My Second Life Is A Heroic Power Fantasy

Her first instinct was to duck and hide, but stopped herself. That would only look suspicious if they were gnolls. Instead she slowed her pace, and waited to see who or what was coming.

Within a minute, one gnoll after another ran past, their breath coming in deep gasps as they dashed past her. Some bore visible wounds. Many were covered with ash or had bits of fur missing, like they"d been burned off. All of them were disheveled, and openly wore fear on their faces.

Once the first group made it past her, she persisted down the tunnel for several dozen paces before she encountered the next group. This one was made of larger, hardier gnolls carrying giant, two handed clubs. They came on slower than the rest, the majority of them keeping pace with the biggest, who was limping slowly and bracing his weight on the shoulders of two others. Behind every deliberate step he left behind a faint trickle of dark blood that ran steadily from the large open wound in his right thigh.

When one of the larger one caught sight of her heading the opposite direction from them, it stopped and called out to her.

"Forward camp"s lost, runtling. Some wizard just burnt the whole thing down." It growled. "Chieftain"s called everyone back to prepare for the next attack."

"Who"s attacking?" Eleanor asked. Her voice came out deep and raspy, to her relief.

The large gnoll scowled at her and snarled.

"The f.u.c.k you been, lastborn? There"s an army of adventurers coming to raid the clan. This has been clan known for days."

Eleanor shrank away from the creature as he shouted at her. It was not a voluntary reaction, but seemed to be appropriate for the occasion regardless, so she did not object to it happening.

"Sorry. They don"t tell us prisoner guards much." She replied, adopting a pose of deference.

The large gnoll snorted.

"Don"t suppose they would, since you lot are too weak for real fighting."

He shoved past her to the snorts and snarls of the others with him.

"There"s nothing that way but death for a rat-dog like you. You"d be wise to get back to your kennel before the humans out there make you a pet." He said, and several of the others chuckled nastily.

She kept her head down and stayed silent until they all pa.s.sed. Once she was confident they were out of eye and ear shot, she turned and resumed her run towards the outside. She rounded another corner, only to run right into another body. They collided with enough force that both of them were knocked to the floor of the pa.s.sage. Eleanor sat up, rubbing her head, only to find herself face to face with Jaang"faz.

The gnoll seemed equally caught off-guard and perplexed by this situation, and furrowed his brow.

"I believe you"re going the wrong direction, friend. The fight is already lost." He said, rising to his feet and dusting off the front of his clothes.

Eleanor stood, and did the same. She looked at him in the eyes for a long moment, and shook her head gently.

"No, I"m going exactly the direction I need to be going. I have friends and family to get back to." She said gently.

Jaang"faz looked her puzzled for a long moment, before a faint flicker of recognition pa.s.sed quickly through his eyes. It disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, and his face settled into a stoic, bored expression.

"I see. Well, as you know, the fastest path to the outside is the furthest to the right." He said non-chalantly, before moving to walk past her. "Now, if you will excuse me...."

Eleanor reached out and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him in place, before leaning over and gently whispering "thank you" into his ear.

He nodded, but said nothing as he shrugged out of her grasp and continued down the hall.

As he rounded the corner, he casually called back to her.

"Good luck."
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