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===[CHAPTER 24: NEVER THE END]===
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With the dragon occupied with Archer's savage attack, Eli couldn't afford wasting any time in running for cover. Their hiding spot underneath the table suddenly didn't look so secure, and he grabbed Temetet's wrist as he rushed out. The squad of Imperial soldiers poured in. Guns started firing, Eli had no clue if they were being fired at him, Temetet, or Archer. Bullets cracked past, with Eli narrowly managing to get Temetet out of immediate danger, escaping further within the room. Towards the back was a wall and doorway that separated the rather large dormitory from a closet or storeroom. Limping towards the door, they slid into cover with their backs pressed against the wall shielding them from the chaos that flooded the dorm.
He had no clue how many of the soldiers were looking for him, trying to kill Archer, or going for Temetet. He held his gun close, sharply inhaling, feeling his hands shake with horrible tension. When he steadied his breathing, he took aim around the corner with the rifle. The soldiers weren’t prepared to see Archer and the dragon brawling with each other. Archer, sensing the presence of the soldiers, spread his wings - jumping from the back of the dragon while it was still disoriented. Archer took the soldiers by surprise, hissing at them, he caught the arm of one into his beak. Turning what was once a man into a ragdoll, slamming him into the wall with a powerful thud that froze the other soldiers for a moment. With the attention of the soldiers turned on trying to rescue their comrade, Eli took the liberty to return fire. Trying his best to keep his aim steady, the energy blasts from his rifle tore through the soldiers' armor in a manner no less effective than his normal gun. That was – of course – until he tried to shoot at the shock trooper.
The dark armor of the Shock Trooper absorbed the energy blasts from the pulser with ease. Shooting him was pointless, yet still, the trooper turned to face him! The trooper raised their arm, activating the device on its forearm for its energy shield - glowing with a familiar ekron red. Thinking fast, Eli shot at the shield generator attached to the trooper's arm. The burst of energy from his rifle collided with the shield as it was charging, and it unleashed a powerful burst that sent red sparks of energy through the air and into the body of the trooper. Stunned by the explosion, the trooper keeled over! A victory!
Though the victory was short lived. Through it's mechanical grunts of pain, the trooper reached for its gun!
Eli tried to shoot the trooper, at least to slow it down or to inflict some kind of grievous injury, but it was almost useless. The trooper's armor was far too thick. The eyes might have been another weak spot, but his hands were shaking and the trooper was moving far too much for him to get an accurate shot into the glowing bits of its mask.
The trooper got to its main gun, pointing the massive weapon straight at Eli’s direction. Eli snapped behind the wall, crouching low with all the speed he could force himself to muster. Just in time. The Trooper let out a blast from the gun – so devastating in power that it punched a hole straight through the wall - right where Eli's head was. The shrapnel ejected from the wall scraped against Eli’s skin like miniature bullets, and the force of the blast was enough to knock Eli to his feet. Again, a blessing in disguise as another volley from the troopers energy-shotgun punched yet another hole through the wall, ripping through the spot in space where Eli was just standing.
His eyes squinted shut as his back was to the floor. He sucked air through gritted teeth. Fighting back against the exhaustion that polluted his body and the searing pain the burned from the wound in his leg, “C’mon Eli! On your feet!” Eli to himself, forcing himself with all his power to move back into place. Steadying himself back up to his feet. But the damage had been done. He wasn’t a warrior. Hardly even a soldier. His body exhausted; his energy spent.
He stumbled up to his feet, but his muscles failed him – and he found himself falling back onto his hands. He crawled further into the room, taking cover behind another table that had been blasted onto its side. The sound of gunfire from the other room intensified. He could hear the screaming of soldiers, and he saw the red glow of intense fire growing. And Temetet... where the hell was Temetet? He looked around, seeing no sign of the little elf anywhere. Had he lost him? Didn't he drag the elf behind cover into the store room. There were plenty of boxes and tables within this closet he took refuge in, was he hiding behind one of them?
There wasn't much time to contemplate Temetet's whereabouts, as the heavy boots of the shock trooper thudded against the floor. Every step it took made the very floor shake. Eli was going to have to take it by surprise. He closed his eyes, stifling his breathing. He tried to imagine how they'd taken the shock trooper down last time. In the canals, there was an explosive tank that rested on the trooper's back as some kind of life support system. But this one trooper didn't have one of those. He tried to think of another weak spot. The eyes. The glowing circular lenses through the mask were a small target, it would've been a tough shot to make, but it was something. The armor was too thick to shoot through, and even its helmet seemed impervious to Eli's bullets. If he wanted to kill the trooper rather than just slow it down, he'd need to shoot through the eyes. It was his best chance.
Eli scrambled behind a storage shelf within the room, listening to the trooper's heavy footsteps through the shooting within the room next to them. He could hear its muffled robotic chatter, though Temetet’s translation spell had long since vanished and it sounded like gibberish to his ears. The trooper approaching. Steady…
The trooper entered the room, sweeping the area cautiously. Eli could see it through the gaps between the boxes, towering above the floor and filling the gap within the doorframe as if an elephant were trying to squeeze through. He had to wait for the right opportunity...
The trooper grunted as it conducted its sweep of the room. One footstep after another, it drew closer. Its front was facing Eli and as long as that were the case, Eli would have to keep waiting. Jumping out in front of the trooper was unlikely to work unless he really felt like being torn to shreds all of the sudden, which he didn't. He held his breath, fearful that the trooper could hear his breathing. Or even his heartbeat.
A shadow near the far end of the room moved. Eli saw it from the corner of his eye. The shadow had disappeared behind another shelf off to Eli's left. Just as the trooper came into view, the figure revealed themself. It was Temetet! Blue glowing energy surrounded his hands, and the trooper's gun was surrounded by the magical energy. The gun tugged and slipped free from the trooper, at great physical expense to Temetet who pulled the weapon free with all of his might. Though the gun was still connected to the troopers body by a strap, the momentary slip gave Eli the chance he'd been looking for!
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He bolted into position, standing upright to raise his own weapon and take aim - point blank. The iron sights of the pulser were locked onto the circular lens of the mask, the trooper looked at him as it tried to get its gun up. But Eli - for once - was faster.
With a heat burning through his veins like he’s never felt before, he sent blasts of energy straight through the eye holes of the trooper. The glass hole shattered, and the trooper dropped his gun – howling in extreme pain. More bullets from Eli's gun managed to bury themselves in between the kinks that separated its thick armor, inflicting smaller wounds on the body all while the trooper went down. Blood poured from the lens within the mask, and its final breaths were agonizing to hear. Gasping for air through labored robotic breathing.
The trooper had finally been brought down. It’s corpse lay on the floor in a pool of its own blood. A titan felled, the body remained still. The biggest threat was over.
Eli's body collapsed and he found himself on the ground once again, feeling as if he too had been killed. The energy of the fight quickly left him, and he was left empty with the trooper's corpse only a few inches away from his boots, "Eli! Are you okay?" Temetet rushed over towards him. All Eli could really do was his give a sigh of relief, probably a way to tell Temetet that he was, in fact, not dead. As difficult as it may have been to believe that.
"I'm alright. Well, at least I'm alive. Thanks to you," Eli told him.
Temetet chuckled, "See, told you I wouldn't let you die."
The sound of struggling from the dormitory regained their attention. There was the dying cry of the dragon, the sound of Archer screeching in battle, and someone's voice calling to them. It belonged to Otaes.
He limped his way over to the other room to see her jump down from above. The Riverlanders tried to shoot her, but she was far too fast. Her spear went crashing through the skull of one human soldier, her fist knocked against another. Grabbing him by the collar of his uniform, and throwing the Riverlander hard onto the ground, she tore the spear out of the head of the first and used it to tear into the torso of the one pinned onto the ground. The elven soldier screamed out in pain, but he was silenced shortly after by his death.
Otaes pulled the spear from out of his stomach, dripping with the blood of both human and elven soldiers. Eli felt a chilling wave of fear course through his bones when her blue glowing eyes snapped to him. As if he were her next victim, but thankfully he wasn’t. Her shoulders relaxed when she saw him, as if relieved that she had made it in time.
The two shared a silent nod of acknowledgment to the other as their attention drifted towards the other side of the room. The entire building had been nearly destroyed, sparse flames still burned through the room from the dragon’s breath. In the far end of the room, right below a crater put into the ceiling, was the dead body of the dragon. Its iron wings so massive that it swallowed a good half of the room - a room which was quite large itself. The metal plates and iron scales adorning its body had been peeled off in some parts revealing bloody scars and grievous wounds. Archer was standing over the dragon with a claw placed on its chest. The dragon's blood being smeared across his golden beak, brown feathers and talons gave Eli a good idea of who was responsible for slaughtering the beast. Archer was still as terrifying as Eli remembered him, more so now that he was literally covered in blood.
"Temetet! You're alive!
The two elves ran to reunite, embracing each other. Otaes held her brother tight, “You should’ve been back home, like we planned!”
“But it isn’t safe there!”
“It’s better than being out here! Look at this place, Tem! This is a warzone!”
“But I helped! I helped the Home Guard get people to the Canals! I even helped Eli, I’m ready-“
“No, Temetet! Not like this. If you want to be a Kitchi, you have to do it the right way!” Otaes scolded him, “There are no shortcuts to this! Especially not here!”
Temetet looked ashamed. His blue eyes sunk down to the floor behind his mask, nodding silently to himself. Otaes sighed, and she looked back to Eli, “As for you… thank you for finding him and keeping him safe. I didn’t think it would be this difficult to—”
“It’s fine. Trust me, Temetet was an angel.”
“Really? Temetet?”
“Well you know… a very talkative angel...”
“Now that’s starting to sound like him,” Otaes sounded as if she chuckled from behind the mask, turning to Archer. She patted the side of his neck as a signal of sorts. The Griffon understood, rising on its feet and spreading his wings out. Ready to fly, “Come on. I’m taking you two back to the Palace. You can meet with the rest of your squad there.”
Eli was confused when he saw both Otaes and Temetet crawl on his back, but his heart sunk when he realized that Otaes wanted him to climb on Archer’s back, “Wait… you want me to get on?” Eli nervously asked her when Otaes gestured for him to follow.
“It’s fine, he’s an excellent flyer!”
“That’s not what I’m afraid of. It’s the uh… riding a mythical creature I didn’t even know existed until today.”
“Don’t worry, it’s like being on the back of a dragon!”
“We don't have those either.”
“Oh uhm… a pegasus?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Horse?”
“I never rode a horse but we have them.”
“Well, think of it like a flying horse,” Otaes shrugged, “Look, the alternative is going back through the Canals. There’s an entire army between us and there, I don’t know about you but I’d rather fly.”
“But there’s dragons in the skies too. What about those?”
“Archer is a dragon-killer, we'll be fine,” Otaes told him, before looking straight into his eyes, “Trust me.”
Eli uneasily looked from Otaes to the Griffon, not entirely sure what to make of the giant eagle head whose bright golden eyes looked equally uncertain as they gazed back into his own. But eventually, the human gave in, taking a tentative few steps closer to the creature. Temetet reached out a hand to him helping to pull him up onto Archer’s back. The saddle just barely fit him on, but his heart sank when his hands searched to find something to hold onto and they came up empty.
“So where’s the handles on this thing?” Eli asked Temetet.
“Oh, there are none.”
“What-“
“Just hold on to my back," Temetet whispered to him, "Very tightly.”
Before Eli could protest, Otaes’ hands grasped the reigns around Archer and the Eagle’s wings spread open. In one moment, they were on the ground. In the next, they were in the air. Eli’s body propelled into the air while he gripped onto Temetet’s shoulders for dear life.
But his soul remained on the ground.
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