We made our way past a cluster of tall trees to find the river curving sharply in front of us, its riverbank wide and muddy at the bend. From the cover of the trees, we had a nice view on the boar-like creatures drinking on the other side of the water. Each of them was small – about the size of a dog – but the tusks jutting out their mouths were as long as my forearm. To make up for the weight of their enormous appendages, the bodies of these little boars were stocky to the point where I couldn’t really tell whether they had necks. The coarse hair that covered their body seemed to be brownish-gray, though it was difficult to tell from all the mud.

“Is that the mother swine?” Pell whispered, pointing somewhere. Not far from the animals, the bushes rustled softly before Tamara’s head popped out of the leaves.

“That’s just rude,” I remarked. “Pell, there’s no need to insult each other.”

“Eh? What I meant is that these are piglets. I think I saw something larger over there—oh no. Those two are going to try killing the piggies, aren’t they?”

“Probably,” I said, watching Simon as he moved past Tamara, stalking closer to the riverbank. I wondered why the boars weren’t more alert. Subpar senses, or no natural predators in this region? Whatever the case, Tamara and Simon could sneak relatively close to the ten or so drinking animals.

Chances were good that the piglets would flee under attack, but even if they didn’t, killing them wouldn’t be more difficult than the gnomes had been. Not with the Abilities we now possessed. I didn’t see the larger swine Pell had mentioned, but I supposed it was worth a shot to hunt these boars either way. We had to take risks from time to time if we wanted to eat.

Quest received: Piggy hunt

I blinked the message away quickly, my eyes following Tamara as she held up her hand. A glossy gray orb materialized between her fingers, which she promptly tossed at the boars. The orb would have fallen short of its target, if it didn’t turn completely white mid-flight to sail forward on its previous trajectory, unhindered by gravity. When the closest piglets noticed the flying object, it was already too late for them. The orb stopped in the air, its surface changed to black, and everything on the riverbank began to gravitate toward it. Leaves, small branches, bits of dirt, even some water—the orb lifted them all up like a miniature black hole, except it didn’t absorb anything. The effect caught three of the squealing boars too, slamming them together around the small orb.

The rest of the herd was already bolting away when Simon rushed in, clutching his sword. His other hand held a small fireball as he ran, the orange flames licking his palm without hurting him. He flung his fire at the Gravity Orb and hit all three boars at once. It would have been a frightening display of the combined power of Simon’s and Tamara’s Abilities, if not for that small trickle of water that the orb kept picking up from the river, soaking the pigs. As it currently stood, the fireball hadn’t been enough to hurt the animals seriously—they were actually closer to drowning than catching fire. If Tamara could keep her orb going – maintaining it had something to do with mana costs – the three piglets would be dead soon anyway.

“Oh no,” Pell gasped as a large shape burst through the undergrowth a bit farther down the river, letting out a deafening squeal. “That’s a really angry momma pig.”

The swine that appeared was more than just angry. Built like a rhinoceros and around the same size too, it sported two enormous tusks that jutted forward like a pair of spears. The beast turned its massive head to the drowning piglets, then toward Simon who stood out in the open—and charged immediately.

Simon turned to run, but after a few steps he had to realize that he wouldn’t be able to escape. With a fierce shout he summoned another fireball and flung it back at the charging beast, only for the Gravity Orb to suck it in. But Tamara’s Ability affected the enraged boar too; when the beast moved into the orb’s range, it lost its footing as the altered gravity lifted it up. The boar’s momentum remained though, making it careen through the air in a wide arc, flying just barely over Simon. The boar slammed into the ground with an explosion of mud, and Simon didn’t hesitate to throw another fireball at the beast’s back. The flames didn’t do anything to the boar’s thick hide, however.

There was a heartbeat of tense silence, during which Simon conjured another fireball into his hand. He took a cautious step toward the prone beast—which then abruptly moved, getting back to its feet. Simon threw the fireball once again, which caused about as much damage as the previous one.

“Well, he’s dead,” I spoke, feeling sick.

“He’s not dead yet,” Pell said, then pressed his hands against the tree we were hiding behind. Pieces of the bark burst free to reattach themselves alongside his arms, while at the same time the ground beneath us shook as the earth floated up to cover his legs.

“Umm—”

I didn’t know what to say, but I sure as hell didn’t like where this was going. As cool as Pell’s Protective Shell was, I doubted it could withstand getting trampled over by a rhino.

Down on the other side of the river, the beast had already turned around to watch Simon menacingly. Our nascent pyromancer was backing up slowly, moving closer to the Gravity Orb behind him.

“We’re helping him,” Pell spoke decisively as the bark finished covering his chest. Without waiting for me to answer, he jumped down to the water and broke into a run, wading across the river as fast as his long legs allowed.

“What happened to our plan to run away?” I called out, but jumped after Pell anyway. I could teleport to my dagger, after all. Oh, I could teleport to it just fine. It had to be enough, right? I had no idea how we were going to save Simon, but I wouldn’t be pulped into the ground … or impaled by an enormous tusk. Definitely none of those things. I just had to teleport in time.

The boar charged again, and this time Simon did try to run. He jumped straight into the Gravity Orb’s zone, which lifted him up and out of the boar’s way in the very last moment. It had the unfortunate side effect of submerging him in a bubble of water, though. The boar flew off once again and Tamara dismissed her orb as soon after, letting the entire ball of muddy water splash to the ground. At first I thought Simon had been buried alive, but then I heard his sputtering cry and saw him stumble to his feet, covered in mud from head to toe.

“Run!” Pell yelled as the boar stomped its feet, eyeing Simon like a bull would the matador. A transparent blue hand shot past me a second later, grabbing Simon and yanking him back so hard that he fell into the mud once again. I glanced behind me to see Teva’ryn standing at the other side of the phantom arm, his feet skidding across the ground as he pulled himself and Simon closer to each other. Imaya and Devi’lynn were running up to us too, not far behind the Sylven man. Their presence gave me a bit of hope; perhaps the boar would cease attacking once it saw that we outnumbered it.

“Any plans?” I murmured as the others lined up next to me and Pell. Teva’ryn said something I didn’t understand, after which Devi’lynn created three clones in quick succession. Simon groaned miserably while he tried to crawl away from the boar, but apart from him none of us moved. We stared down the boar and it stared back at us. It reminded me of a certain upside-down goose, except this creature looked way scarier—especially from this close. The beast’s beady eyes oozed hatred, its jaw dribbled saliva, snorting and heaving heavy breaths, enormous tusks fixed right at us. Contrary to my hopes, the boar wasn’t intimidated by our numbers. Intent on avenging its piglets, it seemed to be ready to trample us to the ground.

And its dirty-yellow tusks seemed to be glowing.

“Guys, something is—” Imaya spoke, but the boar cut her off with a shrill cry. Its tusks got rapidly brighter and brighter, turning white-hot as if they were heating up from the inside. Before I realized what was going on, the boar fired a glowing energy bullet from the tip of its tusk that whizzed over our heads, barely missing Teva’ryn. The boar then stomped its feet and fired again, this time from its other tusk. I ducked behind Pell by reflex, but the big guy didn’t have anyone to hide behind; he cried out as the bullet hit him, stumbling into me and then falling sideways.

Everyone burst into motion at once. Pell was rolling on the ground, howling in pain and struggling to remove his smoking shield from his arm. The boar fired again, this time narrowly missing Imaya while she ran for the bushes. Teva’ryn, the best fighter of our group was retreating too—the boar’s fourth shot grazed his side as he launched a phantom-hand at the nearest tree. The only one pressing the offensive was Devi’lynn, sending her copies one by one to the boar. The bullets popped the clones like balloons, but each of them was able to block a single bullet—which happened to be the only reason I wasn’t dead yet. This thought finally jolted me into action. I flung Soul Eater toward the trees—and botched it terribly. My traitorous fingers had released the handle too late, and so the dagger landed only a couple of steps ahead of me.

I teleported to Soul Eater anyway, too panicked to think properly. Another mistake; I arrived in a crouch, my vision shifting so fast that it made me dizzy. I didn’t gain any time compared to running, and I had put my teleportation on cooldown. While I was trying to get my bearings, a Devi’lynn-clone jumped in to cover me and burst into smoke a heartbeat later. I saw Teva’ryn – standing at the treeline already – extend his phantom-limb back to grab Devi’lynn. The Sylven girl yelled furiously as Teva’ryn yanked her to the ground and started to pull her in, extracting her from the line of fire.

With Devi’lynn and her clones gone, I was the only one standing in the open.

For an embarrassingly long moment, I debated throwing myself to the ground next to Simon and Pell. That moment passed quickly, however; I had hesitated for too long. The boar aimed its glowing-hot tusks at me and me alone. I looked into the beast’s wild eyes, saw the crack of discharged energy at the tip of its horn, watched the buzzing bullet close in on me. We then moved our hand in the very last moment, blocking the bullet with our dagger’s blade. The boar fired another shot right after, this time from its other tusk, but we batted the bullet aside just as easily. Our body had nimble and precise fingers, with better reflexes and higher depth perception than an average human could boast of.

The third shot came, and we parried it with Soul Eater before going on the offensive. Instead of running, we decided on a leisurely walk to maintain the accuracy of our hand. We moved toward the beast, blocking each bullet of condensed essence with minimal effort. Seeing the ineffectiveness of its attacks, the creature stomped irritably and ceased firing. As expected, it then decided to charge at us.

We flipped the dagger in our hand and grabbed its blade, shaping it quickly for optimal balance. When the beast closed half of the distance between us we threw the weapon, quick and precise. From this distance, it was impossible to miss; the blade spun in the air once before it sank into the boar’s left eye. Not enough to stop the boar’s charge, naturally, so we teleported ourselves to sit on the beast’s head and twist the dagger deeper into its eye socket. This finally did the trick; the boar came to an abrupt halt that threw me off its head, and I hit the ground in a roll that momentarily knocked the air out of my lungs.

I lay on my back, my arms aching. Something felt off … maybe? I felt numb. With hazy eyes, I watched the trees above me sway in the gentle breeze. Serene and beautiful. I was glad to be alive. Now, if only that annoying message didn’t obscure my vision…

Weapon Skill discovered: Dagger Throw

A high-pitched wail sounded near me, and I jolted in panic. I tried to shake off my stupor, tried to get on my feet. Why wasn’t that freakish boar dead already?! I turned to the animal as it writhed in pain, thrashing wildly with Soul Eater still lodged in its eye. Before the boar could have any funny thoughts about starting to shoot at me blindly, I focused on changing Soul Eater’s shape. Extending it, branching it, pushing it in multiple directions, causing as much internal damage as I could. Eventually, after what felt like ages, the struggle came to an end; with a final jerk of its head, the boar sunk to the ground and fell still.

Quest completed: Piggy hunt
+1 Feat

I half-expected the usual white mist to erupt from the gigantic boar, but no such thing happened this time. Apparently I still didn’t understand this world as much as I had thought—which hadn’t been very much to begin with. No matter. With the boar defeated and me in one piece, I felt … relieved? No, not exactly relieved. It was a sense of satisfaction that I felt, something like … satiated hunger.

Congratulations, your level has increased!
Level 5 reached.

“What the heck, Randel?” Imaya spoke behind me, making me jump. “Have you just thrown the dagger into its eye?”

I frowned as I tried to think back what had just happened, massaging my sore shoulder. The rest of the team was emerging from their covers too, regarding me and the dead boar with strange looks.

“Got lucky, I guess.”

“Lucky?” Imaya asked. “You parried like all the shots the boar fired at you! How? Are you secretly a ninja or something?”

“Of course not,” I said, rolling my eyes. “If I were secretly a ninja, you wouldn’t know about it. No, I’m openly a ninja.”

“Really?”

“Ugh, no. I don’t know how I did it, okay? Must have been the adrenaline rush. It can happen in these life-and-death situations, can it not?”

“Perhaps, but—oh no, Pell!” Imaya exclaimed, running past me. “I’m not done with you, Mister Openly-Ninja! I’ll get your secrets later!”

Tamara followed Imaya without a word, helping Simon up to his feet and checking on Pell’s wound. Meanwhile, Teva’ryn stopped beside me and inclined his horned head, a gesture that looked like a nod of thanks—or perhaps even approval. Hopefully he wouldn’t overestimate me just because I got a little lucky. The last thing I needed was people counting on me during a fight.

Devi’lynn grinned at me as she came closer, her face and hair streaked with dirt but not bothered by it the slightest.

“Good,” she said. “We fight good.”

I averted my eyes from her, looking at the dead boar instead. Soul Eater was still in the beast’s eye socket, blood dripping from the wound. Good fight? The only good fights were the ones I didn’t partake in. Taking a deep breath to compose myself, I teleported Soul Eater to my hand. The blade was spotlessly clean of course, looking more like a piece of art than a killer’s weapon. The smooth obsidian surface of the twisting and branching weapon reminded me of an abstract sculpture.

“Roots,” Devi’lynn said, pointing at Soul Eater. I blinked, not understanding her at first. I looked at Soul Eater again, and — in spite of everything that had happened — felt a smile tugging at my lips.

“Roots,” I agreed. “Now, where were we?”