The barge bazaar could still be seen as it sailed off into the distance, and they were all confused by the last thing the Bounty Master said. What or who was Temajin? They had gotten some information on Sun and Shadow, but the way the Bounty Master’s words hit their ears through the sands left them a mix of nervous and excited about what they would find in the desert aside from Ember Back Boars. Looking around from their elevated position, all they could see around them were vast amounts of sand and the barge sailing away. Thankfully, the family was saved from having to walk down flights stairs as there was a hand cranked elevator that led to the sands below. Despite being in a less than hospitable environment, the gears remained rust free and cranked smoothly without sliding or catching on the rope. It took them only a minute before they reached the bottom.
They decided not to worry about the strange term that their Omniglot skill could apparently not translate as they descended the tower in the provided elevator. They needed to focus on finding Sun and Shadow, which were apparently lost somewhere in the desert around them. Nothing else to do than to start looking at this point, and maybe try breaking the bounty record if their search didn’t pan out immediately.
Leaving the elevator, they took a circular path, keeping the tower on the inside and in view before it eventually became too small to see past the sand dunes on the horizon. Eventually they heard hog like squealing coming from a rocky outcropping. Rushing over, they saw two boars fighting. They were as tall as the Djinn and more than twice as long as their height, with a line of fire like fur running down their back. It was easy to see why they were called Ember Back Boar and upon closer observation, they realized that the fire like fur was actual fire.
The boars bashed and locked tusks, wrestling before one was thrown to the ground. The winning boar unleashed a gout of fire from its mouth, which enveloped the down boar’s midsection, before charging in and goring the soft underbelly with its tusks. Blood, viscera, and stone came rolling out of the belly of the defeated boar, leaving the family recoiling in disgust and trepidation. They hadn’t expected the boars to be able to breath fire, but thinking it over, why would animals be locked by earth’s conventions in a universe of magic and science fiction?
They continued to watch, trying to muster the courage to take on an overgrown, fire breathing boar before it started eating the entrails of the boar is had just killed. Not only were the boars massive fire breathing monstrosities, they we also apparently cannibals.
“It’s not eating the other boar.” Enki said as he used one of his ocular skills. With the telescoping effect of his Archer’s Eye active, he could see that the boar was eating the blood coated rocks that had fallen out of the other boar’s belly. Curious as to why, Enki also activated Eye of Truth. Observing some of the stones before the Ember Back Boar ate them all, Enki saw red orange whisps roll off them. They had a fire affinity, and Enki made a guess that the boars were eating the stones as a form of both sustenance and empowerment.
“Why are the flames on its back growing? Is it excited from winning and now eating the other?” Trevor asked.
“It’s the stones.” Enki explained. “They have a fire affinity. It’s likely the stones are a food source for the,.”
Enki continued to watch the boar eat the fire attuned stones before something caught his eye. The lower intestines of the dead boar had spilled what looked like slag metal instead of stone. These slag pieces were desperately trying to absorb the fire mana from the attuned stone. Perhaps the stones were actually unrefined attuned ore. But why was the slag trying to greedily eat the fire attunement from the stones? Had the dead boar absorbed the energy from the ore and turned it into slag in the process? That led to the question of why the slag was still trying to absorb the energy from the ore that retained its attunement. Could something hold an attunement while lacking the energy of the attunement?
“What do you think guys?” asked Lith quietly. “Should we see just how tough these things are? Try racking up some bodies for the bounty?”
The family nodded before moving around as quietly as they could. It was a ten foot drop down from their hiding spot, which wouldn’t hurt most of them with their booster attributes. At Enki’s signal, they sprung, Matia hopping down first, summoning her golem construct from the stone walls. Immediately, the boar stepped back before beginning its charge at Matia, aiming to run straight through the golem. Half-way to her, the boar let out a gout of flame from its mouth again, which was immediately met with a shield of voltaic water, courtesy of Guidry. The shield appeared directly in front of the golem and managed to effectively block the flames from the boar before its massive body made contact. The flames stopped spilling from the boar’s mouth as it made contact with the wall of water, causing the boar to freeze momentarily was it was doused in electrified water.
Matia’s golem was ready to take advantage of the boar’s lapse in physicality and partially expended momentum. It had brough its arms together and slammed them into the boar’s head as it kneeled, causing an audible thud to ring out as the ground cracked beneath the beast. Matia stood atop her golem as her body finished constructing frozen stone armor over her midsection and head, her limbs already a smooth alabaster white. She began to manifest a spear in her hand, but the heat of the desert was making the frozen aspects of her construction take longer. Lith, with twin doppelgangers flanking him, slashed as the joints above the hooves, drawing blood as Rake pierced the furred leather skin. A loud squeal left the boar’s mouth as it recovered from the shock and impacts of their teamwork. Matia and her golem were pushed back as the boar redoubled its efforts to attack them. Landing on his feet at the backside of the boar, Lith turned around and slapped the rear of the boar, activating the intimidating aspects of Predatory Eye as he let out a very country sounding “Soo-wee piggy!”
The boar was obviously not a fan of having its butt slapped or being called a pig as it stopped pushing against the golem’s arms for a moment. It was a boar for hog’s sake. However, that momentary lapse in focus spelled its end. Fayde and Trevor approached from the sides, Fayde activating her Dominion’s Eye, which further distracted the beast. Under the effects Fayde’s fear causing gaze and Lith’s unsettling vision and verbal degradation, the boar’s guard was completely dropped for a moment. It felt the two arrows slipped into its neck, nears its spine. It felt two sets of swords carve and pierce their way into its neck, severing vessels that carried blood to and from its brain. It suddenly knew it only had a few more moments before its fire was eternally snuffed. The mighty king of the desert that it was had been usurped of its throne by six newcomers. But he would not let the kill him without trying to take out at least one of them.
The family could feel an intense heat as the blood began to pour from the neck of the boar. As the blood began to pool below the beast, it boiled on the stone. The beast began to sway slightly as it tried to hold itself up by repositioning its feet, the right front foot that Lith had targeted earlier failing to hold it up as it drew nearer to death’s door. The strip of fire along it’s back began to grow in height before flowing over its sides, turning into a boar shaped cloak of fire. The family immediately backed away from the boar, Enki keeping his eyes on the movement of the fire flavored wisps of energy. The reality imposed fires of energies were starting to condense around the boar’s body, building up to something.
“Everyone back off!” Enki shouted. “I think it’s going to blow up.” He grabbed his nephew by the shoulder and threw them both to the ground as neither of them had jumped into the hole with the others. “Get down.”
They all immediately ran back to the ten foot walls of stone that created a cage around the boar. Matia used her Geokinesis to form stair like footholds so they could rapidly climb up the wall. As they reached the top, they immediately threw themselves to the ground. It was just in time as flames completely engulfed the recess in the rocky outcropping. The flames continued to billow outward until they slowly began to die down. Enki crept over to the edge and activated Eyes of Truth again as the flames doused themselves. What was left in the crevasse was the burnt corpse of the previously dead boar, the unburnt corpse of the boar that just detonated itself, a very charred and no longer moving stone statue, and pieces of glowing fire attuned ore and slag, including a pile of fresh slag from the rear end of the boar that just killed itself.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“This hunt might be more difficult than we previously thought.” Said Fayde. “Matia, is your golem still active?”
“No.” she said through pained gasps of air as she raised her left arm which was now red and blistered. “And there was a backlash.”
Lith hurried over to his daughter and activated both of his physical healing skills as he touched her arm. The reddened skin and blistered slowly faded, giving way to healthy skin once again.
“I think you need more ice on your golems from now on.” Lith said. “We need to start leveling again soon.”
It was then that he felt the slowly growing of accumulating energy in his body reach another threshold breakthrough. The rest of them looked up in slight surprise as their thresholds also broke open.
“If you say it again, do you think we’ll get another level?” Trevor asked with a laugh.
They took a moment to observe their class cards, seeing no significant changes, before jumping back down into the now charred stone pit. The ground cracked slightly as they landed. The fires had essentially baked the top layer ground, turning it brittle. Lith, Trevor, and Enki went over to inspect the burned corpse while Fayde, Matia, and Guidry inspected the one they technically killed. The burned corpse of the boar left very little to be salvaged and would probably return very little for a bounty. Lith, not willing to let anything potentially good go to waste, grabbed the dagger from his waist and began cleaning and preparing the burnt hog. The hide was completely ruined, and half melted into the surface muscles. He cut around the ankles and wrists of the boar before cutting a line to the midsection on each end before connecting the two by cutting a final line down the chest and belly, utilizing the holes cut by the other boar. Cutting the rib bones were a challenge, even with his new strength from a fresh level up, but he eventually managed to remove the breastplate and spread open the ribs. He cut up the chest of the boar’s burnt hide to the head before cutting the trachea and esophagus. He carefully removed them and the rest of the intestines from the boar, tossing the grotesque innards to the side, which elicited a splat and come clanks. There was still some ore and slag inside the bowels on the beast.
“Trevor, you and Enki see if there are any salvageable chunks of ore in that pile of guts.” Lith suggested.
“You’re kidding.” Trevor said with a disgusted look on her face. “You want me to dig through shit covered intestines for rocks?”
“Those chunks of rock have a fire attunement according to your brother. You’re the most likely to take advantage of them. There might even be a blacksmith in the bazaar who can craft you some weapons with unique fire traits. If we get enough, we might even be able to sell them for a good chunk of credits when we get back. Then we can really live it up for a bit.”
“Ugh, fine.” Trevor said as she walked over to the discarded pile of guts, pulling her oh so insightful brother with her. They dug through the pile until she found one of the ends of the intestine and began squeezing her hand down it. Slowly she began pushing the rocky clumps down the foul smelling intestines, occasionally having to work in sections to avoid blocking up the surprisingly resistant innards. Meanwhile, Lith was stripping the flesh and cooked muscle off the boar, leaving only the fresh and relatively clean portions before further breaking down the boar.
Fayde, Matia, and Guidry looked over the unscathed corpse of the boar that had turned the rocky basin into a kiln. The blood that had been spilled into the ground was now dried and crunching under their feet. Figuring that the body was in good enough condition to be turned in got a hardy reward, Fayde grabbed one of the horns of the beast while removing the spacial bag from her waist. At first, putting the bag to the boar did nothing until Guidry suggested she move some of her mental energy to the bag and boar. She was about to ask her grandson why before just seeing what would happen. As she did so, moving mental energy towards the bag first, she felt a connection to it. Her mind’s eye perceived a vast emptiness. Moving the bag to the body of the boar, it began to almost suck the body in while shrinking the body to fin inside. Once the bag had completely consumed the body of the boar, Fayde could see the body in her mind’s eye view of the bag.
“Damn,” Fayde said as she admired the bag. “I wish I had a couple of these while doing disaster relief. Would have made supply runs so much easier.”
“If we manage to hunt enough of these boars, we can each have our own.” Matia reminded. “Who knows how handy they will be in the future.”
“We should get back to hunting as soon as Dad is done with that one then.” Said Matia.
They walked back over to the other group. Lith had cut the burnt hair and skin off the cooked portions of the boar and sampled some of it. It was a little over cooked on the outer sections, but it didn’t taste bad, just lacking in any additional flavor so the gamey taste was very prevalent. Although it did make his mouth hotter than food of that temperature should. According to Enki, the meat still had some lingering fire attuned energy on it, which explained the not quite unpleasant sensation. Like that, they discovered a new layer of flavor for Lith to experiment with. They all ate some of the boar until they didn’t feel puckish for food. Lith processed the boar down into manageable chunks before asking Fayde to throw them into the spacial bag. Meat, bones, ore, slag, major organs, including the intestine, all went into the bag. The only thing they didn’t put in the bag was the unsalvageable skin and meat.
“Should we wait here for more boar to show up?” Lith asked.
“Why would we do that?” Trevor asked.
“They seem to be mostly attracted to eating the ore according to Enki.” Lith said as he looked over to Enki.
“It was what it was eating from the entrails of the one it killed.” Enki Confirmed.
“So, we wait around the edges or the boar to come eat the ore from the exposed veins?” Matia asked.
There were several veins of ore that were exposed in the craig that they had fought in, and likely what the boars had been fighting over.
“We can give it an hour or two, but if nothing comes by we should move on and start looking elsewhere. We need to find Sun and Shadow” Fayde said.
“That’s fair.” Lith said. “Mind if I try to sweeten the pot then?”
“What do you have in mind?” Fayde asked with a questioning look.
“Can I see the body of the other boar for a bit?” Lith asked.
With slight hesitation, Fayde eventually produced the body of the boar from the bag, which landed with a thud on the ground. Lith then immediately began getting to work breaking down the good looking boar too, however, he stopped when he got to the intestines. He removed them and squeezed all of the ore and slag from the body before putting the rest of the boar and slag inside the spacial bag. He took all the ore from both of the boar and placed them in the middle of the crevasse before turning back to his family.
“And now we have bait.” He said with a smile on his face which was covered in blood from wiping away sweat. They didn’t sweat from the physical labor, but the intense heat of the desert was causing them to perspire. His hands and face were once again stained red with blood.
Roughly a half hour passed before a boar came by, likely somehow drawn in by the pile of free fire attuned ore. They took this one out in a similar manner to the first, making sure to sever the spinal column to spare themselves from having to waste time evacuating the stone hole. Lith took the time to harvest the stones from this boar as well, adding the ore to the growing pile before stowing the rest in the spacial bag. They let a full day pass like this. A boar would stumble in every thirty minutes to an hour, drawn by the ore, only to be summarily executed by the family, having its ore harvested and added to the pile before having its body stowed. A few of them decided to take a nap as their growing proficiency with taking down the boars showed their results.
“Catch a few more before heading out?” Lith asked, still covered in the blood of nearly one hundred boars.
“I was going to ask if you can stomach it, but you seem unbothered.” Fayde said as she stretched. She had just woken up from a nap, and sorely missed having coffee. Maybe the bazaar had some coffee-like drink in stock. The boar meat was tasty, and eating it freshly did a good enough job hydrating from all of the juices the meat contained, but nothing beat a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
She put her hand to the spacial bag and looked at its contents in her mind’s eye. With a thought, she moved the boar around in the spacial pocket as she had done a few times already, showing off her growing fidelity in her control of the space. In total, they currently had nineteen boar. She decided not to count the bodies of the boar they were using as food, which was only two for now. Lith seemed very eager to try more recipes with the meat from then, even going so far as to use the bones for stock when they returned to their home in first city.