The creature shifts position and now lashes at Veryl, the claws connecting with his shoulder.
.
Veryl grimaces in pain but, stoically, does not cry out. Instead, he redoubles his efforts to wound the creature.
With a wordless snarl, Breaca drops her bow and leaps into the fray sword drawn. She brings the naked steel down in a vicious arc, cutting deep into the beast.
Veryl swings with a mighty blow but it only catches thin air. Breaca on the other hand, flanking, is able to deliver a solid hit that ought to have shaken the creature but it seems to have shrugged it off - although she knows it will have hurt it.
Miro takes advantage of the flanking situation set up, taking a swing at the creature.
Kalig, figuring what few spells she has are useless against the beast, draws her flail and joins the fray.
Both Miro and Kalig swing and miss - for such a large creature it seems difficult to hit.
With the beast all but surrounded, Merwyn sees no opening for one of her spells without affecting her allies as well, and not wanting to get underfoot, settles for reloading her crossbow and shouting encouragements.
"Oh come on, this is absurd," Horatio sighs, shaking his head and swinging his violin into position. "Here, try to keep in time."
Horatio casts a spell and before you know it, the creature is lashing out again. Once more Veryl gets the brunt of its attack - claws raking down his back.
Breaca continues her relentless and bloody assault!
Veryl takes a breath, shoving aside thoughts of his old mentor yelling at him for being unfocused. Perhaps he is thinking about it too hard. He lets the pain of the clawed strikes sink in, trying to turn the agony into energy, impetus with which to keep fighting.
After everyone else has attacked (including Miro), Kalig takes a step aside and claps her hand on Veryl's shoulder, incanting cure light wounds.
A few bars into the piece he's playing, Horatio suddenly draws the bow along the strings at an odd angle, producing a horrific screech, not unlike fingernails on a blackboard. The 'scare chord' becomes tangible, as if a thousand tiny needles are flying from the strings.
Breaca and Veryl smite the creature with mighty blows. This time you can see that it's affected by them - the double strike clearky knocking the wind out of its sails.
Horatio's spell was very eefective. Due to the creature's large size, the crystalline shards avoid his allies and only hit the creature, studding it's chest.
Miro continues with his flank.
Miro is nimble but despite the size of the creature he is unable to land a blow that hurts it.
The monster swings at Veryl again and this time its claws connect with the fighter's legs. Leaving a tell-tale mark where they had been, it seems to have taken a dislike to the man.
"Well, that's not very sporting. Why don't you try spreading the attention around, hmm?" Horatio taunts, clutching both fiddle and bow in one hand and drawing his rapier as he moves in, stabbing out at the barghest. Unfortunately, his own swagger proves to be his undoing, as he nearly slips on the edges of his own spell.
Still unable to do much that wouldn't get in the way, Merwyn tries a little spell, hoping it would at least distract or confuse the beast as it continued its single minded and vicious assault on Veryl.
She muttered aloud seemingly nonsensical words as she wiggled her fingers in the air. Immediately specks and motes of colors danced about the eyes of the creature, always moving and flitting about directly in front of its eyes.
"Veryl! Get away before that thing rips you apart!" Breaca grunts and chops with her sword, but her aim is off.
Horatio attempts to hit the barghest but is some way from landing a blow with his rapier.
Merwyn casts a spell - but it's too early to tell if it's had an effect.
And then Breaca delivers an almighty blow. But she sacrifices accuracy for power and although it might have decapitated the beast, in fact it just made a wonderful swooshing noise as it cut through the air.
"Let it come at me!" Veryl growls through the pain.
He does however take a more defensive stance as he retains his flank.
Meanwhile, Kalig steps back into her flanking position and swings at the monster again.