Chapter 3

“I was sent during the collapse of my entire existence by the man that gave me everything. I retraced the decaying time and made my way back to where the bolt had split. The story had been written vaguely to ensure no one thinks oddly of it, I hope it works.”

-Voice of the forgotten

Nivra slipped into the forest followed by the elite Nabi warriors as they headed deeper into the forest in search of the boars. It will take at least half a day or more to reach the location of the boars Nivra thought to himself while navigating the forest. After traveling for some time, the group came upon a small clearing in the forest.

“Let us stop here for a moment, we need to prepare a few things,” Nivra commanded as he picked a relatively clear area to rest.

Nivra took off his leather sack and began rummaging through it pulling out a few different items. What he pulled out was some of the items he had got from the giant snake that had attacked him and his brother the night before. Looking around the forest floor, he quickly found a sturdy straight branch that was about as tall as he was. He then took the fang from the giant snake and the stick and bound the fang to the end of the stick making a makeshift spear.

This should work for now that snakes fang is tougher than iron, Nivra mused to himself. Hefting the snake fang spear, Nivra swung it around for a moment getting used to the feel of it. After briefly testing the spear he addressed the Nabi warriors.

“Here are some bone shards made of a giant beast, use them to make arrows they will be more effective than what we have now,” Nivra said to the Nabi warriors.

As the Nabi made the arrows, Nivra took out his sword and began to examine it thoroughly. Looking at the blade Nivra frowned as he saw that numerous hair-like fractures covered the surface of the blade. “This blade is worthless, one strong strike and it nearly shatters,” Nivra complained as he sheathed the blade.

Looking over to the Nabi finishing up their work of making the bone shard arrows Nivra called over two of the Nabi. “You two are the only tappers I have so I need to know what I have to work with,”Nivra stated to the two Nabi tappers.

“My name is Rahu, and my brother's name is Tuin, we are both body tappers and the strongest in our tribe,” Rahu boasted. Nivra took stock of these two warriors, they were well built and wearing light leather and bark armor.

“Yes being the most talented tappers in your tribe you would be the strongest,” Nivra said nodding his head. “The only real question is how strong you truly are, how long can you sustain your tapping for?”

“I can sustain it for almost three minutes at peak output,” Rahu answered proudly.

“A little over two minutes, I am a bit worse than Rahu,” Tuin replied.

Nivra looked at the two Nabi tappers in shock his eyes going wide. They are complete savages, only able to tap for a few minutes is almost worthless, Nivra thought to himself. “Since you are the best tappers I have you will come with me, the rest will stay along the path to harass the boars as we lead them to the ambush point,” Nivra explained.

“Why can’t the rest come with us, they are brave and strong!” Argued Rahu.

Nivra glared at Rahu before he began speaking. “They are staying behind because it would be suicide to take someone who is not a tapper into a pack of beasts and provoke them, they would not even be able to even to escape. So, the best route is for them to hide and harass, to draw the normal boars away from their leader,” Nivra explained it to the two warriors as if they were children.

The two warriors lowered their head in shame as their face burned from embarrassment. Nivra then turned to the other warrior and began speaking to them.

“Listen carefully everyone here is how we are going to do this,” Nivra began to announce. “Everyone but me, Rahu, and Tuin will find a place along the path to wait. Once we bring the boars through you will shoot those bone shard arrows at the normal boars, do not shoot at the white boar the arrows will not be able to pierce through its hide. Make sure to shoot for the legs, we are trying to stop as many of them as we can from being around the head boar at the ambush point,” Nivra explained his plan to the Nabi warriors.

The Nabi began packing up the small camp they had made, preparing to go and execute the plan. They scattered into the forest finding places along the path back to the village.

“Rahu, Tuin follow me we are going to go find those boars,” Nivra commanded as he walked into the forest. As they quickly traversed the forest, Rahu began to bagger Nivra with questions.

“So, how do we compare to the warriors of other people outside the forest?” Rahu asked. Nivra glanced at Rahu before replying.

“Do not be too disappointed when you learn the answer,” Nivra replied.

“Please help us expand our horizon,” Tuin requested in a humble tone.

“There are two main criteria for figuring out about how powerful a tapper is, one is how much nimora your vault contains and two how large your nimora channels are,” Nivra explained. “Of course that's just a simple and rough estimate, skill, affinities, and artifacts all play a role in the power of a tapper,” Nivra continued to teach these two naive warriors. “By my estimates, you two lack real training and do not have the methods to properly train your tapping. So, saying that you are only as strong as a mediocre ten-year-old child from a tapper family,” Nivra bluntly stated.

Rahu and Tuin stumbled in shock almost falling to the ground as surprise was written all over their face.

“That's not nice trying to play a joke like that on us, how can a little child compare to us powerful warriors,” Rahu quickly recovered laughing off Nivra’s evaluation of him.

Tuin, on the other hand, seemed to lost in thought for a moment before he began to speak. “Sir is there any way you could help train us so we can better protect our clansmen,” Tuin said with a hint of excitement.

“Sadly I cannot, I am a soul tapper while you two are body tappers, the training methods are not the same, so I am of no help,” Nivra said while shaking his head.

Tuin and Rahu faces fell in dismay as a feeling of shame and inadequacy filled them. Nivra seeing the dejected expression felt a bit of pity for them and quickly thought of a way to raise their spirits. “Don’t despair just yet, once I return home and finish this idiotic trial I can hire a body tapper to come teach you the basics,” Nivra offered with a small smile.

Hearing the offer Tuin and Rahu’s eyes lit up as excitement played across their faces. “Thank you, we would be forever in your debt for such a favor,” Tuin responded while slightly bowing.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“It's not that big of a deal for me, it's as easy as waving my hand,” Nivra said with a light laugh.

These people are so simple getting on their good side is so easy, and they are almost childishly trusting, Nivra thought to himself while looking at the smiling Nabi.

Usually, I am not this compassionate, maybe it's due to being a descendant of the Skoleta Tribe that once lived in this forest, Nivra mused as they moved closer to the location of the boars.

As the trio briskly moved through the forest the sun was slowly setting, Rahu and Tuin stopped suddenly slightly surprising Nivra. The two Nabi bowed with their head touching the ground facing to the east, they seemed to mutter some words quietly. Nivra looked on first in surprise then his expression quickly changed into disgust as he realized they were praying. The two stood up after finishing their prayer, Tuin quickly apologized “Sorry for that, it was time to pray to the night, and since we are about to undertake such a dangerous task we could not bear to skip it,”

“That's not a problem we need to get a move on and scout out the boars,” Nivra said changing the topic.

They prayed to the night that seems like it's similar to the Solonox religion of the Vascus city except much more primitive Nivra analyzed. The sun had completely set causing the forest to be almost completely dark making progress slow due to Tuin and Rahu being unable to see clearly in the almost pitch black forest.

“You two find a place to rest I will scout the boars and figure out the best plan of action, we will make our move at sunrise,” Nivra ordered.

The two Nabi nodded and went to find a place to rest as Nivra increased his speed and sped towards the location of the boars. With his unique Atomo eyes, he had a much better time navigating the forest than most other people.

Nivra quickly sped through the forest closing in on his destination, as he got closer he began to slow down and be more careful. He did not want to prematurely alert the beasts since that would completely ruin the plan. He began to see an increase in beast tracks meaning he was now entering into their territory. This was one of the most dangerous parts of the plan, one mistake and Nivra could be surrounded by dozens of boars leading to almost certain death. He came to were the boars were resting and started to observe and analyze them to figure out the best methods of luring them.

These boars are the same type that chased me and my brother relentlessly Nivra thought to himself as he observed the boars. They are about as big as a two story house and have a hide as strong as iron making them decently hard to kill, Nivra began to formulate the boar's characteristics. They do not seem to have many weak points besides their low intelligence, and even that weakness is somewhat mitigated by having that white boar around.

Nivra headed deeper into the beast's territory coming upon a meadow that seemed to be the center of the boar's territory. Nivra lingered on the edge of the meadow hiding in a tree so he could get a better view of the area. Looking into the meadow he saw a little over a dozen boars lying on the ground seeming to be asleep.

Why did it seem like there were quite a few more boars than this when they were attacking the village Nivra frowned in confusion. I did pass a few boars that were patrolling around, so maybe that's where the rest of them are, Nivra reasoned after thinking for a moment. Nivra then focused on the giant white boar trying to analyze it so he could find the best way to kill it. The white boar was a bit bigger than the others, and its tusks were much longer and seemed to be incredibly sharp.

This beast does seem to have any easily exploitable weaknesses, and even the wounds me and my brothers familiar inflicted upon it are already almost healed, Nivra thought a little bit helpless at how strong the boar was. Only its eyes are a weakness, and even our energy form familiar are unable to do any serious damage to it, so the only course of action is to use traps to hurt and hopefully kill it, or use my full strength and attempt to pierce its defense and strike a vital organ, Nivra came to a conclusion. Not only is it strong by itself it gathered together all these boars showing it's started to develop some intelligence, the only proper way is to try and separate the leader and kill it causing the rest to be leaderless making them easy prey, Nivra confirmed their plan was the best course of action.

The white boar is in the center of the meadow surrounded by other boars, making it difficult to lure it out not to mention the patrolling boars, Nivra quickly discovered some problems. After pondering for a few moments, Nivra started to form some solutions to these problems. This plan will require Tuin and Rahu to take some risks, but no one gets strong without some life and death encounters, he thought as he carefully headed back to the camp site.

Nivra reached the campsite where the two Nabi where currently resting awaiting his return. “I am back you two, and I have some bad news,” Nivra said as he entered the campsite.

“What's the problem,” Tuin asked with a slight frown.

“Here is the issue, the white boar is in the center of a Meadow surrounded by many other boars, and that meadow is furthermore surrounded by a few patrolling boars,” Nivra elaborated to the two Nabi. “So, here is the plan I have come up with, you two will be in charge of distracting the patrolling boars while I go and lure out the white boar,” Nivra laid out his plan. “That means you two will be on your own, it will be up to you to survive as I will be unable to help,” Nivra said seriously

“We are not afraid of death, if it's for the safety of our tribe we are more than willing to sacrifice our lives,” Rahu said his face full of conviction.

“No need to go that far, it's not a suicide mission just that it does have a bit of risk and with you two being body tappers you should be able to escape with a little effort,” Nivra said while lightly smiling.

Tuin looked at Nivra with a complex look before slowly speaking “the real dangerous part is yours, leading all those enraged boars, one slip up and you would be done for,” Tuin said in a worried tone. Nivra let out a slight laugh before responding.

“Show me some face, I am a peak master level tapper, and I am even able to step into the grandmaster level if going all out, compared to you two who are only mid-stage novice level,” Nivra explained the gap in power. Rahu and Tuin looked at Nivra a bit in shock and disbelief before a determined shine appeared in their eyes.

“We have to work hard to get stronger Rahu, we were just frogs in a well till our friend here enlightened us on how small we really are!” Tuin said passionately.

“Yes work hard, with my help you and your tribe can grow in strength and become a powerful ally of the Atomo clan, but, before that, we will have to survive this current obstacle,” Nivra said. The sun began to crest the horizon slowly bringing light back to the forest casting shadows everywhere. “It is time to begin,” Nivra commanded as he stood up stretching from his few hours of rest. The two Nabi nodded their heads and swiftly headed into the forest to begin the plan. Nivra slipped into the forest heading to the edge of the meadow to await the start of the mission. Sitting up in a large tree on the edge of the meadow Nivra took out his bow and an arrow with an iron tip. After waiting for almost an hour, a commotion was heard in the surrounding forest followed quickly by another showing that the two Nabi had started distracting the boars at the perimeter.

Let's get this started Nivra thought as he stood up on the tree limb nocking the arrow he summoned a part of his familiar making a black gaseous nimora seep out of his body. As the nimora surged through his channels causing his senses to increase while making him slightly euphoric, the black nimora wrapped around the arrow encasing it in a black glow. With the enhanced eyesight that tapping brought he was able to see the white boar in the meadow, holding his breath he released the arrow at the white boar. With a muffled boom the arrow shot towards the white boar leaving a faint black trail as it seemed to instantly appear at the location of the white boar. The arrow struck the boar with a thunderous roar exploding against the side of the boar sending it sliding across the ground.

“Take that you dumb beast!” Nivra yelled as he shot a few more arrows striking a few of the commons boar. All of the boars began to scream in rage as they were whipped into a frenzy, they began to madly charge at Nivra intent on killing him.

Just as planned Nivra thought as he darted into the forest not too fast nor too slow letting the boars keep him in their sights. He ran along the designated path towards the ambush point, as the boars followed him the other Nabi warriors started to shoot the bone shards arrows at some of the normal boars slowing them down and injuring them. This made the remaining boars go into an even more crazy frenzy, they chased after Nivra with even greater ferocity. Nivra chuckled at how angry the boars had become as he converted more of his soul to nimora it flowed through his channels letting him maintain his breakneck pace.

The rest of the Nabi followed behind the pack of boars doing what they could to harass them. The boars were nearly mindless in their rage completely ignoring the Nabi, they were focused solely on Nivra. The sun began its descent as Nivra neared the ambush site, after running for a few hours even with the support of tapping Nivra was beginning to feel fatigued. As he got closer to the ambush point, he began hearing the noise of battle coming from the ambush location. Nivra’s heart dropped, and his face paled as he had a terrible premonition. He quickly accelerated speeding to the designated location, upon reaching the area he saw complete pandemonium as the boars were engaged in a fierce battle with the Nabi people. He saw Koden desperately trying to hold the Nabi tribe together against the onslaught of boars.

“Dammit, this is bad,” Nivra cursed as he hefted his snake fang spear and entered the fray.