"Was that the last one?" said Anne while she looks in El's direction.

"I hope so I think I got three."

"Two on my side" Melv El's grandfather replies out of breath.

Muffled footsteps are heard outside the kitchen, shortly after the head of his Gran Elizabeth peeks into the kitchen

"Oh my...Sit down I have the first aid box".

She says and points the white packagee to the couch in the living room.

The pain in El's thigh and the laceration on his head becomes painfully aware again. limping he and Melv move towards the seat shown by the old lady.

With a plop, El drops into the soft rose embellished cushions, careful not to stain the couch unnecessarily with his blood.

Concerned El's grandmother touches the wound on his leg, the fabric of his brown pants soaked to the brim with blood is sticking painfully to his skin.

After she finished investigating his thigh, she takes a round aluminum container from the first aid packet, which she twists open with both hands. A thick yellow paste is revealed, which she generously smears with two fingers on the bleeding area, immediately the stinging pain of the wound is replaced by a pleasant cold feeling,

She does the same thing with his head injury. Elm's gaze wanders through the devastated room and lingers on the goblin corpse that he bashed in the head, blood is running down from the nose on to the floor a noticeably large dent is visible on the otherwise round head. El's face turns green, this was the first time he had killed something,

Painfully he clenches his fingers, in his mind he still hears the cracking and crunching of the skull, he still feels the resistance of the shaft as it took the life of the goblin with deadly force, he still sees the lifeless body slumping like a ragdoll on to the cold floor.

Something hard bumps against El's heel and forces him to look down,

it's the barrel of his gun slightly peeking out from under the sofa, but as he bends down to pick it up, his neck and arm hairs straighten up, the air around him feels like it's electrified and apparently he's not the only one who notices it because everyone in the room just happens to be staring at the same wooden wall the sensation seems to be coming from,

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

the look on El's grandfather's face changes from bewilderment to strict panic.

"Get behind the couch now!!!"

He shouts and jerks Anne behind cover,

El who acts out of pure instinct tries the same with his grandma.

"zHHHHT....WHOOM....BOOOOM"

With a blinding blue light, the wall rips open.

hundred razor sharp shrapnel's of wood whistle across the room.

A scream next to El draws his attention to his grandmother her calf that was not quite behind cover, was pinned to the floor by one of the wooden shards, but the moment Elm tries to pull her further behind his head hits something hard that slightly bends,

behind him a splinter has pirced through the padding wich is longer than his forearm, three centimeters further in his direction and it would have pierced his skull clean through. His eye firmly fixed on his near-death penalty,

he doesn't notice Gran hoisting herself behind the couch without his help, despite her pain, but shortly after her second scream snaps Elm's gaze back to her foot, a deep red trail stretches across the room towards the suffering woman.

"El where's the gun?!"

Screams his grandfather against the noise, panicly El fumbles under the seat, the only thing his hands grasp is dust

"There!"

Cries Elisabeth with a face contorted in pain, pointing her bloodied finger to the other side of the room,

there it lies, probably thrown away by the force of the explosion. careful not to let himself crawl into the field of fire,

El hieves himself towards the carbine.

As he closes his trembling fingers around the cold metal, the air behind him crackles full of electricity. Only by reflex, he grips the weapon tighter and rolls out of the way. A painful glisteningh flash blinds him and when he open his eyes again, a deep black scar decorates the floor on the spot he was a second before.