He pointed towards the bush where the enemy was and held up both his hands with his fingers splayed, then the left hand with the fingers still fully splayed, and put on his right hand, he held up only three fingers. The man nodded and then disappeared back into the bush, presumably passing that information on while the other soldier crouched in view of Andrew. He moved to the end of the APC and stuck his head around the corner, studying the position. The enemy troops were hidden in the bush, and it was going to be costly to winkle out. Unless he made the decision to earn his pay properly.

He heard the sound of running feet followed by shots and then the clangs of bullets ricocheting off the APC, and two of the Nuzeelanders joined him, hiding behind the wrecked APC. One was definitely the fellow he’d signaled to earlier who had Captain’s tabs on his collar. The other was a female carrying a rifle that was nearly as long as she was tall. Andrew did a doubletake and then realized belatedly that it was a sniper’s rifle. He scratched his head, trying to devise a way to use the girl and her sniper rifle to their advantage. He could tell where the enemy were because he could sense their glow magically, as even the ordinary soldiers had a small glow. The trouble was she couldn’t. Hmmm.

Then he felt another vehicle coming up behind the enemy position. This one had four people in it. However, two of them had to be mentalists as they felt very strong even at a distance. He could sense when the vehicle stopped, and they disembarked somewhere out of sight. All the enemy sort of congregated together in a huddle while they discussed tactics, and then the huddle broke up just like in a football game. The Japs lined up and began to advance. The Nuzeelanders behind them opened fire but with little effect.

“They’re shielded.” He yelled. Then he reached out mentally and felt a strong mentalist to the left front, a much stronger one to the right front, and what felt like an untrained but strong mentalist right next to him. The girl! He’d worry about that later. The girl at least had a natural mental shield, which was why he hadn’t noticed she was a mentalist earlier. He turned to the girl.

“There are two enemy mentalists. A strong one and a weak one. The weak one is on the left. Get behind me and shoot over my shoulder. I am going to distract him with energy and mental spells. He’ll almost certainly drop his physical shield to protect against me. As soon as you see my fireball, shoot him.”

The girl nodded and then pointed at her ear. “Shooting right beside your ear will almost certainly deafen you.”

“I have protection.” She stared at him for a moment and then shrugged as if to say it was his funeral. She hefted her rifle, checked the safety, and nodded. He turned and felt her move right behind him. Then he stepped to the left, which meant they moved out of the cover provided by the vehicle. He knew which man out there was the mentalist and hit him with the Mental Control spell, which slithered off his mental shield, then the much more showy fireball spell, Crack! The rifle fired, and his sound-muffling spell did its job. The rifle sounded like it was a hundred meters away, not a few centimeters! The mentalist went down. He shoved the girl sideways, and the slash from the other mentalist impacted the front edge of the overturned vehicle, cutting off a large chunk of metal.