It might have seemed reckless to launch a fireball at a horde of eighteen bloodthirsty, angry monsters. It was, a bit. Dan had never used a Firestone Amulet, or seen a Greater Fireball. He had no idea of the relative elemental susceptibility of goblins to fire, or the effective range of a fireball. It would have been perfectly possible for him to sneak off while the goblins were still disoriented by the death of their leaders, give himself time for his aether pool to fill back up, time to think. There was, however, method in his madness. Beyond just really, really wanting to crisp some goblins. Which seemed pretty darn valid in its own right.

First, the fight was going well so far and Dan had the tactical and psychological initiative. He was to his opponents an unknown adversary who had killed the strongest of them by largely unknown means involving water magic and physical combat. Immediately before he threw a giant ball of magic fire at them, they were scared, angry, and disorganized, but that state was not going to last. If he gave them time to resolve the leadership void and get themselves sorted out, they'd move on to being angry, organized, and vengeful. The only reason he'd succeeded so far is that he had managed to distract and isolate his opponents so he could fight them in small numbers while they were off balance. If they stuck together and attacked as a unit, he'd be in deep trouble if his last trap idea didn't work. But if he could hit them with a new, powerful attack they didn't know he had, something that had belonged to their most powerful troop mate, hopefully they'd be even more unsettled.

Second, the glimpse a couple of seconds into the possible future that tactical precognition gave him when considering this idea looked very much like a thing he would like to see happen in real life.

Third, he did have one more trap idea. It would be convenient if he could get the remaining enemies to follow him. More convenient yet if he could take a few of them out on the way. More convenient yet still if they broke a few of their spears on the walls trying to hit him when he could easily duck through a door they did not know was there.

That last part certainly seemed to work. The furious surviving monsters surged as one after him. He had the time to launch another sling bullet (leaving him with only eight) at one of the group leaders before a sheet of crude spears flew down the wide hall, not so much aimed strikes as an indiscriminate volley. Dan sidestepped smoothly into the stairwell.

Monster Defeated, Goblin Warrior (lvl 3). Aether Gained.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 5 in Esper Class. 2 Points of Perception awarded. 1 free attribute point awarded. 1 free level five perk awarded. 1 free Aether Ability awarded. Aether Ability "Penetrating Sight" (R4, Esper) Awarded.

Level 5 Bonus! +2 to Each Unlocked Attribute.

You have reached 90 in Perception. Warning! Unlocking new sense "Perceive Power" while in combat may lead to dangerous disorientation. Unlock delayed. You may unlock immediately (not recommended) or at a time of your choice.

Huh. "Penetrating Sight", presumably, was X-Ray vision. No time to think about that now. A dozen angry goblins chased like the tail on a kite. He opened the door to the fire escape up into the back parking lot and jammed the rubber door stop in to keep it open. He didn't want the poor, murderous dears running after him to get lost or confused after all, and his super senses told him he had the time to spare. There was a short, steep stairwell where a wedge had been cut into the hill that led to the parking lot, and Dan sprinted up. When he reached the top, the driveway that wrapped around the west side of the building from the front up to the back was to his right, and the broad concrete stairway, framed with sturdy brick pillars, was to his left. To the left of that zig zagged the wheelchair ramp he used earlier that day. And in the middle of the parking lot sat his modified, full sized Ford van. He ran over, unlocked it, jumped into the drivers seat, locked the doors, stuck the key into the ignition and turned the engine on, ducked down, and waited.

Goblins, Dan was reasonably confident, had never seen a van. But it is a quirk of vehicle design that pretty much all of them end up looking, to a greater or lesser extent, kinda like they have a face. The headlights look like eyes. The grill looks like a mouth. The resemblance is vague, but it's there. At any rate, the front of a van looks quite a bit more like a face than the back does. And so if you were a goblin and you saw your hated enemy in such a thing, how would you attack? Possibly from the side. If so, that was a problem, but he could just drive around to the front and regroup - no harm done. It should at least let him buy enough time to get through the three minute cool down on his new favorite fire throwing toy. But his guess was that they would try to attack from the back. So in his preparations he'd parked it with the front facing the fire escape exit. Let the goblins see its face.

He watched from the Sensory Locus on the roof as the monsters streamed up and into the parking lot, then stood, puzzled, and stared at the rumbling metal beast. They'd seen it of course in their initial surveillance of the building's perimeter, but it had been sleeping then, just one more bizarre object in a world unfamiliar to them. If they attacked head on, that would be perfect. If they didn't attack at all, didn't even realize he was in the van, that was fine too, if not a best case scenario. He could take his time, recharge the Firestone Amulet and his aether pool, unlock his new senses and get used to them, maybe even take a serious look through the list of available perks and find one or two he'd be happy to take. After all, that initial fireball salvo had gone better than he could have hoped, and he wasn't outnumbered twenty-nine to one any longer, or even eighteen to one. It was only twelve to one. He wasn't fighting against monsters who were higher level than him now either - he was level five, and the highest level surviving goblin was level three. If they tried to attack from the side, well that wasn't great. But his best guess, and what he was hoping for, was that they'd try to attack from the back.

After several seconds of hesitation, the monsters came to a decision and to a plan. The decision: They would fight the strange beast. The plan: Encirclement. Dan wondered why. Why they were here, why they were so driven to kill him, why they didn't retreat once it became clear that he was dangerous. They were clever, they clearly had social structure and a form of intelligence, but based on their behavior they not only weren't human, they weren't even animal. They were something more vicious, unthinking, violent. Some strange type of creature that would rather die than miss a chance to kill. Animals killed for understandable reasons, with very rare cat and orca based exceptions. Dan could think of no way these goblins would benefit from killing him, no plausible motive they could have. Maybe that's why the System calls them monsters. Or, he thought with a twinge of guilt, maybe the System put them up to it somehow. As he thought, the monsters spread around the van.

Then they attacked.

Goblins rushed the van three to a side, spears held rather than thrown. Dan, navigating by the sensory locus on the rooftop, floored it.

ThumpThump.

Thump.

Monster Defeated, Goblin Scout (lvl 3). Aether Gained.

Monster Defeated, Common Goblin (lvl 1). Aether Gained.

Monster Defeated, Common Goblin (lvl 1). Aether Gained.

Dan threw it into reverse, floored it again, still keeping his head ducked down below the windows.

Thump.

Thump.

Monster Defeated, Goblin Warrior (lvl 3). Aether Gained.

Wait, one "Monster Defeated" message? One of those "thumps" was still alive? He pulled forward and backed up again to put it out of its misery. Steel screeched as several stone spearheads stabbed into the sides of the van. Somehow they could tell he was in there (scent?), but apparently not precisely where he was at.

Thump.

Monster Defeated, Common Goblin (lvl 2). Aether Gained.

The seven remaining goblins scattered, demoralized for the moment. They did not know what this thing was, how to fight it, what its weakness were, if it even had any. Hopefully, Dan thought, that was how they viewed not just the van but him as well.