The architecture of Phillips Hall was very different from the surrounding buildings. Soon after I came to UNC seven years before, someone told me that the architect accidentally designed Phillips Hall for a different campus. Apparently, construction had already started before the mistake was discovered, so they just decided to keep the design in order to prevent the school from losing millions of dollars.
A few feet in front of the main entrance to the building, there was a large stone archway, which displayed the words “PHILLIPS HALL” in large brass letters. This ostentatious entrance, paired with the crenelated parapet, made Phillips Hall look much more like a medieval fortress than an academic building.
----------------------------------------
It was the middle of the day when we entered the fortress. In my right hand, I held the ever-loyal Dismas, and I walked at the front of the group with Slader. It seemed strange to me that Slader held a single sword, and Elstine stood behind us. Typically, Elstine would stand at the front so that her enchanted armor could deflect the attacks of the forces of evil.
More notable, however, was the fact that I could not see out of my left eye in the slightest. When I touched my eye, I felt that some hard bone-like material had calcified over my skin.
The halls of that large fortress were lined with lit torches, even though the sunlight streaming in through the windows was more than enough to cast the interior in bright light. Personally, I thought that the fortress’s many windows detracted from its defensive capabilities. If it were me that designed the fortress, I would have replaced the windows with thin arrow-slits upon which one could steady a rifle.
That would be a good start, I thought, but then I would have to deal with the threat of cannon-fire. Perhaps I could line the exterior with sloped walls of thick metal. It would be extremely expensive, but we certainly had enough money in the reward we received after killing Octavian.
Slader patted my shoulder and said, “Hey, man. Now’s not the time to zone out. We’re almost there.”
“Right,” I answered. My memory of the recent past was a disorganized mess. I didn’t know why we were there, and I didn’t know how we had arrived. In my experience, however, asking questions at such a time usually made the situation worse. Everything would probably be explained eventually if I just went along with it.
I followed Slader down the hall. His eyes, which I knew could see much better than my own, were focused on a spacious room at the end of the hall. The door to the room was propped open by the disemboweled corpse of an innocent civilian. Something was killing people, and I had to be on the lookout.
On our way to the large room, we passed by a propped-open door, which was placed a few feet inside of a niche. Due to the way the door was placed, it was impossible to see very far inside of the room until you were perpendicular to it.
Stolen novel; please report.
I stepped in front of the door, and, for the first time, I could see within. Therein, I saw a young human woman wielding a bow and arrow in both hands. The bowstring was pulled back to such a distance that she was in danger of breaking it, and the look on her face was one of pure terror. Worse yet, the arrow was pointed directly at my chest.
Realizing that I was in a bad position, I dove for cover an instant before the girl loosed the arrow and sent it flying into the hallway. As I rolled into cover behind the wall, I saw the flying arrow connect with the wall on the other side of the hallway. The arrow struck solid stone and kept flying as if it was completely unbothered by the wall. Where the arrow contacted stone, a melted hole in the wall much wider than the arrowhead itself was formed.
The power of the arrow terrified me. There was clearly some enchantment upon the arrow that made it strong enough to bore a foot-wide and five-foot-deep hole into solid stone. Even with the hard-earned power running through my body, such an attack probably would have killed me.
I had no choice. Her attack could have been the result of a misunderstanding, but I really couldn’t afford to let myself or my two companions get hit by that arrow. Visualizing in my mind the girl’s location, I swiveled my body and let my arm leave cover for a second. Keeping the rest of my body behind the cover of the wall, I aimed my gun toward the girl’s last known location.
She didn’t look like an experienced mercenary. I suspected that the power of the attack came from the arrow itself. I figured that six shots would be enough to neutralize her. Perhaps Elstine could save her once everything was done. At that moment, however, my focus was solely on saving myself and my companions.
“Vincent!”
----------------------------------------
The world shook as I pulled myself out of the grand reverie hallucination. I began to hyperventilate and grasp my chest as the significance of what had just happened sunk in. I had come close to killing a student unnecessarily.
The assumptions I had made as Vinzadir made me think that killing her was necessary, but it wasn’t. In the absolute worst scenario, my shield could take a few hits from that Mithril arrow.
I looked up and saw the source of the voice that had pulled me back to reality. Carlos stood out in the open with his hands up in a placating gesture.
“White flag! White flag! We’re all on the same side! You guys are humans, right?” Carlos shouted into the room.
There were several people in there? Jesus. That could have been really bad. Six shots would have been enough to liquify anyone in there who didn’t have MDC.
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry! When I heard your footsteps, I thought you were a group of Diluvians.” A woman’s voice emanated from the door’s location. I couldn’t see the speaker due to my location, but I assumed it was the girl who had tried to shoot me with an arrow.
“Is everyone all right out there?” The voice of a young man came from the room a moment later.
“Yeah,” Carlos said with a smile. “We would’ve been fine, even if you’d hit us. I’m a [Knight], and the guy you came the closest to hitting has an MDC shield. Come on, we’ll have more safety in numbers.”
The two students slowly came out of the conference room they were hiding in, and I simultaneously came out of cover.
Shaking my head in an attempt to dispel the incident from my mind, I began to turn my thoughts once more toward the creation of my [Workshop].