“Done.” Lilly said with a smile as she withdrew the syringe from Eli’s neck. “Congratulations. You are now officially vaccinated against the plague.”
“Not a moment too soon either.” Zee said as she checked her weapons again.
While unloading the durosine at a waystation on Earth with the help of his new mousekin friends, Eli called his bond mates and told them the good news. Many of them expressed some measure of relief that their excursion to Olympus was worth it, as well as admonishment for taking additional risks without them being present.
Surprisingly, it was Minerva who had the calmest reaction to the entire affair.
“Athena once told us that Royal Bloods are the antithesis to Titans. He’s the perfect Titan hunter – which is why they’re willing to invade an entire planet just to prevent more of them from being born. His killing that Titan was probably the safest part of the whole journey.” She reminded them.
Her comment mollified his upset bond mates, allowing them to move on to discussing other logistics. Within a few minutes elves were pouring out of the second portal in the waystation to retrieve the durosine, giving him the opportunity to return home to Irandell. He left Nyxie in charge of the logistics before taking the portal back to the castle, grinning as he watched the mousekin inundate her with gifts, trophies, and various spoils from their brief battle.
Unfortunately for him, his homecoming was short-lived. Determined to make up for the fact that he’d been away from Earth for so long he stayed in the castle just long enough to kiss each of his bond mates who were present, throw on his new armour from Gradumir and Ashni, and grab his trusty hammer. After that he took another portal back to Earth to meet Zee, Naz, and his orcish tribe.
“Get out of my way!” A familiar voice shouted.
A grin spread across his face as Naz charged through the crowd towards him, her black hair tied up in a braid that swung behind her. He braced himself and opened his arms to catch the 8-foot-tall muscular green woman as she barreled into him, wrapping her arms around him tightly and squeezing.
“I missed you.” He said as he claimed her lips, kissing her deeply.
When she finally broke the kiss her eyes were covered by a haze of lust. “I missed you too.”
He ignored the hooting and hollering from the crowd behind them as he took her in. Her studded leather armour was tough but flexible, covering most of her green skin. She had an enormous battle axe strapped to her back and what looked like stripes of red war paint across her cheeks.
“New look?” He asked, pointing to the stripes.
She grinned. “One for each hundred kills. It’s how we’re keeping score.”
He counted up to seven before matching her grin. “That’s my girl.”
“Damn right.” She said proudly before looking him up and down. “New armour?”
He stepped back to let her admire the new outfit. It was inspired by modern infantry body armour, with durable steel plates covering his vital organs and spider silk covering the rest. The main difference was that the plates were enchanted to be feather-light, and powered by a mana crystal in the same way as his hammer was. Across the matte-black ensemble the blacksmiths had included several thoughtful touches like a set of slots for metal potion bottles, a holster for a sidearm, and dozens of pockets to carry a radio, map, and other mission-specific items. Best of all the plates and spider silk were arranged such that it wouldn’t be ruined by his changing to any of his humanoid forms, growing with his orcish form or allowing the wings of his Nephilim form to squeeze through a set of slits running along the back.
“You like it? They’ve got one for you too, when you head home.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Naz replied.
Glancing behind his orcish girlfriend Eli saw the rest of his tribe standing at attention. He kissed her softly on the cheek one more time before moving towards them, pulling the two orcish women who stepped forward from the crowd with a one-armed hug each. They returned it with a crushing embrace of their own, squeezing the air out of him for a moment before letting go.
“Mirosha.” He acknowledged the taller of the two before turning to her companion. “Drekka.”
“Naz promised us a good fight.” Mirosha started. “These ratkin haven’t been much of a challenge.”
“Oh, this is just the warm-up.” Eli grinned in response. “The real fight is coming when we take the war to the Titan’s home turf. We’re going to be up against the biggest standing army in the universe.”
The orcs around him straightened up at his words. “When do we get to do that?” Drekka asked eagerly.
“Soon.” Eli promised. “You’ve done me proud up until now. There’s something I need your help with before we can go there though.”
“I’m listening.” Mirosha nodded.
“We’re going to rob a bank.” Eli started.
Zee rolled her eyes as she stepped forward. “More specifically, we’re going to rob the Federal Reserve of New York. It’s 4 blocks north from here, but our scouts indicated that there are significant ratkin forces entrenched between here and there.”
Drekka cracked her knuckles and rolled her shoulders. “Shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Once we get there, we’ll need your help carrying the gold.” Zee continued, gesturing behind her. “We’re bringing these 4 waystation guards with us to open a portal inside the vault.”
“My job will be to keep them safe.” Lilly offered from behind them. “And to vaccinate any humans we come across.” She finished, pointing to the bandolier of syringes she had slung across her shoulder. “That way, you can focus on what you do best.”
“Once that’s done, Eli, Lilly, Naz, and I are going to continue another block east to a CIA satellite office.” Zee finished. “Assuming it’s still standing, we’re going to extract whatever intel we can from there and contact any US military assets that we can reach.”
“Any questions?” Eli asked, pausing to ensure there weren’t. “Good. Everyone step up and grab a radio from the box over there before we head out. Let’s get this done.”
With that, the group lumbered out the metal door at the side of the waystation and into a dimly lit concrete bunker. Eli raced up the stairs to the ground level, transforming into his Nephilim form as he did. The second he opened the hidden entrance to the street he flapped his wings and took to the skies, turning to get a sense of their immediate surroundings.
While he’d seen a significant amount of destruction and carnage in the war so far, the sight that greeted him took his breath away. The concrete streets of Manhattan were choked with stopped cars, blocking the roads in every direction. Even though many of the skyscrapers were still standing, all of them featured significant signs of damage: from shattered windows to chunks of the buildings simply missing. He strained his ears to hear any nearby noises, only to find it eerily quiet.
The silence was broken when Naz and the rest of the orcs reached the street, spreading out across it. As much as they laughed and joked with each other while they moved, Eli knew there was no other fighting force he’d rather have by his side for this mission. Each of their stances seemed outwardly relaxed, but even from above he could see that every one of them had a firm grip on their weapons.
As Lilly, Zee, and the high elven guards reached the street Eli heard another voice in the radio. “You’re going to want to move north along Broadway.”
“Uh, Minerva?” Eli replied into his radio as he glanced at the nearby intersection. “Let’s assume there are no street signs left. Can you give me some landmarks to navigate by?”
“Oh! Right. Sorry. One second.” She said, typing loudly. “Right. There should be a park nearby. The waterfront is next to it.”
Eli glanced backwards to confirm her statement. “Yup, I see it.”
“Keep that to your back, and move from there. You should see the bronze bull statue ahead of you.”
He darted between several streets until he found it. “Right, got it now.” He replied before waving the orcs onwards.
Together, the group moved down the street. Eli scouted ahead of the orcs, his eyes darting back and forth as he scanned for threats on the ground. The sea of yellow taxi cabs beneath him created far too many blind spots for his liking, forcing him to switch to his mana vision to provide him with a more complete view.
When he did, the city around him lit up with motes of green light. They were everywhere in the buildings around them, hiding far enough behind the glass that he couldn’t make out what magical creatures were generating them. Given their current location and the fact that there were a lot of them though, Eli didn’t have to work too hard to guess.
“Ratkin ambush! They’re in the buildings!” He cried over the radio.
He barely got the words out of his mouth before ratkin began rappelling down the buildings around them and crawling out of the sewers beneath them. In moments an entire army of the Titan soldiers materialized around them, charging towards the orcs with reckless abandon. What they lacked in armour and training they seemed to make up for in numbers, swarming over top of cars before leaping towards Eli’s tribe of orcs.
The rats never stood a chance.
Naz let loose with a glass-shaking roar before charging into the nearest creatures, swinging her axe to decapitate 2 of them at once. A third ratkin tried to take advantage of her being out of position after the move by thrusting forward with a brittle spear, only for Naz’s hand to shoot forward and grab it. She grinned sadistically as she pulled the ratkin towards her, kicking it in the face and easily snapping its neck.
Not to be outdone, the rest of Eli’s tribe roared mightily before joining the fray. They cut through the rats like a hot knife through butter, each orc warrior taking on three or four at once and easily besting them. For a moment he just hovered and watched the carnage, amazed at the skilled display of raw violence.
His awe gradually turned to frustration over the next several minutes. Despite their best efforts, the seemingly never-ending stream of reinforcements, the car-clogged street, and their unwillingness to leave their elven rearguard meant that their steady progress towards their objective ground to a halt. Moreover, as he surveyed the battlefield he realized that more motes of green light were approaching - signaling that the sounds of fighting attracted additional enemy reinforcements.
As much as I’d like to purge New York of ratkin, we’ve got places to be. Eli thought to himself as he summoned his mana.
“Graviteh Palla!”
An enormous pitch-black singularity of pure gravitational power appeared on the street just inside the ratkin’s front line. It pulled soldiers, cars, and debris alike into it, ripping them off the ground and forcing them to orbit the spatial orb in lazy circles. With a grunt of effort Eli directed the ball forward, clearing a path for the orcs while sucking the closest ranks of diminutive Titan troopers into it.
Seeing the opening, Eli’s orcs charged into the gap. The ratkin still leapt at them from the sides of course, but with Eli clearing the way forward for them they were able to advance once more. Over the next two minutes the orbit around the singularity became more and more clogged with enemies and debris until it reached the point that it formed a solid mass over top, blocking Eli’s view of the inky blackness underneath.
That should about do it. He thought to himself, bringing the strange ball of refuse up to eye level before focusing on the oncoming reinforcements.
“Ventilabis Retro!”
With a final heave, the accumulated orb of ratkin and wreckage cannoned forward. It sprayed across the street like scattershot out of a shotgun, causing chunks of metal to rain down on the second approaching horde of Titan soldiers. The limbs and bodies of their comrades added to the deadly debris, their chittering screams cut short when they hit the ground with wet splats.
“Show off.” Zee chuckled over the radio.
“You like it.” He responded.
“Sure, but they’re still coming for us.” Zee countered.
He squinted for a moment before realizing she was right. “Ugh. I hate ratkin.” He groaned. “Fine. Let me throw a couple more cars at them.”
“No need.” She insisted. “Let me take care of this.”
He furrowed his brow until the crack of a rifle boomed across the street. It sounded several more times before being followed up by the appearance of quicksand pits throughout the ratkin ranks. The sand devoured any ratkin unlucky enough to be close to it, swallowing them whole in under a second before disappearing once more.
Eli was about to make a comment about needing to thin the heard a bit more, but bit it back when the reinforcements turned tail and ran. “Did you just take out their leaders?”
He heard a chuckle over the radio in response. “Yes, yes I did.”
“How did you find them all so quickly? And at that range?”
She dropped her mirage spell to reveal she’d somehow moved from the rearguard to somewhere further up the street. “Who said anything about range?”
“We could’ve done that!” Naz complained loudly enough that she didn’t have to use the radio. “It was just getting to the fun part! I didn’t even have my blood rage kick in yet.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to hunt the rest of them down later.” Eli promised her. “Let’s finish this job.”
Despite the fact that they continued to make a significant amount of noise for the rest of the march, no other ratkin forces approached them. It was a departure from the battles he’d fought against the Titan’s soldiers previously – normally killing their leadership only made them run until they were forcibly rallied by a spellcaster, mutant, or Orryx commander. In his mind he hoped the change was due to the fact that they were no longer receiving any off-world reinforcements, meaning that the Titan’s logistics network was still in disarray.
Good. I hope Ares is still tearing them a new collective asshole. He thought to himself as they reached the Federal Reserve without any further incidents.
Right before they’d left, Zee provided Eli with a copy of the impressive security measures around the gold vault: a 90-ton steel cylinder with a 140-ton steel-and-concrete frame operated by robots and secured with passkeys and steel reinforced walls. The building was normally guarded by a veritable army of security personnel, all of whom were required to pass vigorous, military-style training. Under normal circumstances it was an impressive defense against potential thieves, having prevented all previous robbery attempts up until that point.
Without the guards there to stop him though, it took Eli all of 3 minutes to break into the vault.
The defenses were utterly useless against his magic. He used a thin beam of pure mana to burn holes in the locks, then his spatial magic to push the heavy cylindrical doors open. When he cautiously entered the heart of the facility he half-expected to be shot at from all directions by automated gun turrets or some other contraption taken straight from the pages of a spy novel. Instead, he was greeted by the sight of enough gold bars to rival that of the guild master’s hoard.
Former guild master. He corrected himself in his mind, grinning at the fact that the murderous dragon was now dead before turning to his orcish tribe. “Guards, set up the portal on the floor over there – yes, lay it flat on the ground. Everyone else, I want you tossing gold into it. Get every bar, every scrap you can. Don’t be precious about it either, we’re on the clock and I want to be mobile before the ratkin decide to take a second run at us.”
“We’ll see it done, chieftain.” Drekka promised as she passed him on her way into the vault.
He watched them shovel mounds of gold into the portal for a few minutes before Zee, Naz, and Lilly joined him by the door. “Ready for part two?” Zee asked as she checked her rifle.
“I think so.” He said before turning to Naz and Lilly. “You two okay to take on guard duty for a bit?”
“Nobody will get through us.” Naz promised with a grin.
“Green-girl solidarity.” Lilly added before fist-bumping her.
“Good. The second the vault is cleared out, I want everyone to head through the portal back to Irandell. Make sure the tribe is settled and gets some rest. We’re not far from the end now, and I want them in the final battle.”
“Like you’d be able to keep them out.” Naz chuckled.
Confident that this part of the plan had gone well enough, Eli turned to Zee. “Hold on tight.”
“Hold on tight to-whatthefuckEli!” She shouted as he scooped her up and flapped his wings, whisking them out of the building before darting into the sky.
“Couldn’t help it.” He laughed as she playfully slapped him. “This form is too much fun.”
“You’re definitely enjoying it too much.” She shook her head as she rolled her eyes. “But it’ll get us there faster, I guess.”
“Which building am I looking for?” He asked as he adjusted his grip on her, holding her from her firm ass while he turned in a slow circle.
“There.” Zee said finally, pointing to a nondescript office building. “Top floor.”
“Got it.” Eli nodded, shooting towards the building as he summoned his mana.
“Ventilabis Retro!”
Several panes of glass on the top floor shattered as they approached, allowing Eli to land directly inside. He gently placed Zee down and unholstered his hammer, scanning for threats. When they found none Zee moved forward, guiding him through the darkened office.
“This…looks like every other office building in New York.” Eli said.
“The CIA is a government operation. They don’t exactly do ‘flashy’.”
“Yeah, but you’re spies.”
“All the more reason to be nondescript.” She said before stopping abruptly in front of a room with a locked door. “Care to do the honors?”
“Arennis!”
The stream of pressurized sand melted the lock in moments, causing the door to swing open. Eli cut off the spell the second he was through and leaned forward, pushing it open for Zee. She glanced inside to confirm the only thing waiting for them was a room full of filing cabinets before kissing him on the cheek as thanks.
“Such a gentleman, opening doors for me.”
“Really I just wanted an excuse to stare at your ass.” He countered playfully.
“We should have taken the stairs then. We’re on the 33rd floor, you could have stayed behind me the whole way.” She shot back as she began to rifle through a nearby filing cabinet.
“I’d much rather watch that ass do something else.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
She laughed at his antics before stopping her search for a moment. “You’re in a better mood than before.”
He considered her insight, performing a mental inventory of himself before nodding. “I guess I am.”
“Any particular reason why?” She asked as she closed the filing cabinet and moved onto another one.
“Feels like we’re finally on the offensive, I guess.” He answered. “We’ve got a vaccine and we’ve got a hell of an army. I’m probably jinxing it by saying that though.”
“No, you’re not.” She insisted. “Morale is important. You should feel better, because we are going to win.” She punctuated her statement by pulling out a sheet of paper and speed reading it, the look of focus on her face intensifying with each passing word.
“What’s that?” Eli asked, curious.
“Contingency plan Charlie.” She answered before turning it around. “In the event of a total chain of command breakdown, US carrier groups at sea are supposed to stay at sea. This carrier group here-” She said, indicating a list of ship names. “Should be holding position just off the coast of Australia. Given the ratkin aversion to water, I’m pretty confident they’ll still be active.”
“Okay. That’s useful, but we don’t need boats where we’re going. We need troops, jets, tanks-”
“A carrier group will have all of that.” She interrupted. “But more importantly they’ll have the one thing we can’t get anywhere else: nuclear weapons.”
