As he made his way back to the rest of the group, he heard someone call out to him. He turned his attention towards the sound of the voice to see the top half of a severed gnoll torso sailing through the air towards him. He side-stepped out of the way to see Dawson the Daring wave enthusiastically to him past the other half of the gnoll. The lower torso and legs crumpled into the dirt in front of the black knight with an unceremonious plop as Jack joined his ally."Apologies for the near miss with the body, Lord. It flew a bit further than I was antic.i.p.ating when I made the swing." Dawson said, his voice unyieldingly chipper.
"You"re fine, Dawson. I"m grateful for your help." Jack said, looking past the metal-clad man.
Rezza was sitting up now, seemingly not fully aware of where she was. Jemeni stood nearby, and down gnoll after gnoll from beside her. Rose stood to the other side of the duo, a small number of furry corpses lining the ground around her.
Further down the battlefield toward the center, the Testudo was now active, and perhaps two-thirds of the way to the leading end of the bridge. All around it, adventurers were hard-pressed in keeping the gnolls away from the armored center. Despite the numerous dead dogmen strewn across the field, it was obvious that they were still very outnumbered, and despite their best efforts, attrition was not going to be in their favor.
He and his party needed to hurry and start downing towers, or else, between the overwhelming numbers and arrow fire, their attack was going to break before it had even fully begun. He rejoined the other three, Dawson the Daring in tow.
"We need to get closer. We are running out of time before the center is in accurate firing range of the arrow towers." Jack said.
Jemeni turned his attention towards Jack, firing his crossbow blindly over his shoulder. In the distance, perhaps a hundred feet behind him, a gnoll toppled to the ground with a bolt in its throat.
""At"s fine an" great an" all, but me ride"s a bit dinged at the moment, as you can see." Jemeni said, motioning to the sitting half-orc beside him. Looking her over, Jack didn"t have to be a medical expert to know she was not in great shape. The mace blow had torn a large portion of her back wide open, and a steady stream of dark blood seeped from it down the rest of her back and into the gra.s.s. In at least one place, part of her rib cage was visible. Her face looked oddly vacant, which made him think she was either still in shock, or had suffered a concussion from the impact as well. She looked bad. Really bad.
Jack stifled a gag and averted his eyes for a moment until he could regather his composure. He inspected his belt pouches. He had two healing potions left. He had antic.i.p.ated saving all of them for his confrontation with the Shaman, but seeing those around him hurt and suffering like this made it hard to prioritize his own plans. He would have to save the last one, but he could spare one more.
He pulled one of the vials out and pulled the cork before handing it to Jemeni.
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"Here," he said. "This should get her back on her feet, at least."
The gnome inspected the potion as he took it from Jack"s hands.
"Ah, cheers "en." He said.
He walked over to Rezza, and after mumbling something to her, tilted the potion into her mouth. Jack watched as the flesh on her back began to knit itself back together, first re-covered her skeleton, then slowly sealing up the rest. By the time the potion was finished working, the wound was still present, but it was noticeably less severe, and had largely stopped bleeding. It would be enough to keep her in the fight, if only for a little while, he suspected.
Rezza shook her head, seemingly trying to shake off whatever she had just experienced, before working her way back to her feet. She twisted her neck back and forth in a series of thunderous cracks, then gave Jack a sidelong glance.
"Fanks." She said.
She bent down and hefted Jemeni back up onto her shoulder, and the two of the resumed their path towards the nearest tower position, accompanied by Jack, Rose, and Dawson.