As the four-fingered syncoresi charged - apparently a Major now - Kaldalis couldn’t help but notice that the beast was larger still than it had been even just a few minutes ago. It was about the same height, but it looked broader, with its limbs more thickly muscled. There must have been some story-generating system at work here, because this thing was growing in power every time it was dramatically appropriate.

He just wished he knew what he’d done to establish it as his story-driving nemesis.

Perhaps he could replace the rivalry with something a little less monstrous. Like… maybe he could pick a fight with a harmless bunny. He wouldn’t mind something small and cute charging into the camp looking for him periodically.

In the meantime, the lanky humanoid was what he had. And if he didn’t deal with it, it was going to keep coming back. Maybe forever. And if it kept getting stronger, eventually it would obliterate the entire camp all by itself.

The beast let out a blood-curdling howl as it charged. It leaped at him from nearly thirty feet away, and while he anticipated it to be like his own multi-leap charges while he had his cooldown running, it covered the full distance in a single bound, its lankly build putting a seemingly impossible amount of length on the jump. Kaldalis had been prepared to plan his dodge a second later, and so was too slow to react to the unexpected attack, and the creature’s clawed hands slammed down on him, throwing him to the ground.

The blow did two-hundred and seventy damage.

Even with no elemental component, it was nearly as much as the malum captain had been doing. Kaldalis wondered - as his body rebounded off of the dirt - if there was some debuff attached to the syncoresi’s attacks that he’d been lucky enough to dodge all this time.

He scrambled back to his feet, but only got halfway up before the giant monster lashed out at him again. Claws raked through the air and he hurled himself to the side, barely avoiding another hit. Considering that the first attack was for a quarter of his maximum health, he couldn’t afford to tank another hit.

Kaldalis managed to get his feet under him and jabbed at the creature, thrusting the head of his glaive up into its ribs. He didn’t get a stack of Gust, and he only dealt a paltry five points of damage.

But that wasn’t what he wanted.

He needed the hit.

Now it was aggroed onto him.

And he knew from experience with this particular motherfucker that it would stay that way until it killed him.

“Help,” he said quickly, to no one in particular. “Faster would be better.”

He wasn’t sure if they’d heard him, but help did arrive. A single arrow sailed through the air to slam into the four-fingered syncoresi’s shoulder.

And then another.

And another.

A potion flew through the air to land near him, restoring two-hundred and four of his missing hit points.

Finally, Myrin came screaming up behind the monster with her sword raised over her head before dramatically slamming it into the boss’s ass.

In his brain, Kaldalis knew he wasn’t alone here. Even if Onirioago had conspicuously vanished the moment real danger appeared, he was right outside the encampment’s kill box. There was no way he would be forced to do this by himself. But when the giant fuzzy beast had singled him out as its target even before he’d struck it had made him fear that no one else would be able to engage it to support him; it seemed within the realm of possibility that the game would decide that he had to fight it alone for the sake of the story.

Kaldalis took a quick glance around, appraising the battlefield. The open space outside of the encampment was a fine place to fight it. The quick sweeps of its claws would be easier to manage out here than they would be in tighter confines like the killbox, and he had a lot more room to operate than he had when fighting it a few minutes ago in the town. He didn’t have to worry about backing up into someone’s tent. He just had to make sure he knew where the wall and the tree line were.

A few yards away, Haldir was yelling and gesturing to the remaining adventurers who were gathered. Kaldalis couldn’t tell what was going on until Garyung emerged from the crowd and started bellowing, his deep resonant voice carrying over the distance much clearer.

“Everybody back!” the bhogad yelled. “If you’re in range of the howl attack, you’re dead meat against that thing!” His huge arms gestured down at Haldir. “Unless you’ve got the special new toy that we’ll all learn about later and can dodge it. If you have bow skill of 75 or more, snipe away from here, but everyone else, stand clear for your own safety!”

The accountant part of Kaldalis’s brain did the quick math applying the difference in its regular melee attack between its two forms to extrapolate the damage it might put out with its howl attack. Assuming the numbers were consistent, the howl would do well over four hundred damage. Kaldalis didn’t know what everyone else’s health bars looked like, but he knew that would have been a one-shot on him only a couple of levels ago.

If anyone in the camp had been a little bit behind, they’d be instantly splattered.

And that was if they were a tank.

DPS and healers wouldn’t stand a chance.

With the reassurance that people weren’t going to blunder their way into a collateral damage column, he returned his attention to the fight. He remembered they’d sent the beast running with damage, but it didn’t seem to have a cut on it besides those that had just landed. It must have healed up somehow. Perhaps whatever transformation had empowered it had respawned it with full hit points.

He didn’t have a way to answer that question. Much less the time to really puzzle over it, now that enormous claws were sweeping in at him again.

He ducked under the first claw and had to leap back to avoid the second. Both attacks passed just inches away from him, and he felt his heart hammering in his chest to know he was so close to death. The distance Garyung was holding people meant that Balrim was the only person healing him. He wouldn’t have the luxury of his hit points yo-yoing back up like they had in the killbox against the malum.

He knew the right play was to keep the monster at arm’s length, but his instincts took over. Instead of backing away, he lunged forward. The monster’s next attack slammed into the ground behind him, and he used the opening to drive the head of his glaive into its gut for another five points of damage. He got his first stack of gust, and he tried to wrench the weapon as he pulled it out. It didn’t have any mechanical effect to do so, but it made him feel better.

The creature lashed out again, slashing down with its claws at him. He leaped back and let the attack pass in front of him. The second slash was diagonally down from left to right, and so he ducked to the side. He thought it would pass just over his head, but it clipped his horn. It did the same two-hundred and seventy damage, but the pain that ripped through his skull from the impact was ten times worse than when the last blow he’d taken had slammed him bodily into the ground. He almost passed out. Luckily, he managed to hold onto his composure and stay on his feet.

A volley of arrows flew in from the sidelines. Much fewer than when he’d been fighting the malum captain - apparently the 75 skill limitation Garyung had applied to archers contributing had cut the amount of support by a considerable proportion - but it was still more damage. The volley sank into the beast’s back and left side, and it staggered. Kaldalis leaped on the opportunity, ducking in for another strike, getting his five damage and his precious second stack of gust. He resolved to hold back on his next attack to see if he could get his gust proc at an opportune moment to serve the fight.

Shortly after the volley of arrows, Haldir joined them in the fight, adding his damage to Myrin’s.

“Glad you could join us,” Myrin said in a teasing tone. “I never would have figured someone would be more reluctant to join a fight than Balrim.”

“Hey!” Balrim protested.

“Let him alone,” Kaldalis said, “he was doing the job. Looking out for the safety of the encampment should always be our priority.”

Not to mention, Kaldalis thought but didn’t say, if he rushes into a deadly encounter, he’s the only one of us who won’t respawn.

“Come on,” Myrin said, “it’s not like this fight is an actual danger to anyone but the tank. We’re in the overworld again, after all. I think keeping everyone else at range is a little bit overcautious.”

Having learned nothing, Kaldalis was about to admit that she might be right.

But, at that moment, at the very instant when he thought things were under control and he understood the stakes and risks at work here, the four-fingered syncoresi decided to divulge that it had a new special attack available to it.