This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/PepperAntique on 2025-07-01 20:51:54+00:00.
Writer's note: Still writing. Still continuing. Just chugging along behind the scenes here. Also Reddit's acting weird. Hopefully the formatting is okay.
Enjoy.
Eli had been on the losing side of fights before.
As a young child moving through the QZ's first school program, the school having just opened, he'd been bullied for being a "half-Earther". He hadn't been the only one.
As a teen he'd been harassed by his own elvish cousins. Partly because of his mixed blood. But also because his cousins had been jealous of his private tutelage under their family's patriarch, which had been an acknowledgment of his skill in the family craft. But because of his nature, he'd never been allowed to retaliate.
And as an adult he'd become first an officer of the law, albeit only for the QZ. Then he'd become one of the QZ's first non-human detectives.
And every cop, human or otherwise, eventually got involved in a fight they couldn't win.
But those were different.
As a child he'd always been able to count on a teacher showing up.
As a teen he'd always known that his cousins COULDN'T go as far as they likely wanted because they would be shunned from the family if they did. Even for mixed blood members, elves didn't let family hurt family. At least not in any lasting, or visible, way.
And as an officer and detective, he'd always been able to count on backup being somewhere around to lend him a hand. And they'd always managed to come through in time. He'd been lucky that way.
But when the Petravian prince/archmage rebounded off of an invisible barrier just before blasting his way out of the facility they were in, Eli knew.
They all knew.
There would be no backup this time. No adults to breakup the schoolyard brawl. No aunts or uncles to pull the offending parties apart. No partner, or EMT's, or a nearby patrol car to ride in like the cavalry.
No. As they all paused at the resounding **-DUMMM!-** sound that emanated from above, followed immediately by a pitiable cry of pain, he and all the Petravian soldiers around him knew that this was a fight that NONE of them would be winning or escaping.
The fighting seemed to pause as they watched the crimson and gold form of the prince fall. A shimmering blue shield still luminating above him from where he'd impacted it.
They saw the streamer of blood that seemed to follow him, almost matching his robes as it obeyed gravity.
They all saw how oddly crooked his neck was as he fell past the level they were on and continued falling past sight.
Then they were reminded of their situation as one of the soldiers in their front ranks was pulled into the gaping maw of one of the cyber-golems and systematically dismantled by the whirling blender that was its many appendages.
Eli sliced a few appendages off of his opponent. Then he stepped back a bit as the Petravians around him rushed forward and continued fighting.
Gunshots and the familiar whip-crack sound of man-portable MAC rifles began to sound from where he'd seen the RTI goons streaming in. A soldier near him rocked back as a quarter sized hole was punched through their sternum. Eli crouched down as he watched the soldier drop their axe and inspect the hole for a moment. Then they fell limply to the ground.
Eli's hands slipped into his coat pockets and fished around in the expanded space there.
And when they emerged they were coated in a pair of skintight gloves and bejeweled with so many rings it was a wonder his fingers could move. He also retrieved a pair of goggles and put them over his eyes.
He stood up, a translucent shield forming in their air between him and the incoming fire.
"Get behind me!" He commanded the soldiers around him.
He snapped the fingers of his left hand and sparks flared around his finger tips as his rings began luminating in a cascading rainbow of color. He brought his right hand up and formed a circle around his mouth, as if he was about to inflate a balloon.
The soldiers, sensing the magical crescendo rising within him, jogged to do as told.
And when he blew through the opening a torrent of flame akin to a dragon's breath blasted forth with the heat of a welding torch.
Fire and cold blue lightning burst forth from his hands as Eli began to burn through an arsenal of magical items he'd accumulated, crafted, and modified over the course of nearly fifty years of slowly progressing enchantment craft.
And as rounds, and appendages bounced and ricocheted off his shield, he stole their kinetic energy and funneled it into his magic like a self fueling flame.
If he was going to lose this fight, he at least intended to make a show of it.
As Eli began incinerating the nearest cyber golems the soldiers behind him began sending enchanted crossbow bolts and rune stones at the gunmen behind the golems.
Black veins began burning into Eli's arms and face, as he began moving forward.
The ring on his left pinky burst. The skin around it was scorched and bruised, and the sparks that hand had been producing shifted to a brilliant neon pink.
And they began killing golems even faster.
He wondered at the sudden burst of magic he felt from beyond the enemy lines.
It was coming from where the prince had fallen.
Marina was sitting on a discarded ammo crate, drinking from a bottle of ice cold water when Madame Choi landed next to her in a slam, startling her into spilling some of the cold refreshment.
"We need to go." Minara said as Tieren appeared from behind her, seemingly from thin air.
"What's going on?" Marina asked as she toweled sweat out of the fur on her arms and stood up. "Am I in trouble? I thought I was doing well."
"You did fine." Tieren assured her.
"Something's going on." Minara said with a note of distress in her voice that legitimately alarmed Marina. "I have to get back to the surface."
"And we'll be safer up there with her." Tieren added.
Marina shrugged. "Okay." She said simply as she moved to join them. "Did I really do okay?" She asked as she neared Tieren.
Tieren rolled his eyes, unimpressed at how easily she'd taken the change of plans.
"You still smell like a wet dog." He said as he produced another towel. Again, seemingly from thin air. "If you ever really want to sneak you'll need to get that thermo-regulation magic down perfectly. Any were out there would smell you from a mile away."
"Really?" Marina asked as she lifted her arm and sniffed at her armpit. She recoiled as she smelled herself. "Okay fair. What's going on that we have to leave?"
"My cousin just died." Minara Choi said with a grimace.
She lifted her hand, and on it was a ring that looked like it was made of fur. Set into it was a series of gems that looked like eyes that were not too far off from Marina's own.
One of thee eyes had closed. And the others around it were flaring with brilliant orange light as they darted back and forth, as though they were searching for something.
"What the hell is that?" Marina asked.
"A family heirloom from my grandmother." Minara replied as she opened the door that had appeared on the wall nearby and stepped through. "Part of a paired set." She whispered to herself just before disappearing.
Marina and Tieren followed, though when she got to the other side Marina didn't see the older man.
"Where did-" She began.
"He's going ahead." Minara cut her off. She gestured to one of her people, who came over quickly. "Follow Matthew and rest for the night." She said as she walked away. "We'll talk when I get back." She raised her arm and circled it in the air above her as she began shifting. Marina was fairly certain she'd seen that gesture in an old military action movie somewhere. "BRING ME MY ARMOR!" She yelled as she disappeared around a corner.
"Please follow me Miss Smith." Matthew said as he held out a bottle of Gatorade. "We need to clear out of this room. We don't want to get in the way."
It was as he said that that she realized just how busy the room around them was.
It wasn't the main room she'd met Madame Choi in all the times before. But instead seemed to be some kind of massive warehouse/garage.
People all around her were rushing to get into all different kinds of semi-military gear and arming themselves as engines and enchantments of all kinds began warming up on the vehicles.
"What the hell is going on?" She wondered as Matthew guided her out.
"The Petravian capital is under attack." Matthew informed her. "And some kind of war is being waged underneath the Rockies."
"What?!" Marina asked in confusion as they finally left the room and began back toward more familiar ground.
She didn't see the massive armored red dragon that flew past one of the windows she passed. Which meant she also missed the massive spear it was clutching in its hands as it flew, the head of which was actually a massive missile.
Barcadi came to consciousness in a blaze of amber light as she was healed again.
"Stop it." She said quietly as she struggled to breath. "Stop. Just kill me."
"Oh I will." The silver capped were said as he ran a claw across her torso.
His nails dug into her flesh like razor blades. Her skin was sallow and sunken and pale. The result of decades of confinement in her suit. And while the suit kept it moisturized, it was stil...
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