Aberdeer Mansion, Maine (mission)

My plan didn't work quite the way I wanted it to but at the very least I'd managed to get the golem to back down for a second so I could catch my breath and think of something. None of the bullets I fired at him had any effect but the nails had hurt him just fine. I pursed my lips a bit, my mustache brushing against the tip of my nose as I chewed over the best course of action. Quite honestly, nothing I had in mind sounded particularly safe but when life gives you lemons...

"Your call." was all I said before dropping the candle onto the gasoline covered desk. Immediately the ancient tomes of dark magic burst into flame, ensuring that no one would ever use them again. I had to act fast to make sure I didn't wind up setting myself on fire. Putting my hands on the underside of the desk, I heaved with everything I had to flip the desk at the golem standing on the other side. Something else clicked in my hand and I knew in the back of my mind that I'd just made whatever was broken there even worse, but I managed to get the desk where I wanted it regardless.

That being said, it would only give me a short window to go after the old man. I ran for him with everything I had left in my and made a dive for it, hands first. With my desperate leap I was able to get the tip of my bat where I needed it to be. The wooden instrument connected with the floor boards underneath the blood mage and transformed them to a liquid state. This place was falling apart already so I figured it was the least I could do to lend a helping with ts deconstruction by dropping this frail old madman through two floors of moldy wood and plaster. Come to think of it, if I was remembering the blue prints correctly, we were above what used to be the kitchen. Make that three floors. Pity I couldn't have dropped him farther.

"You idiot!" he screeched as the fire exploded off the books. The golem lunged forward, piercing the center of the desk with a hardened hand before it was tossed at him, splattering it against the floor. It was reforming, but it would do no good. The old man was confused at the tactic of running directly at the person with a barrier against attacks, but it became clear all too late as the floor fell out from under him. He fell hard against the second floor, smashing through the wood and bashing against and through an array of pipes, bouncing off the edge of the kitchen tile and landing head first in the dark basement below.

The golem had been a few centimeters away from the back of Travers neck before the man's spine had been broken from the first fall. It immediately fell apart, splattering against his back in a shower of blood. The man was dead, merely a bloody heap on the cold ground. The fire still raged, though, and it was filling the room made entirely of dry, rotten wood at an alarming rate. The girl was still bleeding hard, the mattress having become saturated with blood where her arm laid.

Unnaturally thick blood splashed across my back, informing me that my last hope had come through. The old man was dead but my work wasn't done. Holding my bat under my right arm I yanked off my clip on tie and jogged over to where the girl remained unconscious on the bed. First things first I had to stop that bleeding. Using my one good hand and my teeth I tied the clip on garment around her wounds in a makeshift bandage. It wasn't perfect but it would be enough to keep her stable for a while.

Even in the short time that I'd spent on the bandage, the fire had already spread over a good portion of the attic and I'd already melted the stairs. I had a landing idea in mind but it was going to hurt...a lot. Have I mentioned how much I hate me job sometimes?

I draped the girl over my left shoulder and hauled ass towards the attic door that golem had been so kind as to smash open. No time to slow down. I was going to need a full dash to make this even remotely possible. I went full tilt as I rounded the corner and leaped forward from the few remaining steps at the top of the staircase. The jump sent me soaring forwards and down at frightening speed. Thank god for adrenaline or I never would have had the stones to even try this. The floor was coming up fast and I needed to be dead on accurate. Leading with my bat held awkwardly cradled in my right arm, I transmuted the second floor into a semi-solid gelatinous mess that slowed my fall without outright killing me.

But it wasn't enough to stop me completely.

The momentum from my weight combined with the kid's pushed us through the softened floor and down into the parlor on the first floor. I curled in around the girl and braced for a lot of pain. We crashed into the old couch that Ogreman had been drinking in with a thunderous crash, snapping all four of its legs before tipping it over entirely. I lied on the floor for a good minute, covered in blood, sweat and dust, growing increasingly aware of the fact that I'd just broken at least two ribs with that stunt.

On the bright side, the kid and I were still breathing, the house was going to be a pile of ashes by morning, and I'd taken care of the blood mage without even breaking my glasses. Then again, perhaps that was simply too much to ask. It'd explain why my glasses decided to finally slip off my nose and crack against the floor as I finally hauled myself to my feet to carry the kid out to the car. To my credit I didn't even curse. I was way too tired to mind. I just stooped down and put them back in place, cracked lens and all, before staggering out of the formerly haunted house once and for all.

The entire attack caved in as the flames engulfed the floor, crashing into the second with bits of flaming wood traveling to the first. The man's body still lay in the hole under the kitchen. Dolls burst into flames all around, having lost their power moments before. The girl, still unconscious, started to mumble about her camera. No doubt, it was beyond broken at this point.

From a window in the first floor, a man raised a teacup to his lips, taking a drink as he watched the alchemist escape with the unconscious girl. "Well done, Henry." Without another word, he walked into the interior of the house. He would not be caught in the flames, nor would he be crushed by the house. No bodies would be found in the debris the next morning.

(MISSION SUCCESS)