Reality Control or Weaving is the only magic known to be used by the Ravnos family. Creation of energy out of nothing, even breaking the rules that all other magic is governed by are possible to the Ravnos. However, they are limited by disbelief. If their magic is questioned even when it does not fall apart the caster gets attacked by reality itself. Each Ravnos also has a different understanding to how their power works though each agrees on dividing it into spheres or concepts used to bend reality to their will.
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Adrian
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I roll off the goblin onto its back not caring about the blood pooling on the floor. My heart pounding before it begins to slowly once more. I really need to improve my fitness, I don’t have the strength for melee. Bryan doesn’t either but his hobbies are more physically active than mine or Tomas’s.
Abagail is the first one of us to look into the rooms where the goblins came from and she immediately pukes. All of us have been queasy since the start of this but whatever is in there must be worse.
I glance into one of the rooms. Scattered scraps of cloth are everywhere, bone fragments and partially eaten bodies lie around the room. Most of the body parts are just lying around but some of the intestines have been strung up as some sort of decorations, some of the bones from the partially eaten corpses have joined them.
The contents of my stomach join Abagail’s on the floor, by the sounds I hear mine wasn’t the only one to join.
After a minute, we recover from our disgust and Abagail is the first to say anything after we have past those rooms and are almost to the parking lot.
“That was disgusting, how can they do stuff like that?”
None of us answer her even though that very question echoes through my mind. Why would they do something like this? The decorations could be cultural but that does not explain their increase in strength and size. Why would they do something like this? Why cannibalism?
Actually, is it even cannibalism? Humans are not the same race as them. Still why eat other sentient life? That is if they even are sentient.
This line of thinking isn’t going to help, they are hostile and trying to kill and eat me. I shouldn’t bother thinking about this, it won’t help me survive. I don’t need to know why they are doing stuff like this, the why won’t matter if it happens to me.
I pull out the partial box of ammunition and toss it to Bryan, “reload, it might be the last time we get to before running out.”
I pull the other still full carton and begin to refill my own as we approach the parking lot’s door. After a moment Bryan says, “I’ll need some more from that box.”
I nod and toss it to him having already finished. I just happen to know my way around guns better than my friend even if no one ever told me the names of the parts.
“What about the other one?” Tomas asks.
“I don’t know if it’s serviceable” I say as I pull it back out and place it in Tomas’s open hand.
“It might be fine after it gets cleaned” Bryan comments as Tomas looks over it.
“There’ll be cleaning kits at Outdoor World. Who’s car will we take?” I add.
“My truck is bigger than your car but people will have to ride in the tail bed.”
That will work, we can shoot at anything in the way too. I nod, “give Tomas the pistol while you’re driving. He may not be a good shot but it’s better than nothing.”
“I know how to use guns” Abagail interrupts.
“Self defense classes?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Sorry Tomas, that’s better than you.”
Tomas frowns as Abagail gets the gun rather than him but we all continue towards Bryan’s truck. Many of the vehicles have has their windows broken into but my car and Bryan’s truck are untouched.
I do however see a piece of paper under my window wiper which I grab before climbing into the tail bed of Bryan’s truck.
I open up the paper before anyone bothers to ask about it.
Thanks for the advice.
“Anything important?” Tomas asks.
“Not right now. Just the reason why our vehicles are the only ones here not broken into” I answer.
The truck starts up, Bryan knows the way and it isn’t far. Just down the road and turn right and follow that for a few miles.
Of course we, or at least I ignore the plumes of smoke rising from various places in the distance while sirens of alarms going off prevent us from hearing much of anything once we are away from the school.
I continue to scan our surroundings as we slowly proceed. Minutes pass as Bryan ignores traffic signals and goes around abandoned cars. Abagail was looking out the window for part of it before she just stopped. I guess she doesn't want to think about those that were in the houses before whatever created all the spilled blood.
I see something that sets off a mental alarm. A ten foot tall humanoid dressed in leather skins crudely sewn together smashes it’s club on a car that had a person inside. The ugly and hairy but not furred giant is in our path.
“Shit” I hear from Tomas and can only agree with the statement.
The truck comes to a stop, the giant has not quite yet noticed us but I doubt that we will get away without alerting him.
“Do we need to take that thing out?” Bryan asks from his rolled down window.
“Unfortunately, yes” I answer while steadying myself against the roof so I can rapidly fire with minimal loss of accuracy.
The giant pulls off part of the roof of the car he just smashed and licks his lips. Another creature that will try to eat me, great.
I take aim at the torso, the distance is a little far to accurately hit with a handgun even if I start cheating with some magic and if I manage to hit the heart or lungs we may just survive. I don’t think that much else aside from a vital spot will do much with this caliber.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I pour my will into feeling every detail I can about the space between me and my target. I can instantly tell far more information that I should; the exact distance and angle between us, the curvature of the land, the speed and velocity of every movement the giant is making relative to me, and even it’s size and proportions.
Along with this detailed information I feel where the bullet should land and how far each shot will displace the next. I take aim and begin to unload, before the fist bullet hits I’ve already started pulling the trigger for the next, adjusting my grip to account for our changing movements. Spatial Aim is what my grandfather called this magic and it isn’t perfect, I don’t know how to do all of it. Other Spheres of magic are included that I don’t have the required understanding to use are involved in his version but for this large brute whose reaction is to charge at me, mine is enough.
All nine of my shots enter into the giant's chest. Blood trickles out of the puncture wounds but the damage was not enough to kill the brute before it reaches us.
I jump from the tail bed, “ditch the truck” I shout to my friends in the few seconds it took the beast to charge us. Abagail panics and struggles with her door for a moment before she clears the truck before the giant’s club lands on the hood, silencing the engine forever.
Tomas let’s loose a yell of pain, he must have landed wrong but there is no time for me to be sure. I have to do something, Abagail begins to fire the gun she holds and the giant turns to her.
I do the only thing I can think of and steal the gun from her via my magic before firing it rapidly.
Seven bullets leave the barrel as the giant turns to me. He spits up some blood and I know the lungs must have been pictured but that won’t save me from being in melee with something far bigger than me.
The last bullet leaves, an eighteenth hole is added to the giant. Still the giant reaches towards me, I notice Bryan dragging Tomas away from the corner of my eye.
Then I do something really stupid. I touch the battery of Bryan’s truck with my reality bending will and pull out a spark. Gas ignites just as the giant picks me up and begins to squeeze me with his two arms. I feel my bones crack and all air leaves my lungs before the giant roars in the pain of burning fire.
All I can do is focus on pushing the fire away form me as I am dropped to the ground and surrounded in a pocket of calm amidst a torrent of flames. I do not burn but the heat sears my skin and my polyester shirt melts.
My concentration breaks just as the flames run out of gasoline to burn. A charred but still breathing giant lies on the ground next to me before I hear Tomas shout and my headache from before gets worse.
I groan and after a minute feel myself being dragged away from the giant as Bryan no doubt checks me for injuries as he applies first aid.
I feel stinging pain as bits of formerly molten polyester are pulled from my skin.
“Are you alright?” I hear the question that has likely been repeated several times.
“No” I manage to say.
“You look alright, besides we are almost there” Bryan says.
I slowly stand up, “Tomas?”
“Why didn’t you do that at the start of the fight?” Tomas asks with both enthusiasm and strategic concern.
“Do what?” I say with a slight cringe from my growing headache.
“Fireball, you could have just killed the giant before it got to the truck.”
“It wasn’t fireball, I just used the battery to ignite the gas and then tried to keep the flames away from me.”
The excitement instantly leaves Tomas's face as we start walking, Tomas with a limp.
Near fifteen minutes pass before we leave the neighborhood and can see the parking lot of Outdoor World. There are only a few cars in the lot, the building itself is dark as if it were closed.
“Shouldn’t there be people here?” Abagail asks.
“We lucked out, maybe the paper on the front door will tell us why” Bryan answers her.
We cross half of the barren parking lot before we hear some familiar sounds. Chewing sounds and voices that sound similar to those we heard at the school.
Bryan readies the loaned pistol before glancing around the minivan.
“Three, they’re eating a man” he whispers as he takes aim.
I pull the dagger stolen from the corpse of the goblin mage. The last of the bullets are in that pistol and I’ll need it if I’m to manage anything against the goblins when they reach melee.
A gunshot echoes out, after the second Bryan whispers a swear word I don’t quite catch as two goblins round the front of the car.
At this range the next two shots take out the nearer goblin but the pistol shows itself to be empty. The goblin rushes towards us, Bryan moves to make sure he takes the hit from the rusted metal in the monster's hand.
Tomas and me move to flank and Bryan, using his size and weight advantage forces the goblin into a grapple. Tomas moves to join while I wait for an opening.
My friends manage to pin the goblin and I move in with my blade slitting its throat. Seconds later it stops moving.
“We can treat me inside” Bryan says as he starts walking towards the front door.
Once we are closer I see that a fallen purse is forcing the door ajar but the only evidence of whoever the woman was is this purse and a bloody streak on the asphalt. The paper hanging on the door has the simple words of “Closed for Inventory” on it.
I open the door, arriving slightly before everyone else. The purse in hand I say, “Abagail, can you take a look at Bryan’s shoulder and then see what food you can find? Bryan you’re with me looking for weapons once Abagail is bandages you up. Tomas, you have food.”
Each of them nod, accepting the assigned roles. Bryan, Tomas and me beginning to default into the roles we so often have during our games.
I enter after them; boats and fishing equipment is to my right, clothing straight ahead while a food court is up a large staircase and the hunting section is to my left. Large glass windows cover the southern walls of the store where we entered from but they are currently covered by blinds.
Before I go to the hunting section I walk into the clothes, most of them are going to covered with logos for brands that sell hunting, fishing and wildlife stuff but I don’t care about that. I need a new shirt.
Our collective search and gathering does not take long with how the store is already organized even if it is near dusk once we finish going through the store.
Overall we find a dozen pistols, a half dozen revolvers, nine compound bows, seven hunting rifles, nearly a hundred knives, six cases of .22 rounds, two cases of .308, just over a case of 9mm, a partial case of .45 for the revolvers, several magazines, and two speed loaders for the revolvers, a few accessories for the firearms such as a suppressor and bayonets, two hundred arrows, a half dozen crossbows and two hundred bolts. Outside of weapons there are a few dozen cases of various sodas, probably a hundred pounds of trail mix, a similar volume of jerky and more bottled water than I’ve ever bothered to count; far more than we can carry, not even counting items like tents, camp stoves and other items that we will need only a few of.
“We can worry about the food later after making sure we can keep this place safe. Always stay armed” I say as we begin to pull weapons and ammunition for ourselves.
“I moved the mini fridges from the cashier’s to form a wall to give cover from anyone trying to enter the camping section from the front” Bryan says.
I nod, that will be helpful.
“Good, the only other way in is through the food court and a set of stairs. I'd want to block it off but we should use up the food from their freezers before it goes bad.”
“Can you start teaching me magic yet?” Tomas asks breaking completely away from our conversation.
“No, I can’t teach you magic. And we have more important things to discuss right now” I answer.
“Discuss what? You'll be party leader with Bryan as second in command. We’ll set up watch shifts through the night and make plans on whose house to head to in the morning if we don’t end up attacked in the night.”
“That is pretty much what we would end up deciding” Bryan comments in support of these decisions.
“Do you have any problems with this?” I ask Abagail.
“No, but are the watches really necessary? The doors are all locked” she answers.
All of us nod our heads.
“See all solved. Now that there isn’t anything else, tell me about magic” Tomas says and I sigh before answering.
“I can’t teach you magic, at least as far as my family’s magic goes it can’t be taught from scratch. You have to just know the basics. I don’t know everything about it but no power comes without price and limitations.
I can do things that shouldn’t be possible but if others question it I get punished. Reality doesn’t like it when you break other people’s perceptions of it.”
“Well, what can you do?”
“Some of what I can do is teleport small objects, manipulate fire and electricity, there’s a lot more that can be done but I’m not skilled enough to always get it right. Anyways, who will be taking first watch?”
“I'll do it” Bryan answers me.
“I’ll take midnight then. Tomas, you'll take third and Abagail can have dawn.”
No objections were spoken so with a yawn I move for the sleeping bags someone brought over to our pile of stuff. The weapons were split mostly the same for everyone. A rifle, two pistols, a knife, a machete and some spare magazines for everyone. I also set aside a bow, some arrows and suppressors for myself while Tomas did the same for the suppressors and Bryan took some extra knives.