Having walked for some time, the leader then signaled the group to move silently and remain hidden as they drew closer to the boars. Ray readied his bow, creeping through the underbrush with the rest of the hunters. Ahead, he observed a pond where the pack gathered. The leader signaled for the group to stop and take their positions around the tree line. Ray positioned himself, arrow nocked, awaiting the signal.
“Now.”
The arrow flew from Ray’s bow, penetrating the closest boar’s skull, killing it instantly. He quickly knocked another arrow and fired it at the next boar, striking this one in the lungs. Two more arrows flew from his bow, the first one missing as the boars panicked and scatted in all directions. The second one hit a boar, changing in his direction in its front leg, causing it to fall over. He quickly fired another arrow, finishing it before a wave of vertigo came over him. He tried to find the cause, finally looking at his status and realizing that his stamina had fallen to 0/10. Using the arrows seemed to have consumed some of this resource, causing him to feel tired. For the first time since getting it, he cursed the spark that he had received. He could fire three times the amount of arrows before integrating with it. His train of thought shattered as a boar charged straight at him, attempting to gore him with its tusks. He struggled to push through the vertigo, barely drawing his dagger. Seconds before the impact, he pointed the dagger in the boar's direction, infusing the 5 MP needed to extend the blade. The boar charged headfirst into the glowing point, stopping its charge and instantly killing it as the tip exited out the back of its skull. Ray collapsed to the ground, panting. He needed to find out how to gain more stamina and do so immediately if only shooting five arrows made him this tired. Resting was his only option while the group pursued escaping boars. After about a minute, he felt enough of his strength to return to stand. He walked over to an exhausted Erith. She had not brought a ranged weapon, instead opting to only use her staff. Ray plopped down on the ground beside her.
"How many did you get?”
She asked.
"Just four. I ran out of steam before I could do anything else."
“I was having the same problem, but I gained a level during the fight, and after allocating my available point to endurance, my maximum increased by 10,”
Ray brought up his status screen, noticing that he had increased to level 3 during the fight. He quickly allocated the 2 available points that he had to endurance only increasing the stat by one because of his multiplier. He was happy that he now had a maximum of 30 stamina, the Level Up also increasing it. A brief rest preceded the leader's signal for the group's return to the village. While they were resting, a few of the hunters loaded a large cart with the slain boar. Ray helped haul it back, grabbing one rope attached to the cart and pulling. When the sun was directly overhead, they finally made it back to the village.
“Come to me for your pay.”
A large man shouted while villagers unloaded the cart. Ray joined a line forming in front of the man, waiting for his turn. When it finally got to him, the man checked a list before handing him three gold coins. He walked off to the side, waiting for Erith and Chio to receive their coins. His eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw Chio pocket four coins. But he still looked pale, even having killed more boars than both him and Erith, who had also gotten three coins.
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“Nice work. If we keep this up, I'm sure that we will reach level 10 before the horde arrives.”
Ray said. Erith nodded, determination in her eyes while Chio stared blankly into the distance.
“I need to go, but I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
Chio said before walking off.
"Any idea what's going on with him?"
Ray asked Erith
“His family is one of the more powerful ones within the clan and, from what I know, his brother was their favored child. He must be struggling with the fact that he is now expected to fill his shoes only a day after his death.”
“Oh.”
Ray sympathized with Chio, but couldn't relate. Considering his circumstances, high expectations hardly seemed his biggest problem. Ray and Erith chatted for a while longer about the hunt before she had to leave. The sun was still high and his stamina was full once again. Ray went out hunting on his own to see if he could secure another level today. He walked out of the village and towards a small creek where he knew groups of deer liked to gather around. He climbed a tree overlooking the creek and waited for a group of deer to arrive. A herd emerged from the woods after about 30 minutes. Ray prepared his first shot, aiming at a large buck drinking from the creek. But right as he prepared to shoot, the deer suddenly ran off as a sound like nails on a chalkboard filled his ears. He looked toward the noise and his heart stopped. A creature that resembled a man, but with metallic skin, long claws, and the maw of a wolf, crept from the forest, each step echoing with a metallic scrape. Ray knew what this creature was. His clan scribe had described them in one of his classes. He called it a shrieker, and it was the most common foot solder in the Shrieking hordes. Ray climbed down from the tree and started backing away from the creature, careful not to make a sound. But, focused on the creature, he didn't notice a small twig under his right foot until it was too late.
Crunch.
With blinding speed, the creature turned and sprinted toward him. He barely ducked in time, avoiding a claw swipe that went directly over his head. The shrieker slammed into a tree behind Ray, its claw getting logged in the bark. Without wasting his chance, Ray ran back towards the village while the creature was stuck, but he was too far and too slow. He heard the awful noise quickly approaching him before turning and drawing his daggers. Seconds later, the beast was upon him. He tried to block its next claw strike, but the force of the impact sent his smaller dagger flying and it left three gashes on his arm. Quickly adapting, Ray tried to create some distinct using the blade extension feature to stab at the creature while retreating. It did not dodge or block when he struck, instead charged faster and fully focused on offense. Several more deep cuts opened across Ray's body, but for every strike it landed, he landed two. This continued for a few minutes before Ray felt the vertigo overtaking him.
No No not now, just a little more.
He internally screamed. But his body did not listen. He could not dodge the next strike. The creature sent him flying into a tree with a large gash mark on his chest. Pain overtook his every thought as he slumped against the tree stump. The creature reduced its pace to a walk, leaving a trail of black ichor behind it. As it closed in Ray's mined world before he finally came up with a last-ditch plan. He pointed his dagger at the creature and infused every mana point he had left into the blade. An explosion of light radiated out as an edge expanded larger than some of the nearby trees before fading. The blade of the dagger almost fully crumbled as Ray held it, but it had done its job. The creature fell to the ground, bisected by the strike. Ray could no longer stave off the pain radiating from his chest and despite his struggle to stay awake, darkness soon took him.