Yeol felt light-headed.
Again and again, the creature's mighty blows glanced off of her armor.
But for some strange reason, all of the energy was leaving her body.
She was surrounded by a cloud of the orange smoke that the creature had belched forth.
Yes, her armor was impenetrable. But it was so heavy. So, very heavy...
The creature blasted Yeol again with its breath weapon.
Armor... so heavy... and so uncomfortable.
Beneath her armor, she could feel boils erupting on the surface of her skin, as the beast continued to exhale its orange vapors.
She fought as hard as she could to remain conscious.
---
Nimby's throat was utterly parched. She could hardly breathe. It had been days since she had had anything at all to drink.
In her heart, she knew that no more water would be coming.
---
MortuusLupus and FebrezeNinja sat at their desks in their office. Little Magil Zeal sat quietly nearby on the floor.
Something large, noisy, and powerful was trying to break down the office door.
"Did you expect Gemclod to come to an end?" FebrezeNinja asked.
"I don't know. I never really gave it much thought." MortuusLupus replied.
"You want to know what I always thought?
"What did you always think?"
"Somehow, I always believed that the fortress would endure. Like just when everything seems darkest, something miraculous would happen."
"If something miraculous did happen, it would probably just happen so it could give us false hope."
"False hope?
"You know. Your hopes get raised for a brief moment, just to have yet another disaster shoot your fresh hopes all to pieces."
FebrezeNinja frowned. Then he smiled.
"But still, what a way to go, huh?" FebrezeNinja said. "Our plucky little fort fought off the very legions of Hell itself! And then valiantly made our final stand against a terrifying beast from the very bowels of the earth!"
"The very stuff that epics are made of."
"Imagine the songs that would have been sung in the ale-halls."
"If there were any dwarves still alive to sing them."
"All in all, there are less glorious ways we could have gone out."
"That, there are."
The office door disintegrated in an explosion of stone.
FIN