You Got Another Thing Coming - Part 2

Five years ago…

“Father, you’ve come back!” Gally was excited to see his father again after the War of the Huskite.

“My son! You’ve grown a bit bigger!” Valien grabbed Gally and spun him around while laughing hardily.

“Daddy, did you fight the evil Huskite golems? Did they stare you down with those diamond eyes?”

“Yes, Gal! I stared right back at them, and I tore their segments apart with my voice. The magical machines were no match for me! But someone else saved Daddy’s life. She was a hero…”

It was a miracle that the Haronda Army was able to fight back and defeat them. Haronda almost failed to protect their city state. The golems destroyed the outer district. But something happened. A hero appeared from the shadows of the outer district, and destroyed the golems one by one. Once the war was over, she was gone.

Present day…

Students were hanging out with their parents at the dining hall during the evacuation. I was still kinda weak in the legs after my crazy spell, but I still managed with Lara and Elki helping me walk. Women to the left of me, and women to the right. No gun, no knife… Reminds me of a gnarly song.

Both Prof and Andrus met up with us at the dining hall. They looked super stressed out.

“Gally, Lara, listen. Since you are both students, I would like you to stay right here for now. I have been tasked to be the overseer for all students and parents tonight, and I am responsible for the safety of both of you. For the rest of the party, I’d like to discuss my findings, and my next action.”

“First, my bosses, I must tell you all that the Professor and I found holes in the basement of the main building. These holes are large enough to fit even me in them. It is likely that these holes were made by explosives at the same time the King’s Hall fell.” I’ve never heard Andrus sound so professional.

“Thank you, Andy. This means that the rebels are now in this school building. We are cut off from the outside, and they have us surrounded from the inside. The other professors are helping soldiers hold the line around the school, but there’s not enough help inside the school. I need your help, Valien, Yoki, Artium, Scott, and Elki. I need your help to defend the hall, and make sure that all students and attendees are safe.”

Things got real serious. My crew was like high B to A ranked, and most professors were a solid B rank. That made most of the parents and the students at the graduation like C and below. That actually made sense because most of the high ranked kids got poached a while ago except for me and my crew. Wait, if Prof was asking my crew to help defend the students and parents, who the hell were we fighting against? Why were they so high ranked? Where the hell were the guild dudes, too?

Suddenly, a huge knocking sound echoed in the halls. Andrus knew where the knocking sound came from with his super hearing.

“I found you.” He rushed with his hooves stomping away from the group. In the group of 50 students and parents, a few students stood up and got ready. They armed themselves with whatever they could find, since weapons were not allowed except for staffs.

“Kids, please, sit down. I don’t want to-” Prof was trying to calm them down, but she forgot that she graduated a bunch of new adventurers.

“Professor, we have a duty to protect our people. Most of our parents are craftsmen and lower nobles. They can’t fight, but we can!” This kid seemed a real hero. His name was Peter Jilmer, and he wore knight’s armor and a red cape instead of our graduation gown. He brought a shield, which was allowed. This guy was far out, dude.

“Yeah, Peter! You go, dude!” I yelled to him in support. I flipped the switch to turn on my magic, and I played Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey. The entire hall filled with this light blue glow, and everyone stood up with some sort of power.

“Thanks, Gally. I owe you one. I’m going to help the minotaur.” Peter rushed off to join Andrus. Oh crap, Andrus doesn’t have a lute with him. I pulled Lara with me and ran to Andrus too. Prof was totally pissed, but she couldn’t do anything. My group nodded to me when I ran past them.

“Gal, why are we doing this?! Professor Schmuztal told us to stay!”

“Nah, it’s cool. We can’t just sit here when some assholes are going to kill us.”

“Hey, you two! Over here!” Peter was at a door at the end of the hall. I saw Andrus preparing to fight. I knew he was a minstrel, which is technically a bard. But I knew that he’s a battle bard too.

“Yo, Andy, catch!” I threw my lute into Andy’s hands. I had a feeling that it was the right call.

“Gal, what are you doing? Minotaurs can’t use magic!” Andrus looked back and smirked. He blew out of his snout, and started playing some cool sounding medieval licks. A huge wind kicked up some dust, and it flew around him.

“Don’t tell anyone, young masters.” Andrus threw the lute back to me, and jumped super high. The ceiling had to be like 80 feet high, and he jumped at least half way there. Some other guy jumped to chase Andrus down, and he jumped super high too!

They punched each other in the fist, and an explosion of air pushed all of us down. The other guy jumped away after his gray robe ripped up. He threw the robe and laughed.

“Ha ha, a minotaur that can use magic? I guess my old age betrays me. Good sir, what is your name?”

“Good man, my name is Andrus Varlex, a minstrel minotaur. And you?”

“My name is Vexium Yarlo. I represent the New Haronda Front.”

“What are you doing here? There are students graduating. I prefer you not hurt them.”

“Ha ha, a noble minotaur, of course. That explains your lack of horns. My objective is not your concern.”

“It absolutely is. Fresh adventurers have no blood on their hands. If you truly resent the guild, go destroy the guild.”

“Noble, and ignorant, I see. These children are the brood of the large warring complex. Do you know how many turn out to become tax collectors? Do you know how many of these students chose to cut their own people down when they are paid a little bit of money? What do you think those certificates do? They don’t give them a new spell art, they subject them to a mind control spell to forever glue them to the guild!”

“And your solution is to bury them under rubble? You sound more mind controlled yourself. Enough talking. Put your fists up, White-Elf.”

When a minotaur refers to someone as their race, they are pissed.

In a flash, Andrus and Yarlo clashed with fists. Andrus was huge, but Yarlo was able to go neck on neck with him. Arg told me that Yarlo was a Wind-Fist Monk. That means that he trained in the remote mountains of Elakis, in the eastern area of the continent of Warado. His fists were traced with mana, so everytime he punched something, mana would flood into the target and explode with air magic. Wait, is that why Andrus made a windshield for himself? How did Andrus know about this dude?

The fight was epic. Neither dudes got tired after punching each other for a long time. I think they were just as fast and as strong as each other. Peter tried casting a spell, but Lara stopped him. It was an honor thing for minotaurs to duel someone, and if someone helped him during the fight, he would be dishonored. I was lucky that he wasn’t ready to duel yet when I let him use the lute.

Suddenly, a big crash was heard behind me. A couple more grey robed people walked in like a WWF match. I looked at Peter and Lara, and they nodded. Peter casted a protection spell on himself and Lara, and they both charged at the invaders. I played Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden, and suddenly, Lara and Peter ran even faster than before, and they both hit the grey robes. Both of them blocked the attacks with elements on their hands, kinda like how the Yarlo guy does.

“By Galaka, what did you give us? My armor feels like a bunch of feathers!” Peter was excited and jumping around.

“Don’t worry about it, Peter. Gal has some interesting things up his sleeves.” Lara looked back to me and smiled proudly.

Instead of using my lute for attacking, I used some of the basic spells my dad showed me to support Lara and Peter. My attacks would probably damage the school, and also knock me out again. But, if they lost a limb, or a few, I’m gonna have to do Doctor Doctor again, and that would probably knock me out cold for a long time.

Lara used her staff and casted a blinding light into one of the grey robe’s faces. The grey robe laid her head into her hands and screamed. Lara then spun her staff like a color guard dudette in a marching band, and smacked the staff right into the back of her head. Ouch, that one was gnarly.

Peter looked like Captain America with just his shield, and he kept throwing it at the other grey robe. The grey robe used fire, so he flamed up like The Human Torch and bashed on Cap’s shield. Captain Peter decided that enough was enough, so he yelled “Ars Bezakren” and rushed into the grey robe dude. He rammed him so hard that he cracked the wall behind him.

“Yo, did you kill that guy?!” I was kinda worried ‘cause I get queasy around dead people and dead things.

“No, he will be fine. The robe is a very strong magical cloth with the strength of chainmail. I broke a few of his bones, but he will be alive enough to interrogate soon.”

“That’s brutal. Nice, dude!”

“Thanks, Gally. What is a dude?”