The gnomes were clearly scared to move until the sounds of one very brave young girl with a shield came charging into the opening.

"Pick on someone your own size, Lizard Bait!" The Shield Maiden stepped out into view at the edge of the clearing. But before the others could catch up, Serna waved back to them to stop and hide themselves in the brush nearby.

"What?!" The leader looked over with a croak.

"More workers for the mine! The boss will reward us as bonus!" Another jeered.

"Get her!" The leader croaked towards the shield maiden standing in plain view. "Get weapon for master!"

Irzen picked up on her hand signals, did as he was instructed and whispered to the others, "Clever girl, she's drawing them away from the gnomes and over to us so we can ambush them. Wait for her signal to strike!"

Alyson was able to climb up into a tree with Lazheros's help just above everyone on the ground.

The Bronze Man waited silently in the brush waiting for his que to move.

"Come on and get me, Wart-Heads! I'll take you all on at the same time!" The Shield Maiden challenged them openly as she brandished her shield, "Bring it, you Toadies!"

"RIBBIT! RIBBIT! RIBBIT!" Serna hopped up and down like a frog to further insult the Bullywugs.

Half of the bullywugs jumped up and landed on the other side of Serna cutting her off with two holding an open net to snag her with. While the other lashed out with its long sticky tongue, tripping her up.

The rest of the bullywugs closed in as well, spears pointed forward, herding her into the net.

"STRIKE NOW!!!" Serna activated her shield creating a magical dome around her as she lay on the ground.

Because The Shield Maiden was able to draw the full attention of the Bullywugs, they had their backs to the rest of the Adventurers. And because of this fact, the others were in a position to take full advantage of the situation.

"WHATT?!" Croaked the leader pulling out a horn and blowing it, "BULLYWUGS ATTACK NOW!!"

"YAAHHH!!" Irzen charged out of the brush with Evenflow in hand and in a single downward blow cut down two Bullywugs before they knew they were dead.

"Oh no you don't!" Caliaphy appeared with a stick and poked the leader in the eye, "Hah!"

"Arrghh!"

Another bunch of bullywugs popped out of the ground behind the kurori and missed grabbing her completely. One of them lost its footing and tumbled into the leader.

Alyson jumped down on top of one trying to sneak up on Lazheros and sent it into unconsciousness. "Wooo! This is fun!"

The Bronze Man polymorphed into the rage drake again and tackled the group on Serna. With a powerful swipe of his tail they all went down hard. Then proceeded to knock over the rest for Irzen to dispatch.

As they fell before Lazheros' whip-like tail, Irzen sliced and diced the Bullywugs before they could regain their footing or recover their weapons.

Getting to her knees, the Shield Maiden redirected the magical energy of her shield and sprang forward executing a shield bash that sent the Bullywug leader sprawling out on the ground unconscious.

"That's what you get for being a bully, you mean, nasty froggie!" Serna declared proudly.

"Uh, Serna," Alyson looked towards the clearing, "Celebrate later. We need to free the gnomes and get out of here."

"I'm with Alyson," Caliaphy flew over to the shield maiden, "Those gnomes look really, really scared and maybe they'd tell us what's going on someplace else?"

"Oh, yeah, right!" Serna replied as she collected herself, "Sorry! I got caught up in the moment."

As the rage drake turned around he went behind a large shrub turning back into himself, "Hmph! I can honestly understand why Armendes gets upset from time to time now."

While Irzen dispatched the last of the Bullywugs, The Shield Maiden lowered her weapon and approached the once-captured gnomes, "Hello! We're not going to hurt you. I'm Serna the Shield Maiden and these are my friends--Alyson the Elementalist, Caliaphy the Fairy, Irzen the Swordsman and Lazheros the Cleric. We're here to help. Who are you?"