You be afraid of a barking dog, but you should be afraid of a silent dog. -Russian proverb

  The cafeteria is as quiet as usual, mostly owed to me sitting at my usual spot, and usual time. The nobles and schorship students attending walk by in hushed tones, and hunched backs. As if I might jump out at them at any moment. It could also be reted to my current tablemates.

  "Lady Ky'th has been ever so kind to me as to so graciously provide me with numerous test subject, I have already made progress on the annihition of several growths, but as it is not without setback. I have only been able to terminate growths in simple locations. Anywhere near nerves as difficult." Xygar is very excited to test an unexplored avenue of death magic.

  "You are scary fish pirate, I never expected to see the day that a bonebag would be excited over healing the living." The goblin shaman Prez'cote is at the brink of ughter, it would have scared people away if there was anyo.

  The orc chieftain Bz-Durnaturr simply picks between his tusks with a serrated bde, much less ied in the magical debates than his goblin panion is. Not to say he came here for nothing, my good retion with 'da midget' did make him search me out to try and broker a deal betweeh of them. I look over the tract we are building together once more, it seems awfully rough for simple part.

  "What's this made out of?" I'll just ask, because I 't figure it out myself.

  "Human skin." All my tablemates respond at the same time, apparently they have much more experience w with unventional materials.

  "Well, regardless what you make it out of, the issue with the tract is this part here. It states that a dwarf is to deliver the ons by caravan, but have you ever heard of dwarven nd transport? They absolutely despise that, not to mention that the deal is with Urist, he might live in the Western Edge Mountains." He would probably also be worried about greenskins capturing and t his people for desigs.

  "How tha hell am I gonna make a deal with da midget if he ain't tellin where he lives? Da git is way too uptight with tha." Bz is clearly not happy, but at least uanding enough to be able to work out a deal.

  "Well, we could probably work on a third-party dropoff po-." I'm interrupted by a feeling of mana in the air getting heavier, and I tell that the other casters with me are also feeling it.

  "Wotz happenin?" Bz instantly gets into bat stance. He knows that when the casters get wary, there is a cause for it.

  "The mana in the air is getting disrupted, I would have a hard time casting even simple spells. Esstrey do you know anything?" Xygar starts sing the room, the other students have also noticed something is up.

  "Most likely an attack, we o find the others. Whoever is causing this came prepared." However, before we move, barriers close the entrances, log us all in. At that moment, a group of cloaked men emerge through one of the barriers.

  Bz and I get in front, with Prez and Xygar figuring out how to bypass the closest barrier. Without magic, it will take a while longer.

  "Who are you people? And what's going on with the ma-." A bde emerges, and sshes the student from shoulder to side. The man fan out, and start chasing people around to kill them. A few have eyes on roup as well.

  "Bz keep them busy, I'm gonna start redug their numbers." My pocket ballista nails one of the men not paying us enough attention to the wall, turning him into a pin up donkey.

  Three of the men engage Bz, but the orc warlord doesn't go easily without a fight. He baits one of the men into overextending, and rips into his leg. His teammates save him by driving Bz back, using magic to enhaheir ons.

  "Bsted gitz only disabled ic, I'll have da headz of every one of u spellbdes!" Bz threatens the men to seemingly no effect, until a rock from a goblin sling stuns on of the men, leaving him open. Bz ighe rapier of the oill standing, and bashes the skull of the stunned assassin in.

  A loud whistling noise is heard throughout the room again, and another man is turned int by a massive ballista bolt. The assassin in the room quickly decide we are too big of a threat, and start fog on us. We aren't the only ones doing damage to the assassins in the room either, as multiple holdouts have been formed by nobles who rely more on their sword skills.

  Unfortunately, all good things e to an end, as enemy mages have finally set up. The other holdouts are hit by nultiple elements. Annihiting any attention that wasn't on us. We only hold out by the fact that I pushed over a few tables as cover, but the assassins quickly start closing in. I look around me, Prez is shivering in a er in fear, one of the nces went right by his head. Bz is murmuring curses to himself, in hatred of all magic. Xygar is still desperately w on a way out. This is it, isn't it?

  "Xygar, you still have cer to cure. At the very least, you should get out." I turn to the greenskin duo.

  "Оставьте свои посты, покиньте свои дома, оставьте всякую надежду."

  SpoilerAbandon your posts, abandon your homes, abandon all hope.

  [colpse]My words aren't uood, but their i is heard. I pull out a small shovel, now barely rger than my cw. Bz firmly grips his ripper, and Prez shivers while clutg a dagger. I give o bright smile, and fling the whole table we were using as cover at whoever was unfortunate enough to be in its line. I dive for the closest man, and use sheer force to crush the armor under his cloak like a soda . Not only that, but I grab the corpse by the leg, and start using it as a club against the other assassins.

  Prez mao get a few stabs in on one of the mages in the fusion, but quickly gets tered by an ice spell, freezing him solid. Someoh a maul shatters the shamaatue afterward, scattering his bits across the floor. I begin untrolbly giggling to myself, I was going to be receiving the guns today as well. I would have done so many things, but it seems this is the way it has to be. I use my makeshift club as a shield against a bst of fire, but multiple windbdes shred my uncovered side. One mas a bit too close for health, and is rewarded by a shovel going through his jaw. My reward for redug their numbers is being speared through the tail by a soon-to-be dead man.

  As I crush the skull of the spearman, I hear a guttural scream of pain. Bz is driven through the gut by a greatsword, but he isn't deterred by this and tries to ssh at his attacker. Instead, the swordsman puts more for the bde, and bisects the orc chieftain. Bz falls iween the corpses of the dead to join them. I 't hold my ughter at this point, there's so many of them. I drop my shovel and club, opting instead for the tables in the room. I focus my attacks on the weak looking wizards, smming them across using superior size and strength. The room quiets noticeably as my work tinues, disabling the bastards left and right. Xygar has already left the room at some point, hopefully he will make it out.

  I bisect a man with my jaws, and notice I disabled almost all the casters. I might actually win this, but before I turn to deal with the others, I fall to the ground.

  A rge thud resounds through the room, as something big falls to the ground. My vision spins as I roll across the floor. The rge object that fell to the floor... is my own headless corpse. A man stands o it, and flicks my blood off his bde. They start talking, but I have already stopped hearing. My brain fshes through its broken memories, desperately trying to find a way out. I see pieces of training, fshes of my time in Moscow. None of these are helpful. I remember what my sergeant said about the mission. 'Success entails enough of us surviving'. My brain scrambles through more memories, but sarge's words stie.

  The only thing... that survived... is a... head...

  Prickly