomb would be impacting soon. Did the humans anticipate 34's forward rush, or did they expect him to not notice and stay stationary?

34 had no time to rationalize. The clock was ticking and a single mortar could kill all three if nothing was done, quick.

34 looked upward as he ran forward, using the Esperin's effect to locate the pin sized bomb against the black sky.

"Ionic. Shock!", 34 pointed both hands at the incoming projectile, using the Esperin's effect to instantly project a massive ball of electricity and sending it soaring.

The mortar collided with the electricity mid-air, it's shell melting instantly inside the field of high voltage sparks. With it's hull compromised, the warhead burst, sending shrapnel to the ground where the three had just stood.

34 looked to the wall as he continued his dash, eyeing the section where the mortar crew would be hiding.

"Petty foes! They're no match for me, they can't even anticipate my moves!"

The subordinates ran along side 34, struggling to keep up the pace as they jumped over bodies astrewn on the marketplace.

The machine gunners on the wall sprung into action, gripping on the .50 caliber’s handles and pulling the oversized trigger with their fingers.

34 already had a massive spherical pair of ions in front of him.

"KLACK. KLACK. KLACK. KLACK.", the relatively slow cycle speed of the gun sent thumb sized masses of hot lead towards 34 as he led the charge towards the wall.

Round after round was swallowed up by the electro magnet that Ionic Shock created.

"I like this game!" 34 let out a laughter of evil joy. The rounds kept coming, and 34 could only do one trick at a time. "Bandana, do something about that gunner!"

The bandana wearing lackey nodded, pointing two fingers at the machine gun emplacement as if he were holding a pistol. A small blue summoning circle appeared at the tips of his pointed digits.

"Pow!", The bandana man's voice cracked as he yelled. His arm was shaking from his running movement and from the fear of taking a bullet. His thumb dropped to his index finger, like the hammer of a revolver striking a firing pin.

A rod of wind sourced from the summoning circle at his fingertips. Like a tiny tornado, a vortex of air spiraled from the summoning circle, restricted to a cylindrical vector extruded by the aim of his fingers. Ripping through the air like a bullet, the vortex of air spun towards the machine gunner. Missing completely, the vortex shred deep through a sandbag, briefly leaving a wide hole in the sand before more sand filled it's place.

With a long chain of bullets, the 50 continued, 34's field of magnetism filling up with more bullets. The effect of the field began to diminish, encumbered by the increasing pile of bullets.

34 stopped in place, unable to continue. The energy of the bullets was becoming too intense as they closed the gap between the wall. The bullets flew towards 34, getting closer and closer before the magnetism's power slowed the bullet enough to draw it in.

His subjects stopped as well, looking towards 34 for orders.

"KLACK, KLACK, KLACK." The bullets continued to fly, their path becoming closer and closer to making contact with 34.

"Bandana! Take him down!"

With sweat dripping down his forehead, bandana nodded. He pulled his thumb back, creating another summoning circle and firing another vortex of air.

"Bam!"

Another miss. Bandana man put out his other hand, creating the same gun shape and summnoning another summoning circle from those fingers.

"Bam! Pow! Bang!"

Bandana fired as quickly as he could. A beginner Esper, every shot followed a difficult process of closing his eyes, observing himself in the Aastral realm, creating a gun of air in that relm, and merging his Astral reality with the reality he sees when he opens his eyes.

"Amateur!", 34 yelled out, the large 50 cal bullets coming in close to his face. "I need more POWER!"

34 increased the size of his Ionic Schocks, straining his mind to create a larger magnetic field. He couldn't let his cache of bullets fly until there was a break in the firing.

Just then, a plume of smoke accompanied by a deafening burst arose from the wall top.

"Shit! Mortar!", 34 was desperate, and the two Espers behind him weren't pulling their weight.

"Both of you are pathetic. The gun, now!"

The mortar would have fired almost straight up to be able to hit 34 where he stood. The gun had to go, to allow any sort of counterattack to the incoming bomb. Blue jeans was about to fulful his role.

Blue jeans dashed for the wall, augmenting his sprint with the Esperin's power. His attacks were melee only, and 34 knew it. The gun shifted it's bead to blue jeans, the threat the gunner deemed imminent.

"88, no!", Bandana called out to his friend as the howling whistle of the bomb made more noise than the gun. Still letting out air vortexes as fast as he could, Bandana continued to miss the recessed operator.

34 smiled, letting the mountain of bullets caught in his electromagnet fly. Focusing the heavy metal upwards and towards the wall, the sides traded hits.

Blue jeans took a shot to the heart from the gunner, blood spewing from his back, going limp and dropping to the ground.

The gunner and mortar teams were propelled backwards from hundreds of high velocity shots as they penetrated stone wall, sandbags, and flesh.

The mortar exploded mid-air, torn apart by a volley of bullets 34 hand sent upwards. Shrapnel continued downward, only to be caught by a fresh projection of Electromagnet Ionic Shock.

Bandana rushed to the fallen Subject 88. Heart destroyed by a bullet meant for taking down engine blocks, there was nothing to be done. Bandana grieved for his friend, holding his dead body in his arms.

"Bandana, this is your fault." Bandana looked up at 34 as he dropped the shrapnel to the side, dissolving his Ionic Shock projection. Startled by 34's gaze, The bandana wearing Esper dropped his friend down and held up his arms in defense.

34 had beat this man repeatedly. Bandana had become conditioned to expect it, and 34 conditioned to deal it. 34 cocked back his arm, ready to throw a punch.

A wailing siren increasing in loudness interrupted 34 before he dealt the punishment. As if an air raid was taking place, the siren built up it's pitch to a high wail, before reversing it's tone until it became a low howl. Repeating the pattern, 34 looked around for whatever force would respond.

The front gate of the Citadel began to open, it's large steel doors opening up like a barn's. The front gate was not of interest to 34, as it would be more havily guarded than a random section of wall. 34 ignored the gate as it's doors were ajarring, and reached down, grabbing Bandanna by his sleeveless shirt.

"We're going.", 34 commanded to his inferior. 34 began to scale the wall, using the strength from the Esperin to dig into gaps between the large stone bricks. Bandana followed below, using the holes created by 34's hands as anchor points.

The two Espers reached the top of the wall as the siren continued. A bloody mess of four bodies greeted them. The men's arms were sprawled, heads were drooped, and green coloured helmets hid everything but defeated open mouthes.

"Disgusting." 34 looked at the fallen humans. "I can't wait to squash them all." 34 said with a look of distaste on his face. Now with clear sight of the citadel's interior, his dream was feeling more real than ever.

At the ground level, a large church