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Chapter 23: Change of Plans
🕑 Added 2025-01-29 05:58:41 +0000 UTCChapter 23: Change of Plans
Quintus watched as the bumbling adventurers engaged yet another one of the panthers in the exact same way as they had tackled the last several. It was honestly a bit disappointing. They never tried anything new. Instead, they stuck with a method of fighting the beast that worked, but left everyone injured to some extent. It wasn't even the most efficient method, given their capabilities.
However, his judgmental musings were interrupted. A loud rumble shook the trees behind their group, making him and every other soldier under his command spin around and draw their swords.
Quintus slung the shield off of his shoulder and gripped the straps tightly, holding it to his arm in a practiced motion. Without even having to call out a command, half the soldiers grouped up while the other half watched their flanks. Quintus took a half step back, interlocking his shield and forming a wall of three with the men on either side of him.
Just as he completed the maneuver, a head-sized rock came hurtling toward their chests.
Ducking behind the shield, he braced, pushing his right foot back slightly and set his shield against his shoulder. The wall angled slightly upward, deflecting the projectile and sending it sailing up and into the trees. The men exhaled with heft grunts as it made contact, and Quintus felt his arm tingle with the impact, but otherwise they were unharmed. Glancing up, he searched for the source of the attack.
"On the right!" One of the lookouts yelled.
Quintus glanced a few degrees right of where the projectile had come from. There, a long shadowy shape moved between the trees. It wasn't tall. In fact, it seemed to keep rather low to the ground. It moved in an odd, sinuous way, as though slithering, though he thought he could make out legs moving along its form.
The primus pilus blinked, and the second his eyes closed, he heard another whistle of something hurtling through the air. He reflexively ducked down again, barely catching a flash of movement as another rock slammed into their shield wall. This time, the impact sent him half a step backward. He managed to keep his shield in place, but the man on his right wasn't so lucky. Without someone on his other side to brace against, he stumbled slightly, and another rock headed their direction without a second of hesitation.
Quintus had a half-second to make a decision. He moved on instinct, putting aside the formation training so deeply ingrained in him for a moment to step in front of the stumbling man. His shield slapped the rock aside. His left hand rang and went numb, violently unclenching as it took the full force of the attack alone. The only thing that kept him from losing his shield altogether were the straps further up his forearm. But he'd succeeded—the stone's path diverted into the ground nearby, sending up a geyser of soil as it thudded into the earth.
His move gave the stumbling Legionnaire a second of breathing room—just long enough to get back into the wall. Quintus rejoined him shortly after, sliding in at the end of the formation, and together the men took another step forward toward the beast.
As the formation moved closer, Quintus noted another pair of men slotting their shields into the ends of the wall. He allowed himself a smile at the initiative. The rest still kept watch, but it seemed everyone realized this was an enemy that required their full attention.
Getting a better look at the beast, he noticed that it was even longer than he'd initially suspected. Deceptively so. In fact, from the front, he couldn't tell exactly how far back its body extended—but the visible portion was at least twice as long as a horse. Its face was that of a goat, but with a lion's mane and a forked tongue that flicked between sharp incisors that were evenly spaced in a wicked grin.
It was so disturbing to look at that Quintus felt his gaze slipping away from the thing's face to inspect the rest of its form. A hefty pair of thick shoulders ended in two stumpy paws with wicked claws that slid in and out of the tips of its toes. Yet aside from those, he saw no other limbs along the thing's body to support it—just a long rib cage that undulated as it walked in its strange, smooth gait. As it crossed into a patch of dappled sunlight, golden fur seemed to shimmer before returning to a matte black appearance in the darkness.
The thing opened its mouth and let out a hiss, the sound slowly morphing into a roar that vibrated the air.
"What the fuck is that?!" he heard Eleanora scream from behind him.
Quintus readied himself. It seemed that the adventurers had finally become acutely aware of the threat before them. Evidently, they'd been so busy trying to engage with their initial opponent that they had lost awareness of their surroundings. At this point, only a single Legionnaire remained to keep watch on the other side of the forest. The remaining seven—five in their wall and two flanking—advanced steadily, stepping in time with their shields raised and angled slightly.
Yet despite getting a better look at the beast, a question still remained—how had it flung the stones? Quintus couldn't see any appendage or physical capability for flinging them, unless it somehow grabbed them with its paws. But there was no time to ponder the question as the thing suddenly crouched, its body bunching together like a spring. Its front claws glistened in the streams of sunlight breaking through the dense canopy as it launched itself into the air and toward their line.
It telegraphed its leap clearly, but that didn't make it less dangerous. However, Quintus felt something was wrong. It wasn't going to impact their wall. Rather, it was going right over their heads.
He wanted to call out a command—a practiced maneuver where the shield wall disengaged, spun around, and reengaged. It was a rather specialized tactic that worked best for a single line like this, but could save an entire regiment from a surprise attack to the rear.
Instinct stayed the command in his throat just in time. A pair of back legs just as muscular as its front ones, in addition to a long tail, emerged from the dense forest and rocketed toward their position. The beast's rear claws slammed into their formation, one into his shield and one into the shield on his right. The locked strength of the men braced for impact and held. The thing tumbled forward at the unexpected resistance, seeming to almost trip over their line rather than slicing through their backs as planned. Then, as the thing's claws flailed overhead, Quintus called to reverse.
With a practiced motion, he slipped his shield free and spun around. The shield arched over his head, claws skittering against it as he turned. In an instant it slotted back into place facing the monster where it had landed on the forest floor.
The beast writhed like an overly large ferret, flipping to its feet with unnatural fluidity. The Legion's shield wall advanced toward it, swords bristling from the wall like the spines of a porcupine. He heard the two flankers, now out of position, rush to catch up behind him. Yet as the monster regained its footing, it didn't immediately turn to face them. Instead, it spun, a long tail with the size of Quintus's forearm whipping out at the shield wall even as its claws slashed at the unprotected back of one of the adventurers.
The healer had called out a warning, but the panther was right in front of them, and they couldn't turn their attention from it. The gangly archer screeched as his back was flayed open and he fell forward. Yet he hadn't even hit the ground before a golden glow emanated from the healer and streamed toward the wounded man.
Quintus nodded to himself. The one advantage the adventurers had over his own men was being able to quickly and reflexively use their skills. Legion members still often forgot to actually engage the supernatural abilities they had gained—himself included. That was a shortcoming they'd need to address.
The Legionnaires wasted no time in their assault. They charged toward the sinuous creature's hindquarters and stabbed into its haunches, cutting at its tendons. Its hissing intensified as that long tail lashed out again, only to clang harmlessly against the wall. Quintus saw its body tense and turn for another leap toward the adventurers.
Their single remaining Legion member on the other side of the party faced their direction, ready to defend himself and his charges. But without support, Quintus did not believe that his lone shield would be enough.
"Ricardus! Halt! Hold!"
At his order, the man remained in place. Charging in without backup would simply get the man killed, not to mention leave the adventurers without any support. Luckily, the monster couldn't take advantage of the situation. As the beast attempted to turn, one of its back legs gave out underneath it, causing it to stumble partway. It failed to jump, giving the Legionnaires an opening.
Quintus signaled the advance, the Legion taking several quick steps forward until their wall was nearly pressed up against the creature's long ribs. As one, all five swords sunk into its side, several glancing off ribs. But some slipped between the bones to find the soft flesh beneath.
Quintus pumped his arm as his gladius slid in between their shields, stabbing in and out of the monster as it screeched and rolled away from the shield wall. It stood on its one good hind leg, the other hanging useless as it half sprang, half limped off to the side with some fancy footwork. The shield wall rotated to face the creature as it moved to flank them.
A maneuver like this wouldn't have been possible with the larger shield wall, but a shield wall of five was much more maneuverable than people gave it credit for. Still, they couldn't turn quite quickly enough, and its stinger whipped out at the last man on the wall. Quintus flinched as the man obeyed his training and remained in formation, prioritizing the wall when he could have disengaged and blocked the stinger.
This was perhaps a weakness in their tactics. Those sorts of instructions were essential when it came to facing things like charges or in large-scale combat. One must be willing to take a possibly lethal blow to maintain the shield wall and keep advancing. To trust that, even if injured, someone would pull you back and take your spot in line.
However, facing off with a single foe that could do things like this might require some changes in tactics. That much was quickly becoming clear. Luckily, those changes wouldn't require a complete overhaul of their fighting style. Not with the magic of skills.
The barbed tail ripped into the last man on the wall and plunged into his side. It tore through his armor, eliciting a scream of pain as the man collapsed. Quintus winced as he felt a stinging sensation in his own side, in the exact same spot. The man at the end must have had a particularly high level in the [Shield Wall] skill to share this much of his pain—a suspicion backed up by the fact that he was still breathing and not bleeding quite as profusely as he'd feared.
Quintus spun as the man next to him fell, and his sword slashed out. His shield left the wall, but the edge of the blade was guided by his own training, his experience, and his [Swordsmanship] skill. It met the end of the tail right underneath the stinger and cut through it in a single blow.
A mix of golden ichor and red blood sprayed from the tip of the tail as the beast continued its spin, its claws rearing into the air. Quintus could barely angle his shield in time to catch the blow. Something whizzed behind him an instant before an arrow pierced the front shoulder of the monster, causing it to squeal in a strange imitation of the goat its head seemed to resemble.
It lowered its head, revealing a pair of stubby four-inch horns at the top of its head. This time, when it rammed Quintus's shield, he had no support on either side, and he was flung back several yards before landing on his back. The impact knocked the wind from his lungs and left him gasping.
As he struggled to regain his feet, the beast leaped towards him, its injured leg slowing but not entirely stopping it. The shield wall broke as the flankers charged into its side, intercepting the beast mid-leap. The impact of his men sent it several feet off to the side as Quintus rolled away, narrowly saving him from having his chest crushed.
Quintus scanned the area, evaluating the situation. One of the Legionnaires had lost hold of his gladius. Its blade remained buried deep in the side of the beast, which somehow was still not dead, though tremendously injured and drenched in blood. It limped, but still moved with predatory grace as it began to circle the group of unexpectedly tough prey. It flinched as another arrow sunk into its side.
Quintus heaved a breath into his pained lungs as he pushed himself to his feet. Looking over, he saw that Ricardus had made a strategic choice. Rather than joining the fight against the serpentine creature immediately, he'd helped the warrior from the adventuring party quickly put down their shadow panther, allowing both the healer and the now recovered archer to assist in the more desperate struggle. Even better, the fallen Legionnaire was now covered in a golden glow that indicated healing. Quintus didn't know when he'd be back in the fight, but it was one less thing to worry about.
He rushed to rejoin his men, shouting orders and getting ready for the next stage of the fight.
// just in time :)
Comments
Dave_S
Thanks for the chapter!
Erikbongo
I love the description of the fight, especially the monster. It reminds of a monster from monster hunter and its movements. At least thats how i imagine it, and its awesome.
Nikolaus Sheehan
Chimaera, a deadly adversary. Makes a great BBQ.
Zaifyr
you know I don't actually remember what I intended to put there. Lets go with rumble
Moses Lambert
A loud ??? shook the trees behind their group, making him and every other soldier under his command spin around and draw their swords. ...Roar? Thud? Scream?
