The shaman stepped forward in the middle of his oversized platoon of orcs. As they left the ruins of the building, the field dissipated causing all the debris to crash to the ground. Dust and smoke flaired up in the wake of the falling debris creating a disturbing backdrop to face off. My guys were already in motion to the relative safety of the doorway. Yet I was frozen. I held his gaze for a few precious seconds before starting to turn to flee.

  At that moment a shot rang out and echoed throughout the quad. My head snapped back instinctively to see what had been hit. The Shaman had been shot in the face.

  “MEOW MUTHAFUCKAS! Kitty Power!” was shouted from the rooftop.

  I realized that meant the orc had taken a 50 caliber round to the face. I gazed hopefully for just a second in hopes that his head would have some soft of delayed grapefruit like explosion. I was denied that satisfaction as what we got was a chunk of cheek and bone outside his left eye socket was blasted apart, blood flowing freely, but the Orc stood back up in defiance. He didn’t bother healing himself, but merely pounded his large skull topped staff on the ground twice and shouted a word in another language while pointing the staff up to the roof. A corkscrew of wind over 4 feet long shot forth from the skull of the staff, widening as it twisted in rotation. My eyes shot up to the roof even as found my feet moving towards the door. The brickwork and concrete up top shattered showing me and my men with fragments of building. I picked up my pace into the building.

  The last thing I heard as I passed through the door was, “Missed Me, You Ugly Dog Fucker!”

  We picked up the pace and spilled into the hallway. We desperately tried making the ninety degree turn to flee down the hallway properly, but several us, me included, slipped and slid more than was comfortable. My left shoulder already hurt from when I was thrown from the explosion, but now this added strain to my calves and ankles.

  I got up and moved somewhat between a limp and a jog down the hallway. Then gunfire started up outside. The unmistakable sound of 50 caliber machine gun was ricocheting off all the walls, lockers, and doors. Will must be firing the weapon outside, but it didn’t appear to be aimed at the front doors. Otherwise, those would have buckled by now. Will was shooting in different direction, but the sound carried into the building perfectly to make this run seem even scarier than before. As I approached the intersection of the hallways with the front doors I scanned to my right. The orcs were almost on top of us. From the sounds behind me, more orcs were coming from that direction as well. As I passed the last locker I heard someone shout, “he’s clear!”

  New explosions sounded off both behind me and ahead but to the right. The hallways were filled with exploding claymores, ball bearings, and eviscerated orcs screaming things at us that felt like it translated to “Die Humans, Die!” Their sentiment was transparent despite the language barrier. I don’t remember the guys setting these up, but I didn’t exactly keep perfect track of them either. And it didn’t matter as the air pushed me off my feet left me sprawled right next to the front doors. Probably not the best time to do an impression of a belly flop into an empty swimming pool. I survived being thrown around like a rag doll primarily due to the lesser force armor ring. It had been a life saver, blunting all types of damage enough that I was still conscious and able to slowly rise to grab the hand that lifted me up. Ted smiled down to me as I was rising, “Having fun yet, Captain?”

  “Loads. Best visit to an all-girls school this year.”

  Phil responded this time, “You and I have very different ideas about a good visit to an all-girls school.”

  I smiled at Phil, only to see him ripped off the ground and slammed into the wall with one of those corkscrews of air. I turned backwards to see the Shaman at the far end of the hallway. He bellowed, “You will pay for your foul sorceries. I shall rip your head from your shoulders and shit into the holes of your skull.”

  I couldn’t help myself, “I’d say ‘you and what army’, but well…” and I gestured to his dead warriors in front of him eviscerated by explosives. I then pushed myself out the front doors...

  Only to find myself in a fresh war zone. Will was holding off several dozen orcs and lupin with a 50 caliber machine gun. It was pointed at the far corner from us and towards a small side road to a back parking lot. The machine gun had already claimed over a dozen monsters and was adding more every few seconds.

  Harry had already put Griggs in the back of a pickup, while Jill from the 2nd half of the squad was pulling back out their spot in reverse.

  I shouted, “Great job Will!” A lupin was creeping up on the top of the Humvee behind Will. Three large cats lept onto the stunted wolf man and dragged him back down to the ground. Katnessa and her cats were paying massive dividends for us already. Will Didn’t even realize he almost got stabbed in the back. I ran down to my SUV to get between it and Will’s Humvee for cover. I started plinking lupin off, leaving the orcs for Will’s big gun.

  Ted came out with Phil over his shoulder, the weight causing Ted to hunch over. Ted immediately took Phil to the other truck and plopped Phile on the bed of the truck. Jack was right behind him alongside Barney as the helped move a now one legged Reggie to the same truck. Reggie somehow lost everything on his right leg below the knee, and looked to be awake only due to him chewing on girl scout cookies. The next to last ones from our group were Clint, and Hal, who burst out the front door and headed for the unused Humvee. Hank was last out the doors, already pulling the axe free in case anything got to melee before we fled.

  I still had not seen hide nor hair of Dan who placed the radio frequence emitter on the auditorium. I hoped Rick and Katnessa were somehow getting off the building, as we all needed to go. Jack settled in the back of the 4x4 with his patients Phil and Reggie. Barney jumped in the driver’s seat and pulled that truck back out and away as well. They knew to get them to Crestwood Mall as there would be emergency medical facilities set up there with the rest of the National Guard command. Those 2 vehicles now accounted for 7 of our 16 folks including me and Will.

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  Ted jumped in the front of Will’s Humvee, and started it up. The Shaman had yet to make an appearance out the front door, but it had been less than 30 seconds since we got out the front door.

  From the far side of the building, Dan came stumbling around the corner as Katnessa and Rick were climbing down the side of the building. Fortunately, that building was only two stories instead of three. Somehow, they must have crossed from the roof of the main building to it’s adjacent one. There were so many things going on simultaneously that I was having a hard time following.

  The front doors smashed open and off their hinges as a dozen orcs crashed through, only to be met 50 caliber machine gun on the second Humvee. Clint and Hal got that started up in record time. The dozen orcs didn’t fall immediately as they were held up by continuing gunfire riddling their bodies.

  I kept my gunfire aimed down the sidewalk in the same direction as Will’s machine gun. I kept dropping lupin with short bursts of fire. That all changed when the Shaman stepped into the doorway. He had a shield of force or air in front of him that seemed to hold the bullets in place until the machine gun finally stopped firing, as it was wasting bullets. I backed up and got in my SUV and started it up, as this orc was bad news. Behind him were the remnants of the orc warriors that survived multiple explosions and a building being dropped on them. There weren’t many left, but they were clearly the meanest and ugliest of the bunch.

  The shaman slammed the butt of his staff down on the ground three times. Seconds later 3 Massive icicles flew down from above. The first smacked into the hood of my SUV, knocking a hole in the engine block and killing the engine; the second came through the roof of the Hummer, just behind Will causing him to stop firing; the third dropped through Hank’s Thigh from what I could tell. Hand nearly dropped his axe, but instead limped to the Humvee on his side.

  Gunfire sounded off to our right, from the direction of Rick, Dan, and Katnessa. The Shaman stumbled as a bullet went through his side at gut level. His men pulled him back into the building, while the air shield still held in place.

  I ditched my SUV and jumped into the Humvee with Will and Ted. I saw that the Orcs over to our left were pulling back as well. The fight, didn’t seem as in them as it did before. I had no illusions that we survived that fight due to Katnessa’s timely shooting. We pulled back and waited for the others to get into the other Humvee before the two of our vehicles chased after our trucks. My SUV was toast, and I had no illusions about saving it. Surviving was a victory in and of itself.

  We went in pursuit of our trucks together as a convoy of two Humvees. I got on the walkie talkie and changed channels to the one designated for the national guard command center, “This is Captain Cassland. You need to drop more ordinance on Mary Anne Academy. The whole campus is overrun with orcs and lupin. We got many, but enough remain to be problematic.”

  “Negative Captain. We are sending in multiple national guard units to the location. You are advised to stay there to assist in clearing all the buildings.”

  “I have multiple injured in our vehicles. Two vehicles are already well on their way to you.”

  “Your injured should come to us, but you should stay at the academy to assist the units headed there.”

  I had Ted pull the vehicle over to the side of the road. We hadn’t even fully gotten out of the extra long driveway of the academy yet. Once stopped I got out and ran back to the second vehicle to give my remaining potion to Hank. His wound looked bad, what little I could see before. He took the offered potion and drank it down all at once. “That tastes like farts after a Taco Bell run.” I laughed despite the seriousness of the situation.

  “Others have said similar. I much prefer the girl scout cookies.”

  “Then why didn’t you give me those?” He leveled a look at me that told me he absolutely detested that I gave him the worse option.

  “I didn’t think of it until just now.” I cracked a smile at him. I looked over at Dan, who was eating cookies while trying to hide that fact from Hank.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen we need to turn around and head back to the academy. Apparently other units are on the way to help clear the buildings. After the ordeal we have all been through, I am not asking any of you to be first through any of the doors. So we are gonna go back up to the building, all quiet like and wait by the Humvees for backup.” They nodded in acceptance, so I went back to the front Humvee so we could turn ourselves back around. It was at that time that I learned that doing a U-turn with a Humvee isn’t exactly the smoothest maneuver that exists in the universe.

  When we got back to the academy I handed out as many snacks as I could from my pouch and told people to not do level ups all at once, but one at a time, and I would go last. They agreed and it started with Hank and every minute or so afterwards, someone else did a level up. What I didn’t realize was the most of them had to do multiple level ups. I kept emptying food from my pouch, thankful that the guys had me stock up earlier today. We made Will stop after his second level up. The kid gained almost four levels over the course of the day. He was solely responsible for the death of a few dozen orcs and lupin. He also got excess mana that we all got when a few hundred orcs were killed by the air strike. The massive amount of experience we all gained was a bit overwhelming. This was the final level of my first class. I didn’t even have a class to move to when this was done. I didn’t even know if the system would even offer classes to move into. No time like the present to figure that out. I did my level up like normal, but at the end it had the following:

  Congratulations on completing your first class! You have not added a second class to your menu, so all experience will be held for you in waiting until you are able to find a class token to integrate.

  For Completing all the levels of your class, you retain your class ability. For completing an uncommon class, you also are able to make three of your class affinities part of your personal affinities. These affinities will need to match up to the class you wish to migrate into. These can be selected when you migrate to your second class.

  So, no free class upgrade. That thoroughly sucks. Regardless, I leveled up and looked at my final sheet.

  Neal Cassland Human

  Level: 5 49% to next level

  Affinities: Intelligence, Charisma, Knowledge, Law, Politics

  Current Class: None Lvl 0/0

  Previous Classes: Legislative Aide 5/5;

  Str 3; Agi 3; Con 4; Int 6; Wis 3; Cha 6; Health 25/45; Mana 13/13

  Conditions: Broken Ribs

  Abilites: (3/7) Identify; Mana Reinforcement 1; Predictive Aim Class Ability: Assess

  Caster Level: 4 Ability Effect Level: 5

  Skills of Note: Pistols 2; Rifles 3; Running 4; Hunting 3; Fishing 2; History 3; Public Speaking 3; Law 4; Persuasion 5; Command 2; Mana-Recovery 2; Perception 2