[Vfw-times] MK Winter Assault part 34

[COkane8116 at aol.com]

   A short section tonight :) Please feel free to make comments ans 
uggestions :)

   Chris

***

"Everyone get back behind the front counter! MOVE!"

The kids do not need Any convincing at all. It doesn't take much thought to 
realize that anyone who is pounding on the door like that and scaring the 
grownups is a Bad Guy. Nobody wants to be around for when the Bad Guys get in.

Jono already has his whip out and is running for the back door. Nothing's 
showed up around it yet, so he's willing to bet it'd be a safe(r) means of 
escape. Currently the front door is being held back from being broken down 
primarily by Kirk. And while Kirk is certainly qualified to hold something 
like this back, the door clearly isn't. Which means they have to get out now.

Dana, by contrast, is heading towards the front door. "Kirk! Get out of the 
way! I can deal with these things!" She's already got her sword out.

Dana's experience focus has traditionally been in single combat. But she's 
capable of handling multiple foes under certain situations, most of them 
pretty simplistic but effective nonetheless. That's a fair description of her 
move when Kirk steps aside, allowing the door to fall down.

All she does is swing as the Lutin who was banging charges through 
unexpectedly. He doesn't even get a foot into the room before he's bleeding 
dead on the ground. The same goes for the second immediately following the 
first.

And then Dana is there, holding the doorway against two Lutins at once while 
Kirk is yelling "GO! Get out of here!"

***


Perry is the first one out the back door. This is a good thing, primarily 
because he was prepared for the ambush. All he has to do is drop to his belly 
as the Lutin drops from above. He gets a bit of a shock; the Lutin gets 
impaled. Then next comes Jo, with both daggers flying to take down the next 
two Lutins moving in. Then Perry is running forward, swinging his sword to 
nearly decapitate a fourth Lutin while Jo leaps out of the way for Jono's 
exit, who instantly moves to the side and starts keeping watch as kids start 
streaming out from the back door.

"Perry! Kevin! Take the kids and get them to the nearest shelter!" Jono 
screams as Kevin runs out, doing his best to chant the warming spell on the 
fly.

Jono, if he felt like he had time, would be mentally kicking himself for this 
whole fiasco. So far everything has held together primarily because he's 
anticipated scenarios and set up plans for the kids ahead of time. But he 
didn't think to include a plan for this, and so gods know what all the kids 
are going to do. Fortunately most of them seem to be following Kevin and 
Perry, but...

He shakes his head clear, then quickly runs around the building, Jo following 
close behind, just in time to see another Lutin fall back from the door.

Jono can't use his whip here; the weather is still very hostile, and the 
winds would badly throw off his attempts to use it. Normally in conditions 
like this he'd fall back to using his claws and engage in a bit of melee. But 
there's far too many Lutins for him to be able to pull that off effectively, 
and so he has to go for a different tactic.

Fortunately, Jono does have a very nice curved sword, which he's gotten a lot 
of practice in. He's very quickly reassured that he hasn't lost any of that 
practice when he whips the sword out from his scabbard, flicking the blade 
outward as he does so and dropping the first Lutin who had the misfortune to 
notice him.


He shifts into the ready stance he's been practicing for years ever since his 
first few lessons with that old master he and Jo met on the docks of 
Elvquelin, and takes count. One Jono. One Jo. One Dana, presumably at the 
door. Fifteen Lutins.

This is probably going to be a bit of a stretch.

* * *

That bit of a stretch is exactly why Derek and Sammy are separate from the 
rest of the kids right now.

Derek, of course, has his nifty bag thingy with him, which he showed to 
Sammy. There's, like, an endless supply of the little spiked ball things in 
there, so they can prepare as many as they want.

Derek didn't really want to show anyone the bag; the lady who told him about 
it was pretty specific about telling very few people. But then again, she'd 
said to make snowballs with them (which is an exceedingly obvious thing to a 
talented snowfields warrior like Derek; just pack snow around them so they 
look harmless). And Sammy is by far the fastest snowball maker in Metamor. 
And she did say that he could tell people who were helping him out. There was 
even an extra pair of gloves in the bag for him to use.

So he showed it to Sammy, and told him about how he's supposed to make 
snowballs out of them. Sammy, being a clever and capable fashioner of 
snowballs, caught on very quickly, and even prepared two in advance; one for 
each of them. And they're sneaking around the Other side of the building to 
help out Uncle Jono, because once again a Comrade In Arms is certainly in 
trouble, and this time Derek is not going to allow himself to run away.

They're very prepared for the first Lutin that comes around the bend; it 
grunts in surprise, then grins evilly and starts to slowly advance on them. 
Sammy is the first to get his snowball off; it crashes into the Lutin's chest 
and causes it to scream out in pain. But only briefly, for Derek's shot 
smacks it right in the center of the head, and it falls.

And Derek and Sammy are grinning at each other as Sammy passes Derek another 
snowball, having already fashioned two replacements. "Ohh, YEAH!!!!

* * *

Jono, in the meantime, is busying himself with the several Lutins in front of 
him. One swing downward at a head, then a snap back upwards to another's 
chest and throat, then across to another's throat, up to parry a falling 
blade, twist and to the side to parry another, step back, while behind him Jo 
keeps her daggers flying, dropping Lutins left and right.

What hasn't encouraged him is that the count isn't going down any. It's going 
up.

* * *

Derek, in the meantime, is feeling absolutely exhilarated.

He still retains all-too clear memories of last night, back when Uncle Jono 
had to stop that one Bad Guy, and he wasn't able to do a thing, and in the 
back of his mind he's been partly frightened out of his wits still over that 
event, and partly yearning for a sort of vengeance.

He's getting that vengeance now. Because THESE snowballs stop the bad guys.

They've just about made it to the corner now, Derek having already dropped 
two more Lutins with precise throws of deadly snowballs. And from here they 
can see that's Uncle Jono! And he's fighting the bad guys big time! But 
there's too many bad guys.

Derek gets a very big grin on his face, then, and gets ready to start 
throwing. Not going to be too many bad guys soon enough...

* * *

Jono is just about to dodge an expected thrust from a Lutin that has slipped 
past his sword when to his astonishment a large snowball SMACKS against the 
back of the Lutin's head, splattering snow and blood in a finely mixed spray, 
leaving a small spiked ball that looks to have nearly crushed the back of the 
Lutin's skull. It falls before he can react.

Then, while he's staring at that one, the Lutin that was just about to take 
advantage of his momentary lack of attention takes another such snowball to 
the back of it's head, and he has to leap out of the way to insure that it 
doesn't fall on top of him.

 "What in the..." Then his eyes flick up to see...

 "Derek?"

And then his eyes go even wider as he sees what's immediately behind...

* * *

Derek starts to turn. "Sammy! Need anoth-"

His words drop off as he catches a quick glimpse of what's behind him.

To his immediate back and right is Sammy, being held up by a very big and 
nasty-looking Lutin. His feet are dangling off the ground, and he can't reach 
the Bag at all. Said Lutin has got a knife to Sammy's throat.

But Derek's more immediate focus is on the Lutin right behind him. It too has 
a knife in its hands, and it's looking down at him with fiendish glee. He can 
easily see the scars along his face that seem to correspond almost exactly to 
those on the Lutin that he'd hit with the ineffectual snowball that frigid 
night that seems so, so long ago.

This, of course, all registers within less than a second. Because Derek 
doesn't even have that much time before the Lutin snatches him up, drawing 
him up off the ground and shaking him until he drops the snowball, then puts 
the knife to his throat.


***

   End part 34
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