Chapter 28
A moment later, I felt its’ presence condense into an attack, a sudden feeling of weight and inevitability that made it difficult to move, as if trying to push ten times my own weight; luckily for me, I was already in motion, tumbling out of the way as the Boarfiend’s sudden charge exploded forward, the ground tearing apart behind it. Instead of being caught in the shredded between the boar’s six scimitar-like tusks, I was only clipped by the outside edge and sent spinning to the ground, narrowly avoiding being trampled by its’ watermelon-sized hooves. While even the glancing blow hurt, it hurt far less than I imagined it would to be hit. Once it was past me, the illusion of weight faded, and I twisted to hurl a rapid trio of flaming disks at its’ knees, trying to weaken and slow it. Two struck, but barely seemed to graze, burning a small patch of its’ thick hide, but no deeper.
It dipped its’ head and twisted, cutting through a thin tree in a single cut, scooping it up with its’ tusks, and then hurling it at me crown-first, the sweeping branches staggering me as I barely avoided the trunk. To my surprise, as it bounced back up, I put my shoulder into the way and blocked the foot-wide trunk, catching it in my arms. It was heavy, but not so heavy that I couldn’t lift it. Even as I felt the spike of danger from another impending charge, I swung around to face the boar, and planted the cut off base of the tree in the ground like a giant spear, the boar all too happy to charge straight into the tree’s broad crown. The branches snapped and tore as it struck, the weight of its’ body and thickness of its’ hide too much for the young tree to resist, the trunk flexing beneath the strike, dumping its’ momentum into digging itself deeper into the ground.
Then it snapped back with a sound like a whipcrack, the branches folding under the violent release of pressure. The Boarfiend roared with anger as the splintered trunk pierced its’ shoulder, gouts of black blood staining the dark wood as it reeled back, head whipping back and forth to saw through the trunk with its’ tusks. I quickly ran back toward the shelter of other trees, peppering the struggling beast with javelin-like firebolts, the piercing attacks scoring a little better against its’ thick hide.
Having sawn off most of the trunk’s length, the Boarfiend was relentless in its’ returning charge, tearing up undergrowth and smashing through trees as it pursued me. I leaned into a sprint, doing my best to leap over or dodge around the various plants and trees that barred my path, the immense crunching force of the Boarfiend’s charge relentless behind me. I heard it getting closer and closer, feeling the wind whip against my back as a toppled tree fell forward, branches slashing to the ground just short of me. I heard a shout, Cenna’s voice barely clear over the cavalcade of destruction behind me. “DAVID! LEFT! NOW!” I dug in my heels to bleed momentum and turned, sprinting for the gap between two trees to go back out into the clearing around the palisade.
The boar cut the corner, sweeping in on me even faster for an instant. Then an enormous impact threw it off its’ charge, sending it staggering through a stand of trees and onto its’ side. Lyrella stood there, chest heaving with exertion, muscles bulging obscenely where her armor didn’t cover them, her eyes wide and wild. She had managed to slam her shoulder into the boar with enough force to knock it entirely off track, no weapon clenched in her bare hands. The boar stayed down for a couple of seconds before pulling itself upright, shaking off the stunning impact of Lyrella’s charge, and then turning to face her. They both began their charge at the same moment, and I began hurling more flaming javelins at its’ body, hoping to slow it down before it simply mulched or trampled the town’s savage leader. Just before the moment of impact, she turned her charge into a slide, and used that momentum to leap over the scooping tusks and deliver a single hard punch into the crown of its’ head, right between the innermost pair of deep-set eyes. The boar squealed as it dug a furrow into the ground, its’ charge redirected downward into digging a trench the length of the beasts’ entire body. When it dragged itself upright again, Lyrella was already there, pounding steps carrying her toward it like a bolt of lightning. The Boar twisted at the last moment, and kicked out, the rear hoof catching her fully in the chest and launching her backward with enough force to crack through a nearby tree. Its’ victory was short-lived, however, as another one of the men I recognized from Lyrella’s treehouse town hall ran forward, a simple wood-cutter’s hatchet in his hand. He slid into the boar’s front leg and grabbed onto a fistful of its’ bristly hair for balance, before hacking into the knee with a series of thundering blows that caused its’ leg to buckle.
Cenna was next, and when the Boarfiend turned its’ head to knock the hatchetman aside with its’ tusks, she slid in toward the other knee. One of her daggers pushed into the joint, twisting to force it open, while the other slid beneath and sought out the thick tendons beneath.
My stomach turned at the way the leg simply collapsed beneath it, the howls of rage turning into agonized squeals. It was thrashing around, still violently enough to smash one of the other warriors aside, and deflect another charge from Lyrella with a hard, cutting swipe of its’ tusks.
My attacks weren’t having as much effect as I needed, a few punching into muscle here and there to leave scorching wounds and the smell of bacon, but it wasn’t enough to cause substantive harm. Then I saw the stub of a trunk sticking out of its’ shoulder, the wood penetrating deeply into the knot of muscle and flesh between its’ shoulder and ribcage.
I ran forward, hopping over the tumbling body of one of the other fighters, blood fountaining from him as his attack was met by the sharpened inner tusks. A violent shoulder-check sent Lyrella spinning at me at head height, and I rolled beneath her an instant before she struck a tree trunk behind me with the cracking of bone. I wrapped both of my hands in flames as I saw the monster dragging itself to three feet, the fourth hanging limp and useless beneath it, the dagger still protruding from its’ knee. The head turned to face me with a raging snort, eyes wide and red-rimmed, glazed with bloodlust and lost to all reason. I dove straight between its’ tusks, into a roll, and came up with both fists striking into the torn-off base of the tree impaling its’ shoulder.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The enormous squeal of agony almost staggered me, and I punched again. The wedge of wood drove deeper with every strike, beginning to catch aflame as it penetrated, my blows burning fist imprints into the wood. I nimbly side-stepped a downward slash of the tusks, and slid right back in, hammering harder on the shredded stump that was sinking deeper and deeper into flesh. Smoke began to pour from the wood and the wound, burning within the creature’s monstrous mass of flesh.
Cenna distracted the next strike by landing atop its’ head and slashing at its’ eyes, causing it to throw its’ tusks upward to try and dislodge her. She rolled away nimbly, the head rearing back, and suddenly Lyrella was there. Her charge turned into a roll, planting her hands on the ground and pushing upward into an enormous rising kick to the base of its’ right-side tusks, snapping its’ head to the side and into the branches of a nearby tree. The kick shattered its’ tusks on that side, the Boarfiend squealing in agony as the branches pierced into its’ eyes.
I pushed my hands together, grabbing onto the base of the piece of wood, and pouring as much fire into the wound as I could, an explosion of fire bursting out of the Boarfiend’s chest and mouth, the squeal replaced by a furnace-like roar of flame.
Finally, the beast collapsed, nearly pinning me beneath its’ bulk. I scrambled away, dragging my legs out from underneath it before it hit the ground completely.
I lay there panting on the ground for a moment, trying to gather my breath. Movement out of the corner of my eye saw Lyrella – wounded as she was, one side of her chest clearly collapsed under very broken ribs – running toward one of her fallen soldiers, cursing as she saw him immobile. She frantically waved over one of the others I hadn’t realized had joined us; he wore robes like mine, but white with red trim. He held his hands over the man and began channeling energy into him, sweat immediately beading on his brow as he reached out with his power.
Cenna was limping, but clearly mobile, leaning on the hatchetman for support as they all clustered together.
While they licked their wounds, I flicked open my notifications, curious as to just what the hell that thing had been.
[Boarfiend Irethorn slain. EXP gained!]
[Level up! You are now level 20. +10 Free points gained from Race and Class.]
Title Gained: [Sprinter] You are one of the first five to reach level 20. How long can you keep up your lead?
+5% to the effectiveness of all attributes.
Grinning, I dumped my ten free points into Fortitude, thinking about the many aches and pains that wracked my body from even that brief fight. I basked in the glow of the level-up, reviewing my sheet thoughtfully for a moment. The increased efficiency was giving me a little over two extra levels’ worth of stats, the five percent from [ Focused Pursuits] and [Sprinter] combining to increase my Wisdom and Willpower by ten percent each.
I was broken from my reverie by the white-robed man’s soft words. “I’m sorry, Lyr; Johnathan is dead.” She swore brutally for a moment, but nodded, retreating a couple of steps. I looked over at the man who lay before them, seeing a couple of hoof imprints in his chest that looked like they’d crushed his lungs or heart. The healer wrung his hands for a moment, before telling her, “I need to go back. There are other injured inside.” With that, he nodded to the others, and half-jogged back to the small, open postern door tucked against the bulk of the palisade.
I pulled myself standing and limped over, gesturing to the body. “Sorry about Johnathan.” I then looked to Lyrella. “That’s a hell of a punch you’ve got. I’m impressed.”
In an instant, her anger turned toward me, and the distance everyone else had given her suddenly made sense. Her punch came like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky, and I felt my sternum crack under the hit. My ribs creaked as a tree trunk helpfully arrested my momentum. Cenna ran over to me, her expression concerned. “What the hell, David? Her friend just died.”
Somehow, it didn’t help that a moment later, I started laughing despite the pain in my chest, every breath a fresh shock of agony. “She’s that strong, and she’s sitting here playing mayor? She could be a real monster out there,” I gestured vaguely. “She’s wasting her time sitting here.”
I wasn’t sure quite what had come over me as I watched the surviving warriors draw back into the town, a couple of them heading over to guard the breach in the wall. Cenna, irritated, stood up and began to stalk off.
She called back, from several feet away, “That’s one hell of a hit you’ve got, yourself, you know. Try to keep your mouth shut next time, though.”