Chapter 4: Boar…s

I went to buy a shovel before anything, Charging Boars were small, but fast and heavy. I told the others I was going to make the pit, Zuckar volunteered to draw it towards it. Stone was not sure on what to do, but he told us that he would act as a scout, even if he does not specialize in it, he would be naturally better at it then us.

It took some time to get there, the farm was razed, normally farmers could deal with roamers, but it the one here did not. The answer came as the man appeared from the house. "Yes, I'm sorry I was sitting, it took some time to get my cane." An old old man came out, 'he must be very old.' People lived longer around here, even more, for him to be clearly getting weaker he must not have been able to use energies for a while, I would guess 300 to 400 years. As I was assesing the man Stone pulled my tunic under the leather vest, he did not say anything and just pointed to a particular point in the forest.

The razed fields seemed to be random in its pattern, but the point that I was looking at, the flattening of the crops was inwards, nowhere else was like that, that is when I realized that the beast was charging inside the field, not just running, the razing was linear until a ceirtain point, the it became random, So I nodded, Stone had better senses then me, it would take me much more time to realize this. "Well" I started after turning back to the farmer. "We will be able to easily deal with the boar... Though we will need to dig a hole around there." I pointed to a part where the beast would most likely pass through without a thought.

The farmer seemed apprehensive, the idea of just digging seemed to make him reconsider his opinion. "I will fill it back up afterwards, I believe even without it you would need to replant the razed parts." That made him accept it with a nod. I took my shovel to the ground, and remembered. "Hey Stone, can you go and see it the boar did something around the farm as well?" Stone was quiet for a few moments, but nodded, it would seem that he doesn't talk much, not that it bothers me, as long as he talks when necessary.

"Would it not be better to go to the forest to hunt it down?" Zuckar asked after Stone went off. The question made sense, but...

"Not at this instance, we are all newly minted bronze tiers at the guild, but don't have true fighting experience." Zuckar seemed like he would talk about his, but I interrupted him. "I know you trained, you have thicker muscles then normal Half-Elves, you had that shield for a while, you are to comfortable with it for it to be new to you. Simulated training is not the same as real experience, The boar won't care if you have a trap, or how to most efficiently attack your shield, it will just ram it with it's all, and it is fast enough to give you surprise. You might hurt you arm if you go after it."

Zucker stayed silent, I could feel something from him, a subtle pressure, maybe that's aura, he certainly has a class that uses it, though it seemed that it wasn't on purpose, he was thinking over what I said for a while. "It would be better to meet it on our own terms right?" I only nodded, who could have thought that digging was so hard. But I had finished it, around half a meter deep, and one across, I would not cover it, the boar would not be able to divert its direction mid-charge.

Stone came back a short while later. "Well the size of the boar seems to be smaller then normal, I asked the farmer what was the normal size of them, the markings around the trees are lower then what would normally be for something big, lower then my head height."

"So a straggler right." Both me and Zuckar said at the same time, we briefly glanced looks, but looked back to Stone. "Anything more?" That made Stone fidget for some time.

"Well, it might be more then one." That made me pause, I was sure that one even standard size was going to be doable, more then one though...

"How many bashes you think you can take." My question was directed at Zucker. One of the boars was going to fall on the pit that was guaranteed, he would need to stop it there so that it did not went further, but the rest, how many there are, we might need to forfeit this quest, we might get a penalty but living was better.

"I don't know, I am confident in stopping one, and stab it, but if there are many more... it they would be able to get around and go from behind. How many do you think there are?" Stone did not expect the question, but he knew the answer.

"Two, three at maximum, the tracks are very similar, one small and another big. The bigger one looks to be new..." He did not have much more information, but I can plan for three, I would just need to do something I had not had the time to test.

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***

It was dusk, the 2 moons started to appear on the sky and the sun made layers of different colors on the sky. The Big One had appeared and took control of everything I had won, it still made them mad, they had braved the dangers and took it, but the Big One was stronger, and it ordered it to take more. The fog of the night was the perfect camouflage, It would hide part of the spoils for itself somewhere else, the Big One would not be able to track it in its stupidity.

The boar went through its trail again, it had marked the trees around its path and marked the trees to declare the territory, when it got to the edge of its home, it stayed put, something had went through here, it could smell something, but had not entered to far, probably because they feared its majestic self, certainly not because of the Big One's tracks. It's logic was infallible, it prepared to charge once again through the food field, The wind had picked up around it, it always enjoyed the feeling of air against its hide, freedom from ground, freedom from those that discarded it, and freedom from hunge-- It tripped. NO, the ground was much lower then the previous step, But it wasn't dumb, Charge was still in effect, it would simply change its diraction upwards with a sronger step, It could not turn, but it could jump on its charge, it was intelligent, it would not be felled so easi-- Thump, Something was put in its way, its head bashed on something hard, unlike went it marked the territory, but much worse, it had accelerated for much more time.

All things went blank, it could not think for a second, but it woke up from it, though not for long, something went through its neck, it stopped moving, all it thought in the end was that it wanted to eat just one more time, the ground was going to consume it though, and it had no choice, it was intelligent enough to know when to give up. Thumping, was what it heard last. The Big One had chased behind it, A cruel joke, it would not have been able to hide part of the food.

***

The smaller boar was tiny, like very tiny, at least compared to what came after. The thing was eye-to-eye in height with me, it seemed frustrated? not sad of furious... was this one not its child of something? Regardless, it is preparing to charge, the Aura it is emitting looks like the heat of a running engine, the air distorting around it, actually, it is getting a bit hot, maybe it is inefficient in its use? I could ponder on it no longer as it charged, not to the pit, but to me. "Shit!" I raised the shovel in my hands, and wielded as if a spear, I had hoped that it would impale itself, but I was pushed back, the shovel splitting it the middle, then dissolving into darkness, I had fed it to my shadow, I still did not know why it would not eat the class, but anyway, I started to manifest the sword this time, the boar was still charging not have been slowed to much by the shovel, but enough that my sword could be summoned, its tip pointed to it's head, Holding only with my left hand, the right getting dislocated before.

I could feel the sword piercing its eye, not through my hand, I felt the sword as if it is part of my body, with nerves and all, the boar was not dead yet, but I had poked out its right eye. Sword still buried in its eye it shook it's head and tried to take the sword away from me, before it could break it dissipated into black mist, I took a few steps back as the boar seemed confused, and slashed downwards with the re-summoned sword, I would have tried to poke its other eye, but Zuckar was on its way to do it, so I decide to crack the skull, or at least stun it enough to have it not pay attention to the other. which was what happened, the skull was to thick to crack.

Zuckar went deep enough with their small sword that it probably went trough the brain, killing it. A collective breath of relieve escaped both of us, I grinned at Zuckar who looked proud, but trying and failing to suppress his own. "He, Stone, they are dead!!" I screamed to the hiding halfling, not that I fault him, he is not a combatant, and his stealth comes from his race and not some class. Stone cautiously got closer, but they did not got back up as he expected, getting relaxed he looked over the kills.

"Well, I can easily say that the big one will be very good to bring with us, the small one would be sold for a big price per kilogram due to how hard it is to find, but... it is small, selling it would give little money." I agreed with his assessment, and Zuckar agreed, and turned to me, saying nothing he got close and took my right arm, he knew I had dislocated it. It hurt for a while after he put it back, but I was on a normal contition, if slightly tired.

"Okay, I will haul the big one, but, before that, I will dispose of the small one, no need to follow me." I took the small one, I had an idea, and my Shadow seemed to agree with it. They did not follow me, I did left a shovel for them, my shadow constructs would not dissipate without contact with me. The small boar wasn't bleeding most of it drained at the farms soil. So I tossed it into the ground, and my shadow circled the corpse, it can't manifest as a physical object yet, not without a medium sacrifice like the sword and shovel. The Boar sunk into the soil, leaving nothing to the natural world. My shadow seemed to be assessing what could be useful and what can be replicated and stuff like that, and contrary to the sword and shovel, it looks like it will take some time, even those two took some minutes to be summonable. So I went back, nothing else to do, those two still were closing the hole, I helped them, the farm had lended us some shovels to finish it faster, but it was night now.

The old man gave us a place to sleep, it was his living room, but it was better then the other options. We did thank him the next day, and went back to the guild, with me carrying the boar on my back, the thing weighed a ton, I do not know how much exactly, but it netted me 2 levels in Hauler, the fight itself giving me sworduser, it made me very happy, I could sense Aura much more easily, and I could see how much better Zucker's was better then me, others were still a mystery, it was very disorienting felling some but not all, My aura sense will need to be better training.

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