I jumped down the stairs in pairs.  Now that I was closer, I could hear movement, laughter, and shouts.

3 stairs down

4: Training.

I grabbed hold of the railing, stopping in place.

They were on the landing, Laika and five other shapes surrounding her, covered by the red light, near an open door to the training floor.

Her clothes were cut, and she was showing her teeth.

There were also two creatures on the floor when I reached the room.

Of the five small figures, one turned around. His glowing eyes followed me with a crooked smile. He held a crude dagger, licked his lips and the bloody blade.

His laughing voice echoing through the stairwell.

Oh God, they smelled like shit and piss.

"Goblins?" That was when it all started to make sense.

It was a dungeon breach. And it was happening here.

I needed to take care of this now.

"Francis?" She smiled, observing me as I descended, as if she had forgotten the situation.

"Laika?"

I pushed my pencil in front of me.

"Don't worry, I can help!" I stabbed at the goblin watching me.

I tried to wipe its fat, ugly smile from its disgusting—

The crude iron blade was cold, then angry.

Deep cut in my forearm, then heat.

I opened my hand from the pain, and my pencil was sent flying down the stairs.

My vision jumped from goblin to Laika to my hand.

It then grabbed my fist with its greasy hands.

I shouted; he opened his mouth and tried to take a good bite.

I shook my arm and flailed forward. The goblin went flying and fell on top of the other goblins.

I watched them fall to the ground like a bunch of figurines, shouting and complaining to each other.

It... actually worked?

Laika's eyes and mine met. She was not showing her teeth. I think she was in the same disbelief as I.

They had formed a goblin pile of complaints, some of them even losing their daggers, which clattered on the floor.

I ran on top of the stunned goblins. One of them complained. I grabbed Laika. "Come quickly. We need to hide." She nodded, and her ears perked up.

The door to level 4, training, was open, and I decided we should get in now. I closed the door behind us, but that wouldn't hold.

"You came back for me?" Laika said, holding my arm. I screamed internally as she pressed my wound.

"Y-Yes." I lied; I didn't even know you were here.

"You are really one of the good ones." She said, nonchalantly. But she was smiling.

The door led to this floor's elevator banks, but the gaudy yellow-and-black coloring said everything: Warning.

We passed posters. If you are in danger, remember G.L.I.D.E.  There was a cartoon hunter, smiling. Every time I walked through here, I never understood what GLIDE meant.

The room ran past us as the alarm's color washed over us. I saw the reception desk. I let Laika go and approached.

Papers, a nameplate that read Janine, and a mug filled with coffee were all thrown to the ground.

Pencil, pencil...

There were only pens.

She grabbed my arm. "We need to go deeper, find a place to hide you."

"It's better than nothing," I responded.

"For what? Signing your death certificate?" She pulled me deeper into the training area.

"You don't seem that scared..." I said, looking back.

"Of course I am scared," she responded.

She showed me her teeth.

"If God wanted me harmless, she wouldn't have made me this sharp."

The main training area looked like a gym; it had weapons, an open space, some training gear, and no pencils.

Wait, weapons, I looked around, and there were mostly training weapons that I wouldn't know how to use.

I saw a repeating crossbow thrown on the floor as we were passing. I pulled from Laika's hand, which slowed her down, as if with a leash.

Terrible idiom. Should have thought of something else.

I pulled it from the ground with too much force, making me bite my lip in pain, thinking it would be heavier, which made me almost lose my footing.

I should start using my other arm.

"Ok, let's go," I said.

She still held my arm, and while she pulled me, my eyes were on the weapon.

It had a magazine on the underside and a little button which I pressed.

It detached, and I took hold of it so as not to lose it.

Completely empty. Guh...

I kept it in my hand for now.

Laika pulled me deeper until she found a room.

It was a colorful room, with drawings of dragons and monsters stuck on the walls.

I approached the piece of paper on the wall. "The hunters have a daycare? That is kinda unfair."

I grabbed one, "Monty age 10, Mommy decapitated a tyrannical eye, she is so strong." I accidentally soiled the paper with my blood, and I dropped it. "Ah... sorry, Monty."

I looked at Laika as I sat on one of the tiny tables that layered the place.

She closed the door behind her. There were no kids here other than me.

Laika began breathing deeply, as if she had not breathed since she started running.

"Ok, now that you are safe, stay here. I will go fight them. They will find this place, and I can't protect you," Laika said.

"What!?" I shouted. I then shook and said it again as a whisper, "What?"

"You are one of the good ones," Laika said. She opened her arms and hugged me close to her.

My hands fumbled as I tried to find her back, smearing some blood on her fur.

I cringed in pain as I tried.

She was warm. Her fur was slightly more matted, but it fell right.

It felt like the right thing to do.

Doesn't matter where the goddess sends me.

"Thank you for all," she said.

"Wait, we got to plan," I said, but she pushed me back. "Stay here until they find you. If I defend you while I fight, you might end up dead." I sat at the table and looked at her leave.

Her tail, straight, disappeared around the corner.

And then silence. I looked at my bloody arm. The smell of lavender still lingered on her.

I looked at the crossbow, and then at the jar in the drawing area, filled with colorful shafts.

"No."

No?

"Yeah, no." I stood up. "I got a plan."