The fire was a strategic play, but not their finishing card. Matthew knew the skins of Black hounds were surprisingly thick and not far from here was a river.
They didn't have materials or the knowledge to create a tar trap right now, so Matthew focused on using fire to reduce their numbers and make them panic.
The panicked dogs began to bark angrily at them, shrinking from the bright and hot fire. The soft grass fed the fire to keep it going, but not for long.
He exchanged his shield for a pike with someone behind him and fell behind the advancing shieldwall as Gareth roared, "Press them!"
He closed his eyes and focused on the floating doll armament. It's figure was enveloped by light as it's form twisted.
When the light receded the armament had transformed into a smaller, floating version of Matthew formed from ethereal blue energy.
He passed the dagger to the floating version of himself and it was absorbed into the small spirit like being.
Congratulations personal skill—What? has been used. One trait and two armaments have been used.
This skill allows the separated spirit of the user to act independently from him/her, it will also combine the essence of clear justice to allow skills to be replicated on any living creature cut by your wandering spirit.
He twisted the pike in his hand and approached the hounds. The shadows danced over the dark wooden trees, the small clearing closed in and the open, foggy ceiling observed their flashy hunt.
Let's hope this actually works how I envisioned it
The shield wall was strained by the monster's desperate attacks. They slammed their horns against the shield furiously and snapped at ankles.
Gareth in an attempt to try and keep the shield stable had gone outside the formation to engage two wolves. They snapped at him from two different sides as they backed him into a trap.
"Dammit just one cut!"
One of the wolves dove for his ankle, but at the last moment Matthew intervened.
The wooden pike stabbed into the creature's softer belly, then he turned to catch the jaws of the second hound with butt of the pike.
The hound was strong, crushing the wood with horrifying force and tried to pull it out of his hands. Matthew twisted it and sidestepped, not allowing it to use its strength.
The tip of his boot slammed into the hound's neck, yielding a soft crack. Out of the side of his eye, Matthew watched the other injured hound.
Gareth however was smart enough to steal a portion of its blood and use the curse on it.
The dog struggled rabid and unwilling, but the erosion of its spirit didn't take long and when Gareth fully controlled its action he rushed towards the frontline with the hound beside him.
The hound in front of Matthew attacked seeing his eyes wander. It was a feint to draw it in, however, as he struck immediately it lunged.
The hound twisted its body in the air to use its horn to intercept the attack, the wooden pike cracked and shook from the jarring impact.
But the black beast didn't notice the Wandering spirit lurking behind it.
The smaller version of Matthew struck with a quick flyby, its blue, tiny hands cutting the creature above its back.
While the hound whipped around to snap at the little spirit, Matthew activated the replication of its bite attack.
Its spine crunched and snapped from the terrible force of the bite. A geyser of red blood erupted from its spine and the creature wailed from the maddening pain.
Only some of the damage was replicated since it wasn't just a simple attack at one point, but its effects were harrowing.
The hound slumped as its breath slowed. It let out a pitiful whine as it struggled to move, Matthew raised his pike.
"It sucks i know," he drove the pike into the creature's head and turned away as its red blood stained his face.
He ignored the feeling of wet meat moving as he tore the weapon free of the hound's skull. He approached the remaining hounds with a strange anticipation.
An arrow streaked through the air grazing a hound's leg, it was a significant injury yet the creature dropped in terrible pain allowing Gareth to finish it off.
"Ten minutes later, the last hound fell—riddled with arrows and blood.
They gathered the spirit coins, leaving the dead hounds and ran into the thick forest, staying too long after such a loud and flashy fight was just asking for something worse.
They met up with girls a few minutes later. Mable still carried a bow with a notched arrow, her eyes flitted across the dark, chaotic mess of towering trees as she approached them.
Holly wasn't far behind, appearing almost out of nowhere without warning. She handed the mask to Matthew and cursed.
"Damn the world feels so dry without it."
Matthew immediately put it on and studied his environment. He jogged slowly behind them, the small Wandering spirit flew beside him just in case.
"Watch those vines, don't touch them"
He warned, while changing the protocol of the spirit to help him watch his back.
Together with their enhanced and shared senses he found something following them slowly. Matthew frowned, increasing his pace a little to catch up to Gareth.
"We're unlucky. Light lurker, it's moving quickly."
Gareth and several others began to look around panicked. Mable gripped the arrow tighter.
"What's the plan?"
Matthew glanced backwards, "I'll deal with it, an arrow would be nice but if you can't get a clear shot leave it."
She nodded as he began to slow down. He ran his fingers across his palm as he once again adjusted the spirit essence.
It was tedious work, he imagined a stack of lights like a pyramid. He then slowed down even more as he focused, he let the energy flow up the pyramid and sank deeper into the natural energy of his body.
He had to control the flow of energy to not overwhelm the stack, but also not slow down as it went through. It was even harder while running from an invisible monster.
The lurker was a careful creature, despite its big body finding evidence of its movement wasn't easy. The smells of the forest could also hide it to a certain degree.
As his pace slowed, the Wandering spirit would watch to try and find traces of the invisible monster. It was a heart pounding slog of analyzing traces left by movement and smells.
Most importantly was a feeling, he was used to knowing when he was being watched. It had taken an almost supernatural leap in ability since coming to the Dark forest.
A leaf suddenly shook and the spirit transmitted this image to him, it was only a couple meters away and was well within its striking distance.
He opened his eyes as the pyramid of commands was finally completed. The spirit flew upward and Matthew suddenly ran towards the Light lurker behind him.
Its arm broke the invisibility tearing through the air to impale him, he danced past the arm and threw up a brown cotton pouch into the air.
He slipped between trees as the Lurker repeatedly attacked, wood shattered and sent splinters flying into the air.
The creature followed, moving through the dust it had kicked up with its attacks. Its outline was revealed, Matthew cocked his hand and threw the pike.
The creature swiped it out of the air with its shorter arm, Its powerful claws shattering the pike easily.
Matthew simply smiled as the Wandering spirit acted directly on cue and dropped the contents of the brown pouch on Light lurker.
It was a considerable amount of purple dust to use on just one Lurker, but he had no choice since it was a hazardous material to work with.
The effect was instant, Matthew retreated as the creature's skin began to burn, howling as it quivered and fought to resist the paralysis.
He left the finishing blow to the spirit, the smaller version of him flew down and used its hand to make a small cut on the Light lurker's neck.
The spirit was unaffected by the paralytic, moving freely through the air.
Matthew replicated its claw attack, instantly killing the Lurker.
He waited a few seconds as the spirit essence fell from the beast and allowed the spirit to gather the three blue coins.
He caught up with the rest of the group in camp, they rose letting out anxious breaths.
Gareth clapped his shoulders, joking about how it was stupid for them to worry about Matthew.
They poured out the spirit coins in the middle, Matthew could see the desperate and hungry looks in the boys as they split the essence.
After receiving his share, he watched a little as they talked, then stood and left.
Mable caught up to him, not too far from camp, frowning.
"Leaving already?"
"I have other plans. I'll see you later, okay? Stay alive please? Can you manage that?" Matthew joked.
Mable's face became a bit forlorn, but she smiled. Gareth and Holly had similar looks, but they had given up on trying to convince Matthew to fully join them.
He had only helped them because he couldn't suppress his slight guilt over everything that happened three weeks ago.
He had grown somewhat of a reputation in the white temple, more people had even joined Gareth's group because of him.
Matthew was, however, hard to reach and not a very talkative person. His dull and uncomfortable presence didn't seem to be enough to dissuade Gareth and Mable unfortunately.
As he left the encampment, he crushed the three Lurker spirits and added them to his level counter. It was the first he had absorbed spirits since getting to level three and he expected he may be needing it soon.
Matthew decided it was time to return to the White temple and work with Parker.