[Crash!][Squeal!!!]

 

Half expecting the boar to have made another miraculous turnaround, Fate had braced his stinging and aching body for what might have been his end, but was shocked to hear what sounded like a pained cry from the boar…

Opening his eyes and forcing himself up from his place in the dirt, he found the boar struggling to recover from an apparent impact with the obstructing tree, and attempting to remove itself from where its tusks were now stuck. Fate heaved an immense sigh of relief...

 

Fate: “Haaaaaaa!!! Ho...ly…*huff* *huff*...sh*t!!! I…*huff*...have to be the…*haaaaa*...luckiest kid alive...hahaha!!!”

 

However, his joy was overshadowed by his dread, as his stomach curled at the results of the beast’s charge, which was a pair of sizable fractures in the bark where its tusks were now firmly dug in…

 

-Oh god...I know I’m lucky, but...sh*t...that would look bad if it happened to my body...

 

The beast struggled, as it slowly attempted to remove its tusks from the trunk of the tree, much to Fate’s displeasure. Fate quickly gripped his knife, picked his aching body up, and without thinking about it, stabbed his dagger’s blade into the back of the beast!

 

[Squeaaaalll!!!!]

 

Fate was stunned by the ear-piercing cry of the boar, who began swinging its back legs wildly, almost landing a hit on Fate’s chest before he managed to get away from it, pulling his dagger from its back as it dripped blood onto the grass below, dying it red.

 

He quickly retreated, gaining a few feet of distance between himself and the beast, as he observed his trembling hand, which was holding the blood-stained weapon…

 

-I actually attacked it...I stabbed it...this blood...it isn’t mine!

 

Fate felt a strange mix of sickness and satisfaction in his heart, but in this situation, where he didn’t exactly have the liberty nor the obligation to be moral, the latter began to win out over the former. 

 

After all, even if he was human and was prone to being emotional, this was a time when even the slightest fault in his judgement could end with him being impaled on the end of one of the boar’s tusks. However, his satisfaction, on the other hand, was not something he thought to suppress…

 

-Yes, YES!!! I can do this, and I will kill this fat little f***er!!!

 

While Fate’s mental parading of himself was taking place, the enraged boar was still digging its tusks from the tree, grinding away at the innards of the trunk, while its blood continued to seep into its hair and mane. 

 

Fate slid his fingers along the grip of his dagger, caressing it as he gradually began his march towards the defenseless side of the beast while smiling, watching as it paused its escape attempts to glare at him.

Fate: “So, are you stuck, need some help?~”

 

[Grunt!!!]

 

『Dude, cut that sh*t out and stab it to death already! Being an arrogant jack*** is my thing, not yours!~』

Fate heard the voice of his counterpart through the ring in his pocket, causing his mood to sour and the grin to disappear from his face, as he continued his approach towards the entrapped beast…

He watched as the creature appeared desperately trash about, causing chunks of bark to fall from the holes its tusks had dug, and how its eyes continued to dilate as it watched the blade come closer to its flesh. He questioned why Jacob would even bother giving him the paralyzing potion, if he could entrap the beast like this, unless he had no faith in him at all.

[Grunt!!!]

Fate, now having arrived at its side, raised his blade in the air, prepared to end its life…

However, at that moment, as if it had been waiting for him to come in close, the boar’s flailing ceased and the tusks that had been stuck in the tree now began to slowly carve through the tree like an axe! 

-Sh*t...are you kidding me?!!

Fate immediately prepared to retreat, but before he could, a large gash emerged in the tree, releasing a cloud of dirt, wood chippings, and bark hurtling towards him! 

Fate: “Ughhh!!!”

Fate covered his eyes with his free hand, as he struggled to keep up his pace with the debris pelting him, running through the dust as a shadow began to appear in front of him! He looked behind himself for a moment, unsure of what was emerging ahead of him, but saw no sign of the boar’s chase, and at that moment…

-...I’ve been had!!!

He now immediately began to change his course, his feet drifting along the ground as he began to turn to his left, only to be met with a sudden force, which smashed into his right, dagger-wielding arm and sent him barrelling out of the cloud! 

Fate: “Aghhh…!!!”

Fate cried as he was sent crashing into a tree trunk! The tree now began to let down a few of its leaves, as if crying for the boy, who now sat sandwiched between its roots, clutching his arm in pain and while breathing rapidly…

-F***!!!

The dagger was still barely attached to his hand, but the fingers that once gripped it barely twitched, and the arm connected to it was visibly crooked. Fate could only stare, terrified and in pain at his now broken arm…

-What the hell...that thing...it was...baiting me?! Animals...shouldn’t be that intelligent...at least when it...comes to...humans!!!

Whether Fate’s logic on the intelligence of animals was sound was unknown, but the intelligence that this common-looking boar displayed was shocking! It knew how to draw him in by making itself appear trapped, keeping up its act until he got in close enough, and then ambushing him inside of a makeshift smokescreen from a direction he wasn’t expecting. However, Fate had managed to notice its surprise attack and, though he had been injured, he had evaded what might have been his death at the hands of the creature’s tusks... 

Fate now began to wonder about just how intelligent regular animals in Ilthea were supposed to be, but fixed his attention on his throbbing, broken arm. 

-Damn...this...hurts!

There was no way that he would be able to make it through the battle with his body in such terrible shape, especially since it was his dominant arm that had been taken out of the picture. Thus, he hurriedly ran his left hand through his pocket, desperately hoping that he would be able to heal himself in time…

-Come on...come on...I... need that...potion!!!

[Grunt!][Grunt!][Grunt!][Grunt!]

However, he felt his hopes dashed and his eyes trembled, as a series of laugh-like snorts sounded from a few feet away, where the boar now stood, readying itself for what might be its final attack in this battle…

...

[Chapters completed: 6/7]