Without the dwarven shrieks of pain, the banging on the cellar door intensified. Shouts of battle from outside began to trickle in through the open windows. That's when the lights turned back on and illuminated the massacre that had just taken place.

"Say. That one's only unconscious. This is the perfect time for the carrot."

Mei was prodding at the shank in her shoulder to determine if it struck anything important.

"Enough about the carrot."

"Better this guy. He won't feel nothin'."

"Please... please, be silent."

Shrugging my shoulders, I reinforced the cellar doors. As far as I knew, there was no other way out, and there was a flock of dwarven pinatas down there, ripe with points. Was it my birthday?

Aaron and Mei tended their wounds, oblivious to the pitched battle in the courtyard. I moseyed around, looting a few shanks and generally wiping off as much filth as I could.

My poor sense of smell went out for some milk, and it doesn't seem like the fellow is coming back.

There was a surprising amount of food and drink in here. The dwarves had set the stove for supper, but I was hesitant to touch anything until I had a cold shower. Instead, I settled for watching the battle ongoing outside.

"Aah!"

"It's out. It's out. Thank God."

"Why are you just standing there?"

I gazed through the window like it was playing my favorite soap opera.

"It's a good view?"

Aaron was nearly out the door by the time I finished.

"Use the carrot, Mei."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Stop acting stupid."

"Become one with-" *thunk*

An unpeeled, orange, phallic shaft bonked my forehead. It bounced off my goo and ricocheted into a bubbling pot.

Turning in slow-motion like I was casted for a Korean drama, I witnessed the magnificent moment when the stew tipped over the electric stove top. I could hear the buzz of electricity as the splashing stew soaked a nearby outlet. A single spark enveloped the outlet, jumping to a shattered table leg and catching fire.

"What rube-Goldberg shit is this?"

As if mocking me, the carrot rolled out of the pot and inexplicably snapped in half while cooking oil fostered the rogue flame. The roar of the fire was enough to push me out of the doorway.

Backing away, my brows furrowed. I ignored the filth dripping past my vision and looked between the growing fire and the retreating Mei.

"Is she luck incarnate, or is something else afoot?"

Shaking my head, I strolled across no-mans land, concluding my assumption that only a skeleton crew remained was a gross error.

Lucas fended off eight combatants while protecting the prisoners from getting caught in the crossfire. In a near but separate battle, Alice fought three of her own.

In an instant, if you had to make a split-second decision, between a brute holding his own against a mob and a defenseless blond girl fending off three bearded men... who would you choose to assist?

Aaron and Mei's decision to help Alice first couldn't be faulted. Maybe it is our parental instincts, but something about Alice's demure appearance spurred others to protect her, rightly or not. Just as it allowed observers to disregard the fact she had downed three dwarves while Lucas had yet to kill a single one.

The body-building lumberjack probably could have killed more than half by now, but he was trying to subdue them rather than kill. And he insisted on protecting the strangers in the cages. He'd yet to devolve into an animal, and it was slowly killing him one wound at a time.

"Kill him already! Oh. Walora! What's that foul stench?"

The decorated dwarf running out of the HQ cursed in horror. He seemed confused at seeing me calmly traversing the area like a tourist. I thought the three bodies on the ground with bolts sticking out of them would be a danger indicator, but apparently, I served as both lure and repellent.

I threw a shank in his direction. It sank deep into his clean clothes, but I didn't get the kill. Specs downed him expertly. I knew his hands must be hurting from pulling back that string in quick succession. Better to go about my business quickly.

"Zoey!"

I saw a familiar brown peek around the generator. Zoey grinned wide when she saw me, but her smugness quickly vanished as I approached with my arms outstretched for a bear hug.

"Back off. Don't you dare."

"Aww. Don't be that way."

"I'm warning you!"

"Be a dear and shut off this fence?"

The switch flipped, and the electric hum vanished once more. I would've thanked Zoey, but she retreated like a kid up the basement stairs after shutting off the lights.

I snickered.