0310 May 26th, 2020 CE

0435 Sun 26th, 196 AE

Ovagroth, Elven Nation

Although it has been reduced for the past few days, the tension between the surviving elves in the city and the human soldiers still ran high.

Finn yawned as he stood on the busy street watching the elves walk by. Beside him, Blake and Curtis were laughing about some joke. Finn was glad to see Curtis doing fine. Finn started to yawn again but stopped as he heard gunshots. “Shit.”

The crowd of elven civilians started screaming and running.

<<<”Give me a report! What is going on out there?”

“Shit! There’s an elf shooting some magic at us!” >>>

Finn, Curtis, and Blake ran towards the noise. The gunshots died down just as they arrived on scene. A clearly dead elf laid on the ground a yard or so away from US soldiers. “He’s down!”

Blake looked around. “Fuck. What was that? Anybody injured?”

A US soldier laid on the ground. A medic was working on him. The downed soldier coughed. “Shit. I’m fine. Just a bit shook up.”

The medic patted the soldier’s back.“It didn’t even get through your vest. Just throwing stones at us with magic.”

He bent down and picked up one of the projectiles. It was just a small stone. “Thank god most of these civvies have weak magic. That water guy last week was nasty.”

Finn walked towards the group of soldiers. “Heard he injured two guys. He was a soldier that we didn’t net when we swept through the area.”

Blake shook his head. “I really can’t be comfortable with the fact that all these elves have weapons on them.”

Curts nodded. “At least most of the elven civilians here are peaceful.”

Blake chuckled.“Well, we kinda killed and imprisoned almost all of the non-peaceful ones.”

A few miles from the Galath Mountain Range

Colonel Brian Trujillo led Anfalen out to the field that had a Blackhawk waiting. Anfalen looked cruiously at it. “So these are helicopters.”

“You know about helicopters?”

“The Advancement Department was working on producing helicopters. They haven’t made it yet though.”

“Well, this is a Blackhawk. A transport helicopter. Probably the safest way of transport here. We will be sending you to the Port City of Filanneas. Our diplomat will meet you there.”

0623 May 26th, 2020 CE

0611 Sun 26th, 196 AE

Port City of Filanneas

Daniel felt a bit tired. He was a US diplomat in the Magusian Imperium that was just given a bunch of information and rushed here. He entered the room. An elf was standing next to a seat. They shook hands.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Diplomat Daniel Foley.”

“Anfalen Inaneiros. Former Head of the Elven Intelligence Department.”

“Take a seat. I have been temporarily assigned by my government to meet with you. Of course, I hope you understand that we are not here for compromise. The current elven government must be completely dissolved and remade. Tarron Venharice will either be killed or if he survives, be tried for crimes against humanity.”

“That is perfectly alright with me. As long as we remain a free race. We will not accept being ruled by humans.”

“We are not here to conquer you. We will leave once a stable democratic elven government.”

“I will help.”

“Well, my government would like a lot of information from you…”

A few minutes later

Daniel walked beside Anafalen. “It is highly likely that you would be a target of assassination. I won’t be surprised if they electrocute you or something.”

“Electrocute? We don’t have electricity magic.”

“Well, that explains why I haven’t heard anything about our soldiers getting struck by lightning magic or something.”

“Does your country’s intelligence not know this? Lightning magic doesn’t exist. There are four main types of mana. Air, water, fire, and earth. I’m able to manipulate air mana quite well. It’s not good at attacking but very good at defending against regular magic attacks.”

“Well, we will still have guards with you.”

0839 May 26th, 2020 CE

0719 Sun 26th, 196 AE

Skies over the Elven Nation

A B-2 bomber cut through the sky. Its black paint glinted in the sunlight. The bay doors slowly opened up and a MOP dropped. A few seconds later, a massive blast went off on the ground. An RQ-170 stealth drone circled around in the sky. Ronell watched the live footage from the situation room. Cralson nodded. “That should be a good effect on target if the bunker is really there.”

“The entrance is where he said it will be. Hopefully, we killed that Tarron bastard.”

Einora, Elven Nation

An elf, holding a submachine gun, shouted. “They have a Knight with them! Get the PAM!”

Another elf ran up and aimed a PAM at the Knight. The magirocket flew over the turret of the Knight. The Knight’s turret turned towards the elf.

“Oh n…”

Elves started throwing down their weapons and raising their hands towards the tank. “We surrender! Don’t shoot!”

A tied up elf looked “You are nothing more than traitors to the Leader!”

“Oh, Wirenth. I doubt our Leader is even alive anymore. Even if he was, he has abandoned us and proven himself incompetent. We may be traitors to the Leader but we aren't traitors to our country. I’m proclaiming myself as the ruler of this town and the surrounding area.”

“My reinforcements will come. Nasir… you will regret your betrayal!”

“Ha! Reinforcements? What reinforcements? A chain of command doesn’t exist anymore. It’s everyone for themselves. For the past few days, I tried to recieve orders and tried to request for supplies. But we were ignored. My elves were forced to scavenge just to survive. Look, I give you this chance to live. Most of your elves have agreed to serve me. How about you? If you swear your oath to me, we can create an empire.”

“Never!”

Nasir nodded to the two elves flanking Wirenth. “Well, if that’s your decision. Take him away and deal with him.”

50 miles from the Elven Underground Command Complex

A platoon of elves held up their rifles at the sight of two elves appraoching them. “Halt! Identify yourselves?”

“We are forward elements of the Leader Security Company. The Leader would like to meet with the current commander of your force. Which unit are you?”

“We are the 11th Tracked Infantry Regiment”

10 minutes later

Colonel Goras Balhorn saluted. “My Leader!”

Tarron nodded. “Colonel Balhorn.”

“Your orders, sir?”

“We will be conducting a retreat to the Forest of Origin. I would like to give a short speech to your elves.”

“Of course, sir!”

Tarron stood in front of a thousand or so elves of the 11th Tracked Infantry.

“...we will be fighting a war for the survival of all elves! These humans may have demons supporting them but do not fear, we are the mightest species on this planet. Through our righteousness and our will, we shall destroy these pests that infest this planet. We will make them run from our homes. We shall cleanse this world of them. We shall return to our ancestral land and show these humans that we are not defeated!”

Tarron conversed with his general staff. “Before destroying the large communication equipment, we sent out a message telling all units to regroup at the Forest of Origin. I’m not sure how many units were able to receive it though.”

Tarron nodded. “As long as we have a division of elves, we can still fight.”

Port City of Filanneas

Anfalen stood in front of a crowd of elves. “My fellow elves, I have made a deal with these humans. I understand why you want to call me a traitor but I’m an ally of all elves. What I seek for is the survival and freedom of the elven species!”

There were murmurs among the elves.

“Look at where we are now. We have no control of our country and humans are everywhere. I dream of a future where we will have control over our own country and these humans will be gone. Of course, you can continue fighting but I’m afraid we won’t win. The humans have already taken the mountains. Our military is in disarray. And our leaders have fled.”

Two F-15s make sonic booms overhead.

“Like you, I have no intention of living under humans. The humans have offered me the fact that they don’t want to control us either since they know we will resist every second of it. As long as we don’t attack the humans, they will leave us alone.”

In a forest, Elven Nation

Ara watched as her tank crew refueled the Knight. The crew popped open the doors on the back of the Knight. They removed the two massive magibatteries that were attached. A long tube, the Mana Suction Connector, connected the large magibatteries with multiple smaller ones which was the fuel they got from the town. After checking that the connector was linked in the right direction, they turned the valve. Mana flowed from the smaller magibattery to the bigger ones.

Ara wondered how much of the magibatteries was left. Cities were the major producers of magibatteries. The density of cities, in the millions, allowed magibatteries to be easily fueled. With most cities bombed by the Americans, she doubted there would be enough.

The Knight’s consumption of mana was ridiculously high. To travel a few hundred miles, it required mana that was capable of powering a town for multiple days. If she had her men continuously refill the smaller magibatteries, she doubted it would be enough. At this point, she regretted not pushing the idea to join forces.

1023 May 26th, 2020 CE

Washington D.C.

Ronnell sat back and listened to Cralson. “We will be launching an assault on the Elven capital city within 35 hours. The Air Force and artillery have pounded it for the last 10 days. According to General Thompson, resistance will still be heavy. We are expecting something like the Battle of Berlin.”

39 hours later

Afvalin, Elven Nation

John’s Abrams lurched to a stop. “Fire!”

The Stallion exploded as an Abrams shell went right through it. The Abrams’ machine guns opened up on the elven infantry defending the street.”

The ground started shaking. “Woah! What the fuck?”