Gunfire rang out from the crow’s nest, knocking the elf back a handful of feet in the air as the bullets were absorbed by her spellshield, but failed to cause any real damage. Mana welled up in her fists as she shrieked in sorrow and rage. Dan’s eyes followed her gaze and widened.
“Abe!” he shouted, frantically summoning a force bubble in front of the tower. “Jump!”
The three soldiers leapt from the guard tower as a wave of fire erupted from the elf. The force bubble held for a fraction of a second before the fire consumed it. Dan felt his connection to the mana in the bubble end with a tangible snap, and staggered back disoriented as vertigo swelled around him. He shook off the dizziness and turned back to the tower, which was now a smoldering ruin.
For a second, terror filled Dan. He frantically searched for Abe, Will, and Rose in the rubble of the camp, feet rooted in place. Then the elf swooped in front of him, her hands wreathed in flames as she glared at him, and Dan didn’t have the time to think about anyone else.
“You,” her gaze burned hotter than the literal flames surrounding her. “Human mage. You should not exist, yet you stand between me and my revenge. In normal times, I would capture you as the oddity that you are, but now you can only blame yourself. For your role in Seenthal’s death, you will be placed on the pyre next to him, your mana giving him the wings he needs to travel to the halls of his ancestors.”
“I would prefer another alternative.” Dan shrugged as he pulled his sword into a guard position and poured mana into his spellshield. “I am willing to accept your surrender at any point.”
Her response was another wave of fire that washed over him, fusing the ground beneath his feet into glass. Dan’s spellshield flashed straight through yellow and glowed a warning red at him as he mentally toggled his strength rune into high performance mode and jumped into the air. As soon as he left the ground, gravitational easing activated, extending his leap.
He cleared the beam of fire and launched a Lightning Stroke at the elf. Normally he would have launched a Fireball given her maneuverability, but there was something about her literally being covered in flames that steered him away from the idea. The lightning bled off of her spellshield as Dan fell toward the ground.
In a flash of inspiration, he created a Force Bubble under his feet. For a second, his boots slipped off of the opaque surface of the spell, but then, with the aid of Gravitational Easing, he balanced precariously in the air before increasing his strength and kicking off.
Her eyes widened, and the elf shifted the beam of fire upward. Dan clenched his jaw as his spellshield held for a second and then shattered. The shield rune flashed into place, but Dan could feel it failing as well. His skin reddened and blistered under it as the shield only weakened the overwhelming heat. Then, Dan slammed into her.
The sword flashed purple as it deflected off of her spellshield, then the elf went flying, her fire beam tearing through the base below them as she pinwheeled wildly. Dan created another force bubble under his feet as she tried to gather enough wind mana to stabilize herself. Dan jumped after her, wincing in pain as the air whistled across his raw and burned flesh.
This time, Dan’s sword punched through the spellshield. Barely. The blade glowed bright purple as it slashed across the elf’s thigh. Enough to draw blood, but not to seriously injure the elf. Then she exploded.
Before Dan could create another force bubble to kick off of, he was blown away from her, sailing halfway across the camp and slamming into the wall of a log cabin. The breath left his body, and stars flashed across his vision.
With a rush of air, the elf swooped in front of Dan and hovered there. He stood up, only for a surge of gravity mana to triple his weight. Dan barely managed to say on his feet, stumbling slightly, but the elf didn’t take advantage of his weakness. Instead, she dabbed her index finger in the bloody cut on her thigh and held the finger up in the evening light.
“This is the first time I’ve been made to bleed during a duel in a millenium.” Her tongue darted out between razor teeth, cleaning the blood from her digit. “A worthy accomplishment for anyone, let alone a being as base as human. Tell me your name, manling. I will ensure that it is inscribed next to your skull on my trophy case, granting you the glory and immortality that genetics have denied your race.”
Dan’s vision blurred. His skin burned, covered in tears and blisters. Being thrown from twenty feet in the air into the log cabin had done a number on him. Notifications popped up in the corner of his vision, but Dan dismissed them. He would be surprised if he didn’t have a concussion and at least a broken rib or two. He tried to lift his sword, but despite his aching body’s struggle, the tip of the blade only wavered.
“Daniel Thrush,” he replied, somewhat surprised by the pride in his voice. He only answered her to buy himself enough time to try and break free from her magic. Why did he care that she acknowledged his ability? It really shouldn’t matter.
“Daniel Thrush,” she repeated his name, savoring it as she stared down at him. “Die now, Daniel Thrush, and know that you will die as something greater than your kind should be capable of. I will commission a ballad in your honor, so that all may know the impossibilities that you accomplished. A worthy foe, yet still not an elf.”
Then an explosion rocked her, throwing her to the ground and cutting the gravity field that trapped Dan. Jennifer threw down Rose’s grenade launcher and tackled the elf, shimmering blades and spikes of force winking in and out of existence as she turned into a blur of motion.
“No one said it was a fucking duel,” Jennifer shouted as her bladed arm drew a line of blood from the frantically dodging elf’s cheek. “So I hope you don’t mind me cutting in.”
For a couple of seconds, Dan hoped that Jennifer was in control of the situation. The grenade had completely shattered the weakened spellshield, and Jennifer seized the initiative. She moved with the grace and speed of a jungle cat as she struck the elf several times. At first, the elf only dodged frantically, but then Jennifer made a mistake. Whichever master crafted the elf’s runes would’ve been proud. A single backhand sent Jennifer flying almost ten feet through the air.
Dan fired a Lightning Stroke into the elf’s back before she could pounce on Jennifer’s unconscious body. She froze, slowly turning toward Dan despite her muscles twitching and spasming from the electricity. Dan frowned and fired another Lightning Stroke. It hit her in the chest, burning a hole in her clothing and scorching the skin beneath.
She spasmed again, but it didn’t stop her from taking a halting step toward Dan. Balls of fire appeared in both of her hands. Dan launched another Lightning Stroke at her. An arc of fire guided the electricity to the ground. He winced. Of course. Lightning bolts were little more than electrically conductive streams of plasma that let a charge flow between two spots. With enough heat, the elf could ground every bolt he fired at her.
Dan shot Lightning Stroke after Lightning Stroke into her, forcing the elf to use her magic defensively. He could feel the mana headache building, but he didn’t have a choice. Both of their shields were down, and the minute he stopped she would immolate him. Even with his shields operating at full strength, Dan wasn’t sure they could survive a bolt of fire hot enough to turn the air itself into plasma.
In an almost detached moment, Dan glanced at his System notifications. A smile cracked the skin on his blistered and reddened face.
Private Message from <Sam the Great>: Hold her still, Dan. I’m sorry.
He launched one last Lightning Stroke, then his mana failed him entirely. For the first time, he could feel that all of his spirit spheres were empty. His runescripting stuttered to a halt. Fully human, Dan fell to his knees, gasping.
Then Sam slammed her hand into the elf’s back. The elf whirled around and slapped Sam, her forearm visibly breaking as she futilely brought it up to block the elf’s blow. In the center of the elf’s back glittered a familiar syringe.
Of course, Sam would have another dose of the System for field application.
The elf screamed in rage, and gravity shifted around Sam, throwing her up in the air before slamming her back to the ground with an audible crack. The elf’s body stiffened, and she fell to her knees with a blood-curdling scream, her fingers twisted into claws as she dug them into her own face.
“What have you done to me,” she hissed before screaming once again and collapsing to the ground. Her eyes rolled back up into her head as her body began twitching. Dan held his breath for almost a minute as he stared at her, but soon it became obvious that she had blacked out from the pain.
Dan staggered over to Sam and checked her pulse, sighing in relief when he found it. The System could fix a lot, but actual death was still beyond it. Jennifer limped over to him, refusing to put any weight on her left leg. Together, both of them looked down at Sam’s twisted body. Without speaking, Dan sheathed his sword and walked haltingly over to where Tessa stood in the center of camp.
She was speaking to the fearful Imperial Soldiers, urging them to throw down their arms and join up with “the natives.” Dan could think of several better names for his band of survivors, but it didn’t seem right to interrupt Tessa while she was on a roll. Apparently, the penalty for allowing an elf to be killed was severe, but the penalty for allowing capture was death. From what Tessa was saying, the word “allowing” was defined fairly liberally. As in “if you were within eyesight of the incident and didn’t stop it” liberally.
Dan silently thanked the Tellask for their draconian and inhumane punishments as the remaining soldiers quickly subdued the handful that had enough misguided loyalty to support the elves. Even if he could outmatch the Imperials one-on-one, he was in no shape to drag back their wounded, let alone to fight them.
Quickly, they broke up, looting the buildings of food and valuables. If they were going to mutiny, they knew that they would need as many of the supplies from the base as possible both to deactivate the loyalty runes and to prepare them for the oncoming onslaught. No one envisioned the Tellask responding to the destruction of a supply base, the death of an elf, and the capture of a senior elf with any sort of half measures.
Abe walked up to him with Rose trailing a step behind, Will slung over her shoulder. The soldier nodded at him then cracked a smile. He was covered in soot, and the left side of his body was a complete mess where the elf’s flames had burned off his uniform and skin together.
“You look like hell, Dan,” the disheveled soldier chuckled then walked past him toward the rest of the half-destroyed camp.
