The events of the 26th of Hematite, 1067Rice and Fath Archearth walked towards the piles of bodies stacked near the staircase. They'd drawn dump and melt detail, but it didn't really bother them. The masons in Rice's crew all enjoyed working with their boss; he never yelled, was always friendly, and was often laughing. Such was the case now as the pair paused by the corpses, doubled over with laughter.
The laughed stopped abruptly as Rice dropped to the ground, a bolt stuck through his now shattered knee. Archearth's eyes bulged as she stared at the Lead Mason, her mouth flapping but no words came out. She turned and saw the goblin bowman rising the steps, grinning wide as he notched another arrow.
"Oh, Zefon save me," Rice howled, "Did no one go downstairs and fix the damned doors?"
"It slipped my mind," Archearth stammered.
The goblin let loose with another arrow that punctured Rice's bicep. With his one good arm, Rice pulled himself backwards across the tile, blood smearing undernearth him. The goblin lazily notched his third arrow, chattering away in his foul-sounding tongue.
There was a flash of steel and the bow fell to the ground. A second swipe, and a spray of blood misted into the air as Maggarg danced away from the wounded goblins kick. Rice could see other soldiers running from the Temple of Zefon - Asmel Towersacks, Adol, and Varen, and from the fields with a fresh kill, Sparrow hurrying to arm his crossbow.
The battle ended fast and bloody. Adol used his quickness to break wrists and ankles, giving Maggarg the opening to power his dull blade through chests and necks. Zako, Asmel, and Varen punctured hearts and lungs, leaving goblins to die in their own blood, or stagger off the edge of the cliff to the magma below, vanishing in a puff of greasy smoke.
With the last goblin dead, there was a cry of, "Where are they!"
Maggarg turned and stared at Eita, War'dunell and Neo as they came hurrying onto the scene, pulling on the last of their armor. Adol rolled his eyes and set to cleaning gore off his hammer. Maggarg snorted, and said, "Yer' late to the party again."
"Eita needed sleep," War'dunell said cheerfully.
"We had to wait for her to get up," Neo agreed. "I mean, you know how it is. It's unseemly to go out without your squad leader."
Adol sighed, and shook his head, "Yes, fine, why don't you all go check on Rice. I think he crawled into the zoo to hide. Make sure he didn't bleed out, please."