I let my armor out, covering my clothes and formed a short cutlass from my weapon: “Bad idea. I am sure, police is coming soon with all the ruckus they have made. Better tell me, what the hell are they?”

“Redcaps!” - answered Bob and spat on the floor.

“I don’t think you are talking about English chicken breed, are you?” - I commented resignedly while furiously thinking and calculating our next steps. Then I remembered something buried in the vast amount of fantasy I had read during my teenage years: “If I recall it right, it is supposed to be some sort of goblin?”.

“Yes, quite dumb, but aggressive.” - said Bob, preparing to jump down and lunge at them.

I caught his shoulder before he managed to do so: “I still need you around. Follow me.”

I led us back into the office room, there I picked up a bag where I tossed in the laptop, phones, chargers and some shirts that seemed to fit me. I threw the bag to Bob and picked up the bundle which contained my stuff from the other world. I looked around and nodded: “Let’s move.”

---

When we got downstairs, I confirmed again that the redcaps were surrounding the building but not in a hurry to rush in. Well, their loss. I entrusted my bundle to Bob, and in a few quick steps reached the smashed-up front of the car. Under the cover of dust and smoke, I bent down, grabbed a thicker piece of steel that was part of the chassis beneath the hood and pulled. With an ear-piercing groan of grinding bricks and metal, I pulled the car deeper into the house.

I sighed as I saw the broken hand of Nicole between the remains of the broken furniture. A conflicting feeling of missing the expected emotional backlash from killing an innocent person rose inside me, again. I almost reached out to pick up her body, before pulling back. I needed to handle everything carefully, and being wanted would be most unwelcome.

Having come up with an idea, I kicked aside the armchair that blocked a side of the car and bent down to observe it. After making sure it was looking damaged enough, I picked up a piece of steel beam that had fallen nearby and forcefully stabbed it into the side of the car. Then I twisted it sideways towards the back of the car, creating a deep gash that breached the fuel tank. Strong smell of gasoline reached my nose and a rivulet of oily liquid ran along the beam into the heap of old furniture. I nodded, everything was ready. Pity the kitchen was at the back of the house, or I could have added gas to the mix, giving the attackers an extra surprise.

Instead, I returned into the hallway where I remembered having seen a candle lantern and a box of matches. After wasting three matches due to the excessive strength, I got the candle burning. I tossed the small, silver-and-stained glass Moroccan style lantern into the room, letting it shatter and mix with the debris. Then I carefully dropped the candle into the gasoline-soaked mess. The small amount of evaporated gas lighted up with a thump, and the pile caught fire. It was the best I could do to make everything look like an accident. I had limited time and understanding about the forensics, but I gambled on the chance that the investigation will focus more on the reasons for the car driving into the house rather than the cause of fire.

When I returned to Bob, during these seven or so seconds while I was away, he got entangled into the exchange of profanities with the redcaps. From what I could hear, in addition to vivid descriptions of each others’ speculated ancestries, suggestions for deviant sexual practices and general belittlement, there were also several mentions of human, or rather, person trade and some sort of market soon to be arranged somewhere north.

I hefted a piece of brick in my left hand, and used the back of my cutlass to push Bob aside. At the same time, the redcaps’ attention was drawn to the fire and they moved closer, preparing to rush in. Just as several of them ran towards the front to see what was happening, I threw the brick at the one who stood right in front of the back door. The brick, even if thrown with my weakened strength, pierced through the chipboard core of the door and with barely any effect to its velocity struck the chest of the redcap. I had aimed at his head, though.

The brick shattered on impact and the redcap was blown on his back but was still alive. Redcaps were quite a bit shorter than average humans, reaching around 155cm, had a rather small head and scrawny limbs, but their torso was unnaturally wide. And apparently, to compensate for that, it was quite sturdy, and most of their energy was concentrated there.

I did not wait for them to understand what was happening and hissed to Bob: “Show the way!”. I grabbed my bundle back from his hands, leaving him the bag with tech, and slammed the door open with my foot.

---

As we ran out, I made a quick stab towards the supposed heart’s location of the fallen redcap and turned left after the Bob.

The cutlass’ shape was not quite good for stabbing, and I was out of the cramped building anyway. On the moment’s impulse I split a tiny part of my attention to quickly reform it into the shape of Hadhafang, the Arwen’s sword from Lord of the Rings movie. “Always wanted to test that one.” - I muttered as I made a test swipe at the redcap who was running at me from my right.

I had estimated the distance a bit wrong and the redcaps were way shorter than me, so only the very tip of my blade caught his shoulder and upper chest. The redcap raised the makeshift machete in his hand, ready to bring it down on my flank. I doubted that this weapon, which apparently originated from some mass-produced gardening tool, could do much damage, but I was not inclined to test it at that moment. So I stopped my slash at the forward position, turning it into a stab as I followed it up with a sideways step to the front-right, simultaneously blocking the descending machete with my slanted blade.

The brutal philosophy of historical martial arts made me to continue the attack with a quick stomp at the side of the enemy’s knee, breaking it with an audible crunch. The lack of screaming and another rush of incoming energy confirmed the elimination of the opponent. “Works well enough.” - I appreciated a good weapon design while the redcap dropped down.

Meanwhile, Bob had used his claws to slash open the faces and necks of two redcaps, but also suffered from a long cut across his thigh. He was grappling with the last redcap near him, his claws locked with the machete of his opponent. I was going to push off the ground with full strength again, but the soggy ground gave way, almost making me slip.

In the split second when I was catching my balance, the redcap kicked at the bag Bob held in his left hand. Bob shifted his stance, twisting to protect the bag and lost his balance. The next moment, sounded two soft, almost inaudible pats. Bob fell face down, his back pierced by the machete just below the ribs. Redcap stood still for a moment, before crumpling to the side as I withdrew my weapon which had changed into a long and thin needlelike spear and had pierced his temple from several meters away.