《Survivor's Code》 Chapter 1: No Tutorial Needed Chapter one: No tutorial needed Liam hurried down the street, looking frantically for Normanby Place, 37 Trafalgar Street. It was, for England, a lovely day but he did not pay any attention to the weather. He was busy cursing at himself for leaving everything to the last minute. Even the song rattling through his airpods could not soothe his nerves. ¡°In the year of the scavenger, the season of the bitch...¡± David Bowie¡¯s eerie voice rattled through his brain and he once more looked at his phone for the address. Yes, it was 37 Trafalgar Street, but where was it. He was standing outside number 40 - a bank. It should be opposite... should be. He thought of asking another passerby. He had already asked two and a hotel porter but none of them had known of the building. His app was telling him he was already at the building. He suppressed a scream. He could not be late arriving at his interview. This was his dream job - well his dream job after he had failed his last interviews at his previous dream jobs. Entry level jobs that offered a practical application of mathematics and programming were few and far between especially for a raw graduate like himself. Armed with a new haircut and an off the shelf suit that was at least one size too big for him - but then what could you do with limited funds - he felt he had a great chance of landing this job. He fiddled with the umbrella in his hands and decided to cross the road and see if any of the lobby guards there knew of the building. The green man was now showing on the pedestrian crossing. At last, something in his favour. He was scurrying to cross the road when a blinding light flashed through his head. ¡°What the ...¡± Liam said before a screech of tyres interrupted his outburst. He looked up to see a black cab barreling towards him. Liam dove out of the way of the taxi, which proceeded to smash into the stop sign near the crossing and then into a wall. The stop sign fell to the floor. Liam rushed over to the taxi but stopped as the taxi driver exited the vehicle, scratching at his head. He noticed that the music had stopped. His phone was blank - no light, nothing. Then Liam heard screaming. He looked around to see a few people running down the street in all directions. He could not see the cause of their panic and he moved out of their way. Then he saw what they were running from but for him it was too late to run. He had no confidence in his running speed while wearing the brand-new stiff formal shoes and the poorly fitting suit. Five rats, the size the cats, were dashing down the street towards him. Liam looked around frantically to see the post of the stop sign lying next to the taxi. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Liam picked it up. It was heavier than it looked but, other than his umbrella, it was all that he had. The first rat came near and Liam swung at it - missing by inches. The rat leapt towards him. and he swung the pole again. The stop sign hit the rat squarely this time and it flew away. Another rat lunged at Liam. He danced away from the attack but was too slow. The rat¡¯s teeth sank into his calf. Liam dropped the pole and stabbed at it with his umbrella. The metal point sank sickeningly into the rat¡¯s body. It let go of his calf and fell to the floor dead. Liam was tempted to pick up the pole again but it was too unwieldy and the rats were too quick for him to use it effectively. Instead, he opened up his umbrella, using it to fend away attacks. A rat tried to go around the umbrella and he stepped forward and stepped on its head - crushing it¡¯s skill. Well, formal shoes were good for something. The rat that he had hit with the sign came back towards him from the side while he was fending off the other two rats with his umbrella. It leapt at him; its teeth bared. Liam ducked under the attack and pivoted to kick at it. He connected with the rat¡¯s torso, flinging it towards a wall. It hit the wall with a crunch and fell limply to the ground. Now, there were only two rats left. Liam was about to step forward and engage with them when the taxi driver attacked them with a baseball bat. Soo,n there were two bloody patches on the ground. ¡°Sorry, mate,¡± the taxi driver said. ¡°I was a bit slow getting my bat.¡± Liam nodded. ¡°Thanks! They¡¯re the biggest rats I have ever seen.¡± ¡°Crikey! Look at your leg. Looks like they did a number on you.¡± Liam looked down. His pant leg was torn and blood was oozing from the bite on his leg. Now that he was looking at it he started to feel queasy. ¡°Better go to hospital, mate. Those bloody things are likely to in infected. I would drive your but my taxi is buggered. Everything is fried.¡± Now pain shot up Liam¡¯s leg. ¡±Damn!¡± he muttered.¡± He tried to distract himself. What happened anyway? You almost hit me.¡± The taxi driver spat to one side. ¡°Everything locked up. There was that message and then bang! I couldn¡¯t turn the wheel or nothing.¡± ¡°That message... what the frig was that about anyway?¡± ¡°Screwed if I know.¡± The taxi driver looked around. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m an idiot. I got a first aid kit in my boot. Let me fetch it.¡± Within minutes the taxi driver had cleaned Liam¡¯s wound with antiseptic and wrapped it in a bandage. Luckily, the bite had not gone deep. ¡°Thanks,¡± Liam said. ¡°I¡¯d better be off. I am supposed to be at an interview.¡± The driver looked around. ¡°I would forget that if I were you. This place is way too quiet. I¡¯ve been driving around here for donkey¡¯s years. This is not natural - and neither were those rats.¡± Liam looked around more closely this time. The taxi was not the only stopped car. Others were stopped at the side of the road or in the middle of the street. and it was eerily quiet except for a few faint noises in the background. ¡°I¡¯m off,¡± the driver said. ¡°I got family to look after. You should get home too.¡± Without any more ceremony the taxi driver ran off at a jog, his belly bouncing up and down as he ran. Liam realised he did not even know the guy¡¯s name. Now what? Liam¡¯s home was a hundred miles away. He was not going to be walking home any time soon. A flickering at the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was an annoying blue light that just appeared at the edge of his vision. But he could not locate the source. He thought back to the message from earlier. Something about a system initiation. The blue light looked like a cursor...like when an operating system is loading for the first time. If that was the case then he would have to wait to find out what it was. For now, he needed to make a decision. Where to go? Chapter 2: The Rat Trap
Chapter 2: The Rat Trap
Liam was looking around for some clue what to do next when his eye caught a small sign saying ¡±Normanby Place¡±. He had found it. He had been only twenty metres away. He checked his watch. There was still 3 minutes until his interview started.
He walked over to the building, ignoring the twinges in his injured leg. Sepsis be damned. He was determined to land this job.
The lobby of the building looked like many others he had seen - the usual dull tiled office lobby. It was also smaller than he had expected. in the advertisement they had described themselves as being a multinational company. On the higher floors would be row upon row of desks. Something about the look made him want to turn away. He wanted a fulfilling job where he was mentally challenged. The job description even said those were the qualities they were looking for.
He had come this far and so he pulled open the door and stepped in. The inside of the building was quite noisy. He could hear the scraping of furniture and a noise like the scraping of chalk on a blackboard. There was also a chittering noise coming through the tannoy - but that might just be a electrical error. Given what the taxi driver had said it looked like anything electrical and electronic had malfunctioned.
There was no one at the front desk. Looking around he saw marks on the floor but no one was around. Even in a quiet office there would be someone around. He walked behind the desk and saw that the receptionist¡¯s chair had been knocked over.
And then he saw the blood. His mind was telling him that maybe the receptionist had fallen out of her chair when the electric¡¯s were fried and injured her head. His body was telling him to run.
He listened to his body.
He was still twenty metres from the exit when a horde of rats appeared from the side. These were not the size of cats - they were the size of creatures that ate cats. Their blood flecked cheeks were quivering and their eyes were a fiery red.
Armed with just a now closed umbrella, Liam gave a sickly grin and dashed for the door. As he was closing in on the exit a giant rat which must have come from behind grabbed a mouthful of trousers and pulled. Liam fell to the ground.
His heart beat throbbed in his skull. They were closing in from his left. He kicked out at the rat behind him. He hard a loud squeak and his leg was freed. He rose to his feet and swung his umbrella around. The rats fell back - wary but watching. He backed away from them - backed away from his potential escape.
Still waving his umbrella he backed away until his back hit something. He felt around behind him until his hand felt a door handle. He quickly turned the handle and through himself through the doorway. With a surge of relief he slammed the door closed. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Thuds came from the other side of the door but the door appeared to be holding.
Liam surveyed the room he was in. Shelves on one side of the wall. A mop and bucket in one corner. that told him most of what he needed to know. Unfortunately the lack of any other exit or windows told him the rest. He was in a janitor¡¯s closet with only one way out.
No windows, no other doors - he was trapped. But at least for the moment he had a chance to think.
What the hell had happened? First the notification, then the taxi and now this. Things were going to hell fast. It was all too crazy.
His breath stopped as the blue flashing light stopped flashing.
Liam was now clear on what was happening and he did not like it one bit. He also did not want to wait for the results. The rats would be able to chew through the door in minutes. If this so called system was not going to be able to help him then he had to help himself.
He looked up. Of course. The building was a rented office space. He moved over tot he shelves and started to climb. They were the usual cheap industrial shelves that were advertised as being able to carry a full grown man¡¯s weight but would probably bend under half of that.
He gingerly climbed the shelves - slowly adjusting his weight so that he did not add any more pressure than was necessary. The shelves groaned under his weight but held.
The ceiling panel was easy to lift and move out of the way. As he lifted himself into the crawl space he kicked at the shelving unit knocking it across the door opening. It would give him another barrier against those damned rats.
The crawl space was dark and when he raised his hand he easily touched the concrete above him. There was barely enough space to crawl. There was also only a small ledge to crawl across - he doubted the tiles would hold his weight.
He orientated himself and estimated the distance he would need to cover. He would need to time this just right. He headed towards the location of the exit as quietly as he could.
He calculated the distance in body lengths. He needed to move about twelve body lengths. He inched his way across the space counting off the distance in his head.
He was within two body lengths when he felt a presence. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He looked up to see the baleful glare of two red eyes. The giant rat was waiting where he wanted to be.
He did not even have his umbrella with him - just his wits.
Liam screamed and pretended to lunge at the rat. The rat moved to one side. Liam turned his lunge into a jump. With an even louder scream he crashed through the ceiling. He hit the floor with a breath-taking thud. A sharp pain in his chest caused his vision to go black.
Adrenalin was now pumping through his body. The exit was within sight. Ignoring the pain in his body he rose to his feet. He could see in his peripheral vision the rat jumping from the ceiling and other rats returning from where the closet was. But they were too late. He was at the door and through it.
He thrust the door closed and then paused. It was a pain-wracked pause. He had no way of stopping the rats from exiting. They had probably not exited before because they had a nice feast of office workers in front of them. The same was probably true for the other office buildings. London was full of rats.
Liam did what any sensible person would do. He ran! Chapter 3: So Classy Chapter 3: So Classy Liam had no idea where he was going. He did not even look behind to see if he was being pursued. He just ran, until he could run no longer. He stopped at a small children¡¯s playground. The playground consisted of one slide a couple of swings and some climbing frames that had seen better days. It was maybe a sad-looking playground but there were no rats. He heard the faint barking of dogs, but other than that - no animals. He sat on a swing to rest. He occasionally saw human looking figures slinking down distant avenues but they were few. He assumed most would be either at work, which meant food for the rats, the children would be at school and the rest would be hidden away at home. With the electronic problem, communications would be difficult. It would take some time for the police or army to come and clear up this mess. Of course, that was assuming that this system had not caused other larger problems. He had seen apocalyptic films where planes crashed from the skies and missile silos decided to self explode. If all of that was happening, then they had bigger problems than rats. Liam did not like the sound of any of them. He suspected that the different classes would also have their own perks that were not mentioned in the description. He also suspected that there must be some downside from choosing a rare class such as slower leveling. Still he immediately ruled out the rodent beater and job hunter classes. While they may evolve into something better down the line they were too limited for his comfort. He then ruled out option 1 because it sounded stupid. That just left options 3, 5 and 6; two rare classes and one uncommon. He was leaning towards option 6 as it seemed to offer a good chance of survival. Liam jumped and instinctively plumped for option 5. It was all David Bowie¡¯s fault! Liam felt a surge of fire coursing through his veins. Every nerve lit up and he blacked out from the pain. ### He woke to find himself lying on the floor under the swing with his head resting in a pool of vomit. His head hurt badly and it was all he could do to pull himself away from the sick. A flashing icon caught his attention. It was like the cursor, but instead was in the shape of a man. He focused on it and a blue screen appeared.
Liam Dermott Human
Level: 2 Experience: 250/400
Health: 60/60 Mana: 70/70
Class: Diamond Dog Professions: None
Strength: 10 Perception: 15
Agility: 12 Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 14 Wisdom: 13
Status: mentally tired Unassigned stat points: 6
To the right of this, there were tabs for skills, spells and special techniques. Liam¡¯s brain did a backflip. Classes, stats, experience... this was just like an RPG. He had played a few online and dabbled once or twice with tabletops, but this was a different beast altogether. This was real. He doubted there would be any respawn if he died. And, to put the cherry on the cake, they had bypassed the tutorial. He would have bet good money that the paranoid governments had ignored communications from this system thing, labelled them as a ploy from some foreign government, or just been too slow to react. He put his own government somewhere between the last two. He focused on the class. He had no idea what it entailed, so he mentally tried to select it. To his surprise, a message appeared. Liam smiled. Maybe this had been the best class for him after all. It certainly sounded like the skill-set would provide many benefits. He then mentally tried to select the skills option. Another table came up in front of him.
General skills Professional skills Weapon skills
Running 1 Umbrella combat 1
Literacy 1 Defensive stance 1
There was not much there. But he was still new. He next looked at the spells page.
General Passive spells General Active spells Class spells
*Diamond claws (A)
*Spell awarded for achievement. He had a spell. He wasn¡¯t sure what difference it would make that it was a class spell but he was eager to try it out. But how to cast a spell? He tried to mentally select the spell, but nothing happened. He then tried saying the spell out loud. Again nothing. After a few pained minutes of thought he tried again to select the spell. This time he kept a firm intent on activating the spell and envisioning the result. After all diamond claws could only mean ne thing. After a few seconds of this a surge of energy seemed to leave his body and he felt like his fingernails had been set on fire- no not just his fingers but his toes too. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. Instead of the pinkish white nails, he now had sparkly claws - well more like long nails than claws. Each nail tapered to a point. He tried to scrape the swing he sat on with one nail and found it easily carved into the plastic seat. He let go of the spell and the nails just vanished. The pain did as well. He inhaled and exhaled deeply a few times. He had not expected the experience to be painful. He had a quick look at his stats page and saw that he had used 24 mana points. Estimating that he had used the spell for about nine seconds, he calculated that either there was a base mana cost of 24 mana for casting the spell or that the spell cost 2MP per second. Logically, he felt that there would be a mixture of a base cost and a maintenance cost - so something like 6MP for activating the spell and 2MP per second to maintain it. With a total of 70MP he could run the spell for over thirty seconds. There was some sort of transformation element to the spell. It had not just covered his nails in a coating - it had changed them to what looked like diamond. Maybe, he thought, that was what the A stood for- alteration. His favorite computer game had spell categories like Alteration, Conjuration and Restoration. It seemed like his class leaned more towards the alteration side. If it was anything like the game he would have to practice the spell to upgrade it and make it something formidable. He clicked on the last tab - Special techniques.
General Class Profession
Howl (basic)
There was only one technique. He assumed that it came with the class. Again, there was no description of what it did. Given the description, he did not think it was something he should try right now. He had become distracted by all of these details. He had to make a decision. Chapter 4: Mad Dogs and Englishmen Chapter 4: Mad Dogs and Englishmen Liam decided that he needed to find out if there people around who had survived and, worst case scenario, somewhere to hole up. Finding a weapon would be nice too. The park was close to a residential area of semi-terraced houses. The red brick houses had lasted the test of time and would hopefully survive this apocalypse. As he was leaving the park he noticed that one of the metal fence panels was broken. With some effort he was able to detach a steel bar with a pointed end. Much better than an umbrella, he thought. The bar was solid not tubular like some of the cheaper fences. It also had a good heft to it. While he felt a little strange approaching a house with a weapon in his hand, he was not about to take any chances. He approached the first house opened the gate and walked up to the door. The house was quiet but that did not mean anything. There could be twenty people watching him from behind curtains. He knocked on the plain wooden door. The noise echoed a little and made him a little twitchy. He knocked a few more times but there was no response. The second house he approached he could have sworn he saw a curtain twitch but again no one answered the door. It wasn¡¯t until he reached the sixth house that he finally got a response. Even before he knocked a man yelled, ¡°Go away. We¡¯ve got our own religion.¡± ¡°What do you think I am? I am not trying to sell you religion, I want some help.¡± ¡°Help through prayers, is it? I¡¯ve heard it before. Bugger off!¡± Liam sighed under his breath. He had the feeling this is what it was like to be a door-to-door salesperson. ¡°I¡¯ve been attacked by giant rats and almost killed by a rogue taxi. Let me ask you something, is your electricity working?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t tell me that is because God is angry because of our sins? La de dah! You and your fancy god talk. Takes good care of you, does he? He has a golden piss-pot ready for you in Heaven?¡± ¡°I am not a Jehovah Witness. For fuck¡¯s sake try listening.¡± ¡°Maybe you¡¯re not but then giant rats are not real you know. You some conspiracy nut? You one of those people who rant about the government putting hallucinogens in our water? Do you sit in pubs telling everyone the world is going to end? Blokes like me just want to have a quiet drink. Now bugger off before I call the police.¡± Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Fucking hell,¡± Liam said. ¡°Fuck this!¡± He should have known better. He could have been on fire and the guy would think he was making it up. Liam was about to leave when he saw something coming down the streets. A lot of somethings. These were not rats. He pulled into the side yard - the gap between the houses - and watched as the creatures approached. Their approach was a shambolic, chaotic mess. The creatures were just over three foot tall on average and dressed in mismatch armour. The weapons they waved around were what could only be described as rusty shivs. They hopped, walked and danced around with gaping mouths and vacant stares. All except for the one in the centre. He was taller than the rest. instead of the usual furs and scraps of leather he had a rusty iron breastplate and an axe that actually had some shiny patches. He barked twice and some semblance of order took place. Liam didn¡¯t need an analyse skill to know what these creatures were. Goblins! They were a common trope in fantasy fiction. They were also universally despised except by a few. Goblins were notoriously stupid and immoral. They reminded him of his uncle Nigel. The idiot had tried setting his house on fire to claim the insurance money. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that he needed to exit the house before it burned down. That story never failed to bring a chuckle at family gatherings. Goblins broke off in smaller groups to go from house to house. Within seconds windows were broken and they swarmed inside the houses. Screams came from a couple of houses that sent shivers down Liam¡¯s spine. It was one thing to know humans had been killed it was another to have it happen in front of you. But what could he do? He would be swarmed within seconds. It was the rat situation all over again. Except this time, he wasn¡¯t trapped. He walked as quietly as he could through the side yard until he reached the concrete patio behind the houses. There he stopped. The wall at the back was eight foot high. He thought he could probably climb it and escape from this nightmare but he was torn. Even though he did not know the people who lived in these houses he could not stand by and watch them be slain. He wanted to survive but not at any cost. He ran to the garden wall. It was eight feet high but to his surprise he easily pulled himself up. Standing in the wall he was able to grasp onto a pipe at the side of the house and pull himself up.The pipe creaked alarmingly, but he was able to slowly inch up it. His heart beat quickly in his chest not only out of fear about what he was doing but also about how much time he was taking. He reaching the height of the second floor window. He grabbed the ledge and pulled himself onto. He steadied himself and then activated diamond nails. The spell activated more quickly this time. He bit down on the pain. He just needed a few seconds.He scraped one nail along the edge of the glass. The nail cut easily into the glass. He moved as quickly as he could - cutting the glass as close to the adage as possible. A large rectangle of glass fell forwards and crashed to the ground. The goblins noise was easily lost among the loud crashes from the goblins. Liam climbed through the window. Phase one complete. Now he had to get the grumpy man out of here. He saw that he was in a child¡¯s bedroom. The bed was literally covered in soft toys and there was a pink study desk in one corner which had rows upon rows of neatly arranged markers on it. To his right was a pastel blue book shelf stuffed to overflowing with books. He ran through the room and opened the door to see stairs leading down. At the bottom of the stairs was a middle-aged man wielding a large kitchen knife. A little girl still dress in pajamas was clinging to his side. ¡°Come with me if you want? to live,¡± Liam said. He had always wanted to say that. Chapter 5: Let sleeping dogs lie Chapter 5: Let sleeping dogs lie Liam cursed as the man just stood there holding the knife. He seemed to be frozen to the spot. ¡°Look, we have to get out of here. There are goblins outside.¡± This seemed to shake the man from his lethargy. ¡°Goblins? What sort of fool do you take me for? Well you¡¯d better scraper. The police are on the way?¡± ¡°Have you even looked out of the window? And how will the police get here? In their broken cars? Did you phone them with your phone that does not work?¡± The man spluttered for a bit and then looked around. ¡°It¡¯s just a power cut. That¡¯s all. You¡¯re scaring the girl. Get out of here.¡± ¡°I came here to save you. Look out of the window.¡± The man stepped back, dragging the girl with him, until he reacher the windows. With one last look at Liam he pulled back the curtain and looked out. ¡°What the hell are those?¡± ¡°Those are goblins. And they are not here to discuss religion.¡± ¡°Let them try. I gotta knife.¡± Liam sighed. He took a few steps down the stairs. The man turned back towards him brandishing the knife. ¡°You don¡¯t want to get close enough to a goblin for that knife to be useful.¡± ¡°What do you know?¡± ¡°I know that this is not just a power cut. Did you not get the messages? Did you get a class?¡± The man¡¯s mouth opened and then closed. :¡±Some sort of joke it was.¡± You got a class?¡± The man just looked at him. ¡°What class did you get?¡± Liam demanded. ¡°I didn¡¯t pick. Thought it was a joke. It was picked for me.¡± ¡°What class?¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Unbeliever.¡± ¡°Unbeliever? What sort of class is that?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know. All I know is it was uncommon.¡± Liam through for a moment. ¡°Look I am Liam. We can escape out the back, over the wall there. You coming with me.¡± The man hugged his daughter closer. ¡°I¡¯m Brian. This is Jessica. You don¡¯t even have a weapon.¡± Liam had left his rod behind when climbing. But he had other means to fight. ¡°Hopefully it won¡¯t come to a fight, if we leave now.¡± Their conversation was interrupted by a rock crashing through the window. ¡°Right now,¡± Liam screamed. He leapt down the remaining stairs. The man nodded and ran to the back where Liam expected the kitchen was. Through the kitchen they ran and then Brian opened the door and pushed the girl through. Liam cursed he had climbed the back of the house assuming the door was locked. He had not even thought of trying it. ¡°Come on,¡± Brian said. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡± Liam paused to look behind him. Goblins were climbing through the broken window. ¡°Yes let¡¯s.¡± He followed them through the door to the wall. The wall was eight feet tall. Liam knotted his hands together. ¡°Come on, Brian! You first.¡± He hoisted Brian up and with some effort managed to get him on top of the wall. Then he raised Jessica up until Brian was able to pull her up. As they jumped over to the other side a noise behind him caused him to turn around. Three goblins emerged from the house. They were short and spindly creatures and Liam could smell the stench of them from here. The two of them carried rusty shivs on their hands and on carried a short wooden spear - more of a pointy stick. Liam quickly activated diamond nails. As soon as he felt the pain he lunged at the closest goblin - the one with the spear. Hie tore the creature¡¯s throat open. He was then onto the next one. The goblins were surprised by his ferocity. One actually dropped his weapon and ran. The other held his hands in front of his face only for Liam to rip open its belly. Not waiting to see if there were any more coming Liam let go of the spell, turned and jumped - pulling himself over the wall in one quick movement. Again, he felt surprise at how the stat boost from earlier had increased his physical prowess. Brian and Jessica were standing close to the wall. A large ferocious dog slept outside its kennel five metres in front of them. ¡°Quietly,¡± Liam said. He motioned for them to walk around the dog. Safety lay that way. The escapee goblin was likely to bring more friends to the party and Liam wanted to be well clear of here when they arrived. They moved as quietly as they could around the dog. As they got closer Liam could see that it was not a pedigree. This was a dog that other dogs stayed well clear of. Near its head was a bowl that said ¡°Puffy¡± and a chew toy with its head missing. They were almost in the clear when a soft growl sounded. Liam¡¯s heart rate raised a couple of notches and he took a side glance at the dog. It still looked to be sleeping though soft growls still emanated from its mouth. Liam ushered the others to keep moving but another sound from the other side of the wall stopped them. This sound was more high pitched and chattery. ¡°Move,¡± Liam said in a soft voice. ¡°They are coming.¡± His eyes were fixed on the wall. He looked around to see that Brian and Jessica had not moved. A band of goblins were now standing in the way of their escape. From the corner of his eye, Brian could see heads appear over the wall. ¡°Shit!¡± he said eloquently. Chapter 6: Whos a good boy! Chapter 6: Who''s a good boy? Liam turned to face the goblins blocking their escape. He quickly looked at his status screen to find he still had about fifty mana points yet. He had not worked out the regeneration rate but he prayed that it was sufficient for this battle. ¡°Brian, did you get any class spells or techniques?¡± ¡°I got one. It¡¯s called disbelief.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t suppose you know what it does?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Well try it anyway?¡± ¡°How do I do that?¡± ¡°Just focus on the spell or whatever and the group in front of us and really want it to happen. Really, want it to happen.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake, Brian. Just do it!¡± Liam could not see that three goblins had climber over the fence. They were looking warily at the sleeping dog. Clearly they were only confident in numbers. Liam thought they would not attack until they had more support. He didn¡¯t see what happened, but Brian fell to his knees. The goblins in front of them were looking at each other in bewilderment. One of them even started to go back where they came from. Liam decided it was time to use his own untried ability howl. He focused on it and a second later a loud noise came from his throat. The sound was a primordial sound that echoed through the garden. The goblins looked even more frightened, especially when the dog¡¯s head came up and it started sniffing at the air. Its growl became a snarl as it looked from Liam¡¯s group to the goblin¡¯s group. With a violent lunge it jumped at the nearest goblin and sunk its teeth into its head. With a violent wrench the dog bit through its neck. Blood sprayed everywhere. The dog let go of the limp goblin and started to stalk towards the others at the fence. ¡°Attack,¡± Liam yelled. He cast his diamond nail spell while running at the goblins who were looking even more confused. The first did not even react as Liam clawed at its face. Blood streamed from a ripped off cheek. Liam pushed it away into the path of another goblin and attacked the next. The goblins surprise had worn off now. This goblin had time to thrust its rusty blade at Liam. Liam dodged the attack and kicked out. The kick hit its knee and the goblin staggered to his left. Liam than slashed wildly at the creature like a comic book hero. His nails hit the goblin with a sickening crunch. It fell limply to the ground. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. A grunt of pain escaped Liam as pain surged through his back. He turned to find a small goblin had blind sided him and struck him with its pointy stick. He was about to slash out when Brian stabbed it in the back. There was now only one goblin left standing in front of them, apart from the one¡¯s bleeding out on the floor. The goblin backed away until it was near the patio door. Liam could feel the time left on his spell ticking away. Screams and snarls from behind told him that the dog was winning its own fight. He was about to make a desperate lunge when the door opened and a rolling pin armed woman split the goblin¡¯s head open. The creature sank to the floor. Brian was the first to the body. He sank his knife into the neck. ¡°Brian is that you?¡± the woman said. Liam could see that she was middle aged and her from her skin colour looked to be of Indian heritage. ¡°Hey Misha. Sorry to disturb you.¡± Jessica ran over to hug Brian¡¯s leg. Tears were dripping down her face. ¡°Jessica, you look like you¡¯ve had a fright poor thing. Oh my, look at the mess. Those things stepped on my flower bed. Sanjeev will be really pissed off. And whose going to clear these bodies away.¡± She looked around to see the dog feasting on one of the corpses. ¡°Buffy, get away from that dirty thing.¡± ¡°Buffy?¡± Liam said. ¡°It thought it was Puffy. The bowl said...¡± ¡°We ordered it from Temu. Always loved watching Buffy when I was a girl.¡± Liam could see goblins looking over the wall but clearly none of them dared face the dog. Not after it already did a number on three of their comrades. The dog came over to the woman. Its muzzle dripped blood and saliva. The woman reached down to pat it. ¡°Coochee, coochee! There¡¯s a good puppy.¡± Puppy? Liam thought. The dog actually looked bigger than before. Its shoulder were as high as the woman¡¯s waist. Maybe it had levelled up. He quickly looked at his own menu to find he too had levelled up. His diamond nails spell now said 10% too. He wondered what that meant. But they did not time for this. Even if the goblins were scaredy creatures they would definitely attack soon. Plus who knew what else was coming. They needed to find a secure place. ¡°We need to get out of here,¡± Liam said. ¡°There are more of those creatures coming.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t leave until Sanjeev gets home,¡± Misha said. ¡°He¡¯ll want his tea.¡± ¡°We can¡¯t fight them all off,¡± Liam said. ¡°Why don¡¯t we find Sanjeev? Where does he work?¡± ¡°He works at the school. He¡¯s a physics teacher. It¡¯s just about half a mile down the road.¡± Liam nodded. ¡°That sounds good.¡± London school were built like prisons and for similar reasons. If anything the school sounded like a defensible place. He looked at the woman who was still wearing her house slippers. ¡°You might want to change your shoes. And maybe you have a better weapon than the rolling pin.¡± She looked at the blood on the rolling pin and laughed. ¡°I think I can find something better.¡± She disappeared into the house. It was a few heart stopping minutes before she reappeared wearing hiking boots and wearing what looked to be a machete. On her back was a big rucksack. She saw him eyeing the weapon. ¡°Sanjeev liked to keep a few just in case. Never used them but he does keep them clean. I also brought some things along. You never know. And Ranjeev will want a change of clothes.¡± ¡°Did you get a class by chance?¡± Liam asked. She smiled at him looking over a decade younger. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what was happening. But we all have dreams you know. I chose Bengali Huntress. It allowed me to have a pet.¡± She reached down to ruffle the neck of Buffy¡¯s nape. ¡°Guess who¡¯s mummy¡¯s little pet then?¡±