The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

“I can even attune the viewing crystal to your rifle so that it will show you exactly where your projectile will land.” She explained further.

“Does magic like this ever fail?” I asked.

She shrugged, “It is possible, magic that suppresses other magic exists. And I suppose then it would be a clear lens in front of your…. device.”

I nodded, “That would work then.”

Pelinatar smiled and worked with Durithana to affix the viewing crystal to the scope and then attune it to my rifle.

“Now, I’ll have to zero my scope.” I explained.

“What does that mean?” Pelinatar asked.

And once I explained the process, Pelinatar cocked her head. “You did not have magic that could accomplish such a simple task?”

I shrugged, “There was no magic where I came from.”

Pelinatar accepted that, “Would you like me to enchant your device to do that for you?”

I thought, “Would it go out of alignment if the magic failed?”

Pelinatar shook her head. “The magic would only be active when aligning your… scope. If the magic was suppressed, the mechanical aspects would be unchanged.”

“Then by all means, I’ll accept any improvements you can offer.” I accepted. “It could be nice, since I don’t have a rangefinder to let me know how far my targets are away.”

About an hour later, Durithana helped Halivax affix the primers, fill the cartridges with her compound, and the enchanted bullets were crimped into the casing. Calinar was wrapping up enchanting the magazine.

“Each is unique.” Calinar informed me. “This case will generate an extra copy of the top piece in the case to be loaded, each time you take a unit into your weapon. You can command the case to reorder the pieces with the following words: “Hafra” for fire, “Auqura” for ice, “Lifa” for lightning, “Schimis” for acid, “Vrusis” for sonic and “Uruturfa” for force. Each piece will be laced with the element in question.”

I made mental notes of the words. I thanked God for my language memory. I was quickly picking up a lot of the words of this magical language.

“Now, I know you only asked for the… rifle… you called it.” Durithana explained, “But all elven soldiers are issued a sword and dagger. So I took the liberty.”Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

She presented me with a sword and dagger. The sword had a double edged blade just over three feet in length with a handle that fit my hand when wielding it one handed, but had enough handle that I could work it two handed if I wanted. It was light enough to wield one handed, and I could feel the balance and ease with which the blade would move. Runes ran the length of the blade. The metal was a light bluish metal.

“You can engage elemental energies on your blade using the same words you use selecting the elements of your projectiles.” Durithana explained. “The blades are both mythril.”

“This feels like a nice blade.” I told her.

The dagger was a five inch, double edged, blade and appeared to be designed for utility rather than combat.

The dagger and sword had sheathes on a sword belt. I belted it on and found them to be lighter than I’d expected.

“Now the only thing to do is to paint and camouflage the rifle.” I declared with a smile.

“I was wondering.” Durithana laughed, “No offense, but this would stand out in the forest.”

Tavorwen frowned, “Four of the elders wanted to see a demonstration of your weapon once we were finished here, then we have a social meeting to attend. I can gather paints for you during the meeting and we can paint your rifle this evening. Is that acceptable?”

“We’ll make you another cartridge case and more of the cartridges so if the magic does fail you can reload.” Halivax assured me.

I thanked them profusely and then had to follow Tavorwen back out into the walkways of the elven city.

“It is a bit of a walk to the archery grove.” Tavorwen apologized and we started to trek.

It was a bit of a walk, taking us about a half-hour to reach the small gap in the massive trees on the forest floor.

The four elders were there when we arrived. They wore no armor and carried no weapons, but had a dozen armed and armored elves with them.

“Cap-… Guardian Tavorwen, did all go well with the smith and enchanters?” The most prominent elder asked.

“Yes, General.” Tavorwen acknowledged with a curt nod.

The general turned to me, “Please give us a demonstration of your weapon. We have targets at 100 paces, 200 paces, 300 paces, and 500 paces. Is that good?”

Now I don’t mean to brag, but I had gotten confirmed kills at ranges of a mile and a half to a mile and three quarters during my time as a sniper. As an expert marksman, I was not intimidated by any of those ranges, especially once I saw the targets. They were wooden circles, roughly three feet in radius, with approximately a one foot diameter bullseye in the center.

“That should be easy enough.” I assured them. “Do you have any set at longer ranges?”

The generals exchanged a glance, “No. If you can hit these, then we can set up further targets. Please, show us what you can do.”

I laid out and deployed the bipod at the base of my barrel. It was strange, the viewing crystal taking the place of my scope. Pelinatar had added a crosshair, but I could see that the ticks were unnecessary as the viewing crystal adjusted minutely to show specifically where my bullet would land.

“Uruturfa.” I muttered, hearing a chink as the bullets rearranged in the magazine, then I pulled the bolt back and slid it forward, chambering the round. A force bullet sounded best here. I didn’t want weird elemental energies throwing off my first experience with my new rifle.

I controlled my breathing, took aim at the target at 100 paces and eased the trigger to the edge and then popped off the first round.

I was shocked at how quiet the shot was. The gathered elves covered their ears, wincing. The recoil wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, but it was significant. Firing it too much could do work on my shoulder, but that was a fair price to pay if it did its job.

The first target was annihilated. The top half swung showing the impact point near the center of the bullseye, but cracks radiated from that. Two of the cracks had reached the edge causing the bottom half of the target to drop.

I pulled the lever back again, and chambered another round. The rifle had done excellently. I took aim at the target at 200 paces, and popped off a second round. The second target shattered. I chambered a third round and took aim at the 300 pace target, and shattered it with the third shot.

It almost bothered me, not having to adjust my scope as I changed targets, but I could see how the viewing crystal worked and the view lowered as I shifted to the further targets. I knew roughly the amount of adjustment I had to make and it was correct. I fired, nailing the third bullseye, confirming the viewing crystal to be working correctly.

As the third casing landed next to me, the first casing faded and disappeared. I estimated it took 10 seconds for the casing to disappear. That should be plenty of time for any shot I could make to land. So that concern was removed. I had worried that if the projectile didn’t last long enough, then it could disappear before hitting a target.

I chambered a fourth round and with ease lined up and blew a hole in the bullseye of the target at 500 paces.

I lifted my head, pleased with how the rifle had performed. I smiled to myself. I’d have to complement Durithana about how well her rifle had worked.

I turned and looked at the generals. The generals and all of the elves were pale with shock, their hands clamped on their ears.

“Are you unharmed?” Tavorwen asked. “Did that not shatter your shoulder?”

I checked my shoulder mobility, “No, actually the recoil wasn’t as bad as I expected.”

As I looked over at the assembled elves, “Are your bones so brittle?”

“Perhaps they would not shatter, but…” One of the generals acknowledged, “… A weapon like that would not be practical for us… By the gods… How far can you shoot with this weapon?”

I did some quick math in my head. “The longest kills I have gotten with my rifle back home were at what would that be, about 2600 paces and 3000 paces?”

The she-elves exchanged looks, “That’s a kill before anyone would even know you are there.”

“That is the idea.” I told them.

The generals exchanged a glance, “We hereby grant you the rank of Specialist.”

One of the soldiers strode forward and gave me a cloak like Tavorwen’s camouflaging cloak. I shouldered my rifle and took the cloak. The clasp seemed simple enough, so I threw it over my back and clasped it on my shoulders.

Dang. Wearing a cloak made you feel cool. Why didn’t people wear cloaks back home? Why did they go out of style?

“We have much to consider.” The generals admitted, “We will call for you to join us in council, either this evening or at some point tomorrow. Specialist, Guardian, you are dismissed.”

I instinctively saluted and then turned and followed Tavorwen from the range.

Tavorwen looked at me nervously, “You are beginning to intimate me, Tomas. You carried such power back at your home?”

I nodded, “I’ve carried it for years at this point.”

Tavorwen looked down, “I may have misjudged you.”

I shrugged, “That is alright, it’s only to be expected. I am pretty sure I have misjudged you, I just don’t quite know how badly yet.”

Tavorwen smiled, “I suppose it is only fair. Let us go. Your lunch and company awaits.”