Brian's Choice Ch. 04

Things were looking bad, but despite her manly strength, Brian was more skilled, and thus managed to land some hits on his opponent, unbalancing her. If he could knock her down he could charge at one of the other triplets and upset the direction this fight was taking.

Then she pulled out a glass vial, filled with some sort of foaming black liquid.

Fuck.

Brian grabbed her hand, holding the grenade in it so she couldn't throw it. Even if he knocked her down he couldn't let go of that hand; he couldn't risk her tossing it towards his family. Glancing back, Susan had been pushed into the hall and against his parents; sat on her ass she was still shielding against the magical onslaught. While her parents weren't affected by the deflected energy (proving they did indeed have magic resistance), their guns were almost pointed at them.

He glanced at the grenade. If it went off where it was, the blast might not affect his parents but it would still likely overwhelm Susan's already-strained shield and then hurt her and his unborn children. The grenade needed to be a few feet over for its blast to catch the corner of the hallway, where the protections on the walls would help defend Susan.

He met his opponent's eyes, which were dancing with glee. It was "Game Over" and she knew it. Her boosted strength was enough to keep him from taking the grenade away, and holding onto it was going to cost time he didn't have, yet he couldn't let it go lest Susan die now instead of a few seconds from now with the rest of his family.

But he knew Judo and BJJ. He knew how to trip and throw. Practitioners of Shotokan Karate had their own special moves they were good at, but he had his own set of moves too.

So Brian made his choice.

With her being off-balance, it was easy to throw her to the side. And he didn't let go of her either, but rather held onto her hand, with that grenade wrapped in it, as it too came down to the floor. And as she crashed onto the floor, he crashed the bottom of the vial onto the floor too. With a crack, it broke, and the world went white.

The explosion was hot hot hot, and when he felt no pain chalked it up to massive burn trauma. Secondary explosions from the directions of the other triplets was just as bad, too. At least Susan was protected by the magically-reinforced wall, while the triplets were not. His family could handle what was left of the triplets, if any of them survived the blast. And on top of all that, the magically reinforced wall would probably also stop the roof from caving in on his family.

His family would get to live. His girl would get to live. His babies would get to live.

Brian died content.