The police station was, as expected, crowded. But not as much as he thought. About a good hundred people were present, for a city that counted over 20,000 inhabitants.
They were gathered in a crowd, surrounding the policemen who kept asking to keep calm. Though, after yelling it a few times, they were already starting to lose it, their face red.
"We killed some of these creatures," he said in a dry voice. "They are killable. Them and the humans who control them."
"What are you going to do?" asked a man in a tracksuit, his face hidden by a hood, and with a foreign accent. The kind that was most often arrested by the police. "Give us weapons!"
The crowd echoed.
"We don't have any extra weapons!" he said. Two guns could be seen attached to his belt. The crowd shouted.
"Hey! Calm down!" He brandished his pistol and fired a shot that caused silence and the fleeing of a few. "Now you shut up! We don't know anything more, and we're not going to give you weapons! Especially not to people like you!" he said, pointing towards the tracksuit-clad man.
"People like me? What do you mean?! Are you racist?"
"The law forbids hiding your face, sir. Now shut up, we don't have time." He addressed the group. "We need food and to set up some sort of camp. The army can't arrive immediately; they need time. Plus, they've lost a lot of personnel!"
Even here, there were now only two out of the five or six policemen the city had.
"Wait, let's divide the tasks," said Rargnes.
"Why?" asked Sengrar.
"So we'll have more information." He silenced the other reason. As tattooed and massive as Sengrar was, Rargnes wouldn't be able to go unnoticed.
The uniform and the weapons moved: the group began to gather food and bring it back, prioritizing all the canned goods. In the supermarket, all the products remained, even those they had consumed, along with a few people who decided to follow them.
They carried everything they could to block off the grounds. Since the police station was backed against a wall, they built a wall on the other three sides with a removable ladder on one side and the other to pass.
The operation lasted the whole day, during which Rargnes talked to everyone. He quickly understood the group dynamics and the future factions.
Who didn't have them? The business world was full of them, those little bosses who watched over and only promoted those who shared their clans.
That's why he never worked harder or more. They already noticed that Sengrar had an atypical strength. His massive body could make them accept this situation, not his own. And even then, their eyes nearly popped off when they saw him moving so many bricks by himself. Rargnes overheard many people talking about Sengrar in the camp. They whispered he was a warrior who had found an opportunity. They spit their jealousy.
It was a reflex from his business years. If you were too good, you wouldn't be promoted because not only would your manager see you as a threat, you wouldn't have time for politics, and you would be a loss for the manager.
After all, the manager saw his results, not those of the company. Someone who only produced the minimum getting promoted was not a loss for his manager. Whether they stayed or not didn't matter, heck! They might fit better, and give them back a promotion. After all, they should know they weren't the best. Someone who worked for three, however, was impossible to promote because they were too good.
The company's money was not theirs. What was losing millions? People suffered at the other end of the planet? His toenail was much more of a concern.
That's why Rargnes favored the social and political approach.
It wasn't bad. His mission was good.
Hours passed. He began to flatter the policemen by finding things he genuinely thought - humans easily detecting lies.
"Haha, you're a good one!"
He never showed his weapon or his abilities - no jealousy was allowed.
Hence, the first two days passed by.
On the morning of the third, the two policemen gathered everyone in the square.
"The army just informed us that they won't be able to come directly. They need to secure the capital. All the armed forces are heading there now if their area isn't in too bad shape."
The crowd protested.
"Silence! They also told us that most cities have been attacked by goblins and humans from the Middle Ages. We're going to need volunteers to explore the surroundings."
Nobody volunteered.
"Come on, wouldn't someone want to do it?"
"Why don't you do it yourselves?"
"Because we have the police station to defend, and by being in the center, we can more easily help the area where there is a threat."
They did indeed protect the police station, day and night, taking turns, only trusting each other. And even then, how worthy of trust were they?
"Look at this!" one of the policemen had said, showing his bag full of weapons.
"What is it?"
"Flash grenades." He pointed to one, then to another weapon. Policemen preparing for the collapse by buying weapons.
After a few seconds, the policeman pointed out several people who wanted to explore the area, including - unsurprisingly - Sengrar. The fact that he towered over the policemen by 20 good centimeters seemed to be a good enough reason to pick him. Furthermore, he had tattoos covering his face.
--
"Break that one too!" said one of the men, swinging his hammer and sending it flying towards a window that shattered into a thousand pieces, causing a sharp cry.
Sengrar passed through the broken glass pieces and smashed the door. They destroyed the most likely surroundings to be broken to replace them with materials.
Behind them, people came with heavy furniture, bricks, and cement, trying to seal off the area around the commissariat for 50 meters.
The two policemen guarded each avenue entrance, a large black transparent shield between them, and others placed in protection.
Sengrar climbed the stairs and accessed the roof, he looked right and left and raised his hand to those remaining on the ground. "No danger" that meant.
They descended by the end of the day, while Rargnes was assigned to be next to the policemen, looking at one side to ensure that the field of vision was perfectly filled.
He preferred this place. It gave him enough energy to fight with Sengrar at nightfall - and to get beaten with fists.
--
A gunshot noise woke Rargnes in the middle of the night. "Wake up!" shouted the policeman.
Rargnes got up, stressed, and went to see the policemen with Sengrar. He could smell gunpowder.
"Get up and shoot!"
They climbed onto the wall and threw rocks at the goblin army below them.
About thirty of them, all armed with spears, trying to climb over the wall. Seeing that they were not succeeding, they retreated.
Rargnes threw a stone at a goblin's head. The stone was the size of his palm and smashed the goblin's skull, causing it to fall dead.
Then, Rargnes felt a surge of pure energy. Much more than he had ever felt, even at the time of the barrier's destruction.
'Can we get it by killing monsters?' he wondered, then corrected himself, 'by killing goblins.'
The raid folded. Rargnes saw behind them the humans in armor fleeing.
"Calm down!" said one of the policemen. "They can't cross the walls!"
It was true, with the strength of goblins. But the policeman knew nothing about the internal energy and its potential. They didn't wish to accept their preparation could only be of use in the beginning.
Days passed, and the goblins used the famous siege strategy, establishing a camp outside.
Bullets were precious for the policemen. Not only did they not allow to kill all the goblin crowd given their limited reserves, but they were crucial to maintain their impact on the group.
They didn't suspect that Rargnes had stolen several times. A flash grenade was even present in the internal pocket of his coat, under the bulletproof vest that the policeman had given him.
'For my own empire,' he thought. History only remembered the temporary victors.
Under the surveillance of the policemen in line, they received the limited water ration that was becoming increasingly scarce. The taps no longer worked, and the supermarket was too far away.
Rargnes observed Sengrar eating his tiny portion. He swallowed his significantly larger one without remorse.
'You gotta learn from pain.'
Easing one other life wouldn't make him more responsible. Why would he bother changing if things worked fine?