Surprise

While John and the girls waited anxiously to see if anyone would come after them, John felt his strength begin to rapidly return. Within minutes he was able to sit up in the hospital bed by himself as the girls continued to focus on the door.

Which is why everyone was surprised when the window shattered behind them, as a huge gust of wind sent shards of glass flying into the room. Rowena jumped on top of John, using her armored body to block the shards of glass from penetrating his flesh, while the nurse and Moonstone dived for cover beside his bed.

Outside, the quartet could see numerous flying creatures, gathering en masse to charge the hospital. It was hard to see if there was a leader to the creatures, but there didn’t seem to be any cohesion or type specific creatures. Harpies, dragonkin, birds of all kinds, giant Rocs, hippogryphs, griffons, Manticores, and Wyverns all gathered in unison. John found this particularly odd since several of these species should have been attacking each other.

Strangest of all were the two people that seemed to have what vaguely resemble air-planes attached to their bodies. One seemed to be styled after the planes of the Allies during World War II, while the other was clearly inspired by the Luftwaffe from Germany.

Rowena climbed off of John once she was sure that there would be no more attacks like that, then she was surprised when John got off of the bed himself. “We need to find a better place to defend,” Rowena suggested, to which the nurse nodded in agreement, her cat ears flat against her head.

“I say let them come. I will show them the error of their ways,” said Moonstone, who was moving to a standing position, looking like she was ready to fight the whole horde herself.

“Think about it,” hissed Rowena, as she yanked Moonstone back down, accidentally causing her to land in such a way that her breasts were smothering John. Not that he was complaining much. “If you do that, then how are you going to protect John?”

This got John’s attention, and made him wonder why she was here in the first place since it was clear that Moonstone and her family wanted nothing to do with him because of what had happened inside the Fae Hill Barrier. Even more perplexing to John was the fact that Moonstone was now blushing and her shoulders seemed to droop a little. ’Just what went on during my coma,’ John wondered to himself.

Moonstone moved off of John, much to his disappointment, and peered around the edge of the bed that everyone was hiding behind. She sighed as she looked out at the scores of enemies, just waiting to be blasted out of the sky.

“I could create a wall of ice to hide us from view so that we can sneak out of the room?” Moonstone offered hesitantly, to which Rowena and the nurse both nodded in approval. Moonstone took a deep breath, gathering her focus, then punched the floor. A wave of ice rose up from the other side of the bed, expanding and filling that side of the room with a thick wall of opaque ice.

The nurse quickly got to her feet and looped John’s arm around her shoulders before helping to pick him up. Rowena went to the door first, drawing her sword as she did so, the magic of the sword flaring brightly in the flickering lights of the besieged hospital. Moonstone took up the spot behind John and the delightfully soft furred nurse as a sort of rear guard.

With a nod from Rowena, the four of them went into the hallway. The sounds of magic and fighting could be heard from other rooms, and it reminded John of the action video games he loved to play. The halls were filled with Apothecaries rushing patients that weren’t able to defend themselves to safety while others were rushing to give aid to those that were fighting the mismatched horde of winged creatures.

“EVERYONE DOWN!” someone shouted out, and the whole hallway kissed the floor as the sounds of a plane flying by could be heard, interrupted by heavy machine gun fire. Once it was clear to get back up, at least for the moment, the trio of girls helped John move through the halls.

A senior Apothecary directed the group towards the stairs, which they quickly made their way to. Once inside the stairs, the group took a moment to catch their breath. A rumbling below them made all four lean over the railing to see what was going. Dust and rubble filled the stairwell below them, stopping them from descending.

“Only one way to go,” Rowena said apologetically before leading them upwards.

“Stop!” John called out, causing Rowena to look back at him with a raised eyebrow. “I got a skill in my first barrier that lets me know when someone is searching for me with a killing intent,” John hastily explained; “I don’t know who they are, why they want to kill me, or where they are, as the skill doesn’t tell me that kind of information.”

“Sounds like a crappy skill,” Moonstone laughed, earning a sharp glare from Rowena.

“At least we know that he is the target of this barrier then,” Rowena said; “And if they are here to kill, you they made a big mistake of attacking you at an Apothecary Hospital. But it is good to know that we should expect some fighting if they are truly here for you.” With this said, Rowena resumed leading the group, up this time instead of down.

Despite being the target, or maybe not, of the attack, the group encountered no resistance as they headed upwards. In fact, the only time that they encountered any trouble was whenever they tried to escape the stairwell, either by opening a door to get out on a different floor or by heading back down. Each time something would impede their progress, either the door was blocked on one side or the other or a repeat of the incident of the first floor again with the floor beneath them caving in for some reason.

“I hate being herded like cattle,” Moonstone griped as she moved past John and the catgirl nurse. The two warrior women behinds swung back and forth, surprisingly in sync, and as such John couldn’t help but notice them. And to his surprise, neither did the nurse, whose body he could feel heat up slightly.

Once they reached the door marked for the roof exit, Rowena suggested that they all stop for a moment and regain their strength. The catgirl nurse lowered John, who several floors ago had stopped needing help but liked feeling the nurse pressed against his body, to the stairs so that they could rest. Rowena and Moonstone hardly looked winded from the long climb, but they sat as well, eyes closed but on high alert.

‘I wish I had some other way to help in this fight,’ John thought glumly to himself, ’Hounds aren’t going to be much use against flying creatures. Might as well save that skill for later. Maybe if I concentrated a bit of power into my hand to fire like they do in the Dargon Boulé G fighting games?’ John, very carefully and with eyes closed, reached inside of himself, to where he had felt the energy that represented his mana bar reside, and siphoned the smallest amount of that power off and let it flow into his hand. With his eyes closed, he didn’t see when the energy begin to manifest in his hand.

When an “eek!” escaped the nurse beside him caused him to open his eyes, he was astounded by what he saw. An orb of mana floated above his hand. John shook his hand, expecting it to be burning, and caused the ball to fly off into a nearby wall, where it promptly exploded on contact with a small boom.

Rowena and Moonstone where on their feet in the space of a blink, weapons readied for a fight. “I think I just created a new skill,” John said sheepishly as the two warriors looked at him incredulously.

Shaking their heads in unison, they turned to the door and got ready to open it to whatever lay beyond for the four of them. With a nod from the rising Nurse and John, the two warriors opened the door and led the way onto the roof top, only for the four of them to be confronted with a menacing looking dragon.