Sapphire

You feel a rush of power as golden light cascades from you and into the tiny body on the stone floor in front of you.

Please, let this work.

The fight around you slows as everyone turns to look at the sudden source of light.

Please, let this save her.

Which turns out to be a mistake as the light suddenly goes off like a flare. The goblins flinch away from the light, and the humans are left rubbing sunspots in their eyes.

Champion Empowered

Champion Fame Abilities Unlocked!

You hear overlapped fanfares as you gain at least two levels, which confuses you for a second. Only a second however, as Sapphire takes a strangled gasp and opens her eyes, giving you more immediate concerns. Her hands fly over several popups faster than you can read them, until she pauses on one that you can read, backwards.

Choose a Beastmaster's Boon

Her eyes slide to Hyena, and she makes her choice.

Fighting resumes around you as she meets your gaze, sapphire against ruby, and then you both turn your gaze towards the rogue, currently clashing blade for blade with a furious Feathers. The gobliness is attacking with single minded ferocity, despite a dozen small wounds that the rogue has inflicted on her in return.

Two two of you move almost as one, like you've been training together for years, when you both take a great lungful of air and launch the narrowest beams of flame you can produce at the rogue, white hot intensity scouring the air and laying the cavern into stark relief. You hear the fighter give a bellow of surprise at the light and roaring sound, but both of you stay on target: the swaying, disoriented rogue.

Feathers lays into him afresh, sword sinking deeply into his legs and bringing him to his knees. You swing towards Sapphire, running next to you, and she grabs hold of one of your horns. Flicking your neck, you fling her into the air and begin to turn to the fighter, trusting her to finish the job.

While in the air, Sapphire nocks an arrow and releases it as she falls back down to earth on the far side of the rogue, point blank, into the back of his skull. He disintegrates into a lootbag as she stands up.

The goblin males have done less well. You can only see two of them, and a small pouch that you assume is all that is left of the third. The one you recognise is only fighting with one arm, the other hanging limply; the last goblin is mostly unhurt, but is also unarmed and being ignored by the fighter.

You pause, wondering how to tackle this, when a shadow rises up behind the fighter. Hyena, matted with blood and with one eye swollen shut, pounces on the fighter from behind. Unlike you, Hyena isn't distracted from delivering a coup de grace, his powerful jaws barely being slowed by the intervening neck as they come together with a wet thump.

And like that, the cave descends into silence, bar only the sound of breathing and thundering hearts as you slowly pull yourselves together. You look around the cave, curiously clean after the bodies despawned, leaving only the blood of the survivors.

Sapphire walks up and rests her head against your shoulder for a moment, before moving towards Hyena and starting to tend to his wounds. Feathers comes up on your other side and leans against you. You take comfort from each other, even as she uses her sword like a crutch, and you spend a moment comparing her to Sapphire.

One the runt, forever bullied and bloodied, given power for the first time. One the Chiefteness, took power by sword and guile, only to be **** into subservience to ensure the survival of her people.

You open your fame menu, taking a half second to glance at the champion fame abilities that have now been unlocked.

Promote to Miniboss

looked promising, but was currently greyed out.

Establish Retinue

also sounded like something you'd want, but right now you had a more important use for your fame.

The two surviving goblins presented two more limp, cold forms to you. Your kobolds had been cut down from behind, by the looks of their wounds. But you weren't going to use your fame for that, either.

200 fame: Elect Champion, Feathers?

You hit accept, and felt another rush of experience, and another two, layered level up sounds. You take a moment to bring up your character sheet, and then everyone else's.

Despite everything, you began to laugh.