[NR] Grabbing The Beast - Chapter 775

Courtney closed her eyes and brought the wisp of charming illusion before her and held it secure. With the back of a nail on her other claw, she gently along the unrestrained part that almost seems to vanish. Courtney could feel that wasn’t true.

Rather, the magic dipped into that other-space the beast had used the day before. This wasn’t even one of those fancy subspaces that let beings seem to teleport around without the more complicated teleportation magic. It wasn’t even a complete subspace, like the dimension of shadows.

As Courtney poked around the space, she could feel the edges of it with even a minor amount of effort. This told Courtney everything she needed to know. The space was a temporary sort of thing, existing only around the beast.

That would explain why the monster couldn’t go fully insubstantial. This space wasn’t real enough to support the beast being entirely within it. Though that did leave the question of whether an older or stronger specimen could develop it to that point.

Either way, she could use this space, follow the magic, and find their target!

Courtney’s shadows slip along the thread of magic she still holds. While out in the air, the magic swirled and twisted. In this other-space? The magic travels straight to the source. No longer needing to obscure itself the beast got sloppy.

She easily reached back along the magic as more illusion magic gathered towards a central point. There! Still, she doesn’t look to confirm. “Across the street. Three houses down.”

The others remained still. They can wait. That was too far to launch a successful attack. To prevent it from running again.

The attacking magic tries to slip into the house and fails. Jason’s rituals are doing their job.

“Moving.” Courtney reports as the beast slinks closer.

The monsters magic grows stronger the closer it gets. The less distance it has to reach, the more force it can bring to bear. But also, the closer it comes to the party.

Now the sound scrapes against the windows, sparking against the ritual. Hidden pieces of quartz begins to fall apart faster than ever. Yet it holds.

Closer and closer the beast crept. Watched indirectly by Courtney through its own other-space. The rituals won’t home forever, but maybe they’ll hold long enough.

Jason frowns, realizing he should have used better quality crystals. This beast had stronger magic than they had been expecting. Last night’s fight had convinced them it was mostly focused on the physical side of things, and tonight shows that clearly isn’t the case.

Rather, the monster simply focused their magical abilities on something other than fighting. A bit odd as even those creatures that mostly use their magic for one thing or another will still use it a bit for everything. Whatever the case was with this monster, it is not enough to change the plan.

Then the beast gets close enough that the ritual can no longer fully protect the house. Tendrils of sound begin to creep through the cracks of the house. Maybe if this was a more solid construction, the ritual could have held longer? Except the real question is, did they hold long enough?

Courtney narrows down where the beast is at the risk of alerting it. There, across the street, next to the scrawny apple tree in the front yard. “Closest apple tree”.

But was that close enough? Obviously the range was fine for Rosha, but Jason needed to be in melee range right from the start. Courtney glances over at him and he nods in return. “3, 2, 1.”

Jason is the first to move, having to cover the distance with his own two feet. Even if it almost looks like he is skipping some of the space. Though an arrow is soon in flight as well.

Most crucial, though, is Courtney. Her shadow magic having passively saturated the other-space provides the perfect action to take. She clenches down with the magic and the monsters magic is held in place.

The monster freezes at the wrong time. Its magic prevented from moving freely and the other-space is prevented from reacting to the arrow that hits moments later, stretched out to accommodate the magic.

Jason strikes at the other front leg. A low sweeping kick, toppling the beast.

Now on its side, the monster’s legs stretch out towards Jason, claws swiping viciously.

An easy attack to avoid. Jason would only need to take a single step back. Instead, he steps into the attack, using his arms crossed in front of him to take the attacks head-on. To retreat would be to allow it to recover.

Across the street, both Rosha and Courtney stand up from where they are hiding and race over to assist. All the while Jason practically falls on top of the monster in an attempt to grapple it.

His arms bled profusely despite trickling out like syrup. The beast’s claws leave deep wounds behind. Still, he manages to get on top and proceeds to grab those limbs.

Except at this point, the beast’s magic has recoiled and the other-space is now concentrated around it again. So while Jason attempts to grab its limbs, they go intangible. Of course, Jason’s ghost touch is enough to prevent the limbs from phasing through his arms. However, that doesn’t stop the beast from phasing into its own limbs to release one or two at a time.

When Courtney arrives, she bends her magic towards helping with the situation. Using shadows to bind the one limb that was currently out and slashing up Jason. 

Which leaves clean up to Rosha. She isn’t far behind Courtney, but takes a few moments to prepare her own form of assistance. That of finishing the job. She charges up a skill, and the knocked arrow glows as power concentrates. 

While Rosha’s magic isn’t like Courtney’s and innately able to restrain the beast’s other-space. Enough magic can make up for such things. And so, in an almost anticlimactic fashion, one arrow between the eyes finishes the fight.