Rising to its full height on two legs, then quickly returning to all fours, the creature kicked its shorter-than-expected forelegs at them. As it landed on all four legs, the earth shook slightly from its weight. Tom inspected it quickly to get a read on the situation.

Goatamus

The abomination of a mad scientist, the Goatamus is an amalgamation of a goat and a hippo. It has the drive of a goat, and with the pent-up rage and territorial behavior of a hippo, the Goatamus is a danger to anyone who gets near it. Beware its charge!

HP

1860/1860

MP

0/0

SP

1590/1590

Attacks

Stomp, Gore, Charge

With the head and horns of a goat, the body of a hippo, and the fur of a goat covering its body, the creature was truly formidable looking. Its horns came out from its head and curved out to the sides making its reach even greater than its massive frame already presented. It appeared to be standing at about ten feet all with a body that put it close to the ten thousand pound mark. The creature charged at them. Suddenly, it stopped short though, the chain limiting its movement.

"Holy shit this thing is huge! It's going to be a problem. Anyone got any ideas?" Tom asked the others.

"If we can get on its back, we can probably do a lot of damage in a place it can't reach," Jay offered.

"Okay, good plan for now. Let's get someone up there and start hacking away at it. Everyone else is on distraction duty. Keep its attention and see if we can confuse it." Tom ordered, equipping his sword from his inventory.

"Who's going up there?" Derek asked, looking at the team to see who might be the best option.

"Probably Jay. He's the most agile choice." Tom replied looking directly at Jay. "Better get your sword instead. You'll need to account for thick skin."

"Really? Why don't you hop up on that death trap?" Jay protested, looking to others for support.

"Sorry, man. You signed up for this. Plus you can sneak around it to climb up." Tom said, a smile forming on his face.

"Can't we just kill it from here? It's chained up after all." James offered.

Everyone stopped and stared at him. Then they turned and stared at the beast.

"Well...shit...I don't see why not." Tom said suddenly shocked at having not thought of it before. "Alright, everyone stop feeling stupid and kill it."

Everyone switched to their guns and began firing at the beast. As they did, a magical barrier appeared between them and the Goatamus blocking the entrance to the room. Their bullets all bounced off the barrier and fell to the floor with soft tinkling sounds. A message appeared in their views after they stopped firing, seeing the futility of the action.

Ah, Ah, Ah! You didn't enter the room!

Since this monster is limited in its movement, you must enter the room to engage in combat. Nice try though.

"Damn. Worth a shot though. Alright, back to the original plan." Tom said switching back to his greatsword.

"I'd rather get my hands dirty anyway," Michael commented pulling two axes out this time, intent on dealing as much damage as possible.

As soon as the barrier disappeared, Michael took off first into the room and roared a challenge to the beast awaiting them. It called back its defiance and the fight began. The beast lunged at Michael, who quickly lunged right, causing the beast to crash to the ground as it tried to follow his quick movement and fell to the ground.

Stopping to the right of the creature, Michael pivoted on the ball of one foot, crouched slightly, and launched himself at its right side. Both axes flashed at once, leaving large gashes in its skin that immediately started bleeding, causing its fur to matt in the viscous red liquid. The Goatamus howled in rage and pain and turned to strike at Michael.

No one had been idle though, and Tom slashed out at its other side when it turned to attack Michael and sliced horizontally at its left side, also opening a gash as he ran down its side. Another scream of pain, this time mixed with surprise, erupted from the creature suddenly at the new wound.

James stood back and fired at the creature, also running to the left to try to get behind it. His bullets had minimal effect, but small drops of blood did escape the beast's thick hide where he shot. Continuing on his path, James managed to get behind the beast and aimed. Firing shot after shot at the creature, he hit it squarely in the giant nutsack hanging from between its legs. A fury so intense the monster's eyes turned red came over the Goatamus at being struck in such a delicate spot, and it roared in rage.

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"Great, you can't just leave well enough alone can you?!" Derek called at James just before trying to dodge out of the way of a strike only to be clipped by a horn and sent flying into the wall of the room.

"DEREK!" Tom cried as he saw the body flung aside like a doll.

"I'm okay. That hurt like hell though." Derek responded, trying to allay their fears.

Kirsten and Kevin both put their weapons away, grabbed the beast by one horn each, and pulled it down. The monster's head was wrenched to the floor suddenly, arresting all of its momentum as it found itself licking the floor. It bleated out a cry of distress as Jay ran straight at its face and up onto its back where he stabbed his sword between its shoulder blades and knelt to hold on.

Screaming in pain and fury, the Goatamus launched itself up from the floor onto its hind legs with the two barbarians still holding onto its horns. Kevin was sent flying to the back of the room, cartwheeling through the air, loincloth flapping in the breeze. Kirsten, however, managed to hold onto the other horn, pulled herself up onto it, and crouched low holding on for dear life.

Leaning slightly to the right with the added weight on its horn, the beast tried to shake its head. Kirsten did the only thing she could think to do at that moment. She waited for the movement to stop for a moment and punched the large creature straight in the eye with every bit of strength she could muster into one fist at that angle.

The beast's eye popped with the force exerted on the thin membrane and the fluids inside began to leak down its face. Reaching a new crescendo of rage and pain, the beast threw its head back and forth wildly as Kirsten jumped from the horn to reach somewhere safer. The entire team, excluding Jay, had to step back from the beast as it thrashed about wildly to avoid being gored.

Jay had unfortunately been forced to continually hold onto the sword he had driven into its back and was unable to attack further. From the side of the room, an armored form blurred past Tom and rammed into the side of the beast, knocking it onto its side with the force of a bullet train. Sounds of ribs cracking from the impact sounded as the creature was thrown onto its side.

"What the hell?!" Tom called out, then caught a glimpse of Derek in his battle armor, stepping back from the creature. "I need some of that damn armor!"

Standing back Tom called out to the others, "Keep it busy!"

Everyone rushed into action, most leaping on top of the creature to try to hold it down. Tom began to charge up his final flash spell, stepping further away, just in case he needed a moment to dodge an attack. Jay was still nowhere to be seen, having been on the beast's back when it was struck from the side. Thrashing wildly now, the creature tried to roll over. Unfortunately, its legs were so short that it couldn't get any purchase, and one of its horns was stuck into the floor of the room, its weight having driven it into the stone like a nail in wood.

After the power-up time of the spell, which was an eternity in battle, Tom screamed at the others to bail and released the beam straight at the underside of the creature, pushing more mana into the spell as it shot across the room. He tried to aim where he thought its heart would be and released it at its now exposed chest.

Striking almost the middle of the creature's chest, the beam penetrated all the way through it, and out the other side. A surprised Jay screamed as he suddenly leaped out from behind the monster.

"Watch where you're pointing that thing, you fucker!" Jay yelled at Tom as the beam began to dissipate.

The creature let out a soft mewling sound as it breathed its last and died. The team all moved over to the creature and stared at it for a long moment.

"That was fun," Michael said, a huge grin on his face.

"You're in for a lot of fun on this team then," Jay said looking at him as if he was crazy.

Looking over the body, the team felt they should be able to use quite a few parts from the creature for crafting. They took its skin with the fur still attached, horns, and even the meat from the Goatamus for food. Once they had harvested everything of value, they looked around. The only exit from the room was at the end of the room opposite where they had entered.

"Maybe this was like the guard dog?" Tom asked looking back and forth from the creature to the exit.

"Probably. And if that's the guard dog, I bet we are in for some real treats inside." Derek said through his armor.

"Sounds like fun to me," Michael said starting to walk for the exit.

Seeing no reason to stay here, the rest of the team followed behind him. When they got through the doorway, they found a hallway with multiple off-shooting paths on either side before what appeared to be some kind of room with a light in it at the end of the hall, though it was hard to tell from this distance what exactly was inside.

"Should we explore each of the halls since they appear to be staggered?" Tom asked the team.

"That's for the best. We don't want anything sneaking up behind us if we just go straight to the end." Derek offered.

As they walked down the hall, the first side path came up on the left. The team paused briefly before turning and continuing down the new path. The hall gradually got darker as they went, so Jay fished out a flashlight from his inventory and shone it down the path.

"Where'd you get that?" Tom asked him.

"One of the buildings we went through. Back in Flagstaff, actually. Lots of things there, and since they were being raided, I figured they wouldn't miss it. Now they came with us, I know they won't." Jay explained as he shone the light back and forth down the hallway looking for anything that might jump out at them.

Its beam landed on a statue on the right side of the room and a creature suddenly fluttered out from behind the bat statue. It began crying as it fluttered around the enclosed hallway, and the noise it made sounded just like the cry of an infant. In the low light, it was hard to see what exactly the creature was.

Michael followed the fluttering with his eyes and reached out with a strike from his axe. Suddenly, the crying stopped and the creature fell to the floor dead. Jay's light landed on the creature and it appeared to have the furry body, feet, and wings of a large bat, but the head was that of a very small child. Michael had sliced it almost completely in two across its neck and chest and it lay on the ground in a puddle of blood.

"What the hell?!" James suddenly said from behind the group.

"It looks like some kind of human bat hybrid," Tom said getting a little closer, but not wanting to be too close. "That's sick."

"What kind of monster would make something like this?! It's just wrong!" James cried out.

"Don't worry, we will find out," Tom said putting a hand on his shoulder.

James pulled away from the touch, a look of horror on his face.

"I don't know if I can do this. This is too much now." James said as he took another step backward.

Suddenly, the sounds of more cries could be heard from down the hallway. They were coming.