Chapter Three Hundred and Eighteen - Sheepish

The monster’s first mouth stayed open, revealing rows of teeth far too sharp for any sheep. It’s bleat continued, pushing a wash of too-warm air past our group. All along its sides were some roots wrapped around its wool. Some were loose, and they wiggled with the bleating.

I shielded my eyes from its breath, then coughed as I took a whiff of it.

These demon sheep didn’t brush their teeth often enough.

I pushed a surge of Cleaning magic ahead, forming a shield against the stench. It was a little difficult. The bleat was making me tired, I think.

Then the demon sheep’s second mouth opened wide and it bleated. “BAA!”

The third mouth opened a moment later and joined in the scream with a powerful bleat of its own.

Soon, the three “baas” harmonised, becoming a single loud tone that was impossible to ignore. The blast of air grew stronger, and I felt my shield of Cleaning magic straining.

“Hit them!” The lieutenant ordered.

I blinked. It was hard to keep my eyes open. Hit them? Hit who?

My hand lowered, and I felt my Cleaning shield start to fizzle out on the edges. It stank again... but I didn’t see why it mattered.

I brought my hand up to cover a yawn, then let it drop.

Everything was so heavy.

Maybe we could retreat a little? I didn’t like fighting anyway.

A loud snap-crack sounded and I felt the hairs on my arms rising as Amaryllis let loose with a powerful blast of lightning. The air burned and the stink from the sheep’s breath was replaced by the stench of burning wool and seared flesh.

The bleats grew stronger, but took on a pained tone.

The world went black, like shutters closing across my sight.

Oh ... those were my eyelids. I was ... supposed to keep them open, right?

Thunder sounded again.

I got an eye open, and saw Lucille tossed a fireball ahead, but it was slow and weak, entirely unlike her previous attacks. And I saw Awen raise her crossbow from the corner of my eye. She was swaying, almost drunkenly, but for a moment she grit her teeth and glared ahead. The crossbow twanged and a bolt bristled out of the one the sheep’s heads.

One of the three voices was silenced.

Then the lieutenant and Erin were charging ahead. They hit the three-headed demon sheep all at once, clobbering and slicing into it with more violence than skill.

I swayed. Blinked, then refocused. The bleating had stopped, and with it, the urge to sleep faded.

Looking around, I saw two of the knights laid out on the ground. Lucille was on one knee, eyes closed, and Aria was hunched over, breathing even.

I shook my head to push away the miasma of sleepiness. “Is everyone... okay?” I asked. The lieutenant and Erin seem to be finishing off with the monster.

“They’re likely just asleep,” Amaryllis said. She moved over to Lucille, then extended a wing to the sylph to help her onto her feet.

“Awa, that was scary,” Awen said. “No one told us about any sheeberus monsters in here.”

“Yeah, I guess the lieutenant forgot,” I said. I moved over to the knights who had fallen over and shook their shoulders with a shoe. That woke them up. They were surprisingly spry in their full suits of plate, and were able to roll up onto their feet all on their own.

“Did I fall asleep?’ Aria asked as I woke her up.

“Just a bit of a nap,” I said.

She rubbed at her face, then looked around in a panic before finding her notebook on the ground next to her. “That creature! It was covered in roots! Is that a natural evolution of the dungeon that became corrupted, or did the corruption lead to that specific evolution? I need to document this. If that kind of monster doesn’t appear after we’ve cleared the roots out, then it could mean... well, I don’t know what it could mean, which is why I need to write this down.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. She was rambling a bit, but that probably just meant she was doing alright.

I glanced up at the lieutenant and found that he was wiping his sword clean on the woolly fur on the three-headed sheep’s back.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked again.

No one asked for help, and everyone was either on their feet or climbing up. No injuries that I could see, just lots of blinking and people rubbing at their faces. One of the knights removed his helmet and emptied his canteen onto his head.

Lieutenant Petalwrought stood taller, the monster at his feet dissolving into that strange dust that all dungeon creatures turned to once they were defeated. “This was a serious miscalculation on my part,” he said.

“Are these creatures typical here?” Amaryllis asked.

“No. I’ve never seen its like,” he said. “But we should have been better prepared to tackle unknown threats. We weren’t, which is why this one has taken us off-guard. It looks like some mixture of three of the normal sheep we have to deal with, combined into one larger abomination. The World acknowledges it as a new, singular creature.”

I blinked, then brought up Mister Menu and looked for the experience drop from the fight.

Ding! Congratulations, you have sheared Demon Sheeberus, level 16!
Due to combating as a team your reward is reduced!

“Do you think there will be more like it?” Aria asked.

“I have no way of knowing,” the lieutenant said. “We’ll have to find out the hard way. Let’s take two minutes to catch our breaths. Check your equipment. Do whatever you need to do to stay awake.”

I didn’t quite know what to do, so I did some stretching. I didn’t want to end up with a pulled muscle, and it would help me stay awake. At least, I hoped it would.

Two minutes passed in a blink, and we reformed the same formation as earlier. “If we see one of those large ones, we charge in. They’re powerful enough to be a major threat. I want them off the field as soon as possible,” Lieutenant Petalwrought said. He spun his sword around, stepped up, then planted a boot against the next fence.

It crashed down with a heavy whomp, and we moved into the next area with slow, cautious steps.

A distant bleat was the first sign the next wave was coming. Then the first sheep were sailing over the wall. No big ones, but a lot more of the little ones than last time.

I flung some fireballs ahead, smacking one of the sheep dead in the face hard enough that it stumbled into a roll and was trampled by the sheep coming up behind it.

Then the sheep were on us and the knights raised their shields and met their charge with a wall of steel.

Bolts and spells flew out ahead, swords were swung and Erin and Bron came around the flanks to prevent the sheep from encircling us.

Things were going pretty well.

Then the fence at the end crashed ooutwards with a heavy bang, revealing two of those big sheep. In the distance, more thumping sounded.

The next wave, already? Had it triggered on its own?

“Tighten up!” Lieutenant Petalwrought shouted. We squeezed in a bit closer together. “We need to hit them before they start using their sleep magic on us.”

“Counter?” one of the knights asked.

The Lieutenant hesitated, then nodded.

The four knights and the lieutenant raised their shields up, then aimed their free hands towards the sheep battering at the front lines. Then blasted some sort of magic forwards. I could feel it, but it was otherwise colourless and hard to make out, like a heat haze.

A few of the sheep slumped down. Asleep.

Of course the knights had sleep magic of their own!

“I can get to one of them!” I said.

“You’re our VIP,” the lieutenant said.

“I won’t be very anything if we lose here,” I countered.

Amaryllis cursed under her breath, using some very unlady-like words. “Fine. Give it your all everyone. No point in holding back here!” Having said that, she reached her hand out towards the oncoming sheep, then grunted before slippery spikes of lightning shot towards them. I had the impression she was using a lot less finesse than usual and was instead focusing on pouring as much magic into the spells as she could.

It worked. A few of the bigger zaps took out some sheep all on their own, and those that didn’t die right away were staggered or knocked out.

Lucille joined in, and I saw Awen lowering her crossbow, a focused look on her face. Soon large glass caltrops appeared in her hands and she flung them over and ahead of our group.

I nodded, bunched my legs up close, and launched myself out and over with a huge bounce that carried me up close to the ceiling.

One of the heads of the sheep I was aiming for turned up. “BAAAA!” it blared.

I grit my teeth and weathered the blast of wind. There was no falling asleep, not while in the air. I couldn’t afford that.

Weedbane snapped open, and I spun my hips around so that I twisted in the air. The scythe’s point swept right into and through the course, root-covered fur on the sheepberous’ back. It made a pained sound even as its white wool was stained red.

I landed, a bit awkwards with the weight of the scythe pulling me aside. I wanted to swing again, but then the sheep moved.

For something so big, it could move pretty fast, at least with short bursts. One of the heads swept down and rammed me in the chest, sending me stumbling. I had to crawl away from its hooves as they came clattering down in an attempt to squish me.

Weedbane couldn’t help here, it was too big... One of the sheep faces dipped down, maw open wide with crookedy teeth ready to bite. I grabbed it by the neck and held it away from me. This... wasn’t the best position to be in.

Then the sheep started to bleat at me, and I felt things grow a bit hazy. This wasn’t too bad. It was warm, and I was on the ground. If I let go, maybe the sheep would be like a big blanket...

I blinked hard, then pulled at the sheep’s magic. My own was running low, so I'd borrow some from the sheep monster. It felt as if the veins in my arms were going to burst.

I had to get rid of that magic, and now.

So I did. I turned the magic into a tiny fireball, then another and another and another blooming all over its body. The sheep recoiled at the constant onslaught of fireballs, but I didn’t let go of it. I planted my feet against its chest so that it couldn’t kick at me, then pulled at its magic even more. That meant more tiny fireballs zipping around and smacking into the sheep’s faces and underbelly.

The sheep’s three heads bleated and it stumbled back and wrestled itself out of my grip. It looked pretty rough there.

I rolled to my feet, kicked Weedbane up and caught it out of the air.

Two slices later and the sheep was going down.

I glanced back. The second wave had rushed past and was hitting the group while The other big sheep had thundered past and was busy fighting the lieutenant at the front of the group. Blood ran down the sheep's chest from where the lieutenant had savaged its throats. When it tried to bleat, only a wavering, gurgling noise issued forth.

I tightened my grip on Weedbane, then rushed back. The sheep at the rear of the formation never saw me coming, focused (as they were) on trampling the knights holding them off.

With the sheep falling left and right and a few of the knights being freed to move more, the fight turned from a desperate defence to a quick and dirty offensive.

The knights focused on the biggest sheep, taking it down with ease once they outnumbered its heads. The others took out the stragglers, with Erin and Bron moving around to make sure that those sheep that had fallen asleep were well and truly done.

And then the big sheeberus fell, and the fight ended.

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun Bun class has reached level 13!
Stamina +10
Flexibility +5
You have gained: One Class Point

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