The thing was a lot more powerful than it should have been, and Sam wondered where it had gotten all of its essence from. He closed the interface and broke the bad news to Jeffrey.
“Shit. Should we just wait until it comes to the city then, and nuke it with the superior mana cannon or something?”
“I doubt it will come that close to the city. Also, as long as it remains out here, our forces will find it hard to level up. Not only is it a threat to them, but it also removes monsters from the ecosystem making it harder to find enough.”
“Fine. Let’s rush to our deaths then,” Jeffrey said, readying his guns.
Sam enhanced his hammer and his body and then charged out of the undergrowth, leaping into the air as he ran. It was not necessarily the best move to pull off in a battle, as it provided an opening for attack, but against a monster that was many times his size, it was the only way to close the distance quickly enough.
Jeffrey peppered its back with shots, and as the boar turned around, a growl building in its throat, Sam slammed his hammer down on its forehead. The boar crashed down to the ground with a dull thump, bleeding molten hot blood from its head.
The boar roared in anger, and blasted Sam with a wave of superheated air, sending him crashing into a nearby tree. His armor was heated by the blast, almost to a degree that could hurt Sam. However, he muscled through the discomfort, and recovered as quickly as he could.
The boar pawed at the ground, and then stomped many times in quick succession, rupturing the earth beneath its hooves. Then it charged, trailers of flame licking at the air around it. The creature moved far faster than its size would indicate, and Sam barely got out of the way before it struck the tree behind him, turning it into a cloud of charred splinters.
Jeffrey’s shots were barely doing anything to the creature, except to annoy it, and it paid the man no heed, instead focusing on Sam, who had actually been able to hurt it. It rose on its back legs, and came crashing down, its hooves imbued with fiery light. The ground splintered, and a wave of molten rock surged out of the earth, heading straight for Sam. It was too wide for him to dodge, so instead he leaped up into the air, flying some twenty odd feet straight up. The wave passed underneath him, but not quickly enough, and if he didnt do something quickly, he was in for a lava bath.
Sam tightened his control over himself with Girdings of the Arbiter, managing to freeze his body in place for a fraction of a second. The effort tore apart his muscles and skin, but it was worth it. Landing on the scorched earth left by the attack, Sam laughed.
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The boar screeched in rage and opened its mouth wide, revealing a glowing ball of fire forming in the back of its throat. With a sudden motion, it spat it at Sam. The ball of fire grew in the air as it flew, rapidly becoming larger than Sam himself. He rolled to the side, but the edge of the attack caught his left arm, scorching it through his armor.
Wincing at the pain, Sam rolled to his feet, getting ready to dodge. However, the monster was already there. It had charged in the interim between Sam rolling and getting up, and its plow-like forehead caught him in the chest, cracking bones and sending him flying backwards. He really needed to find some way to deal with the knockback from his enemies. It was getting quite annoying.
As Sam fell, he summoned twin bolts of energy to his hands, and he juggled his hammer between them as he charged up Anger’s Reach. The skill went off a moment later, and two lances of energy shot towards the boar, skewering it through one eye and one foreleg. The beast howled in pain, and charged towards Sam, trying to catch him before he landed.
Using the same trick from earlier, Sam arrested his momentum for a mere moment, and made it so that he landed on the boar’s back rather than the ground. Gathering power from deep within himself, Sam brought his hammer crashing down on the creature’s head, using both hands for maximum force. The boar squealed as its skull broke beneath the onslaught, and it stumbled for a moment before falling. Already assuming victory, Sam got ready to hop off. However, the boar was far from done.
A wave of flame erupted from every part of its body, sending Sam whirling off into the distance, his body covered in severe burns. The beast rose to its feet, and its wounds started to heal over as it did. Sam flickered in and out of unconsciousness as he watched, and struggled to get up. The boar pawed at the ground once more, and charged. With a deep breath, Sam prepared to use his new skill, the one that would injure him almost beyond recovery.
Before he could do so however, a pillar of light erupted from where Jeffrey had been standing. A moment later, a thick beam of energy lanced toward the boar, stopping it in its tracks. Jeffrey emerged from the woods, glowing faintly, and he sent another bolt of power toward the boar, this time breaking the skin. His body glowed with a faint light as he walked, and Sam could sense the presence of a Dao Fragment within him. Jeffrey had evolved, and just in time too.
Sam used the time to get to his feet, and the two men faced off against the boar in unison. It looked from one man to another, unsure of whom to target, which was a mistake, as Sam was already in motion. Two strikes from his hammer, imbued with as much power as he could feasibly pack into them, split the beast’s foreleg in two, causing it to slump to the ground.
Jeffrey’s new attack lanced through the remainder of the leg, cleanly separating it from the rest of the body. The boar roared, and summoned another fireball in the back of its throat. As the attack emerged into the air, Jeffrey sent another attack hurtling towards it. The ball detonated in the boar’s mouth, blasting off the top of its head. A wave of essence entered the two men, and they both let out a sigh of relief. It was over.