Leon and Riya: How to Raise a Gnoll

Chapter 51

As Varna brought her warhammer down on a Witherling and shattered the skeletal figure, sending its remains in all directions, yet more of them rose up from the ground around Lily to replace it. Varna had a scowl on her muzzle.

Varna: They just don't stop! Where did Oshka even get this many bodies?

Leiko: How do you think she found Morga or me? She raided every burial ground she could, there is no telling how many clan's worth of Witherlings she has at this point.

As he said this he used his shield to force a Witherling that was attempting to rake him across his face with its claws away from him and into Valka's reach, giving her the chance to use her greatsword to shatter the Witherling like the brittle bone it was.

Jahga: At this rate, we are going to drown in Witherlings before we ever get close to her!

Just then a Witherling jumped in her direction, before it could reach her she caught it mid-air. She then threw it with everything she had against a tree, and with a crack it splintered into fragments of bone. After a moment Lily focused her sight on Azur who had been separated from the rest of the group avoiding an attack from a Witherling that had gotten too close to him. Leaping off the back of one of the nearby Witherlings she vaulted herself in his direction.

As Leiko saw this he was waylaid by another Witherling before he could get near to help, forcing him to block its strike with his shield.

Leiko: Do we even have a way to stop or slow Lily down? When I was under Oshka's control pretty much nothing could keep me down for more than a second or two.

Varna was silent as she swung her warhammer, hitting a Witherling and sending it flying back into the trees.

Varna: I might have something!

As the words left her mouth she watched Azur just barely dodge a jumping strike Lily attempted after jumping off of one of the Witherlings. As she fought she slowly made her way in Azur's direction.

Azur ducked under a swing with one of Lily's daggers aimed at his head, then he nimbly jumped over a sweep she attempted. He responded with a thrust from his rapier, Lily sidestepped said thrust by a hair's breadth before responding with an overhead swing, Azur managing to bring his clawed dueling gauntlet up in time to deflect the blade. Azur jumped back to give him some breathing room, putting him in arm's reach of Varna.

A Witherling flanked him from the left side, thrusting its right claw towards his throat, Azur managed to just barely dodge the thrust before kicking the Witherling's skull, causing a snap to be heard as the Witherling's skull was removed from its body. As it fell limp and before Azur could return to his defensive stance Lily had rushed in from his right, dagger at the ready. Before she could impale him with the blade of her dagger Varna grabbed his left arm and yanked him out of her reach, before she let go of his arm a purple glow traveled from her palm into his clawed dueling gauntlet.

Varna: Go for the throat!

Before he could question what she meant Lily had rushed him again. As she thrusted the blade of her dagger out Azur managed to get his dueling gauntlet in the way, causing the blade of Lily's dagger to scrape across the metal of the gauntlet as it was deflected. Before she could pull her arm back Azur took the opening and thrust his rapier into her chest, pinning her to the tree behind her, then without hesitation, he thrust the bladed claws of his dueling gauntlet into Lily's throat while she was unable to move. As his gauntlet made contact there was a brief flash of purple that disappeared as fast as it had come. A second later, Azur removed his rapier from her chest and she fell to the ground limp.

Azur looked at Varna.

Azur: What was that?

Varna: An inhibiting spell, while Oshka retains control of her the spell makes it so that she can't move. It is only going to last for a few hours at best, we need to find Oshka before it wears off otherwise we will be dealing with both of them at the same time.

Leiko: We should restrain her for when it wears off, I say we tie her to a tree!

Valka: That would be better than letting her just come up behind us, do we have any rope?

Before she had even finished her sentence Leiko was digging through the pack that Varna had been seen carrying.

Leiko: No, no, not rope.

After a few more moments of this, he began to pull something from the pack.

Leiko: Found it!

Leiko pulled a section of rope out of the pack.

Leiko: Let's deal with her and then get a move on.

With that Valka and Jahga got to work restraining Lily.