“Thank the stars you’re alive!” She said, undulating towards them.

Eli instinctively dropped into a fighting stance, not willing to trust her yet. The rest of his group did the same, with Aratessa and what remained of her elves joining them. She looked at them incredulously for a moment.

“What…are you doing?”

“Whose side are you on?” Eli demanded.

“I’m not with them!” Vashti declared.

“How can we be sure?” Zee shouted in return.

She opened and closed her mouth several times in return before turning to her lizardkin guards. “Go!” She shouted, pointing one sword at the hybrids. “Secure this room! Prioritize protecting the guests.”

As one, they streamed into the room. Eli and his group stood aside – not out of any trust for Vashti, but because they knew there was no way they could stand against the hundreds of armed and armoured lizardkin. New sounds of battle erupted from further within, and Eli watched as the lizardkin selflessly attacked the hybrids. Even from this distance he could see that several of them were being wounded or killed in the process.

Vashti looked at Eli grimly. “Now do you believe me?”

“Turn off the spell disrupters and I will.” Eli replied.

“I’ve got a team on it now, but it’s going to take time. We’ve got overlapping fields of disruption running through the hotel, and spell disrupters are volatile things.”

The memory of tossing one off the side of a castle and causing a giant explosion bubbled to the surface of Eli’s mind, and he nodded. “Fine. Can you cover our retreat?”

She nodded grimly. “Yes.”

Eli nodded, then spoke to the group. “Alright everyone, you heard the lady! Up the stairs, double time!”

Together, they raced up the stairs into the ballroom. As they reached the top Eli saw that there was almost as much destruction here as there was in the basement. Bloodstains of every color were mixed in with body parts and debris from the obvious battle. The bar they were drinking at not so long ago was now a sea of broken glass – something that he belatedly realized may be a problem when he saw that the ladies in his group had abandoned their high heels in favor of bare feet. He did his best to lead them around it, eying the lizardmen and naga guards in the room suspiciously while wondering where the rest of the guests had gone.

The thought of his injured comrades and the guests pushing up the stairs after him caused him to refocus. Relying on his adrenaline to stave off the pain in his side a little longer, he led the group back to their wing, meeting up with the rest of the terrified Hightower household staff outside their door. Annette was beside herself with worry when she saw Ziran being carried, relieving Aria in helping him along as they entered.

When they finally collapsed inside their living room, some of their wounded had passed out from blood loss, teetering precariously between life and death. Grabbing whatever elven attendants he could find, Eli began barking orders to do their best to heal them. They moved with surprising alacrity, tearing strips of fabric to create makeshift bandages. Eli watched them work on one of his orcs nervously, holding her hand as they removed a knife from her leg before beginning to stitch her back up with a small sewing needle. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Zee and Naz working to set up guards around the wing, ensuring that if they were attacked again they’d be ready.

Now to deal with the other problem. Eli thought to himself.

Wincing in pain, Eli limped to the back of them room to join his harem. Lilly immediately moved to his side to support him, almost calling upon her powers to heal him before realizing they wouldn’t work. He gingerly pressed against his side and felt a shooting pain lance upwards.

“What happened?” Lilly asked, placing one hand over his.

“Took a kick to the side.” Eli grunted.

“You need to lie down.” Lilly insisted.

“We need to get the spell disrupters down first.” Eli countered. “Then you can heal me, and we’ll get the hell out of here.”

“We’re not waiting for Vashti’s team to take them down?” Lilly asked.

“I don’t trust them.” Eli replied. “Vashti might be on our side, but I have no idea how many of her people are with the church. We should assume we’re on our own.”

“How are we taking out the spell disrupters though?” Aria questioned. “It’s not like we’re in great shape.”

“No idea yet.” He admitted. “I’m open to ideas.”

“The spell disrupters have a limited range.” Aratessa said, working through the problem aloud. “You heard Vashti yourself – they needed overlapping devices to cover the whole island. If we move to the edge of the island and find one, maybe taking it offline will be enough to create an area where we can use our magic.”

Eli nodded, then winced. “Good thinking. Aria, tell the staff that we need to be mobile in 5 minutes – they need to do as much as they can for as many as they can before then. Aratessa, can you get a message to anyone from your house to meet up with us?”

Aria ran off to spread the word as Aratessa summoned Seraphina, who took a proffered earpiece before darting away into the night. As she did, Naz returned to the group. “Just did a role call. We’ve got 9 orcs uninjured – Grukka took a sword to the leg so I don’t think she’s going to be fighting much more. We’ve also got 12 dark elves who are in fighting shape, plus 4 who aren’t and 3 fatalities.” She turned to Aratessa. “Sorry for your loss.”

Aratessa’s face hardened. “I am going to kill the people who did this.”

After speaking with Aria quickly, Zee jogged over and joined in. “We’ll be ready to move in 5. We’ll have to be careful though – I think Vashti is probably okay and the hybrids are definitely hostile, but beyond that we don’t know who we can trust.”

“Let my people lead us through the darkness.” Aratessa offered. “We’ll find a path.”

“Do it.” Eli said. “Tell them to go now. Orcs and anyone with non-magical combat experience that are uninjured are in the second wave to take out anything that needs killing. Everyone else is in the 3^rd group. Clear?”

There was a round of nods before everyone burst into action. While they did, Eli found a kitchen knife and began tearing strips of fabric from his clothes before wrapping them around his ribs painfully. Seeing what he was doing, Freya and Lilly jumped in to help. By the time they’d made a passable chest brace, the orcs and elves had already left.

Eli put on a brave face as he nodded to the group. “Come on then everyone. Let’s get the hell off this island.”

Together they moved out of their wing and down the long hallways towards the rim of the wheel. They passed through the now-abandoned staff kitchens, pausing only long enough to steal as many knives as they could carry. As they reached the back door of the kitchens that led to the exterior of the resort, a sound came crackling over the radio. “This is Seraphina. There are no survivors at our wing. I am returning to you now.”

“Fuck.” The normally stoic Aratessa said softly.

“We’ll make them pay.” Eli assured her. “We’ve gotta get going though.”

With guidance from the dark elven scouts, they slowly made their way across the manicured grounds towards the wild, untamed area of the island. They moved in groups of twos and threes to avoid detection, and several times they had to duck behind small outbuildings or lay flat on the ground to hide from patrolling hybrids. When they reached the edge of the palm forest Eli’s body finally gave in and he collapsed face first onto the ground.

Freya and Lilly were quick to pick up his still-groaning form and carry him beneath the darkness of the trees. They continued moving away from the resort for some time, and he began to slide in and out of consciousness. The bits of conversation around him didn’t sound good though – they involved the words ‘internal bleeding’ and ‘dangerous’.

After what felt like an eternity, someone placed him onto a soft sand beach. He laid there for a few moments, watching the hypnotic waves lapping at the shore. There was movement and shouting around him, and the distant clanging of metal-on-metal. Realizing there might be danger, he started to mutter a spell to himself softly while making the hand motion which had become muscle memory to him by this point.

“Guérir líkami… Guérir líkami… Guérir-… Guérir líkami…”

His focus began to drift when he saw a desert elven woman burst into view, trailed by 2 hybrids. She was armed with nothing but a pair of kitchen knives, and the two large creatures were fully armoured with long tridents. Even his pain-addled brain could do the math, and knew that she was more likely to come out on the wrong end of this fight. He began to chant more frantically.
“Guérir líkami. Guérir líkami. Guérir líkami.”

Zee fought the two hybrids valiantly, but slipped when one of them went for Eli’s prone form – leaving her open to a strike from the side. The trident clipped her leg and she cried out painfully as it tore through her caramel skin. She dropped to one knee before spinning and avoiding the would-be-deadly follow-up blow, but Eli knew that it was only a matter of time now.

“Guérir líkami! Guérir líkami!”

The hybrid reared backwards only to stop mid-strike. He blinked and furrowed his brow for a moment, feeling the same rush of mana that everyone in the vicinity had felt.

“Guérir líkami!”

A blaze of golden light washed over Eli, catching the attention of both hybrids. The sudden disappearance of his pain caused his consciousness to snap back to the present. He took in the scene in front of him, his face becoming a mask of fury.

“Glacies Iaculatione! Ventilabis Retro!”

An ice-javelin appeared directly in front of Eli before lancing forward, impaling the hybrid through the face with enough force to throw his body backwards almost 20 feet. His surprised-looking comrade levelled his trident and charged at the new threat, but Eli was already on his feet and casting again.

“Glacies Iaculatione! Aegis!”

A thick wooden shield formed around his left arm while another ice-javelin formed in his right hand. He met the hybrid head-on in melee, deflecting his opening blow with his shield before striking out with his makeshift melee weapon. He managed to catch the hybrid in the chest, but without the force of spatial magic behind it the javelin only managed to dent his armour before shattering into pieces.

Eli took advantage of the hybrid’s momentary surprise at the shattering ice to scamper backwards and regroup for a moment. With a menacing look the hybrid grinned and barked a guttural spell of his own, causing a glob of green mana to shoot from his hands. Eli raised his shield to block it and it splashed across the front, sizzling as it melted the wood away.

The hybrid didn’t wait for Eli to recover. He charged forward the moment the spell was complete, forcing Eli to further retreat. He reared for another killing blow only for a thin column of sand to shoot up from beneath their feet, hitting him in the face and momentarily blinding him.

Thank you Zee. Eli thought to himself.

Shifting to his orc form, Eli charged forward and tackled the hybrid. The two heavyweights wrestled on the ground, but between his continuous practice fighting unarmed and the fact that his opponent was temporarily blinded Eli had the upper hand. He channeled his rage over the assault on his bond mate into his fists, and pounded away at the hybrid’s face until nothing was left but a bloody pulp.

“Eli!” Zee’s cry snapped him out of the blood rage.

He raced to her side, shifting back into his human form as he did. The wound was deep enough to see bone, and she’d lost quite a bit of blood already. He took one look at her mangled leg before channeling every ounce of mana he could spare into his spell.

“Guérir líkami!”

The skin and muscle quickly stitched itself back together as Zee slumped into his arms. Her breathing gradually began to even out, but the blood loss induced exhaustion was apparently getting to her and she had trouble keeping her eyes open. Even so, when he locked eyes with her she managed a weak smile.

“You’re going to be okay.” Eli reassured her. “The wound is closed. We’ve got our magic back and we’ll get out of here.”

“I know.” She said softly. “I love you.”

Eli stared deeply into her eyes before pressing his lips softly to hers. “I love you too. Now rest.”

“I heard that you lovebirds.” Aria said over the radio. “Does that mean we’ve got a safe zone to use magic? We took out 2 spell disrupters while you were out.”

“That’s right.” Eli confirmed. “Everyone regroup on me – it looks like there’s a small area that’s not covered by the disruption field on the beach. Aria, we’re going to set up an emergency portal here and get the fuck out.”

“It’ll take both of our mana together and then some. And there’s no way we could hold it open for more than a minute, maximum.” Aria cautioned.

“We’ll have to take the chance.” Eli said.

There was a pause, then Aria responded. “Agreed. Group 1 heading back to you.”

“Group 2 en route.” Naz added over the radio.

“Group 3 here.” Aratessa said, concern in her voice. “We’ve got an issue.”

“What is it?” Eli questioned.

“We went for a disrupter but we were driven back. We’re surrounded!” Aratessa replied.

“They’re everywhere!” Isla said as she panted, out of breath.

Suddenly, Aria, Lilly, and Freya burst through the trees flanked by several members of the Hightower family staff. Eli flagged them down desperately, handing off Zee to Freya. “I’m coming!” He shouted over the radio before turning to Aria. “Get a portal open!”

“I need to fortify my mana though, or else there’s no way it’ll be stable for long enough!” She countered.

Digging into his pocket, Eli pulled out his phone. By some miracle through everything it remained undamaged, and he unlocked it before tossing it to Lilly. “Use the app. There’s a literal forest of plants around here – figure out what you can make into a potion for her, and get it done.”

“On it.” She said, sprinting back to the forest.

“Protect this area.” He ordered as he picked up a nearby trident and shifted into his orcish form. “I’m going after them.”

Without giving them a chance to argue he raced into the forest. They were relatively easy to find – he just followed the sounds of combat mixed with elven screaming. As he neared them he slowed, realizing they were coming towards him. Crouching in the darkness for a moment, he waited and watched as his eyes scanned back and forth. He tried to call upon his instinctive orcish magic to lend him knowledge of effectively wielding a trident, but it refused to come to him.

This area must still be covered by a spell disrupter. He thought to himself. Guess we’re doing this the hard way.

The first hybrid was running so quickly it almost crashed into him. Despite his lack of expertise with a trident, all he ended up having to do was wait until the rushing hybrid was near enough and lunge, skewering it through the stomach with a grunt. Eli roared as he continued his momentum forward, shoving the prongs through the hybrid’s armoured stomach and out its back.

The sounds of more elves screaming alerted him to more company. Realizing it would take too long to extricate the trident from the hybrid, Eli chose to pick up its abandoned mace. He swung it experimentally as he ran, feeling the reassuring weight of a weapon he knew how to use in his hands.

Perfect. He thought to himself.

His eyes locked ahead to an unfolding scene in front of him. Isla and Aratessa were standing back-to-back, surrounded by 6 hybrids. One of the hybrids was pulling his sword from the gut of the last of their elven guards while the others advanced menacingly. Each woman held only a knife, but by the looks on their faces they knew it’d be almost useless against the hybrid’s armour.

Pumping his legs as fast as they’d move he leapt into the air and brought down the mace with an almighty crack, splitting the hybrid’s skull in two. He rode the hybrid’s body downwards before swinging into the gut of the next hybrid, throwing it backwards into a nearby tree with a wet crunch. He roared into the night as he did, causing the other hybrids to turn and face the greater threat.

Eli grinned as the blood rage pumped into him, tinting his vision red. The orcish ability was chemistry rather than actual magic, and therefore unaffected by the spell disrupters. He sprinted forward into the next hybrid gleefully, dodging a spear-thrust as he slammed his mace into the hybrid’s arm, cracking it. The hybrid attempted to drop his spear and grab the knife on his belt, but Eli saw the move coming and grabbed him by the wrist to stop it. A quick bash of his forehead against the hybrid’s face ensured that he'd stay out of the fight for the moment.

The head of a spear grazed Eli’s shoulder painfully, alerting him to the fact that there were still more hybrids. He spun to face them but they leveled their spears defensively, determined to keep him at a distance. The blood rage coursing through his body demanded that he ignore them though, so he bent his knees and prepared to lunge-

Only for Naz, Mirosha, and Drekka to jump on the backs of the hybrids and snap their necks as if they were twigs. Eli roared at the trio only to be met by Naz’s flying tackle to the ground, followed by a deep kiss to calm his blood rage. He quickly came down from the battle high and locked eyes with her, nodding.

“Come on.” She said, helping him to his feet. “I don’t know how many more are out here.”

They raced through the jungle to the beach to find that the rest of their group had gathered there. As he transformed back into his human form, Lilly handed him a knife with what looked like a disgusting-looking brown paste on it. Knowing that it was the concentrated form of a potion he licked it off, feeling the mana course through him as he suppressed a shudder.

The sounds of more hybrids crashing through the jungle behind them urged Eli to keep moving. He jogged next to Aria, and after a set of terse instructions they began casting the portal spell. The sounds of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata began to ring through his head as they said the words together.

“Elithril na vedui”

The portal shimmered to life in front of them, showing the grey concrete of the Hightower family waystation on Earth. Realizing the portal was coming from Serapenthra and unable to tell exactly who was on the other side, the ranking guard on the other end immediately began a counter spell to shut it down. The portal shimmered and shook, the blue light flickering as it did. Eli felt his mana quickly draining and he was about to give up before Naz shouted through the portal. “Codename: Avalanche!”

Eli was suddenly grateful they’d created the code all those weeks ago. The high elven guard stopped in her tracks. Her eyes went wide and she immediately changed course, casting a duplicate portal spell on her end to reinforce the connection. At Eli’s nod, the group began to pour through the portal to safety. The non-combatant group went first, followed by Aratessa and her elves, then Eli’s harem, and finally Aria was left standing alone on the beach with him.

The hybrids broke through the treeline to the beach only seconds later. With a final grunt of effort Eli wrapped one arm around Aria and dove into the portal. He hit the cold metal of the unloading ramp just as it closed behind him. The edges of his vision quickly dimmed and he heard shouting before he passed out entirely.