One Down

Haruki and Lyra finished the seven goblins together.

It was not a long fight. Seven goblins against two fighters who had been at this long enough to stop thinking about it --- Haruki working the rapier through the gaps, Lyra shooting from close range, methodical and efficient. One by one they went down until the ground on Haruki's side of the clearing was still.

They turned at the same moment to check on Hayate.

Two goblins were moving through the grass behind him, low and quiet, closing the distance while his attention was entirely on the chief in front of him. They had been there for some time --- waiting, holding back until the right moment.

The moment had arrived.

"HAYATE --- BEHIND YOU!" Haruki shouted.

Lyra was already moving. She grabbed an arrow from the nearest goblin corpse, notched it, and loosed in one motion. The nearest goblin took it in the head and dropped.

The second drove its sword into Hayate's upper right torso before he could turn.

Hayate went rigid. The body's response to something it had not processed yet --- the moment between the wound and the understanding of the wound. He stood completely still for one second with a goblin sword buried through his upper right side.

The chief's backhand caught him across the side of the head.

He went flying, the goblin still gripping its sword, both of them leaving the ground together. The goblin landed first. Hayate landed on top of it. The crack of the goblin's skull was audible across the clearing.

Haruki was already running toward the chief, rapier raised. As he closed the distance the chief turned to meet him and their blades connected --- not a glancing exchange but a full clash, the chief's weight behind its sword pressing down against the rapier, Haruki holding the line through technique rather than strength.

Behind him, Lyra moved through the clearing and collected arrows from the goblin corpses --- methodically, quickly, refilling her quiver enough to work with. She found her position and started shooting.

She knew the chief's weaknesses by now. The left shoulder. The knee joint. The lag on the upper left that she had already exploited twice. She capitalised on all of it --- landing hits that would have finished a lesser opponent, hits that drew dark blood and slowed the chief's movement. The chief absorbed them and kept fighting.

It was still standing. So was Haruki.

The fight ground on --- neither side giving ground, neither side breaking. Haruki held the blade exchanges and looked for openings. The chief pressed and recovered and pressed again. Lyra shot and repositioned and shot again.

She reached into the quiver. One arrow left.

She looked at the fight in front of her and understood that this was going to have to end it.

She started moving --- wide around the chief's right flank, drawing its attention, pulling it around to open the left side. The same left side. One shot. She needed the angle clean and she needed a moment where the chief was committed enough to the exchange with Haruki that it couldn't recover in time.

Haruki's foot caught a goblin body.

He went down hard --- full length, the rapier skidding from his hand, the ground coming up fast. The chief's sword was already rising above him. He looked up at it from the ground and did not look away.

Lyra notched her last arrow and pulled the string back.

A goblin sword came spinning out of the far side of the clearing.

It crossed the open ground end over end and buried itself in the chief's head. The chief staggered --- one step, two, the sword arm dropping.

Lyra loosed.

The arrow hit between the chief's eyes.

The chief fell.

The clearing went quiet.

Haruki got to his feet. He and Lyra turned at the same moment, following the line the goblin sword had come from.

Hayate was standing at the far edge of the clearing. His shirt was dark with blood from the open wound in his chest --- the place where the sword had been, before he had pulled it from his own body and thrown it across the clearing at the chief. His right arm was still extended from the throw.

He raised his fist.

One moment. Claimed in full.

Then he fell.

They were running before he hit the ground.