Phase Four (The Chieftain Corners Fuu)

Fuu didn't have much time, she knew that for certain. She had already waited far too long for the Gnolls to hurry past her, chasing Emmaline, and even longer to give Becky time to single out the Shaman. With every passing second, the danger to her friends grew and grew, and Fuu simply couldn't allow that to continue.

She rushed through the Gnoll's dens, whirling past stalactites and jumping over and around rocks. Thanks to Becky's earlier investigation, she knew which way to turn at the forking paths, and soon found her footsteps quieted by the array of rich furs at her feet. It wasn't long before she found herself face to face with the Gnoll Chieftain.

He was a hulking, lumbering mass of a creature, standing easily twice as tall as Fuu herself, and was much larger and more muscular than any of the other Gnolls she had seen thus far. His face looked weathered, and he pulsed with a preternatural energy, which seemed to echo from somewhere deep within his being, pulsating outward like a heart beat to bounce and reflect off the walls of the cave.

Fuu readied her naginata as the Chieftain gave a ferocious roar, raising his massive ax as he charged her. Fuu nimbly danced out of the way, swinging her blade to try and catch the chieftain's thigh as he dove past her, and only narrowly missing her own attack.

As she readied herself to dodge the Chieftain's next attack, Fuu suddenly became aware of her predicament. She was in his lair now, not out on the open plains she was used to fighting in. As the Chieftain gave off a bellowing roar, Fuu stepped back to find herself pressed against a rock, nowhere to run. For all her eagerness to take on the Chieftain, Fuu found herself suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.