The war room was silent. Lymlok stood on the balcony, arms resting on the wooden railing, staring into the distant horizon.
"I still don't understand. What ungodly spell have they used to attack the Home Tree? Have you humans discovered some new arcane arts?" The elven prince turned around, locking eyes with Duke Perriman.
"What? No, your Highness. No human magic can rival that of the elves, surely you know that!" The man defended himself, raising both his hands and shaking his head.
"Then how? How did they pierce the magic barrier and blew a hole in the Home Tree?" The Elf hissed, walking back inside and sitting down, eyes still locked on the Duke.
The unpleasant silence was interrupted by Tarik, the Forgelord of the Southern dwarven guild.
"Because they have not used any magic. It was a physical attack, that bore a hole in your fort.
Lymlok looked ready to erupt.
"A physical-? A physical attack?! You're telling me that they, what, just decided to lob a rock at the Home Tree at great speed?! You honestly expect me to believe that dwarf? Or has your head finally filled up with enough dirt to stop your brain from working?"
The dwarf was unfazed by the prince's outburst, waiting for him to finish before continuing his explanation.
"It is the only thing that makes sense. A magic barrier prevents magical attacks, but allows physical objects to pass through. So far, the entire arsenal we've encountered has been nothing but physical weaponry. From their loud sticks that shoot lead, to their exploding orbs."
"That is impossible. No such contraption exists!" The elf slumped into his chair, rubbing his temple in exhaustion.
"The attack came from the field of Vatur. I do not know what has done it, as no one has been able to send any scouts. Ever since the murder apes breached the portal gate a few months ago, not even a bird can fly across the sky without getting shot down. We've sent scouts. They've either failed to get close enough to report anything or they've failed to return at all." Duke Perriman said, finally finding his voice.
"It is a fortress of metal. An entire construction designed with the singular goal of destruction from a distance no spell can reach." A female voice, smooth as honey, filled the war room.
An elven woman, adorned in a royal gown with wreath around her head, was carried into the room and sat down at the head of the table.
"Claudia. You should be resting. I'm sorry if my voice woke you up, I got carried away." Lymlok stood up, but his sister waved him to sit back down, before turning her gaze towards the Duke.
"You. Out of my sight. I can't stand to have you in my presence." She hissed, every word filled with venomous hate.
Claudia hated humans with a passion unrivaled by any other elf in the kingdom of her father.
Even though she knew that men like Duke Perriman were allies of the elves, they looked exactly like the invading Murder Apes, as elves and other species took to calling the non-magic having invaders from the other side of the portal gate. And those very humans cost her more than she was ever willing to give.
"At once my Lady." Perriman bowed and left the war room with urgency in his step.
"You know what it is?" Asked Tarik.
"Yes. I was there with Eothen last autumn, when the invaders attempted to bring in that monstrosity through the portal. It was their first and so far the only successful time they brought anything larger than infantry and their small, armored vehicles." The elven princess replied.
Lymlok flinched at the mention of his late brothers name, but did not dare interrupt his older sister, as she began to tell them what happened that night.
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The rain poured down relentlessly for the last several days. The ground felt so loose, the soldiers felt like they might sink into the mud with each step. The entire outpost was on high alert, as this was the longest a portal gate has ever been kept open, drawing unwanted attention from the various different scouting parties, especially the elves.
A scouting party, led by none other than Claudia herself, watched over the outpost for days. The humans were laying down metal tracks, leading from the center of the outpost to the portal gate. They worked day and night, as if on a tight schedule, putting down the massive beams of steel.
The elves of the Vatur kingdom were no strangers to the contraptions of the invaders. From their heavy armors immune to arrows, to their armored vehicles. But whatever they were trying to bring through the portal gate, it would surely be massive.
The Vatur field, named after the kingdom in which it was situated, held one of the biggest portal gates on the western side of the continent. So it was no surprise that the invaders did everything they could to secure it as their outpost. Claudia cursed her father for not listening and securing such a valuable asset sooner. But now it was too late for that. It was up to her and her brother Eothen, to drive the Murder Apes away from the portal.
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Her train of thought was interrupted by the loud noise of heavy machinery. Generators working at maximum capacity to ensure the stability of the portal. The elf princess watched, eyes wide in horror, as a fortress of metal slowly came into view. It moves slowly, on massive metal wheels, along the rails that were placed on the ground.
"Brother!" She yelled for Eothen.
The elf prince, the oldest of the 3 siblings and next in life for throne, was already ahead of her in thought.
If they allowed the humans to bring that thing into their world, they would be sentencing their kingdom and its people to death.
"I know. We have to stop it. Information gathering be damned, it's now or never." Eothen nodded, before blowing a whistle, sounding to the remainder of his troops, further back front he scouting party, that the time to strike is now.
The high pitch whistle sound was drowned out by the heavy rain, but the motion detectors caught on just in time for the humans to not be entirely caught off guard by the flurry of arrows that came from the woods.
The elves descended on the outpost as heavily as the rain storm, arrows and spells let loose in as rapidly as possible. They knew where to aim, arrows hitting between the armor plates of their enemies, dropping them while they were still confused.
Humans responded in kind, machinegun sentries lighting up the area, gunning down as many elves as their instruments could detect. The rainfall made their aiming less accurate, allowing Eothen and his troops to get into the encampment. His heart sank to his stomach, witnessing the massive fortress up close.
"Protect the generators! The rail cannon is almost through the portal, we need to keep it at 100% output for a little longer!" Shouted the human soldiers to one another, trying to be louder than the storm.
"The buzzing machinery! They hold the portal steady! We need to-!" Before the prince could finish giving out the order in his native tongue, his ears twitched, warning him of an approaching attack. Eothen turned to face the danger, only to be met with a metal fist to the side of the face, sending him down into the mud.
Nearby troops rushed to his aid, but were gunned down before they could even draw their swords.
Eothen shook his head, spat out blood and a tooth onto the ground and slowly rose to his feet, turning to meet his opponent.
Before him stood a mean looking man, his missing left eye and arm replaced by prosthetics. Just by looking at it, the fake left arm was not just as compensation. It was undoubtedly fashioned as a replacement for the guns the humans usually used as their weapons. In addition to his left arm, a large handgun hung from his left thigh and a Doramite axe from the other.
The elven prince heard of these humans before. They were labeled as War Hounds by their peers, and were usually the first ones sent into an area to clean it up of any resistance. Instead of fear, the elf felt excited to hone his skills against such a capable opponent.
As the shock factor of their assault wore off, the elven casualties grew and their chances of successfully preventing the rail cannon from passing through the portal diminished. Humans focused all their efforts on guarding the generators, even at the cost of their own lives. Claudia was left with a difficult choice to make. Escape and warn her father of the threat, or stay and try to prevent it even at the cost of their life?
Be it luck or non, that choice was made for her. The metal fortress stopped to a screeching halt, as the first of its 4 heavy anchors bore into the soil. Their assault had failed, despite the numerous invader casualties. Her brother held his own against the Hound, but his backup laid dead on the ground.
"Claudia! Retreat! Warn father!" Shouted Eothen, before receiving a right hook that knocked him to his knees.
"Don't bother. You are not leaving this place alive." said the human, watching the elf rise off the ground again while chanting something.
"And neither are they."
The prince did not need to speak the humans language to understand the implication of what was said. He channeled all the magic he could muster, aiming it straight at the mans chest with the intention of blowing him up from the inside. Sadly for the elf, the invading humans came from a world where magic did not exist, so they were highly resilient to magic, if not outright immune to most forms of it.
The metal fist once more struck Eothen across the face, before grabbing him by neck and lifting him onto his feet.
"Nice try hippie. Allow me to reward the effort with a display." Said the human, turning the elf so they were both facing in the same direction.
He watched his sister and the remaining few soldiers flee back towards the safety of the woods.
"Wonder if I can make the shot with my janky left eye?" Grinned the man, pulling out the handgun from his belt and aiming it at fleeing Claudia.
With what fight Eothen had left in him, he elbowed the man to the face as he was about to take shot.
The gunshot rang out, following by his sisters pained scream in the distance.
"At least the shot didn't kill her on the spot." Was all that the elf could think of, as the metal hand that gripped his neck tightened. A loud snap and his world went black.
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Lymlok sat in silence, tears welling in his eyes as his older sister finished her story.
His rage grew by the minute.
"I see. What a monstrous contraption." Nodded the dwarven Forgelord.
"After they had fired it once, doing the damage that they did, we acquired aid from Duke Perriman to help us raise a physical barrier to stop any subsequent shots from the rail cannon." Claudia said, pointing outside the window to a wall of heavy and thick trees that now served as a physical protection of the Home Tree.
"And your... legs?" Tarik asked cautiously.
"The bullet, as they call them, isn't as easy to remove as an arrow. And none of the elves with me at the time could safely remove it. They managed to heal me enough to keep me alive. By the time I was brought to the royal healer, it was already too late for me." The princess sighed, looking down at her limp legs.
"Everything below the hips, useless. Paralyzed. I begged the healer to end me on the spot, but he refused. I thank him for it. Even like this, I can live long enough to see the head of the bastard that took my brother and my legs hanging from my window." She hissed, wiping her eyes before the tears started rolling down her cheeks.
"At the very least, our father was properly warned and had spread the word to other kingdoms. Every possible portal gate is now heavily guarded and watched over. Not a single weapon like that, nor a single human, will ever set foot on this world again." Claudia's younger brother spoke, composing himself at last.
"So now we ask you, Sir Dwarf, how possible is it for us to construct such a weapon? To use against the Murder Apes?"
"I see." Sighed Tarik.
"That is why you invited me. I cannot promise much, but the Southern Dwarf Guild will aid you with everything we have."