All shouts of unfairness fell silent. The cheers for the survival were hushed. The single appearance of one man stopped them all from speaking out as he interfered in the stage. Never before had this happened, or at least no one knew about it happening before.

And as he finished his words they all knew, there wouldn’t be a survivor for the Battle for Life, only a prolonged struggle towards the irreversible end. And when he disappeared a whisper from their midst raised their attention elsewhere.

“It’s black.”

They all looked at one place, past Lyriss who turned around just to look at it like them, completely disregarding any decorum she tried to keep before. The once vermillion petal was now glowing in a sinister black, that felt like it would absorb all light around.

Lyriss tried to get back into her professional persona, but her smile was stiff as she turned back. “Let’s witness their last moments.”

“Hey devil?” Goraa’s voice rang out, shaking from uncertainness.

“Yeah?” Just like him I looked at the gate.

“I don’t think it’s some kind of stealth skill.”

“You’re probably right.” I bit my lips in frustration. It’s better not what I think it is…

The ground beneath us started to tremble. “You can’t melt the ground beneath us once more, right?”

Seems like he had the same thought as me. “I could, but while you may stand the heat, I would probably kill most of the goblins around us.” The shaking got stronger and stronger, with parts of the ground heaving upwards. “And even then, I don’t think the area would be big enough.”

“Thought so.” He sighed before screaming in a booming voice. “Everyone, disperse!” The goblins scattered around the arena, stumbling as the ground shifted here and there. Then everything stopped for a moment. But instead of a sign of relief it just prolonged the impending doom coming towards us.

One by one these worms shot out again. I formed the little spheres of fire once more while Goraa shot forward, maiming the nearest one. While I burned half a dozen Goraa finished his second one, flicking green blood through the air when he bulled his claw out of it. But our efforts weren’t enough, as dozens of goblins were ravaged by their sickle-like arms or swallowed whole, the rows of teeth leaving nothing but minced meat behind.

Still, if it continued like this we would easily survive, even if their species would be crippled in the process. It just made the earlier shaking even more foreboding. And the words of that person before, he knew what would come. If it were just these worms he wouldn’t have spoken like we would die as we already killed all of them once.

“Hey Goraa.” I called out to him as my flames burned another worm into cinder.

“Yeah?” His voice was grim, frustration building up with any goblin that died before we got there.

“If it goes on like this only we two will stand at the end.”

“If you have time to talk about the obvious than use that to kill more of these things.”

“Shut up and listen!” I cursed, my headache worsening with every moment. “There must be something far worse than these little guys here! If you want your people to live than do as I say!”

“And where would this big guy even hide!?”

“Just think about what happened before this started, idiot!”

His claws pierced into another worm, but instead of pulling them out he stopped, his head turning towards the giant gate, still standing open, the darkness swirling inside it, blocking everything from top to bottom.

“Get your old man over, we’ll need his earth magic.”

“It certainly is the only way.” The old man immediately agreed with me.

“I’m still not certain this will work.” Goraa spoke out.

“Shut up and move your feet.” My whole body felt like it was burning up while I gathered more and more energy.

“I think…”

Before he could continue the old mage spoke out resolutely, ordering him instead of asking. “Get going, young fool!” He sighed before he continued. “We will need to resume your lessons if we get out of here.” Then the earth beneath him started to move, forming a platform that shot towards the gate.

I patted him on the shoulder as I spoke. “Let’s go, big one. Giddy-up!”

“I don’t like the sound of those words.” He set in motion, following after the mage.

“It’s an ancient battle cry.” I smirked at him.

“As if.” He snorted back.

As we dashed to the gate the worms around us screamed out, letting off the goblins the were rushing at and instead made their way towards us. That’s one way to show us we’re right. Worm after worm fell towards the claws of Goraa, pierced and making them bleed out or even cut apart completely, two halves twitching before the stopped dead.

Noticing they couldn’t stop us this way the worms instead formed a barrier with their bodies, with one coiling around another. Goraa tried to cut his way through it, but they formed a fleshy wall with no way through.

“Dammit, get out of my way, insects!”

As he tried to fight his way through more worms neared us from behind, ready to pounce at us from both sides.

“Hey Goraa.”

“I’m busy right now!”

“Climb upwards, we’ve no time to hack through this.”

“Damn!” He took a few steps back, getting a little room to build up some speed before he started to sprint. Jumping off the ground he bent his foot, slamming it into the body of one worm before he pressed himself upward. The worms behind us screamed but before the mass of flesh before us could react his claws stabbed into the worm up atop the flesh pile, granting him another hold with which he pulled us up.

Landing atop the pile it didn’t take long for it to tremble, as the worms started to release their coiled-up state. “Damn, you’re definitely the devil, why else would we be in this situation!?” He screamed at me as he pressed onwards, jumping of the pile into the pit the covered. But as we were in midair four worms shot out from the ground, all heading towards us, ready to bite us apart.

Goraa crossed his arms, trusting his armor to keep at least a little bit of the damage away, because he couldn’t deal with all of them while I still had to focus on my spell. Though the attack never reached us, instead we saw stakes of bloodred stone rising upwards and stabbing into the worms, keeping them in place as they bled out. Looking at their origin we saw the old goblin, gazing at us as if questioning what took us so long.

“You ready?” His voice trembled, weakened by exhaustion.

“Good to go.” I couldn’t keep the energy under control for much longer.

“I can’t do this more than once, make sure it counts.”

Quickly flames split of from me, forming the little orbs that brought death to many worms since the beginning of the fight. But instead of swirling off they gathered above me, more and more coming to light the sky above in a white golden fire. Seeing this the goblin started its own spell.

“Please let this work,” visible yellow lines traced their way into existence, quickly covering the goblins body and obscuring our view of him. Only his voice remained as the trigger for my attack. “[Landslide; Modify: Eruption].”

The mana flew into the circle, completing the spell. As the circle faded, I could see the goblin once more, blood trickling down from his lips. But still he held a smile on them. “Now is your turn.”

As he spoke the ground before us rose, sand spreading everywhere while one worm after another was thrown out of it, fidgeting as they couldn’t get inside the sound. But the rumbling didn’t stop, the earth continuing to spew out even more, till it finally dragged out the biggest one hiding, a worm far to wide to ever fit into the gate it came out, easily a hundred feet in diameter.

“Now, let’s see if you burn just like the rest of your kind.”