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“Right. Well, then.” Doctor Nudd hefted the mace up into a proper guard position. “I’d like a shield, as well, if you please.”
Periclum was already in the process of picking up a shield from the still open locker. He tossed it at the goblin. While Doctor Nudd fumbled to catch it with a mace in one hand, the lion-kin’s voice echoed in a rumbling growl inside the tiny office. “I am the King of Lions, and my word is law,” he quoted the ancient ritual challenge as if Doctor Nudd had called challenge against him for his position as pride-king. It made the attack sort of legal under beast-kin tradition, since Doctor Nudd was challenging an order Periclum had given as king. Human law, of course, wouldn’t condone the murder, but he didn’t seem to care about that.
The pride-king lunged. His huge, clawed feet shed scraps of boot leather and dug deep grooves into the wood as they propelled the lion over the desk.
Doctor Nudd jumped back out of the office. He slammed the door in the lion’s face with his elbow, while he fumbled with the weapons.
The lion-kin burst through the door, not bothering to open it. Wood splinters flew everywhere.
Nudd ducked his face behind the shield, holding it by the edge. Most of the door fragments struck the shield, and he staggered back against a shelf full of beakers, spare electronic parts, and various tools.
Some of the flying shards of wood struck the badger-kin on the gurney. Lieutenant Runningwolf woke abruptly, growling and swiping out blearily with his claws.
Those formidable six-inch claws forced the demi-lion to halt his charge and dodge to the side.
Doctor Nudd made good use of the crucial moments that the badger’s unexpected attack bought him. He got his left arm through the shield loops and put the mace in his left hand along with the second shield loop. He used his free hand to hurl a large microscope. The cast steel instrument caught the lion on the shoulder while he was off balance from dodging the badger’s claws.
Pressing his advantage, the goblin heaved a rolling office chair at the lion’s head, knocking him down completely.
With his enemy’s charge stopped, the oak goblin doctor took a moment to shift to his own eight-foot-tall demi-tree form with the tough barky skin. He hefted the mace and shield and attacked.
Liliana squealed with delight and bounced on her wet toes splashing in a puddle as she watched the goblin use the training she had given him to fight back ferociously.
The old-world monsters armed with ancient weapons crashed and smashed their way around the modern lab, shattering expensive equipment and cabinetry.
The badger-kin soldier coughed and rolled off his gurney. Too drugged to stand, he collapsed on all fours, his black eyes blinking sleepily.
Doctor Nudd’s longer reach and ferocity seemed to have Periclum on the run.
Then the lion ducked under the mace and shoved against the shield with a powerful shoulder, hurling Nudd into the workbench where his woody head impacted the cabinets with a thunk that left him dazed and the cabinet dented. The lion kicked hard against the wheeled gurney. It flew across the room and hit Doctor Nudd’s hip. The oak goblin grunted in pain and was knocked to the ground next to Lieutenant Runningwolf.
Periclum swung his sword in an arc that would have passed through Runningwolf’s neck and Nudd’s arm.
From his knees, the goblin deflected the blow, protecting both himself and the demi-badger with a well-executed shield defense, but his counterattack was weak.
With skill earned in years of combat practice that the goblin hadn’t had enough time to match, the pride-king contemptuously swept his opponent’s mace aside with his sword tip. The mace flew across the room and smashed into a cabinet door, splintering it.
The goblin doctor hefted his only remaining defense: his shield.
The lion feinted to the right, as if to stab Lieutenant Runningwolf.
Doctor Nudd desperately extended the shield beyond his center of balance to protect the young soldier.
With a powerful clawed hand, Periclum ripped the shield off the goblin’s arm, nearly taking the arm with it.
Nudd cried out and cradled his injured arm against his chest. Rather than scramble to escape, the unarmed goblin placed his own unshielded body between the raging lion and the groggy, defenseless lieutenant.
Liliana stopped still at the side of the road, as the future fight she watched, reached the the crucial moment. The rain beating on her head, and the wind tearing at her clothes didn’t matter. She held her breath, expecting once again to see the sword plunge into her favorite goblin’s chest.
A pistol shot cracked instead, echoing through the lab. The were-lion jerked, and his sword paused in its path to the goblin’s heart. Another shot, and another flinch.
Blood spread in a stain from two small holes in the back of Periclum’s shredded lab coat. The lion’s “RRROAR!!” rattled the shelves, knocking glass containers off to shatter on the floor. He turned on his new attacker, fangs bared in a snarl of rage.
“Damn,” Siobhan said from the doorway. She tossed aside the two-shot pistol and pushed the pressure plate to close the panel in her upper arm where she kept it hidden. “I hate it when they make me leave the Kel-Tec behind.”
She ran away down the corridor as fast as her four-foot human form would carry her.
The were-lion roared as he pursued in feline fury, goblin forgotten in the primal hunger to kill the one who hurt him.
