Bailey sprinted to get behind the nearest tree, pressing her back up against the bark. Her hand was still holding the arrow in her left shoulder, feeling the warm blood from the wound slowly coating her fingers. She slowly peaked her head out from behind the tree to her right, and immediately regretted it as another arrow sunk itself into the bark right by her head.

  “Shit!” She pulled her head back quickly.

  >”[Silas Vander’Bludd] is now engaged in [Active Combat]”<

  Active Combat, ok, Bailey knew this. She had to remind herself that this world is using Monsters and Labyrinths logic. And that meant she could strategize.

  Bailey pushed down the fear and adrenaline and forced her mind to focus. She knew M&L rules backwards and forwards, having run games almost every week for years.

  That failed passive Witts check meant that whatever was shooting at her got a Surprise Attack off on her, they had advantage because of that. But, only did 2 damage, so whatever it was was weak, or got a shitty damage roll. She really hoped it was the former.

  She looked up at the arrow that jutted out of the tree that missed.

  “GM? Am I technically in half cover, since I'm behind a tree?” She asked quickly.

  >”[Silas Vander’Bludd] is currently in [Half Cover]. [Silas Vander’Bludd] has [+2] to [Armor Class]”<

  “Ha! I'm right!”

  Another arrow, this time from the left side, flew and hit the tree, this time near her knee.

  “Okay, okay, okay… uh… my Armor Class, that's 10 plus my Finesse modifier plus my armor… I'm in leather so… 10+3+1, then half cover is +2, so 16?” 16 was pretty good if she was up against something that has only hit her once out of three times, and that definitely meant they were something with a low challenge. Can't be Kobolds, they like dungeons and caves, Bandits? No, they would have been demanding she hand over her valuables by now-

  *Thunk*, an arrow pierced her left thigh, sinking deep into the flesh. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop from yelping again.

  >”Current [HP] is [14]”<

  Okay, maybe she was taking too long and over analyzing this, but she was used to Turn Based Combat not Real Time! Looking down at her thighs she saw the arrow, she tried to discern any information from it-

  >”Please roll an [Examination] check”<

  The world around Bailey slowed down to a crawl. She saw leaves that were being blown by the wind move as if being slowly dragged. She played a few video games like this before, where the action doesn't stop but goes slow motion, Bullet Time.

  She quickly remembered what the GM voice said earlier when she was still in the white void, her Player Dice. With her uninjured hand she fished around her pocket until she pulled the white painted metal die out. The blood on her hand coating it, staining the die a pinkish-red. She shook it and tossed it, watching it roll in front of her on an invisible table. 12.

  >”[Examination: +2] total [14]: Pass”<

  >”You've encountered a few crude arrows like this before, always in the aftermath of a Goblin ambush.”<

  Bailey grabbed the die and put it back in her pocket as time began to flow normally again.

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  Goblins, huh? A classic first encounter, the only one more cliché was rats in a tavern basement, and she'd take Goblins over rats any day, thank you very much.

  One or two Goblins on their own wouldn't be too bad of a fight. But, judging by the fact that she was shot at with three different-

  *Thunk*, another arrow just missed, ripping the cloak on her robes.

  -Four different arrows, she was getting this was a group of them. One spell caster down to ? HP against 4 or more Goblins was not a good match up. They had an action economy advantage on her, more bodies, more damage. Not to mention she also couldn't see the little bastards. They all knew where she was, but she had no sight of them.

  “Come on Bails… we need to get them in the open, and find a way to one on one these guys, separate them, divide and conquer!” she hyped herself up.

  *Thunk*, a fifth arrow, this time nicking her upper left arm, right next to where the first arrow hit.

  >”Current [HP] Is [13]”<

  Nope. Running away it is. No shame in a tactical retreat. Maybe she could use her magic? Yeah, that could work, shoot some fire off into the distance, the Goblins will look and she can bolt.

  The question now was, how did she even use magic?

  “GM, how do I use my spells?”

  >”Current [Mana Points] is [5]”<

  What was the definition of insanity again?

  Bailey knew that spells need some combination of incantation, hand movements, and spell components. Some needed all three, others needed just two, and some others only needed just one. Bailey prided herself in being a seasoned M&L GM, but even she didn't know what each and every spell needed off the top of her head.

  She moved her hand in front of herself, pointing it off into the forest.

  “Umm…? Flame Shot!”

  Nothing.

  “Shit… I kinda thought that’d work.”

  *Whoosh*, another arrow flew by, missing both her and the tree this time.

  “These guys have the aim of Stormtroopers.”

  Trying to cast magic was going to have to wait until she wasn't being actively attacked. Thinking quickly, Bailey reached down and picked up a decent sized rock.

  “Four years of softball, don't fail me now,” she prayed as she chucked the rock around far as she could, silently thankful it was her left arm that got hit and not her right.

  A second after the rock left her hand, the Bullet Time perception started again.

  >”Please roll a [Deceit] check”<

  Bailey quickly tossed the die, landing on 11.

  >”[Deceit: +1] total [12]: Pass”<

  Oh thank God Goblins are dumb.

  Time resumed and the rock smacked into a precariously sat log that was balancing on a rock. The force was enough to knock it over, causing a crash that sent several nearby birds flying off.

  Seizing the opportunity, Bailey gritted her teeth and gripped the arrow that was jammed into her thigh. With a rough tug, she yanked it out of her. It took Every ounce of focus not to curse and yell. She tossed it down and began to limply run in the opposite direction the Goblin's arrows had come from.

  Hazarding a look back as she ran, she looked over her shoulder. She saw two of them scurry off in the direction of the noise, but the other three were now chasing after her.

  Imagining a Goblin and actually seeing the real thing was vastly different. Bailey thought she was ready to see her first real monster but she really wasn't. They were short like she expected but much faster than she thought on their stubby legs, and, with her hurt leg they were definitely gaining on her.

  She turned back around to focus on running away when she heard the very family sound of whizzing going by. Bailey winced, bracing herself for the feeling of being pierced with yet another arrow, but the sensation never came. Instead she heard the sound of an arrow sinking into flesh behind her and the gurgling of a dying creature. She skidded to a halt, almost falling over due to her bad leg, and looked at the Goblins.

  One had fallen over, an arrow having gone straight through its neck. Bailey was slightly confused, had one of the other Goblins turned on their own? She glanced at the arrow in the neck of the now motionless Goblin, and even from how far away she was she saw that it was vastly better crafted then that of the Goblin's.

  The two remaining Goblins looked over at their fallen comrade, both stopping in their pursuit. Another arrow flew and hit the one on the right dead center of It's chest, and the Goblin let out a yell of pain.

  Bailey, not one to waste luck, scrambled behind yet another tree. Exhausted, she slid down it till she was sat on the forest floor. She pressed her hand to the wound in her thigh, and watched the hit Goblin join the other in death.

  The last Goblin looked as it was trying to discern where the arrows were coming from. It was so focused on this, that it failed to notice a large figure rapidly approaching from the side. The form rushed out of the cover of the trees and brush, and in a swift motion swung a large object through the monster. The last Goblin didn't even get a chance to make a noise before its two halves fell to the ground with a wet *thud*.

  Standing over the group of dead Goblins was one massive person. She was muscular, and had to have been well over six feet tall. She held a now bloodied glaive that was just as massive as she was. Her skin was speckled with light blue and white scales like freckles. She ran a clawed and scaled hand through her short platinum blonde hair around a set of blue horns on her head. A light blue and white dragon-like tail twitched in apparent irritation.

  “Damn things are too easy to kill,” she huffed out in a low growl, sounding halfway between disappointed and bored, “Was actually trying to keep that one alive…”

  This massive woman was definitely a Dragonkin, or rather a half one. From her size and the fact she was able to cleave that Goblin in two, Bailey assumed she was a Berserker Archetype.

  She stayed quiet, not wanting to alert the Dragonkin to where she was hiding. For all Bailey knew she could be just as bad as that pack of Goblins, probably worse. She watch silently as the woman cleaned her glaive off on the cloth of the Goblin's tattered clothes before she put it on the holster on her back.

  A glaive… that was the only weapon she saw on her. She glanced at the two other Goblins, her eyes lingering on the arrows.

  There was someone else. There had to be. Some other person had to have shot the Goblins, but where were they?

  Bailey began to look all over the forest, trying to see if she could spot another humanoid figure lurking in the foliage.

  >”[Witts: Passive +1] - [7]: Fail”<

  “Don't move, Demon-boy,” a different female voice, sharp and firm, called out from above Bailey.

  She looked up slowly and saw the glint of an arrow tip pointing down at her from a branch in the tree.

  She officially hated her passive Witts rolls.