Chapter 68: Tactics for Defeating Monster Hordes, Part 2

"Are you all right, Will?" Dess asked sympathetically. 

The fairy in her shabby steel breastplate was crouching to the right of me. She kept both her spear and round shield low to the ground and out of sight. 

"My ears are still ringing," I admitted. 

Despite my good intentions, Mistress Lorelai continued to lecture me right up to the moment one of our scouts came back to report that the monster horde was closing on us. Our dökkálfar instructor then told everyone to proceed with the plan—a plan I'd cooked up, by the way—which is how I found myself crouching next to Dess wondering if my ears would stop ringing before the big battle began. 

"Let's just be thankful that our ears are all that's hurting," Liara chimed in. 

The she-elf was crouching to my left with her spell-saber unsheathed on her lap and her face looking more determined than the last time we fought the horde of monsters. Honestly, she was so pretty it was kind of distracting.