An hour–that's how long it took for the party to subdue the goblin lord with countless debuffs and binding spells. But even now with their bodies covered in bruises and the goblin lord's neck clenched between Ross's arms, the damned beast refused to go down. Shrieking like a whale, he slammed the soldier on its back against a wall. His skull cracked after withstanding numerous injuries, Ross lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
As his arms were undone from around the monster, the goblin lord looked up at Jessa and the other winged faunans. Like angels raining arrows, they'd been flapping their wings to remain airborne while hurling countless spells at the monster. Meanwhile, Ross and Arth had kept it busy on the ground for the most part, but with one of them unconscious and the other having dislocated his arms, it fell entirely on the girls to handle the monster.
Exhausted from the barrage of spells and healing spells, there was no way for them to win and yet, scattering inside the dome, the girls continued to rain hell. A spear of fire, a torrent of razor sharp winds, even a combination of both surrounded the goblin lord, but absolutely nothing affected him. His skin as tough as steel; the winds couldn't hope to pierce his flesh, and although the flames had burned his body hair completely, beyond that, no amount of fire seemed to affect him.
"What do we do?" Geia heaved, her voice all breathy.
Looking at the other two, she saw them struggling the same way as her. Tired from flying for so long and nearly exhausted of all mana. Thankfully, the goblin wasn't smart enough to get them in the air, but with the dome trapping them in, it was only a matter of time before their wings gave weight and the goblin lord grabbed them.
'Should we just leave those two on the ground?' She wondered as it felt like the only option they had. Escaping into one of the branching tunnels, they could probably get some rest and escape undetected later. 'But…'
Glancing down at the goblin, his eyes focused on them as he jumped in the air to get them, Geia knew that the moment they left, he would turn to the other two and kill them in an instant.
"All that work for nothing! What the hell!" With every fiber in her body aching from flying for so long, Geia screamed as loud as possible to get the monster's attention. "IF ONLY THERE WAS A FUCKING WAY TO SAVE THOSE IDIOTS!"
Glancing sideways at her winged companions, she began flying away from them, and with her, the beast was drawn to one edge of the room as well. Gesturing with her eyes for the others to swoop in and take the injured away, Geia slowly lowered herself within the goblin lord's grasp, but right as he was about to grab her, she quickly gained more height again.
"YOU WANT ME, YOU FUCK FACE!? THEN JUMP!" The monster screeched at her insults; it barely understood human language, yet slurs bypassed all barriers. Trying to snatch her out of the air like a fly, it jumped at Geia, but right as his fingers would touch her feet, the faunan would fly away again.
Her eyes focused on the other two in the short window that she lingered in the air, Geia watched them grab the men and fly them towards one of the tunnels.
"AHH!" But in that brief moment, the goblin lord grabbed her by the feet. Pulling her down, it slammed her body against the ground like a toy. Hitting the shattered floor, it took but a second for her to lose consciousness, but the goblin lord's torture didn't end there.
Slamming her around some more, it shattered parts of her skull and nearly turned her shoulder bones into dust. Still breathing somehow, Geia was alive but another shock to her system, and she would've been gone forever. Waking up to the pain, she saw the goblin lord's face inches away from her. The gore of her flesh, it had drawn the monster in, and with his excitement knowing peaking to her exposed flesh, his dagger like cock emerged from under his tunic.
Watching in horror as it drew closer and closer, Geia shut her eyes. Opening her mouth, she stuck her tongue out to cut it off and commit suicide, but before she could do that, a loud cracking sound could be heard from above. Opening her eyes, she saw right above her, the ceiling of the dome falling on top of her and the goblin lord, and cast in shadow amidst the debris were her winged companions who knew that she would rather embrace death than be defiled by that monster.
As if the very world had slowed down in her last moments, Geia smirked to herself and looked the goblin lord in the eyes. Stretching her hand forward, she pulled his head into her arms. Holding it firm, she cackled and laughed–striking for once, mortal fear in the monster's heart.
"For Aestonia, you dead bastard…" Instilled with a purpose the moment she'd joined the Aestonian army, Geia felt no fear in embracing death for the glory of her land and its people. And thus, laughing in her last moments, she whispered. "We are the chosen. We shall rule this world on the corpses of the druid's enemies."
As time returned to the world, the cave collapsed on the monster and the winged watcher of the ship Maredia. Thousands of tons of rock and stone became her tomb and that of the goblin lord. As for her companions, they survived the collapse of the cave but remained trapped in the tunnels for a few long hours.
Recovering their strength, the faunans healed the men. And upon getting better themselves–although not completely, they carried the girls through the tunnels, hoping to find an exit from the cave. To their surprise, before the exits, they found the nursery of the goblins. Filled with monster children and their mothers.
They'd come to save the women, but honoring the memory of the red cardinal, they did as she would–and buried them in that cave forever.