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I could feel my battle maidens’ relief at being properly equipped once more and they began to draw nearer.
“Yes. We can manage that.” The general affirmed, turning to the robed elf, “Use your scrying magic, find him a vantage point and prepare the teleportation for the moment his escort arrives.”
“Yes, General Jakara.” The elf confirmed and she made a sign with her hands and spoke a word of magic. Her eyes were covered with a white cloudy substance and her head began to look around as if viewing a distant scene.
A moment later, Tavorwen and Creadean joined us, breathing hard.
“Your assignment is to guard your master, regardless of what happens.” General Jakara instructed my matrons. “Such is it now, and so it shall remain.”
The two matrons nodded solemnly.
“I found a spot.” The mage declared.
General Jakara backed up, “Teleport them when ready.”
The elf began weaving her hands in front of her, muttering words of magic and light began trailing her fingers. She finished her incantation and thrust her hands at us, and I felt my stomach drop like I was on a rollercoaster taking a quick dip, and everything around us seemed to turn into a slurry of light that swirled the reformed, thick branch under our feet. There was roughly ten feet of steady space to work with before the edges became too curved to use as a platform to fire from.
Before me smoke and the sound of battle could be heard. Dozens of shapes circled above the field and below it was hard to tell at a glance what was going on.
I was grateful that the tree I was on might as well have been solid stone for all it moved. A quick glance showed me where I might best lay out for steadiness as I did my work.
I took my rifle from my shoulder and laid down bringing my scope to my eye and trying to get a grasp of the situation. As my scope pointed at the battlefield, the viewing crystal lit up, and the dials on my scope clicked to the correct alignment, it was a bizarre experience. Once the viewing crystal was operational, it showed me the horrors of war I was all too familiar with.
The two sides were easily distinguished. Wood elves were fair or pale, with hair ranging from brown to blond. The shadow elves however ranged in skin color from black of skin, far darker than any shade I’d seen in my tour in Africa or anywhere on Earth, to navy blue. Their hair was white, and their eyes black with white or yellow irises. The number of combatants seemed low to my eyes, but I was coming to understand that elven populations were much smaller than the human population and slower to reproduce, meaning each dead elf was hundreds of years of loss.
For the first time, I saw the elves fight. They would approach and in a whirling blitz of steel fight with speed and precision, exchanging strikes and parries with speed far exceeding what I’d ever seen, even in choreographed dueling exchanges. The conflict continued until one side got too tired or made a mistake, then the unfortunate party was dealt a killing blow all too quickly.
The wood elves were locked down, the wyvern riders rained down fire around them, only just being prevented from annihilating the wood elf forces by the barriers being projected by the wood elven mages. But the barriers could not keep the foot soldiers out, nor apparently the wyvern mounts themselves as one swooped down.
The wyverns were terrifying in appearance, thick scaly hide with plenty of unpleasant spines and spikes. A study saddle held their riders strapped to their backs. In the place of forelimbs, they had immense winges with a single hook-clawed finger, like a bat. Thick muscular hind legs with vicious looking talons, ready to snatch up a meal. To top it off was a long, reptilian tail, ruined by a nasty scorpion-like stinger. I almost couldn’t figure out what the stinger was until I saw one swoop down and end a duel by piecing a wood elf with its tail, dragging the wood elf skyward as she struggled and screamed before the tail released her to fall and land with a sickening stop, unmoving on the ground.
My teeth ground in anger. Those wyverns were mine. Another wyvern roared and began a descent. I estimated speed, calculated for the wind, led the shot and fired. The rifle slammed my shoulder, but I was accustomed to a kick like that. The wyvern flapped once more, then shrieked, its wings going limp and in place of forward momentum, it dropped, tumbling among the forces of the shadow elves. The crashing wyvern sent at least six shadow elves flying, at least seriously injured if not dead. Neither wyvern nor rider moved once they came to a stop.
The effect on the battlefield was instant. The sky borne shadow elf mages faltered in their bombardment, allowing the wood elf mages to change from defense to offense, shooting lightning at the wyvern riders, forcing them further skyward. The shadow elf foot soldiers faltered as well, falling back, and allowing the wood elves, with bolstered morale, to press their advantage.
“Yes!” Tavorwen celebrated, “It worked!”
A glance showed me that Tavorwen and Creadean had stuffed their ears with wax to dampen the sound of the gunfire, they were laying down on each side of me. Creadean had a viewing crystal like the one on my score held up to her eye.
“That punched a hole straight through the Wyvern’s chest!” Creadean declared excitedly, “A perfect shot!”
I didn’t take time to celebrate. I turned my rifle toward another of the wyverns, picking one circling away from the wood elves to avoid my allies on the ground being hit by a falling target. The lazy circling made it even easier to predict their path. I predicted the movement, lined up the shot and sent it. The recoil thumped my shoulder. While this was not the worst kick I’d felt, it was the sixth time it had hit me in the day. I could definitely tell that the cumulative effect was rough, firing it too much would leave me badly sore, if not bruised. But that was a small price to pay if it meant my allies lived to see another day. A second later the second wyvern let out a screech and plummeted, crashing into its allies down below.
The remaining wyverns freaked out. Their riders began shrieking and flailing, trying to regain control as their mounts began to flee. One conjured a flaming whip to lash the flanks of their mount, but not even she could regain control.
As badly as I wanted vengeance on the wyverns and their riders, they were no longer threats. I looked over the shadow elf forces below. Their morale was almost broken, the shadow she-elves were taking steps back as the wood elves advanced to press their advantage. I saw a few shadow elf males, already in full retreat. A female stood on a rock, yelling and trying to rally the faltering shadow elves, but I lined up my shot and sent it and as she motioned to charge, my round hit her square in the chest, knocking her off her rock to where she lay without so much as a twitch on the ground.
The shadow elves broke and ran. A few used magic for short distance teleportation to try to get a head start as they turned and ran. The Wood elves switched to bows, bringing down another dozen as the forces fled.
I was extremely conscious of the fact that my rifle was still a bright blue-silver metal. I needed to paint this beast.
“By the gods….” Creadean breathed. “In a matter of moments, you ended that battle in our favor, when we had been losing!”
I kept watch through the viewing crystal, the last thing I wanted was a false retreat with a turn and slaughter. The males who had broken rank began what looked like the teleportation incantation and as the females reached them they completed the action and the surviving shadow elves disappeared in a flash.
I looked over the field below.Text © owned by NôvelDrama.Org.
“The soldiers will take care of the wounded who can be saved and those who have fallen.” Tavorwen stated, removing the wax from her ears, “We should get you back to report.”
I sat up and watched as the burnt powder on the muzzle break disappeared.
Creadean kept looking over the battlefield. “Medics have arrived, we should stay to make sure a secondary attack to hit our healers doesn’t cripple us.”
I nodded, “Agreed. How long should it take the medics?”
“About thirty minutes.” Creadean estimated after looking over the battlefield with her crystal.
A strong desire flared to my left, making me look in surprise at Tavorwen. There was need on her face. “Creadean, let us know if anything happens, but I am going to please our Master while we wait.”
Creadean looked over with a smirk, and took hold of my rifle. “Yes, Guardian. I’ll try not to get too distracted.”
Tavorwen leaned forward and pressed her lips to mine. I could feel her arousal and it increased mine. Creadean’s arousal added to the pile and I could feel in the distance the excitement from the matrons at my house. All of them knew exactly what was about to happen.
Tavorwen pushed me over and began kissing me with greater passion. I closed my eyes, caught up in the moment. I felt Tavorwen’s hand on my neck, then they moved too fast for me to follow and I felt my cloak and jacket pulled quickly from my chest. Tavorwen broke the kiss to pull my shirt from my chest, then resumed.
I opened my eyes and realized that the speed of elven hands had enabled her to not only strip my chest faster than I could have done it, but her cloak, jacket and shirt lay on the thick branch beside us. I reached up and squeezed her breasts feeling the pleasure bloom through our connection as her intimate flesh was stimulated by my hand. Tavorwen guided me to lay back, my cloak making the bed of bark an acceptable spot for lovemaking, and her hands darted to my pants and in a moment, I was naked. Tavorwen wasted no time joining me in nudity.