Damn, that was close, El thought to himself while he looked at the small crater.

A little too long, because the air around him already seems to be positively charged again,

with a jerk he jumps to his feet.

In front of the blasted hole stands a small creature, that is just barely bigger than his hip. Its small body is covered with an armor of white bleached bones between which you can see crumpled brown leather, on it's bean shaped head towers a majestic deer skull.

The brown antlers reach like little white fingers towards the almost now completely dark sky,

in it's hands the ugly beast holds a gnarled old staff much larger than it's body,

the tip is adorned with a handful of small black feathers hanging from tied strings, that look together like a dream catcher.

With a satisfied grin its yellow teeth peek out from beneath it's mask.

Satisfied to have finally found its prey,

the greenskin points his staff in El's direction. At first a small blue dot appears not much larger than a rice corn,

but within moments, fibers of turquoise energy seem to move towards the now accelerating sphere.

El meanwhile however hoists his heavy rifle onto his shoulders his sight aimed at the head of the grinning monster, El's index finger rests against the spring of the cold trigger

"Click...."

With a panicked face, Elm looks at the gun. he forgot to load.

The goblin's grin now tears up to his round yellow eyes,

the spell on his wooden staff looks like it's almost done,

if it weren't for a sudden jolt in the vicinity of the deep blue ball.

The fibers of pure mana now seem to be ripped away from the sphere instead of floating towards it.

Suprised the monster looks at its staff,

this doesn't last long.

When it gets rid of its momentarily suprise of his spell not working correctly,

It trys to focus more on its spell again.

The cause of it is Melv El's grandpa, who is leaning against the wooden back of the couch with his eyes closed,

sweat glistens on his wrinkled forhead.

The goblin mage now irritated,

tries to push the fibers back into the ball of light, with full force.

El who took full advantage of this short moment ran behind the nearest cover,

With panick he searches his through his still in blood soaked pants,

for ammunition.

There it is, he feels the cold bronze of the bullets in his disgustingly wet pocket.

With two fingers he pulls out the cold bronze of the case,

and in one fluid motion he pushes the bullets into the built-in magazine.

With a metallic click, the closing mechanism flies shut,

the deadly projectiles now rest in the solid steel barrel.

With a side step, El slides out of cover, planning to finish what he was couldnt do earlier.

The moment the sight points at the distracted creature, he tightens his finger around the trigger,

the satisfying pop of the gun reassures him that the bullets of lead whir through the air,

but before they can take the little wizard's life, the projectiles bounce off a blue barrier.

Where the projectiles hit the blue wall hundreds of small cracks form throughout the shimmering barrier like a spiderweb the tears spred from the point of impact and orange sparks briefly illuminate the cold night like fireflies.

Despite the five bullets that hit the barrier, the protective cloak still stands in front of the mage, but now because of the hundreds of small cracks the previosly transparent wall isnt as see through as before.

Surprised by the sudden boom of the weapon,

the goblin loses his concentration and Melv wins the duel for the mana fibers.

With a whistling sound, the spell collapses, the monster's yellow eyes tear open in panic, frantically the greenskin trys to get away from its staff,

step by step it retreats further back,

but what saved it previously now becomes its doom, its small back crashes against his own barrier.

Protectively it pulls its green hands in front of its face.

With a ziping sound, the previously small, inconspicuous sphere grows larger and larger.

After a while it resembles a small sun more closly rather than a golf ball sized spell.

With a whistle, the membrane that held the blue energy together tears,

and with a dazzling light show it explodes.

El lifts his own arm above his eyes trying to avoid going blind from the sight.

And when he opens his eyes again the small creature lies almost motionless on the muddy earth.

Slowly, it tries to crawl to the edge of the forest, trying to safe itself ,

pained sounds escape from its small throat.

Hastily, Elm pushes himself through the hole that was blasted open by the goblin mage, trying not to get injured on one of the splinters that still stick out.

careful not to be suddenly attacked by the wounded monster he closes in.

The moment he towers over the goblin, El tightens his grip on the neck of his carbine.

Slowly he raises the weapon above his head,

planning to bring the stock of his weapon down on the unprotected head of his now barely breathing opponent,

but he hesitates.

The improvised club above his own head.

Its something else to kill something during the fighting frenzy or to crush its skull coldly while it is lying half dead on the floor.

"You're not doing him any favors by hesitating now."

Comments his grandpa from behind him

"It's already half dead anyway, don't let it suffer. never do that, even to your biggest enemys"

He adds after a short pause.

Now determined, El pulls the weapon a little further behind his head,

And with a swing, the wood hits the green skull.

When he pulls the weapon out again, the green feet of the corpse twitch slightly in the air.