“Get out of the way!” TJ screamed as the hunters behind him panicked. He hurled his two backpacks through the window of the nearest cabin, the glass shattering as the laden packs smashed through the flimsy panes. Then, no longer laden, TJ activated Divine Transformation and compressed the winds into his tail. He watched his MP plummet as he forced more and more of his power into the single Skill. An arrow multiplied into a dozen as Zig tried to slow the flood of furry pigs, but only one faltered with the attack, the others who’d been hit simply ignoring the glancing blows they sustained.

Just like the coyotes he’d seen thus far, the javelinas were larger and more violent than ever before. They screamed their rage to the heavens, and they charged forward in one unyielding body. Though they were usually somewhat furry, their hair had grown to exhibit a sort of a metallic sheen, the coarse pelts gleaming in the midday sun. In addition, their usually somewhat friendly looking snouts were now ringed by vicious looking tusks like a warthog’s. They screamed in unison as they drew ever closer.

Once his MP reached a mere 100 and the javelinas’ charge had drawn them within 50 feet or so, TJ threw the scythe of wind out, sending it slicing into the javelina’s comparatively weaker legs. Pained screeches and squeals answered his attack and several collapsed to the ground with his initial assault. The implacable pace of the piglike beasts behind them trampled anything in their way, some of their own no exception. TJ disregarded the kill notifications, only taking note that the four that’d died were all level 4.

The other hunters rallied, the Acolytes shooting the impending danger with their Sacred Weapons while the Zealots and Charlie began throwing whatever they could lay hand on into the mass of beasts. The javelinas squealed their rage as one higher, somehow more piercing cry than the rest rang out. As soon as that somehow different cry washed over the herd of javelinas, the hurtling mass renewed their charge and better disregarded the wounds they’d gained.

TJ fled, the javelinas growing far too close for him to continue trying to thin their numbers. He felt the rumbling of the ground under his belly and rushed to the right, trying to dodge between trees. At least ten of the javelinas broke from the rest to follow him, the other nearly twenty continuing to smash towards the other hunters. TJ couldn’t concern himself with them, focusing instead on how to keep himself alive. He had no delusions of surviving being trampled by over 1,000 pounds of angry warthog.

He drew further away from the javelinas as they were forced to dodge around larger stones and trees, but TJ could see the flanks beginning to turn back towards their fellows. TJ gritted his teeth, as much as he could as a snake, and leapt nearly straight up into the air. The confused javelinas slowed as they were going to pass underneath him. Now that they weren’t fully up to speed, TJ was willing to press his attack. His jaws found the base of a javelina’s skull, and he bit as deeply as he could while his tail wrapped desperately around another’s neck.

A third javelina charged forward, its tusks seeking his head and TJ conjured a foot long blade of wind directly below it, taking his MP to a diminutive 37/280. As it sliced up into the javelina’s throat, its eyes widened in terror as it gurgled for more breath. The other seven javelinas took that opportunity to begin gouging him with their tusks and stomping him with their hooves. TJ felt his many ribs begin to crack under the pressure, but surprisingly, his scales held the tusks back from shredding him to pieces.

Surprised but willing to seize on the moment, TJ pressed the momentary advantage. With a twist of his body, he lifted the javelina he held in his mouth into the air. It squealed and cried out, but he used it like a club against its fellows. Even so, the living and free seven javelinas continued to attack, and TJ watched as, though he was protected from much of the damage, his HP ticked down.

900/940

850/940

775/940

650/940

Though he sustained damage and struggled to deal killing blows, TJ used whatever tool was available to him, constriction, biting, and slamming his weight into the enraged creatures. By the time his HP reduced to 500/940, he’d killed four more of the javelinas, leaving just five, though they were mostly all healthy. He desperately wanted to create a huge guillotine of wind to kill them all in one fell swoop, but TJ had learned that precise, sharp uses of his Skill functioned much better than a wide, hopeful attack.

Enduring four stomping and goring attacks, TJ wrapped the entirety of his body around the fifth. While it was immobilized and tusks pierced his body, he conjured a two-inch long blade of wind under it. MP 29/280, but the javelina immediately began seizing up as the wind dismembered its throat. TJ had been gored in two locations and the two javelinas pulled him apart, his spine cracking as he was stretched further than his body naturally allowed. Though he hissed in agony, TJ’s mind continued to race and he threw the last of his MP into conjuring a blade where he thought one of their spines was. He sent it careening down, and the disturbingly familiar sound of harsh winds slicing into flesh filled the air. Luckily, the creature holding him in the air crumpled to the ground, and TJ painfully hauled himself off the curled tusk.

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With a wet slap, TJ’s body fell to the ground, but he raised his head up. His HP remained above 200, so he would survive for now. He disregarded the moderate Bleeding affliction. Three more to kill. No more MP. Just his body. With a roaring hiss, TJ threw himself at the javelina that still held its tusk lodged in his body. His coils sought its neck, but found its ribs instead. Bones crack. Javelina screamed. Another rushed in. His jaws found its eyes. It squealed in agony. TJ pressed the attack. Wet pops and a foreign taste. He bit harder, his coils breaking more bones. He was blinded with rage. Two death notifications. He dropped the two corpses. The final javelina was somewhere. He would find it. Where?

His tongue flicked out of his mouth, tasting the air. There, the scent of fear and javelina, and when he opened his eyes to see once more, the creature was fleeing. With a maddened laugh, the coatl rushed after the beast and its jaws found the flesh of its prey’s hind leg. Once it was caught, the hunt was over, as the coatl’s coils quickly enveloped its food and cracked bones. The death notification took too long too appear, and he distended his jaws and settled them around the creature’s head, where he twisted hard and its spine snapped with a wet noise. The coatl hissed with pleasure and, with a toss of its neck, swallowed its prey whole.

TJ slowly returned to himself, the feeling of being pleasantly full washing over him. He glanced down and saw his belly distended by the javelina’s corpse. Looking at his flashing notifications, he saw the death notifications and the Affliction warning.

10 Javelinas, Level 4, Slain. Experience gained.

Warning: You are suffering from a minor Bleed affliction. You will continue to lose 2 HP a minute until the Bleed condition is cured.

“Wasn’t that a moderate Bleed affliction just a minute ago?”

Due to the relatively nonthreatening nature of your wounds, your body’s Vitality has naturally recovered from the moderate Bleed condition. You are still suffering from the minor Bleed condition. Due to your Vitality, you are able to heal from minor wounds more quickly than many other Dirt level Divinity Participants.

“And how long will it take me to purge the condition entirely?”

You will recover from the minor Bleed affliction in five minutes.

TJ sighed and finally turned his attention away from the System. In front of him, a horrified girl, the one with the boomerang, stared at him. In that moment, TJ felt the blood drip from his jaws and flow down his body. He was coated in the crimson liquid, both his own and that of the javelinas. He shifted back to his human form and looked down. His clothes were mostly clean, but he could still taste the eyeball that’d popped in his mouth. When he swiped the back of his hand across his mouth, it came away streaked with blood.

“It’s–” TJ coughed the dribble of blood in his throat clear, spat it out, and tried again. “It’s not all mine. Don’t worry too much.”

When he said that, the girl’s eyes widened even further and she stumbled away from him. Probably not the best thing to tell a frightened teenager, but TJ couldn’t bring himself to care. He walked back towards the rest of the hunters, hopeful to find no dead bodies.

Mary’s twisted corpse denied him that hope. A half dozen puncture wounds dotted her body, and TJ imagined he could see the moment when her MP had given out under the javelinas’ assault. More disturbing than the places where the tusks had torn into her, though, were the tears that streaked her face, the single eye that remained. The right side of her face had been trampled by the beasts, and her face was distorted and misshapen from her destroyed skull. TJ felt his gorge rise, gave his best efforts, and barely staved off the surge of nausea that demanded he vomit. He breathed solely through his mouth, trying to calm down.

“He was–like–he–a monster–eating–blood everywhere–”

“Calm down Sheridan. What happened?” Zig interrupted the girl that had fled from TJ’s presence.

She pointed an accusatory finger at TJ. “He was eating them! Raw, like a monster! He’s covered with their blood! He was…” Sheridan gathered her strength and glared at TJ. “It’s your fault Mary’s dead!”

TJ was still too nauseated to respond, and Sheridan continued her wild accusation. “You wanted us to keep searching, to go farther, to find more things, and that’s why Mary died! If you weren’t so greedy, a monster, a fucking bastard, then she’d be alive! It’s all your fault, and how we have to bury another friend. How dare you!”

Sig and Charlie tried to calm the girl, but TJ’s vision went red and he leaned forward, bellowing into her fearful face, “I took care of ten of them myself! You had ten people and only twenty javelinas. On top of that, I killed at least four of them before you did a damn thing!”

“Then you should have done more instead of running away!” Sheridan gathered herself and screamed back, tears streaking down her dirty face. “If you’re so fucking strong, why’d you leave the weak people to hold the line, huh?”

“Alright, if you were so strong what would you do, let them charge right into you, just stand there as they trample you? You think that’s what I did? And I’m not the person who calls the shots here, Zig is! We stayed because we have a job and if we don’t do it, people starve. But let’s pretend we went home, clapped each other on the back, and cheered over how we got a level today. Yippee! Maybe we’ll be level 10 when the Tutorial is ending!

“Then what would you have done when this same group of javelinas, ten levels higher than now, charged through every one of you and killed the people behind you in town? Huh? What if they had some Skill that made them stronger and faster? Or if they were all just twice the size they already are? What would you do then when you’re too weak and forced to stand and watch as they tear every old and young person apart because you were too weak to try harder when you could? It’s terrible that someone died, and I feel sick at having to take care of her dead body, but what the fuck else could we have done?” He waited five seconds, his eyes meeting Sheridan’s. She quickly averted her gaze, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. “Anyone?”

TJ shook his head, his hands quivering with the surging emotions inside him. With a steadying breath, he leaned away and looked up at the sky.

“Someone get some rope. Tie as many of the javelinas to my body and I’ll take them back to town. I’ll stay with you if you want, or I’ll go alone. Just don’t talk to me right now.”