His eyes burned.

(Stan) Gary!

Covering his eyes with his left sleeve, he scoured through the burning dustfield that was clogging his eyesight and nose. Along with his parched throat, his vocals led to a raspy defying voice inside of the burning field of dust.

(Stan) cough cough … Gary!

Putting his right hand onto his chest, the heated dust and smoke made their way to his lungs causing his throat to prune up. Waving his left hand despite his left arm shielding his eyes, he awaited any object or person that would bump into him, or even trip him.

At long last, his foot felt the presence of an object in front of him, causing him to slightly break away from the cover of his eyes.

(Stan) Is that you, Gary!?

With his right hand, he extended his hand as he crouched down toward the ground, waving his right hand around as if to find the thing that brushed against it. Not being able to scour it with his hand, he grits his teeth as he soon begins to cough once again, dust coming out from his mouth and throat.

His nostrils feeling the burning sensation, Stan soon turned his right hand into a fist as his eyes contorted despite not being able to see.

(Stan) Just where the hell are you, Gary?!

(Ryan) Over here!

Stan turned his body and face toward the direction of Ryan’s singsong voice. Still blocking his eyes, he slowed his breath as the burning dust burned his lungs from the inside out, leading to him hunching forward.

(Stan) Where the hell are you, Ryan?! Come out and show yourself!

(Ryan) Now? I’m not hiding. Hell, you’re the one that’s blocking your eyes. A little bit of burning dust wouldn’t kill your eyes, you know.

Hearing the sounds of footsteps coming toward him, Stan placed both of his hands in front of him, his eyes clenched shut as the dust started to smolder his face.

As the stepping of bare feet soon got closer toward him, Stan gripped the helm of the assault rifles as his ears perked up.

(Stan) Aren’t you going to attack now? You know you have an advantage against me.

(Ryan) I do, but I have something even better. Want me to show you?

(Stan) Nah, I think I’m good.

(Ryan) Come on, you're smart.

Stan had his body frozen as soon as he heard the words coming from Ryan’s mouth, leading to him looking around the dust-covered area. Even though his eyes were glued shut, it didn’t mean that he could just peak through a centimeter or less.

Slightly opening his eyes, a bit of burning dust got into the eye socket, causing him to immediately close it up again. Taking a step back from the burning pain that his right eye endured, he bit his lower lip as a bit of blood spurred on the cement.

(Stan) Do you have Gary then?

(Ryan) Hmm … do I? You know, it’s quite a mystery. I mean, I could see in the dust and Gary and you could not, so how do you perceive it?

Continued to look around at the burning dust that started to pinch and burn his skin, his hair surprisingly was intact from the sparks and heat. Feeling the hot air surrounding his body and black jacket, his hands soon started to feel the pinch of the heat, followed by his palms drying up from the lack of moisture in the air.

His throat turning more parched, he then pulled out his assault rifle from the back of his jacket, wielding it with his left hand. Digging his palm into the grip of the rifle, his pointer finger latched onto the trigger carefully, feeling its black coating.

(Stan) If you’re going to be that low, then I’m killing you.

(Ryan) Oh, what a shame. I mean, you know the procedure right? You could hear the direction of my voice, so all you have to do is point your rifle and fire away.

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Doing exactly as Ryan said, Stan pointed toward the direction of the voice of Ryan, his finger set ready on the trigger. But instead of firing right away, he stalled on the trigger, his finger a millimeter away from the firing mechanism.

Feeling his lungs being burned up even more, Stan’s left hand started to shake as his breathing started to intensify, leading to his chest going up and down in a frantic manner.

(Stan) Are you using Gary as a shield?

(Ryan) I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows.

(Stan) Bastard…

(Ryan) If only you could just open your eyes, and you’ll see it for yourself. But you know how sensitive your eyes are anyway… humans aren’t supposed to see in this type of dust.

Puckering up his lower lip into his mouth, he soon started to nibble on it as his face and neck started to become drenched with cold sweat. Unable to wipe away the sweat, his right hand slowly pulled out an object, a bottle encased with something unusual to carry with him.

And since his right hand was wrapped around it, Ryan couldn’t see it even with his all-black eyes, which caused Ryan to move the direction of his voice…

Right in front of him.

(Ryan) Whatcha got in your hand?

Stan flinched his whole body back a jump, leading to him almost toppling onto himself.

Hearing Ryan’s voice unusually close, he smelt the putrid breath for a split second before it went away, leading to him swaying his head back and forth. A foul liquid getting stuck in his throat, he returned it down as he exhaled a huge breath out, the burning dust getting onto his tongue.

Spitting out a couple of substances from his mouth, he turned toward the direction of Ryan’s last heard voice.

(Stan) You’re messing with me, aren’t you… You’re probably using your head to redirect the attention of your voice huh?

(Ryan) Like I said. Maybe, maybe not. When you think about it, it’s all based on luck, right?

Hearing his voice to the right of him, Stan pointed his gun in the direction of the voice, as well as pointing the barrel in the other direction as well. Unable to comprehend the entirety of the situation, Stan’s throat quivered as he straightened his back and throat, still clinging onto the bottle with his right hand.

Keeping it hidden as he tucked it nicely into his chest, he managed to spark more curiosity in Ryan, leading to the lich letting out a small chuckle from his mouth.

(Ryan) Just tell me what you got cooking up in there. Is it a little present for me?

(Stan) It’s just water…

(Ryan) Water eh? Do you think you could beat me with water?

(Stan) Water weakens rubber.

(Ryan) We’ll see about that!

Not being able to use his vision, his ears perked up the sound of a gushing wind to the left of him, hearing the sounds of air being pushed back as it moved farther and farther away.

Knowing that Ryan is about to initiate an attack, Stan tightened his body as he spread both his feet apart a couple of inches from each other. Noticing a gushing sound that started to come right toward him, Stan then placed the glass bottle of water right in front of him, extending his hand out as if he was giving out water.

And finally, the glass that was shown in front of him was then broken, the liquid spilling all over both of Ryan’s body part and Stan’s right hand.

(Ryan) AH!!

The water, or rather a liquid, started to steam as it stalled on both Ryan’s and Stan’s hands.

Hearing the sounds of Ryan’s wailing from the other end of the area, Stan let out a small smirk before he groaned and clenched his teeth.

(Stan’s thoughts) Who would’ve thought acid would be a good idea? Oh shit! That burns!

His hand on the verge of melting from the outside, he quickly put his acidic hand into his leather jacket’s pocket again, his burning knuckles feeling the edge of a metal device. Bringing it out with his right hand, he quickly tapped the button on the front end center, just enough time before the device started to make a slight hole as his hand was still acidic.

(Stan’s thoughts) At least I have my eyes.

(Stan) pants … Like you said Ryan … pants … humans aren’t built to see in this dust…

And in that instant, the device let out a gusting wind from out of the metal.

The dust around them fondled away like a burning candle, the area being completely devoid of burning dust. Stan slowly opened his eyes as the fresh cool wind was now instantly kicking out the burning dust heat.

(Ryan’s thoughts) That damn gust sweeper!

The area now being clean from the burning dust, the dangerous heat still lingered in the area as Stan saw his surroundings. Noticing to the right of him, he saw a lich groveling on the ground, his hands being tucked into his chest.

Seeing Ryan, Stan then wielded his assault rifle with both of his hands, aiming down his weapon right at the lich. Despite his face being pushed down, Stan placed his finger on the trigger.

(Ryan) Your piece of shit! Your piece of absolute vile shit! You’re going to pay! You’re going to pay!

(Stan) I guess you don’t like it when I play mind games huh? Pretty hypocritical if you ask me.

(Ryan) I’ll kill you … I’ll torture you … I swear … I’ll make it worse than hell…

(Stan) Cool. Where’s Gary?

Seeing that Gary wasn’t with the lich, he looked around the area to find that Gary was nowhere to be seen, his eyes peering into every cranny and corner of the street. Still having his gun pointed at the lich, he started to slowly walk toward the lich that was holding his right hand, steam and tar escaping from it.

Continuing to hear the horrid pain of Ryan, Stan managed to keep a good distance from him as he was ten feet away from him. The trigger on the verge of activating its firing mechanism, Stan placed his right foot forward, his left hand steadily aiming toward the left side of his back.

(Stan) Was it a mind game or did he escape? Unless you want me to end it right here and now, then I’ll be glad to do it sooner.

(Ryan) I’m not telling you! I hope you die, you scumbag!

(Stan) Yeah, I had enough of that shit talk.

Pulling the trigger of his rifle, he unleashed a steady round of bullets onto Ryan’s back, his entire body defenseless as it started to pierce through his skin. With many of the bullets lodging themselves onto the groveling Ryan, tar started to spur from the bullet wounds and mouth his, leading to him coughing out tar.

(Stan) Guess that acid is kicking your butt huh?

His chamber empty, Stan soon started to reload again, replacing his old cartridge with another one as he swapped it out with ease. Lock and loading again, he was about to pull the trigger of his rifle until…

(Ryan) Eat this!

Before Stan had time to react, a flying rubber head was on a direct course toward his face.