Zenkoh's Adventure

Chapter 21

Zenkoh smashed yet another witherling apart by using her tower shield to crush it between her and the hallway wall. This was the fourth one! How many did her mother bring into the ruin with her? For that matter this was a gnoll ruin, how many of the witherlings were already here? As she navigated the corridor she encountered yet another choice between going left or right. She needed to hurry up and find Maria and Irya before something happened.

After a moment of deliberation she chose to go right and began sprinting down the hallway. When she made it to the doorway at the end of the corridor Zenkoh could see what was left of witherlings strewn around the room. There looked to be about four or five of them from what she could tell. Seeing no reason to stay here she made her way past the entrance way on the other side of the room. As Zenkoh traveled further down the hallway she could hear something but she wasn't quite sure what it was, was someone shouting, possibly fighting? She picked up her speed so she could see what was going on in the next room.

When she could see what was going on in the room Zenkoh saw Maria and Irya fighting with witherlings! She saw one that was going to manage to get around Irya's flank because she was busy with the one in front of her! Zenkoh readied her shield and ran full speed at the witherling, shattering it apart with a loud crack as she slammed the witherling full force with her tower shield. As another came close to her she grabbed it by the head, and by using just her strength alone she crushed the skull into small pieces, the witherling fell to the ground limp.

Not long after that Irya and Maria had dealt with theirs.

Maria: Oh thank goodness you're okay! I had started to worry that Varna may have actually managed to beat you.

Zenkoh: Yeah, no! My mother isn't beating me any time soon. I'm glad to see you figured out how to deal with the witherlings!

Irya: That's great and all and I understand you don't like to talk about what these things are but since we're stuck fighting them now I think it's fair that I be told more about them.

Zenkoh sighed. She knew that Irya was right, she didn't like talking about it but if they were going to be fighting them then they needed to know. It took a moment before Zenkoh was ready to talk about them.

Zenkoh: So, there are four kinds of witherlings: witherling rabble, witherling, witherling death shrieker, and horned terrors. Fist off witherlings are made by stripping a gnoll of its flesh after it is dead. So that means that skin, muscle, etc. are all stripped from the body. After that a gnoll shaman uses magic to animate their body and use them as a sort of mindless soldier.

Maria had a disgusted look on her face and Irya looked like she was about to vomit.

Maria: So...wait, that means that each of them we fought used to be a living gnoll in your old clan that Varna brought with her? Then that means that she made a shaman do that to them!

Irya: EWWWWW! I think I regret asking to understand what these things are now!

A look of revulsion came over Zenkoh's face.

Zenkoh: Not quite Maria. My mother, Varna, is a shaman. She can do the ritual herself. She even told me that the witherlings she brought with her were all gnolls that tried to overthrow her after I beat her in the desert.

Maria: What! That's horrific!

Irya: And I thought Kenzo was bad.

Zenkoh: Back to what I was explaining. The four kinds of witherlings. Witherling rabble are created when the ritual fails, usually because it is being performed by someone other than a gnoll shaman, and are the weakest. Witherlings are when a gnoll shaman performs the ritual correctly and you have seen what they can do. Witherling death shriekers are when a witherling is made stronger than normal, as their name implies they can shriek, loudly, and can hurt their enemies and heal other witherlings or shriek loudly enough to shove you backwards. Horned terrors are made using a minotaur instead of a gnoll and all minotaurs consider them abominations for obvious reasons.

Irya: So what you're telling me is that there are more of these things and they can get bigger and stronger! Just great! The sooner we find Kenzo the fewer of these things we have to possibly deal with.

Maria: Trust me Irya me and Zenkoh would like to deal with as few of them as possible but we have to do what we have to do to catch Kenzo! If he gets away then everyone who has died because of him will have been for nothing.

After taking a few moments to heal up any injuries using Maria's magic they begin their trek into the next corridor. As they continued to walk Zenkoh could swear she could smell something foul, like a corpse. There had to be more witherlings nearby.

Zenkoh: I think I can smell more witherlings so be ready when we get to the end of this corridor!

As they came upon the entranceway they could see that Zenkoh's sense of smell was spot on. Unfortunately it wasn't normal witherlings in the room. There was a horned terror standing at 7' tall and a death shrieker that was 8' tall standing in the room, completely silent and still, staring at nothing in particular. Irya had a shiver go up her spine, it was creepy how completely still they were.

Irya: That...that is creepy!

Maria: It is definitely very unnatural looking.

As soon as Zenkoh crossed the threshold of the doorway both of the witherlings' heads snapped in her direction, staring right at her. She stood there for a second to see if they would do anything but they just stood there, staring. They clearly weren't going to move until she did, and as soon as she did they were likely going to rush her. Zenkoh readied her shield before stepping forward. As soon as she moved forward the horned terror leveled its horns at her and charged at full speed, Zenkoh managed to dodge to the right to avoid the charge, Maria and Irya dodged to the left.

Zenkoh was able to barely get her shield up as the death shrieker had rushed her next and let out a blood-curdling Shrieeeeeek. Her shield absorbed most of it but she was still pushed back and she could hear a ringing in her ears from how loud it was.

Irya and Maria had been cut off by the horned terror so they were going to have to deal with it themselves.