Dan and Jennifer raced through the alley. The rattle of high-caliber gunfire guided them toward the next problem spot, and fairly quickly they exited just behind a line of soldiers. Two light-armored vehicles were blocking the street and burning merrily as the coalition forces took cover behind them and periodically opened fire on a slowly advancing wall of Tellask infantry holding tower shields. In between the two lines of soldiers, a pair of elves were fighting about eight candidates from the Starshield project. Although the candidates’ spells prevented them from being instantly killed, it was clear from the two downed candidates that they were struggling.
One of the remaining candidates raised his left hand, clenching it into a fist. Dan felt an echo of Earth mana from the candidate as the ground beneath one of the elves buckled. The elf leapt into the air, wind magic carrying him away from the soil beneath him that slammed shut like a vice at where his knees should have been. Several opportunistic soldiers opened fire on the suddenly-floating elf, their bullets rippling off of his spellshield and knocking him off course as he tried to fire a beam of concentrated light at the candidate that just attacked him.
The laser bit into the street and slashed up into one of the burning vehicles. The handful of soldiers hiding behind it flinched as part of the vehicle’s metal plating melted under the assault. A different candidate began casting a spell at the elf only for the elf’s companion to lash out at him with what appeared to be a whip made of water. The candidate got his shield up in time, but the weight behind the blow sent him flying almost five feet before he landed on his back.
Dan had seen enough. He maximized the mana flow to his strength and agility runes before sprinting at the floating elf. The being noticed him the second he jumped into the air and kicked off of a force bubble. Just as the elf was about to unleash another laser, Dan activated the time dilation rune, giving him a moment of clarity in which to react.
He would never be able to dodge the laser itself, but a last second course deviation would probably be enough to throw off the elf’s aim. Dan created a Force Bubble just in front of his elbow and pushed off of it, diverting himself to the left in the fraction of a second before the laser blinked past him. A predatory smile on his face, Dan created another Force Bubble and re-corrected his course before cutting the mana flow to the dilation rune.
Time sped up as Dan crashed into the elf’s spellshield using his weight to bring the lighter being to the ground. The elf’s eyes widened as Dan hit him, clearly expecting the previous laser to have resolved the problem. Both of their spellshields glowed dangerously as the elf crashed into the ground, Dan atop him.
The elf jerked forward within the confines of his spellshield. Clearly he either didn’t have a force affinity, or he didn’t spend enough time working on this specific spell. Dan’s spellshield worked like a seatbelt, holding him more or less in place from anchor points on his chest and waist.
The impact with the ground still rocked him, but he recovered fairly quickly and stood up. The elf beneath him tried to stand as well before drunkenly falling to his hands and knees. Dan didn’t give his adversary the opportunity to find out whether it was a concussion or a more serious injury. His sword glowed purple as it struck the elf, shattering the spellshield and knocking him prone. Dan followed up by stabbing the blade directly through the elf’s chest.
The elf reached up feebly toward Dan, grasping at the sword sprouting from his chest. Dan smothered a twinge of guilt as he withdrew the blade and stabbed again, this time through the elf’s throat. Even if the elf was temporarily disabled, an unsettled question given the number of unknowns surrounding his affinities and spells, the minute he regained his feet he would become another enemy. No elf would show mercy to Dan, and the middle of combat with a worthy foe wasn’t the best time for him to engage in an ethical debate. He could figure out if he did the right thing later.
Dan shunted the mana flowing into himself to the side as he turned and looked at the rest of the battle. Jennifer and the handful of still-standing candidates were holding off the other elf. The Imperial infantry line was trying to move forward, but without the elves running interference, the coalition forces were able to focus fire on them. On either side of the barricade of damaged vehicles, squad-operated weapons focused their fire, battering down the tower shields’ magical protection and killing the soldier holding them one-by-one. For each Imperial that fell, another holding a fresh shield quickly filled their place, but the gunfire ground their advance to a halt.
Seeing the infantry battle more or less in hand, Dan triggered a Lightning Stroke at the still struggling elf. Immediately after the spell, flames from one of the candidates licked over its spellshield. Quickly a blast of frost from the elf dispelled the fire and threw back all of the attackers except Jennifer, who threw one of her new short blades at it from short range.
Glowing lightly purple, the weapon arced through the air before impacting the elf’s spellshield. The blade sank almost halfway through the shield in front of the elf’s face before it ran out of momentum. The elf’s eyes widened noticeably as Jennifer activated her magnetism rune and pulled the short sword back into her hand. As soon as the sword was back in her hand, she cut the ability, calming the storm of weapons and scrap metal that was flying toward her.
Dan fired another Lightning Stroke, mentally adding a more powerful single-target damaging spell to his to-do list right after the fire aura that he had been working on. Lightning Stroke did decent damage, but most of its utility was in its ability to disable an unshielded target. Given the frequency with which he had been running into spellshields, something specifically designed to knock them down would be useful.
The elf tried to create a shield made from a thick plane of ice, only for a pair of Force Bolts from Dan to shatter it. In the wake of the shattering ice, Jennifer slipped closer, spikes of force stabbing from her body into the elf’s spellshield as both of her new swords blurred forward, cutting through the bubble of force with some difficulty. After almost a second of frantic struggle, the elf’s shield flared and died.
Before Jennifer could finish the elf off, the shadows behind it blurred, and the deeper note of a shotgun firing echoed across the street. At close range, the slug tore through the back of the elf, shredding its organs and killing it instantly. Jennifer blinked in confusion at the dead elf collapsing in front of her. A familiar if unwelcome blue-haired figure stepped away from the wall where it had been blending in through a chameleon-like spell that fused both light and dark mana.
“BOOM!” Reggie cackled gleefully, slinging his shotgun over his shoulder. “That is how DarkStryke69xX rolls. Did you see that, Darkies? Just like on World of Magic: Online, I’m saving little Jennie Finch once again!”
“Reggie?” Dan called out to the younger man, noticing that someone had found a chance to get product and re-spike his blue hair. “You survived the attack? Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Don’t doxx me, bro,” Reggie hissed, tapping an apparatus strapped to the side of his head that appeared to be some sort of combination of glasses, a camera, and a microphone. “It’s DarkStryke69xX when the Darkies are watching. By the way, thank you for the bits, BlazeMaster2012. I’m dedicating the next alien freak I kill to you.”
“Are you seriously fucking livestreaming right now?” Jennifer stared at him incredulously while Dan cocked his head in confusion. “We’re in the middle of a life and death battle for the future of humanity, and you’re trying to monetize it?”
“Jennie Finch getting all wound up again,” Reggie laughed, high fiving one of the Starshield candidates standing nearby. “I’m taking donations right now to buy her some tampons and chocolate. With any luck, that’ll make her calm down a bit with her shrill screeching.”
“More importantly,” Dan cut in with a frown. “How in the hell are you broadcasting? We’ve been stuck using walkie talkies since the camp got attacked. Unless one of these trees has a router in it, none of this should be possible.”
“Satellites, bro,” Reggie replied with a wink. “I told that old guy that my streamers would love to see how rad all of this magic shit was, and we signed an agreement. He got me a satellite hookup that I can run a hotspot from, and I talk about how great his video games are and how much the government has been fucking everything up.”
“Pretty easy, really.” Reggie shrugged. “His games are dope, and the government fucking sucks. Speed limits are lame, they won’t let me smoke weed, and they left us all to die in that alien attack. Fuck the man.”
As Jennifer and Dan stared at him blankly, the soldiers behind them moved out from behind cover, driving back the Imperial infantry. Without any elves to support, they began backing away, still in formation, but the coalition forces pursued, not giving them any chance to catch their breath. Reggie pulled out what looked like a digital camera before flipping it around to record himself.
“Thanks for the bits, AdmiralKranch and SoylentPeen!” He hammed it up for the camera while everyone not actively pursuing the enemy stared at him blankly. “I’ve gotta say bros that Jennie sure smells like shit today. Maybe we should look into getting her some soap and water to go with the chocolate.”
“Nice to see you again, Reggie. Good to know you’re still stealing kills.” Jennifer waved at him before rolling her eyes and walking away. Dan turned to follow her, only for Reggie to grab his arm and stop him.
“Hey, Darkies!” Reggie had an almost manic grin beneath his mop of spiked blue hair. “I just wanted to introduce you all to someone special. This here is Dan ‘The Man’ Thrush. He’s the one that turned me into the lean xeno-killing badass I am today.”
“Now, Dan…” He didn’t have a chance to respond before Reggie plowed on. “What do you have to say to Darky Nation?”
“What is Darky Nation?” Dan responded blandly, glancing at Jennifer’s back and then back down at the hand on his arm stopping him from following her.
“It’s what people who follow my DarkStryke69xX livestream call themselves,” Reggie filled him in excitedly. “The overall following is ‘Darky Nation’ and each individual member is a ‘Darky.’ Like, if you see someone wearing my merch on the street and you can, like, shout ‘what’s up Darky’ at them. It helps build a sense of community.”
“You seriously shout ‘what’s up darky’ at each other when you see each other in the real world?” Dan asked incredulously as Reggie kept nodding. “That seems incredibly problematic. I mean, I don’t really know where the boundary is for things you can and can’t say, but that feels like it is firmly in the ‘you probably shouldn’t’ category.”
“Nah, Dan,” Reggie shook his head vigorously while waving his hands back and forth. “It isn’t like that, man. I’m not racist. I listen to all kinds of rap, and one of my black subscribers said that it’s fine. We’re like a community, man. We’re all brothers here. No room for hatred, just banding together for stellar gaming and sick pranks.”
“I’ve been sleeping in a cramped hideout filled with literal shit for the past week.” Dan shook his head. “I do not have anywhere near the time, energy, or patience to unpack whatever the hell that was that you just said. If you could just tell me what the hell is going on, I’ve been out of the loop for a while.”
Reggie nodded with approval. “Sick, man. I’ve only had the balls to livestream myself spending 24 hours in a used porta potty once. A full week is dedication and commitment. Once this thing is done, hit me up, and I’ll put you in touch with our agent. I’d love to have someone with your devotion to do a bit as part of the PranknCrank crew.”
“Sure.” Dan agreed to try and end the younger man’s aggressive networking. “Can you let me know what the plan is from here? No one has really told us anything, and we’ve just been killing elves as we spotted them. If there’s something more proactive to be done, I want to get on it.”
“Sure thing!” Reggie reached up to the side of his head to mute his microphone. “It sounds like there’s some sort of teleport gate in the landed void ship. The entire offensive is us trying to get close enough to the void ship to turn off the beacon. Satellite imaging has all but confirmed that they’re actively bringing in more soldiers as we fight them. We don’t know what their offworld reserves look like, but if they’re big enough, even if we can outfight them man to man, they might just run us out of ammunition. We need to get in there and turn the beacons off. After that, it’s just a question of mopping everything up.”
Dan brushed Reggie’s hand off of his arm, deep in thought. Quickly, he jogged after Jennifer, catching up with her as he ignored Reggie’s shouted requests for a comment or statement.
