They looked out from the tunnel into the cavern that held the mysterious goblin town. The buildings were illuminated by a strange light that seemed to shine down from the ceiling. “Where is that coming from?” Victoria asked.

“There must be a lichen up there illuminating the area.” Sunny replied as she looked on at the buildings in the distance. The first of the buildings lay about thirty feet from the tunnels mouth. Under the glow of the light the building looked old and weathered. “It's like a ghost town.” Se commented as she though on what she saw.

“What's the plan?” Victoria asked her mentor hoping the woman had a better idea of what they faced than she did.

The older woman stood in thought then gave a resigned sigh. “Well I think we need to give them an old number six.”

“Whats a number six?”

Lacie spoke up. “that's where we go into town, a whampin' and whompin' every livin' thing that moves within an inch of its life.”

“And after they are down?” The teen asked in confusion.

“Then we kill the shit out of them.” Sunny said cackling like a madwoman.

“I think we should have more of a plan than just kill everything and let the system sort them out” Victoria said in disgust at the seeming bloodthirstiness of the two women.

“Oh, don’t worry that's not the entirety of the plan. The buildings look like they are old dry wood. We will run to the first building go in then killed whomever is there and light it on fire then we will run into the alley over there away from it and wait for the crows to gather and then while they are engaged fighting the fire start killing them from behind.” Sunny said.

“Instead of that. Victoria countered how about we work our way through each building keeping our enemy separated and destroy them in detail letting us outnumber the majority of them?” Victoria said in rebuttal, “That way there is more of us than them and we have the added bonus of an easier fight and being less likely to be killed.”

“You don’t like fighting against overwhelming odds?” Lacie asked in surprise.

“No, I much prefer having the odds ever in my favor.” She replied tartly. “So we clean them out building by building then we get out of here and check on Karen and hope she isn’t dead yet,” Victoria replied. Almost as soon as she finished they were running for the closest structure. As they drew closer Victoria saw that what she had thought was wood was actually a thin weathered Stone with striations much like wood. The dashed into the first structure the entry door already open. Victoria saw that the goblin reach for something on its hip as she came in. Her mentor had already launched a series of slashes with her knife. Victoria followed up with her energy darts that exploded across the creatures chest. With a gurgling cry the goblin dropped to the dirt-encrusted floor of the building.

“Let's loot as we go,” Sunny said as she reached down to remove the leather belt at the monster waist, only to draw back in surprise when she saw what she had at first thought was a sheath contained. “What the— “ The older woman started to say as she drew out the item inside the weapons holster. “How did it get a pistol.” She asked rhetorically.

Victoria looked on the reached for the weapon in the older woman's hand. “May I?” She asked as she scooped it out of her hand then began to examine it. “Yesterday Erasmus and I saw a frame for a pistol someone had made. He thought it was bronze.” Sunny drew in her breath sharply. “It's hard to tell—” She said then gestured and a small ball of soft white light appeared positioned so she could better examine the weapon. “Note the yellowish-brown of the metal? Its some form of bronze.” She then opened the cylinder.

“They’ve never had firearms before. None of the monsters have. This—” Sunny started as she looked at the weapon in horror.

“Good news this one only has five rounds,” Victoria said holding up one of the small cartridges.

“We have to report this.” Sunny said her voice flat in dawning fear. “This changes things. We aren’t equipped to deal with monsters that can shoot at us.”

Victoria looked at her mentor and thought to herself. I bet you wished we’d gone back now.

Quest update; Save the cheerleader;

Sometimes the life you save may be your own.

You receive 100 XP

“Stupid system,” Victoria said as she looked at her notification.

“What?” lacey and Sunny said at the same time.

“Quest notification.” She replied. “Looks like this is still part of the same quest chain to save the cheerleader.”

“So I guess we had better get to killing.” Lacie beamed. “Sometimes that's the best part of a quest.”

“See I knew it would all work out.” Sunny said with a radiant smile. Victoria gave the older woman a scowl. “What? No seriously.” Lets go we need to clear the next building. The teenager looked out of the building to the next structure further down. The front that faced the street was lined with tall windows that faced out onto a wooden porch.

“It almost looks like an old country store.” She remarked. “The only thing missing is the barrels of tools and other dry goods.”

“Let's go,” Sunny said loud enough for the women to hear but not to carry too far down the street. Victoria raced across pushing herself flat against the alley wall. The others arrived in a few moments. “How many?” Sunny asked in a stage whisper.

Victoria peaked in the window then ducked back down. “Two but one is really big.”

“What do you mean?” Sunny asked as Lacie took a quick look for herself.

“Oh library, that's not a goblin that's an orc.” The pixie quietly exclaimed.

A concerned look came over Sunny’s face as she made her way to the door and motioned the others to follow. As they burst through the door the orc whirled on them drawing a jagged sword. “Hunter’s” It roared as it lashed out and grasped the diminutive goblin by the neck. “You told me we would be safe.” Victoria conjured energy darts that lashed at his body.

‘What are you doing here beast.” Sunny demanded of the monster.

He lunged at her in reply. His sword lashing out. Victoria saw the goblin scrabbling at a holster on his side as he too drew a weapon. She didn’t recognize the type of gun he held in his grubby hand but its deadly intent was made as he drew and fired the stubby weapon. She dove and let loose with her own energy darts. “Finish this quick—” Sunny said as she dodged the orc's weapon. “Lacie guard the door and let us know when others come. “Victoria kill the goblin.” Something the teenager was already attempting to do.

The goblin reacted in typical goblin fashion, it thrust out the weapon in the general direction of the target and flinched its head away as it started jerking on the trigger. The four remaining bullets sprayed around the room one struck Victoria in her left shoulder. She saw a notification begin flashing but she ignored it as she felt the waves of pain wash over her. “That tears it, they know we are here now.” Sunny roared as she slashed at the large orc before her. Fortunately for Sunny the orc had also been a victim of the goblins inaccurate fire and stumbled on a leg wounded by the little monster.

For her part Victoria blasted at the goblin as it tried to flee but once more her energy darts caught it and blasted it in the side and back as it tried to flee. The gun it wielded clattered to the floor of the room. “Yargg.” It bellowed as it collapsed under her magical assault. Turning she sent pulses of energy into the orc even as Sunny’s blade sliced through it throat.

“Now that was just wasteful,” Sunny said looking at her teenage charge. “I already had him dead to rights. You should have held back your strike since we know there are more of them coming.”

“I’m sorry,” Victoria said contritely. “I thought I should make sure he was dead.” The older woman nodded in understanding.

“For now try to conserve your mana.” She then noticed the torn flesh of her shoulder.”He hit you?”

“The goblins.”Victoria nodded. “I think my healing spell will take care of it. But I guess I’m a first.”

“A first?” Sunny asked.

“The first human to be shot by a goblin.” Lacie chimed in giggling. “Tis but a flesh wound fight on.” She said.

“Oh god, not python. Anything but a Monty Python fan.” Sunny sighed exasperatedly. “Where are those others.”

“The street is quiet right now.” The fairy said shrugging her shoulders. “There should be time for you to loot.” The room was filled with meager resources. Boxes bales and bags. Victoria first recovered the goblins dropped firearm then searched the deliquescing body for the ammunition she knew should be there. In a pouch she found ten reloads which she used and then stashed the remainder in her storage.

“This is not good.” She heard sunny say from where she searched the orcs body.

“What's not good?” Victoria asked as she turned to look. The older woman was holding up a long rifle she had taken from a crate on the floor. “The goblins were arming the orcs. Okay, new plan. No more Mrs nice Hunter. From here on the plan is we burn it all down. Kill everyone and get the hell home with these.” She said brandishing a firearm. Victoria nodded in agreement, what they had found altered the balance of power in the fight against the monsters. Even as they started to rise there came a sudden crash from the rear of the structure. The women heard a hissing flare as a bright light landed among the pile of goods stored there. With a whoosh several of the sacks caught fire. Even before Sunny could yell her warning Lacie had exited the building “Everybody out.” yelled the older woman as Victoria made a dash for the exit.

As she struck the ground clods of dirt were thrown up around her. The sharp bark of gunpowder was heard even as rounds buried themselves in the ground or a ricochet whined near her. She saw across the way a pair of goblins one shooting as the other reloaded a weapon. She pulled up the pistol she had taken and aimed carefully, then gently squeezed the trigger. The pull was heavier than she was sued to with her uncle's gun. The bark of the weapon and the swirling cloud of powder smoke gave some small testament to her skill, the dropping form of the goblin that had been reloading didn’t hurt either.

“Good shot.” She heard from over her head.

“The sights are off I was aiming for the other one.” She truthfully replied. “I’ll cover you.” Then she took aim and fired again at the goblin. Her shot struck the wall next to it and it looked on in terror then started to flee. Victoria’s hand shot out directing her energy darts to strike the fleeing form. A loud crackling was heard behind the women. When Victoria looked she saw the inside of the building engulfed in flame. Acrid smoke billowing out of the doorway. Her attention was drawn to another form that was trying to stealthily make its way out of an ally near her. This time as she moved she chanted the mantra. “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, accurate is best.” The squeezed the trigger once more and sent a round into the big-eyed goblins head. It’s body collapsing but still not dead. One more round finished the creature off sighing she stored the weapon and prepared to use her short sword and magic to kill the rest of the creatures.

“Hurry up slow poke,” Sunny said pushing Victoria down the road toward the far off exit. “We’ve killed nine so far and there should be four or five more.”

“In the town hall?” The teenager asked.

“More than likely.” The older woman said grimly. “Time for some pay back though. You block off the front door. Lacie watches her back.” She said as she ran toward the side of the structure. The teenager for her part started looking for something to block off the door with. Noticing a pile of refuse or old building materials. It was hard for her to tell. Victoria grabbed rough stone planks and used them to jam the doors.

In a few minutes, Sunny returned, “Okay that should take care of it.”

“What did you do?” Lacie asked.

“I picked up some fuel oil and liberally doused it in a few of the rooms through those small windows. Then lit it on fire.”

“Ohh, goblin flambe.” The fairy said with a smile.

“I don’t know how I feel about this.” Victoria sighed.

“If you don’t feel sort of bad, I’d worry about you,” Sunny said patting the teenagers shoulder. “But it's not like they are real people. They’re goblins. They would kill you and eat you in a heart beat.” On the last word, they heard the sound of knocking on the other side of the door. The teenager couldn’t help but be disturbed by the casual brutality in her mentors words. The orc has spoken English. Sighing she listened as the hammering on the door grew weaker until it stopped. She saw the change in the message lights but hesitated to look at them.

“Oh very nice I leveled finally.” Sunny said let's go find that cheerleader.”