Chapter 10 – Part 17

The flayer twitched and writhed wildly, trying to escape Orphan’s grip. It could not, the forged had it perfectly pinned. It tried to use its powers to teleport away. It could not, the pain from the pressure on its neck and spine from the monk’s wrestler’s grip was too much.

So the flayer mentally called K’gah to its side.

Which Orphan had been counting on.

Timing the turn perfectly, the warforged pivoted and threw the flayer towards the charging gnoll captain. The great blade spitted the flayer, and the alien thing squawked and spit forth purplish-blue blood from its tentacled maw. K’gah gasped at what he’d done, then fell to his knees, grasping his head in pain as the flayer shrieked anger directly into the gnoll’s brain.

And since the locked gauntlet kept K‘gah from dropping his blade, the immediate effect of K’gah dropping to his knees was to peel the flayer open like a pig at market.

Orphan sidestepped the shaking sword point and grabbed the mortally wounded flayer. He threw the thing from Xoriat at the wights. Weakened, the flayer fell to them quickly, falling to the ground as it wasted away from the wights’ energy drain.

The wights stood up over the flayer’s corpse, eyes glittering with malice.

Of course since their touch couldn’t hurt the warforged, it only took him about forty seconds to pound them into motionless paste. The torn corpse of the flayer didn’t even last more than three seconds after it rose.

Orphan waited, listening for anything else coming out of the tunnel. Nothing. The only sound was Delegado’s soft breathing, and the grunts of K’gah as he sat up, armor clinking.

“You’ve got your mind back?” Orphan asked, eyeing the gnoll captain carefully.

K’gah grimaced and nodded. “I must apologize,” he began. “It was – there was a fog in my head, and you were the enemy. I was…” He trailed off.

“No apology necessary,” Orphan said. He moved forward and helped K’gah stand up.

“My men,” K’gah said.

“All dead,” Orphan told him. K’gah’s face crumpled in real pain, and then the gnoll captain strode forward to kick the flayer’s corpse.

Orphan used the opportunity to go to his half-orc friend and take Delegado’s waterskin. Splashing water woke Delegado up, and his any tears that might have come when he learned of the deaths within his House.