Eli: Goblins?

Amy: Look outside, they are already in the building! How did they get here so fast, without anyone noticing?

Eli got up, looked outside into the darkness, and groaned. The night was filled with torches. They were heading straight for the building, with many already milling right outside at the entrance.

Eli: Did we have scouts out?

Amy: How should I know?

Eli: Where are you?

Amy: Down on 12th. There are sounds of fighting in the stairwell!

Eli got up and ran to Mr. Thomas's door, but found his office empty. Cursing, he ran to the stairwell and heard what Amy had been describing.

Zach: What do we do? I'm on the 5th floor, but they aren't up here yet.

Eli: I'm heading up to 14th to see if I can find HR. Linda was level 5 yesterday. We'll need them.

Eli: Zack, do you have people fighting below you?

Zach: Uh-huh.

Eli: Don't throw potions down then. Can you toss them out the window? There must be hundreds of goblins down there.

Zach: Way ahead of you!

Amy: I think Princess will be needed on the stairs. Most people are way too low level to handle anything like this.

Eli: If they're the same level as Solomon, we might be screwed either way.

Eli was already up on 14th and threw his shoulder against the door. It flew open. He was met by a strange sight. Someone had moved the desks and chairs around, creating a sort of barrier blocking half the floor off, with only a small entrance to go through. A Fighter Eli didn’t recognize was positioned by the entrance and held out his hand when Eli approached.

“No one may enter.”

“Seriously?” Eli asked. “We're under attack and need to speak with management. Now.”

The Fighter nervously moved his grip on the spear he was holding and threw a glance over his shoulder. He shook his head. “I'm sorry. I have my orders.”

“Your orders are stupid."

A loud yelp of pain sounded from somewhere deeper into the office. Eli got up on his toes, trying to peer over the barricade, which made the Fighter point his spear in Eli's direction.

Eli eyed the tip of the spear trembling in front of his face. “Really?”

The Fighter shrugged. Eli stepped back and cast Light in The Dark. His orb of light appeared out of thin air. The Fighter held up a hand to shield his eyes, and Eli used that as an opportunity to ram the orb straight into the Fighter's head. A stomach-churning thud sounded when the orb collided with his skull, and then a muted crunch when he hit the floor.

Eli got down on his knees. “Damn, I didn’t think it would do that much damage.”

He healed the Fighter and made sure he was breathing properly. The man looked fine as far as Eli could tell, so he left him there on the floor, hurrying past the barricade.

What he saw next through the windows of the conference room, he could barely comprehend. HR and management were lined up, spamming skills. What the Commanders were doing, he didn’t have a clue, but HR was another matter altogether. The mages, 12 of them in total, were casting spells, using people as targets.

He scanned the room frantically for Mr. Thomas, but didn’t find him. Not sure if that was a good thing or not, he threw the door to the conference room wide open.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

Ten or so employees were standing facing away from the mages. Small bolts of fire, lightning, cold, and what looked like mud were cast upon their backs over and over again. The only other healer in the building, Samantha, was taped to a chair, with even her mouth covered. She was being forced to heal the victims.

Most of everyone in the room was watching him wide-eyed, like they'd just been caught doing something horrific, which was exactly what'd just happened.

Barbara, the cold bitch, turned and raised an eyebrow.

“You, Mr. Davis, who’ve been so outspoken about our need to level up, should have no complaints. The employees,” she gestured toward them, “are all willing and even offered without prodding.”

Eli turned to the others. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” one of the men up front said, his back covered in welts and bruises.

“It’s true,” an Archer named Lana, said, her voice small and pained. “They said we’d get promoted when we’re back home.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Rage filled Eli's chest, and he pointed to the Healer. “What about her?”

“Well, she was being uncooperative, so we’re borrowing her services for the moment. We’re not forcing her to cast anything. Mr. Lee here is borrowing her skills. It’s one of the perks of being a Commander.”

“So you kidnapped her.” Eli gritted his teeth. “Let her go right now. We are under attack from goblins. This fucked-up situation you have going here is something we will have to deal with later, because if we don’t work together right now, we are all going to die.”

The managers and a few of the HR ladies hurried over to the windows. Fire spewed from above, streaking down into the small army of goblins. Was Mr. Thomas up on the roof?

The little green bastards must've returned fire, because the building shook with an explosion. Eli elbowed his way to the window and looked down. It was impossible to tell how high up the explosion went off or how much damage it did.

“This is not good. Not good at all.”

“This time, I’m forced to agree with Mr. Davis,” Barbara said. “Ladies, if you would be so kind as to direct your spells outward.”

“You, Eli, will stay with us and make sure management is safe,” she ordered.

“I absolutely will not.”

Eli walked over to the chair to free the Samantha. She was level 5 already. How long had they kept her like this? He nodded to the victims. “Most of you are level 3 or 4. You need to head down the stairs and help. I'll be right behind you. We'll keep you safe. Archer, maybe you can find a different window to shoot out of. You need to thin the herd of bastards down there.” He looked to Barbara. “Can you do that much?”

“Don’t underestimate us, Mr. Davis,” Barbara replied.

Elements rained down on the heads of those attacking Infinite Innovation Solutions, but that was not all. Huge blocks of rock, metal, and wood materialized out of nowhere, slamming down and crushing those far down below them.

"Thank you," Samantha murmured, following right behind him as he hurried out of the conference room. This sick and twisted little leveling scheme they'd set up would need to be addressed later. For now, he needed to get down and help.

"No worries. Can you follow down and help heal?"

Samantha nodded, her eyes wide with fright.

Eli: Amy, are you down there yet?

Amy: Not yet. There are a lot of people running the other way, climbing the stairs.

Eli: Zack?

Zack: My potions aren't doing much to thin the ranks down there, but I think a bunch of mages are helping from somewhere up town. I'm going to start handing out health potions instead and save my supply of explosion potions for later.

Eli: Good idea. I’m coming down. Remind me later that we have to kick HR’s ass.

Amy: Totally up for that.

He invited Samantha to the party.

Eli: Samantha will help out with healing.

Amy: Hi Sam.

Zack: Samantha.

Samantha: Uh. Hello.

They flew down the stairs for a few floors until he hit the current of terrified people going the other way. Eli tried to get them to turn around and go back down with him, but they barely heard him over the din of terrified shouts and the clang of weapons from further on down below. They were in no state to help anyway, most of them were still level one.

On the fourth floor. He and Samantha caught up to Amy, who was holding on to the railing for dear life, slowly making her way down with Rufus barking at people to keep them away from her.

"Amy!" he shouted.

"Eli, I'm here!" she said. "Thank God. Do we know what floor we're on?"

"The goblins are right below us."

Samantha was healing the fleeing former office workers, using up most of her mana.

"Save some mana for the ones fighting!"

They descended and found a clump of humans taking a stand. They were around 10 people with James up front with Daniel and Marsch. Dana stood a few steps above them, playing her instrument in a frenzy. He read the buff from the song as it was applied to him.

Bulwark. 24% Added defense.

Eli inspected a goblin at random in the sea of green little creatures, a wicked little thing with a scar across its face. Rather than being completely overrun, James and the others were holding their own, striking out and killing goblins with far more ease than Eli would've expected.

"Level six," Eli muttered.

"What's that?" Amy asked.

He inspected a few more. "These all range from level three to level seven. Why are they so low level?"

"Let's all just be happy they aren't all like Solomon," Amy shouted back, shying away from the sound of fighting.

A blue shimmer spread across James' shield and beyond its metal borders, widening the area of protection around the Warden. He was effectively blocking off most of the stairs himself, but he wasn’t entirely unharmed. Arrows from goblins in the back struck his shield again and again and sometimes hit other parts of his rather lackluster armor. James’ health was down to a third. Eli immediately healed him, then Daniel and Marsh. Human archers were a few steps up from Dana, firing into the crowding goblins.

Rather than shouting over the cacophony of sound, Eli sent a message.

Eli: Amy, do you have Princess ready?

Amy: Sure do.

Samantha: Princess?

Eli: I think it's time to release her.

The bear thudded to the floor, right in the middle of the crowd of goblins, crushing several of them. Princess roared and swiped back and forth with abandon, killing with each attack. The goblins shattered and shouted, crying out in pain before falling down, dead or dying. They were thrown down the stairs a few steps at a time but did not break and flee like Eli had hoped.

James and the others guarding the stairs stepped up and back, nervously looking at the bear. One of the archers on the stairs fired an arrow into Princess's side.

"The bear is with us!" Eli shouted.

Going down past a landing on the stairs, the goblins formed a wall of spears and kept prodding, poking, thrusting toward Princess, who bellowed in pain.

Samantha healed the bear, along with Eli, but it didn't help much. Princess's health was just draining too fast.

Eli: There are too many goblins. Princess is hurting too much.

Amy: Why aren't you healing her?

Eli: We are! I'm going to try something.

He hurriedly opened his menu, then hopped into the Talents tab, and scrolled down until he found what he was looking for.

Harming Healer: Toggleable talent. When active, healing spells deal damage rather than restore HP.

Eli selected Harming Healer and confirmed, then threw down a Sigil of Light. Changing the effect to do damage, rather than restore health.

Eli: Pull Princess back!

Goblins rushed in again to fill the void left by the bear and found themselves standing on the Sigil of Light. James curiously reached out to the white glow, but pulled back his hand when Eli shouted, "Don’t touch it!"

The goblins who entered the area of effect screamed and died. Unfortunately, they didn’t all rush in and keel over. Instead, they brought out bows and took aim. Eli moved the Sigil down the stairs to where they were all standing, killing several before they had a chance to withdraw. He cast another one even further down, pushing the goblins back little by little.

"We should follow," Eli said. "Get them out of the building."