The rain poured down on the volcanic mountaintop as the red liquid puddles on the ground began to slither down the tracks. The sound of metal clashing was causing people to lose their hearing. Blood poured down, the soil being darkened. Two warriors shined out the most throughout the battlefield, even as odds were against them.

Emanick, the magic using warrior used spells to kill the demons all at once, while the hero, who was known as Fake, disposed of the enemies. As the demons were losing, the demon lord, Aliath, decided to step down. With every step he took the ground shook. Due to the shaking the lava began to erupt. Ash poured down the volcano and warriors began to fall.

Thinking fast Emanick made a ditch surrounding the entire rim of the volcano causing the lava to fall into it, many man had already died. Fake dashed to the demon lord, and swung at the demon's thigh. The demon pulled out his horns to reveal two swords and easily parried Fake. He kneed Fake in the stomach and punched his jaw, perhaps snapping it. He elbowed Fake's back causing him to yelp in pain.

Emanick was busy facing a new threat, goblins, to notice what was happening with the hero. The goblins were overwhelming the heroes with their agility, and the battle had already ended. The goblins leaving, noticing the enemy was defeated. Fake was thrown down by Aliath, he laughed. He stepped on Fake's skull ready to crush it when suddenly Fake pulled out a hidden dagger and stabbed the beast's leg. Reaching for his sword he cut off Aliath's head, killing him.

Fake rejoiced at what he thought was a victorious battle when suddenly a lone goblin smashed his club into Fake's head, the impact causing the club to break. Emanick, noticing what happened burned the goblin on the spot. Running to the fallen hero he felt for a pulse and he felt a faint one. Lifting the hero on his back he walked back to their village. As each step seemed to add on a pound of weight before the last as he managed to make it to their village before he fainted.

As Emanick woke up he ran out of his bed to walk in on the funeral of his fallen comrade. Emanick wept as he found out Fake had died before they arrived.

I can see the story was axed more towards the battle descriptives, but you could have went more in-depth on the characters' thoughts and feelings despite the word limit.

You might want to try reading your stories aloud, next time. Some passages seemed awkward and you could easily fix that.

I realized that and sadly I couldn't fix them because it'd make the word count over 400. The story did have more character thoughts but I cut that out, although Emanick did weep.

You can always fix this story, now that the contest is nearly or entirely over?