“What the hell is going on!” Gelvian exclaimed. Smoke was rapidly filling the entirety of the cave. His Vision was cut to just 2 steps from oneself. The shouts of parents and children looking for each other inside the smoke were overwhelming for a lot of people. Even for Gelvian, when panic hits it hits hard. He can remember his missions back in his old life where he was needed to suppress worker uprisings. The first gunshots decide how extreme the panic will be and this opening action of these assassins or killers? Gelvian doesn't know how but they made a hell of a starting shot.

Gelvian saw shapes clashing inside smoke metal on metal, metal on flesh, flesh to flesh. The masters and representatives of the various guilds already engaged in mortal combat with these assassins. The sounds of blades and sticks striking were clear for Gelvian and he knew for certain that they were under attack.

He remembers his training. Long calm breaths. Be aware of your surrounding. Engage hostiles if able. If not retreat. In this case, it is more stay out of the way of the masters and representatives.

A few children laid on the ground overwhelmed some started running towards the direction of their parents in total panic. Some started crying and hurdle themselves into a fetal position. Gelvian was scared but not frozen in shock, not after all he had gone through.

“Levia!” He realized. She was alone closest to the field of white orchids. She was not a soul who saw the horrors of an oppressive world. She was a young innocent soul fresh in this world compared to him.

She was family.

He tried to push through the crowds of adults and children to get towards the last place he had seen Levia.

“Levia!” This time he shouted but the shouts of other people were droning out his voice.

The distinct sound of crossbows firing caused a few people to drop or have bolts sticking out of them some dead some in pain a few of them children.

He was careful to not trip over the dead or hurt children.

As if all this added chaos wasn’t enough an explosion on the side of the parent's cave caused the cave to shake.

On the representative sides, there were thunderous noises and a bright light was there for a moment. It seems as the talent abilities were being used.

After pushing a few others out of his way, the smoke clears a bit he saw the blond hair of his sister sticking out in the white flowery field. The repelling flowers indicating clearly that someone was there.

Gelvian quickly approached but he saw someone trying to grab Levia. He heard her distinct voice shouting and kicking at her assailant. Gelvian heart sank at the realization.

This wasn't a simple terrorist act it was a kidnapping!

He redoubled his efforts to reach her but a child lying on the ground made him stumble. He fell to the ground face-first he didn’t have time to be dazed and immediately went up.

“Let me go!”Levia cried out. He was close enough to make out words now. Levia kicked and screamed but the large hooded man grabbed her arm and started dragging her.

Gelvian went into a full sprint. He made sure to not trip over anything and shouted to the kidnapper.

“HEY, BASTARD! LET HER GO!” The man turned but it was too late.

Gelvian leaped into the air and used his entire momentum to drop kick the man square in the chest. The man staggered to the ground he caught himself barely. Levia then scooped up a bit of sand and mumbled a chant quickly shouting “[SPARK]” she threw white hot sand into the face of the kidnapper who screamed in shock but he held onto her hand refusing to let Levia go.

“You god damn-” Gelvian was now upon the man how fell onto his back after reeling back from the hot sand was now eating a flurry of blows from Gelvian who hit him with knuckle boned punches and a few elbow strikes but his 10 years old elven body didn’t allow for a lot of power and momentum.

The kidnappers backhanded Gelvian. It was now his turn to be on the ground. The man did stand up but Levia pulled at the kidnapper's arm hard to make his attention shift towards her long enough for Gelvian to get up. Gelvian needed to change up his attack plan and the kidnappers turning away gave him a great opening. He was going for the base.

The knees of the kidnapper were turned so the vulnerable sides were pointing at him. He quickly stepped a bit to the left to get a better angle and kicked with the heel of his foot. It doesn’t matter how strong or muscular you are the sides of the knee are always are a weak point. The kidnapper shouted in pain but was standing his knee still in position but he couldn't react quickly enough to guard against the follow-up. The short moment was enough for Gelvian to strike at the side a second time with his heel this time the knee broke inwards making the large man buckle.

But before he could walk up to the downed man grunting in pain to kick him in the face he was tackled from behind another masked man grappled him restraining his arms.

“No one said we couldn’t harm you.” A gruff voice said next to his ear. He grabbed the right arm of Gelvian and like twisting a twig broke Gelvian right arm in a swift motion.

“ARGHH!” Gelvian shouted out in pain. His vision turning a painful white for a moment. He kicked and wiggled but nothing could break the hold of this brute. Levia was crying she was hitting and kicking the muscular brute. She threw another [Spark] but the man was deceptively agile and turned his back to her and in response kicked Levia in the chest.

“I don’t need raff like you.” He then threw Gelvian over his shoulder.

Gelvian was moaning in pain but he didn’t stop fighting. He tried to knee the man in the face twice before he received a punch into the gut as a retaliation. Gelvian saw his sister lying in the flowers field out cold and with each step in seems that he was truly lost.

“I am nearly there Saviour. Hold on.” He heard someone say. Unsure if that was his imagination because of the pain or not he was tired.

Then from one moment to the next, his world was thrown upside down. Literally. He was tumbling a bit away from his kidnapper. His vision turning to a painful white again with each time his broken right arm hits the ground causing agony. After a short moment he looked up from the dirt he saw Fang.

Fang who was in the process of tearing at the throat of his kidnapper. Like a rabid dog, he was tearing at the flesh. The man on the ground howling in pain and desperately trying to get the large lizard of him. That wouldn’t be a problem normally. And as Fang finished tearing off the throat, he gulped it down. His long teeth and his venom fangs are on clear display.

“He must have gotten a large dose of poison into his system.” Gelvian thought. The bite was strong enough to harm the man but the pure venom of a young venom drake is enough to put large animals into the ground in just a few seconds.

“Are you good enough to walk? There is still fighting. Your Mother has sent me. We need to go back.” Fang shot sentence after sentence.

“Yes, I am. Thanks for-” Gelvian winced in pain “Thanks for saving me. The bastard broke my right arm.” Gelvian looked back at the dead man. He turned to the one he kicked the knee and saw him lifeless too. Fang must have gotten to him first. He turned back to the dead kidnapper in front of him.

He was clothed in dark leather and has metal bracers on. The mask was near featureless. It only had two long eyes slits on each side of his face that were going from his temples and meeting in the middle just above his nose but are still separated by a little bit of material so it wasn’t a continuous slit.

Gelvian grabbed it. “Can't hurt maybe we will know who the fuck these guys are.” He swore still in pain.

Fang and Gelvian went back and found Levia and after reuniting they made their way back deeper into the cave where their mother most likely is.

For Elisia this day was truly horrible. First Theos one of her friends she met before Vesta got killed by these assailants. Then the smoke bombs went off near her dear Levia and Gelvian. As if this wasn’t enough, she got attack by this third-rate mage with flash bombs. Bad for him that she had her arcane shield up the moment she saw Theos fall. She dropped Fang in the process and pulled his muzzle off him.

“Fang get towards Gelvian! Get him and Levia back to me!” Fang only nodded and sprinted off into the smoke.

The enemy mage a man with a mask with two slits above the eyes and a symbol showing a weird rune was clear for Elisia that this must be the enemy mage. As his presence was clear to her senses arcane and mundane. He also was equipped with a staff that helps him cast spells.

The enemy mage began casting and forming hand symbols, the air around them became drier suddenly.

A fire spell Elisia noted. She noticed the man forming a hand sign relating to fire. He formed the sign for salamander with one hand and pointed his staff at her.

5 bolts of fire fly out of the tip of the staff and flew straight towards her direction. Not taking any chances she sidesteps each one to not get hit but to her surprise, the bolts turned mid-flight and impacted on her shield lighting up in a bright blue hue in response.

She will not leave that attack without a response and she began forming the hand sign of a [Magic Missle] spell. She homed in on the presence only to find it somehow blurry.She didn't release the spell. The smoke is keeping her vision low but her arcane sensing should be able to track the assailant. Then something out of the corner of her vision came rapidly closer. For any normal elf, this would have been too fast to react to but for her centries of experience, She instinctively weaved her body out of the way as if dancing. It was a physical arrow that was fired from the smoke. While her shield does protect her from physical attack if the shield has limits should it break in her moment of need, it that could spell doom for her. She still has the spell ready to unleash she doesn’t want to throw her [Magic Missle] for nothing. Without a staff, she is at a disadvantage. Outnumbered too.

The enemy archer began shooting more and more arrows Elisia evaded with grace most but a few still hit her shield. Both of her attackers are clouded in this weird smoke from her mundane vision and arcane sensing. She knows that you can mask your presence but never in this weird way. There must be a trick.

She waits for the next time they try to attack again but then a large man storms out of the thick smoke charging her but he doesn’t seem to have noticed her spell is still prepared in the palm of her and so she unleashed the [Magic Missle] spell, 18 bolts towards the fool. The first 3 staggered the man the 4th throws him back into the smoke and by the 8th he must be near death and the rest just impact all over his body with some hitting the skull which was caved in by the applied force.

The enemy mage took the chance and threw other bolts combined with a large web of something.

“Spidersilk?” Elisia exclaimed but before she could try to burn it off arrows already impacted her shield.

She shouted in surprise as 3 arrows impacted the same point on the shield shattering it. The bright blue shield lighting up and then shattering. She already heard the nocking of another arrow but she went into casting a weakened [Windbubble] spell. As she didn’t have the time to go through a full cast. The arrow flew straight towards her head but the wind bubble slightly knocked the arrow off course only grazing her cheek. Elisia already in her second [Windbubble] cast went through a normal cast and replaced her spell. It was strong enough to push away the webbing that kept her in place. The spell [Windbubble] is a continuous vortex of wind similar to her magic shield but easier to detect.

As the arrows began to lessen, she threw out weaker [Magic Missle] spells and shot at each place she suspected her attackers. With each spell, she noticed the smoke that was blurring her vision was getting weaker and thinner her wind bubble dispersing it more and more.

It was as if the enemy was there and visible. Her elven brothers and sister were clear to her sight but not them. After that realization, her missiles became focused. Casting without aid is exhausting but she can still keep it up if she stays focused.

Her wind bubble and her shield cast were becoming harder to hold and combined with her numerous missile casts. This would put any average mage to bed for a week.

Normal mages would be exhausted or unable to form spells but not her. An elven war mage is trained to go on way longer.

These greedy animals would pay for endangering her children! Shortly after shooting magic missiles at the silhouettes where she suspected the enemy was. She finally got a sensation of a hit. She finally got that pesky archer.

She rushed over to confirm it was him. The blurry silhouette became sharper and sharper until she saw that same mask with the two eye slits.

The archer was still moving but before he could recover. Elisia kicked his balls and took a blade that was strapped to the waist of the archer and stabbed him in the chest 3 times. She then kicked his head a few times as good measure and stabbed his head. She looked around with a bloody knife in her hand looking like a manic murderer but inside she was calm. She still heard fighting noises around the cave. A few people were on the ground moaning in pain or dead. Some huddle into a corner of the cave trying to stay out of the way of the fights.

That third-rate mage ran away. Her emotions now began boiling again. When she gets that insolent little fool she would make sure to torture him as slowly as possible. 100 years of pain aren't enough for endangering her children!

While her thoughts are on her children she wondered what her husband Darius was up to while this horrible disaster was happening.