Aivinol, the eternal capital of the Elf Kingdom.
It was a magnificent city built upon the branches of towering trees.
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, scattering billions of golden flecks across corridors and spires woven from living plants and white stone.
Deep within the palace, Ellari, the Elf Queen, sat upon a throne carved from the heartwood of the Life Ancient Tree.
She wore a moon-white gown, her silver hair cascading like a waterfall beneath a crown of mithril branches. Elegant and focused, she was working through a mountain of state affairs.
"Your Majesty."
A captain of the royal guard strode into the hall and dropped to one knee.
"A messenger from Lothia City requests an audience!"
Ellari set down the document in her hand. Her eyes, holding two thousand years of wisdom, turned toward the entrance as she said calmly,
"Let him in."
A travel-worn Elf messenger scrambled into the hall, all traces of Elven etiquette forgotten. Exhaustion mingled with feverish excitement on his face.
"Your Majesty!" The messenger raised a box tightly wrapped in rune-inscribed cloth, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Lady Fendona ordered me to present this to you!"
A guard took the box and scanned it with a detection crystal. Only after confirming that it was harmless did he carefully present it to Ellari.
Ellari stirred her fingertips, and the wrappings peeled away layer by layer.
Inside lay a strangely shaped bow, a compact crossbow, a roll of parchment blueprints, and several equally unusual arrows.
"What is this?" Ellari frowned slightly.
The bow's limbs curved strangely, with several loops of unfamiliar "cord" wound around them and a set of pulleys. The crossbow was so small that it looked like a toy.
Ugly, cold, and utterly devoid of beauty. It was steeped in a kind of... savage practicality.
"Your Majesty, these are called the Compound Bow and the Repeating Crossbow. They were invented by a visitor from another world, Master Lin Mo."
The messenger struggled to steady his breathing as he repeated Fendona's words.
"Lady Fendona said these things... concern the survival of our people!"
"A visitor from another world?"
"A human?"
Several Elf Elders in the hall began whispering among themselves, obvious displeasure spreading across their faces.
A Wood Elf Elder with his beard woven into intricate braids stepped forward and bowed. His tone carried the stubbornness peculiar to the elderly.
"Your Majesty, Lady Fendona is still too young."
"How can we entrust the fate of our people to a human of unknown origins and these... bizarre pieces of metal?"
"Elder Archmond is right," another Elder immediately chimed in, his voice shrill.
"Our longbow craft, passed down for ten thousand years, is an honor bestowed by the Moon Goddess, an art flowing through our blood!"
"How could these strange contraptions possibly compare?"
Ellari said nothing.
She picked up the Compound Bow, feeling its cold texture and substantial weight.
Its design completely overturned everything the Elves understood about bows.
After hearing their arguments, she felt nothing. In fact, she almost wanted to laugh.
Art? Honor?
Did these old fossils have any room in their heads for food, besides all that?
When the Demon Clan's army reached their gates, would they reform them with honor or blind them with art?
Recalling Fendona's character, she made her decision.
"Enough talk." Ellari rose from her throne and ordered,
"Take them to the archery range. We'll test them."
The archery range.
An Elf sharpshooter hailed as the "Son of Wind" stood behind the shooting line, holding his beloved thousand-year-old purplewood longbow.
He gave the Queen and the Elders an elegant bow with his hand over his heart, drawing murmurs of admiration from the nobles' seats.
He nocked an arrow and drew in one fluid motion, bending the bow into a full crescent.
Whoosh!
The arrow left the string with an elegant whistle, tracing a perfect arc before striking the bull's-eye three hundred meters away.
Elder Archmond stroked his beard, looking pleased.
"You see, Your Majesty? This is the true strength of us Elves, the perfect union of skill and nature."
Next, the sharpshooter picked up the Compound Bow rather awkwardly.
With the messenger's guidance, he struggled a little before managing to nock an arrow.
"This thing... is so strange," he muttered. The force needed to draw it felt nothing like that of a traditional longbow.
The first part took effort, but once he passed a certain point, the resistance abruptly dropped. Holding it became uncannily easy.
Still doubtful, the sharpshooter released the string.
TWANG!!!
A deep, savage vibration erupted from the bowstring, utterly unlike the sound of an Elven longbow!
The oddly shaped arrow vanished from everyone's sight in an instant!
A second later.
BANG!!!
The refined iron target three hundred meters away was pierced straight through!
A fist-sized hole gaped in its surface!
Without losing momentum, the arrow punched through the second and third wooden targets kept behind it as spares, then buried itself deep in the stone wall at the end of the range. Nearly half its shaft disappeared into the stone!
Silence fell over the range.
Every Elf stared openmouthed at the hole in the iron target, then at the stone wall.
The Son of Wind stood frozen. He looked down at the Compound Bow in his hands, then at his "elegant" thousand-year-old purplewood bow.
Elegance... could elegance put food on the table?
Could elegance punch through a Demon Clan warlord's heavy armor?!
"This... this is impossible!" Elder Archmond's voice broke the silence as he declared,
"There must be something strange at work here! Some explosive magic we don't know about! Humans excel at this sort of trickery!"
"Elder." Neither servile nor overbearing, the messenger offered him the Repeating Crossbow.
"You can try this yourself. It's called a Repeating Crossbow. It can fire repeatedly, and it has no magical enchantments whatsoever."
Elder Archmond took the Repeating Crossbow suspiciously. In his hands, it looked like a crude toy.
Following the messenger's instructions, he aimed at a cluster of targets fifty meters away.
"Once you've aimed, just keep pulling here."
The Elder curled his lip and pulled rapidly, a trace of contempt on his face.
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!
A rapid series of sharp mechanical clicks rang out, like a raging steel beast roaring!
All ten bolts were unleashed in just three seconds, turning the row of targets ahead into pincushions!
Elder Archmond still had his finger on the trigger. He was utterly stunned.
It was done?
It had already fired ten arrows!??
Even his most prized disciple needed at least thirty seconds to fire ten shots!
And this ugly toy needed only... three seconds?
His mind went completely blank, as though something had forcibly wiped it clean.
Queen Ellari slowly rose to her feet.
She walked briskly to the wall and extended her slender fingers, gently stroking the arrow buried deep in the stone.
It bore the force of savage physical violence.
And not the slightest trace of magical energy.
"What... what a Compound Bow..."
Ellari turned around, sparks of light kindling in her wise, tranquil eyes.
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