James looked up at him over his shoulder, nodded, and then carefully stepped forward, gingerly moving around the dead goblins. Eli and Amy followed, along with the archers, Zack, and a few others who had been courageous enough to not just flee in the face of danger.

Multiple Sigils of Light forced the goblins back, but by the time they made it down to the ground floor, Eli was almost entirely out of mana.

Someone patted his shoulder, and when he began to turn, a huge mana potion was held out to him.

"Take this," Zack said.

Eli downed its contents and was happy to see his mana jump back up to the halfway point. The goblins still hadn’t broken, and they milled about on the ground floor, touching the Sigil of Light, pulling back with what sounded like deranged curses. The light made their eyes gleam despite it all. Their lips were pulled back into evil looking grins, revealing little teeth. The Sigils wouldn’t last much longer.

"Any ideas on how to push them back more?" Eli asked, but he was only met with silence and panting, along with Dana's melody.

The door to the first floor was thrown open, and a Tinker ran out screaming, "They're climbing!"

Eli groaned, looking at the wall. He threw down another Sigil of Light to keep the goblins back. "Zack. Are your explosion potions strong enough to collapse the wall around this door?"

Zack shook his head. "Not with just one of them, but with a bunch, maybe."

"What do we do?" Dana asked through gritted teeth, her fingers bleeding.

Eli looked around, trying to think of something. "I don’t know."

"We have to collapse the entire stairwell," Zack said.

Everyone turned to him. "What?"

"The stairwell. If we can’t hold them back, then we can at least keep them from going up to us, right?"

"Then what? We’d be trapped," Amy said.

"I don’t see any other way, do you?" Zack asked.

"Do it," Eli said. "Blow it up."

A clear voice rang from above. "You will do no such thing, Mr. Davis!"

Barbara strode down with her retinue of Mages in tow. A bunch of people, perhaps fifteen in all, followed right behind HR. It was the targets from the conference room, along with a few Commanders. Mr. Miller from management shouted, shouted, "Keep it up, troops!"

A new buff appeared, increasing both HP and mana regeneration: Rallied.

"We dealt with many of the miscreants outside. Too bad you could not be trusted with this small part of our defense, Mr. Davis!" Barbara said, her voice echoing through the stairwell. "Remove that spell from the floor."

"I don’t think I can," Eli said, gritting his teeth. "The Sigil of Light will be gone in a few seconds."

Amy turned to the new arrivals. "They’re on the second floor as well. They’re scaling the building."

Linda, the lightning Mage, and one more HR-lady entered the first floor along with several people from their entourage.

The Sigil of Light faded out of existence, and goblins rushed in. Barbara held out her hand, and something akin to snow materialized out of nowhere, throwing itself at the goblins in a chilly gale. Each goblin touched by the spell turned to ice and broke apart, limbs and heads dropping to the floor and crashing into a thousand pieces. The goblins screamed in fear and ran.

Eli couldn’t help but notice Barbara’s self-satisfied grin, and when she caught him looking, she raised an eyebrow.

Ding! You have reached level 15.

"That wasn’t so hard now, was it?"

Barbara, flanked by her HR cronies, glided past Eli and the others, heading down the stairs.

Eli cast Light in The Dark, providing light now that the goblins' torches and lanterns were all frozen and destroyed.

James threw Eli a look. "I guess we better follow."

Just as they entered the foyer, they saw the Mages of HR tearing through clumps of goblins who were all pushing outward to flee the onslaught. Fear was evident in their little faces. Goblins did not like Mages, it turned out.

"Barbara, wait!" Eli shouted. "Maybe you shouldn't follow outside."

Barbara sniffed and cast another spell surrounding herself, and the other women of HR, with a thin sheet of translucent ice. Some sort of shield?

"What's happening?" Amy asked.

"HR is chasing the goblins away," Zack said.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"But they're not being very careful about it," Eli added.

Several people went around the HR ladies, charging up in front to exit the building. Just as they left, something exploded right outside the doors with enough force to shatter Barbara's shields. The women were thrown backwards and the smell of burnt hair reaching Eli's nose, but they looked mostly fine after he'd healed the few who'd sustained damage. The ones already outside the doors weren't so lucky. Blackened and broken bodies covered the floor all around the doors.

Only one of those who'd exited through the doors was still alive. Eli healed him again and again as he crawled back inside, arrows puncturing his back and legs. Once the man, a level two rogue, was safely inside Samantha took over healing him, and Eli threw down a Sigil of Light by the doors, covering the entrance completely. It would not do much to stop any more explosives from coming inside, but it should discourage any goblins from entering.

"James. How strong is that shield of yours?"

James's wide eyes turned from the open doors to Eli. "I don't know. I don't think it will withstand an explosion like that."

"Then we better fall back to the stairs."

Barbara didn't listen. Instead, she summoned a wall of ice out of thin air, covering the entire exit, shutting the goblins out more effectively than his own Sigil of Light ever could.

"What if there's someone out there still?" Eli asked.

Barbara rushed past him without answering, not even giving him as much as a glance. Her face was red and set in a scowl, and her eyebrows were blackened a little from the explosion.

"Where is the CEO in all this?" someone asked, but the question went unanswered.

Eli gave Amy a nudge, and together they climbed the stairs. On the second floor, they reconvened with the HR ladies. They were by the window, throwing whatever spells they could muster out into a massive crowd of goblins. Torches and small bonfires filled the outside, but it was still impossible to make out any specific groups of goblins.

"Ms. Taylor, provide us with a song to boost our mana regeneration," Barbara said without looking.

Dana was applying bandages to her bleeding fingers and didn't even look up. "I don't have anything like that."

An arrow whistled by Eli's head, and he stepped out of the line of fire. Another arrow broke apart when it came in contact with a bolt of lightning from Linda. Arrows flew up from above, striking one of the women in her shoulder, and a Commander, Mr. Miller, right in his belly. Both went down, forcing Eli to heal them after pulling the arrows out.

Eli's orb of light hovered by his shoulder, waiting. He willed it to increase its brightness and fly out across the army of goblins. He saw them then. Cannon-like little constructions pointing metal tubes in the direction of the building, with heaps of goblins scurrying around them. Many goblins wielding bows fired at the orb, but none hit.

With some mass to the orb, Eli manipulated it to crash into one of the constructions just as it was about to fire, splintering the wood and breaking it apart. Goblins ran as a cannonball shot out at an angle, horizontal to the ground. It skirted the grass and killed several goblins before coming to a stop. The ball did not explode, but another did, in the air, as it shot towards Barbara and the mages.

Eli hadn't seen why it exploded early, but he was thankful for it. Had it hit its intended target, they would all be mincemeat. He meant to break another cannon, but an arrow finally struck the orb and it winked away, throwing the attacking army into darkness again. Out of nowhere, a glowing ball of fire screeched through the air from above before landing right in a clump of goblins, tearing them apart.

"I think Mr. Thomas is up on the roof," someone said.

Zack was standing by the elevator, his ear pressed against the door. "Guys, I think there's someone in here."

Eli hurried over and listened. There was a light tapping somewhere in the elevator shaft, then another, and another. A small hissing sound followed, and Eli's chest suddenly felt very tight.

"There are goblins in the elevator shafts!" he shouted.

"Don't be preposterous," Barbara said, just as the floor above them was directly hit by one of the exploding cannon attacks. She jumped a little and then hurried over to the elevator to listen for herself. Her mouth turned into a thin line. "I think some fire would be best to deal with these little critters."

"Where is The Dragon?" Eli asked.

"Who?"

"Mr. Thomas."

"Going by the trajectory of the fire, I would say Mr. Thomas is on the roof. Perhaps you'd like to go and talk with him?"

"Why don't you go?"

"Mr. Davis, I have to stay down here. If the Wall of Ice breaks. I'll have to create another."

Barbara turned her nose up at him. "You, on the other hand, are not needed down here."

Not wanting to waste time, Eli just agreed to go. "Zack and Amy, see if you can think of a way to destroy those cannon things. They'll tear the whole building apart, eventually."

"I actually have an idea about that," Zack said.

"Great. Be safe. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Samantha was nowhere to be seen, so he sent a party chat message to her.

Eli: Samantha. Are you with James?

Samantha: Yes.

Eli: Good. You should stay with them. If something happens, James is our best shot at keeping the goblins at bay.

Samantha: That's the plan.

With that settled, he turned to Barbara. "I'll go find Mr. Thomas. You better not let anything happen to the people here."

She turned away from him without a word and returned to the window. A thousand tiny daggers of ice formed in front of her and then shot out and down into the night. Goblins screamed and died.

Eli hurried up the stairs. Each floor he passed, he stopped and peeked inside to make sure the goblins hadn't made it out of the elevators. Once he started seeing people huddling and afraid, he shouted for them to keep guard on the elevators but not to open them. Taking the steps two at a time for the first couple of floors, it didn't take long for exhaustion to set in.

Eli stopped, sighed heavily, and muttered, "I keep forgetting about Warp."

Ending up on the 13th floor, the sounds from the elevators sounded far, far below him.

On the 22nd floor, he stopped to catch his breath, sweat streaming down his face.

Zack: Eli, look out the window.

Eli: One second.

He stood on shaky legs and made his way out into the office on the 22nd floor. He'd never been this high up before. This was where the CEO kept his office, but there was no sign of Mr. Harn. Eli looked out across the sea of torches. Just to test it out, he threw down a Sigil of Light right in the middle and watched his experience slowly tick up toward level 16.

Eli: What should I be seeing?

Zack: Any moment now.

Amy: My poor rats.

Eli: ?

Zack: Now!

At first, there was nothing. Then, a new pinprick of light showed up, far in the distance. It spread and grew as six more of them showed up. Fire. The flames grew quickly, spreading out in all directions.

Zack: Haha!

Eli: What am I watching?

Zack: Suicide rats!

Zack: They were carrying potions of Liquid Fire. Their cannons are toast!

Amy: You owe me new rats, Zack.