The two of them began throwing spells at each other as fast as they could, fireball, slice, fireball again. Both the shields were very effective until Andrew had an idea. A wrecked car was on the side of the road, partly on the footpath that the enemy mentalist had advanced past. Andrew moved to that side of the road drawing the mentalist after him as they continued to pound each other with spell after spell. Andrew felt he was probably the stronger and would eventually win, but there was no point in taking the risk of confirming his impression the hard way when he had a better idea.

He threw two fireballs in quick succession and then hit the enemy mentalist, who was only thirty meters away now, with a straight push of force. The enemy mentalist didn’t have his shields grounded properly due to his maneuvering to match Andrew’s, and the push caught him by surprise. He flew backward at great speed and crashed straight into the wrecked car. It all happened too fast for the enemy mentalist to react and throw a shield up behind himself. There was a sickening thud and the screech of fingernails on a blackboard sensation that signified the death of a strong mentalist as a twisted piece of the front of the wrecked car punched straight through his chest. Andrew struggled not to throw up at the gory sight. He turned away, red-tinted his shield again, pushed it out wide once more, and glanced back at the troops.

“Well, come on, you lot!” He bellowed. “We haven’t got all day. I’ve got places to go and people to kill!”

His gallows humor raised a few snickers from amongst the troops as they formed on either side of him, taking turns to shoot around the shield as he resumed his advance down the road. The Japanese troops should have been demoralized by the loss of their mentalist, but at first, there was no sign of any panic as they continued to fire back despite the difficulty of shooting around his shield. One of his men went down, a lucky shot having him in the head as he leaned around the edge of the shield to fight the Japanese, but that was the only casualty they took before they moved within fireball range of the Japanese positions. Andrew opened up a hole momentary in his shield so he could throw a fireball at the enemy. The Japanese troops were tough, but they couldn’t stand up to a mentalist without mentalist support, and they knew it.

Once it started, the retreat gathered pace as troops that had pushed across the bridge and fanned out to attack the Ostryans now found themselves in danger of being cut off as Andrew’s force pushed forward rapidly. They couldn’t hold without a mentalist even though Andrew was tiring rapidly. Within half an hour, the remaining Japanese forces had either retreated across the river or were dead. He was preparing to lead an assault across the river when a 4×4 ute, painted in camouflage but clearly an ex-private vehicle, came racing up. A General hopped out, the first one he’d ever seen, and studied the situation briefly. He turned to the troops.