Dan blinked away the mental static from teleportation. He was kneeling on a teleportation platform somewhere else, his sword still in his hand. He stood up and looked around, taking in the metallic room that resembled the void ship’s teleportation chamber, complete with an oversized teleportation beacon. The only real difference was the humans here weren’t wearing armor. Instead, most of them looked like technicians monitoring the heavily-magical equipment that made up the teleportation platform and trying to avoid the gaze of the bored-looking elf supervising them.
“Humans.” The elf sauntered over, not even turning on the spellshield runes clearly stamped into his breastplate. “We’ve lost contact with the Lord Aesther’s Descent. The oracles have indicated that the natives are attacking, but other than that, the situation is too chaotic for us to be able to make anything out. Report.”
The Lightning Stroke hit him directly in the chest, the gold inscribed silver doing almost nothing to stop the flow of electricity as the elf collapsed. Dan wondered vaguely if the last month had made him too casual about death as the blade of his sword passed through the twitching elf’s neck. He was torn. He knew that if he had to redo his final encounter with Nora, his first companion and greatest antagonist on Twilight again today, there is no way that the duplicitous woman would survive. On one hand, that said something about Dan as a person. On the other, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was a mistake to leave her alive.
“Don’t do anything stupid.” Jennifer interrupted Dan’s reverie by waving a sword at a pair of human techs edging toward the room’s door. “We’re highjacking whatever this thing is, and I’d prefer to have people alive to crew it at the end of the day. As a note, ‘prefer’ and ‘require’ are different words.”
The two women froze and stepped away from the door, shaking slightly and refusing to meet Jennifer’s eyes. As Dan walked past them, one of them stumbled, falling to the ground.
“We can fix your control runes,” he said with a sigh, his hand on the lever to open the teleportation platform door. “Just don’t fight back, and you’ll be free to leave. We aren’t here for you.”
The woman on the ground began sobbing. For some reason, her friend glared at Dan and began dragging her friend away. Dan glanced over to Jennifer helplessly.
“Don’t look at me, Dan.” She laughed, fiddling with her knives. “I’m the one who threatened to kill them, but you’re the one with the eldritch sword that just killed their taskmaster. Maybe you should stop being so imposing?”
Dan didn’t dignify her quip with a response. Quietly, he turned back to the teleportation pad, interrupting the runescripting that powered the beacon with his sword. He’d be able to fix it later, but for now he wanted to make sure that no one followed them onto the station.
With a quick nod to Jennifer, the two of them unlocked the armored door that protected the teleportation chamber and stepped out into the hallway. On either side of him stood two guards wielding the halberds that he recognized from breaking into the first teleportation pad. Almost casually, he slammed each of them into the walls of the hallway with a Forcebolt. He still wanted a version of the spell that could create spears or blades of force, but he had to admit that there was something satisfying about slamming an opponent into submission using nothing but bone-cracking force.
He doubted that either of the men were dead, but neither of them would be in fighting shape anytime soon. Jennifer jogged up next to him, quirking an eyebrow at both of the unconscious guards.
“This is why everyone’s scared of you, Dan.” She suppressed a giggle. “You’re always brooding and throwing people into walls. We still need to work those murder hobo tendencies out of you.”
Dan kept walking, partially ignoring the fact that he had no idea where he was going. It was slightly petty, but at this stage, he wasn’t going to give Jennifer the satisfaction. After about ten minutes of aimless wandering, a human imperial approached them nervously, her hands empty and above her head. Dan raised his hand to cast a Lightning Stroke, his face screwed up in confusion, only for Jennifer to grab his wrist.
“Dan, she’s surrendering, and we need a guide. As much as I appreciate the simplicity of your ‘knock everyone out with magic’ plan, I would prefer to not get stuck walking around here for the next two hours.”
“Do we have to do this in front of the potential hostage?” Dan glanced briefly at the woman who had stopped with her hands in the air almost ten feet from them. “For all we know, this is some sort of plot for her to get close enough to detonate a magic bomb or disable our spellshields. These are literally our enemies, Jennifer. We can’t trust them.”
“You really need to work on those trust issues.” Jennifer shook her head in an exaggerated fashion while clicking her tongue.
“Sir and ma’am,” the imperial nervously spoke up. “I can hear both of you. I’m, uh, sort of a representative of most of the station’s crew. We would prefer that you don’t run around inside the ship blasting spells, just in case you knock a hole in the hull. We would be super grateful if you don’t get us all sucked out into space.”
Dan turned back to the anxious woman. “Are you all going to surrender, then?” he asked, eyeing her up for any sudden movements.
“We,” her eyes darted back and forth as she quickly licked her lips. “I mean, the other soldiers aren’t really able to completely surrender. There are two elves left on the station. We just wanted to see if we could encourage both sides to fight in the gymnasium. It’s hardened, and you’re a lot less likely to accidentally kill everyone. If you have the ability to remove our control runes, we don’t really have a reason to fight you if you win.”
“How do I know this isn’t a trap?” Dan squinted at the terrified woman.
“Uh, it sort of is, though?” She responded, confused. “Pretty much everyone will be in the gymnasium to fight you. We just want the survivors to actually have a space station to return to.”
Dan stayed alert while the soldier led them through the station. Whoever had designed the place seemed overly fond of endless twisting passageways. Not exactly Dan’s favorite design ethos, and certainly not one that lent itself to the station responding quickly to an emergency. Definitely something he would have to look into once he commandeered the station.
He wasn’t sure when he came to the conclusion, but Dan was going to take over the station. Between the government and the Thoth foundation, Earth wasn’t safe. It was only logical that he find someplace away from their control to set himself up. Even if it ended up only being Jennifer and him, he was pretty sure they could make a fairly decent living as wizards for hire.
The gymnasium itself was a smaller version of the one in Daeson’s mansion. The reinforced walls, obstacle course and firing range were all there. The only new addition was the two elves, one holding an awl and the other a shortbow standing at the other end of the gym. The soldier who guided them to the room quickly closed the door behind them and ran away. For a couple seconds, silence filled the room, before one of the elves spoke up.
“I am Basson Kinai, and this is my brother, Willot Kinai.” His speech was clipped and formal as he motioned first to himself and then to the elf standing next to him. “Along with Earran Amberell, who I believe you have already slain, we are the administrators of this station. If we are to fight to the death here, I would have you and your companion’s name.
Dan frowned slightly. “I am Daniel Thrush, and this is Jennifer Finch. I’m surprised you’re actually asking for our names; most of the elves that I’ve encountered to date have been completely dismissive.”
“Nobles.” The other elf sniffed dismissively. “You’re a lot less dismissive of an enemy that pulled themselves up from nothing when you have some idea of how hard that is. The rest of us get treated better than humans, but that’s about it. Learning spells without a tutor from a public library and having to scrape together enough money to buy actual gold runes for your silver armor really helps you understand how hard things are for the regular soldiers against the Orakh.”
“Willot is right.” The first elf shrugged. “If you’ve made it this far, you deserve our respect. The Amberells might not consider you a worthy foe, but that is more of a factor of their arrogance than your ability. Still, honor demands that we fight to the death, so here we are. Just know that, if we win, Willot and I will make it quick. I ask that you do the same.”
Dan nodded. Thoughtfully, he took in the two elves. Their armor, while enchanted, was only a couple of plates sewn into silver chain. The plates themselves had golden runescripting on them, but Dan could quickly see that an unsteady hand had inscribed the crude glyphs. They would work, but even his spellshards were of higher quality. Maybe that was why these elves weren’t deployed to the front. They were able to oversee a small station full of human techs, but they were hardly above the level of an average Starshield candidate.
Almost regretfully, he lobbed a fireball between them. Immediately, they broke to either side, with Willot firing the bow at Dan. Mana flared into his time dilation rune, and the arrow slowed to a crawl. Easily, Dan put a Force Bubble in the path of the arrow, deflecting it to the side where it sparked and sputtered with magical energy.
Without returning time to normal, Dan hit the archer with a Lightning Stroke. His spellshield flared, but it clearly wasn’t configured to deal with electricity as the energy went straight through it. The spell hit Willot in the chest, and the elf spasmed, falling to the floor almost immediately. Briefly, his memory went back to Twilight, where the spell had been one of his main go-tos. It really was an effective ability, if the target didn’t have a way to deflect or ground the spell.
Dan pounced on Willot, bringing the enchanted sword down. The elf’s spellshield absorbed one slash, flaring violently white, before it shattered entirely. Dan stabbed the blade into the elf’s chest before turning to see Jennifer still in the middle of a battle with Basson. The elf was barely able to keep her at a distance with constant thrusts from the awl. That said, at some point in the last couple of days, Jennifer had gotten good enough at controlling the planes of force around her that she was actually reaching out with sheets of force to deflect the pike before it even reached her.
He nodded in appreciation as shimmering rectangles of force stretched out from her skin and slapped three successive thrusts slightly to the side, allowing her to close the gap to Basson unmolested. The elf shouted in surprise, dropping the spear. He ignited his hand and forearm before attempting to backhand Jennifer. She easily ducked the blow, thrusting up with one of the enchanted short swords, her blade skipping off of the elf’s burning arm, leaving a visible hole in his spellshield.
Basson jumped away from Jennifer, only for his upper back to slam into a Force Bubble, pitching him forward. The elf’s face slammed into the station’s deck, and Jennifer was on top of him, a blur of blades and magic as she quickly worked her way through his spellshield and did fatal damage to the stunned elf.
Dan shook his head at the wreck of an elf before turning back to Willot. The elf’s bow was almost five feet away. Even if it was closer, he was clearly beyond fighting, due to the sword stabbed through his lung. Dan opened his mouth to demand Willot’s surrender, only for the elf to beat him to the punch.
“End it, human.”
Dan couldn’t help but notice the blood on the elf’s lips as he spoke.
“Neither of us can surrender. We both have family that will be given a pension if we die in combat, but if we’re taken prisoner, their fates will be terrible beyond words.”
“But-” Dan began, only for Willot to cut him off once more.
“Given your weapons and abilities, this was the only way our duel could have ended.” The elf coughed, blood spattering his clenched hand. “Basson and I knew that this is probably how this would end, but there never were choices for people like us. If we surrender, it is treason. We can never return to the Empire, and those we love will be tormented and dishonored in ways humans can comprehend. Both of us walked into this gymnasium knowing there was a very real chance we wouldn’t be walking back out. It isn’t fair, but it is the way of these things. Just be quick.”
