The boarish beast that burst from the bush was like its standard counterpart but twice the size and ten times as scary.

The monster was called a Razor Tusk, and its shoulders reached to my waist. Instead of normal bone tusks protruding from its skull, there were metallic, serrated blades. Its coat was a deep black, speckled with hairs of silver.

It rushed out of the bush, following the same path as the boar family; apparently, it had been following them. When it entered the clearing my father and I were in, it stopped its mad rush, skidding a foot in the dirt. The wind swirled in the clearing, and a musky fetid smell pervaded the area. I nearly gagged.

The Razor Tusk widened its stance and swung its head back and forth to take in all its surroundings. It noticed us and seemed to decide which of us to attack. Jonas was the bigger target, so the Razor Tusk moved in his direction.

"Hey," I yelled. I swung my spear high in the air and took a small, threatening step toward it. Jonas' robot was still transforming into Symbiotic Mode, and he needed a little more time.

My maneuver worked, and it turned to me. A glint from the jagged tusks caused me to gulp deeply. The Razor Tusk stomped its hoof loudly, kicking up dust. I was grateful for the warning as it rushed forward faster than I thought it could.

As the monster came within range, I swung my spear in a downward arc and jumped to the side. My spear connected with its sharpened metal tusk and turned its head enough for me to not be struck by it. I rolled and spun on the ground to face it. As it was still turning around from its rush, I adjusted my position to put some extra space between us.

The Razor Tusk trotted around a tree at the edge of the clearing, snorting in frustration. It rounded the tree and continued to move toward me without slowing. I continued to adjust my position and hoped Jonas was almost ready to take over the fight. I was lucky that I had experience with boars from our time living outside of town and hunting with Jonas. However, this boar was on a whole different level. I couldn't do much more than I already had.

I didn't know how Jonas expected me to buy much more time against a creature that could fight a platoon of soldiers. I didn't have time to question Jonas' decision, though. As soon as the Razor Tusk entered the clearing, it rushed toward me again. That time I didn't have the advanced notice of a hoof stomp.

My timing wasn't as good as the first rush, but I did manage to turn its head enough to not get gored. However, the massive boar's frame struck my legs as I leaped through the air. I spun violently from the impact, and my body pin-wheeled with my arms and legs splayed out. I hit the ground hard on my chest with all the air rushing from my lungs. I curled up for a second to catch my breath, my mind consumed with the fear of not breathing.

As soon as I got a lungful of air, the danger of the situation returned. Luckily, the monster's momentum wasn't halted when I was hit, and it had to loop around the area again. I looked for my spear, which I had dropped when struck. It was a meter and a half away, which wasn't too far, so I moved quickly to it.

My spear was a solid metal design with leather wrappings for grip. The wrappings absorbed any vibrations and kept my hand from slipping. The entire weapon was more of a staff with a blade on the end that could be changed if needed.

I secured my spear and prepared for a third charge, but thank the Orbs, there was no need. As I caught sight of the boar rounding another tree, I also saw Jonas moving toward it. He was clad in what I thought was his normal symbiotic armor, but I had clearly heard him say call it Lesser Symbiotic Mode.

I didn't know if that was a recent change or if he had always called it that. I tried to think back, but it was hard to remember. I didn't want to concentrate too much, considering the dangerous situation. Plus, Jonas had made it a point to not start the transformation too much while I was around.

Still, even though he was only in his Lesser symbiotic armor, he moved purposefully forward as the boar was still focused on me.

The Razor Tusk noticed Jonas striding purposely toward it. It raised its hackles when it saw him. It turned from me and stomped its hooves repeatedly into the ground as a warning. Jonas sprang forward and to the side with alacrity. He landed next to the monster and struck out with a gauntleted fist. The spike extended right as his fist hit the boar's side. It yelped in pain and flew to the side, rolling a couple of times from the strength of the strike.

The Razor Tusk got up almost immediately. I could see a little blood coming down its side, but the blow didn't do much damage. The monster speedily rushed toward Jonas. He stood his ground unflinching until the last moment, then blocked its tusks with his leading arm and pivoted to the side while striking the beast again in nearly the same spot. His second strike didn't have the momentum of the first, but it staggered the boar, causing it to fall over on its side.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Jonas rushed forward to attack while the boar was still on the ground, but the boar was too fast. It scrambled to its feet and swiped its tusks at Jonas to keep him away. Tusks scraped along the breastplate of Jonas' armor just above the exposed portion of his abdomen, causing the clashing metal to spark.

Jonas turned with the momentum of the mutated boar's strike and spun with a backhand. His extended spike sliced the beast across the forehead, leaving a huge gash. I could see the monster's blood pour down one side of its face, probably blinding it.

The Razor Tusk rushed forward again to gore Jonas. Jonas leaped up and over the creature in a fantastic display of strength as it ran past him. The advantages of having robotic armor were tremendous if even a Labor Class could accomplish such feats.

Although, the jump did seem to be a little too much for Jonas. His landing wasn't perfect, and he stumbled a few steps. He couldn't capitalize on the Razor Tusk's confusion as it failed to hit him, but he wasn't at a disadvantage either.

For my part, I didn't just stand there dumbly. I slowly moved out of the clearing and toward a tree. I kept my spear pointed toward the boar the entire time, just in case it decided to rush at me, which was why I was able to watch the fight.

Once my back was pressed against a tree, I took a moment while Jonas and the Razor Tusk faced off, each waiting for the right time to attack. I looked up and spotted a branch that I could use to pull myself up, and I did so. The tree was thick and would protect me from the Razor Tusk in the worst-case scenario, but I wasn't sure what it could do with those metallic tusks it possessed.

Perhaps Jonas was keeping an eye on my position and was waiting for me to get to safety because as soon as I was secure in the tree, he rushed forward. The boar got ready as Jonas accelerated toward the monster; its stance widened, then it flailed its head and razor tusks to keep him away or possibly gore him as it almost had. Jonas didn't make the same mistake and jumped before being close to the flailing danger. While airborne, he spun and landed solidly on the back of the mutated boar.

He drove his fist into the side of the boar's neck, and I could tell that his armor-piercing ability activated. It must not have been a perfect hit, though, because the boar squealed in pain while it bucked wildly. Jonas tried to hold on, but he was flung from the monster's shoulders violently. He hit the ground with the sound of crunching metal and didn't move.

The beast staggered for a moment, then focused on Jonas's unmoving form. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding when I saw Jonas finally start to get up. The Razor Tusk, bloodied and injured, began to turn toward Jonas as he slowly got to his feet.

I thought he wouldn't get up in time and be killed. I dropped from the tree and started moving forward, spear ready to go. Jonas got to a kneeling position but still had his side exposed. The boar snorted, stamped its hooves, and was about to rush forward. I was still too far away to get there, but I started running anyway.

The boar took a single lunge forward and then fell on its side. It was unable to support itself after Jonas' strike. I could tell the creature was still alive from its heaving breaths, but all its fight had left. Jonas walked up the boar cautiously. Finding an advantageous position, he struck it in its head, the spike drilling through its skull and ending its life.

"Good job keeping it busy," Jonas said with a grin. "Companion Mode," he stated flatly, and his armor started to retract.

I watched in fascination as it began the retraction process. The minor breastplate began to fold up into strips of metal. The exoskeleton started to detach from Jonas' body, folding up into each other.

Jonas held his arms forward as the robot retracted and condensed down his arms toward his hands. When the amalgamation of metal became too heavy for him to hold up, he bent down and placed it on the ground. The mass released from his forearms, and he stood up free from the burden. His robot continued transforming on the ground for a few more moments until it was again in its doglike Companion Mode.

Jonas looked over at the felled monster ponderously. I also considered the vicious creature.

"The meat is no good, and we wouldn't be able to take it with us if it was, but its pelt and tusks are too valuable to leave." I waited to see what he wanted. He looked at the sun through the trees. "If we treat and wrap it well, it should be good until we get back home. Looks like we'll have to stay here tonight. There's some rope in my bag; go get it would you?"

I nodded and moved to get the rope while Jonas started dragging the oversized boar toward a tree so we could skin it. He didn't even need to use his armor to drag the monster over. I didn't think that I would have been able to drag it at all.

We didn't have a gambrel or any other hook to hang the boar, so we tied its hind legs the best we could with rope. After tying up the legs, we hoisted the boar high enough to work on comfortably. We sliced the skin upward on the inside of each leg and then circled around the hock.

After that, we worked the skin down the body and all the way to its head. When we encountered difficult areas, we used knives to separate the skin from the meat. We lacked a saw to easily remove the front legs, so we had to hack and pry at the legs to remove them.

Instead of removing the head to take it with us, we just cut the hide off at the base of the boar's neck. Jonas took the hide so he could treat and wrap it while I worked on carefully removing the tusks. The process took me the most time. Most of the tusk was inside the jaw.

The most interesting part was seeing how the metal tusks gradually transformed into bone as I cut away as much meat as possible from the jaw. I removed all the meat to the hinge, then pulled the jaw back as far as it would go until it dislocated itself from the socket. Unable to do anything further with the tusks until we made it back home, I cleaned the jawbone off as well as possible and then secured it with the hide. While skinning and extracting the razor tusks took a while, it seemed that we still had a little over an hour of daylight left once we were done.

After discussing it, we decided to continue further along the trail. The remains of the monstrous boar would attract other animals, and Jonas wanted to be a little closer to our destination so we could get a good start in the morning.