Chương 49: Bargheast Battle

I don't know if we're going to make it out of the forest today. We've put another ten or so miles between us and Hiram's hut, but it's getting to the point where we normally stop for the night. I've noticed that generally speaking the three of us are getting through days with about four hours of sleep each. Which means we need to stop around two in the morning if we want to get started again by eight. That gives us each two hours of watch and four hours of sleep. Could we sleep more? Probably.

But I'm still getting up every day excited, and I don't need the sleep. I like being able to function on just four hours. I've been doing it for a little over a week, week and a half now, and I don't feel exhaustion creeping up on me or anything. Four hours seems to be enough. When we do stop, I cook some of the venison over the fire, getting another level of the cooking skill for putting it on spits and burning it over the fire until it's crispy and delicious.

El eats hers quickly, barely chewing it but pronouncing it delicious, then goes and takes her place in the tent. Maybe ten seconds later, the sounds of her gentle snores drift out of the tent.

"She sleeps like a bear," Gigi says to me, giving me a bit of a smile. I nod.

"And you sleep like a cat," I say.

"That's why you have the middle watch."

"You think it's a simple as that? The blood that we took effects how we sleep?"

"I don't know. Do I twitch like I'm chasing rabbits in my sleep?"

"I don't know. I'll check before I wake you up in the morning." She smiles at me and takes another bite of her venison.

"Not good enough to give us buffs, but you're getting there," she says.

"Maybe tomorrow I'll do the cooking and we'll have a real meal."

"Not a fan of the constant meat?" I ask.

"My blood may be carnivorous, but I'm an omnivore," she says.

"I want the occasional vegetable, just to break things up a little bit. And I like spices. You're still relying on the natural flavors of the meat, basically just adding meat to fire. You cook things all the way through, and then you call it good. There's more to be done with things like salt and pepper."

"You can show me tomorrow," I tell her.

"I'll be happy to learn. For now, you should go to bed. Get your sleep; it'll be your turn to watch soon." The next morning, Gigi wakes me up with a hand on my shoulder.

"You definitely sleep like a wolf," she says as my eyes dart open at her touch. She laughs at me.

"Definitely." We break camp quickly and go back to moving towards the edge of the forest. The trees are getting thinner and fewer, with more space between them. There's still a canopy, but it thins out quickly. By the time we stop for lunch, we're standing in mostly sunlight.

"Does this count as getting out of the forest?" El asks, looking around.

"Because it feels like we're out of the forest now."

"I don't think so," I say.

"I won't say we're out of the forest until we can get to a place where there are no trees within fifty feet of us in any direction." El looks around.

"That could take hours still." It doesn't; it takes about another forty minutes. The woods end pretty definitively, the trees becoming more and more rare until we are standing in an open plains, with trees every few hundred feet, all of them standing on their own.

"I wonder if there's a road," Gigi says, looking around.

"Like, through the forest. If we move along the outside of the forest, will we find a road that will lead us back to Elmspire more directly?"

"That would be good," I say.

"If we didn't have to pay as much attention to our surroundings, we could move even faster. Probably get back in three days instead of four."

"I've got Ash on the line!" El says, holding up a hand.

"She's in the area. She hasn't been to the edge of the forest yet, but she's heard where it is, and she's heading towards us."

"I wonder what she ended up being," Gigi says.

"A demon," El says after a few seconds.

"Apparently she and Vincent both became demon blooded. She's collecting him to come join us."

"We'll link back up the five of us," Gigi says.

"That's good. We'll be able to do some good quests together."

"Where can we go to try to and meet them?" I ask. I look at El.

"Ask her if there's a road that leads towards the forest. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone." As I say that, I see some movement in the tall grass. It's too quick for me to get details, but it was big. Big enough to be a threat. I pull out my bow and nock an arrow.

"What's going on?" Gigi asks, her sword already in hand as I draw back and aim into the tall grass, just waiting for whatever creature to come jumping out at me.

"Not sure," I say.

"But there's something out there." There's more movement off to the side, and I spot something out of the corner of my eyes. I turn and fire, and watch as the arrow flies into the grass and hits something that yelps. It deals 175 damage, and it doesn't kill whatever it hits. After the yelp comes a growl. Then a large form is suddenly barreling down at me. I let loose a Rapid Shot, then stagger back when the giant wolf/hyena hybrid comes out of the grass and leaps at me.

Its fur is sparkling and crystalline, a light green color that shimmers in the sunlight. It slams into me just as I see what it is. Bargheast. Rare elite monster level 24. HP: 4, 950/6, 000. It deals 78 damage to me with the pounce, and then it's back on its feet. I rise to mine and draw my sword and dagger. Gigi steps forward and slashes at the bargheast, and it winces back. Then it jumps back, takes a deep breath, and then exhales a plume of flames and smoke.

The fire washes over me, and I can see the Shell around me take the damage, the fire does 189 damage. Gigi blocks some of it with her shield, but the gout of flame hits us both. El chops at the bargheast from behind, and it whips around to attack her back. I stab it with a Bleeding Strike, and a notification comes up. I ignore it for now, because as the notification comes up, I also notice more movement in the tall grass. Three more bargheasts come out, all of them breathing fire on us at once.

I take another 460 damage from the three gouts of flame. My Shell is down to around four hundred almost immediately, and now we're outnumbered. We spread out a bit to get some distance in case they do the flame breath attack again, but I'm hoping they need some cooldown time before they can manage something like that. I focus on the bargheast that attacks me, the initial one that jumped out of the grass at me. I jump to the side as it leaps at me again, swinging at it with my sword.

But my sword slides off the scales that seem to be at the bottom of the sprouts of fur. How are these things both furred and scaled? Kind of makes sense why there was a quest for their hides. But before I can get to the hides, I have to get through the battle. I charge forward and stab at the bargheast, dealing 140 damage to it as it bites me for 95 damage on the leg. My Shell is still holding, but I'm wondering if I'm going to need to recast it. And I'm wondering what that noise is. There's something else moving.

Are there more of them waiting for us to do something before attacking? Are they waiting for us to use our big guns before they decide to attack us? Well, I'm happy to indulge them. I cast Mab's Rage. It'll do 37 damage per second to all of them within 35 feet of me for a minute. That should be worth a good chunk of all their health. And maybe, considering they breathe fire, they'll take extra damage from the cold.

They don't seem to be taking extra damage, but the damage from Mab's Rage does draw out the remaining four bargheasts that were just surrounding us, sending them out of the brush to attack. Two more shoot their fire breath at me, dropping my Shell down another 314 points. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I recast Shell, bringing it back up to full, and try to focus on the three bargheasts that are now attacking me.

They're spreading out, trying to attack me where I'm not looking. I can either rely on my ability to dodge or I can keep twirling around, trying to stay facing whichever one is attacking me while the other two move in to attack back. If I do that, I won't be able to do any damage to them, and I'll just be delaying the inevitable. El is fighting off three bargheasts, Gigi two, and then three for me. I don't think I'm going to do as well as El is against three. I can't just dodge. I have to keep fighting.

I do another 138 damage to the one in front of me, while one of the ones behind me slashes at my leg for another 78 damage. I do my best to dodge, but they're hitting me about as often as I'm hitting them, and while I am doing more damage, I just don't think that I can do enough damage to kill all three of them. But I don't have to focus on killing all three of them. I need to focus on the one that I've been trying to kill.

It has less than 4500 hit points left, and it's going to lose at least half of that to Mab's Rage. Focus on that one. Slash at it, stab at it, and try to cut it down. Dodge the others when you can. When the bargheast I'm attacking jumps back, I jump forward to stay with it, slashing it again. It dodges to the side, and I use Bleeding Strike again, dealing 174 damage – 343 with bleed. I stay on it, taking slashes to my back that bounce off my Shell but bring it steadily lower with a hit for 91 and another for 88.

I just don't do enough damage. I try to time my movements so that I can dodge the two who are attacking me from behind, but they have me flanked, and every time I dodge one, the other gets in a hit. So I deal 140 damage, then I take another 171 from the two of them. This is not a winning strategy. I try to move out from the circle they have me in, but the bargheasts adjust their positioning to keep me pinned within the three of them. This is the problem with fighting when you're outnumbered.

I can't rely on my friends to come help me, either; they have their own problems. I can only block the one in front of me with my shield, and try to stab it with the dagger at the same time, doing a paltry 71 damage to the same one I've been attacking. I count that as a win, because it lets me get a second hit with my sword for another 145 damage. My increased attack speed is making a huge difference here, but that difference might not be enough to save the day.

By the time Mab's Rage is over, my Shell is down to about half, and the bargheast in front of me doesn't seem like it's going down any time soon. And when I look over at El and Gigi, they don't seem to be faring all that much better. El seems to be doing okay with her two axes, whirling around and chopping at the beasts as they leap at her, but she's absolutely covered in blood from bites on her legs and slashes across her chest and even her face. Her armor is helping, but I can tell she's taking a lot of damage.

Gigi seems to be faring a little bit better as far as how much damage she's taking, but not as well with the amount that she's dishing out. She's fighting the two bargheasts to a relative standstill, but it doesn't look like she's going to be coming to my rescue any time soon. I use Bleeding Strike again, get another slash with my dagger, and ignore the notifications that keep popping up. The one in front of me is down to about 1500 health, and I need to focus on that one.

If I can get down to just two, I might be able to fight them to more of a standstill, the way Gigi is handling hers. With two, I can fight defensively and have it actually work. With two, I have a chance. That means I have to get rid of this one in front of me fast. But that also means hitting it another ten times. And I get hit about once in three of their attacks, but that means that I'm taking damage almost as often as I'm dishing it out. 140 damage with my elven blade, 82 with my dagger.

Take another 79 from one of the other bargheasts. Repeat. Finally, I take out the one bargheast, leaving me with just two more. I take a look at my Shell timer. I still have three and a half minutes before I can cast it again. It's down, and I've taken 120 damage to my meat. I'm still over a thousand hit points, but it's a near thing. I turn to the two I'm fighting and do my best to get to where I can see them both.

Even if they're attacking me from a wide angle to one another, as long as they aren't flanking I think I can handle this fight. I look at the two of them. They're down to about 4000 hit points each. This is going to take a while. I use Bleeding Strike on one of them and hit it for another 176 damage. But in doing so, I get hit in the leg by another claw. A debuff message comes up and tells me that I'm slowed by 20% from that hit. Shit. They can slow me down.

I'm still moving at what is a normal person's full speed, but these two little bastards are fast. I can hit them more than they hit me, but it's a close thing. I hit for 140 or so damage, then I hit for about 75, and then I get hit for about 80. This is not going well. It's a shame; the eight of them are worth a lot of experience. But I don't think I'm going to get a share of it. I should run away. I should just break ranks and run for it, hope that I can outrun them. No.

That would be leaving El and Gigi alone and much more out numbered. We've taken out three of them. There are only five left. Two on me, two on El, and one on Gigi. Gigi will be fine. She might finish her one quickly enough to come and help me. I can do this. I can stay alive. I focus on dodging, on moving around and staying out of the range of their attacks. Then one of them bites my leg for 86 damage, and I get a notification that I'm bleeding. 43 damage. 21 damage. 10 damage. 5 damage. 2 damage. 1 damage.

I'm no longer bleeding. I have 808 health left. Not low enough for a heal spell just yet. But getting there, more quickly than I'd like. Another Bleeding Strike to bring the one bargheast even lower in its hit points. It still has more than three thousand, and I'm losing health quickly. Maybe I do need that toughness feat. Maybe the extra hit points are really worth it. I stab for 140, then I make two quick stabs with my dagger.

They aren't hard enough to go all the way deep, but they do deal 80 damage each, so I'm not complaining. I should focus on shanking these things, just stabbing wildly again and again. It might ruin the pelt, but I'm not sure I care anymore. I need to kill them before they kill me. I block a bite with my shield, then stab with my elven blade, trying to gut the bargheast as it hangs with its jaws locked on my shield.

It can't close its mouth around the shield, and I push it into the thing's mouth to try to dislocate the jaw while I stab it again and again. I deal 148 damage three times rapidly, only getting hit for another 91 from the other one. Then the one in front of me wises up and tries to claw at me with all four paws, hanging from my arm as it does so. I hold it away from myself to avoid getting gutted, and I take a swing at its throat. The throat strike at least does double damage, and causes bleed on its own.

Better than a Bleeding Strike, even if it only does 196 damage. That works out to almost 400 points of damage. I'm not mad at that. I take another chop at its throat, and get bitten on the leg again, which renews my slowed debuff and bleeds, starting at 92 damage. The second chop, thankfully, does the same damage, and I draw back for a third. My health bar is not looking good. I'm at around 500 hit points, but I'm determined to kill this bargheast and then turn to kill the other one.

I slash at its throat again, dealing another massive stroke of damage, and the bargheast bites down a bit, bending my shield a little and then dropping off my arm. It's looking pretty badly hurt, but I'm not much better. Time to heal. I cast Healing Touch on myself, trying to dodge their blows as I do. It heals me up by 470 hit points, putting me now at 1007. But the three seconds that I spend casting the spell cost me two bleeding hits from the bargheast, which brings me back down to 670.

Thankfully, one of the bargheasts is down below a thousand hit points, and I think it's just a matter of time before it ends up dead. Then I'll be fighting one on one, and then I'll be able to take it. I can handle a bit of pain until then. I stab the bargheast with my sword, then shank it a few times with my dagger. It slashes down my chest, and the other one nips at my leg again, but can't get a purchase on it. I need another heal. But I still have fifty seconds before I can cast that spell again.

And another two and a half minutes before I can cast Shell again. I just don't have enough hit points. I snarl, not wanting to give up, and slash at the bloody and battered bargheast in front of me. I manage to stab it in the brain with my dagger, and it falls dead, though I'm pretty sure it had about thousand hit points left. I turn to the other one, the only one left, and I smile. Then it opens its mouth and shoots flames at me from point blank range. I take 160 damage.

And I get a notification I've never seen before. You are burning. You take 10 damage. I haven't seen it before, but it pops back up a second later. And then again a second after that. And it continues to pop up for seventeen more seconds after that. I should stop drop and a roll, but if I do that, the bargheast is going to just attack me. So I grit my teeth and let myself burn, hoping that it will run out eventually. And it does run out after twenty seconds, but that leaves me with very few hit points.

I don't think I've had this few since this was my maximum. Which was a long, long time. When the bargheast gets another hit on me, I see that my health bar is in the red; I'm down below 200 hit points. I dodge as best I can, trying to just stay alive, not worrying about attacking back. I just need to last long enough for Gigi to come and help me. Once she kills her remaining opponent, she'll come and help me. Then the two of us will be able to get this bargheast.

Then I hear El scream as the two she's fighting both unleash flame breath at her at the same time. And I see Gigi make a decision. Her hand glows brightly for a second, and she touches El. Many of El's wounds disappear, and then Gigi turns to come help me. But before she can, one of the bargheasts fighting El turns on her and pounces her, knocking her to the ground and then going for her throat with its fangs. I turn back to my bargheast, with its three thousand or so hit points, and I try to watch its feet.

The feet will tell me where it's going to jump. That will help me dodge. I leap out of the way when it pounces at me, and I even manage to get a slash at it. Then Gigi screams, and I turn towards her. The bargheast is on top of her, clawing and scratching at her with its claws, scoring her armor as it tries to crush her throat in its jaws. She has dropped her sword, and is holding the bargheast at bay, but it looks like she's on the edge of losing that battle.

I throw my ghost blade dagger at the bargheast on top of her. It hits for 129 damage, and surprised the bargheast enough that she is able to roll it, getting on top of it where she has the maneuverability to grab her sword and fight it normally. Unfortunately, the time I took to throw the dagger ends up costing me. The bargheast bites down hard on my leg, and I'm left at a very awkward angle. He worries his head back and forth, and I feel my leg tearing apart under his fangs.

I stab him with my sword, but the damage is done. My 222 hit points are now down to 29 with all the bleeding, and I'm on the edge of death. I make one last desperate attack, trying to chop its head off, but the angle is all wrong. The bargheast grunts at the impact, but then it bites down again, and I die.