Satou's vision blurred. Not from injury — from frustration and rage he couldn't do anything with. He'd made the plan. He'd led them here. And now they were dying because of it.
Then, through the chaos, he caught movement behind the goblin lines.
The elder goblin.
The old shaman who'd collapsed against the cave wall, too wounded to stand, was pushing himself slowly to his feet. His body trembled with the effort. Blood had soaked through his robes entirely. But his eyes burned with something that had no business existing in a body that broken.
"Elder, no!" one of the wounded goblins cried out. "You'll die!"
The elder didn't acknowledge him. Step by painful step he moved forward — past the wounded, past the fighters locked in combat — until he reached Satou.
His wrinkled hand came out and touched Satou's shoulder briefly. Just a touch. Nothing more.
"Please..." His voice was barely there, hoarse and frayed at the edges. "Save our people... child of prophecy..."
Then he kept walking. Straight toward the human lines.
Satou's eyes went wide. "Elder — what are you—"
The old goblin didn't stop. His lips began moving, whispering words in an ancient, guttural language that made the air itself thicken and vibrate. Not goblin. Something older. Something that Goblin Translation didn't reach and couldn't parse.
A chant.
The humans noticed immediately.
"Old goblin approaching! He's casting!"
"Don't let him finish — archers!"
Three soldiers raised crossbows and fired.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK.
All three bolts struck — one in the shoulder, one in the chest, one deep in the stomach. The elder stumbled. Blood poured from the wounds. He didn't stop. He kept walking. Kept chanting.
His voice grew louder, resonating off the stone walls with unnatural force.
"Stop him! NOW!" the knight roared.
Two soldiers broke from the formation and charged, swords raised.
The first blade plunged into the elder's side.
The second pierced his back.
The chanting stuttered. Blood bubbled up from his lips. His legs gave out and he sank to his knees — but his eyes, those ancient burning eyes, stayed fixed on the human lines.
And he spoke one final word.
A word that resonated with something so old and primal the stone beneath their feet trembled at the sound of it.
"...Sui explosio..."
Then his body went still.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
The humans froze.
"Is... is that it?" one soldier asked.
Another laughed, short and nervous. "Goblins trying magic? Figures. Weakest race in existence and they think they can—"
Brilliant, blinding light erupted from within the elder's body.
It started as a faint glow in his chest. Then it spread — racing through his veins, pouring from his eyes, from his mouth, from every wound the soldiers had put in him. His body rose off the ground slowly, levitating, as the light grew brighter and brighter and brighter until Satou had to throw an arm across his eyes.
"EVERYONE BACK! GET BACK NOW!" the knight screamed.
Too late.
BOOOOOOOM.
The elder's body detonated.
The shockwave of pure magical energy ripped through the tunnel like a battering ram. The sound wasn't just loud — it was physical, a concussive force that drove the air from Satou's lungs and turned his vision white. He was thrown off his feet before he could brace.
Human soldiers flew backward — some slamming into walls with bone-shattering force, others sent tumbling down the tunnel, their screams cut short by stone. The three mages who had been standing closest simply ceased to exist — there one moment, ash and scattered fragments the next.
The knight took the shockwave differently. His heavy armor and superior strength kept him from flying, but even he was driven to one knee, his greatsword driven point-first into the ground to anchor him. His visor was cracked. His gauntlets smoked.
Then the ceiling went.
The explosion sent fissures racing across the stone above — jagged cracks spreading like lightning in every direction. For one suspended moment everything hung still.
Then the ceiling collapsed.
Massive boulders came down in a cascade — some the size of horses, others larger — slamming into the tunnel floor between the humans and the goblins with impacts that shook the walls. A wall of stone and rubble rose, thick and ragged and impenetrable, completely sealing the tunnel between the two sides.
Dust exploded outward in choking clouds. Smaller rocks continued to rain down, clattering against the new barrier.
Satou lay flat on his back.
His ears rang. His chest heaved. Dust filled his lungs and he coughed violently, rolling onto his side, trying to push himself up. His vision swam. His Regeneration skill pulsed weakly beneath the surface, doing what it could against the accumulated damage in his body.
Around him, surviving goblins slowly began to move — groaning, coughing, hauling themselves upright.
Through the settling dust Satou could make out the massive wall of rubble. At least ten feet thick. More in places.
From the other side, muffled and distant —
"— tunnel's blocked! Get digging!"
"It'll take hours to clear this much stone!"
The knight's voice cut through, cold and controlled despite everything. "Then start digging. Send word to command — I need earth mages up here immediately."
The voices were already pulling back. Regrouping.
Satou collapsed back onto the stone, staring up at the cracked ceiling, chest still heaving.
Gob stumbled over to him, blood streaming from a gash across his forehead. He looked at the rubble wall. Then at Satou. "What the hell just happened?"
"The elder," Satou said. His voice came out cracked. "He sacrificed himself. Bought us time."
Gob was quiet for a moment. Then he looked away, jaw tight.
Behind them, the rhythmic CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! had stopped. One of the three big goblins called back through the dust: "Hole is wide enough! Everyone can fit!"
Satou forced himself to sit up. His eyes moved across the survivors.
Out of fifty goblins who had started this fight, eighteen were still standing. Seven more were badly wounded but alive. Twenty-five total. Half their number, gone — bodies scattered across blood-soaked stone. Warriors who had held the line. Scouts who hadn't missed a shot until they ran out of shots to give. Shamans who had kept fighting until the spells consumed them.
And somewhere under that wall of rubble, entombed in the stone his own spell had brought down, was the old goblin who had called Satou "child of prophecy" and walked into death with his eyes open.
Satou's hands closed into fists, nails biting into his palms.
'I led them here. I made the plan. They died following it.'
"Big brother!"
Jessica's voice cut through everything else. She and Kelvin came running from the back of the group — and right behind them, Goblin 1 and Goblin 2, all four of them with tear-streaked faces and wide eyes.
Jessica hit him first, throwing her arms around him and sobbing into his chest. Kelvin grabbed his arm. Goblin 1 and Goblin 2 piled in from either side, all four of them clinging to him at once in a tangle of small green arms that smelled like dust and fear.
"We thought you were dead!" Jessica sobbed. "There was so much noise and the light and we couldn't see you—"
"I'm okay," Satou said. His voice came out hollow. He put his arms around all of them anyway. "I'm okay."
He wasn't. None of them were.
Gob placed a heavy hand on Satou's shoulder. "We need to move. Those humans will dig through eventually. I don't want to be here when they do."
Satou nodded. He stood, the four of them still close around him, and turned to what remained of the group.
"Everyone who can walk helps the wounded. We go through that crack and we don't stop until we're far from this cave." His voice steadied as he spoke, finding something harder underneath. "The elder spent his life buying us time. We're not wasting it."
The survivors began moving without argument. Even the ones who had resented him hours ago moved when he spoke. The three big goblins who'd widened the crack were covered in rock dust, their weapons badly damaged from the work — but the opening was wide enough now for even the largest among them to squeeze through.
One by one they filed in. Some limping. Some being carried. All of them marked by what had happened in that tunnel.
Satou waited until the last of them had gone through. He looked back one final time at the wall of rubble.
Somewhere beyond it, the humans were already digging.
'Every life lost today — I'll make it mean something.'
He turned and followed the others into the crack.
Jessica was right beside him. Kelvin on his other side. Goblin 1 and Goblin 2 just behind.
Behind them, faint and muffled through tons of stone, the sounds of digging continued.