Wallace took a moment to appreciate the fighting style of her soon-to-be companion, assuming they all made it through this. It wasn’t hard to believe that Thursa spent time as a bear or had access to the rage ability. He fought like an animal, taking twice as many hits as he doled out. He landed amidst four kobolds with his axe raised over his head, delivering a strike that nearly cleaved the first kobold in two. The remaining Swarm creatures didn’t get a bonus from their deceased comrade, but all still easily hit the unarmored druid. They didn’t do much damage above his Damage Resistance, but the human cried out in pain anyway.
Two more swipes from his axe and two more kobolds were down, one without a head. Even with only one of the creatures left and no Swarming bonus for it to take advantage of, the shorter foe still hit the druid, adding another line of blood to his already decorated torso. Wallace saw his health dip again before Thursa cut down the last enemy. The man had lost a fourth of his health from those measly creatures, but it all flowed back as he enacted his druid healing spell. The wounds magically closed on his chest, and he searched for his next victims.
The paladin turned to Vithium and Tristan. The monk was unarmed, and while the spellsword looked powerful, he was smaller than either Wallace or Thursa, and the bulk of the kobold force gravitated toward them. Vithium led the charge, tumbling into a group of six enemies in a controlled maneuver that negated their Swarm or Flanking bonus. Most of the attacks missed, and the few that hit didn’t have a critical success, so they did no damage.
Vithium sprang to its feet in the middle of the crowd and froze. Wallace recognized this as his Strawman ability. Usually, he had to do this in response to an attack or spell that should have rendered him immobile, but the dumb kobolds didn’t need that level of deception, and all six attacked the still figure. The statue exploded into fibers, leaving all the monsters Flat-Footed, and several who failed their perception check by enough were also Dazed.
Tristan walked in behind the monk, his sword whipping back and forth through the confused kobolds, killing each with one stroke. He must have had a haste spell activated to move that fast and didn’t have to raise his shield in defense, as only the last two of the group even managed an attack back, but neither hit the fighter.
Vithium was engaging the next group by the time Tristan finished the first, Dodging, Feinting, and confusing his opponents. He landed several punches but didn’t waste his mana to do extra damage. Instead, he let the spellsword come through to clean up his mess.
Wallace eventually had to look away from the others as a trio of kobolds attacked her position. She hopped off the elevated ledge and shield-bashed the first kobold so hard he stumbled into one of his companions, sending them both to the ground. It didn’t do much damage, but the smaller fighters relied on greater numbers to get their Swarming bonus, and the remaining kobold had no chance to hit the armored paladin with her shield raised. She cut it down and then dealt with the other two.
Her new sword was devastating against the demon-controlled enemies. Since Impetus had summoned them, each critical Wallace got allowed her to activate the vorpal weapon. She had done her research, though, and knew that in the regular module, when the sword was charged with the lifeblood of Thursa, the vorpal ability was a one-time-use spell, and she wasn’t going to waste it on a kobold. Instead, she put all of the criticals toward damage. The result was the same: each strike exceeded half the kobold’s health, and they had to save against the damage or die anyway. They mostly died.
The group of humans slaughtered the enemies. Thursa collected way too much damage, but his healing abilities could keep up so far. Tristan had also lost a few dozen HP, but Vithium and Wallace were untouched. They only had another ten kobolds to deal with, but the monsters huddled closer to the venator, who was still perched on a rock evaluating the situation. Before the humans could close in, howls echoed through the few trees as reinforcements arrived. A trio of dire wolves leaped out from behind stones and attacked.
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Two went after Vithium and Tristan while the remaining wolf attacked Thursa. This left Wallace unopposed, and the ten kobolds took the opening, howling with abandon and rushing the paladin. The initial trio was the largest group Wallace had engaged so far, and she backpedaled furiously, trying to use the uneven landscape to limit access to her.
It worked to start, funneling the first two creatures toward her one at a time. She had the initiative and didn’t have to worry about raising her shield, giving her more than one attack a round. The first attack predictably dropped the lead kobold, but the game wouldn’t allow her to use criticals for extra damage twice in one turn, so her next attack wasn’t as successful against the second creature.
Also, since she had already taken two attacks that round, the game wouldn’t let her retroactively raise her shield, so she took a club to the leg and then felt a sharp pain to her side as another of the monsters snuck around a large boulder to her left.
At the start of the second round, she made sure to raise her shield, but now five of the attackers surrounded her, giving each of them +20 to their attacks, and for most of them, her extra defense didn’t matter. It was enough to prevent them from getting criticals this round, but she still took damage. She dropped another kobold that round, but two more took its place, increasing their attack bonus to +25, and the last pair of runts tried to complete the circle around her.
The humans beside her weren’t doing much better. The two wolves initially fell for the monk's tricks, but Tristan couldn’t capitalize on them since their HP was much higher than the lowly kobolds, and even his massive strikes against their weakened defenses weren’t enough to bring them below half-health. Vithium began to take damage as well. Once the beasts pierced his skin with their teeth and had his scent, they weren’t fooled by his Strawman performance. The fake copy had no smell, and after sniffing the air, they could dispel the immobile doppelganger and reveal the monk hiding in the shadows. Vithium was the one considered Flat-Footed and took massive damage in the ensuing attacks.
Thursa was holding up a little better, but after taking a few nasty bites from the wolf, he transformed into a grizzly bear. This dramatically increased his strength and Constitution at the cost of Intelligence, Wisdom, and the ability to hold a weapon. He did less damage with his attacks but could absorb more punishment and didn’t need to worry about defending against magical attacks. Plus, his grappling ability was off the charts. He could wrestle the wolf into submission, bite it, and not fear a counterattack.
“I need some help,” Wallace cried after receiving several blows that did 20+ damage each. This was the first round she failed to kill one of the creatures, and all of them now surrounded her.
“So do we,” Vithium shouted back, receiving a vicious claw strike to his stomach.
“Switch with the paladin,” Tristan said, stepping in front of the monk and drawing the attack of both wolves at once. The beasts pursued the spellsword, backing him up against a rock. It was what the younger brother wanted, preventing the canines from flanking him and letting him use his raised shield to defend against both of them.
Vithium took his moment of reprieve to run toward Wallace. The knight saw him coming and killed the kobold on that side of her. The monk tumbled through the gap, stood beside her, and froze. She recognized the old trick but figured it would still work against the stupid creatures, so she raised her shield and fled through the same hole. The defenseless-looking monk presented as the easier target, so the kobolds brought their weapons down on him and stood dumbfounded when the Strawman exploded. Wallace casually struck one of the monsters as she fled, knocking it to the ground.
She saw Vithium step out of the shadows behind another one, grapple it into submission, and throw it at two others. She didn’t wait to watch the rest of the fight and ran over to Tristan to attack one of the dire wolves from behind, picking up a Flanking bonus. The demon-killing blade bit hungrily into the hound’s flesh, and Wallace held back the vorpal ability that could have killed it outright. Instead, the wolf turned to face off against her one-on-one, giving the spellsword a chance to push away from the rock and resume attacks on his wolf.
That’s when the venator decided to join the fight.