Barghests, unlike common Black Hounds which can be found in virtually any forested area, are much more dangerous. Although they looked extremely similar, they were leagues apart in strength. To make a basic comparison, a singular healthy barghest could take on twenty Black Hounds and still come out victorious, but that isn't to say that it would survive its wounds either. Although Barghests were extremely strong, they were not of magical nature and their wounds did not heal easily and are incredibly susceptible to infection, often being their cause of death.
This fact could be seen in the four Barghests surrounding the scouts, they had various patches of rot and decay on their bodies and did not seem to be in a healthy state, as compared to the juveniles and cubs that stayed in the back. They were pristine, most likely from being kept out of battle due to their inability to properly heal from fights.
It was unlikely, but the scouts had quite a large chance of victory!
A Barghest lunged onto the impulsive scout. The scout held ground and jammed the side of his blade into the Barghests mouth, trying to shove it away. But was overpowered by the Barghests strength! It broke the scout's stance and swiped at the unprepared scout.
But!
It was slammed on the top of its head by a larger than average hammer!
Taking the hit off balance it collapsed onto the ground. As a sickle moved to take advantage of the situation another Barghest rushed forward and tanked the hit. It did nothing more than a shallow cut, similar to Karl. The impulsive scout too attempted to press this brief advantage and as the Barghest protected its downed brethren it sustained many more cuts and slashes.
Seeing their comrades being bullied, the other two Barghests became enraged. Rushing toward their brethren, they were blocked by Karl, Jim and the whiney scout. In such a dangerous situation, Karl needed all the help he could get and couldn't afford to defend Jim. Thus allowing Jim to fight alongside them with Jeffrey's mattock in hand.
They held a tight defence parrying and hacking at the Barghests. Unfortunately for them, one of the two Barghests was the alpha and using its domineering strength, it directly pushed through the efforts of the trio and rushed to protect its brethren.
However, the three had stalled enough, during this time the other two had managed to slay the defending Barghest while the downed one was seeping out blood continuously. It was in no condition to continue fighting, in fact, it would die soon.
The impulsive scout and Jeffrey had managed to cause such damage in such a small amount of time was by taking advantage of their prime weakness…
Their diseased and decayed wounds!
Reopening these wounds was a surefire way to defeat a non-magical beast such as a Barghest.
The sight of the dead Barghest and the other one near death pushed it over the top. It burst into a frenzied rage. It howled into the sky and abandoned all defence. It charged straight at Jeffrey and the scout ready to rip them to shreds! However, as it neared the duo a pitchfork was impaled into its eye. Shaking off the pain, it was prepared to kill these two at the cost of its life. But it was reckless, it didn't see a sword jam itself through an old wound. Karl kicked the sword deep and backed off clutching his right sword arm, the diseases it contracted in that wound made that area of pelt much softer compared to other parts of its body.
The other Barghest was being held off by the whiney scout and Jim. Jim though not an expert did have to fight off pests and stray beasts that wandered onto his farmlands from time to time, making him rather experienced.
Sure enough, the beasts did not back off and fought to their deaths. However, a final death throe caught the whiney scout off guard and a deep gash was opened on his stomach. The Barghest seemed to still be dissatisfied even as its eyes slowly lost the shine in it.
"Ah, shite Eugene, you're gonna be alright, aight? You hear me!?" Having finished killing the alpha, Karl rushed to aid the whiney scout now identified as Eugene, despite having sustained quite a few injuries himself.
"Sacred stars! I don't wanna die here! I have so much to live for!" Eugene was unaccepting of his death and the emergency aid Karl performed did not have much help. None of them knew how to treat such a large wound and could only do basic aid such as bandaging, which did not fix the problem.
No one needed any deductive skills to understand that he was going to die. And he did. Jeffrey felt a bit bad by his death, he was a nice guy during the time they rode together. He would probably do him a favour and bury him in the fort city or maybe he should take something in remembrance of him.
Yeah. That would make Jeffrey feel better. He was pretty nice to Jeffrey after all.
But as the group mourned at their fallen comrade more enemies showed up.
*Grrr*
It was the cubs and juveniles left behind. They had come to start another fight.