It was night time when Lucas and the young men returned, but there was something odd about them today. Looking at Robert gave me an ominous feeling that I recognized from Sixth Sense. I’d never before experienced such a feeling coming from him. I tugged on Jessica’s shirt and flicked my eyes towards Robert to give her a bit of an early warning.

Jessica played it off naturally, but she sat slightly behind me and her bow appeared in her hand. Her actions didn’t look like anything out of the ordinary, and no one paid her any mind.

I asked myself whether I should confront Robert, but that sense of danger was nagging at the back of my neck with such insistence that I knew it would be a mistake to ignore it.

One of my biggest concerns was that if something went wrong and I had to recall my squad of summoned undead, I wouldn’t have enough MP to recast Vast Shadows. Still, I had to find out what had changed and why it had changed in a way that spelled danger for me. “How did leveling go?” I asked, not looking at anyone in particular.

“It was good.” Lucas said. “We all hit level eleven and a few items dropped. We didn’t get our third Class Changing Stone yet though.”

“Did something unusual happen today Robert?” It was such an out of the blue question that it took him off guard. While he stared at me in surprise, I had an intuition about what the issue might be. “Did you gain anything special today?”

“Ah… not really, just leveled,” he replied curtly.

It was then that Lucas spoke up, “Oh right, Robert got an interesting drop. He found an item, but it was actually a gun, with bullets.”

“An item that was a gun? And it came with bullets?” I asked. Almost immediately after Lucas revealed that information the feeling of danger emanating from Robert pressed down on me even more powerfully.

“What kind of gun was it Robert?” I asked.

“A shotgun and it works with my sharpshooting, too.” The way he looked at me was odd, almost as if articulating a threat.

The reality was that I didn’t feel safe knowing he had a gun. The warning from Sixth Sense must mean his opinion about our relationship had changed for the worse. “I’ll be honest,” I said, “for now I don’t want anyone to have guns.”

His face tried to hide his annoyance, but I could tell that he wasn’t happy with my comment. “I know it’s your item, but I hope you’ll understand and hand it over to me for safekeeping for now,” I said.

The entire atmosphere in the room took an odd turn, almost an awkward one, there was a mix of surprise and embarrassment on people’s faces. But they couldn’t feel the presence of an intense threat. In trying to understand what that threat was, I decided it had to be this new weapon, and the fact that he was radiating such danger meant he was not afraid to use it.

To make matters worse, our conversation had woken the women next door, who now poked their heads out in curiosity. As soon as Robert saw not one, but four scantily dressed women his eyes widened with intense interest.

When he looked back at me, I could almost see the calculation running through his mind. What with the fact that my Minions weren’t currently spawned, it probably seemed to him this was his most opportune moment to make a move that might get him control of the group and these women. He took the shotgun out and held towards me, almost as if to give it to me. Instead of passing it to me though, he suddenly cocked it back and aimed the barrel directly at me.

Lucas immediately moved to my side in confusion, “What are you doing Robert?”

“What does it look like? I’m pointing a shotgun at Mike.”

I looked at both Alan and Thomas who seemed completely shocked and conflicted. From their uneasy expressions it was clear that this was not planned, and Robert was going rogue.

“What do you want?” I looked at him, “Do you just want to leave and bail on your promise to help? You can do that. No one is stopping you.”

It seemed that I’d challenged Robert before he’d thought this through, so it took him a few moments before he shook his head, “I want your magic items and your supplies.” Then his eyes shifted to the women who were looking on in pure horror. “And I want those women.”

Jessica had already stood up behind me; her bow perched just beside my shoulder fully drawn. It seemed this wasn’t going to end peacefully. With hand motions behind my back, I cast Bone Armor and I didn’t think Robert had noticed. He was staring at me with the shotgun aimed at my face.

“Put the bow down Jessica,” he said. I glanced at his companions: up until now, Thomas and Alan hadn’t made a single move.

“Don’t put your bow down. Kill him if he fires,” I said over my shoulder, “probably, his shot won’t kill me, but for certain he’ll definitely die.”

Robert’s face soured when he heard the defiance in my voice, and maybe a seed of doubt had been planted in his mind. I honestly didn’t know how much good it would do; but he also didn’t know the extent of my abilities.

“I assume you two aren’t in on it?” I looked at Thomas and Alan.

The impression I got from their reaction made me think their desire to survive this apocalypse by working with us was now conflicting heavily with their loyalty to Robert. Neither of them spoke, to either confirm that they had been making plans with Robert or to deny it.

Robert was angry. “Look at the women we can have you idiots. We don’t need Mike anymore. Has he supplied us with a single Class Changing Stone yet? Or any more food than what he gave us originally? We’re level eleven now. We can go it alone.”

“You two can still make it out of this room alive,” I said, “Robert is already a dead man though. If you side with him you’ll lose and even if you escape, Jessica can track you as far as you can run, and she will kill you. If you stand aside, staying out of this, then that’s fine,” I said to them, “we won’t have a problem afterwards.”

The two young men didn’t make the slightest movement, and it seemed like this meant they were leaning towards my side. And the truth was that if Jessica was hunting them down, they wouldn’t get a moment’s rest.

It was impossible for them to move through the city as fast as Jessica and I. They wouldn’t have a single peaceful night.

“There’s no way out for you anymore,” I said to Robert and could see from the deepening frown lines of his forehead that it was dawning on him that his hand was played out.

After he got the shotgun, Robert must have cooked up the idea of taking me out. Probably, it would have happened when I was alone and off guard, but my questioning had forced his hand. With Jessica already having her weapon drawn and arrow nocked, he was as good as dead regardless of his actions.

“Can I leave?” he asked. “I’ll leave and not show myself again.” He slowly started to lower the shotgun, “You can even have the gun.” I almost believed him for a moment, and then he raised the gun rapidly and shot directly at my head.

My hands were already outstretched in an attempt to grab the shotgun, and I managed to cross them slightly over my face. The Bone Armor covering my body instantly disappeared as a burning sensation covered the back of my arms and hands.

There was also a burning sensation on one side of my cheek as well, but I had survived. I wasn’t dead even though he had shot me at pointblank range.

Jessica didn’t lower her guard for even a moment, and the instant Robert fired she let her bow string loose. The arrow ripped right through his neck and completely destroyed one side of it. There wasn’t the slightest chance he could survive the injury without magical help.

Robert’s legs gave out beneath him and he dropped like a sack of sand. Blood was pouring from the gaping hole in his neck as his eyes grew wide as saucers. One hand reached out for his cousin Thomas, whose face showed absolute horror.

Jessica was already in front of me with a bandage pulled ready to patch my wounds. It seemed Thomas had made his choice as Healing Touch was cast on me despite Robert grasping for aid from the floor below him. I was on 275 out of 750 HP. Robert, however, dropped his hand and stopped moving, blood spreading out in a pool around him. He was dead.

The shot had actually done a considerable amount of damage. Without Bone Armor, the blast would have come close to killing me, and maybe would have killed me regardless if my hands hadn’t blocked the blazing pellets from mutilating my face.

The Healing Touch from Thomas soothed a good portion of my pain while Jessica pulled back my sleeves, revealing my bloodied hands and forearms. There were obvious chunks of flesh missing, but somehow I was coping okay.

It seemed a mix of shock and pain resistance did wonders. It still hurt like shit, but it was manageable to a level where I wouldn’t pass out. I felt the bandages cross my arms and then the bleeding wounds slowly closed.

The scars, however, would probably always remain. The restored flesh in those areas was white and uneven. It was obvious from looking that I had suffered serious damage to them. Luckily, there was no nerve damage or mobility issue.

“I swear we didn’t know!” Alan said from the side. Oddly enough, I believed him. The feelings they gave me hadn’t changed even though a long-time friend and relative died right in front of them. It seemed Alan was afraid he and Thomas would be killed next.

“You two are free to leave if you wish.” I said, “I won’t make you stay after this. Give me the gun.” I looked at Lucas, who picked it up immediately and passed it into my hands. I stored it away and knew that I wouldn’t be giving it to anyone that I couldn’t absolutely trust. Getting shot by something so powerful from close range was not a fun experience.

Still, I had learned something valuable from this. Even a shotgun—an item even, that was probably more powerful than an actual shotgun—couldn’t kill me in one hit despite the close range. A rare sense of triumph surged up inside me.

“If you’re staying,” I said. “These ladies are from our future home. I’m really tired, so Jessica can fill you in.” With that I went to one the spare bedroom and lay down on the bed. I felt incredibly tired, but before sleeping noticed a new Passive that showed in my skill list.

Inner Calm: You are able to think rationally and calmly in dangerous situations.