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Gnolls!" Hiera cried.
Mudd swore and reached for his bow.
The gnolls charged at Hiera and the
others, their clawed feet kicking up the snow as they raced across it.
Hiera whipped out her knives, Kirak drew his sword, and Drakecutter set
his stance with his axe clutched in his hands.
Iroden yelped in fear and raced past Mudd
out into the meadow.
Mudd snorted in amusement at Iroden and
shot an arrow at the gnoll that led the attack. The arrow pinged off its
shield. Before Mudd could loose another shot, a great weight fell on
him, driving him to his knees. A gnoll had leaped from a tree branch
above to land on him.
The stench of wet fur gagged Mudd as the
gnoll buried its sharp teeth in his shoulder. Mudd screamed, thrashing
to get his hand free and pull his dagger out of the sheath.
The creature clung to Mudd's back,
keeping him pressed against the ground so he couldn't get a clear strike
at it. Mudd stabbed awkwardly over his shoulder at the gnoll's face. His
dagger sunk into its eye.
The gnoll unclamped its jaws from Mudd's
shoulder to bellow in outrage. Mudd twisted out from underneath it and
drew his sword just in time to block the creature's wild axe swing.
Metal clanged against metal as the two
weapons met in the air. The impact drove Mudd back to his knees. Behind
him, Drakecutter screamed a battle cry, and the thunk of axe tearing
through flesh filled the air.
The gnoll Mudd fought shoved its shield
in Mudd's face. Mudd twisted away and swung his sword at the gnoll's
neck. The gnoll blocked at the same time it jabbed the bottom end of its
weapon at Mudd's stomach.
Mudd danced back and swung again. His
sword clanked off the gnoll's armor, the vibration of the impact
shivering Mudd's hand.
A glimpse of the rest of the battle
showed that Drakecutter had felled one gnoll and was close to finishing
off a second while Hiera fought two others. Her blades swished in silver
streaks, blocking, jabbing, spinning.
Kirak stabbed the gnoll he fought through
the chest, and it thumped to the ground at his feet. He leaped at the
gnolls attacking Hiera.
"Look out. There's three more," Hiera
cried.
"I got them," both Kirak and Drakecutter
said at the same time.
Mudd couldn't spare the effort to look
over his shoulder and make sure his friends were still all right. The
only things keeping him alive were concentration and agility.
He tripped over his fallen bow and
tumbled to his knees. The gnoll sprang forward, swinging its axe at
Mudd. Mudd rolled away and got back to his feet.
Block. Strike. Dodge. His shoulder
throbbed. The creature squinted at him with one bloody eye, the other
flaming yellow. Saliva dripped from its sharp teeth.
"Ha! I got one!" Hiera yelled.
Another raced at her. She backed up
against a tree near where Mudd was fighting, drawing Mudd's attention.
Her knives flashed between the gnoll's
axe strokes, cutting at its exposed lower arm and wrist. She hooked one
of her blades up behind its shield and cut its hand.
It dropped the shield with a feral
scream.
A fiery pain cut across Mudd's sword arm.
He'd missed a dodge while watching Hiera. His hand went limp, and his
sword fell to the ground.
The gnoll's axe swung again. Mudd twisted
away, but the axe cut cross his stomach as he tried to distance himself
from his attacker. Mudd cried out and gripped his dagger in his good
hand. The gnoll snarled and lunged at him. The fire of victory gleamed
in its eye.
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