After a hurried selection process-or a fight as the humans would call it, the winning dwarf, a sprightly young fellow by the name of Ordus strolled towards the distant prize with a rather large grin on his face. He was whistling to himself as he sauntered down the roadway, idly wondering just how much of the salvage reward he would be allowed to keep.
As he approached the conspicuous statue, he made a brief calculation in his head as to the worth of a statue that size made of solid bronze. He whistled faintly under his breath, and his grin grew even wider.
Finally, he stood in front of the statue and looked upwards at its rather foreboding form. Standing over eight feet tall, the statue depicted a large muscular champion of some ancient civilization lost to the depths of time. Its muscular frame glistened in the sunlight, making the statue difficult to stare directly at for any length of time, and the recently stopped rainfall was still evident in the sparkle of raindrops reflecting the light.
The statue stood firmly upright, staring fixedly down the road in the direction of the waiting dwarves.
Ordus reached forward, and tapped the statue gently with his fist. It replied with a resonant tone that echoed from inside. The dwarf frowned momentarily, after realising the statue was at least partially hollow, before grinning again. Hollow or not, the statue was still worth an absolute fortune.
He turned back to the distant dwarves waiting a short distance away down the road, and waved an arm.
“It’s fine,” he shouted. “Now let’s see if we can get it on the back of a wagon.”
From behind him, he heard a loud creak, then everything went black.
The distant dwarves shouted in anger as they saw the statue thrust a fist forward, and the lone figure of Ordus was punched into the ditch, his broken body sprawling lifeless in the mud at the side of the road. The bronze statue withdrew its fist and straightened up, its two glowing red eyes flaring within the darkness of its skull. Once again, it looked towards the caravan, and its eyes glowed with fury.