While the other two watched her with confused looks, Muti led the party towards what she smelled. After just a couple minutes, she perked up and said, "There is a pack of gnolls between us and what I want to follow. There are nine of them."
Astrid pursed her lips as she considered what to do. The party preferred not to engage even with packs of eight, much less nine, but Muti also seemed like she was particularly driven to follow the scent that she was following.
"I think I'm happy to do this, but what do you think, Skandr?"
"I've recovered enough that I don't worry about getting two casts off pretty easily, but the bulk of the danger and stress will fall on you. Are you really confident in being totally overwhelmed?"
Astrid checked, was reassured that Quick Recovery had come off its cool down, and she nodded.
"Yeah, I'm ready. If you stay behind me, then I can make sure that you stay safe and we can deal with this with minimal risk."
Muti didn't say anything as she grinned widely and led the way forward to find their next foes. Before long, she settled onto her haunches and gestured for the other two to come next to her. Her nostrils flared a couple times and then, with a flash of recognition going through her eyes, she bent down towards her cuirass. Although it had been basically ripped in half after she was taken down by three gnolls in the stairway, she continued to wear it with her old plain leather armor underneath. The green scales seemed to shine faintly and Muti's eyes widened as she turned her face away from the scaled leather as she continued to sniff deeply.
Astrid quickly put two and two together and her eyebrows climbed as she clarified, "An irregular, right? Is it with this pack?"
Muti closed her eyes, sniffed deeply, then cocked her head and listened. After a moment of consideration, she shook her head. The pointed tips of her ears seemed to perk up as she thought as much, and she said, "No. Its scent is too old to be in this pack. It has passed through this area, though."
It'd been a couple weeks since they had seen anyone bring an irregular corpse up to the inn. 10 silver in the form of a single monster was nearby, and Astrid shook off the nervousness of fighting against this pack of nine by telling herself that they were just a stepping stone.
"All right, Muti, I don't want you to engage until after I am fully in the thick of the fight. Even if there's a shaman, I'm more than happy to use Quick Recovery in this fight to make sure that neither of you two get injured. Skandr, I want at least two of your regular lightning curtain spells pretty quickly. I don't want this higher cost, more powerful one, as it's just too slow for you to get started. My priority is making sure we can get these things slowed as much and as long as possible. Muti, your focus is the rangers, as always, but I'm going to get overwhelmed pretty quickly. Even with them being slowed, I'm going to need backup pretty soon, so Skandr, I don't know if I'll be able to keep them all off of you."
"Well, I guess I need to step in and pull my weight sometimes." Skandr shrugged with a sardonic smile, "I can only be carried by you two for so long, huh?"
"Yes, you now understand! You need to wet your blade with blood, not merely slow our foes!" Muti threw her arm around Skandr, shaking him a little as she excitedly urged him to engage in melee combat.
"You know, I never thought to ask you this. What are the Barbarians' thoughts on archers?"
"Eh, It is not a bad Class, but it remains a Class that does not indulge in the true travails and struggles of one who fights with their body and their body alone. Even so, they are better than the cowardly Mages."
Though there was an obvious ring of veracity to her opinion, Muti softened any harsh feelings as she leaned over and continued embracing Skandr as she said as much. She, probably more roughly than she should have, tousled his hair and forced his head back-and-forth hard enough that Astrid wondered if he would get whiplash.
"Well, I'm not so cowardly that I won't get in the fight when necessary. I have my enchantment for some reason, right?" Skandr put a small flicker of electricity in his finger as he poked Muti in the ribs. She recoiled with a laugh as he "bared his fangs" and she grinned back at him, her own literal fangs on display.
"OK, Muti. How far off are we?"
"100 meters. I think they might be close to noticing us."
"All right, Skandr, get Lightning Reflexes on both of us and then get at least 10 meters back from me. Muti, flank on the left."
Her party didn't respond, except to do as she asked. Then, with the amplified feeling of adrenaline searching through her veins combined with the influence of Lightning Reflexes, Astrid stood tall as she strode in the direction of the gnolls. It wasn't more than ten paces that she took before she heard a howl of warning. Then, the cackling cries of the gnolls filled the air as she watched the monsters rush through the tall fields towards her. The growing wheat was only a head or so shorter than she was, and though Astrid could see over it, when the gnolls lunged into their loping runs on all fours, Astrid could see the wake of their movement more than she could see them individually.
She shouted in challenge as she rushed towards them, her shield braced on her shoulder as she watched the ripples of movement come closer. Several nolls smashed into her shield, though another one came from her other side. She swung her hammer at the lone monster and caught a glancing blow on its ribs, but she knew it was far from out of the fight. Behind her shield, fists and slavering jaws fought to reach her flesh, and then two arrows shot toward her as the aura of the shaman shifted to bloodlust. Astrid was lucky that the chain links of her armor held together, keeping the arrows from piercing her flesh.
"Anytime now!"
Even before her words stopped ringing out, lightning crashed down from the heavens and into the five brawlers that were surrounding and already assaulting Astrid. She tensed her core to keep the wind from being knocked out of her as she tilted her shield to allow the tip to cut into the tendons of knees when she spun. Fully surrounded, there wasn't much she could do. Even so, she refused to simply be a punching bag. She was no frontliner, she was a Warrior! Her shield's tip had crippled one from her spin, its legs falling from underneath it. The next gnoll that gave her right arm even a little bit of space took a hammer in the jaw. It didn't die, but it did stumble back, stunned. When she did that, though, she opened her arm open to an attack, and her arm was wrenched down by a pair of grasping arms.
Even slowed, with the bloodlust aura boosting them, three of the brawlers were bearing her to the ground and fighting to kill her while the other two crawled towards Skandr. Astrid screamed as she threw her elbows and fists at the most sensitive parts of the gnolls she could reach. Their noses and eyes were tried and true targets, and despite themselves, the gnolls recoiled each time she hit them. She felt orbital bones crack with one of her punches when it hit the eye just right, and the gore of the exploding eye splattered against her glove.
Astrid roared again as jaws from behind clamped into the heavy iron collar of her armor, ripping at her neck. Even with the boost to her Alacrity from Steady Load, there wasn't much she could do besides turn as hard as she could. Then, with that gnolls still trying to bite at her neck, Astrid crushed it under her body. With it stuck under weight as well as that of its two fellows, it was mostly out of commission, though its fists continued to beat at her ribs. Another curtain of lightning descended from above, and the brawlers slowed further as their bodies' uncontrollable twitching grew more violent and they struggled even to stand, much less to walk, though they still grappled her and held her down.
That was when the shaman appeared. Its blade flashed towards her face, and Astrid lowered her chin, trusting in the enchanted metal of her helmet. The bone scraped down, the tip catching in her visor as the attack glanced off the helm. The blade's tip cracked, yanking Astrid's head down as the helmet continued keeping her safe.
"Help!" Astrid regretted her pride and her arrogance in getting into this fight the way that she had. The shaman didn't care as its weapons tip broke and lunged down with its jaws. She dropped her hammer and interposed her right arm, blocking the worst of the attack from reaching her torso. She felt the middle of her bracer warp under the attack and she screamed as she fought to strike it with her shield, but to no avail. With a gnoll on it, she couldn't move it from its position at her side, and Astrid was effectively tied down. Even so, she was not out of options.
Astrid vision tunneled in exclusively on her enemy. She forced her right arm, still being chewed on by the gnoll, up higher so that she could headbut the shaman one, two, three times in the face. It snarled as it reeled back, but as soon as it released her arm, she shot her fist forward into its open mouth, shoving it down its throat. It started to bite down again, but Astrid smashed her head into its jaw again, feeling its jaw bone break. It could no longer bite down, and she grabbed its tongue and started to pull it out. With a scream of rage, she ripped the organ from the beast's mouth.
With its tongue being ripped from its throat, the gnoll was entirely unable to continue keeping its aura up, and Astrid was able to shrug off the other two brawlers' attackers. A part of her ignored the three ranger kill notifications and two brawler kills, because her enemy was still right in front of her. She screamed as she tried to lurch forward, but was held back by the brawler on her body. As the shaman retreated from her range, Astrid swung wildly and clipped the monster's shoulder with her fist. It spun with the hit, and was largely unhurt, other than its bloody mouth. With a gurgling shriek, it threw itself back at her.
Astrid tried to dodge but couldn't as the blade punched into her left shoulder, just above her breast. A third curtain of lightning shot down and smashed into the gnolls as Astrid reached forward with her hand again, uncaring about her unresponsive pinky while she grabbed its head by the top of the snout. Then, shoving down with all her strength, she managed to get its head at her head's level again. Again, she smashed her helmet into its face, and again, and again. It started to weaken its resistance, and Astrid felt a weight on her shield disappear all of a sudden. It was a perfect opportunity, and she, with the last of her strength, turned and cleaved into the shaman's neck with the shield's top.
Bone broke, and a kill notification appeared in her eyes. Astrid sagged, only then remembering that the gnoll underneath her was still there, squirming, and trying to take her out. She grinned as she shifted and tried to find a way to dispatch it, but Skandr came close, ready to deal the killing blow himself.
Without a word, he drew his knife and carefully stabbed it into the gnoll's eye. It went still, and Astrid took note of another kill notification as she looked around herself.
There were still two brawlers left, but Muti had thrown her Messer sword into one's stomach and had disarmed the other at both elbows. While Astrid tried to get to her feet, Skandr pushed her down while Muti dispatched the last monsters.
Gnoll Brawler slain. 21 Experience gained, split among party.
Gnoll Brawler slain. 21 Experience gained, split among party.
As the adrenaline drained from her body, Astrid's body screamed it was on fire on her left shoulder, and she slowly parsed that it was the agony of what the shaman had done to her. She groaned as she looked at Skandr.
"How bad do I look?"
"Wish I could damn well say, but you ripped the stupid shaman's tongue out! You're covered in blood, and I don't know what's yours and what's the monsters'!"
Astrid looked down and saw that her armor was entirely crimson with the shaman's blood. Its knife was still buried just below her collarbone and she groaned as she looked at Skandr pleadingly.
"Would you take it out for me?"
His face went green, but he did nod as he wrapped his hands around the blade.
"On three. One, two, three!"
He yanked the blade out, and Astrid's vision went white. Even before her vision had recovered, she activated Quick Recovery. With a thought, she forced the Skill to focus its healing on her shoulder, ensuring she could still wield her shield, but there was only so far that it could go. When she stood, the pain demanded that Astrid allow the shield to fall from her hand as she unstrapped it from her forearm. She fought back another whimper of pain and instead shook her head.
"Here." Skandr said as he offered over a draught. She nodded, thumbed the cork out, and quaffed it. These potions weren't at all magical in the way that they healed, but the not-quite potion did accelerate her natural healing. She felt energy pulsate out from her stomach before long, and Astrid forced herself to stay on her feet as Muti nearly sprinted over with a wide grin painted on her face.
"That! That is a Warrior! A leader I am proud to follow." Muti pointed at Astrid excitedly as she said it, her eyes flashing behind the simple bar across her face that made her helmet's visor.
"Sure. What can you tell me about what's going on out there? Any news on the irregular?"
Muti stood tall as she stepped away from the bloody killing field. She sniffed deeply, turned a little and pointed in one direction.
"Over there. It is not alone, so I would not worry about it coming to us now or being in danger."
Astrid didn't say anything, but she nodded in assent as she stepped further away out of the filth left by disemboweled monsters and lay on the ground with a wordless pained sound.
"You know, I really shouldn't be getting used to this." Skandr said as he dug the fangs out of gnoll corpses.
"I mean, shouldn't you? This is the job you've decided to be in, and it's going to be bloody for as long as a single person delves. Sure, the bodies are reabsorbed by the Dungeon after an hour or so, but harvesting materials from monsters is the primary way that we get paid."
"No, not the whole harvesting the monster parts part, it's watching you rip a creature's tongue from its mouth and then headbutt it to death. You're covered in its lifeblood, and you got stabbed close to your heart, and you're not even worried about it. We are less and less human by the day, and you seem unconcerned with that."
Astrid opened her mouth to respond, but thought better of just saying the first thing that came to her mind. She thought about it for a little bit longer, and sighed as she spoke. "Well, it's just going to get crazier. Honestly, that you're making spells and improving on them is something that, to me, is way more inhuman than me being strong and fighting monsters. Maybe this is a remnant of my always wanting to be a Spellblade, but magic, not just Skills, but real magic has always been miraculous to me. A Skill can do something magical, but making a spell? That's because you're able to just enforce your will on the natural world. That's something that, in my limited 'Warrior' mind, is just incomprehensible."
"I guess I can understand what you're saying, but I just disagree. I don't know how you'll take this, but you're almost more like a monster than a person, you know? It's just like, you were almost excited to go into a fight against three times our number and be the sole person taking their attack. That doesn't sound like a regular person, does it?"
"Well, we aren't regular people, are we?"
Skandr threw up both of his hands hopelessly, but after another moment, he couldn't help but agree with a slight nod. Then, the party took some time to stay together and recover. Skandr had nearly completely exhausted his mana, and was only in a slightly better state than Astrid was. He took some time to sit and recover as Muti, the party member who had exhausted themselves the least, gathered all of the valuable parts of the monsters.
Though all three wanted to move on and find and kill the irregular, they, without having to say anything, waited for a full hour for Quick Recovery to be replenished. With Astrid resting for as long as she had, Quick Recovery's passive compounded with the draught she had taken and quickly recovered her to fighting shape.
"Last one for the day?"
Skandr and Muti both nodded in response to their leader's question as Astrid stood, took her hammer and shield in hand, and led the way towards where Muti had last smelled the irregular.