Chapter 226 - Tussle in the grass (1/2)
A notification popped up informing them that Barnabus was attacked and would bleed out in 10 minutes if not properly healed. It shocked all the player as they were continuously guarding him with players on all four sides of the NPC.
So, they found it hard that some beast managed to get through them, and it also attacked Barnabus instead of them who were beside him in four directions. It made no sense. The quickly turned to attack the beasts and found that the beast was strong enough to pull the NPC away with the Barnabus's hand caught by its maw.
They quickly began to run after it instead of attacking as they were worried that the attacks might hit the NPCs who was already losing his health slowly. Still, Shadow took out his crossbow and started firing to the surprise of the rest of the team. No one thought that he would risk the NPC and failure of the quest after they finished collecting everything required for the quest.
”Are you crazy?” shouted Agua trying to stop him.
”No. It will kill him surely if it is allowed to pull him away. We can heal him. Priest get ready,” yelled Shadow as he shot a few more bolts. As the beast was dragging the NPC, it wasn't hard to notice it and aim even though it was green and was camouflaged by the surrounding grass.
Hearing him, the elementalists also started firing at the beast after which the beast let go of him. They quickly ran towards him and surrounded him so that the beast couldn't attack him again and the priest began to heal them.
”What was that?” yelled Agua as he wasn't even able to find a glimpse of the beast, but no cared to properly examine it in the hurry. Even Shadow was worried and didn't bother to inspect it and only noticed that it was green and yellow in colour. After they formed a perimeter around the NPC, they tried to look for it but couldn't find it.
”That was grassland tiger. The one I warned you about,” said Barnabus.
”How is that a tiger?” said Agua. ”There are not black stripes.”
”It is a grassland tiger. It is coloured yellow and green like the grass and very hard to spot,” yelled Barnabus. ”Be on the lookout.”
”What attracted it to you? It eats deer meat, right?” asked Shadow. The entire team had been collecting star deer meat, bones and antlers.
”It does, but it is attracted to the smell of the star blade grass. The star deer smell the same and it confused me with the deer as I have the grass with me,” answered Barnabus.
”Oh crap, do we need to let go of the grass we collected?” asked Agua.
”No need,” said Shadow as he took some pieces of the star deer meat and started to swing them across as they assembled around the NPC. ”Look for the pieces of meat. It will be attracted to them and we can spot it.”
A few seconds later, Agua found the beast as it jumped toward one of the pieces of meat. As he pointed, the rest of them immediately looked at it and Shadow swung another piece of meat towards it.
[Grassland Tiger] (Elite monster)
Level 19.
HP: 9650/10000.
”Finally, we have a look on it. How are you doing Barnabus?” asked Balthazar. ”I will throw a few meats to it. Look if there are more of them in the vicinity.”
”I am fine. Can't use my leg but healing up. Don't worry about other tigers. They are territorial and will tend to fight others if they disturb their hunt,” said Barnabus. Balthazar turned towards him and noticed that there was a temporarily crippled note on the NPC's description. He immediately understood that the NPC was most probably going to be fixed to the spot for the duration of the fight.
”That is good. We don't have to worry about the others. Keep back. I will engage it,” said Shadow.
”Alone? That is suicide,” said Barnabus looking shocked by his words.
”I doubt anyone else among us is fast enough,” said Shadow as he went into stealth and went near the tiger which was munching happily on the meat. He took his daggers out and decided to put them in its eyes to blind it, but tiger recognized it as he came close. Still he dashed but managed to make a cut about one of its eyes.
It roared in anger and lunged at Shadow, but he was fast enough to get away from its claws which were black and 4 inch long each. Though he couldn't puncture its eye with his daggers, he did enough the bleed above its eye from the cut he made was blinding that eye anyways.
There were no notification or signs to the other players, and they couldn't realize that something like this would actually affect the beast as they didn't have much experience with the game and never thought it would that realistic. Balthazar who had enough experience knew that this was the best chance to attack the tiger as its vision would be impaired.
With the vision of one of its eyes being blocked by the blood, it was trying to paw its face on that side and trying to put some mud on it. Balthazar knew that it would stop bleeding in a few seconds and had to act quickly. He enabled the shadow doppelganger immediately to distract in the same side while going into stealth to attack from the other side.
”Attack on its injured side,” yelled Shadow as he went into stealth to attack on the other side. Noticing that the beast was injured and blind on one side, the two elementalists began to attack on that side as soon he told them. The guardian and priest were with Barnabus guarding him.