“How much longer do you think he’ll be out for? Why the hell did you hit him so hard?!”

“A – I have no clue, and B – why is that on me!? I didn’t know he was a human or a monster, you heard how hard he was slamming the door!”

If it weren’t for the pounding headache I already had, the voices screeching right next to me certainly would have done the trick. I groaned, feeling the harsh white lights bear down on my eyes – which I quickly shut, praying for some god to smite me dead right there and then.

“H-hey, he’s alive! Hey, are you okay?”

“Shut up! Let me talk to him!”

A cold pair of hands gently touched my forehead, accompanied by a soft, calming voice.

“Can you open your eyes? Are you hurt anywhere?”

I groaned, forcing my eyes to open once more. Apart from the light sensitivity, my vision appeared to be in working order. Although that might just be due to a face mere inches away from my own.

“AH!” I yelped while jumping back, almost hitting my head again on a cabinet.

The face stared back, pouting at my reaction.

“I’m not that ugly… what’s with that reaction?” It said, with a strong harumph in its voice.

I focused on the face again, my vision sharpening from the blurry vision I had just a moment ago. It was the doe-eyed girl I’d seen before… before?

“Where am I?” I asked, trying to remember what exactly happened. The last thing I could remember was my body flying through the air into the wall. Why does my body always end up being smashed against a wall?

She looked at me curiously, gesturing to the room behind her.

“We’re in the kitchen right now – we’ve barricaded the entrance again, although we have no clue where the monsters went. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Oh, those monsters?” I responded, laughing a bit at my own misfortune, they must’ve thought I was the goblins outside. “I took care of ‘em for you. Well, not for you, but for… nevermind.”

Her eyes went wide in disbelief (somehow growing larger than what they already were), staring at me as if I was some lunatic.

“You killed them? Wha-how?! They were so many, and they’re all so… huge!” She exclaimed, somehow shifting from fear into surprise in the blink of an eye.

I groaned, already feeling my muscles complaining at the smallest shifts of movement I made. Remembering the fight between the mauler goblin and I somehow made the pain worse.

“I’ll explain later. Can you tell me what exactly happened to me…?”

“R-right! Anyways, you came through the door and Lilah over here tackled you unconscious. Sorry about that, by the way.” She said, gesturing to the corner where Lilah stood.

“Shut up, Jasmine!” Lilah exclaimed, blushing as red as a tomato.

I looked over at Lilah, taking in her almost Amazonian figure – it was truly a sight to behold. I could’ve sworn I heard that name before.

“Lilah Evans, right? Aren’t you the weightlifter who broke the college squatting record?” I asked, distinctly remembering her name in the school newspaper.

She nodded, strangely a bit shy from being recognized. I had no idea how anybody would not recognize her, given her 6’2, tanned and well-toned frame. If Wonder Woman was ever a real person, she’d be the closest thing to her.

Jasmine popped into back into my view, once again too close for comfort. Did she not understand the concept of personal space?

“Anyways! You’re here to save us then, right? I mean, you’re probably armed with a gun or something since you killed those monsters… how do we get out of here?” she said, the excitement still lingering in her voice. Why did she sound so excited about this?

I shook my head, her face dropping a bit – yet her eyes were still vibrant with aloof with energy. Part of me felt uneasy sticking around her – yet I had known her in the past, as I’ve seen her manning the register before during my nightly study sessions. She had been nothing but kind and patient to me and other customers, and this… well…

It was like seeing an entirely new side to her.

Lilah’s voice broke the silence, wavering a bit in comparison to Jasmine’s.

“W-what are we going to do then? Maybe we could just stick around here for the time being, until law enforcement comes.”

I shook my head again.

“Whatever security was in here was already killed – and it’s not safe in here for the time being, since more of those goblins are probably roaming these halls. If you guys want…” I hesitated. Could I bring more people into my temporary base? Would I be able to feed them, keep them safe? Would Sophie be okay with it?

I didn’t have much of a choice, considering how they technically had ownership of the bagel café. I could maybe take it over by force, but I certainly wouldn’t be able to turn my hand against them – not only because of the moral issues, but I highly doubted I’d be able to fend off Lilah before she crushed my head like a watermelon.

“If you guys want, I’ve set up a temporary base near here. You could help me lug some of this food back, so we have a better, more defendable position to stay at.” I said with some hesitation. I couldn’t quite trust them yet, but I didn’t see any better alternatives.

They both glanced at each other for a moment, a conversation occurring in a spilt millisecond their eyes met – then turned back towards me, both nodding in confirmation to my offer.

“Okay, we’ll go. Where is it?”

Huff… Huff…

“Alright, it’s just around the corner…!”

Lilah and I turned around corner, both of us dragging back plastic pallets of foodstuffs back to the main base. We were both tired from the effort as each pallet weighed well over 50 pounds.

Okay, maybe I was the only one actually tired. Lilah was still almost bouncing around back and forth, waiting for me to catch up.

Up ahead was Jasmine – she acted as the lookout and navigator until we reached the base. She knew this place better than I did, finding multiple ways to cut through classrooms to reach our destination faster. It was almost a given I suppose as I hardly spent time on the 4th floor. Nevertheless, we made sure we were as quiet as possible, always having Jasmine scout ahead quietly for us- she had found some groups of goblins along our main path, but always managed to sneak around them and avoid conflict.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I wasn’t sure if I had enough energy in my body to lift a finger at this point, but I forced myself to press on.

We finally stood in front of the entrance to the woodworking shop, quietly knocking on the door. Although it took a minute, a trembling Sophie eventually let us in after removing the wedges and a chair she had stuck under the handle – and although I wasn’t whether or not the goblins knew how to open handles, it was better to be safe than sorry. Once the necessary precautions were set back into place, I fell back against a wall out of exhaustion and closed my eyes, allowing myself to snooze a little bit.

Someone quietly sat next to me, trying not to disturb my rest.

“Sophie?” I asked, with my eyes still tightly shut.

“… Yeah?”

“Have you made a bed yet?”

_______________________________________________

I opened my eyes to the ground shaking, feeling Mephatos call out to me.

‘They’ve come.’ He whispered.

So they have. Their armies had come all this way to kill a man who had disappeared long ago, existing no more than as a myth for most.

I stepped out of my tent, observing the countless numbers of soldiers scattered in the field blow. I willed Mephatos into the form of my golden greatsword.

If it’s a war they want, it’s a war they shall have.

_______________________________________________

“Matt? Matt, are you okay?” A voice asked, shaking me out of my drowsiness.

I opened my eyes, wishing I’d gotten just a few more hours – no, a few more days of sleep. Every single muscle in my body screamed in agony, but I sat up from my bedroll, gasping at the sharp pain in my lower back. Great. Back pain at the age of 20.

“Are you okay? You were mumbling and sweating in your sleep– did you have a nightmare?”

I paused, trying to remember what I had just dreamed of. Why did I wake up in cold sweat, and the feeling like I’d just gotten out of a nightmare?

“No, I’m fine,” I responded with a bit of hesitation, “Just an anxiety dream, I guess. How long was I out?”

“It’s been a few hours – we’ve managed to organize all of the food and tools you picked up on the way back.”

I nodded – it was one less thing on our plate to worry about. With the amount of food we managed to take - mostly canned food and some perishables - it’d last us quite a while before we’d need more. I stretched, getting ready to give a friendlier welcome to Lilah and Jasmine.

“W-wait, b-before you go!” Sophie stuttered, turning bright red at the cheeks. “H-how are we going to handle the s-sleeping situation…?”

Oh… the sleeping situation. Right. Sophie had done well in that regard, as she put up curtains around the back half of the room for both privacy and security if we were ever to sleep. It had enough space for two people to sleep comfortably while maintaining a far bit of distance between each other – but now that we were housing two other people, the sleeping accommodation would be a bit cramped.

“Ah, that…. I guess I’ll sleep outside, it’s fine-“

“N-no! I-if it’s okay with you, I’d like to… I’d like to…”

I swear I could see steam visibly rising from the top of her head.

“I-I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep at night, without… y-you know, protection, s-so if you could… be nearby at least…”

Why was I sweating? Had the temperature just shot up in the room? I swear it’d just gotten hotter by at least 20 degrees.

“Oh… oh! U-um… yeah, I guess… I mean, one person should always be on guard, so…” I nodded, trying to stave off the blood rushing to my face.

She quickly nodded, dashing out of the curtained room as quickly as possible.

… Did that really just happen? She wants me to be ‘nearby?’ I hardly even knew her! Why on earth would she want that, anyhow?

I sighed, unable to fully wrap my head around what she just said.

After putting my dirty shirt back on, I walked out of the makeshift room. Jasmine, Sophie, and Lilah seemed to be engaged in deep discussion, which broke up abruptly when they noticed me.

“Hey, Matt!” Jasmine said, “How are ya holding up?”

I winced a bit at how loud her voice was. Although the room sealed in noise quite well, it wasn’t completely soundproof – and the last thing I wanted to experience was a hoard of goblins bursting through the door.

“First… please lower your voice. Second, I’m doing alright, but I’m pretty damn sore. What were you guys talking about?”

“Oh, sorry,” she loudly whispered, “We were talking about killing the goblins on this floor!”

Did I hear her right?

“You want… to kill the goblins on this floor? As in the floor we’re on?”

She and the others nodded, although Sophie’s nod seemed less than sure.

“Yeah! If we can clear out this floor, it’d make us way safer, right? Besides, it’s better than just sitting around here all day waiting for help.”

I shook my head, unable to understand how they had reached such an insane conclusion.

“What’s wrong with just sitting around and waiting for help? Have any of you guys killed goblins before?” Jasmine and Lilah both shook their heads, but once again, Sophie hesitated.

I sighed, trying to think of a way to stave off their sense of adventure.

“Look, it’s not as easy as you think to kill a goblin. Some of them are higher levels, and I barely managed to kill the ones in front of your –“

“Levels?” Lilah interrupted, eyeing me.

“… I’ll get to that later. Anyways, it’s not safe to fight them out there. For all we know, one of them will scream and get the attention of all of other monsters on the lower floors!” I said, frustration lacing my voice.

“Look – either we stay helpless hear and wait until the monsters start traveling up here, or we secure this floor and potentially get other survivors as well.” Lilah crossed her arms, waiting for my counter.

“Maybe… maybe we could draw a few at a time into the conference room? It’s large enough to move around in, and it’s dampened to prevent sound leakage.” Jasmine said, with hope coloring her voice.

They had a good point – it was foolish to assume that we were completely safe in this room. It’s possible that the monsters below would traverse up to our floor and overrun us with sheer numbers if we didn’t clear this floor out beforehand. Besides that, it would give us plenty of moving space, and enough time to barricade the stairs leading up here. But still…

“Fine – fine! We’ll try it your way. You two don’t have any weapons, right? Have either you ever used these?” I said while gesturing to the weapons that Sophie had hung up on hooks.

Lilah shook her head, while Jasmine nodded – pointing right towards the iron dagger.

“I’ve played around with… knives since I was a kid. I know how to handle a dagger!” I swore I saw a dark gleam in her eye the moment she said that.

“Oh, then you can take that. Lil-“

“Do you have any more daggers?” She said, interrupting me.

“Not at the moment, but I have one on me and Sophie has one as well. Why?”

“… Can I have them?”

I blinked in surprise, confused as to why she needed 3 daggers. She immediately responded, seeing as how I was taken aback.

“No, it’s not what you think! I just like… I like throwing knives. I’ve always played with knives since I was a kid, so…”

Silence filled the room as all of us looked over at her in awe.

“Uh… I guess? Here, I’ll give you my dagger then. Sophie should keep hers for the time being.” I handed over my dagger to Jasmine with a bit of hesitation. Did she just smile?

“What about you, Lilah? What do you want?”

Lilah pondered a bit, unsure how to answer.

“I don’t know… I don’t like the idea of swinging a weapon I might cut myself with, or the thought of using a club to smash a monster’s brains in…” A light went off in my head.

“Do you want something defensive, like a shield?”

She brightened up, nodding in confirmation. I remembered seeing the mauler goblin holding a kite shield when he stood out in the hallway – that would be perfect for her! Although the gas is likely still in the room, it’s probably dispersed enough for the time being to enter it with relative safety since the door was broken.

I stood up with a bit more pop in my step, feeling surer of the plan.

“Follow me!”

“Alright… are you guys ready?”

They nodded in agreement, checking over their weapons one more time. I had managed to get into the room with the goblins successfully, taking the two daggers and sword from their corpses. The sight of the dead mauler goblin put a little more respect on my name, as my companions seem amazed at how I’d managed to take him down without losing a limb.

I hope they didn’t learn how I had actually managed to win.

I stood out in the hall where we had last spotted goblins while going over the plan in my head once more, ready to lure our first set of victims.

The plan was simple – I’d encounter the goblins out in the hallway, gather their attention, and immediately sprint back into the conference room. From there, we’d quickly take out the goblins using my sword, Jasmine’s daggers, and Lilah’s shield. Sophie insisted on staying behind the strike force, claiming her ankle would slow her down. Yet… her limp was gone?

I couldn’t afford to be distracted for the time being, so I set aside that thought. Not a minute after, a trio of goblins showed up, no different than any other goblin I had encountered.

“Hey!” I shouted, immediately catching their attention.

They spun around, honing their eyes to where I stood, and immediately began chased me. Those little buggers were quick, but not as quick as I was thanks to my high agility stat. I quickly dashed into the room where the rest of my group was waiting with weapons at the ready, drawing my sword to alongside them.

Thunk! Thunk!

2 daggers flew right beside my face, lodging themselves into the goblin that had been the closest behind me. It cried out in pain, twitching and writhing until it fell on the ground – dead before it could even blink. A figure dashed out towards the two other goblins who stood in place, staring at their dead comrade, stopping right in front of them.

“Jasmine…?”

But my words never reached her ears. A devilish smile creeped on her face as she licked her remaining dagger, while eyeing at the two goblins who looked at her in panic.

“Now… let’s have some fun together~!”