Belli Mundi - Chapter 40
Immediately as they were spotted, the void cats attacked. Sam didn’t have time to look at the others, because the cat she had spotted targeted her. With a large jump it went after her. She barely had time to put her shield up. Still, the cat was large enough to toss her over onto her back. With the weight of the cat on top of the shield, Sam had no chance of getting out from under the shield.
Abandoning her sword, she grabbed for the enchanted knife. Unfortunately, the knife was strapped on her left side, making it impossible to reach it with her right hand. Her left arm was still strapped to the shield, making that another impossibility.
Luckily for her, Steve spared enough attention for her to shoot a single arrow at the cat. It didn’t do any damage, but the cat did jump off of Sam. This allowed her to draw the enchanted dagger. She didn’t have time to do more than that, as the cat immediately attacked again.
This time though, she managed to deflect the cat with her shield. A quick slice with the dagger managed to open a small wound on the creature's back leg. For a moment the cat actually looked surprised at the wound. With its skin being impervious to normal weapons, it wasn’t used to being injured.
Immediately Sam took advantage of the momentary lapse in concentration to start her own attack. With her shield in front of her she charged at the cat, making sure to block the right paw of the cat when it tried to slash at her. She stabbed the void cat in the chest, but other than she expected the cat didn’t die. Apparently the dagger wasn’t long enough to reach anything important. What it did do, was injure the cat even more. This gave her enough of an edge to keep up the pressure.
About two minutes later she was standing over the corpse of the cat. It had taken her most of her stamina, but she finally did it.
Looking around, she saw that the others hadn’t had as much success as she had. She could see both George and Deon on the ground. Zach and Jasper had taken it upon themselves to take the place of George on the left flank, while Steve went to take the place of Deon at the front.
Meanwhile Tia was using her arrows to distract the cats at the moments they were about to injure her squadmates. Only Xanthe and Virgil were able to really deal a lot of damage with their spells, so they had moved to the side to get a better aim.
While Sam was looking though, Erik was being pushed back on the right flank by the cat that had targeted him. That decided her course of action. She had to hope that the two archers on the left flank could hold out, while she helped Erik out.
It took the two only moments to maneuver the cat enough that Xanthe could lob a good sized fireball on its back. This injured it enough for Erik and Sam to finish it off.
After that Erik went to help Lufir, Leophon and Steve on the front against the two cats that attacked there. Sam meanwhile went over to the left to help out the two archers there.
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The two archers did a good job on playing tag with the one void cat. Every time one of them was targeted by the cat, the other went on the attack to get its attention. This made it difficult for the cat to push its attack on one of them, but it also prevented them from giving the cat more than some shallow injuries.
With Sam there though, she was able to play the tank. She got the attention of the archers by slamming her dagger onto her shield. This was a signal that they had agreed on to let them know to pay attention without it being so distracting that they would lose their concentration. Then right after the cat attacked Jasper, Sam butted in and attacked it. With another slam with her shield, the cat was immediately focused on her. This gave Jasper and Zach the time to move around and get in position. Without a mage, as both of them were focused on the other fight, they had to make do with their daggers.
With Sam taking up the cat’s attention, the two archers jumped in right after it attacked her. Both of them targeted one of the back legs, and immediately after stabbing the cat quite deeply they jumped back. They were right to do so, as the cat still managed to jump aside and try to disembowel Zach. Only thanks to him moving back did he manage to mostly dodge the attack. He still took a slash to his side, but that was only a shallow wound.
Right after that attack though, the injuries they had inflicted on the hind legs made themselves known. The cat lost its use of two of its legs, making it a lot less mobile. This gave Sam the opportunity to dart in and stab it right in its left eye, finishing it off.
When the three of them moved to the front to help out there, they found out that that wasn’t needed anymore. With most of the squad taking on the last two cats, they managed to box them in and letting the mages lob some fire and ice attacks on them. They finished at the same time as Sam and the two archers.
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After the fight, the squad once again had to return to the garrison. Today with two downed members and the bodies of five void cats, they moved even slower than on the return the day before.
At the garrison they split up. While George and Deon were helped to the infirmary by Jasper and Erik, the others went to the quartermaster to drop off the corpses of the void cats. Since the corpses were quite valuable, it would be a waste not to bring them in as soon as possible.
“I see you guys made short work of the beasties. Good to know that the daggers were useful.”
“Yeah, still took some injuries. We have two fighters down, and the rest of us have some smaller injuries.”
“That’s the trouble with these beasts,” the quartermaster nodded knowingly, “as with most ambush predators, you will only see them when it’s too late. Also, you guys may want to ask for a lesson on dressing your kills in the field. I appreciate you bringing these in immediately, but it would be even better if they were already dressed. That would also make it easier for you to transport them.”
After the squad thanked him, they went on to report on their excursion. Once again they were back early, and that with more injured members than the day before. With them being able to bring in five void cats, Trainer Quincy didn’t blame them.
Thus they were able to get back to their quarters a bit earlier than normal. Once there the others immediately focused on Sam.
“Time for a status check, Sam!”
“Yeah, no more forgetting to do that. From now on you will check your status every night, no exceptions!”
“We will make sure that you check, so no trying to get out of it. Now sit down and check.”
With all of them ganging up on her, Sam had no other option than to agree. Even though she was certain that they wouldn’t be that much of a change, she still did what the others wanted.
To her surprise, there was more to unpack than she expected! That fight with the void cats had apparently been more important than some of her other difficult fights, even though she didn’t think that this one had been all that special.
Refocusing, she started to go through her notifications.