Clay stared at the burnt-out ceiling of his home. It had already been some time since he revived, but he couldn’t find the willpower to get himself up. Instead, he thought over his fight and death the day before, how his powers were entirely negated by the elf’s barrier. His abilities granted him speed and the element of surprise when up against unprepared foes, but the weaknesses it held meant even the most novice of mages could defeat him. A simple one-dimensional barrier was one of the first things any apprentice mage would learn.

There were two ways to counter a barrier, you either hit it with enough kinetic force to shatter it, or you overwhelmed it with mana from spells. Weaker barriers could be broken by the sustained gunfire of automatic rifles, but more powerful mages, especially ones who specialized in barriers, would take a lot more force. There are even war stories of powerful elves creating barriers able to withstand artillery barrages. Clay doubted this particular elf was that powerful, but he was stronger than the elves he fought before. Regardless, Clay had neither the strength nor the firepower to break the weakest of barriers.

The growling of Clay’s stomach finally gave him the motivation to get up, wiping the ashes from his burned and tattered clothing. Somehow his wallet had survived relatively unscathed, with most of his money still inside. It was a small miracle he didn’t have to start from broke again. Clay searched through the rubble of his house until he found one of his old metal lunchboxes from his grade school days. Stuffing half his money into the blackened lunchbox, he hid it in the rubble again. Eventually, he would need to find a better hiding place, but for now, this would do.

Given his current appearance stopping anywhere for food would draw too much attention, even taking a bus back to Raleigh would cause problems. He would have to head back, not just to retrieve his extra outfit, but also to get the rest of his money, weapons, and ammunition too.

As Clay was about to walk out the door, he felt a presence behind him. Clay froze momentarily but didn’t dare look back. It had to be a figment of his imagination, or just straight-up insanity. Even Septhis couldn’t see or hear it last time. Clay just ignored it, rushing out the door to begin his long trip specter stepping to Raleigh.

…

Cedric’s investigation had left him scratching his head. Their pursuit of Clay had led them to Gavin’s store, but with him missing the trail had gone cold. At first Cedric suspected that Clay had something to do with his disappearance, but questioning the locals revealed that he was just one of an alarming number of people who had gone missing, both mage and normal civilians alike. Even a member of the prestigious Venetis guild had disappeared. Stranger still, a few told stories about running into previously missing people around the city, how they would behave strangely, as if they didn’t recognize their former friends and family, or even their own names.

Cedric was baffled how something like this wasn't on every major news channel. This warranted a large response by the NDSA, but it seemed like the Raleigh branch was doing nothing about the situation. He wasn’t sure if anyone outside the city even knew what was happening.

For their part, Venetis had stepped up protection for businesses and individuals associated with them, and seemed to be the only organized group taking the situation seriously. But they couldn’t be everywhere at once, and with one of their own among the missing even those under their protection were scared.

“Brenner will see you now” A woman informed Cedric, ushering him away from the waiting room of Venetis headquarters. The woman lead Cedric to a door with the name Brenner Venetis plastered across it, opening it to let him inside. “Sir, I have brought you the NDSA officer.” Brenner looked up from his desk “Thank you very much, you may go.”

“It’s about time the NDSA responded to the situation, I was starting to wonder if you had locked yourselves in your precinct out of fear,” Brenner said as he watched Cedric take a seat across from him.

“I’m NDSA, but not local, and my original mission had nothing to do with what's going on in this city.”

Brenner raised his brow, “I see.”

“I do want to talk about the situation though, how is it possible that something like this isn’t all over the news?” Cedric asked.

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“The local NDSA branch has been forcing witnesses to stay quiet, I had assumed it was to keep their operations secretive, but from what I can tell they’ve done jackshit up until now.”

“Sir, I don't mean to sound rude but, your Guild is very powerful and influential, surely you could get the word out regardless of what the NDSA is doing.”

Brenner looked at Cedric thoughtfully, carefully considering his words “I haven’t spread the word to prevent panic because… because the truth is there is nothing we can do to defend against it.”

This took Cedric by surprise “What do you mean? Do you know who it is?”

There was a long pause before Brenner sighed in defeat “Do you know the name Jimmy Hoffman?”

Cedric recognized the name, “Hoffman? Isn’t he the hero that died killing the Lich of Salem?”

“Yes. Besides his fight and death against the Lich, he was known for inventing a unique teleportation method, one that could be used very quickly and without the need for complex magic circles. However, he kept the secrets to this technique heavily guarded, and when he died it’s believed the technique was lost.”

Brenner's explanation just further confused Cedric “Ok, he’s dead. What’s the connection?”

“Hoffman’s teleportation technique leaves a very distinct mana signature behind, one that I can easily recognize. During my search yesterday, I discovered dozens of markers left behind of his teleports.”

There was stunned silence at this revelation before Cedric finally spoke up “So, what do we do?”

Brenner shrugged his shoulders “Until we can find Hoffman, or whoever is using his technique, there is nothing we can do. There is no way to defend against his teleports.”

…

Cedric pulled out his phone as he exited the guild, dialing the number of his commander. “Cedric, something to report?” The voice on the other end asked. Cedric filled him in on everything he had learned over the past day.

There was a long silence before he get a response “Cedric… I wasn’t going to tell you this but… things have gotten complicated on this side. Before, central command had been unified on their orders to pursue Clayton, but in the past day things have gotten weird. Conflicting orders keep coming down from above, and there seems to be a lot of confusion and infighting in the upper ranks. I’m going to push this information to command but… I doubt we will be able to muster a proper response anytime soon.”

There was another long pause, neither knowing what to say in this situation. “Cedric, you’re allowed to pull your team out. In the end, the safety of the people under my direct command is my top priority…”

“No, that’s okay” Cedric interrupted him. “I will continue our investigation.”

“Alright, but you guys watch your back. My hands are tied, but I will do what I can to assist you.”

“There is one thing you could do,” Cedric said. “Currently, almost nobody knows about the disappearances in Raleigh. If word were to get out, say to a major news network, increased attention might help. At the very least, the locals deserve to know the full extent of the danger.”

“I can call in some favors and see about getting the story on tonight's news.”

...

"You screwed up. Now the entire country is aware of what's been happening." The elf that stood across from him was furious, but Hoffman was calm. His transition into a lich had come with many boons, one of them being the natural suppression of human emotions. If anything, he found it amusing how this elf was more human-like than him, his anger written all over his face.

"It's true, I didn't expect word to get out like this. And after I spent all that time infiltrating the NDSA too. But it's fine, just get your orcs ready, and we can move the plan forward. I'm ready to open the teleportation link to the border mountains whenever."

"You were supposed to take care of Brenner before the invasion began," The elf said venomously.

"We don't really have much of a choice now, once the NDSA is found out to be compromised our opportunity will be gone. I will still take care of Brenner, things will just have to happen faster than we anticipated."

The elf stared daggers at him but nodded his head "Fine, but if this fails and Brenner doesn't kill you, I will."

Hoffman smirked as he watched the elf walk away. 'We will see about that.'