“Smug piece of shit,” Lizzy whispered through gritted teeth.
Only the knight in black armor was with McLeod this time. Also different from the previous two attacks was their entrance. Before, they’d appeared in the sky and made a grand spectacle out of it. There wasn’t that same pomp and circumstance there had been when they attacked Vancouver and Seattle. Like before, the knight didn’t move or betray any kind of emotion. The longer the camera lingered on those two, the more enraged at the knight’s presence I felt. The anger got so bad that I had to sit down and rub my temples from the throbbing headache I still had.
“I hate him so much.” I looked up to see that any sadness in Lori’s eyes had been replaced by nothing but fury and loathing. Her hands were clenched into tiny fists, and she seemed to be staring through the TV rather than absorbing anything on there. “I hate him...”
The news crews that were there just stood there wordlessly. The fear on their faces was obvious and I thought again why they would put themselves in that kind of position. I got that it was a job and a paycheck for them, maybe even a passion for some. There was still no chance it could be worth that level of danger.
“A city-wide evacuation?” McLeod asked, slowly scanning his surroundings. His confident grin never left his face. “A wise move for casualties. Maybe you lot are a bit smarter than I gave you credit for. But what about those that remained behind and the resistance the government has sent?”
“Get down!” As if on cue, another voice from behind the camera yelled the command. Quicker than I would have expected, every news channel employee dropped to their bellies. I noticed most of them continuing to peek up as much as they could, still terrified of the men that stood before them.
“Right on time!” McLeod shouted, throwing his arms out, like an excited man welcoming someone into his home. “Excellent response, though no matter how fast you are, I will not be stopped by you.” The black knight took a couple steps back and got behind McLeod. His boots meeting asphalt were the only sounds in the brief faceoff.
Then the hail of bullets began. There was no other warning or chance for McLeod to offer himself up, not that he was going to. The news station we had on didn’t have a favorable view of both McLeod and whoever was firing all the shots. The only thing we could see was the same, confident grin. All the bullets that were being fired off were being stopped by...something. Could he make a mental shield like I could? If he could, his shield was years ahead of my own.
“How is he doing that? I thought his thing was fire.” I could see her mind racing, trying to process what she was seeing. The rest of us, despite having powers as well, couldn’t seem to figure it out either.
Muffled yelling was heard over the bullets. None of it came from McLeod, or from what I could tell, the armored knight. None of it made sense. If there was an evacuation ordered for the city, why were there news crews there? If it was the police that opened fire, why were they opening fire with all those people there? If it was like when a hurricane hit, they made evacuations mandatory, but they couldn’t force anyone to leave. Maybe in all the chaos, they just opted not to enforce it. I wasn’t sure that could justify opening fire with civilians right there.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
There was a noise I couldn’t identify, and then there was an explosion. The camera only lasted long enough for me to determine that much. When it toppled over and the feed went black, I cycled through the other news channels I knew off the top of my head. I got two more blank feeds before I got to one that had a camera still standing and offered a wider shot. I had expected Pittsburgh’s police to be opposing McLeod. Instead, it looked like our country’s entire military was there. Dozens of people and a couple tanks were crammed together on the narrow Pittsburgh street.
The explosion itself had already happened so I couldn’t see anything regarding the moment of impact. I could hear fire crackling and bits of road, sidewalk, or building raining down. The fire and smoke began to swirl together until McLeod emerged, completely unharmed. He’d drawn his blade and the remnants of the attack were actually swirling around his weapon. Blue flames, red flames, and the smoke all compacted together before eventually collapsing into his sword.
“Gentlemen, you have my sincerest thanks.” McLeod took a step forward into a few more stray rifle shots. From this new perspective, I could see that the bullets just vanished once they reached about three feet in front of him, no matter how fast they traveled through the air. “You put forth your best effort, and while that would have been enough to fell any other man, I am simply not any other man. I am your king, and may this day live on in remembrance for your bravery, but infamy for your helplessness.”
McLeod lifted his sword up and pointed it straight toward the military force. Confused, there were more orders to open fire. It was an order that was never followed. For the briefest of moments, his sword flashed a brilliant white. It wasn’t too bright coming through on the TV, though it did light up the room without trouble. Anyone in the vicinity would have been temporarily blinded at best. Maybe it was a blessing so they wouldn’t have to see what was coming.
After the flash, a massive horizontal beam of white energy shot forward in an crescent shape. It was about double the height of McLeod and at least fifty feet wide. Everything caught in the energy wave was reduced to nothing; maybe some ash in the wind if anything remained at all. All of the military personnel, tanks, and cars were completely gone. The blast hit some tall buildings behind the personnel, destroying their support and some of the material a few feet above and below the point of impact. The upper parts of the buildings all fell and were left in varying states of ruin. I prayed that no one had been inside those buildings during the attack.
“A small display of my Sunblade.” McLeod’s confident grin was gone and replaced by a hard look that met every camera still standing. The crews had already tried to escape. The ones who weren’t dead tried anyway. Neither McLeod nor his knight gave chase. His sword once again began to glow the brilliant white, but instead of blinking out after an instant, it just grew brighter. “Transcend and rise above, brothers and sisters.”
Pittsburgh would be remembered as the first battle McLeod had with humanity. The first two incidents were considered tragedies and attacks, despite Rory being someone who did stand to fight him. Since he acted alone in such a chaotic time, history didn’t place as much importance on his bravery as it should have. Rory would end up being remembered as a simple casualty, just like all those other people who died in Vancouver and Seattle.
With the military attempting—and utterly failing—to engage McLeod, it was seen as the first steps people took to defend themselves. I wouldn’t say they were fools for trying to fight, no more than I’d criticize someone who genuinely wanted to do the right thing by helping people. My respect for the good men and women who died, in the line of duty or as bystanders, meant precisely nothing to the horrifying power that one evil man possessed.
He thrust the white Sunblade into the road in front of him. In the blink of an eye, the entire city of Pittsburgh was wiped out.