Clay jolted upright, greeted by the familiar walls of his sister's room. He instinctively rubbed his face, checking for damage after having been struck what felt like seconds ago. Of course, there were no injuries, the bruises from his battle and burn on his arm were also gone.

It did seem his respawn mechanic always brought him back with whatever was on him at the time of his last death, the gauze still wrapped around his arm and his pistol on the floor a short distance from where he was laying. But why did it always bring him back to his sister's room?

Clay tore the gauze from his arm as he got to his feet. Pulling the shades of a nearby window, he saw that the sun was just beginning to rise. “Damnit,” Clay said as he thought of the battle raging against the Orcs. Clay raced out of the room, calling for his parents, but was met with silence. He searched their bedroom, and the bedroom of his brother, finding them empty. Clay attempted to flip on the family TV, but their electricity had also been cut.

Maybe the Orcs got them.

Clay paused, considering the thought. He pulled back the curtain of his front window, the street outside was empty but relatively clean.

“No, I don’t think so. There would be more destruction if they had come through here. More likely they evacuated. Which means we must’ve lost the battle at Asheville.”

Clay's face became grim at the prospect. What had become of the rest of his squad who had been fighting on the front lines? He pushed the thought out of his mind as he exited his house. Any survivors likely retreated to Charlotte, his family had probably evacuated there as well.

Clay quickly specter stepped down his street, slowing down as he neared the main road. He had no idea if the Orcs were ahead or behind him, and would have to move slowly and stay observant to not accidentally run into an ambush. Using a car was obviously out of the question, so he would step the whole way to Charlotte, a solid 15 miles away from his small suburban town.

Clay decided to stop off at his home towns NDSA office. It was just a small branch office, tiny compared to the ones in the larger cities, but if he was lucky there would be some kind of intel, or better yet, some agents still around he could hitch a ride with. Unfortunately, Clay had terrible luck, and when he arrived he found the building empty and the front doors locked. There were however notices plastered to the front door and the billboard outside informing residents to evacuate to Charlotte, confirming his suspicions.

Clay didn’t have keys to the front door of the building, since they would normally never be locked anyway, but he made his way round to the back of the building, where his keys would access dispatch and the armory. Clay briefly considered arming up with a rifle, but ultimately decided against it. His strength was in speed and stealth, he wasn’t much of a shot at long distances anyways, and even if he was, a long-range battle with multiple orcs would just get him killed again. Instead, he grabbed a second handgun plus multiple extra clips of ammunition. He finished up by switching out his dirty and torn vest for a fresh one.

Clay set out back down the road again, stopping after each specter step to scan his surroundings and plan out where he would step to next. Whenever possible he would try to move to a position that offered decent concealment, but as he went further out of town the options would become more limited.

Clay had just stepped to his next position when he spotted some movement to his left. He watched as someone emerged from a building across the street, recognizing it as the town clinic, and confirming it was not an orc looting the place. Clay hurried closer to the man, and when he was within a few feet he shouted out “NDSA, this area is to be evacuated, you should head to safety.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The man turned to Clay in surprise before responding “I can take care of myself, thank you.” Clay recognized his face and voice immediately. It was the elf from before, the one who had brought Uriana’s mana crystal the day she was kidnapped. The man was holding a large beige folder full of files.

“It’s you, what are you doing here?” Clay said, trying to control his voice. He had no evidence that this elf was involved with his sister's kidnapping, but his weird behavior on that day, and the fact just hours later they were attacked by a mysterious group of elves, it irked him.

“What do you mean?” The elf asked with confusion, but as he looked at Clay his face changed to one of recognition. “Oh, so it's true, you survived” the elf raised his hand to do something, but before he could Clay specter stepped into him, grabbing the files before stepping away. Clay opened the folder to find it full of medical and personal information on everyone in his family, Uriana and himself included.

“So, you were involved” Clay muttered. “It’s not what you think-” the elf began to say before being cut off by Clay stepping forward again, replacing the folder in his hands with his guns. He brought one of his guns to the elf's left temple “where is she” he asked coldly.

“Listen, I get you’re pissed but you don’t understand. There are bigger things at play here, her abilities aren’t natural” the elf said.

“That's not an answer” Clay shouted, pushing the gun into the elf's temple to drive home his point.

“She's no longer on this continent, we’ve brought her back to our homeland.” Clay's blood began to boil “You’re lying.” The elf shook his head “I’m not, her powers… change the world around her in unpredictable ways. Your immortality is an example of what she is capable of. We couldn’t let the humans get ahold of that kind of power.”

Clay was shaking with anger “That doesn’t give you the right to break up my family, to kidnap her, to fucking kill me.” The elf said nothing.

Clay's finger neared the trigger when he was struck from the side and sent flying several feet away. Looking up, he saw someone new standing where he had just been, facing the elf. The hoody they wore kept him from being able to see any distinguishing features. Still, the elf didn’t seem too happy to see them. “It’s just one after the other, but I should have expected you. I heard you’ve killed several of us already, trying to hunt her down” the elf said to the person.

“I heard everything you said to him already, so you're useless to me. Well, mostly, I just need you to bring me to her” the person responded, Clay could barely hear the voice but it sounded feminine, and also familiar, but he was too far away to be sure.

“Who the hell are you?” Clay shouted at her as he rose to his feet. She neither responded nor turned to look at him, instead grabbing the elf by the collar before slamming her foot down with enough force to launch her, and the elf, into the air and away from Clay.

“Hey” Clay yelled, specter kicking into the air to give chase. He collided with them as they descended, the three of them separating and falling into the treeline below. Clay scrambled to his feet but was struck hard by a kick from the unknown woman, hurling him into a tree. He felt his arm break as it took the brunt of the impact.

Looking up, he saw the woman had turned away from him again, facing the elf as he launched a fireball spell at her. She easily dodged the spell, leaving it hurtling towards Clay. Pushing through the pain in his arm, he barely was able to get himself up and step out of the way of the spell.

The woman rushed towards the elf with blinding speed while the elf prepared his next attack. Clay grabbed his pistol as he hesitated on what to do. The woman was a mystery, but she had proved herself to be incredibly powerful in terms of pure strength and speed, and Clay decided she was the more significant threat. Plus she attacked him first, clearly she wasn’t his ally.

Clay waited for the elf to throw his next spell at her, and when she dodged, Clay specter stepped behind her, gun in his good hand, with the muzzle pointed at her head. Or at least where her head should’ve been, but she had somehow noticed him attack, dodging out of the way and kicking him back. Back into the way of the oncoming fireball spell, with Clay having no time to dodge.

…

Clay's eyes shot open, expecting to see the walls of his sister's room again. Instead, he was standing upright, standing outside, a puddle of water under his foot and receding clouds glowing orange in the sunset. Something pulled on his hand and he looked down, his sister Uriana looking back up at him with concern. “Clay?”