My shield powered up as a spear bounced off of it. I could tell as it went flying by from behind that it was a crude spear. I spun around to see a group of six pigtaurs all charging. The half-pigman half-pigs were all pulling clubs around their bodies.

I checked, and Kasidy was off to my left and between them and me. Which meant that I had to move. I could try to drop my shield and bring it back up, but I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t get a pigtaur in the dome with us. So I charged.

As I moved, I raised my hand up and fired off my first stone sphere. The bowling ball went flying out a head and slammed the lead pigtaur right where the front legs met with the torso. I would have hoped that it would have been a weak place on the odd monster. However, it seemed to only slow down the run slightly.

I was about 15 feet from them as I came charging past Kasidy. The edge of my dome knocked her off her feet, and she tumbled down into the river. As I noticed her splash, the lead pigtaur slammed into my dome. The whole thing went white as the force of the charge shimmered around me.

I fired off another stone sphere and heard the meaty sound of the ball slamming into flesh. The dome cleared just enough that I was able to see the center one was down. I couldn’t tell how I did it, only that I did. The other five were all beating on my shield. As they hit, small little white circle would show up with a spider web firing out around it. However, it would be gone by the time their clubs came back around.

I fired at the pigtaur on the far left. I figured that he was going to be the one that would go after Kasidy, who was screaming for help holding on to a rock in the rapids. I hit that one’s front right leg, and it snapped like a horse in the Derby.

Blink dropped on the one on my far right. I couldn’t keep much of an eye on it, but it was bucking like a bronco and was thrashing through the woods. I dropped low and took out another leg. Which brought me down to just two that were standing. One directly in front of me and the other slightly to my right. I drew my pausing, throwing spike, popped it out to the one on the right, and dropped my shield.

The middle run ran right at me as I activated my shield again while drawing my sword. The pork monster went for a double overhand swing of his club, only for it to not pass through the dome. His club and arms were stuck behind him as he was too tall for my dome, which let me slide my short sword right into his right armpit.

My dome started to smell like bacon as he screamed and dropped his club with his right arm. He tried for another swing with the club, only for it to smash into the dome again. Not passing through because he was still holding it. He oinked, snorted, dropped the club, and turned his entire body at me. As he did, I kept moving to my left, trying to keep a tight circle on him.

I needed to be behind his front legs and to the front of his back as we started to do a bacon fry circle. He moved to try to get me in, and I jabbed at his overly marbled sides with my sword doing extra burn damage since I leveled it. I kept trying to get into a leg joint, but he kept knocking me back with his lard.

Finally, I gave up on the joints and slammed my sword into his lower belly. Then I ripped it to the side and ran. I cut around an 8-inch gash through his unprotected guts. As he squealed, he bucked and caught me with his back hoof. I took the hit right to my breastplate and went flying back till I hit a tree.

I was winded but still clinging to my standard, which was good because the pigtaur I was fighting was on the outside of the dome tripping over its small intestine to try to get at me. The other one that I paused was dead. Its throat was missing. The two wounded were still squealing like the stuck pigs they were.

I stood back up and dropped the stone air, and charged. I needed to get the guy back into my dome so I could finish him off. As I closed in, I popped the dome back up and helped untangle his legs. I ducked in close and slashed again at the belly, trying to make the hole large.

I rolled away right as everything else dumped out. The monster tried to step, but its front feet gave out, and it fell forward. The thing was strong-willed as it was still trying to get up as I passed my blade through its neck.

I turned to see the one that I thought I had put down first, standing back up and charging. I could see that in the pigman’s chest, there were broken bones shoved through, but the pig part was still okay.

My shield was up, so it bounced again on the stone air, but this time his club turned green, and when it slammed down on my stone air, a split appeared. The pigtaur snorted and charged with some odd battle cry. As he came into my dome, I noticed that his club was still glowing green.

Unlike with the last one, my shield only seemed to slow him down slightly with his swing, and when it hit on my left arm, I felt the bone break. My whole body was thrown to the ground, and I lost my hold on the standard. Which made my mostly worthless dome fall.

As I rose, I felt my weighted skirt kick in and mend my broken arm. I fired off my last stone sphere point blank. It hit him on his right front leg. Where the ball hit, a ripple in fat formed that washed over his whole body, and then the sphere fell to the ground.

My eyes went wide as my right shoulder was found with his wooden club, and I went airborne again. I had emptied 3 of my charges into the guy, and he was just tanking them like it was nothing. As I hit the ground, I rolled and pulled out my dagger-of-pausing. If I was going to fight this guy, I was going all out at this point.

He turned and came back at me again. I felt all the part of a polo ball as he charged. However, I wasn’t going to sit still and let him whack me. I dove to my left and let my sword drag slightly behind. It sliced a thin strip right off his side. As I came back up, he was turning.

This guy was so close I could smell his stench rolling out his mouth as he yelled. His club was glowing green as he swung it down on me. I lashed out with my dagger, and he froze in place. I slammed the point of my sword right under his chin. As I yanked it out, I heard a squeal from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see one of the pigtaurs I had broken a leg on throwing its spear at me.

I dropped to the ground into a shoulder roll and watched the crude spear slam into their leader right as the pause came off. The monster of the beast staggered but didn’t go down. I had cut into its head, but it wasn’t enough.

With a spear hanging out of its already damaged chest and blood pouring out its neck, the pigtaur took one last swing. I could see as it put everything into the swing it was going to miss. The thing was so dumb that it didn’t know it was dead as the club started to move. The spear in its chest stopped the swing, but its arms broke the spear.

I looked back at the pigtaur with a broken leg and smiled. It could hardly stand, and I charged. I was only about six steps away and went toward the gimp side. He couldn’t turn as I took out his back leg. Once he was down and trashing, it was just a moment before I finished him. I looked around and noticed the other with a broken leg was missing a neck.

All of them were down. I wiped my sword down and sheathed it. Then I grabbed up my standard and headed over to a screaming Kasidy. She was still stuck in the water, holding on to the rock. I felt that Blink behind me. There was no way around this; I was going to get soaked to help her. Which meant that my gear was going to get wet.

I yelled. “I’m coming to help!”

* * *