Drivva Karhg walked along the path heading toward the chow line, he’d spent the morning listening to his father drone on and on about some idiotic political manoeuvrings Folscach was having their Herdkeeper do. He could care less about the Chancellorship or the Primacy, he just wanted to fight and this afternoon he’d be drilling his levy. But for now he’d heard the caf had brisket with BBQ sauce for lunch and he was not missing that. He hurried his steps.

*******

Obbst dashed forward from the shadow he’d been lurking in and slammed into the Drivva walking along the path toward the Caf, one of the core tenets of Minotaur life was to be always aware of and ready for an attack. This one had failed.

The Minotaur from the Cameras Herd looked up at him with dazed eyes right before Obbst stomped the life from them.

One down and many more to go. He needed to hurry, the Chaos interlude which he still had trouble wrapping his head around had taken hours and it was now just before noon.

He knew most of his targets would be at the drill fields on the other side of town but three or four would be here including the Commander.

Standing in the lee of another building he studied the Cafeteria Building, really the Administration building but the Caf made up the lowest floor and there were a pair of beastmen guards outside. The Commander’s office was in there up on the fourth floor.

Muzzle wrinkling he said internally, “Can you put them down?”

Veldt’s chuckle met his question and she said, “Quick to compromise your principles aren’t we? I thought you were all about that Honour?”

“Just tell me if you can or not? I will worry about honour when mine has not been so badly ravaged by the actions of others.”

“Sure.”

He felt himself pushed aside… but less so? Whatever he was not in charge as two small intensely white and bright balls of fire sizzled across the distance between them and dropped them to the ground. A neat bloodless hole burned through their heads.

He felt the burning rush of corruption and grunted, saying, “Careful, I would not fall to corruption before we finish this task.”

“Cool your burn. I was casting before your entire race existed, I know the boundaries and will not cross them. I have little desire to be stuck in a badly corrupted insane corpse.”

Obbst ran over and through the doors before someone noticed the fallen guards, the hallway beyond was wide and led deeper into the building where the elevators and stairs to the upper levels lay, the Cafeteria door was on his left. He’d check in there for any of his targets after he’d dealt with the Commander.

He ran down the hallway.

At the end of the corridor he pushed through the door and started running up the stairs, there was no way he’d allow himself to be caught in an elevator.

He heard a door above open and voices echoing in the stairwell, two? Maybe three.

Rounding a corner on the stairwell he saw three beastmen on the third floor landing, chatting among themselves. Kill or just disable?

Kill. Because the alarm hadn’t been raised yet.

He slammed into them, grabbing one by her head and slamming it into the concrete wall leaving a red smear behind as she slid down the wall. The other two just gaped at him confusion and shock written across their faces, he was always surprised at how slow most people’s reactions were.

The left one’s skull popped as his elbow connected with his temple and blood spurted from the right one’s mouth as he collapsed between Obbst’s shoulder and the concrete wall.

Obbst kept running.

At the top of the stairs he burst into a hallway these upper hallways were much more luxurious than the lower levels, deep pile carpet, soft earth tones walls, indirect lighting, plants, and gently scented air.

Obbst hated it. It was one reason why he had carefully avoided the commissioned officers track, this luxury was anathema to the life a Minotaur should lead. A life of combat and blood.

Any Minotaur who spent their time in here was not worthy of the name.

There were two guards near the elevator bank, both Minotaurs and both reacting quickly to Obbst’s presence.

Finally! Maybe this would be a fight worth having, he wasn’t holding his breath though.

Both ignited in flames, one blue tipped, one green tipped. Water and Life, oh this would be fun because both could heal themselves.

His own golden tipped flames roared forth and he streaked forward, both now seeming to move much slower than himself.

Stepping forward the Life user’s skin became barklike and his fists swelled into grotesque parodies with polished wooden spikes along the swollen knuckles. Stepping back the other one grew long slim lances of ice along his arms and plates of the same all over his body.

A huge fist whiffed past his muzzle as he stopped and recoiled. Tehn with a deep bellowing grunt he threw himself at the off balance Minotaur with the barklike skin. Toppling them both to the ground.

Some instinct made him roll sideways and he felt the burning cold of the ice lances score lines across his side, if he hadn’t moved they would have gone through his chest.

Continuing the roll he slammed into the ice coated Minotaurs legs, he rebounded off them like he’d hit a solid wall. Rolling away he barely avoided a hoof which slammed down and left a patch of frosted carpet on the floor where he’d been moments before. Finishing his roll he bounced to his feet and grinned.

Stomping his own foot he saw the ice coated one flinch. Ok.

He hurled himself toward the Life user, the golden aura of one of his most devastating abilities covering him.

The huge spiked wooden fists swung at him and he let them hit.

They pummelled into his flesh, hitting chest and gut, breaking the skin and starting the blood flowing.

His golden aura flared and his attacker folded up, struck by his own blows.

Obbst recovered faster and growled, his knee crashing into the Life user’s face, barklike skin and the fibrous padding underneath provided almost no protection. His eyes rolled back in his head as he fell to the floor.

Spinning on one foot Obbst’s arm scythed out and knocked the lances aimed at his heart aside.

The ice covered Minotaur was panting in fear and exertion.

Obbst looked him directly in the eyes and sneered at him saying, “Run or die, I don’t care which.”

The ice fell off and turning the Minotaur tried to bolt away, Obbst blurred forward and a half dozen battering blows drove the fleeing Minotaur to the ground.

Once he was down he stomped on the back of his skull growling out, “Coward! You disgust me!”

A swift kick to the other one’s head and he would no longer be bothered by him.

Time to deal with the Commander.

He stalked up the hallway, a door opened but the beastman who peered out took one look at him, hugely swollen and with crackling golden tipped flames crawling over his body, and pulling his head back in slammed the door shut. Not a target.

Gathering speed his feet thumped and tore through the deep carpet as he started running down the hallway.

The Commander’s door was at the end.

By the time he reached it nothing short of solid wall of thick magically reinforced concrete would have stopped him.

The door was not a solid wall of thick magically reinforced concrete and it was smashed to the floor, tearing chunks still attached to the hinges out of the walls.

Commander Bregstrn looked up from the paperwork on his desk but didn’t have time for much else before Obbst hit him and the desk.

The grand and imposing desk, Obbst, and Commander Bregstrn hit the full length ceiling to floor window behind him, which didn’t hold.

Wood splinters flew everywhere as they landed.

Groaning, Obbst got to his feet slowly. As the ringing in his head cleared he heard, “Nrrka Driv Obbst, you have caused me quite the headache. You were supposed to stay in your cell until we needed you as a scapegoat, now you’ve destroyed my office and the desk my Herdkeeper gave me for gaining the position of Commander! I will kill you for that!”

The Commander was covered in golden tipped flames and blurred toward him almost faster than Obbst could follow… but only almost.

Obbst sidestepped the first glowing golden fist, ducked the followup, turned with the third robbing it of it’s power and slapped the fourth aside.

His hoof lashed out and cracked into the Commander’s knee and he almost toppled as his own knee popped and hyper-extended as well. Hit by his own blow.

Gorgorot’s hairy ballsack that hurt!

Limping he shuffled a few steps back while he recovered from the lingering effects of the landing and the kick to the knee. The Commander grinned and followed, his hands wreathed in roaring flames and a golden shield wrapped around his body less than a finger’s thickness from his skin.

Obbst swallowed and took a couple of deep breaths, backpedalling frantically and watching the Commander carefully.

The Commander stopped and said, “Well Nrkka Driv? Going to run or are you going to fight? I think you’ll run, your Herd was weak and so are you.”

The Commander dashed toward him, fists raised and hooves clattering across the stone paving.

Obbst drove the wool from his thoughts through sheer will and battle lust.

Roaring he matched the Commander blow for blow and step for step both moving so fast that to anyone watching they were just blurs of golden tipped flames dancing over the paving outside the CEF cafeteria.

It didn’t take long for Obbst to realise he was a much better fighter than the Commander, to his credit the Commander realised soon after and started looking for ways to finish this fast or for help.

They broke for a moment and Obbst said, “Well Commander. Going to run are you or are you going to fight! Because I will kill you for what was done to my Herd!”

He saw the words strike home and panic bloom on the Commanders face who became frantic as he looked for an escape. Obbst would not allow that.

Obbst roared in full throated challenge and he saw the Commander cringe away from him, he was already beaten and he knew it.

Before the echoes faded Obbst was charging after the Commander who’d broken and run, giving the fight up as lost and proving himself nothing more than a whimpering coward.

Gathering his legs under him he leapt into the air landing on the fleeing Commander hooves first and driving him to the ground. The golden shield over his body crackled and shattered as did the bones of his back and ribs, drawing his leg back Obbst drove his hoof down and shattered the Commander’s skull.

Throwing back his head he roared in triumph, the sound echoing around the barracks compound.

He felt something like a punch in his back then heard a double crack just after the shriek of a another bullet went past his head. Two more punches, one over his kidney and the other dead centre over his spine and another double crack.

Turning back to the Cafeteria he sprinted toward it, hopefully inside he’d be out of sight of the shooters.

A bullet plucked at his mane and a second peppered his leg with rock and lead fragments just before he made it through the doors.

Bah. Rifles, the dishonourable weapon of cowards.

He said, “We have more dishonourable vermin taking potshots, would you mind?”

“Yes actually I do. I’m not your spellcasting ability.”

“Oh sorry, that wasn’t my intent. I’d never take someone for granted like that, it wouldn’t be honourable.”

“Oh that's fine. I’m going to teach you the first steps of casting I think you’ll be fine.”

“What, now?”

“Why not?”

“Hrrm, because we are in the middle of a battle?”

“Whatever, best time to learn you have a reason to get it right as fast as possible.”

“You were not well liked as a teacher were you?”

He felt her smile as she said, “Nope, but I was very effective. Now you try to follow me when I form the spell.”

He was shunted aside and he felt his magic move.

Veldt said, “Now pay attention to the splitting of the magic and it’s braiding into usable threads. Once you have the threads you weave a simple fireballs like this.”

He followed along watching carefully, once the ball of fire was formed it flew down the hallway and exploded against the elevator bank setting off the sprinklers.

Shocked he said, “What? Why do that?”

“Does it matter?”

“Hrrmph, not really I suppose.”

Abruptly he was back in control of his own body and she said, “Your turn.”

“What? Already?”

“You were paying attention weren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Well in that case you can do it, I’m sure.”

Obbst grumbled and taking hold of his Fire Realm magic started braiding it into a thread, u unlike Veldt’s his braid was thick, lumpy, and longer on one side than the other.

But he did manage it.

The weave he made was more a loosely connected series of holes than the tight, intricately complex weave Veldt had managed but there was a ball of fire over his hand.

It was a wavering lopsided ball of varying flame colours that sputtered and hissed evilly but it was a fireball.

“Well done, I knew you had potential. Now to hurl that just give the weave a tweak… there.”

The ball of fire shot off down the corridor and when it exploded on the elevators small sparks drifted out of the air leaving small black chars on the carpet.

Veldt said, “Excellent, now go kill the ones who were shooting you.”