"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?"

After a few minutes of having their lives threatened by the group of bullywugs, one of the gnomes was brave enough to peek up and see a group of children looking at them.

"Eh? Who are you lot? Never seen any of you 'ere before?" The male gnome in grays and brown garb addressed the shield maiden.

Then another popped his head up, "You dolt, the lass just told us who they are. Me, names Gimble. We thank you for the help squishing those bullywugs. They've been harassing my people for a long while ever since Venger learned that we have a mine filled with some kind of magic gem. We had left the gems alone and lived in peace for many decades until the overseer came."

"Master Gimble, it's a pleasure to meet you." The Shield Maiden extended her hand in friendship to the Gnome, "Here, let me help you to your feet. And, if you don't mind my asking, who or what is this overseer?"

In unison they all replied, "The overseer is GIANORMOUS!"

"So it's a giant." Alyson said nonchalantly.

"No. Worse." Gimble exclaimed, "It's some monstrous hybrid that Venger cooked up we think. Sometimes its HUGE and other times it looks like a person."

"Really?!" Serna asked in wide-eyed disbelief.

The other male gnome who asked who the children who they were eyed them suspiciously now, "Maybe the bossy kid is the overseer."

Gimble rolled his eyes, "No way. If the girl was the overseer, would her and her friends freed us?"

Another gnome got in Gimble's face, "I'm with Nathosot on this one! We can't trust these humans and ah....eeek...a drow!"

The rest panicked suddenly and collided with each other. Nathosot, Gimble, and the other gnome started punching each other in front of Serna and company.

Lazheros frowned but said nothing.

Caliaphy vanished from the commotion.

Irzen just rolled his eyes in pure consternation.

"Was it something I said?" The elementalist scratched her head.

"Maybe," The swordsman replied with a shrug.

"Let me handle this," The Shield Maiden replied before she turned to the fighting gnomes, "Calm down, all of you, please calm down! True, Irzen is a Drow but he's on our side. He's a friend. Now, can you tell us more about this overseer? And how many Bullywugs he has working for him?"