“Their stench is everywhere,” complained one of the gnolls.
“Then this should be easy! Find them!”
Jerome put a hand over Krystyna’s mouth and then nudged her. She made a thankfully-quiet noise before figuring out where she was and that it was Jerome covering her mouth.
“You try it,” said the gnoll. I’m about to faint. Seriously. They’ve put their gross human body-water over every square inch of this place.”
Body-water? Did the gnolls mean sweat? They’d been fairly stationary while doing it earlier.
And was a gnoll saying they smelled bad? There was no accounting for interspecies taste.
“What are we going to do when we find them? Katani is paying top dollar for live humans. Way more than for crystals.”
Another gnoll grunted displeasure. “I don’t know what that guy’s doing with humans, but it can’t be good. Every time a tribe cooperates he gets stronger. I say we just kill them. Then when they respawn they’ll be someone else’s problem.”
“What if they respawn in Katani’s territory? Then he gets them and we get nothing. If we sell, think of all the gear we could buy with that money. The weapons, the armor. We might even be able to eat. You remember the last time we ate? Those stat bonuses were amazing. With the weapons, armor, and food we could drive our rivals back to level 1.”
“And then what? Sell their crystals to Katani and make him even stronger? Or wait until another tribe kills them and does the same?”
Jerome wasn’t sure which was more intriguing — the stat bonuses from eating or the political struggles between gnolls. Both sounded like great tools to use on his mission.
“How many?” Krystyna whispered.
Right. They would have to fight these gnolls pretty soon. “A dozen?”
“This is gonna be hard.”
“Didn’t you fight off five of them by yourself last time? You’re stronger now and have Refill SP. I’m way stronger now and have all sorts of tricks.”
“What are the odds that I can get my armor on in time? And in case you forgot, taking on five wasn’t exactly easy.”
“If they have a Mage I’ll kill it first. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Krystyna got up and brushed herself off. Jerome followed suit. He cast Blessing on both of them, giving them that little bit of extra edge.
“I hear noises over there!” yelled one of the gnolls. “Capture them if you can! Kill them if you can’t!”
The moon was bright, so Jerome could see the shapes running towards them. As they got closer they turned from shadowy silhouettes to still-kinda-shadowy bundles of fur and claws.
The first one reached him and he dodged. He put his hands on its side and used Recoil Burst to push it far away from the battle. As a bonus it tumbled into one of its companions and did some damage to both of them.
Claws swept towards him and he dodged again. He didn’t have time to do anything to that gnoll because another claw swipe followed quickly. A claw swipe he couldn’t dodge because he was stuck in a frustrating Hold spell and could only move so far. The swipe hit him across the front, tearing off 14% of his health.
Shit! Where was the mage? It would be a gnoll that was hanging back, not one that was rushing him. There were two of them back there, and—
His thoughts were interrupted by another scrape to his front, and then one to his back, bringing him down to 55% health. As long as he was stuck here he was practically dead. At least Krystyna seemed to be moving fine, although she was having to dodge so much that she couldn’t get any good hits off. If the mage got a Hold on her…
Two gnolls were hanging back. One was brawny, large, with an air of authority. A commander. The other was a thin gnoll who was watching the battle like a hawk.
Another claw attack convinced Jerome of two things: he didn’t have any time to waste, and he didn’t have the time or concentration to make Portal Hands work, at least not at this distance and while surrounded like this.
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Crystal Overload it was. He paired it with Magic Pulse and cast it on the mage.
The cost was high — 75 MP and 38 SP — but worth it. He was released from the Hold and the mage’s body twitched erratically for a whole second. The extra Focus was paying off handsomely: the mage’s life bar had shrunk considerably.
If only he had bumped his MP up to 150 he could have cast it a second time… but there was nothing he could do for now. He had to take advantage of this second of freedom.
He kicked one of the gnolls behind him and applied Recoil Burst, sending it flying backwards, then did the same to two in front of him. They seemed surprised that he could move again and were easier targets because of that. He ducked between two of them and sprinted towards the mage.
The mage’s confusion at what had happened extended the one second of shaking interruption into five seconds of freedom for Jerome. But it wasn’t to last: the mage recovered its senses and cast Hold again.
Drat.
Jerome was less than halfway to where he needed to go, and it would be a little while until his MP had recharged enough to cast a second Crystal Overload + Magic Pulse combo, and even that was only if he didn’t refill his HP or SP. Crystal Overload by itself would take too long to charge — the gnolls would get to him before then.
But with a couple seconds head start, and at half the distance he’d been at before, he might be able to make Portal Hand work. He concentrated, then tried to place his hand right behind the gnoll.
Close! Close enough that by pulling it in as if to his chest he could place his palm on the gnoll’s back. Those two days of Portal Hand practice were really paying off! He applied Recoil Burst, sending the mage flying towards him. That cut the distance in half again, but wasn’t enough to break Hold.
What an annoying spell!
He recalled his portaled hand, then sent it out again and repeated the trick, sending the mage flying straight into Jerome. Jerome prepared a kick which caught the gnoll right in the solar plexus, knocking the breath out of it but not, alas, breaking the second Hold.
That didn’t matter, though. The mage was a couple feet away, crumpled on the ground.
Jerome used Portal Hand on his leg to stomp on the gnoll’s head until it died.
Victory!.. over one of the dozen gnolls.
Two assailants from before had caught up with him (the other hand run off to attack Krystyna) and got off terrible strikes against him while he was distracted.
Down to 9% health!
Jerome used Blast Off to rocket over the heads of the attacking gnolls, giving him a precious few seconds as they processed this new tactic. He backed up while channeling Refill HP, hoping he’d be able to get enough time to fully heal himself.
It was working! They held back! With his new Focus and Healing power it only required six seconds (and 46 MP) to completely restore his HP from 9%, and it looked like they were going to give him that time! It helped that, even though he couldn’t fight or do any other techniques while channeling, he could step backwards and dodge and look like he was ready to fight.
He was back! His HP was full! And the gnolls still seemed to hold back, keeping a wide berth. That was strange… he hadn’t done anything that threatening, and they’d been attacking him fearlessly just ten seconds ago.
A roar from behind him said almost everything he needed to know. The huge blow that fell on his back told him the rest.
The Commander.
54% of his health was gone in one hit. It had been a surprise attack from behind, so he could probably handle another hit if he saw it coming, but still… this was bad.
Jerome tried to use Magic Pulse + Refill HP, but he didn’t have enough MP left. Drat!
The gnoll towered over him. Most gnolls were about five feet tall when standing up, but this one was at least seven feet tall — maybe eight — and had stats to match. It also had armor, a fact that Jerome hadn’t fully appreciated until the thing was nearly right on top of him.
He had a gnoll form he could transform into, and Krystyna’s form, but he didn’t think that either could stand a chance against the Commander. He cursed himself for not laying hands on the mage directly (without Portal Hand) before he killed it — at the time killing it as fast as possible had seemed like a good idea. A magical form, with that fresh MP pool and really nice Alteration level (and thus effective Hold spell), would be really good right now.
The best strategy here was obvious: take the Commander’s form and fight the giant gnoll by becoming a giant gnoll. Anything else was suicide. If he held back and tried to wear down the beast using Portal Hand, the other gnolls would tear him to shreds. If he went in with his current form, Krystyna’s form, or the gnoll form he had available, then he would be able to take only a few hits before having to transform again, with Magic Pulse + Refill HP giving him one or two extra hits if he used it correctly. That wouldn’t be nearly enough breathing room to take down this fearsome beast. A punch wouldn’t do very much damage, and Jerome didn’t know enough of standing grappling to consistently get a damaging joint lock on a human, much less a giant gnoll.
No more time for thinking. The Commander was readying a side swipe at him. Jerome had to respond or die.
He rolled quickly onto his feet — grappling had taught him that much, at least — and used Blast Off to leap over the giant club and land a flying punch on the commander’s jaw.
The hit took off about 6% HP from both of them, sending pain radiating down Jerome’s arm and confirming just how necessary it was to change forms.
With his other hand Jerome laid his palm on the beast, then went to his Transformation menu and took its form.
This was his only shot. The only form that stood a chance against the Commander.
He had a time limit of however long Krystyna could hold off the eight gnolls that surrounded her. She couldn’t do much damage because of the sheer numbers, but through her crazy agility stat and her dodge and grappling skills she could avoid damage pretty well. She could refill her SP using the new spell, so her real limit was her MP. It was about a quarter gone.
Of course, if Jerome lost this fight then her limit would be how long she could take the Commander’s beating, which wouldn’t be long at all.
What was he up against? Jerome looked at the Commander’s stats and blanched.
Karamir the gnoll Commander was going to kill him.