Hounds Rising

She tried to count them as they came down from the trees. The first two landed next to Leaf, who immediately cast a spell from his staff, causing a roaring thunder wave to erupt next to him and blast the creatures back. Lyla jumped in front of Ana, timing a well-placed punch as Ana’s voice carried a spell across the beast, distracting it as Lyla placed a second and third hit into its chest. Mr. Muffins had already thrown down his cannon, and between its shot and his arcane device, they blasted fire at another gnoll.

Rhokhishi counted six of them, one of which was shouting orders in a language she didn’t understand. It was guttural and low, linked with snarls and yips that one would hear from a hyena. She raised her hand, grabbing the back of one gnoll’s neck, locking her grasp into its fur as she cast a spell. The necrosis set in immediately, webbing like a blast from her touch, causing it to howl in pain and drop to the ground.

Myla ducked under Rhokhishi’s legs, sliding as she pulled her rapier out from its scabbard and sliced toward the one she had just wounded. In seconds, the creature dropped to the ground unconscious, bleeding profusely from its new wound, the necrotic damage still snaking through its body and moving toward its appendages.

The gnoll leader looked surprised but didn’t hesitate. It howled loudly, and more dropped from the foliage around them. With the new enemies, another creature bounded forward, leaping over a large bush and landing in front of Myla. It looked like a dire wolf, except from Hel itself. Instead of fur, the beast’s body was covered in bony protrusions, like a spiked exoskeleton. Where its eyes would be, the sockets burned with a hellish fire, and its tail was long and narrow, with joints like vertebrae that moved up to a giant scorpion’s stinger.

The beast snapped its jaws, and Myla evaded flawlessly but wasn’t prepared for its stinger. It spun to the side and moved its tail with a vicious speed. Before Rhokhishi could react, she saw Mr. Muffins jump over his cannon, take a crystal from the barrel of his device, and throw it at Myla. As the stinger went to jab into Myla’s chest, the crystal landed perfectly between them, shattering the stone. Rhokhishi cried out to her friend as the stinger still pushed into her body.

The beast immediately turned toward Mr. Muffins, now seeing a new threat before it. He ordered the cannon to fire, brought up his weapon, and aimed it. Rhokhishi knelt to see Myla’s wound. The poison she assumed would be there was not. Instead, the crystal had shattered and absorbed the toxin, causing the only lingering issue to be the hole in her chest. She laid her hands down and focused. The warmth grew in her hands, and light shone from them. As she watched, the wound closed itself up, and her friend’s eyes opened wide as she took a gasp of air. Carefully, she laid Myla back down and stood to face the beast again, who was locked in battle with Leaf, Helena, and Mr. Muffins.

The three of them produced magic from various sources. Mr. Muffins used his mechanical device, Leaf focused through his staff, and Helena seemed to pull magic out of thin air and cast it away from her. They moved quickly, using their momentum to cast spells at, shield, and disorient the beast. It snarled out in anger but couldn’t seem to land an attack as the three of them barraged it with spells.

Something pulled Rhokhishi to her side as if gravity shifted for a moment. She turned to see Ana reappearing out of thin air, her eyes glowing, and she spoke to the gnoll leader and one of its allies. She was unsure what happened, but both stopped, stood limply, and cocked their heads as if waiting for instruction.

“Go! I’ve got these two!” Ana shouted to Lyla.

Lyla turned towards the troupe and rushed to another gnoll, ready to pounce behind the mages. She managed to trip it with a well-timed kick and caused it to hit the ground and slide on its chest and face through the grass and stone. She could hear Ana shouting again.

“Do you trust me?”

Rhokhishi was confused about who she was talking to, but she nodded just in case, then ducked as the beast’s stinger flew in her direction. It smacked against her shoulder, causing her to fight for balance, but she pushed the creature away angrily, causing hellish flames to burst and fling the tail out.

From behind, she could feel something large land on her shoulder. Rhokhishi turned, saw a giant ape’s hand on her body, and moved out of its way as it tried to push her to the side carefully. There was something about it that was familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite catch it. It wasn’t until she backed further away that she saw a small tuft of purple hair that she realized what had happened.

“Myla!?”

The ape didn’t respond. It moved toward the beast and grabbed onto its body, slamming it into the ground and dragging it closer to her. The beast turned on its back and tried to kick and bite at Myla’s new form, but it was useless. Rhokhishi saw that the mages and Lyla had already backed away and were watching in awe. Myla put one foot onto the creature’s stomach and grabbed onto its tail with her left hand. It tried to maneuver its way out of the grasp, but with no way to hurt Myla in this form, it could only thrash under the ape’s weight. With her right foot, more like another hand, it grabbed onto its lower body and pulled only once. The strength of Myla in this form was immense and became too much for the beast as the tail ripped off of the creature. Myla roared out in victory as the beast cried out in pain. With a well-placed kick into its neck, its cries were silenced as the beast stopped moving.

Across the chasm of bloodshed, Ana cried out to the party.

“Uh… Help!”

Rhokhishi looked over to see the two gnolls she had enchanted with her magic were trying to tie her hands together. Mr. Muffins plopped onto the ground beside his cannon and pointed his finger at the one behind Ana. Without a word, the device shot out, hitting the creature and blasting through its face, splattering Ana and the area with blood as it crumpled to the ground. Rhokhishi started to make her way to the other, as she was the closest but felt something on her arm.

The creature on her arm had stayed quiet and still throughout the entire fight but seemed to be humming, though it had no mouth. It vibrated wildly, and she was unsure of its needs.

“What’s wrong, pet?” She asked the creature.

It moved, turning black and moving onto four leg-like appendages as if a dog. It shortened its body in the front, and Rhokhishi assumed it was pointing toward the gnoll leader. It moved its legs, signaling it was jumping without leaving her arm.

“You can move freely.”

At Rhokhishi’s permission, it jumped. Rhokhishi readied herself to catch it, but its form changed to a shiny, black thing that reminded her of a manta or a stingray. As its transformation finished, it glided through the air, lazily going to the gnoll leader. Lyla had already moved over to Ana and was helping, but the gnoll was getting increasingly aggressive, and Rhokhishi assumed that Ana’s spell was fading. Eventually, it turned to look around and saw its allies all dead or unconscious and yelped in fear.

It turned and started to run, but the mimicking creature made it first. It wrapped around its face, and the party watched in awe and horror as the creature moved away from the gnoll’s shoulders, and the head was completely gone. As the gnoll’s body crumpled to the ground, the creature hopped off its shoulders and soared back to Rhokhishi. She raised her arm, which slowly wrapped around her forearm again, turning into a more solid object, then stopped moving.

“I thought we agreed to stop killing things!” Ana shouted, wiping the blood off her face with a handkerchief.

“I think you mean to say thank you,” Mr. Muffins replied. “And for that, you’re welcome.”