The next morning came quickly. Dan slept lightly, uninterrupted by guard duty by the agreement of the squad. The rest of the team alternated watching the prisoners after tying them to a tree. They tried to make the situation as comfortable as possible, but none of them were willing to risk their lives on something as tenuous as a promise. The prisoners might want to defect, but they would only trust them once they burned their bridges behind them.
Dan and Abe agreed that this meant killing an elf. The Tellask would probably forgive a human for killing other tributary soldiers if the human provided enough benefit to the Empire. They just didn’t see how a human could be forgiven if they helped kill an elf. It just wasn’t in the Tellask’s nature to overlook such a slight from an inferior race, even if it was in pursuit of the “greater good.”
The plan, which Tessa quickly agreed to, was for most of the prisoners to stay back, with her and one soldier initiating the attack. Only after they struck first against the elf would the rest of the squad engage. Until then, Dan and Jennifer would be with them, ready to execute them at a moment’s notice.
Of the three soldiers, Rose managed to pack her M320 grenade launcher and four high explosive grenades when she fled the camp. All three of them also had M-16s that they were incredibly accurate with. Dan, Jennifer, Sam, and Raoul would charge into the enemies while the soldiers provided fire support. The hope was that Dan could disable the elf fairly quickly and use them as hostages to get the rest of the Imperials to stand down. With any luck, they would want to defect and be freed from their control runes as well.
The hike itself to the supply base was fairly rough if uneventful. The trail itself was arduous, heavily overgrown and uneven, and the weather was humid and miserable. The entire walk, Dan kept catching glimpses of the newly-awakened animals of the Amazon eyeing them up. Monkeys with crackling nimbuses of electricity, birds smoldering slightly, and at least one greyhound-sized spider weaving a web made from pinky-sized strands of silk. Whatever else happened in the coming months, the Amazon itself was going to be considerably less tourist-friendly.
Finally, soaked in sweat, the team reached the base as the sun was beginning to set. In the gold and orange light, Dan gazed at the handful of log cabins inside the wooden palisade with a hint of disappointment. He didn’t know what he should have expected, but after the prefabricated efficiency of the marine camp, he just felt like it should be something more.
Even the base’s defenses weren’t overly impressive. The palisade didn’t appear to have a walkway, and it was only about nine feet tall. Really the only way to scout the surrounding terrain was a watchtower that was little more than a wooden crows nest where a bored Imperial soldier leaned against a large crossbow. Even the doorway into the base only had two soldiers leaning on their spears while chatting quietly with each other.
Dan reached forward and tapped Tessa on the shoulder to get her attention.
“Do we have a plan here, or are we just going to go in and flame the place?” He whispered to the older woman as soon as she stopped. “We’re going to want to have Abe, Bill, and Rose in a position where they have a good view of the rest of the camp so that they can support us.”
“You could let Rogge and I try to talk our way inside.” She nodded at the prisoner standing next to her. “I’ve told you how much we want to be freed from the elves. You have my word that we won’t betray you.”
“Do you have a better plan than that?” Dan asked, frowning slightly. “We’ve already been over this. Abe and I are only going to trust you once we know that you can’t turn back. There’s too much at stake for us to risk everything on nothing more than a promise.”
She shifted and looked back at him before training her gaze once more on the palisade, examining it for a weakness.
“Why do you let Abe tell you what to do?” She questioned. “Are you not his superior officer? Plus, I’ve seen your abilities in combat. There should not be many around here fit to give you orders.”
“On Earth, it isn’t the physically strongest who run things.” Dan chuckled slightly. “I might be a better combatant than Abe, but he knows more about wilderness survival, leadership, and planning an operation like this than I ever will. Now, I asked a question. Do we have a plan that doesn’t involve you and Rogge being unsupervised, or do we just start shooting people and see how far the element of surprise takes us?”
“If you give me the silver sphere,” she sighed slightly, pointing to one of the rechargeable spellshards Dan had taken off of her, “it lets me create a rotating silver blade and fire it at a distance. I might be able to take down the guard in the crow’s nest without anyone noticing, so that you can infiltrate. It makes a little noise, but a lot less than the battle wands most of you locals use. I believe that fulfills the requirement of me being part of the first strike.”
After thinking for a second, Dan convened with Abe before returning to Tessa. He handed her the silver crystal, but kept his palm over it when she moved to take it from him.
“I talked with Abe, and he’ll be handling the tower.” Dan jerked his head toward the bored-looking guard in the crows nest. “Once we see them in position, we’re going to charge in. That’s when you get to use this.”
Dan let go of the crystal. Tessa looked at him quizzically for a second, then nodded. She picked up the crystal and mounted it on her silver staff. He could almost feel the hum as her mana flowed through the weapon, establishing a connection with the runescripting. For a second, he tensed up, prepared to take her head if she tried to use the staff, but Tessa didn’t seem to notice, instead watching the tower.
It didn’t take that long. Silently, the guard slumped over, the glittering steel of Bill’s knife peeking from his eye the only hint that something was amiss. Dan shook his head. Every time he saw the man’s supernatural accuracy with throwing knives, it still took him aback. From what he could tell, Bill had been incredibly skilled with knives before his awakening. Since then, he had bent every ounce of his metal and gravity affinity into perfecting it into an art form. In all likelihood, the hardest part of the throw for him had been slowing it so that it didn’t break the speed of sound and alert the camp with the crack of a sonic boom.
Abe darted toward the palisade’s wall and extended an arm. In the fading light, Dan could barely make out the semi-translucent glitter of his chain of force before it wrapped around the top of one of the palisade’s logs. With the aid of the spell, Abe scurried up the wall, briefly peeking over the edge and into the base before turning around and extending the chain of force back down the wall. Rose and Will sprinted from the edge of the jungle and climbed up the offered spell.
The three soldiers held themselves for a second, suspended from the palisade. Then, in the same moment, they all smoothly pulled themselves over. Dan drew his sword. Abe had gone over the wall in the nearest spot to the guard tower. It likely wouldn’t be long before his team was in the crow’s nest, and the attack could begin.
“I think I see your point,” Tessa whispered from just in front of him. “They do not have much mana and their spells are limited, but they use them well. Even though they use magic, they fight with the organization of the Imperial army.”
“You…” She turned back to him, a faint smile on her face. “You fight like an elf. Strong and fast, but without timing or teamwork.”
“They have training we don’t,” Jennifer intervened before Dan could give a slightly sour reply. “Dan is trained mostly in magical theory and rune inscription. If things hadn’t gotten serious, there’s no way he would have been anywhere near the front. Abe and his team have been doing things like this for years before magic came to Earth.”
Before Dan could say something in his own defense, he saw Abe scaling the tower, closely followed by Rose and Will. About a minute later, they were at the top, crammed into the small platform with only a waist-high wooden wall for concealment and protection. Abe raised his hand and waved once, indicating that he was ready.
Dan tapped Tessa and Rogge on the shoulder before nodding at the gate. They began walking out from the edge of the forest into the area that had been cleared by the elves. He followed a step behind them, his spellshield cranked to maximum with Jennifer, Raoul, and Sam walking behind them. Despite their attempts to act casual, tension crackled through the air with an almost electric charge.
About a hundred paces from the palisade, one of the guards called out to them.
“Returning patrol, what’s the pass-phrase.” The man barely looked at them, intent after hours of a boring shift on performing the absolute minimum acceptable iteration of his duty.
“House Amberell, heralds of the red sun,” Tessa replied. Despite the confidence in her voice, Dan was close enough to see her hand shaking, her knuckles white, as she gripped her staff.
“That’s the pass-phrase from last week.” The man yawned, shifting slightly. “Try again.”
Tessa looked back at Dan, panic in her eyes. Before he could say anything, he felt a flash of metal mana from her. A spinning blade flew from the end of her staff, taking the guard in the throat and spraying blood all over the outer wall of the palisade.
“Attack!” The other guard was awake now. “Alert, we’re under att-”
Dan’s Forcebolt slammed the man against the palisade, knocking the wind out of him.
“Fuck!” He shouted to no one in particular as he ran past Tessa. Her eyes were wide, but both her and Rogge tried their best to keep pace with him.
Only Jennifer managed to keep pace with Dan, moving in a smooth, gazelle-like gait as the two of them cleared the entryway to the palisade in a matter of seconds. Inside, Dan triggered a Fireball at a handful of troops looking in the direction of the entry. Either their shields weren’t configured to deal with thermal attacks, or they weren’t on at all. Regardless, Dan felt the thrill of mana slip into his body for the first time that evening.
Imperials began screaming. Many of them pushed their way out of a wooden building where they had been eating their evening meal. Dan didn’t hesitate, triggering another Fireball into the building’s doorway, tossing the soldiers about like autumn leaves in a stiff breeze and igniting the mess hall.
Still more soldiers began emerging from a collection of canvas tents and simple wooden lodgings. Above, the crack of gunfire overwhelmed the screams of the injured. Most of the Imperials weren’t wearing their armor, and without it, they lacked even the basic spellshields engraved on the pauldrons. In short, they were easy prey for a trio of marksmen with the high ground, and they fell in droves.
By the time Tessa, Sam, Raoul, and Rogge caught up with Dan and Jennifer, the Imperials were beginning to mount actual resistance. A handful of troops with larger shields provided cover for a pair of soldiers who were throwing javelins with distressing speed and accuracy at Abe’s team. Some bullets sparked off of one of the shields, which was now glowing blue.
Dan swore to himself and blurred toward them, Jennifer right behind him. Rose’s grenade launcher could probably deal with the magically-enhanced shields, but they had a limited amount of ammunition. They could save the high explosive rounds for the elf. This was Dan’s wheelhouse.
Just before he ran headlong into the shields, he cast Gravitational Easing and shifted his strength rune into high output mode. Planting himself, he jumped, dropping the energy-hogging high-output mode as soon as he was in the air. He could feel the disbelieving eyes of the imperial skirmishers on him as his leap defied physics and carried him clear over the shield wall by at least two feet.
In the air, he triggered another fireball. This one didn’t kill any of the more prepared soldiers, but it shredded their spellshields, and the concussive force of the explosion blew them out of formation. Jennifer took advantage of the confusion and the invisible blades protecting her arms flickered and limbs began falling to the ground.
Not to be outdone, Dan’s blade glowed purple as he flowed from Imperial to Imperial, each slash crippling a soldier or taking a life. Behind him, Rogge struggled with an Imperial to protect Tessa while she periodically launched a steel disc at a distracted enemy, each casting clearly taking a toll on her. Sam did her best, fighting with Raoul at her side but struggling with the stronger and better-trained Imperials. They probably would have already been wounded or killed without the covering fire from the crow’s nest.
Then there was no one in front of Dan and mana coursed through his veins. He took a rough breath to steady himself, pushing the euphoria aside. He knew there were more people in the camp; he could almost taste their mana. They had just wised up and were all hiding behind the cover of the various wooden buildings.
“What vermin dares disturb my dinner!” The tall and slim form of an elf stepped through the doorway from one of the more ornate buildings in the camp, a rapier glowing purple in his hand.
“That would be me, Mr. Elf,” Dan stepped forward, his bare blade glowing as he sketched a brief bow.
“Wait.” The elf’s face lapsed into confusion as he approached Dan. “Your blade is enchanted.” He pointed at Dan accusingly. “You are a caster!”
“And I am asking for your surrender.” Dan bared his teeth as he brought the sword up into a guard position, his free hand crackling with electricity as he prepared a Lightning Stroke.
“No, this can’t be!” The elf’s face lapsed into panic as he took a step backward.
Then Rose’s grenade took him. There was no spellshield and no armor. The explosion shredded the undefended and unprepared elf, leaving a slight charred crater in the center of the camp.
Dan looked to Jennifer. She shrugged. Tessa walked up, her face pale as bits of elf began pattering down around them. Sam followed her, a frown on her face.
A wail of anguish filled the camp as the roof of the building the elf just exited erupted. A female elf covered in flames soared into the air, floating gently in the evening breeze as tears streamed down her face. Her gaze was focused on the crater and the pitiful remains of the elf who had just stood there.
“Who did this to my disciple?” She spat out, still staring at the crater. “No!” Her sharp blue eyes seemed to take in the entire camp. “Who did this to my nephew?”
No one responded, as the burning elf floated slowly over the remains of her companion. Tears continued to flow down her face as sorrow began to transform into hatred.
“He was only seventy,” she growled. “A baby! Out visiting his favorite Aunt to train his affinities. You monsters struck him down in front of me. No concern for his lack of spellshielding, no forgiveness for his youth and inexperience.”
“Don’t worry, manlings.” The flames around her swelled to a crescendo. “I will show you exactly the same leniency and mercy you showed him.”
