When you have power, others believe themselves entitled to your aid. You are not required to give aid to any save your friends and family. If you have something others will claim you do not deserve it, but that they should have it. – Antonio Ravnos

Adrian

I put one of the pistols in my belt as they don’t really work well dual wielding. Readied, I kick the door so that it’ll open a little. That should let them figure out how it opens and rush back to give myself some space to fight in. Sure, enough they open it, exposing the opener to a pot shot in the head. Who is then pushed forwards by the midgets behind him.

One of the three who rush into the room a moment after drops to the ground his waist destroyed. The remaining two charge at me as four more rush in and get jammed in the narrow doorway. Stupid creatures, maybe they realy are goblins? I shoot at the one to my left and kick a desk at the one on the right. I cringe at the sound of the gunfire echoing though the room and thus repeatedly though my head.

The desk manages to cause the one remaining to stumble gaining me time to shoot him. The four after the death of the first three have managed to force their way into the room. Seven rush into the room, so they had help entering from behind them. I fire at the closest one, a miss.

My second shot against it blows a hole in its head, some splatter coats the midget behind it. As he falls the six-remaining fan out and begin to surround me. Stupid, weak, cowardly but surprising cunning tactics, they are goblinoids. I shoot the goblin in front of me, the others have now spread to both sides of me. I can’t shoot one side without losing sight of the others.

Shit, I turn towards the side with more of these monsters and quickly dump the remaining nine shots at them. The gun is now empty but now there are only two to deal with. Pain erupts from my left thigh, pivoting as I release a cry of pain I see one of the midgets got me with a spear. The other is running back to the door, shouting in its tongue.

I drop the empty pistol and pull out the other. The goblin pulls his spear out, since I’m not a blood fountain he didn’t get the artery. As I take aim he lunges at me but I shift to the side. I fall on the floor as my left leg gives out. The goblin grins, thinking he won, I shoot him in his gut, so he collapses and dies in pain.

I grab his spear with my left hand and reload the emptied pistol with the last magazine I can pull through Translocation Grasp. Armed and using the spear as support I hobble towards the door. Through its window, I can see four archers, and the clothed goblin looking at the midget that fled this room. Must be asking for reinforcements.

The six begin to walk towards this door, I grin, the window shouldn’t be bullet proof but I don't have a clear view of all the midgets. I don't have a shot at the clothed one. So, I shoot one of the archers through the window. Another gut shot, it should be out of this fight. I fire again hitting another archer, this time in its head, before backing relatively swiftly away from the door. I hear something with a cadence to it as I wait for another pot shot at whoever opens the door.

My wait is rewarded as the goblin who fled opened the door, and lost a chunk from its skull. The two archers rush in no longer holding their bows but hold instead daggers that are in decent condition. The clothed goblin walks in, golden lights floating around him. That’s not normal, how is it he does not suffer the same problems I do?

I shoot one of the archers as they both rush me. It falls but the other gets close enough to stab at me with its knife, He went for the gut but I block it with my left forearm. As the goblin pulls his blade back from my arm I level the pistol to his head.

I fire, and the goblin joins its kin. I feel a rush of heat from the clothed midget, the room also gets brighter. I drop to the ground and take cover behind an overturned desk. I don’t get their fast enough and the polyester in the fabric of my shirt melts. Pain sears across my right side, I do however manage to get behind the desk before I catch fire.

A cruel laugh comes from the direction of the clothes midget, and the torrent of fire abates. I raise the pistol over the small bit of cover the desk gives and fire twice at the creature. As the bullets get close to the creature the floating golden lights around it gather in the path of the projectiles. The rounds strike clusters of these lights, and are stopped. The clothed midget begins to laugh louder, as a flame erupts from its walking stick.

I crouch down behind the desk as fire swarms around me, I can feel my skin cooking. The pistol won’t work, whatever those golden lights are they act as a shield of some sort. Ranged combat isn’t going to work, what can I do?

As I am thinking smoke start coming off the desk I am behind. Shit, I kick the desk towards the midget, maybe it will startle it. My hopes do not pay off, though I do manage to roll to another desk that hasn’t caught fire yet. Why haven’t the smoke detectors gone off? I need the room flooded with water, I can’t do that. Fire . . .

The goblin must have seen be change locations as he begins to move to get a better angle. Wait fire, ammunition will explode in fire. I pull out a half full box of bullets from my bookbag, and toss them through the stream of fire. I hear them land, and the stream of fire moves to them. Well, that is the worst decision he could have made.

Several explosions quickly follow, the ammunition has gone off. I hear a scream from the midget and its stream of fire ceases. The bubble of golden lights around the thing is still up, but I can see scorch marks over its body. The lights only stop projectiles? Explosions work, wait golden globe of lights that blocks projectiles and only projectiles. That sounds like Protection from Missiles. I’ll have to risk it.

I grab a now smoldering spear off the ground and stumble as fast as I can at the goblin. It is still trying to put out embers that are caught on its clothes. My spearmanship while clumsy with my limp and injured arm does pass through the golden lights unhindered. The spearhead enters the torso, and I twist it and push it further in. The goblin starts to cough up blood, and I move forward to grab its walking stick. My gamble paid off, that was Protection from Missiles.

I need to stop the bleeding on my arm, so I press the wound to the metal legs of a desk that was otherwise reduced to ash. The injury cauterizes quickly and I check my left leg’s injury. It can’t be too bad since I fought for a while on it. I should have screamed in pain, I am in shock then?

I find my phone broken and wince at a nasty bruise that had formed. Great, so that is why it wasn’t buzzing from constant panicked calls from mom. No lethal injuries, but I’ll be sore for a while. I grab a few objects from the clothed midget; a book, its walking stick, and a few bits of metal. I place them in my bookbag, the walking stick and the two daggers I place in my belt.

I limp out of the room, to see a few goblins retreating, they must have noticed the death of the clothed midget, sorcerer? Either way they are retreating, it looks like Mrs. Counselor survived somehow and about half of the students that were here. Jason, Bryan, Tomas, and a very short blonde girl, Abagail, are treating each other’s wounds. Some of the students are pulling corpses out of one of the rooms, must have been Bryan’s idea. I ‘walk’ towards them.

“You look like you got caught in a fireball, that clothed midget was a mage, right?”

“Dunno, I don’t speak goblin” I reply to Tomas’s poor remark on my state of health. “Anyone have a working cell?”

A few students shake their heads, but Abagail passes me hers. It seems to still be working, but after dialing a number I just get a busy signal. I send a text to my mom, stating that I’m alive but the phone is broken. The phone receives a ‘not sufficient signal to send. Your message will be sent once you do have a signal’ response.

I pass the phone back to Abagail. “Thanks.” It’s almost 6:00 pm, not too late to get to a better position before nightfall. I look around, two groups of jocks and the ‘popular’ girls seems to have formed. I am guessing this as they are talking with each other in their respective groups. Jason, passes me one of the bottles of water he scavenged earlier as I sit down leaning up against a locker.

I start pulling off the bits of polyester so that they aren’t attached to my skin. The pain is less than when they originally melted. One of the girls walks over and starts to shout at me. I don’t fully pay attention but it’s something about a Sarah dying because I didn’t give her my gun. I should probably respond.

“So, I’m a murderer because I didn’t give away my weapon?”

“YES! If Sarah had the gun, she could have been here! Instead she and others died while you sat around in a different room!”

“A room where I killed a dozen of the things. How many did you fight?”

“That not important! You need to give us that gun!”

“Why, because that would be more convenient for you? Because I’m not part of your group? Should I have just let others kill me?”

“Yes!”

“Idiot, who then would have killed their leader then? You who hid in a corner while others died?”

“That has nothing to do with it!”

“Doesn’t it? You don’t have any bloodstains on your cloths. You didn’t fight, I did. You’re more at fault than me.”

She shuts up at this point and runs back to her friends. They start consoling her, while giving me nasty looks. Abagail tells me that I did not need to be so mean. I shrug in response, and Bryan speaks up.

“Should we stay here or find someplace better?”

“Shouldn’t we stay and wait for help?” asks Abagail.

“No help came in the past few hours, not even notice of future help. We should go, this probably isn’t the only thing going on” replies Tomas.

“The others here don’t exactly like me, so I’ll be leaving” I add to the conversation.

“True, besides I sure there are better places. Or at least places without others, they’ll try to take you gun if not something more stupid if you stay here” adds Bryan while pointing towards the other groups.