Night blanketed the sky as three blackish humans reached the border of Peterborough City. They took shelter in an abandoned metal fabricator factory.

 

“We’ve already traveled half a mile and there’s no sign of those UC,” said Hakeem as his eyes shifted side to side.

 

“You think those UC are hiding from us?” said Esther.

 

Jason didn’t say a word as he remained silent, these people are really too lax. He himself was trying his best to detect any presence beside them.

 

“Shush,” said Jason, silencing those two.

 

He concentrated and heard a noise coming from within the factory. He waved his hand at the two, motioning to follow him. Yet the two were clueless.

 

“What’s with the hand?” asked Hakeem.

 

“He watched too many military movies,” said Esther.

 

“Ugh, just follow my lead,” said Jason. He made a mental note to include hand signal training with these two party members of his. He just did the hand motion thing out of instinct since true to his sister’s words, he did watch a lot of action military movies.

 

Taking the lead, Jason pulled the door with every strength that he had.

 

CLANK.

 

The door broke and fell to the floor, the noise scattered through the surrounding. Hakeem pushed Jason by the shoulder hinting at him with that problematic noise. Jason didn’t bother turning around as he had to admit that he did make a mistake.

 

He barged through the door as the inside of the huge factory was dark like a cave.

 

“Guys, night vision,” Jason said. He pulled down the night vision goggle left behind Sgt.Ryan. A piece of high-tech equipment that also featured a thermal vision. He really hit the jackpot as that soldier he saved forgotten to bring it along.

 

Esther used his previous night vision goggles bought from Amazonia and Hakeem had to buy his own. He got a bigger budget thus he bought a real fancy one from Amazonia. Their vision went green and as they traveled further inside the factory the noise Jason heard came once more. Both Esther and Hakeem fell short on their track wary about the noise.

 

Jason pushed further coming closer to the source of the noise. He took covered behind a shelf and peeked from the side. He saw a group of huge animals herding at a single spot with their heads down on the ground.

 

“Scan,” he said.

 

Iron-Bristle Pig A big mammal that lived near mineral deposits. One might say wherever you find a herd of Iron-Bristle Pig there you can find an undiscovered iron mine. They have similar physical features like a normal pig except for the shining iron luster of their bristles behind their back, a defining feature of the pig. Their size easily reached two meters in height and in special cases, one might find a three-meter pig. Their favorite food is iron ores. Species: Suidae Mammals Level : 14 Elemental Weakness : Fire S.Ability : Reckless Charge

 

Level 14, that doesn’t seem bad. I think Hakeem and Esther can handle it. But, those bristles might be a problem.

He turned around and told them about the pigs.

 

“They are big, you really think we can handle it?” said Esther.

 

“They aren’t that big, I think we can take them on,” said Hakeem as for the last week he more or less gained confidence since he had been training his skills like crazy.

 

“Hakeem you take the lead and attract their attention. Esther, you try to hit it however you can but don’t let it attack you and for the rest let me handle it,” said Jason.

 

The two nodded and Hakeem charged straight at the team of pigs. Hakeem stopped at a distance as he raised up his iron mace and slammed it on the tactical shield. The clanking noise alerted the team of pigs as their heads rose up in unison, their ears twitched finding the source of the noise. These pigs had bad eyesight and couldn’t see in the dark. They relied on their sense of smell and sense of hearing and even more so during the darkness of the night.

 

“Over here!” Hakeem shouted.

 

One of the pigs sensed Hakeem as it charged straight at the human that disturbed their eating time.

 

“Org.. org… org…”

 

It snorted while heading towards the lone man. The rest of the team followed the path of the first Iron-Bristle Pig. Hakeem could felt his body trembling as fighting against a huge pig was a lot different than fighting against a tree. Gritting his teeth, he steadied his shield and braced for impact.

 

“Urgh,” Hakeem withstood the reckless charge of the Iron-Bristle Pig as he kept being pushed without any way of stopping it. His strength was still inadequate but he won’t let it be.

 

He lifted his iron mace and swung at its head. The heavy head of his iron mace pummeled the pig’s head as the Iron-Bristle Pig stopped charging forward. It shook its head as the hit really messed up its head. But it let its guard down as a silhouette appeared, Esther brandished her daggers slicing at its head.

 

“Org!” the Iron-Bristle Pig squealed in pain as it jerked around retaliating like a mad bull. Blood dripped on the floor as the cut Esther made was deep enough to let the blood flow like crazy.

 

“Back away. Get ready for the second pig,” Jason shouted. Hakeem retreated with Esther as the second was already closing in on them. Hakeem held up his shield as he defended against that head charge. He felt the heaviness of the attack as his arm felt the brunt of it.

 

Hakeem swung his mace once more hitting the pig right in the eye. He was lucky as the pig squealed. Meanwhile, the first pig was already down on the ground, with three bright glowing arrows jutting out from its head. Jason acted as the cleanup as he only attacked after his comrades made an attack on the creature.

 

Esther emerged once more as she swung her combat knives bleeding the unfortunate pig. Then the same scene repeated itself, the two backed away and Jason ended it. But things didn’t go smoothly as more and more Iron-Bristle Pigs attacked in unison. Hakeem panicked as he charged and raised up his iron mace in the air.

 

Jason just watched as he kept on shooting down the other Iron-Bristle Pigs keeping down the numbers from overwhelming the two.

 

“Shock Smash!” Hakeem shouted as the iron head of the mace crackled with bluish lighting surrounding it. Hakeem slammed his mace down to the ground as a visible electric current ran rampant within his surroundings. Three pigs were in close proximity as they were shocked by the area of effect attack.

 

The smell of burnt bacon whiffed in the air as Esther took charge and stabbed one of the shocked pigs right in its eyes. But then she was stuck.

 

“Get away,” said Hakeem.

 

“I’m stuck,” said Esther.

 

Her knife ran too deep inside the eye socket of the Iron-Bristle Pig.

 

“Let go,” said Jason as he shot down two more of the shocked pigs.

 

But it was too late, the pig regained its will and slammed its head at the woman who stabbed its eye. Esther was flung in the air before she fell on the ground.

 

“Esther!” Hakeem shouted.

 

Yet Jason didn’t mind it as she still had her energy guard to protect her. Jason released another Triple Strafe as the pig went down.

 

“You okay?” said Hakeem as he aided Esther to stood up.

 

“I’m fine, my E.Guard only went down by a bit,” she said.

 

The two eyed at the incoming pigs. The number went down considerably but their path was still long and arduous.

 

“C’mon, there’s a lot more pigs that need to be slaughtered,” said Jason as he vanished into the shadows.

 

Hakeem stared at the incoming pigs as he charged forward blocking one of them with his bent up shield. He slammed his mace at the pig before releasing another Shock Smash to the ground shocking a few pigs in the proximity.

 

Esther moved quickly as her hands kept on delivering a cut at these pigs. She remembered Jason’s advice of just to hit the monsters. Then out of nowhere, Jason emerged swinging the mallet in his hand striking the pig at the head. Its whole head bludgeoned as it caved in like being smashed into a pulp. Its whole body flopped on the ground as it was dead in an instant.

 

Jason had a change of pace as he used the mallet he earned from the mini-boss back in Port Lands.

 

Oak Mallet Category : Blunt Weapon Grade : Rare An Oak Mallet made from the bark of a dead Elder Oaken Haunted Tree. Imbued with ominous energy. Attack : +39(+4) Effect : Str +1, Sta +1

 

A good weapon.

 

He smiled after inspecting the specs of the mallet. He then disappeared once more aiding his two comrades in wiping out those pigs. Their strategy was the same with Jason taking care of any mishap that happened out of carelessness. He was like a safety switch for Hakeem and Esther as they raked up their levels through killing these pigs.

 

After a while, they defeated the whole team of Iron-Bristle pigs. All twenty-eight pigs dead on the ground. Hakeem and Esther flopped on the ground trying to catch their breaths. Hakeem managed to reach level ten and Esther reached level eight. Both of them realized how hard it was to fight against these monsters, and both stared at the sight of the nonchalant man who was loitering around the corpse of the pigs. He was unaffected and he did all of the killing involved in this fight.

 

They glanced at each other out of instinct. Pity towards one another.

 

“Let’s catch up to him,” said Hakeem.

 

Esther nodded. Meanwhile, Jason was disappointed seeing that there was no loot from the Iron-Bristle pigs. They killed twenty-eight of them and he was at least expecting one of them to drop something.

 

“Ready to go?” Hakeem said as both he and Esther came close to Jason. They had enough rest and the motivation to Jason fueled their inner spirit.

 

But as they were about to move, they heard a scream coming from outside the factory. It was loud and shrieking as it was no doubt a woman’s voice.

 

“What’s that?” Hakeem said as he already rushed towards the voice.

 

“Hold up,” said Jason.

 

“Dude, we need to help whoever out there,” said Hakeem.

 

“Helping doesn’t mean you need to be a reckless fool,” said Jason, “Move slow and steady, we still don’t know what’s out there,” said Jason.

 

The three traveled out from the factory and the moment Jason opened up the door to the outside. A woman suddenly jumped inside. Jason dodged the woman as she fell on the floor. He saw the state of this woman covered in blood, with her eyes bawling out and he could even smell the putrid smell of ammonia a bit.

 

“Close it! Hurry and close it!” said the woman.

 

Jason looked through the door as he saw something charging right at him. It looks like an Iron-Bristle pig but those shining tusks were a different matter.

 

“A boar?”