Ozery looks up with sharp eyes a moment before the first arrow strikes, long-honed reflexes creaking him into motion and getting out a Mage Armour an instant before the arrow whizzes past Rukeli.

He flinches, then hunkers down behind his shield and starts scanning the bushes. "I see five!"

Kenzer grunts as he shrugs up his own shield and sword. His eyes are too poor these days to have any hope of spotting them, but he trusts the boy for this. "Not too many. This'll be good practice for you, boy."

Rukeli nods, anxiety plain on his face, but he's determined. Hands steady, shield in guard, the three caravans in their cluster pulling together to form a space he and Kenzer can blockade entry to. He can hear behind him children screaming and men hollering up and down the caravan line, under attack, bring your weapons. His sword shakes slightly. He steadies it. Stand strong, stand firm, stand between the monsters and the kids, keep them safe.

Ozery's casting again as soon as the Mage Armour is off, dropping a Web on the side of the road to gum them up. He's panting by the end of it, leaning his weight on his walking stick; he's getting too old for the movement casting needs.

They hear a call from the opposite side of the road, and all know enough Goblin to recognise "Caster!".

His heart-rate spikes as he cranes his neck behind him. The caravans haven't formed a wall yet, it hasn't been long enough—

The first three arrows miss him, narrowly. Two more deflect off his mage armour. But the remaining eight pound into him, one after another, and he crumples as he drops.

Rukeli hears something behind him, and glances over his shoulder— what— glances again— no—

"Shit. With me boy, we'll have to hope the web keeps them out here." He rounds and starts running for the still open gap on the other side, feet pounding on the ground.

Rukeli freezes for a second, but is soon close behind, following the inside edge of the circle of wagons to block the shots of the goblins behind him.

Big one down. Web's still here though, the bastard. Two from the first group take shots at Rukeli's back, but most refocus on laying down fire on the couple men in the circle with hunting bows, and the ones trying to join the fight from the other cluster of wagons.

The ambush goblins are quite pleased with themselves! Caster down and now, thunk, thunk, thunk, caravan drivers down too; this hole is staying open.

Rukeli cries out again as Baius and Mairik drops, but a sharp look from Kenzer has him forming up beside the grey-haired man. Gotta be a wall, gotta keep them safe, no one else—

They've got the numbers, it's time to get in and out before the men from the other half of the caravan arrive. Screeching, with covering fire from the cowardly tactically-educated among them, they press forward towards the two fighters, short swords, long daggers, and medium spears waving fiercely.

For a second as they charge he hunkers next to Rukeli.

Wait— no sorcerer, wall's not closed enough, two archers down, we need to be spread further to fill this gap or they'll surround us, damn—

"Ruke, more distance!" he calls, shuffling leftwards.

Rukeli blinks, but yeah, okay, it's pretty obvious what the problem was going to be once the old man starts moving. He shuffles right, and two seconds later when the goblins slam into them they're filling the gap just enough to make getting around and behind risky.

Damn. We hate doing risky things. Attacking from the front it is.

They rush forward, four to each armoured man. Even with their spears the men have the reach, so they're pressing in hard and fast and close, where the knives can do the work.

Kenzer hits one on the shield hard enough to bowl it straight over, stomps his front foot forward and the other two shield goblins flinch back for a second, long enough for him to stab one in the face, then he has to duck and pump his shield up as the spear stabs in, so the last shield goblin steps round his side and he has to step into it to throw off its knife thrust and knock it over—

And Rukeli blocks one spear thrust and snaps out with his blade, narrowly caught on a shield, step a half step closer to Kenzer and round the titchy shield wall to get a blow into a goblin's ribs, big step back to dodge the knives, in and a cut down into another's shoulder has it crumpling to the ground too. But he has to step back to keep distance from the spear, and then pivot slightly to dodge a knife to the gut, and his shield is just out of position enough for two arrows to slam into his shoulder and thigh.

He roars from the pain, and charges the spear, trampling over the shield goblin, bats the tip away from his face and shoves it towards the ground and then slams his blade into the side of the monster's neck.

Well, that's terrifying. And, more importantly, if he joins back up with the old one they'll be in trouble. Archers, get him.

It turns out it's hard to focus on multiple things at once, especially with adrenaline running high. Rukeli's head whips around to his mentor retreating slowly from the three goblins once again up and trying to surround him, and he tries to keep his guard up to the archers as he presses that way, but he does not succeed. An arrow skitters off his helm, one pierces through his forearm, a sling slug cracks against his shield, and two more arrows sliding into his stomach is enough to drop him.

Not the kid— arrows will be on him the next moment, he needs to brain this goblin, slip around that one and duck the spear to slash across the spear goblin's chest, turn back around to get his shield down just in time in front of the last one's knife going for his thigh, try and take its head off but it ducks.

First arrow slams into his back while he's looking the other way.

Fuck. He feints a snap at the goblin's head, then drops it down and punches the blade into the thing's leg, almost taking it clean off. It drops screeching, and he spins to get his shield between him and the arrows, taking two more in the process. He starts stepping towards where Rukeli lies, small steps to keep his footing sure.

What a son of a bitch. Need him distracted for any arrows to hit; Urma, Messy, you're up- I will run you through myself if you don't, move.

Kenzer kills another six goblins, slowly fed in two or three at a time as he desperately tries to keep his defenses up, drag Rukeli back to cover, and deal with the latest distraction. They've got so many archers, it feels like his shield doesn't stop vibrating from all the impacts. Another blocked, and another, and he's almost gotten Rukeli the three metres needed for him to be behind a wagon where one of the women can look at him and Kenzer can focus on the goblins, and then—

A high pitched, warbling, shrieking whistle sounds out, so loud it feels like it might split his head straight open.

Kenzer has been doing this a long time, but there's always something new. He flinches and whips his head towards the noise. What now??

And that's what they were looking for; An arrow slams straight into his eye-socket.

And his head whips back and he folds down on top of Rukeli.

Fucking finally. The remaining eleven pour into the now-open gap, trading shots and lives; two more goblins down in exchange for all the remaining defenders. These humies better have some good fucking loot for all this trouble. Ooh, a kid (there is a certain kind of goblin that takes a great vindictive pleasure in having a pet tallman that's shorter than them).

I will leave it to your imagination what happens next; our heroes' brief mortal stories are over now, and their souls wind their ways towards their final homes in the planes above.