The square was no longer a gathering place — it was a storm of screams. Smoke curled from shattered stalls, and the air reeked of acid and melted metal. People ran in ragged lines, colliding, slipping; someone screamed looking for a child and then fell silent.
Iris spun in place, her voice hoarse as she shouted over the chaos. Her words were ripped away by the tide of noise — the shouts, the cries, the wet thud of bodies hitting cobbles.
"WHAT'S THE SITUATION?!" she yelled, eyes darting from face to face — soldiers tripping over bodies, civilians stumbling, adventurers hauling young people away from the fires. No one answered; the square swallowed her voice.
She cupped her hands around her mouth due to the stench and shouted again, "EVERYONE, CALM DOWN! GET BACK—"
Her voice was devoured by panic. A flash of movement caught her eye — a scout on the western wall, waving both arms wildly, his voice raw with terror.
"THE RAID IS STARTING! EVERYONE—GET READY!"
The words landed. Iris's blood froze. She turned toward the wall, and there — just beyond the haze — she saw them: an army. Dark figures spilled across the horizon like a living tide. Hobgoblins, hundreds of them, their war cries a monstrous hum that made the earth tremble underfoot.
"Everyone, get in formation!" Iris screamed, forcing her fear down. Her lungs pained as she shoved through the crowd, trying to marshal what remained of the people. Blades scraped against shields; soldiers stumbled to regroup — but the ground was slick with blood, and too many were already down.
Restarte came running, cloak torn, hands red to the wrists. "Iris!" he gasped. "We've counted twenty-six dead — more in critical condition! The healers can't reach half of them!"
Her mind stuttered. Twenty-six. Her throat tightened; the number felt impossible.
"What do we do?" he asked, his voice cracking under the weight of it.
Before Iris could answer, another scream ripped through the chaos — the same scout, louder, more desperate:
"TAKE COVER!"
Instinct took over. Iris looked up — and saw the sky turn black.
A storm of stones — hundreds of them — hurtled down from the sky. Each stone glimmered faintly; they were hand-picked and hurled by towering hobgoblins. The first rocks hit with a sound like thunder: crunching bone, splintering wood, helmets shattering. Screams surged as people fell under what felt like the rain of missiles.
The scout raised his shield too late — the impact shattered it, crushing his face.
Around Iris the world was a slow-motion collapse. A young recruit crawled, his arm mangled beyond recognition; a female adventurer hunched over a child, that sneaked outside, taking rock after rock into her back; soldiers tried to form a line and were scattered again by the next volley. Dust filled eyes, blood slicked the stone, and every second stretched into something raw and deafening.
"Iris!" Restarte shouted over the noise, shielding his head. "They're pushing forward!"
She lifted her gaze beyond the dust. The goblin line advanced in the distance, silhouettes punctuated by fires. She clenched her jaw and forced fear into fury.
"GET THE ARCHERS UP!" she roared. "COVER THE WOUNDED! DON'T LET THEM THROUGH!"
Her voice cracked, but it carried. Hesitant, trembling defenders began to move again.
The first stones had stopped falling, but the echoes lingered — a mix of sobs, moans, and the clatter of armor as the dead were dragged aside.
Iris saw a rock hurtle toward her. It exploded midair as lightning struck it, a white-hot flash that sent a concussive wave through the square. Restarte clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached. -Are you kidding me... GOBLINS ARE THINKING THEY CAN WIN?- he thought, electricity flashing around his body.
Despite Restarte's anger, Iris's mind was chaotic. Memories of Petra — their guild leader — flared in her head: Petra's steady figure, purple hair tied up, the calm she brought to storms. -Petra...what would you do here?- Iris wondered, picturing Petra walking onto the field and standing unbowed before the Ruda. Tears burned at her eyes from the pressure of it all.
A shout from nearby snapped her back to the present. "THAT GUY….DILEK WHAT IS HE DOING?" Restarte's voice cut through the haze.
Iris turned. The figure she had half-expected to be Petra — tall, calm — was not Petra at all. It was Dilek, walking straight toward the army. Her eyes widened.
—
"Saint... Wait up!" Diego ran behind Dilek, breath ripped from him by the chaos. Dilek walked straight, eyes fixed ahead.
"We are under attack — why are you going alone up ahead?" Diego panted.
Dilek didn't look at him. "I... I need to stall time... like the original plan, right?" he said.
"SAINT THAT WAS IF EVERYONE WAS PREPARED, IT'S TOO CHAOTIC HERE — EVEN IF YOU STALL TIME, IT'S MEANINGLESS IF THEY CAN'T LAUNCH AN ATTACK, WE HAVE NO ONE WITH US."
Dilek didn't care. He could hear the screams behind him; he saw Iris in the distance, pulled together like iron as she commanded the defense with Restarte who was electrocuting people out of panic.
"Diego..."
"Yes, saint?!" Diego looked at him, desperate.
"We will stall time… no, the plan is to bluff." Dilek's voice steadied. He looked back at the Ruda, eyes hard. "That's it — we need to take out the Ruda."
Dilek walked forward. The Ruda smiled from his boulder; the goblin ranks did not move. The Ruda let Dilek approach.
Dilek whispered under his breath a plan, as Diego's face went pale. "Even if it doesn't work, we need to try."
Diego looked at the Ruda, panic and faith warring in his eyes. "But… saint, will it even help?"
Dilek's jaw tightened. "Even if it doesn't, we need to do it."
He stepped up and met the Ruda's gaze.
—
"AMI WHERE ARE WE RUNNING??!!!" Nandita shouted as Ami dragged her through the heart of the city. Around them, people pounded down side streets, clutching bundles, huddling in doorways. A cart overturned and a child wailed; somewhere a dog barked frantically and ran around.
"AWAY FROM THE DANGER OF COURSE!" Ami shouted, pulling at Nandita. She darted through a crowd where shouts overlapped — a vendor cursing as his stall burned, a soldier barking orders, a priest kneeling and weeping. Panic painted the square in frantic strokes.
As they fled, a scream echoed from a citizen. "THE GOBLINS ARE HERE! THE RAID IS STARTING! THEY HAVE ALREADY KILLED A LOT OF ADVENTURERS — WE ARE DOOMED!" a man shouted as people surged like a breaking tide.
"THEY HAVE ATTACKED?!? WE NEED TO GET TO THE GROUP!" Nandita yelled, straining at Ami's grip.
"AMI!! AMI ARE YOU HEARING ME?!" Nandita's shout cut like a blade.
"OF COURSE I CAN HEAR YOU, WE NEED TO GET AWAY FOR NOW!" Ami snapped, eyes wide as she pushed through the crowd.
Nandita stopped as Ami pulled her. "Why... Marcus, Diego, and Dilek are there... they need our help."
"HELP? THEY ARE DEAD FOR ALL WE KNOW! I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU SO LET ME."
"Save... me? Are you kidding me?! You're just trying to save your own neck." Nandita's voice trembled.
Ami glared. "My neck? THEN WHY AM I PULLING YOU WITH ME? JUST TRUST ME FOR THIS ONCE — IF WE GET OUT ALIVE, SCREW ME, YOU CAN COMPLAIN ALL YOU WANT, BUT IF WE DON'T, YOU WON'T HAVE A CHANCE."
"I DON'T CARE," Nandita snapped, "My friends are dying right now and you want to run? With me? When were we so close, huh?"
Ami's temper flared. "ARE YOU KIDDIN—" Her voice rose; she grabbed Nandita's collar and shoved her against a wall. "YOU THINK YOU ARE SOME BIG SHIT HUH? GO TRY SAVING THEM! YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU? YOUR PATHETIC SKILL OF BOOSTING MORALE? GO HELP THE DEAD — I MEAN, THEY'LL WAKE UP BECAUSE OF YOUR SHITASS SKILL, RIGHT?"
Nandita struggled under Ami's grip. "Then let me die with them... I don't want to be with someone as pathetic as you."
Ami laughed coldly and let go. "GO AHEAD. YOU GUYS ARE TRASH. GO AHEAD — DIE WITH THEM."
Nandita's breath came in short, painful gasps. "You really are choosing the easy way, huh?"
Ami's eyes widened, then hardened. Nandita pressed on, voice breaking with something similar to defiance: "I don't care how pathetic I am. I've been that way all my life, but those guys didn't call me that. If there is even one person who wants me for who I am, I don't care whether I die or not. Just someone to look at me for who I am... is that too much to ask?"
Nandita pushed free and ran back toward the north gate.
Ami stared after her, face contorting. She turned and sprinted again, reaching for the port, weaving through panicked civilians who were heading to temples, to any shelter, they thought was safe. A voice from her past echoed in her mind, the cruel statement she'd heard so many times: 'You can't change... you always take the easy way.'
She clenched her fists. 'If I live, even as a beggar, I will be alive. I will not be tethered to those words.' She ran faster, the city's chaos blurring past.
—
"Surprised, aren't you?" the Ruda asked with a smile.
"I gotta say I am," Dilek replied. Diego dropped into a squatting position, hands trembling as he prepared himself.
"I didn't know you were a coward?" Dilek taunted. As the Ruda laughed, a sound like gravel.
"Coward? I'm a goblin — I'm supposed to be a coward. How about you humans? Full of honor and dignity, aren't you? Still you planned a sneak attack against us."
Diego tightened his fist, jaw set. Dilek watched the Ruda closely.
"You knew, huh? I guess you can really control humans like puppets. Still why do you do it to them? They were normal adventurers…"
"Normal?" the Ruda scoffed. "Sure they were. But hunting me? Why? How come I can't attack in self-defense?"
Dilek looked at him and said flatly, "You are a monster...."
"Aren't you?" the Ruda replied. "I'm a monster for defending myself? How come? If humans attack me, I should just sit and let them kill me? Tell me, so-called saint — what defines a monster to you?"
Dilek stood there, the answer already forming in him. "You are right. You aren't a monster for defending yourself. To you, humans are the monsters."
The Ruda smirked. "Right, so you get it —"
—However, Dilek continued, "I could care less. I mean, really you expect me to sympathize with you?"
The Ruda let out a bored snort. "Truly the response I never expected."
Dilek took a breath. "What defines a monster?" he asked, voice low. "A good question. It could be anyone — someone who kills, someone who doesn't value life, someone who hunts. But do you know the actual meaning?"
The Ruda looked at him "Go on. Educate me."
Dilek's eyes hardened. "A monster is a hunter. A word created by prey. Truth is, you are the prey here."
The Ruda blinked as if bored. "How come you are? Humans like you are screaming at the top of your lungs in the city. I can hear their cries, and I think it gives me a clear answer on who the prey is."
Dilek's voice dropped to a cold promise. "Humans? We have multiple species with us on our side." From the city behind him, Clarence's roar rose — a cry that echoed across stone and smoke.
"Ruda," Dilek said, staring the goblin down, "let me rephrase it, You aren't a monster, You are a Prey."