The group comes in on the next group of yubjubs and right away they can tell it was two. With the swarms, even if there were multiple swarms, they would flow together. With the yubs, despite there being over a hundred of them, the two separate groups were obvious even when mixed. They had gotten used to swarms flowing and while the yubs flowed it was two separate flows.

Of course, this interesting observation doesn’t stop the yubs from charging, so the group gets into position. Courtney casts another illusion spell, but it doesn’t work as well this time. While half of the yubs stop dead in their tracks, the other half continues on without pause. Worse, the jostling of the moving yubs wakes up the enchanted yubs and those soon continue their charge. Courtney shakes her head and switches to casting her shadow form.

Rosha strides forward to cover for Courtney. With staff raised, she lands the first blow across the front of the herd. Several yubs go flying, but the ones behind try to take advantage of her while she is recovering from the swing.

Jason won’t let this happen though as he ducks in under her staff and lashes out with a blast punch. It knocks more yubs back and before they can even bounce back, Rosha comes in with another swing.

Then from their flank the yubs that got charmed come in and Courtney intercepts them. With shadowed claws she shreds the two leading yubs and continues deeper into the herd. While she doesn’t have her life drain up, it doesn’t matter if they don’t have time to hit her. She dashes back and forth as her shadow fur sways to an unseen wind.

Off to the side, Peter just thrusts his hands out, palms up. ‘Really? Really? I tell her about the whole shadow planes thing and she already has a connection?  Every single one of them is absurd, even for travellers! Sure, the connection isn’t that deep, but the fur is already being affected by the shadows.’ He pinches the bridge of his nose, ‘I knew the System was making the deal unfair but I don’t think even it realized how lopsided it was. Who could predict every single one of them would be so ridiculous?’

Back in the fight, Jason has rushed out from Rosha’s side to stomp around in the front herd, distracting them. Rosha takes this as a chance to split off and help Courtney cull the other herd and provide a way out. Courtney graciously takes it, ducking through a gap created from one of Rosha’s powerful swings. With a moment to catch her breath, she fires off a heal spell at both of the other two before jumping back in.

This time Courtney joins Jason to help shred the herd in front. Claws on both her hands and feet slicing through the meatballs one after another. While most of her attacks don’t kill the yubs her shadows delve deep into their mass causing more damage than just the surface wound would suggest.

Rosha soon joins them by jumping into the thick of it. Behind her the flanking herd tries to follow, but the herd they are attacking isn’t paying attention enough to let them through. With the three of them together, they blast a way out through the back of them. Now across from them, the other herd tries to move around to the left.

The group isn’t having that though and smash any yubs that get in their way as they move to keep the other herd across from them. Two revolutions later, the frustrated herd dives into the uncooperative herd, even going so far as to attack any yubs that don’t get out of the way quickly enough.

With no reason to continue their movement, Rosha plants her feet on the ground and with rapid swipes flings back the encroaching yubs. The much diminished herd at this point feels that the chances of victory are slipping away and so tries to run. This doesn’t do much good as the larger herd has engulfed them, preventing escape. Even with a few vicious attacks, the other herd keeps them pressed up against the group.

Then Courtney gets another illusion spell off. This time though, instead of a more generic illusion to stop them, she has clouded their vision to see the other herd as a mortal enemy. Even with the charmed group taking attacks, they stay under. After all, you would expect your enemy to attack you and the bigger herd is doing just that.

Jason all the while has returned to circling around the mass of yubs, picking off those that get too far out of line. Otherwise the group stands back, watching as the two groups kill themselves. Jason still does sneak in to get a kill or two. Though more to keep the fight balanced than any actual desire to help one side or the other.

With this tactic properly being run, the group can keep things confused until there are only a few left in either herd. As one last yub falls and the enchanted group has the illusion wear off, there are only fifteen left in total. The clean up at this point is almost too easy. Still, this doesn’t stop the group from taking it seriously.

Though the biggest tip that they had cleared the entire field of yubs comes instead from Peter firing off two arrows. One for each of the main bodies hidden behind the dimensional wall. They pierce through where the last of both yub groups are dying. The arrows reap the monsters, and soon the space is clear of the living.

Rosha claps her hands, “I think that fight went well enough.”

Peter nods, “I can agree, though there were a couple missteps. Jason, you forgot to let your rabbit out to join the fight. Rosha, actually you did fine. Courtney, while keeping people topped up isn’t bad you overhealed Rosha. You could have instead just healed Jason and then maybe had enough Mana to get your life drain going. After that you would have been able to top off Rosha with no wasted healing.”

Akhier

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