As he had already been spotted, there was not much use in hiding anymore. Teo stood up from his crouched position and stepped onto the battleground.
There was no use in lying to himself — he was afraid. Yes, terrified even. Just a few meters from him stood a vile, savage beast, saliva dripping from its tooth-laden maw, its large claws coated with human blood. To all redundance, it was even able to use Magic! It made Teo's blood freeze in his veins, and the hair on his back stand on end.
Being afraid was very natural in such a situation; anything else would be pure madness.
Yet he wanted to overcome this fear, and he could afford to gamble a little under these conditions. The Barghest was in a significantly weakened state and, most importantly of all; It was on the defensive.
An unpredictable, wild beast going on a rampage in a blood frenzy, that was scary; yet he could clearly see the goal and the tactic of his opponent here. If things went south, he could just run away like the adventurers just now; it did not chase after them either.
'Don't overdo it! A cornered animal is the most dangerous. Just run if you can't handle it,' Goliath reminded him again how precarious the situation really was, but Teo paid him little mind.
Of course, he knew the risk. He would need to be a complete moron in order not to expect this dog to bite. But his chances looked rather optimistic, and the grand prize was also very enticing. Teo had no specific plans for the herb yet, but it was bound to be useful for something— worst-case scenario he could just sell it for a very pretty penny.
Unwilling to leave its prey unguarded, the Barghest could only bare its teeth and growl from where it was, in an effort to intimidate the newest arrival.
Teo steadied his determination and pulled out his enchanted dagger, preparing to make his move. Actually, Goliath had materialized the knife right on top of Teo's hand from out of nowhere, which looked even more impressive, but this small detail made little difference regarding the bigger picture.
In a matter of seconds, the blade was enveloped by a cold, blue glow, which exuded a mysterious, sharp feeling that made one's scalp tingle. It started from the small handguard and traveled up the blade to its tip — but it didn't stop there.
The glow seemed to grow further, surpassing the tip of the dagger and finally formed a complete sword, almost entirely made from Mana.
It was a useful trick, which Teo had picked up recently. Once he had figured out the trick to it, the effort it took to project the blade further than his weapon's actual reach had been reduced tremendously.
Of course, he had already been able to form the shape of a sword with Mana for ages now, but the properties such a weapon could display would be closer to a stick than a sword. Cutting wasn't the strong point of Mana, and it was very hard to achieve the desired effect without further refinement.
What he did now, was very different from crude techniques like that, though. It was a clever manipulation of the internal energy flow of the weapon, combined with firm control over the external Mana Diffusion speed and direction. It was quite sophisticated.
Teo consistently channeled his own Mana through the access point at the handle of the dagger and, in doing so, drove the Energy Channels inside the weapon, effectively powering it up on full gear.
With the system up and running, he used the internal Sharpness Magic Circle to refine the Mana-flow itself and alter its properties. Lastly, Teo only had to forcefully pull the refined Mana out of the weapon —which was surprisingly easy, owing to the additional acceleration rune —and condense it in a usable shape.
It sounded like a very complicated process when explained in detail, but with Teo's current mastery in Mana Control, it was not that hard to achieve, once he actually had the idea to do it.
Just because he had a suitable weapon now, Teo did not intend to throw himself into a meaningless melee, though. He was a Mage —almost, at least — and he just wanted to be prepared for the worst. No one liked to be caught off guard after all. Also, he had another trick up his sleeve.
Keeping the original distance between himself and the beast, Teo lifted the half-ethereal blade, pointed it at his opponent, and held it tight with both hands.
Incorporating ancient crafting techniques into this dagger had been one of the wisest decisions he had ever made. Especially the major acceleration rune which he had carved painstakingly for the sake of an experiment, it had surpassed his expectations for its usefulness by multiple times.
He had stumbled over quite a few unexpected uses for it in the last month, while he had been unable to exercise his body and had to restrict himself to mental practice.
A small divide began to form near the tip of the illusionary sword and expanded rapidly, almost splitting it in two. As soon as the pointed "tip" had been fully separated, Teo activated the acceleration rune of the dagger in one go and fed it a sudden burst of his Mana. Instantly, the separated tip
Unable to react to the unexpected attack in time and worn down by exhaustion, the beast did not manage to dodge in time, and the magical projectile penetrated deeply into its left shoulderblade.
The attack seemed effective, and Teo nodded to himself at his successful attempt to hinder its mobility.
Unfortunately, Teo needed a few seconds to reconstruct the initial conditions and could not fire again immediately. As his adversary was not a mindless beast, and in fact rather intelligent, it was unlikely to give him enough time to prepare another attack.
Just as expected, it did not continue to stand guard over its prey and chose to subdue the ranged attacker from the offensive instead. The angered Barghest was quickly closing in on Teo, feinting to approach from the left or right to confuse him, before it would jump in for the real attack.
The rapid approach of the giant, slobbering canine was extraordinarily intimidating, and Teo had to forcefully suppress the urge to panic, somehow managing to stay calm.
Contrary to this Magical Beast, he still had most of his stamina and Mana remaining and had the advantage of time, yet he would still need to be extremely careful of the violent struggle, which the beast was sure to put up in its death throes.
With expert speed and precision, he formed a thick barrier between himself and the rabid dog, which it collided with unceremoniously shortly afterward.
It was a heavy impact, but the Magic shield held up, bearing the full brunt of the assault in his stead. Before the beast had any time to reposition itself, he stabbed his 'sword' right through his own barrier and landed a jab near the left front leg.
The barrier was made from his own Mana, so why not use it to his utmost advantage? It was not genuinely semi-permeable, though; instead, Teo used his excellent control over Mana to open a small hole in the freshly woven shield, just large enough for his attack to pass through.
Once again, he managed to use a very simple trick to maximize his advantage— a clever move.
Mr. Barghest was not happy with the development though and channeled the dark mist, which naturally surrounded its body, towards its claws where it solidified, giving them a mysterious luster and making them slightly longer, most probably sharper, and definitely deadlier.
With its empowered claws, it dug into the barrier eagerly, the dark energy eating away at the shield like acid.
Apparently, low-level Magical beasts, or at the very least this particular one, did not possess the knowledge or brain capacity to anticipate and counteract sophisticated plans. They did, however, possess exceptionally sharp instincts and were far from stupid, enabling them to deal with most hindrances thrown in their way. Not to mention their apt physical prowess, which made them far superior to ordinary warriors.
In just a few seconds, Teo went from wielding the absolute advantage into a slightly unfavorable position. He could not afford to underestimate his opponent. He would need to use his brain if he wanted to come out on top here.
Abandoning the collapsing shield, Teo distanced himself as much as possible in the short amount of time he had. He even tried to wrap the splintered barrier around the angry Barghest in a last attempt to turn his broken defense into an additional attack, but it had already been corrupted too far and swiftly dissolved after losing its energy source.
He could only greet the monster with a barrage of Mana Bolts, as it approached him again — This time limping with its left front leg.