Turning his attention to the rest of the battle, Jack saw that things were not going well for them this time around. At least a dozen of the attacking adventurers lay dead nearby, with less than half that number of gnolls beside them. In the distance he watched as a gnoll was raised into the air by thick green vine tendrils, only to summarily pulled into pieces by them and thrown at others. One of the creature"s legs flew past him and slammed directly into the gnoll Rose was currently engaged with. The creature staggered and dropped its guard, and before it could recover Rose brought her sword onto the creature"s head with such force that its head split clean in two.Rezza and Jemeni stood out like a cliff face in the ocean of bodies surrounding them, the towering half-orc battering at the surrounding gnolls while the giggling gnoll on her shoulders pumped bolt after bolt into them with his crossbow. As he watched, however, something flew through the air and struck Rezza square in the chest. She roared and stumbled as another hit, and then another. They looked like javelins. Jemeni shouted something and fired in the direction of the projectiles, but it was too late. Rezza wavered for a moment too long, and several of the gnolls around her laid into her. Just before she fell, Jemeni jumped off her shoulders, disappearing into the sea of bodies around them.
Jack went to dash in his direction, but was intercepted by another of the of armored creatures. This time, however, did not take long. Rather than waiting for the creature to make the first strike, Jack dove forward past the creature, snapping Harrowbloom around with his wrist and cutting through the back of the creature"s ankle. As it reeled and fell Jack caught it by the back of its breastplate and slide the sword beneath the plate and into the dogman"s guts. After giving the blade a twist and a jerk, the gnoll went limp, and he dropped the corpse before resuming his dash in the direction that Jemeni had gone down.
He reached the corpse of Rezza first. The half-orc had been hacked like a tree stump, with dozens of cuts criss-crossing her flesh. None of the creatures had been able to strike hard enough to sever or mangle anything, but the sight was still grotesque enough to make the bile rise up in Jack"s throat. The worst part of it all was the frozen look of fear on her face. She"d died terrified, and unable to do anything about it.
Before he could reflect further, he had to dispatch another gnoll who mistook him for an easy target. This one was not armored or armed like the others, which told him that reinforcements must be arriving for the armored group from inside the cave. He cut the creature down almost mindlessly, giving it only minimal attention as he looked around for any sign of Jemeni. He finally spotted the body of the gnome on the ground a couple dozen feet away, lying partially buried under the body of a slain gnoll. Jack dashed to the fallen gnome"s side, shoving the gnoll corpse off of him. Jemeni was still breathing, but unconscious. His left arm and left leg were both broken and sitting at odd angles, and his crossbow in pieces around him. But he wasn"t dead. At least not yet.
Jack pulled one of the two remaining healing potions out of his belt pouch and popped one into the gnoll"s mouth. As the fluid drained, he was concerned that the gnoll wouldn"t swallow, but fortunately instinct seemed to still be working as Jemeni unknowingly gulped down the contents of the vial. Within moments, some of the color returned to his face, but his consciousness did not return. With his body in the condition it was, Jack knew he would need to be treated with something much more potent, but for now this would have to do. He gingerly laid the gnoll corpse back over top of the fallen gnome so the body mostly obscured him from view, careful to place the body in such a way that its weight was directed away from Jemeni.