Chapter 14: Chapter 13: First Fight

Jack fixed his eyes on the boar, his leg bent, ready to make his next move. When the horns came close enough, he gathered strength and rolled to the side. Raising his head up while getting on one foot, he realized how devastating that action was. The cracked ribs become broken ones. His chest ached, shocking up to his head. Jack coughed out a red bubbly liquid on the grass in front of him.

Jack gritted his teeth, ignoring the pain screaming inside of him. He stood up on his shaking legs, facing the Four-Horned Boar staring at him with its dark eyes, preparing itself for the next charge.

Jack moved slowly sideways in a circle and the boar reacted accordingly, its eyes attached to his every movement. Having been captured and brought here, the beast had adopted a cautious attitude toward humans.

Jack was secretly glad that the creature was being this careful because if it recklessly attacked, he would have to leave his fate in the hands of the teachers or the boar itself. Even so, this stalemate couldn’t last forever. His opponent had begun to bend its legs again and the snorts signaled the upcoming attack.

Behind Jack was the cliff of the basin he had felt down. He picked this spot because he had hoped for any immediate assistance, a rope, or a ladder. Nothing happened. He looked up disappointingly at the frightening students, except for Patrick’s crew, who were smiling satisfyingly. 

Jack adjusted himself as the last option became apparent; he would have to defeat his opponent. 

When the boar launched itself at him again, Jack chose the perfect timing to jump aside, this time with more grace to avoid rolling on the ground. The pain, however, still made him stagger. The boar was momentarily stopped when it hit the wall. The beast shook its horns, screeching in anger. Meanwhile, Jack had managed to create some distance.

He grabbed a big cobblestone by the riverside, his hand waiting for the right moment to make a move. The boar charged again and Jack let the stone fly. He imagined it would at the very least slow the creature down a bit, but a blue barrier appeared before the horns and shattered the stone before Jack’s eyes. Some shards flew at him, making him dodge before he would want to and roll to his right. He tried his best to avoid any collision on the left ribs, but a few drops of blood still came out of his mouth.

Jack tried to get back up on his feet, his eyes sharper than ever. He put his hand on the pocket where Julia’s poison pouch was. The idea was instantly dismissed. Not only because the boar was five or six times bigger than the mouse, increasing the required dose and effect time, but also because Jack himself would be vulnerable too, especially in his current state.

At that moment, he remembered the question he had once asked Julia. Risk it all. But not like how Xerath would do it, an eye for an eye. He had his way of risking.

Jack hunched forward, his feets still moving in a circle, his eyes staying with the boar. He couldn’t roll around anymore as the next jump could render him unconscious. The beast only knew one way to attack and he had to utilize that before it realized acceleration was unneeded, as a close-range charge was all it took to knock Jack down.

The boar dubiously looked at him as if it was judging how vulnerable was the person standing before its eyes. The beast slowly moved forward instead of running at him.

A sudden fear filled Jack’s heart, but he didn’t back down. He couldn’t. He needed to move forward to remind the beast why it should be cautious. Jack advanced and that stopped the boar. It snorted, then returned to its normal attacking stance.

As for Jack, he kneeled down, his hand reached for some sand, recalling how he had been practicing for the last two weeks, circling the mana and compressing the sand in his palm. His right hand was channeling into another rock he had picked up. This would be his last chance to defeat the enemy. The mana reserved for a third shot had been depleted to reduce the fall damage earlier.

The boar finalized its determination and stuck its four horns out toward Jack. Its four legs trampled the ground; the rumbling overwhelmed the sound of Jack’s ever-growing heartbeat. A few meters away from death, Jack threw the sand in his hand at the beast’s face in a cone-shaped. Some of them found their way into its dark eyes, making it lean its head and screech in annoyance. 

Right then, Jack jumped back to the right; his other hand shot the stone straight at the creature’s open mouth. It flew right into the throat of the Four-Horned Boar. It cried out, its momentum still moving forward. Jack’s body was slower than he thought as two of the horns managed to pierce his left thigh, pulling it into a lengthy wound all the way to the knee.

Two miserable sounds can be heard from the basin. One is a dying screech of an animal, the other a grunt of a human in pain.

“Snort…snort…”

The boar leaned, trying to throw up the stone, but Jack knew that wouldn’t be the case. The creature’s face was full of panic seeing blood coming out of its mouth, dripping on the grass like Jack earlier. The terrifying pain was coming from two places inside its body. The stone had split up and damaged both its lung and stomach.

Jack looked at his bleeding leg. He gritted his teeth, trying to stand on the other one, dragging himself toward the boar. He had to finish it. If left alone, the creature could still make a full recovery, and Jack didn’t like that. He wanted it dead.

The Four-Horned Boar trembled as Jack approached as its breaths became faster. The more it pushed itself, the more severe its injury became. The beast tried to bend its leg but slowly let go. It couldn’t move. Its eyes were wide open with some small grain of sand still sticking to its corneal. Death is facing it.

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Jack searched for a rock, standing in front of the defeated creature. It screeched like begging for its life, but Jack wasn’t bothered one bit.

Before he smashed the beast’s head, Jack let his eyes wander toward Patrick. His group’s faces turned pale, especially Patrick himself, as cold sweat came from the back of his head. By his side, Pascal clenched his fist, his eyes twitching. He had just messed with a very dangerous person.

Without any hesitation, the pointy end of the rock stabbed right through the beast’s eyes. It let out a final loud screech, echoing through the basin as blood splattered all over Jack’s face. Some of the students screamed in terror and some whispered and pointed their fingers at Jack. Only Thomas and Agos were shouting in excitement.

“Way to go, Big Boss!”

“Big Boss is the best!”

But the next spectacle silenced the pair. Their lips shut tight and not another sound was made.

The boar was dead, but Jack didn’t stop. Despite his bleeding left leg, he was kneeling, his hands holding tight to the rock and pounding it nonstop on the creature’s head. The terrifying cracking sound echoed in the ear of the witnesser as if they were hearing their own skulls being broken.

A sudden thunderous roar came from the center of the basin. The Cavernwraith had awakened. Realizing the weakened barrier, it had managed to fly up and looked toward Jack’s position.

“Hu…m..an…”

Its voice was like that of a whispered storm: subtle, but heavy and powerful. The chains rattled as they were dragged on the ground.

Jack sat down motionless, not looking at the Cavernwraith. If the monster found its way here, nothing could stop it. His eyes locked on Patrick. Facing that unwavering and fierce calmness, Patrick couldn’t stand it and turned away.

The system table suddenly appeared before his eyes.

 

You have earned experience that the system cannot process.

The experience will be reserved.

It will be used once the initialization is complete.

Initialization time: 84 days 14 hours 21 minutes 40 seconds.

Jack couldn’t keep it any longer. He fell forward.

The roar of the Caverwraith seemed right next to his ear as his consciousness slowly faded away.

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