by Gregory Loui
“True. Therefore you need to get yourself to safety, right now!” barked the Dean, pulling Gore towards the exit.
Narrowing her gaze on the Magnum Orcus’s core, Gore shook the Dean off, snarling, “No. I need to get the core.”
“No invention’s worth your life, Gore. You made one core. You can make another,” hissed the Dean. Then the rafters started falling down around them. The ground shook under Gore’s feet as parts of the floor fell away. “Shit… come on!”
“Jagd that. I need that blood gem. It’s more important than me,” growled Gore as she lunged forward, just dodging a falling rafter. She turned around, looked through the flames. The Dean glared at her. Backing away, Gore hissed, “I’m good with flames. Save everyone else instead!”
The Dean opened his mouth to speak but instead shrill shrieks of students filled the air instead. Then the roar of beasts joined the mess. Gore glanced to the right. The flames caught on the cage of the dragons, melting the metal. The beasts ripped free from their shackles. Crimson flames dark as blood burst out of the dragons’ maws to further spread the flames.
“Shit,” cursed the Dean, glaring at Gore for a single, frozen moment before he turned away and burst into the shadows, tearing through the flames to save the others.
Good man, Gore noted as she turned to her own problem. The Magnum Orcus’s core lay just a few feet away, walled off from Gore by the flames. The heat driving her back, Gore cursed. Then she sighed in relief. Sparks spilled around the core, catching on the presentation slides and the tarp but not the core itself. A small shield of red glint-power rippled around the black box.
Deep breath.
Ignoring the flames, Gore cursed as she bulldozed her way through the flaming ruins. Brittle metal and wood broke apart around her, hundreds of shards and splinters imbedding themselves into her flesh. Not enough to stop her.
Gore almost crashed into the cart as she dove for the black box. Her fingers smashed into the burnished metal, sending the core flying through the air, dancing atop Gore’s fingers as she chased the core. Then she snarled and extended her claws, the tips sinking into the black box, glint-power crackling and biting at Gore’s body. Gore snarled and clenched her fist tight, ignoring the pain and focusing on her prize as she rolled through the flames.
“Thank whoever’s out there,” murmured Gore as she struggled back onto her feet. The smoke swirled around her, sinking ethereal claws into her throat as she staggered around, blinking ash from her eyes. “Blight.”
Then Gore realized the exit lay on the other side of the ballroom. She cursed and began hopping and sliding and jumping her way through the wreckages, dodging exploding inventions and ramming her way through the rest. Her eyes focused past the screaming students running in front of her and milling around the exit, focusing on the light slashing through the flames and shadows.
Just a hundred feet to go.
But her good luck had to end some time.
Sliding to a halt, smashing into a broken task of water, steam curling around her, Gore snarled as one of dragons caught sight of her. The scaled beast landed a few feet away. A tremor shook the ground, sending Gore sprawling to the ground. As she picked herself up, Gore examined the dragon. The genetically modified beast, as big as the Magnum Orcus, reared up. Green and purple flaps rose out from either side of its neck as the dragon screeched. Flames danced within its maw. Gore snarled and clenched her fist tight. The future split in front of Gore. Die screaming as fires engulfed her back or die fighting a dragon as fires engulfed her front.
Easy choice.
Gore screamed and lunged forward.
But before she could manage even a step, a dark mass of swirling bats plunged down from the shadows above. Then the Dean exploded from the dark mass and sucker-punched the dragon in the face. The dragon collapsed without even a whimper.
“Don’t you jagding dare touch my students!” hissed the Dean through a mouthful of jagged fangs, nodding to Gore before zooming away to deal with the other dragons. He disappeared into a shower of flames.
Gore blinked then slapped her head. Scratch good man. Jagding awesome instead. She smiled and jumped back onto her feet. Most of the other students had already burst through and had exited the ballroom. But a few milled around the exit, a fallen rafter blocking their rescue. The students’ scream pounded against Gore’s head while she tried to shake her head and clear away the pain.
She would have to just deal with it.
“Jagding shit,” growled Gore as she sprinted through the chaos, dodging dragon fire, explosions and writhing shadows. The Dean did well but how long could one vampire last against a dozen dragons?
Then Gore burst through a upturned table and shoved away the students. As they screamed at the sight of her, Gore snarled, “Either help me or jagd off.”
Without another word, Gore’s hands wrapped around the burning piece of wood. Squeezing every muscle in her body tight, the orc summoned all her strength and lifted over a ton of stupid wood away from the exit. Fresh air spilled around Gore. A cool breeze danced across Gore’s face as the rest of her body burned. The wood seared into her hands, her flesh and blood bubbling and boiling.
“Shit. Jagd. Jagd you all,” growled Gore as she shifted her body under the rafter, placing the weight onto her shoulders. She then turned to the student around her and barked, “Go! Now! What are you waiting for?”
The students didn’t need encouragement, rushing around Gore into the fresh air.
Grunting, cursing as the last students squirmed past her to safety, Gore slid her foot forward.
Just a little more to freedom.
“Gore!” cried a familiar voice, twisted by pain and panic.
Sighing, Gore turned around to see Tawny reaching out from under a pile of rubble and fallen rafters. Gore scowled. She weighed her options, turning towards the fresh air, to safety. Just a little bit more to freedom…
“Please, help!” screamed Tawny again.
Gore ground her tusks together. Blight… she turned to leave Tawny behind. Let her— then the Wildfires that burned down her old home flashed in front of Gore. The screaming faces of her friends flickered in those fires. No one deserved to go that way. In that moment, Tawny was not a bully. She was not an elf. She was not a villain. She was just a person in need.
“Jagding shit. Don’t you dare,” growled Gore as she sighed and looked around. No one else still remained inside the ballroom.
Gore looked above. The Dean was still embroiled with battling the dragon. No… the Dean probably wouldn’t be able to save Tawny in time. No one else could save Tawny.
“Jagd. Jagd. Jagd,” growled Gore, shaking her head as she looked to the exit at anyone brave enough to plunge back into the flames. Not even a single soul stepped forward. Not one of the dozens of students. Not one of the teachers. “No. No. No… damn you. Damn you all.”
Though, Gore glanced at the fires… she gnashed her teeth.
Then Debbie burst past her.
“Hold the door!” barked Debbie before Gore’s arm snagged the dwarf and threw her back to safety.
“Fine! I’ll do it!” snarled Gore as she made her choice. “Stay back!”
“But—”
“I’m stronger,” growled Gore. What a stupid twist of fate. Gore smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back.”
It was her fault. Her price to pay.
Fitting.
Reaching down, Gore grabbed a piece of the broken door and jammed it under the burning rafter. The metal crumpled but headed at the last moment. Better than nothing. Gore sighed and then let go of the rafter, running back into the flames. The heat washed against her, searing into her flesh and heart.
Gore grit her teeth and barreled through the chaos, cursing all the way as molten metal and burning wood splattered against her skin. More and more of the ceiling collapsed all around her while entire sections of the floor collapsed. She didn’t have much time left before the entire place fell down.
&nbs
p; Damn everything, Gore growled to herself, dodging to the side to avoid a shower of sparks. Then she rolled to the other side just in time to escape a gasp of superheated steam. But before Gore could even catch a breath, she dove forward, escaping a dragon slamming down just an inch away from her. The beast shook its entire body, sending stays of embers and flames at Gore before taking off to rejoin the battle against the Dean.
Damn this whole school for having such shit fire systems. Damn the students for having no sense of honor or courage. But most of all, damn her own hero complex.
“Because obviously none of the fire-proof dwarves are available,” hissed Gore as she snatched up a piece of metal jutting out of the ground. Then she snapped off a pipe as long as she was tall in her other hand. Flailing the two makeshift weapons about, Gore smashed her way through the falling debris. “Blight. Jagding blight.”
Lowering her shoulder, Gore burst through the remains of a presentation stand. She slid to a halt a few feet from Tawny.
The elf’s wide eyes glittered in the glowing darkness, reaching out for Gore as she cried, “Quick! Help me!”
Gore, shuddering, almost reached forward to grab Tawny’s hand when she paused and looked at the mountain of debris pinning the elf down. Lines of stress bulged bright as the fallen rafters shifted. The paths of energy. Her eyes widened and flashed white.
“Shit.”
“What?” asked Tawny with fading gasps, clawing the air, reaching for Gore’s hand.
“If I pull you out now, this whole pile will crash down, taking the rest of the building with it,” growled Gore, taking a step back. She shook her head to clear the smoke from her mind. “Blight…”
“Please. Don’t leave me,” pleaded Tawny, tears steaming on her cheek. The elf gasped, “I don’t want to die. Please…”
As more and more rafters fell down around them, Gore grit her teeth and closed her eyes. A choice stood in front of her. Either let Tawny die and save herself or try to save Tawny and doom the rest of the school. Neither sounded pleasant.
Then Gore snapped her gaze open and decided, dropping the piece of metal in her right hand, clenching her fists tight around the metal pipe.
“Just stay still,” snarled Gore as she narrowed her eyes and stepped forward, planting one foot next to Tawny’s head. Gore raised the pipe high into the air. “Close your eyes if you like.”
“By the Leaf. No! No! What are you doing? Do you hate me that much? Please no! Don’t kill me!” gasped Tawny, her eyes bulging and hands clawing the ground. Gore shook her head and focused.
“Shut up.”
She only had one shot.
“Shit! Shit! Sorry, I’m sorry. Just don’t kill me. I’ll do anything. Just don’t kill me!” Tawny screamed. Gore took in a deep breath.
Then Gore plunged the pipe right next to Tawny’s neck, sinking the jagged piece of metal deep into the earth and rafters. Gore twisted the pipe to the side, lifting up the rafter for a moment while she reached forward and ripped Tawny out from under the pile, throwing the elf onto Gore’s back like a sack of rice.
“Oh,” gasped Tawny, breath tickling Gore’s ears.
Gore turned around and sprinted towards the exit.
“Jagding idiots, not understanding structural engineering and crap,” growled Gore, ignoring all else. She focused all her strength into her legs, barreling forward through every obstacle. Her rage unleashing through her veins. Unstoppable. Unbreakable.
She needed to get some of her anger out.
Might as well vent on the inanimate objects jagding blocking her path.
Her claws wrapped around Tawny’s arms, holding the elf tight. Gore lowered her head, closing her eyes as more and more sparks sprayed down around the two. A massive object whistled above. Gore looked up just in time. She snarled as a dragon dive bombed from above. Gore growled, curling back her lips and curling one hand into a fist, leaping to the side just as the dragon swooped down. She snapped out her leg like kicking a bloat ball and smashed her steel toed boot right into the dragon’s neck.
Cartilage crunched above Gore’s boot as she pivoted on her foot and reach out to grab one of the dragon’s frills. Her claws sinking deep into dragon flesh, her rage filling her hand with unbridled strength beyond flesh and blood, Gore whipped the dragon around her head, throwing it to the side. The dragon smashed through a row of inventions. Then lay there, motionless.
“Damn,” murmured Tawny as Gore sank to her knees, “How did I ever think I could survive a fight with you?”
“I went easy on you guys,” growled Gore. She tried to regain her breath. She planted her fist in the ground. She glanced up. The Dean and the dragons’ battle neared its conclusion.
The dragons swirled around the Dean in a whirlwind of flesh and fury, flames bursting from their jaws before they lunged as one for the Dean’s throat. Only to find shadows instead. The Dean rose up in a cloud of bats and dark mist, reforming above the dragons. As the dragons shook their heads and gathered themselves, the Dean raised his hands high. Unleashing a wave of dark magic, shadows spilling around his fist, the Dean sliced through the rest of the ballroom’s support.
After a chorus of groans and shuddering, the rest of the rafters fell down, smashing into the dragons and into the floor around Gore.
“Oh Blight… for jagd’s sake,” growled Gore as she lunged to the side. A piece of rafter twice Gore’s size smashed into the place where she’d been standing. “You’ve got to be jagding shitting me.”
“Um…”
“Yes. I swear a lot. It’s a coping mechanism. You wanna fight me about it?” asked Gore, scrambling to her feet and plowing through a rafter. She stumbled, her feet all of sudden made of lead, gasping for breath, exhaustion hitting her in a wave. Damn. Not the greatest idea to talk in a freaking conflagration. She couldn’t breath. Her lungs cracked within her. Her throat filled with sand paper. Even orc lungs had their limits…
The world of flames and shadows swirling around her, Gore narrowed her eyes on the exit.
Just a hundred feet away.
Summoning her last bit of strength, opening her spare fuel tank, Gore took another step.
As the rafter above the exit rumbled, shivered and fell down.
“Shit… wait,” growled Gore. Her legs shook beneath her. The orc narrowed her eyes as the rafter slowed its descent.
A figure staggered under the rafter, that rainbow hair glittering in the sunlight, blazing as a beacon of hope.
“Gore!” screamed Debbie’s voice, pulling Gore out from the darkness and exhaustion, igniting the last bit of strength within the orc. “Come on! You can do it!”
“Jagd it,” growled Gore as she pounded her chest and focused all her rage, all her emotions into a single action.
She took a step forward. Then another. Then Gore’s legs pounded against the ground as the orc sprinted toward the exit. The floor breaking beneath her feet, rafters falling all around her, Gore didn’t look behind her, focusing only on her and Debbie.
Just a little bit more.
A rafter smashed down just an inch away. Gore spun to the side.
“Come on!” screamed Debbie, her entire body trembled as the rafter broke apart around her hands.
Shadows swirled around Gore, hands congealing around her waist as Gore regained her footing and continued sprinting.
“You can make it!” cried Debbie.
Just a step more.
Flames licked at Gore’s legs.
Tawny’s nails digging into her neck, Gore lunged forward, sliding across the burning ground next to Debbie’s feet. The dwarf’s legs flying out from under her, Debbie landed on Gore’s back and Tawny as the orc pulled herself into a roll.
Into the sunlight and safety.
“Blight…” gasped Gore as she rolled to a stop on the grassy quad. She glanced around to see Debbie on one side and Tawny on the other. Then Gore turned her gaze upwards. The burning ballroom loomed above her. Gore closed her eyes, sighing, “Blight…”<
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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Ten Minute Retirement
“Is Tawny going to be all right?” asked Debbie as Gore stared through the hospital window at the bed within.
Blight… rubbing her temples, rubbing off the layer of soot still clinging to her even after twenty showers, Gore shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to shut out the sterile-hospital glare. Then she opened her eyes again. On one side of the orc, stood Debbie while on the other stood the Dean. Both had dragged Gore along on their tour of pain, ending with Tawny. All three stood on the outside of a hospital room, staring through the glass as Fin and team of nurses attended to Tawny’s thrashing form. Threads of magic spilled through the air, weaving into a cocoon around the elf.
Seeing Tawny in pain should have filled Gore with pleasure but instead, a hollow pit rested in her gut. As if someone had carved out her innards. She’d gotten exactly what she wanted but couldn’t stomach her own bile.
Gore closed her senses to the world, trying to sort through her own thoughts.
But then screams echoed through the mire of Gore’s thoughts, through the glass.
Gore blinked back into the sterile light, her gaze focusing on Tawny still thrashing in the hospital bed.
No. This was not a dream. This was all too real.
Gore looked to the side as one of her companions answered her.
“I don’t know. The dragon flames did extensive damage,” murmured the Dean as he scratched his arms and popped in a few pills. “Modern medicine and magic is so advanced but…” The Dean sighed and reached out to pat Gore on the shoulder. Gore didn’t respond. “You did good, though, Missy. Lucky you pulled her out when you did. Otherwise she’d have died in there.”
Nodding as she rubbed her hands together, Gore gulped. Despite the Dean’s warm approval, Gore’s victory soured with Tawny’s screams in the background.
Debbie’s hand pressed against Gore’s arm, then wrapped around the orc’s bicep and pulled her down. Raising an eyebrow, Gore turned to look into Debbie’s eyes. Those big, brown eyes. Then Debbie hopped up to whisper into Gore’s ears, “You gotta take the small victories when you can get them, right? You said that. You can’t get hung up on things you can’t control.”