"Help me," Leo said. He reached out for me with one hand.
The moment I grabbed his hand and threw his arm over my shoulders, the loud moaning of a bison echoed behind me. I swiftly turned around, ready to dash, and saw Rory had deflected one of the giant beasts by hitting its horns with his war hammer as if it was a baseball. He then stood straight again, ready to direct the stampeding traffic.
We took a few more steps toward safety but Leo's sprained ankle severely limited the speed we could run at. One after the other, the hulking beasts were pummeling Rory with their horns as they reached him, but he was able to at least redirect them to the sides of the canyon so that they wouldn't come directly at us. His HP was falling rapidly and I was pretty sure he didn't have time to take a potion, nor was Leo in any condition to heal him.
Once again, Louie saved the day. His head appeared from the crevice he was hiding in and he cast the quickened version of his healing spell. Rory's HP jumped up instantly, buying us a bit more time. It probably still wasn't enough if we continued running back at this speed, but perhaps I'd be able to do something about that.
"Hold on," I told Leo and bent over, picking him up at his waist and hoisting him over my right shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
This way, I was able to run much faster. Fast enough to reach Rory before Louie's MP ran out.
"Start moving back, Rory," I shouted when we were behind him.
"Easier said than done," he said and started pushing back.
The beasts that had already passed had raised a cloud of red dust around us, making it harder to see the ones still charging after them. We retreated, following the pillar of light that left Louie's body to land on Rory's, and eventually managed to jump into the crevice, just barely avoiding a much denser incoming wave of beasts. We all pressed our backs against the wall, watching as the beasts jumped above the little opening, holding our breath as if this would somehow make us safer.
"Are you okay?" I asked Leo a couple of seconds later. "Can you heal yourself?"
"It's fine," he replied. "I shouldn't waste mana on this."
"The hells ye shouldn't, elf," Rory protested. "Those beasts are running away from something. We might need to run."
"Do it," I said seriously. "We need to balance our MP expenditure."
Leo didn't say anything, but he nodded in agreement before placing his hand on his ankle, a soft glow spreading over his leg. He blew out a sigh of relief and for the first time since we'd rescued him, he smiled.
"You're right," he said and stood up, patting Louie's head. "How much longer, do you think?"
"I couldn't see the end of the herd," Louie said.
"Let's wait then," said Rory and produced his long pipe.
"Are you crazy, old man?" I asked him, as he lit it and inhaled a big blow. "We're hiding for our lives and you're getting your smoke on?"
"Ye want some or what?" he said and then puffed out a small cloud of lavender-scented smoke. "I got a new flavor."
"No, but--" I looked at him again.
He was staring at me as if nothing had happened. As if we hadn't just almost died the saddest death in the history of animated movies. He had got a new flavor.
I smiled, and he smiled back at me. A laugh climbed up from my stomach through my lungs and burst out of my mouth. I didn't know why I was laughing, and neither did Rory, but he joined in nonetheless. The two of us stood pointing at each other, laughing loudly, while Louie started making circles around us, wagging his tail like crazy.
"He got... a new... flavor," I said between laughs.
"It's... lavender," Rory finally managed to say.
"I know," I said, laughing even harder. "I can fucking smell it."
Leo was staring at us, trying to work out if this was an inside joke between Rory and me or we had gone insane. I guessed adrenaline wasn't rushing through his veins like it had been for Rory and myself while we tried to reach cover.
Once we managed to contain our laughter, we noticed that the stampede had significantly decreased, with only a few animals still jumping above us. We waited a few more seconds and, when we heard no more animals incoming, I started to climb back out again.
Rory grabbed me to pull me back. "Wait."
That was when we heard the heavy rapid steps of something big. Bigger than the T-Rex we'd encountered the day before.
Name: Balgura
Type: Beast
Level: 37
Disposition : Aggressive
HP : 847/847
Physical Attack: 183
Magic Attack: 123
Speed: 60
Attack Range: Melee
XP : 5940
Description : Balguras look remarkably similar to gorillas, only they are much larger and equipped with sharp talons and extremely strong jaw muscles. Adult balguras can be up to 100 feet tall, but the probability of encountering an older balgura is low, since they continue to grow as they age, eventually becoming too slow to hunt.
Thankfully, the monster hadn't seen me as it was preoccupied with chasing after two bison calves struggling to keep up with the herd, so I ducked back down. The poor animals looked sickly and malnourished. They stood no chance against the monster.
"What is it?" Rory asked.
"Big bad gorilla," I said.
"Balgura?" Rory asked, and I nodded.
The giant ape's steps had drawn very close now and we saw the two calves jump above us, both making the leap but one of them landing awkwardly and damaging its leg. The second one slowed and looked at its friend that was now screaming in pain and fear, before two giant clawed hands landed around it and a gaping maw closed on it, tearing it in half. The poor animal let out a final scream before expiring in the balgura's
