I automatically picked another olive from the jar and popped it into my mouth while my mind churned at high speed, trying to square the circle.
Unfortunately, Luke didn't give me the time I needed to find that brilliant idea.
He ran into the other room and came back with a gun in his hands: a double-barreled shotgun. A museum piece, really. Something that deserved a place behind glass.
Still deadly at close range.
Oh shit.
Two of the approaching orcs were level four. One was level five. I had identified them the moment they entered my domain.
A shotgun blast would be debilitating—possibly devastating—for creatures at that level.
And the end result would be like kicking a hornet’s nest.
My mana raced over the weapon, instinctively analyzing it, searching for options. Luke stepped in front of the window, raising the gun.
For a heartbeat I considered fusing the bullets to the barrels.
No. Too slow. Too imprecise.
I was still far too inexperienced with that kind of spell. More likely I’d make the whole thing explode in his hands.
So I chose the only option my stressed mind could think of and detonated the two shells before he could properly take aim.
The noise was deafening.
A concussive boom slammed through the room, immediately followed by the shriek of shattering glass as the window exploded in a storm of shards, the sudden blast stunning everyone.
Luke froze, staring at the weapon.
Annie clamped her hands over her ears and burst into tears.
Ilse dove behind her chair.
The pellets slammed into the opposite house’s roof, sending red dust and broken tiles flying and punching a ragged hole straight through, sky visible on the other side.
I swallowed hard and popped another olive into my mouth.
The orcs halted their advance.
After a few seconds of hesitation, one of them turned back while the other two split up, trying to approach the house from both sides.
I blinked.
“Are these two suicidal?” I muttered. “They heard that and still come at us?”
The next moment, the front door burst open and Sean and Nora tumbled into the living room.
Nora stumbled, almost fell, and clipped my arm as she rushed past, sloshing olive brine from the glass.
Sean skidded to a halt, breathing hard, eyes darting.
“Shoot them! Shoot them!” Nora screamed while scrambling in behind Ilse.
Luke spun away from the window to face them.
“You crazy bitch!” he shouted. “Why did you bring them to my house?!”
Sean raised both hands.
“Calm down,” he said. Then added, pointing past the window, “Our enemies are the orcs.”
“You!” Luke roared, rounding on him.
For a few seconds they grappled, Sean grabbing for the shotgun while Luke tried to wrench it back, both of them stumbling and shoving.
Annie was screaming now.
Nora snapped toward her.
“Oh, shut up!”
Luke instantly released the weapon and rushed to Annie, scooping her up.
“Don’t yell at her!” he shouted at Nora, then turned to the girl.
“It’s okay, Annie. Don’t cry. Don’t cry,” he said urgently. He tried to set her down and gently push her back. “Go hide in your place.”
But Annie clung to him, shaking, refusing to let go.
The crash of breaking glass and the clatter of shards hitting the floor came from the room to the right. That had to be the orc who’d circled behind the house.
The other one appeared in front of the shattered living-room window.
Sean swung the shotgun toward him and pulled the trigger.
Click. Empty.
The orc chuckled and started climbing through the window, unconcerned by the jagged glass biting into his palm. His hardened skin limited the damage to a shallow cut.
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Sean recoiled in panic and swung the gun at the orc. Ilse screamed and clapped her hands over her eyes. Nora yanked open the door to the room on the left.
I still had an olive in my hand.
I pinched it, hardened it with a flick of mana, and snapped my fingers.
The olive shot forward and struck the orc squarely in the left eye. At the same moment, he wrenched the gun from Sean’s hands.
As he tried to jump through, the impact threw off his balance. He howled in surprise, slammed his shoulder into the window frame, and tumbled backward dragging the gun with him.
Sean turned and ran away, stumbled into Nora, who hadn’t moved fast enough. Together they crashed through the open doorway and hit the floor inside what was Luke’s storage room with racks of preserved food and neatly stacked water bottles lining the walls.
I tilted my head, mildly surprised by the effectiveness of my olive shot, and automatically reached for another from the jar, absently chewing the one already in my mouth.
Ilse snapped out of her frozen stare and turned in panic toward the room on the right, where heavy thuds announced the second orc forcing its way inside.
Through my domain, I saw Sean and Nora scrambling to their feet in the other room. Sean bolted to a window and shoved it open.
Luke shoved Annie behind Ilse’s chair and turned to face the orc now entering the living room.
The orc roared—a deep, bone-rattling sound—ignored me completely, and charged straight at Luke.
I hesitated about blasting it; that felt excessive. None of the orcs had carried weapons. They were fighting with bare hands.
Luke and the orc slammed into each other, grappling. For a brief moment Luke held his ground—then the orc broke his stance, hooked Luke’s head under his armpit, and clamped his left hand around Luke’s free arm, pinning it.
Luke’s face was already reddening, his breathing hard. He tried to hit the orc in the back with the other hand, but his hits didn't faze the orc who only pressed harder.
Annie whimpered.
Ilse grabbed the broom with trembling hands.
The orc hurled Luke to the ground and hit his plexus with his knee. The air burst from Luke’s lungs in a harsh wheeze.
It dropped on top of him, straddling his torso and pinning his arms to the floor.
Ilse swung the broom wildly.
The strike clipped the hanging lamp. Glass exploded in a glittering shower.
The second strike smashed into the orc’s head.
I flicked my wrist.
The olive—again hardened with mana—whistled through the air and struck the back of the orc’s neck.
The orc went limp and collapsed onto Luke like a two-hundred-fifty-pound sack of meat.
In the other room, Sean and Nora scrambled through the window and vanished.
“I… I… I knocked him out?” Ilse whispered, staring at the orc.
Luke shoved at the orc’s weight, struggling to breathe. He lifted his head toward Annie.
“The pipeline,” he rasped.
Annie went still. Then she nodded once and sprinted toward the room on the right, the way the orc had come.
The entry door slammed inward, one hinge tearing loose as it flew open. The orc from the window burst inside, his left eye visibly swollen and half-closed.
Ilse gasped, clutching the broom with trembling hands. Luke was still struggling to get upright.
To my surprise, Ilse charged.
The orc roared.
Luke struck from below, half-standing, driving a fist into the orc’s belly.
The blow barely slowed him.
The orc seized Ilse’s broom in his left hand—... and I sent another olive.
It flew straight into his open mouth as he roared.
He choked, gagging, struggling to draw breath, shoving Luke aside as his gaze snapped toward me.
I calmly took another olive from the jar.
Meanwhile, Annie dragged a small chair in front of the window, climbed onto it, then hopped down and darted to the bed—snatching up a plush bear.
I still hadn’t activated
Finally, he tried to identify me.
I felt the mana ripple pass over me, and his eyes went wide.
I tilted my head and gave him a grin.
His round eyes dropped to the olive in my hand while he was still desperately choking, his face flushed red.
Ilse struck him again with the broom with all her strength.
That seemed to help—he finally spat the olive out.
But instead of turning on her, he turned and bolted away without looking back, leaving his unconscious companion in the middle of the room.
Annie was already jumping out of the window when Luke finally stood while Sean and Nora were running as fast as they could, going to soon approach the limits of my domain.
"We... we... we chased them" Ilse mumbled
Luke rubbed his neck.
Ilse huffed.
“Huh. They’re not that scary,” she muttered, then turned toward me. “You could have done something!”
Luke shot me a glance.
“Leave her. She’s fear-frozen,” he said, then turned back to Ilse. “They’ll come back with reinforcements. We have to run.”
“Do we kill him?” Ilse asked, pointing at the fallen orc.
Luke shook his head.
“No. We run.”
He dashed into the next room, came back with a backpack, and sprinted toward the window Annie had escaped through. She was already near the pipeline.
I followed. Ilse came after me.
Luke glanced outside but couldn’t see Annie—she was already hiding inside the pipeline.
“Annie,” he whispered, and jumped.
His head struck the window sill with a dull thud. He landed awkwardly on the other side, staggered, then ran toward the pipeline anyway.
I slipped one last olive into my mouth, left the empty jar on the window sill, and jumped through after him.
Ilse followed, still talking, but I barely heard her as Lili’s vision flooded my mind.
A whole platoon of orcs was approaching, with a couple of casters among them.