Before the club-wielding goblin could make it all the way to Ash however, a bloodied Matteo scrambled from behind. His first attempt was brushed off. His second only tore off the dirty rag. But thieves were nothing if not tenacious, their extreme pain tolerance built up from constantly training under duress, their personal failures many times greater than the amount of successes they have gathered, and his third attempt, diving low and stretching out to pull at the goblin’s ankle, worked out. Yanked from behind, the goblin fell flat on his face, fanged face contorting into a mixture of humiliation and anger. Half-snarling, half-spitting, the dirty goblin raised his club up and brought it down with ferocious intent upon Matteo’s head.

There was a crack, and instantly, the thief went lax.

Kicking himself free, he scrambled up onto his feet, ready to assist the other goblin again, when yet another interception came, this time in the form of Muu’s fist. Her knuckles cracked against his teeth as she punched him, one fang smacked right out of his jaw as her own hand received some nasty bruising and a cut from the blow. Unprotected as her fist was, the impact ran into her very bones, even as the goblin’s own head snapped back. But pain was an afterthought when lives were on the line, and without hesitation, the monster launched himself at her, a veritable bodyslam that would send her tumbling back if she received it.

Right into the fire behind her.

Ash wasn’t having too much fun either. Without the assistance of the club-wielding goblin, the knife-user didn’t have too much success in breaking her dogged defense, but the wound on her leg only continued to bleed more, stakes of pain shaking up her body every time she was forced to take a step with it. For now, the superior range of her machete enabled her to ward off the knife-wielding goblin’s attacks, but she was running out of time, the warm, wet throbbing of her leg slowly giving way to a bone-chilling cold. And the goblin only continued attacking on and on and on, as if it could sense it too, that a mistake was imminent.

The stream ran thick with her blood, as the frenzy continued amidst clashing blades.