HC: Handyman | Ch. 188 - Shagrats

It was one thing to see the scattered corpses of shagrats littering the fortress, stacked beside fallen soldiers and burned barricades, and imagine what it was like to fight a swarm of them.

It was something else entirely to be in the middle of it.

The ground shook with their charge. And they were coming fast.

Marie was the first to act. Her bombs were already in the air before anyone gave the word. Thanks to [Slinger's Arm]—the skill she’d claimed from the last boss—her throws arced high and far. Even before the first one hit, ten more were already airborne.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The explosions chipped away at the health bars of the shagrats, but not by much. Earlier in the Breach, Marie had been one-shotting most enemies. Even the Romies went down in three bombs. But these? She might need ten. Maybe more.

"Christoff, focus fire on the injured!" Amari shouted.

The hunter joined in, aiming his arrows at those with half a foot in the grave. Jack winced as one bolt lodged in a shagrat’s shoulder, leaving it with a sliver of HP and enough rage to keep charging.

They needed more damage.

Jack raised his red ocarina and began playing an epic battle song to boost the team’s DPS.

You’ve played [March of the Embers].

Performance grade: B+

Effects: Your allies deal 12% more damage for 1 minute.

The projectiles began hitting harder. Jack’s eyes flicked to Marie’s stamina bar—and frowned. Already?

Oh. Right. She hadn’t eaten a proper meal. No stamina buff.

He immediately swapped songs, shifting to a gentler melody that threaded through the chaos.

You’ve played [Sitting Wind].

Performance rate: A

+250XP in [Bard]

+1 stamina every 5 seconds for 10 minutes.

Marie’s bomb throws steadied, her rhythm returning. Jack didn’t stop playing. Not now. If they were going to last through this wave, he had to keep that breeze going. He cycled through [Sitting Wind] on repeat, each time trying to nail the perfect performance.

Finally on his third try, he managed to trigger the bonus he was after.

Performance rate: A+

+500XP in [Bard]

+1 stamina every 5 seconds for 10 minutes.

[Soulful Performer] activates: +50 stamina for 10 minutes.

Seeing everyone’s stamina bar grow longer, Jack nodded. There. That’s more like it.

Despite Marie and Christoff’s barrage, the shagrats didn’t even flinch. They charged forward—heedless, mindless, unstoppable, straight toward them.

They were more intimidating than anything that had come before. The roaches were disgusting. The romies were sneaky and fast. But these? These were massive. Heavy. Every step made the ground tremble.

And yet, the very thing that made them terrifying—their size—was also their biggest weakness. They were so large that only a few could fit in the canyon at once. The narrow pass turned their momentum against them, forcing the herd to bottleneck. One after another, they had to wait their turn to charge.

And for those stuck in the back, a nasty surprise was waiting.

ROAAAR!

The cavalry had arrived.

The bears slammed into the rear of the stampede, ripping into the herd with the same brutal confidence as before—paws swinging, jaws snapping, fur bristling with fury. But this time, their swipes didn’t send bodies flying. The shagrats were heavier, sturdier. Every kill took more effort—more weight behind each swing, more focus in every bite.

Still, unlike with romies, this wave had their full attention. There was more meat on these rodents. More to sink their teeth into. One of the bears even let out a huff that almost sounded like excitement as it grabbed a struggling shagrat and yanked it from the swarm.

The two males jostled for dominance, roaring louder than needed to impress the females—but their playful theatrics gave way to something grittier. These weren’t romies. These beasts bit back. One bear let out a grunt of annoyance as it struggled to pin a squirming shagrat long enough to finish it off.

They were still helping—but the pressure they put on the wave felt… thinner. Slower. Like trying to bail out a flood with a bucket.

Amari’s shout snapped Jack back to the front line. “They’re not slowing down! Jack, wait for them to hit the ditch—then stun them!”

The shagrats were almost upon them. Jack pictured them charging unchecked, using their momentum to leap clean over the ditch in a single bound.

I need to time this right, Jack thought. Stun them just as they hit the slope.

He tried to recall the song’s length and began tapping his foot to anchor the beat.

One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Now.

He brought the ocarina to his lips and began playing Tenderizing Repercussions at a faster pace, so that he could make it in time. The percussive waves rolled down the canyon walls, echoing ahead.

Just as the first shagrats reached the edge and began climbing down into the ditch, the melody peaked.

You’ve played [Tenderizing Repercussions].

Performance grade: B+

+200XP in [Bard]

Audience bonus: +500XP in [Bard]

The beasts’ meat becomes more tender.

The short stun broke their momentum, and several shagrats tumbled forward clumsily, crashing into each other in a heap.

Marie kept focusing her firepower on the far side, where the crowd gathered thickest. Her bombs exploded in relentless succession, maximizing area damage with every toss.

As for the beasts that made it into the ditch—Amari was already moving.

“Perfect timing, Jack! Christoff, Horace! Our turn! Leave the tankier ones to me!”

Amari jumped into the ditch, while Christoff rained death from above. The archer picked off the wounded with precise arrow shots while Amari danced between the bodies, claws flashing as he cleaned up anything still moving.

Horace stayed at the top, his hammer ready, focused entirely on stopping anything that tried to climb.

For a few tense moments, it looked like they had it under control.

But the shagrats kept coming—wave after wave, their bodies falling into the trench like logs. The pile grew fast.

Amari grunted as he moved between carcasses. The sheer size of the fallen beasts was becoming a problem. They clogged the ditch, disrupted his footing, and threw off his rhythm. 

With a frustrated breath, he vaulted up to the lip of the ditch, landing beside Horace. From there, he switched to ranged attacks—throwing stars, shurikens, anything to help Christoff.

But even then, the bodies just kept falling in.

The mound was rising too fast.

"They’re about to climb the dead—go! Retreat! To the carriage!" he called, steady as ever.

Jack didn’t argue. He ran.

The beasts followed, trampling over the traps that remained after the last boss wave. Many had been just a few hit points away from collapse. They collapsed now.

It bought the team just enough time to fall back to the carriage. It added a few extra meters to the inner wall of the ditch.

Here, the terrain worked even more in their favor. The narrow pass forced the herd to queue up behind one another even more than before. They had to wait their turn, and in a fight like this, that delay made all the difference.

A few of the shagrats tried to climb, but the bulk that gave them power made gravity work against them. They slipped. They crashed into each other. Horace’s hammer met any that dared make it high enough.

Jack spotted Horace’s shoulders sagging slightly between swings. Even Amari’s ranged attacks were getting less frequent. They were pushing the limits of their stamina.

Jack swapped instruments and began playing Sitting Wind, giving them the breath they needed to push through.

The bears had retreated by now, slipping back into the shadow of their dens. But the party held the line.

They fell into a rhythm, and after a few minutes, the last shagrat finally fell.

Wave 21 cleared. +1 Breach point.

Jack let out a shaky breath. His fingers were still tingling. “They just kept coming,” he muttered. “That was... scary.”

“Shagrats are difficult to stop once they get going,” Horace said.

Jack nodded, watching the mass of bodies in the ditch.

“Yeah,” Amari said. “In hindsight? Good call having everyone here. Bad call, having only pickles before the fight. That’s on me. My bad, everyone.”

Were it not for the trenches—and the terrain—they might’ve been overwhelmed.

Amari let out a long breath. “Alright. Let’s go back to camp. We need a proper meal."

"Should I pick up the loot first?" Jack asked.

"I'd rather we test your plan, if that's OK."

Jack nodded. He preferred that, too. The carcasses would still be here for a few hours. He could come back for the loot later.

Everyone lumbered toward the fortress. The adrenaline had worn off, and their feet dragged slightly over the rocky path.

As they passed through the fortress gate, Jack’s eyes caught on the shagrat carcasses still scattered across the courtyard, partially frozen in the shadow of the walls. He’d gotten used to ignoring them over the past few days. They’d become just another part of the scenery. But after facing the herd up close, something about them had changed. They looked… bigger now. Heavier. Their glassy eyes seemed to follow him as he walked past.

He shook his head and kept moving.

At camp, while Jack stirred a stew over the fire, Horace handed out supplies from Jack’s haul at Embersgate to Riku, instructing the boy where each trap should go.

No one said much while they ate. 

After everyone had eaten their fill, the NPCs went off to do their thing, and the team gathered near the fire once more. Marie and Amari stood off to the side while Horace nervously spun his warhammer in front of Jack.

"Are you sure about this?" Horace asked.

"Come on, man. Just hit me already. You didn’t even flinch when you shoved me off a cliff to force a death and send me out of the Breach. What, did you grow a conscience?" Jack said.

"Just do it, Horace! You deal so little damage anyway. You won’t kill him," Marie called out.

Horace clenched his teeth. "Okay. Go."

Jack began playing Clay Dome. After using the melody so many times to protect his XP-boosting vases, it had become second nature—he even scored a B-grade on his first attempt.

His terracoated hat began to glow red. It was time to find out whether the melody protected just the ceramic’s durability… or the person wearing it.

"Go, Horace."

"Here I come!"

Horace swung. The hammer struck Jack’s head with a solid thunk, rattling his teeth—but Jack’s eyes stayed fixed on his health bar.

It didn’t move.

"YES!" Jack punched the air. "I took no damage!"

Amari stepped forward. "Wait. Let me try."

The ninja moved in. With much higher DPS, he unleashed a flurry of rapid strikes, all aimed at the hat. It felt like Jack was being pelted by hailstones, but again, the health bar held.

"Awesome. Your hat’s blocking everything. And the glow’s steady—it’s not fading at all."

"My turn!" Marie shouted from a few meters back.

Jack’s eyes widened. "Huh? Marie—wait, wha—?"

BOOM.

A bomb exploded just above his head.

He stumbled back, coughing. "Cough—cough—Marie! Of course I took damage now! You threw a bomb at my face!"

She tilted her head. "But I aimed it above your head. Shouldn’t the hat have shielded you?"

Amari shook his head. "AoE. Some of the damage bled through. This combo only protects areas covered in terracoated gear. Anything exposed is still fair game."

Jack groaned. "Great. So if they aim at my face, I’m toast."

Amari circled him slowly, eyes scanning every gap. "Elbows. Hands. Knees. Feet. Even if you terracoat the rest of your rope armor, you're still full of weak points."

He started pacing. "And if the players camping Rob have any PvP experience—and they almost certainly do—they’ll spot that vulnerability in seconds. No way they posted rookies for that job."

He paused, then added, "And that’s not the worst part."

Jack looked up. "There’s more?"

"You still need to channel Retreat for a full minute. That means standing still, completely exposed. Even if they can't hurt you directly, they'll find a way to interrupt the cast."

Jack’s mood sank. "So the plan’s dead?"

Amari gave a half-shrug. "If you went in solo? Yeah. But… if you bring Horace, and if we get the right consumables... There’s a good chance we can make it work."

Jack blinked. "Horace?"

The tank stepped forward, nodding. "I see where you're going, Amari. If Jack can craft me a full set of terracoated gear, I can stand between him and the attackers. Shield him while he channels."

Jack looked at him, skeptical. "You think you can hold off the people camping Rob? They’ll be what—fifteen, twenty levels above you?"

Horace crossed his arms. "My number one problem against higher-level players is their damage output. But if I'm wrapped in indestructible armor? I can deal with them. Remember, I don’t need to beat them. I just need to buy time."

Jack hesitated. "What about crowd control? What if they stun you… and then get to me?"

Horace puffed up a little. "Dude, I’m a tank. I’m built to resist CC. Sure, we don’t hit hard, but we’re annoying to keep down. If it’s just a minute—and if we’re not up against the Slayer himself—I think we can hold."

Jack didn’t look convinced. "But that’d mean you’d have to die once just to leave the Breach with me. That’s a level down. And if they take us out there, they might just start camping all three of us. This is your second account, Horace."

Horace placed a heavy hand on Jack’s shoulder and grinned. “It won’t come to that. And I won’t lose a level anyway. I’ve still got my first death immunity on this account. One free pass.”

For a moment, Jack stood there, stunned. He had known that his teammates were willing to help. But for Horace to risk this much, for him and his cousin. “Thanks, man. It means a lot.”

“You kidding? Your cousin saved us. It’s the least we can do to pay him back.”

"If we talk to Rob in advance, he might be able to back Horace up while protecting you,” Marie added.

Horace nodded. "Good idea. With both of us on the front line, our chances of Jack completing the channel will be much higher."

Amari sighed. "I would go, too. But someone needs to keep it open. Plus, Marie and I won’t be much help in that kind of fight. You three are the right team for this."

Jack nodded.

Amari clapped his hands and rubbed them. "Alright! Sounds like a plan. Jack—can you finish terracoating your gear and then make some gear for Horace?"

“S-sure. It’s doable. It will take a few hours, but it should be OK.”

"Good!" Amari said. "We’ll also need to talk to Rob. This needs to be coordinated perfectly."

Jack felt his spirit lifting. They had a plan. They could save Rob.

Just you wait, cous. We’re coming to rescue you.

Ch. 187 - Splitting

INDEX

Ch. 189 - The Glean