“She may be activating her remaining storage jewel, Omega. Be cautious. And an active volcano would likely be the main home of a fire elemental. Possibly the one she would have used to set the cliff wall trap,” Father said.

“Concur. I will move ahead of her,” Omega said, lifting the battle drone up into the sky and sending it rocketing silently over the green ocean of jungle at a speed that put it past the fleeing elves in seconds. As he overflew what was now highly probably the queen’s party, a string of five additional micro orbs were released from the bottom of the battle drone.

Back on Earth, he divided the view into ten direct face-on shots, with nine smaller pictures for the micro orbs and one big one for the big combat drone. Multiple beams of light shot out at the elves’ group, but the sapphire-hued energy splashed off a perfect arc of invisible power.

Then two of the small pictures went first white, then black as the harassed party stopped and turned to fight.

“Those were fairly coherent blasts of directed arcane energy. She appears to be using her power source both as a shield and to return fire.”

“Good. Bleed it dry, Omega. I might suggest tossing some large, heavy objects at that force shield.”

Instantly an entire tree ripped itself from the forest floor and shot out over the jungle to smash down through the canopy. All seven smaller screens showed the tree falling through the canopy from above but slamming to a halt on the same invisible arc before sliding off in multiple directions and multiple pieces. A large boulder, yanked from a stream bed, followed the tree, hitting faster and harder against the same arc, which was also being randomly lit up with blue bolts of energy from the micro units.

Another five rocks of varying sizes followed the first, each smashing into the shield and each being shunted to the ground around the besieged party. A ring of debris was growing up in a perfect circle.

“I am detecting lifeforms flying this way from two directions,” Omega said. “Profile suggests eleven of those prehistoric flying reptiles that the Summer Court uses for air superiority.”

“She’s looking for escape routes,” natural born vampire Tatiana Demidova said.

“Concur. Eliminating flyers now.”

On Earth, in the Arcane private dining room, the largest main projection showed eye-searing blue beams lancing out into the distance.

“Amazing. I could barely make out that creature before it was burned from the sky,” vampire Elder Senka said.

Omega noticed that his father, the Arcane director, and father’s mate all looked at the old vampire in amazement. So did the telepathic vampire Nika and the smallest vampire, Lydia.

Christian Gordon and his vampire spouse both nodded at the old vampire’s words.

“She has nowhere to run now,” demon hunter Chris said.