There was a moment’s silence as all the different corners of the camp looked at the Snow Barghest, before everybody suddenly realised that the fight had yet to end. Everybody readied their weapons, before they heard Ingolf speak very calmly.

“Don’t panic. Boss Level Beasts are able smarter than those of a lower level. I will try to speak to it using the Beast Rod. Use the time to try recover as much as you can; especially Demon Leaders.”

Everybody nodded slightly in acknowledgment, before pulling out potions, salves and bandages of their own. More than being wounded, Thorvald and the other Leaders were just fatigued, and a little rest would go a long way in their current situation. Ingolf reached for the Beast Rod, and brought it to his lips before speaking. His words were immediately converted to the barks, howls, growls that constituted Barghest language.

“Snow Barghest, I request that we speak before anything starts.” Ingolf stated.

The Magical Beast looked at the unimpressive looking Mage, before scoffing.

“Why should I speak to a human, and a thief at that?”

“A thief? What have I stolen?” Ingolf enquired.

“Do not act as though you do not know, thief!” The Barghest roared as he stomped his paw on the ground, leaving an imprint in the turf below and causing the ground to shake just a little.

Ingolf, and those close enough to the Barghest were made to work to keep their balance. Ingolf looked at the Snow Barghest in absolute confusion, and this was something picked up on by the Beast.

“Our King is set to awaken tonight. Even in his state of slumber, his Magic protected us from the worst of the storms, allowed our kingdom to remain largely unaffected by this particularly harsh winter, and much more. One of our Guardians decided to give himself over to the King as a meal for when he woke up. Before anybody could try and talk him out of it, he was found, laying in the forest you humans call the Timberland. The other Guardians covered him in the King’s essence, but then earlier in the Cycle, he disappeared.”

Ingolf had been listening to this giant Barghest speak, and he immediately began to grimace and shake his head. He would occasionally glance over at Ola, who somehow knew why he was receiving those looks. He would do his best to avoid the eyes of the Demon Tooth Leader, but it was hard. Ingolf waited patiently as the Barghest continued speaking, as if he wasn’t there to completely massacre everybody. Everybody else just heard barking however, and despite the seriousness of the situation, they were all trying to stifle laughing fits.

“Is there any chance we can end this with an apology, and returning what remains of your Guardian to you?” Ingolf asked, interrupting the Beast mid tangent.

“There’s no chance of that happening, human.” He replied, shaking his head as his biceps seemed to twitch a bit. “You have stolen, and then consumed something that belonged to a Beast King. Death is all that awaits you. Besides, you have killed my underlings. There is no turning back.”

Before Ingolf could say anything else, the Barghest let out an almighty howl that forced everybody to cover their ears. As he howled, his coat began changing colour; slowly becoming pitch black, and his eyes glowed a bright, deep blue. Ingolf quickly put his Beast Rod away, and pulled his staff off his back.

“Demon Tooth Leaders, to me! The rest of you, stay back and recover. There may be reinforcements coming, and you need to be fresh!”

Moments after Ingolf said this, Thorvald and the others were running towards him. Ingolf leapt back a few feet, landing and sliding backwards. When he came to a halt, Henrik appeared, and stood ahead of him, to his right. Ola stood his left, while Thorvald a few paces in front of him, with Brynhild directly in front of Thorvald.

“Demon Claw formation, huh?” Thorvald said as he stood up to his full height.

“Yeah, well since you’re currently useless and can’t use Magic at the moment, you’ve been relegated to the back, Boss.” Henrik said as he spun his short sword in his off hand.

“Makes sense.” Ingolf said with a shrug and a chuckle. “But before we get started…”

Ingolf suddenly quickly marched his way over to Old, grabbed him by the collar with both hands, and yanked him close, their noses barely a few inches apart.

“Yooooooouuuuuuuu!!” Ingolf hissed as he looked directly into the eyes that were hidden deep within the recesses of Ola’s hood. “You told me that you were the one to finish that damn Elk off, and it turned out to be a Gods-damned GUARDIAN!?”

“W-Well, I didn’t exactly finish the Elk off… I kinda… found… him.” Ola said; hands up apologetically.

“Found him?!”

“Y-Yeah. On like a kind of raised platform of sorts.”

“Raised platf—you mean an altar?! You find a majestic, Saint Level Beast on a fucking altar, and you decide to steal it for food?!”

“Well, yeah… it meant we wouldn’t have to hunt…”

“You lazy piece of shit! I always knew your lazy tendencies would either get me killed, eaten, or both! If we survive this, I’m going to tear you to pieces!” Ingolf barked, before releasing Ola and getting back into position, while still giving Ola a dirty look.

Henrik and Brynhild were giggling while Thorvald sighed and shook his head. The Barghest had seemingly been waiting patiently, but that patience had run out as he let out another massive how, which produced a violent, and rather fowl smelling gust of wind to hit the group, with Henrik and Ola having to work the hardest to remain upright. Just then, the Beast charged them, and they all readied themselves.

“As usual, this round will be used to gauge the enemy. Let’s go.” Ingolf said.

“Yes, Sir!” The guys all said.

The Barghest reached Brynhild with blinding speed, before thrusting his massive hand down towards her face, as if he was trying to smack her head clean off. She raised her shield, grabbing her forearm with her main hand for added strength, and took the blow head on; not even trying to parry. She blocked the strike, the resulting bang so loud; it hurt the ears of those close to the action. The force and weight behind the large, clawed hand was so great, it took everything Brynhild had not to buckle under it. Her entire body shook, and pain coursed through her body, even down to her bones. She grit her teeth however, and with a sound that was some sort of combination of a growl and a yell, she dug her feet into the ground, and pushed upwards, generating momentum which flowed up her body like a river water through a canal, and when it reached her hands, she thrust her shield up; managing to force the heavy hand, and then arm backwards. This resulted in the Barghest staggering backwards somewhat, and as soon as it did, the others capitalised, with Ola firing off a number of arrows. Henrik, who had popped up behind the Beast so quickly that nobody actually saw him move, unleashed a series of strikes directly at the Barghest’s back. Thorvald on the other hand had already leapt up into the air, with IceBane high above his head, and was yelling something fierce, before bringing the axe down with a ferocious strike that connected with the Beast’s chest, which resulted in a pained yelp.

Almost immediately after the attacks however, the Barghest retaliated, as it raised its arm, the incredibly thick fur on the underside of its forearm deflecting the arrows with ease. Almost immediately afterwards – and with the same arm – the Barghest swatted Thorvald away. Thorvald, who was still in the air, managed to parry the strike with IceBane, and recovered in midair before landing on the ground. Henrik was subjected to a number of attempted kicks, which he managed to evade, before he rolled and dodged his way back to everybody else. While all this was happening, Ingolf had opened a small flap on his belt, and pulled out a rolled up scroll. He quickly unfurled it, and began reading what was written on it. A blue glyph suddenly appeared in front of him, with five points on said glyph glowing brighter than the rest of it. Soon enough, the points formed into pointed icicles, and suddenly shot forth from the glyph, flying towards the Barghest, and making contact with its chest. Each icicle shattered on contact, producing a rather unimpressive fizzling sound each time. Ingolf stood with his shoulders shrugged, and his brow rose in both surprise and embarrassment.

“Well… that didn’t go as planned…” Ingolf said, as the writing on the scroll slowly faded away whilst still in his hand, rendering the scroll useless.

The Barghest stood tall and pumped its chest out, revealing a shallow cut that Thorvald had made with IceBane that was neither bleeding too much, nor looked particularly painful. Each breath from the now black Beast produced a puff of steam, and the gang regrouped as it got into position once more.

“Okay… so, hard armour-like fur, very strong, very fast. Have I missed anything?” Ingolf said as he sighed.

“Only that he completely shrugged off your weak spell, Boss.” Henrik said as he tugged on a few moustache hairs.

The other snickered under their breaths, doing their best to hide it from Ingolf. The man himself even allowed himself to have a bit of a chuckle before shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.

“We don’t have time to leisurely discuss this. Brynhild, how many of those blows can you take before your arms shatter?”

“Blocking them directly? No more than five at the absolute maximum. If I’m deflecting them away, then I can get away with a few more.”

“If I can successfully hit the same spot, then I’ll be able to cut through that ridiculous armoured fur.” Thorvald added.

“As things stand… I can’t do shit.” Henrik said with a shrug. “At best, I can serve as some kind of distraction. These swords just bounced off that… hide like grapes bouncing off a wall.”

“Same here.” Ola said, while looking off to the side. “I’ll have to use special arrows if I’ll want to do any real damage. I can help Henrik in distracting the dog, though.”

“You be quiet!” Ingolf boomed. “The one who caused this entire thing shouldn’t be so casual about being so useless.”

The time to strategise had quickly elapsed, as the thundering footsteps of the approaching Barghest ended the meeting. Brynhild drew her sword this time, and adopted a slightly different stance to the one she had been using against the low level Barghests, which allowed for easier and quicker movement. She banged on the shield a few times to draw the attention of the Beast, before charging it herself. Once both were within striking range of each other it started; with the Beast throwing a ferocious right. Brynhild turned her body to the right, while angling her shield and successfully deflecting the blow. Her forearm felt like it was going to disintegrate, but she ignored the pain. The Barghest quickly swung its arm backwards, attempting a backhand of sorts that Brynhild also deflected successfully. The second blow lifted her off her feet just a bit; the force generated by the blow so powerful that she was airborne for just an instant. The moment her feet made contact with the ground, the Barghest thrust its left hand directly at Brynhild’s face, which resulted in her diving towards her left, rolling on the ground and quickly springing to her feet. As she turned to face the Beast, another right was being thrown at her, but it quickly changed course as it swatted away three arrows that fired at the Beast’s head. Immediately after that, the Barghest was once again on the defensive, as it parried away a powerful swing of the IceBane. Thorvald was a big, heavy guy though, and followed up the initial swing with another one – which was also blocked. He raised his foot, before stomping it down on the ground.

“QUAKE!!!” He exclaimed as he did, causing the ground to shake violently.

The Barghest however seemed to shrug off the effects of the ability, and with impressive speed, closed the gap between it and Thorvald, before ramming him with a shoulder barge and sending warrior flying backwards. Just then, Brynhild began banging her shield to get the Barghest’s attention.

“Hey, you! You’re really… uh, ugly! I bet you…”

As Brynhild had the attention of the Barghest as a result of her taunts, Henrik appeared behind the Beast once more, both swords drawn, and unleashed two separate attacks, first thrusting each sword into the Barghest’s back, alternating after each strike, before performing the second attack; three slashes in a descending zigzag pattern, with both swords. Upon completion of the combined attacks, Henrik leaned in close to the Barghest’s fur, and then moved the fur away from the areas he had stabbed and slashed, trying to see if he had done any damage whatsoever. Once he saw that he hadn’t, Henrik sighed, stood up to his full height, looked over at Ingolf and shrugged casually.

“See? It’s not gonna work, Boss.”

He said this while evading another attempted kick from the Beast, then ducking below an attempted lunge, before rolling away and running off while shrugging again, as though he wasn’t being subjected to potentially fatal attacks. Ingolf was busy sorting through his scrolls, looking to see if he had any spells that would be effective regardless of how little Mana he had available for them to use. Just as he thought he found one, he heard the sound of Brynhild’s shield being hit incredibly hard a few times; which quickly stopped her from making taunts. Thorvald then let out a massive roar as he swung IceBane in a circular motion, unleashing his attack from before. All four strikes connected with the Barghest, and just like the previous attack, they managed to slice through the hard skin. The cuts were actually deeper this time, which seemed to anger the Beast as it let out a bark that was more akin to a roar, before smashing its hand directly into Thorvald’s chest. He managed to bring IceBane up to offer some protection; he was once again launched off his feet violently, and sent bouncing along the ground. The sound of at least one rib breaking was rather loud, and could be heard by more than a few people. The Barghest roared once more, before turning its attention back to Brynhild, who quickly charged it, letting out an almighty yell of her own. She rolled beneath a lunge and quickly sprang up to her feet, before dashing in close and slicing at the Beast’s stomach. The attack appeared to do nothing, so she sliced again, only this time aiming for one of the wounds that Thorvald had opened on the torso. She jammed her sword right into one, using her entire body weight to force the blade in deeper. She succeeded at her goal, as the Beast let out a thunderous yelp, before reaching down and grabbing Brynhild by the back of her armour. She held onto her sword tightly as she was yanked violently from where she was standing, raised high up in the air, and then slammed down hard into the ground as though she weighed nothing. She let out a pained yell, but the Barghest didn’t release her after the first slam however, and repeatedly raised and then rammed her into the ground, with her yells becoming louder, and after the fourth time, after she had dropped her sword and shield, it raised its hand up to its face and let out a cross between a roar and growl, right into Brynhild’s face, which was sort of hanging limp. The rancid smell of the Beast’s breath seemed to rouse her though, as she looked up at it with squinting eyes, flared nostrils, and a look of disgust on her face. The Barghest then brought its hand closer to its face and opened its mouth, as if it was about to bite Brynhild’s head off. Just then, a whole bunch of arrows hit the Beast’s wrist, but didn’t stick. When one did stick, it wasn’t because it had pierced anything, but rather because it got entangled in the fur. Brynhild looked at the arrow, before tilting her head to the side.

‘This arrow seems… different, somehow.’ She thought to herself.

Before she could think about how the arrow different from regular ones, it suddenly caught light and then exploded, causing the Beast to yelp again and release Brynhild. She crashed onto the floor, but quickly shuffled to her feet and began making a beeline for her sword and shield, which were conveniently close to each other. She wasn’t quite moving normally, and she suspected that she had more than a few fractures. As she picked up both her weapon and her shield – with a little difficulty- Brynhild turned to around to see that everybody was back in formation while the Barghest was trying to put out the fire that was raging on its arm. She too quickly made her way over to where everybody else was, groaning as she came to a stop.

“You alright, Brynhild?” Ingolf enquired as he looked up from the multitude scrolls that were on the ground.

“I’m fit enough to fight, so I’m fine.” Brynhild responded with a slight grimace.

“You got tossed about and slammed into the ground with absolutely no effort whatsoever.” Henrik said as he took his eyes off the Barghest for just a second to look at Brynhild, who was feeling around her body, looking for the areas most affected.

“Yeah, it was really painful. I think I blacked out during the – wait a minute, you ran, didn’t you? You actually ran away from that thing!”

“I did.” Henrik said with a shrug. “I do literally no damage to that thing.”

“Well at least stick around and help distract the thing! If it wasn’t for Ola’s exploding arrow, my head have been a tasty snack for that thing.”

“It wasn’t an exploding arrow.” Ola said with shrug, bow aimed at the Barghest, while Brynhild and Henrik bickered.

“What? Then why the hell did it explode?” Ingolf said, his eyes sorting through the scrolls once again.

“Because Izdur wished it to be so.” Said a voice that came from behind the group.

They all looked behind themselves to see Saheed, still ablaze, and still floating. His hands were still pressed together and his legs were still crossed. He looked at everybody, noting their physical conditions and the like. He then split his hands, pushing them forward, and suddenly, all the weapons of the Demon Tooth Mercenaries before him were enchanted with the Flames of Izdur. Immediately afterwards, Saheed clapped his hands together once more, and flames shot out from those engulfing his body, and produced flame shields like they did earlier in the skirmish.

“Shield of Izdur…”

Everybody looked at the flaming disc that was floating before them, as well as the flames on their shields before grinning and looking at Saheed who didn’t look all too comfortable.

“Hurry up, and take care of that mutt, Demon Tooth. It is considerably more difficult to provide support to those who cannot hear the Voice of Izdur.”

The crew looked at Saheed, their grins becoming even broader. They quickly got back into formation, and assumed their fighting stances. Brynhild had adopted a far more offensive stance, having given up on defending. Her stance was loose, full of openings, and her shield was more to the side than directly in front of her. Thorvald was standing, holding IceBane directly in front of him. He was muttering something to the axe, with his eyes closed. The double-bladed head had been split into two partitions as it were, with one side bright and blue, glowing with ice cold mist wafting off of it. The other side was bright orange, with flames dancing off the surface. Both sides were equally bright, and equally as impressive. Ola, whose bow had been completely set alight, was running his hand up and down the curved wood, as if trying to see if his hands would also burn. As a result of the bow having been enhanced with flames, all of his arrows were subject to the same effect. Henrik looked at his swords for a second, wondering if the flames would burn other parts of his body. He pressed the blade of the short sword against his arm, and his neck, with nothing catching alight, and no severe burns. He then looked at his crotch, then back at his sword. The curiosity almost got the better of him, as he brought the sword closer and closer to his bits, before feeling something hit the back of his. He quickly turned back to see Ingolf staring at him with a severe expression on his face.

“What the fuck?!” He asked while shaking his head.

Henrik just shrugged while smiling sheepishly, before looking ahead. All this happened rather quickly however, as the Barghest had patted the flames down. It looked over at the gang, newly enchanted weapons at the ready, and flame shields providing protection. The Barghest looked down at its torso and trailing a clawed hand over the wounds it had sustained – with the hand lingering over the deep wound left by Brynhild. The Beast looked at her directly; her sword still covered in its blood. A deep and loud growl filled the air as the Barghest looked at Brynhild, baring its teeth in the process.

“Looks like it has a soft spot for you, Brynnie.” Henrik said as he scratched his chin fuzz.

“Seriously?” Brynhild asked as she looked over at Henrik with a raised eyebrow. “Now’s when you decide to debut a terrible nickname?”

“What’s wrong with it? I think it’s pretty cute.”

“What? No it isn’t!”

“Is this really the time to be discussing such a topic, you two?!” Ingolf boomed, having put all but one of the scrolls away.

“Oh? You’ve been quiet this whole time, Boss. Have you finally found something that won’t fizzle out this time?” Henrik asked with a chuckle.

“You know Henrik, one of these days; I am going to fucking kill you… and to answer the question… I hope so. Now, according to Fatty here, we don’t have much time, so it’s time for an all-out attack. The quicker we take the dog down, the better. Also, operate on the assumption that the dog has some kind of trump card up its… fur, I guess, so be careful. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir!” They all boomed.

“Alright. Go!”

Brynhild, Thorvald and Henrik all burst from where they were standing, charging the Barghest with their weapons ready. The Barghest let out a loud series of barks, before running towards the charging trio. It seemed to have been focusing its attention on Brynhild, running towards her more than anyone else. Each step it made left an impression on the wet ground below, and it seemed as though the Beast was putting more into every step. It didn’t take long for the foes to reach each other and for the exchange to start. In a switch from previous engagements, Thorvald started things off; taking a large step forward and swinging as though he was trying to chop down the World Tree or something. His swings were powerful and damn near haphazard; the intention of completely obliterating the Barghest seemingly behind each and every swing. The Barghest could virtually feel this, and unlike before when it virtually faced IceBane head on, the Beast was now avoiding the swings all together. The Beast, despite being almost twice as tall as Thorvald, was actually faster and more agile than he was, and was using this to its advantage. Unfortunately for the Barghest however, due to it wanting to get its claws on Brynhild so badly, it would make the odd mistake that Henrik or Brynhild herself would capitalise on. Henrik had given up on actually piercing the tough hide, so he was more than pleased to discover that even though the flames didn’t burn the wielder of the weapons they were on, they did burn whoever, or in this case whatever, was being attacked. Henrik and Brynhild both focused on working over the Barghest’s legs and as much of its torso as they could comfortably reach. Neither was as tall as Thorvald, so they couldn’t inflict wounds as high up as he could. When Brynhild was close, the Beast would focus on her, and get attacked from the side and from behind by the other two. To her credit, Brynhild was able to keep the Beast’s attention for long periods of time by being nimble and quick, moving quickly, dodging, rolling and just doing whatever it was she could to keep the focus on her for as long as possible without getting caught and smashed into the ground once more. Ola was also firing off arrows that would help distract the Barghest even more whenever it seemed as though it was about to catch Brynhild, and the pained growls and yelps each time any of them would successfully set the Beast’s fur alight were filling the entire camp, which at this point, had all of its collective eyes focused entirely on what was happening. Even the slaves had dared to emerge from their tent, all standing behind the Tall Slave who was still standing next to what used to be a low level Barghest and its fellows. The slaves progressively become bolder during the fight. They started with one or two slaves poking their heads out to try and see exactly what was going on. Slowly but surely, more and more heads would pop out, until eventually, the slaves started exiting the tent and standing behind the tall one. He had completely decimated one of the Barghests that tried to kill them, so they felt as though if they stayed behind him, they would be somewhat safe, because in order to get to them, the giant Barghest would have to go through him first, unlike the slavers They eventually formed rows behind him, and found themselves in the peculiar situation of having mixed feelings. While they wanted the Barghest to completely rip the slavers and their Vraetan protectors to pieces, they were also kind of rooting for them, because the death of those two groups, almost certainly meant they would also die – either to the Beasts, or to the vicious storms.

Ingolf and Saheed were both hanging back and watching the fight. Ingolf had a spell scroll in his hands, and was busy reciting whatever was written on the scroll as quickly as he could. Saheed would occasionally glance over at the unhealthy looking Mage, wondering if he would be able to finish whatever preparations he was doing in time to actually assist his people. Saheed himself was also running out of time and energy, and it was visible. The flames that had engulfed him, which were bright and vibrant at the beginning of this attack, were now considerably smaller and somewhat dim. He was also breathing a little raggedly, and even sweating – although that was likely due to fatigue, and not the flames themselves.

“How much longer, Ragnar?!” Saheed barked, having run out of patience.

“Not much longer, Fatty! Just hold on.” Ingolf responded while still reciting what was written, as if he didn’t even stop to reply.

As the fight continued, the Snow Barghest seemed to be becoming more fatigued, however its attacks were even more dangerous for some reason – as if it was putting more effort into each attack. Brynhild was now completely on the defensive, as the vast majority of the attacks were coming her way. No longer was she able to focus on evading and dodging comfortably, that she had even changed stances to a more defensive stance that reduced mobility. Henrik and Thorvald were busy attacking the Barghest like crazy, setting its fur alight as well as, in the case of Thorvald, actually penetrating the thick hide rather frequently. The Flames of Izdur had really swung things in their favour, and the Barghest couldn’t attack as ferociously as before, due to constantly putting out fires all over its fur. After a few more minutes of the fight, Ingolf spoke.

“Alright guys, I think I’ve recited this thing enough that the spell will actually have the desired effect. The plan is simple. Brynhild, you hold the dog’s attention and while that happens, I’ll cast the spell. Thorvald and Henrik, you two take its legs out from behind, and then Brynhild, hit it in the face with your most powerful shield bash attack. We’re taking this fucker in alive.”

“Alive?! Why??!!” Saheed boomed as though he wasn’t right next to Ingolf.

“…something tells me keeping it alive will be to our benefit, Fatty.”

Before even waiting for Saheed to respond, the Demon Tooth got to work, with Thorvald and Henrik leaping away from the Barghest. The Beast didn’t seem too concerned with why they did this, and focused its efforts entirely on ripping Brynhild to shreds. She was ready for this assault, banging her shield twice and letting out a roar as if to challenge the Beast. Despite having wounds caused by Thorvald, as well as smoking tufts of burnt fur all over its body, the Barghest burst towards Brynhild with a loud growl. It swung for all it was worth, and the blows were incredibly hard and fast, with Brynhild using every ounce of strength to not only parry the blows, but remain standing. The Beast was receiving burns on its hands due to the flaming shield, but it didn’t care. Brynhild had driven her sword into him, and that wound still throbbed painfully. Ingolf had begun reciting the spell on the scroll in earnest now, and while Brynhild continued to defend against the beastly barrage, Henrik and Thorvald had disappeared for an instant, waiting for the correct moment to attack. That moment came very quickly as Ingolf stomped his left foot hard onto the ground as both hands, as well as his staff started glowing blue, prompting the two men to start running. Meanwhile, Brynhild was defending for all she was worth. The Barghest was beginning to gain the upper hand, with Brynhild being forced to parry a lot more than she was before. The Beast’s hands were completely on fire by now, but it hardly gave a crap, as what appeared to be a grin quickly etched itself on its face. A particularly fierce blow hit the shield resulting in a rather loud cracking sound, as well as a scream from Brynhild that curdled blood. Immediately after the blow, the Barghest’s grin grew even wider as it derived no small amount of joy from inflicting even more pain on Brynhild. That joy was short lived however, as almost immediately afterwards, the ground split in five points all around the Barghest as ice chains burst out from the ground, wrapping themselves around the Beast’s ankles, wrists and neck in an instant. The Beast struggled against its bonds in vain, as Ingolf had the spell locked in.

“NOWWW!!!” Ingolf boomed, his face strained as he held the spell.

It took a matter of seconds for Thorvald and Henrik to capitalise, as both attacked the back of the Barghest’s knees. They had both charged the Beast from a distance, and attacked simultaneously, with Thorvald raising his foot, and driving it into the back of the knee. Henrik however had taken a different approach, having run twice the distance Thorvald did in an effort to gain as much momentum as he could. And while Thorvald kicked the Beast, Henrik actually launched himself into the air, his back facing the Barghest, and essentially turned himself into a cannonball. Thorvald’s foot and Henrik’s body made contact with their respective targets simultaneously, causing the Beast to cry out in pain as enough damage was inflicted onto its legs that the Beast dropped to its knees. Brynhild, who had been gritting her teeth while trying to fight through the pain, suddenly heard everybody screaming at her to attack, and she remembered the plan. The blinding pain that was emanating from her left shoulder was forced into the background as she let out an almighty yell, and her shield started glowing. She strode forward with her left leg, planting her foot down so hard that it produced a small tremor. As if fueled by the pain, Brynhild’s arm flexed and grew in size as she thrust her arm out and as her shield made contact with the Barghest’s face, the sound filled the entire camp, echoing as well. She repeated the action twice more, with each impact louder and harder the one that preceded it. Brynhild then crouched down about as low as she could manage, before pushing both feet into the ground, springing up with another yell, and smacked the Barghest so hard with her shield, that the Beast’s head was not only thrown back, but it was done with so much force that it actually launched the large creature off its knees and into the air. The point of impact produced a bright, white flash of light which lasted long after the impact itself. The moment seemed to last forever, as everybody in the camp watched the creature remain airborne, before crashing into the ground with a loud thud, which even shook the ground. There was a moment of silence as everybody waited to see whether or not the Beast had really been bested. After a few moments of stillness, Brynhild let out a roar that sounded as if she had just had her vocal cords ripped out. It sounded more like a pained groan than a triumphant scream, but nobody cared, as Thorvald raised IceBane and let out a roar of his own. Henrik leapt onto Thorvald’s shoulders as if the possibility of having his face cleaved off by IceBane wasn’t a very real one, and let out a roar of his own. The rest of the Demon Tooth Mercenaries followed suit, as the victory was confirmed. Ingolf fell on his ass, sitting down and letting out a massive sigh of relief. The sense of relief was mimicked by Saheed, who immediately fell to the ground, no longer covered in the Flames of Izdur. The slaves scoffed and shook their heads in disappointment, many of them even spitting on the ground in disgust. While still sitting down, Ingolf raised his staff above his head with a rather tired thrust.

“We fucking did it… Take that, you fucking mutt…’