Chapter 35: Book 1: Chapter 14 (Part 2 of 2)

A moment later and Kelly’s whispered urgings were done, and Carl had collected himself. He put on his fake smile and came over to us.

“We’re ready,” Carl stated.

Shana and I hopped up quickly and re-equipped our weapons. “Excellent, as are we, hop through and we’ll be right behind you.”

 Carl grimaced, perhaps he thought if he attempted being polite, an attempt which he had been barely successful at, that I might forgo my previous declaration. He was sorely disappointed if he had.

“Come on,” Carl grunted to his party as he turned away from me.

They stepped through.

I fought against the temptation to make them wait, but it would have been petty, so I stuck to my word and we followed them into the third dungeon chamber without delay.

We stepped out onto another granite platform, identical to the one in the second chamber. Carl and his team had shuffled over to the left edge but hadn’t stepped off. As soon as we came through, we received a dungeon Framework prompt.

You have three minutes to begin before the safety platform becomes inactive.

It wouldn’t take us three minutes to start, but I wanted to take a moment to absorb the surroundings before we jumped off. This did mean I had to extend my arm behind me and point my scimitar at a less than subtle Carl.

Undoubtedly, he planned to ‘accidentally’ trip and shove either Shana or me off the granite platform and alert chamber three’s mobs. The scimitars’ point dissuaded him from any shenanigans of that nature.

This was the smallest of the three rooms so far and appeared to be open to the sky. Although if you narrowed your eyes and really peered up above, you could discern that the sky above was an illusion. The chamber itself was a circular mud-pit with a diameter of maybe forty metres. There were a handful of two-metre obelisk-shaped pillars that ran around the edge, placed every few metres until you got to the far side.

On the other side of the mud in front of the exit archway were this room’s monsters. Unlike the previous two chambers, these creatures were in plain view. We faced two gigantic, black-furred pigs. The pigs were at least four feet to their shoulders and had a mass similar to a grizzly bear. Two jagged foot-long tusks protruded from the lower part of their snouts. Serrated bony protrusions jutted from their flesh along their backs in three lines running from their head to their tiny tails.

They were digging in the mud with their trotters and ignored us completely, for now.

“Well, they are big bastards and that’s for sure,” I muttered and then raised my voice to address Shana. “Infuse your arrows for this fight, give me a shout if you get close to using half.”

Any pointers? I thought to Quixbix.

<They are Razorbacks, Torin. They aren’t complicated beasts, if they see you, they’ll charge you, and attempt to gore you with those tusks. Best avoid them and don’t try to ride them like a bronco if you want to keep your genitals attached to your body> he chuckled.

“Shana, stay behind me. When they charge, break for the pillars. Climb up one if you can, they should be just high enough to prevent them goring you,” I instructed and then stepped off the platform.

I took a few steps forward. The mud wasn’t deep, though it was a bit slippery, but not too bad at a walking pace. If we started running around, then it would be more treacherous footing if you tried to stop or change direction. Hopefully for the two giant pigs as well as us. I analysed our opponents as Shana landed just behind me.

Razorback Boars x2
Grade: U Level:  1
HP: 2,500	Value: -
Threat: High	XP: -
Large, aggressive male pigs with serrated tusks. These animals tend to charge unthinkingly at anything it perceives as a threat, which is almost everything. The beast’s thick fur offers low mitigation against attacks. The unfurred belly is considered unarmoured.

 

Two and a half thousand Hit Points was an eye-opening number and that was for each of them. We could increase our damage if we could get them on their backs, or if we went under them. Neither prospect seemed pleasant nor likely.

“Aim for the head if you can, Shana,” I suggested just as the angry double squeal emanated throughout the mud-pit chamber as the razorbacks spotted us.

“Understood, shouldn’t be too hard, they’re big enough,” Shana laughed nervously.

“We’ll be fine,” I assured her. “Just stay nimble on your feet, and don’t let them back you into the walls or up against a pillar.”

You are reading story Corsairs & Cataclysms at novel35.com

The razorbacks bellowed their anger and defiance loudly. Then they charged our position. They didn’t have much ground to cover, but it was enough for three things to happen.

For the razorbacks to reach a frightening velocity as they charged us, for Shana to loose an arrow into the head of the boar on the left, and for the razorbacks to shoulder into one another in an attempt to be the one to attack their singular target, me. Lefty won the barging match and earned the honour of being the pig to run me down.

That suited my purposes perfectly.

Shana released a second arrow into the leftmost razorback and then broke left herself and rushed to the nearest pillar. I held my stance until the last moment to discourage the giant pigs from changing their target before I shimmied left myself and slashed out with both scimitars along the flank of the leftmost razorback.

You have inflicted 34 piercing damage and 24 points of cold damage to Razorback Boar #1.

You have inflicted 34 piercing damage and 24 points of cold damage to Razorback Boar #1.

The first razorback skidded as it tried to halt after it passed me and squealed angrily. The mud helped us out as the giant pig struggled to find purchase and its skid meant its rump collided with the granite platform. I spotted a third arrow streak out from above my head and slam into its snout. The pig’s beady eyes focused on me, the creature’s misty breath steamed from its widened jaw as it screamed and charged again.

Having one giant angry pig ready to gore you was bad but having two would be worse. Thankfully, I had been spared this for the time being. The second razorback which had been shoved to the side in the pair’s rush to get to me had sighted fresh targets. Targets that had forgotten that once Shana and I stepped off the platform they were no longer in a safe zone.

The granite dais saved them to an extent as they had been standing away from the edge and this dulled boar number two’s momentum when it mounted the platform.

Carl had been standing the furthest forward, no doubt hoping for a good view of his hated enemy getting gored. Unfortunately for him, he was the one who got a serrated tusk to the stomach. The rest of his team scattered like a set of bowling pins as the pig rammed their group.

That was all I had time to take in before I turned and ran in the other direction. I got about halfway into the centre of the mud bowl before I jinked at a ninety-degree angle to the left and scampered behind one of the pillars. The razorback that chased me had to arrest his momentum on the slippery mud to adjust for my sudden shift in direction and then followed at a slower pace. Meanwhile, Shana fired arrow after arrow into the side of the beast’s head.

“Draw it to the pillars and weave through them,” I yelled for the benefit of the other team.

If they could keep the other razorback occupied while we killed this one it would make things a lot easier.

Then the first razorback reached the pillar I hid behind. I reached around and swiped at its snout with my blade and the tip sliced through its nose.

You have inflicted 34 piercing damage and 24 points of cold damage to Razorback Boar #1.

That hadn’t been as much damage as I’d been expecting for a head strike, but Quixbix picked up on my consternation, he was bonded with me at the molecular level after all.

<The Framework recognised that as a glancing blow, so you didn’t strip it of as many Hit Points as you would for a regular head strike> he mentioned casually.

Well, bugger. That nixed my current plan in its infancy.

Luckily, the razorback’s next move helped formulate a new plan for dealing with it. The creature tried to go around the pillar to get to me, so I just skipped in the other direction and stabbed the beast in its hindquarters while its more dangerous be-tusked head was on the other side. What followed would have been comedic, had we not been in such danger, as the razorback clumsily chased me around the pillar while I kept out of reach.

When I understood this fight was in hand I shouted. “Shana, switch to the other pig, I’ve got this one.”

“Okay,” she replied calmly from two pillars down.

I continued to dance around the Maypole with the razorback, stabbing it for a combined fifty-eight damage each time and in a surprisingly short length of time I got the notification I was after.

You have inflicted 34 piercing damage and 24 points of cold damage to Razorback Boar #1. Razorback Boar #1 is slain.

I sighed in relief and took a deep breath. My nostrils were enticed with the heavenly smell of roast pork. Jackson must have unleashed his flames on boar number two, and I surveyed the scene on the other side of the mud bowl.

Lucas and Jackson had emulated Shana and were perched atop a pair of pillars. The former fired arrows and the latter small balls of green flame. Carl and Kelly stood shoulder to shoulder and attempted to copy my tactic of stringing the razorback around the pillar.

They got in each other’s way, though, and spent more time scrambling away than actually hitting the animal. Peter had been gored badly at some point and had crawled to the granite plinth on my side of the chamber. Tommy knelt beside him, casting his healing spells.

“Shana, if you haven’t already, stop using your Mana to infuse your arrows,” I called out to my shadowborn elf.

I watched the fracas opposite me for a second more and was tempted to leave them to it. However, we still had no idea what was in chamber four and it would be the toughest room of the dungeon. I might need them, as distractions if nothing else.

Instead, I picked my moment when their boar couldn’t see me and charged into the fray.

With my help, we despatched the second monstrous pig in no time at all.

You can find story with these keywords: Corsairs & Cataclysms, Read Corsairs & Cataclysms, Corsairs & Cataclysms novel, Corsairs & Cataclysms book, Corsairs & Cataclysms story, Corsairs & Cataclysms full, Corsairs & Cataclysms Latest Chapter