"No one's coming to save you," Vegeta said. His voice had dropped to something almost gentle — the specific gentleness of someone who finds cruelty more elegant when it's quiet. "Your precious big brother is buried under a building. And even if he's still breathing under there, he can't help you now."
The goblins and orcs who could still move got to their feet.
Not all of them. Several couldn't. But enough — forming a line in front of Jessica and Kelvin, weapons raised, bodies already broken from everything the last hour had taken from them.
Grimnir moved to the front. His axe was in his hands, trembling from blood loss and not from fear. His face was pale. His eyes weren't.
"You'll have to go through all of us," he said. His voice was steady.
"Yeah!" Ragar stepped up beside him, a broken spear in both hands. "We're not letting you touch them!"
Finn moved to the line, swaying slightly, planting his feet. "We've come too far."
