[color=00a651][center]Malkai[/center][/color] The Gnoll slashed down at Malkai, cutting his leg as cleaving through his horse. The stallion roared in pain and fell. Malkai just barely managed to roll back onto his feet before the back swing might have taken off his head. Stepping back Malkai drew his staff and mumbled a spell under his breath in Druidic. [color=00a651][/color] Suddenly Malkai's skintone took on a brownish tint, with a course texture. When the gnoll tried to smash his weapon into Malkai again he raised his arms and actually managed to deflected it off his "Bare" flesh, though in truth he had the help of his barkskin to parry the blow as if he had a shield. Right after her parried the gnoll Malkai smashed his staff into the creature's face, causing it to stumble backwards. Putting a bit of distance between them now Falchion swooped in. The gnoll didn't see it comeing as the large bird flew in and clawed at his face, actually succeeding into tearing out one of the gnoll's eyes. But despite the massive amount of pain and blood lost, the gnoll was still up. But not for long. Malkai serveyed the scene of the battle and thought that perhaps Catarina may need the most help seeing that her opponent was still no worse for wear, and Malkai would come to her aid as soon as the half-orc dealt with this brute. [hr] [color=7ea7d8][center]Veridis Quo[/center][/color] Veridis kept the arrow hit his back. Fortunately, his chainmail underneath managed to absorb the blow and prevent the arrow from piercing him, though it certainly left a bruise where it hit. He turned to face the gnolls, specifically the one that didn't shoot him. His horse was spooked but he was able to convince it to charge towards the archers anyways. As he did so Veridis switched from his lute to his glaive. His inspiration still filled the air with his ethereal singing, which helped him as well as he lowered the blade to cleave the gnoll. Veridis succeeded in cutting the gnoll's shoulder as well as cleaving through his bow, removing his range option. Now forced into melee, the gnoll drew his shortsword and lunged at Veridis, just as he had braced his glaive for the attack. [hr] [center][color=a36209]Gnolls[/color][/center] The gnoll boss certainly wasn't expecting such an offensive use of a shield. The spike indeed managed to peirce his armor and went into his chest, and if Catarina was just a few inches higher she would have stabbed him in the heart. Still while it wasn't a fatal blow it did succeed in wounding him, as well as knocking him away onto his back. With the sucking chest wound and having the breath knocked out of his lungs the gnoll boss barely had enough time to scramble back onto his feet, and in those precious few seconds Cataraina must be swift if she wishes to capitalize on the gnoll's defenselessness. At the back of the wagon Parun's daggers met their mark. One knife flew into the gnoll's unarmored chest, sinking deep. That alone wouldn't have killed him, but he lowered his guard trying and failing to stop it, and thus wasn't able to stop the next knife that flew into his eye. The gnoll wasn't even able to scream as it dropped dead onto the floor. The second gnoll notched and fired another arrow at Kalista, mostly unaware of her magic at works. As this gnoll didn't speak common, he failed to realize that her spell would protect her from his attacks as his arrow harmlessly bounced off an invisible barrier over the sorcerer and planted itself into the wagon bed. Just as he was about to fire a second arrow he was struck by Kalista's magic missile, the first bolt caused the gnoll to flinch, and seeing that she was counter attacking he tried to go back into his hole for cover. But against a magic missile it would be pointless, as her bolt simply flew up and into the hole, blasting the gnoll in the back while he was still burrowing in. He wouldn't get out of his makeshift grave now. As for the last gnoll being dealt with by Veridis, his glaive prevented the gnoll from approaching too close and instead tried to disengage to meet with it's other, bigger allies and try to turn the tide of battle. Two of the three gnolls confronting Alexander and Frodes were dead, but the last one didn't waver. His wicked blade was raised into the air as he hurled it at Fordes, who was tending to his own wounds. A big target this close was hard to miss. And should Fordes be struck by the axe the direwolf would feel poison seep into his flesh; yes the gnolls had poisoned their blades, obviously intending to take no prisoners aside from the one they were hired to obtain. And instead of charging at Alexander, the last gnoll took out a potion from his satchel and drank it. As he did, the gnoll's body grew in size, twice the size the already large man-beast became. Before the gnoll was about Alexander's height, but now the create was twice as tall, twelve feet high. The gnoll roared with fury as he tapped into his barbarian rage and with claws barred, charged at Alexander to rip him limb-from-limb. The gnoll Ellenora fought coughed out blood as her hammer blow had shattered bones and ruptured organs. Even if she didn't finish him off, without immediate attention this gnoll would die from his wounds alone. But knowing this, the gnoll was determined not to die without taking one of these foreigners with him! Rising to his feet the gnoll took out a potion much like the gnoll fighting Alexander, and like that gnoll this potion made the sword-swinging manbeast into a giant. Not only did his body grow, but so did his sword. Already it was a massive two-handed blade, and now it was a fifteen foot long slab of steel with an edge. The blade was so broad that it could over the entire wagon. Roaring with a dying breath the gnoll raised his giant sword up on high and smashed it down towards Ellenora, to both cleave and crush her under the sheer weight of his large weapon.