Tusk collided with my nails. A harsh vibration immediately shot up my arm.
Then—
KRAK!
A different sound. A more satisfying sound.
The left tusk snapped.
The crack I had made at the beginning of the fight finally gave way under the pressure of the impact. Half of the tusk broke off, falling to the ground with a dull thud.
"SKREEEEE—!"
A roar of agony erupted from the leader's mouth. Not just an ordinary roar, but a pure scream of immense pain. The broken tusk's root was still embedded in its jaw, bleeding, and exposed nerves laid bare.
In its brutal frenzy, the leader attacked blindly. Its charge slammed into me hard, throwing my body backward. I rolled on the ground before finally stopping.
"Ugghh..."
My arm went numb for a moment from the impact. But I got up immediately, there was no time to rest.
The leader had turned to face me again.
Once more, pure rage was etched clearly in its eyes. Not merely the instinctive drive to survive, but an outpouring of fury born from unbearable pain and the reality that I still stood before it.
"SKKKRRR!"
It snorted hard, its voice echoing even though it sounded a bit hoarse, mixed with groans of pain it couldn't hide.
Then it attacked.
Not with strategy. But with everything it had.
The ground all around me began to shake with an intensity I had never felt before.
GRRRSSHHH! GRSSSHHHH! GRSSSSHHH!
The vibrations came in waves, far stronger than before. Wave after wave, without pause. Making the entire area unstable like an earthquake. I almost fell, my feet kept losing their footing, and the ground beneath me felt like a churning sea.
And as I tried to maintain my balance,
I saw the energy around the leader concentrating. A golden-brown light enveloped its trembling body, brighter, denser than before.
This was different from the previous magic attacks. This... was more dangerous.
SYUUUUT! SYUUUUT! SYUUUUT! SYUUUUT!
And the energy exploded, releasing small spikes that shot from all directions, dozens, perhaps more. The spikes formed a deadly rain covering the entire area around me. Like a brutal attack designed for slaughter.
Shit!
I jumped, rolled, dove, and avoided as much as I could.
SRAK! SRAK! SRAK!
Some grazed my arm, pierced my shoulder, and my cheek. Though not deep, they were enough to scrape my skin and leave a burning trail.
But I kept moving. I didn't stop, continuously dodging the unending stream of spikes.
And amidst that rain of small spikes—
DHUUM! DHUUM! DHUUM!
Three large spikes, as big as the first one it launched, emerged from the shaking ground. Its energy had recovered enough to launch these again.
Damn… Now the large ones?
The first spike shot from the front. I dove sideways, and it missed, hitting a tree behind me with a sound that split the wood.
SRAK!
The second spike came from the left, lower and faster.
I tried to dodge, but not completely successfully.
THUD!
The tip of the spike hit my left thigh. It didn't penetrate deeply, my skin held it, but the impact was brutal. Blood still flowed. Heat flashed, my body was flung sideways, and my leg buckled as I landed imperfectly.
"Argh—!"
And before I could adjust—
Shit!
The third spike appeared from the front, speeding towards me rapidly.
I raised my arms reflexively.
DRAK!
The spike slammed into the palm and forearm of my hand. It didn't pierce through, but the impact made my entire arm vibrate violently. My skin was scraped off, blood flowed between my fingers, and the pain shot all the way to my shoulder.
"NGGHH—!"
I was thrown backward and fell rolling, my breath coming in hard gasps. My hand was red, scratched, and trembling violently as I forced it to keep moving.
I struggled to my feet. My left leg was limping, and the pain in my hand stabbed sharply. But I forced myself to stand as quickly as possible.
In front of me, the leader was also nearing its limit. Its body trembled violently, its breath came in rough gasps, blood kept dripping from the broken tusk root. And the poison inside its body was working more viciously after it forced that last attack.
Its movements slowed, and its balance began to crumble.
Yet its eyes—
Still burned with the determination to fight to the end.
It would not surrender. Even in this weakened state. Even when its body was almost giving up.
The leader took a step towards me. Slower than before, its body leaning to the left from losing balance due to the broken tusk. But it kept advancing. It would not run. And it would not retreat.
Its head lowered, and it aimed its right tusk, which was still intact though also slightly cracked from my claws, directly at me.
I had to end this now.
I immediately prepared to face it.
With full concentration, I focused energy into my claws. The poison flowed thicker, darker, almost completely black with a bright green glow. More than before. The final dose that would decide everything.
The leader approached. Eight meters. Six. Five.
The ground beneath me began to tremble again, but far weaker than before, almost imperceptible. The trembling was more like a small shiver than an earthquake.
Not from the leader.
The leader in front of me wasn't producing any vibration at all. Its energy was too drained for that. The poison, the broken tusk, and its desperate attack earlier had exhausted everything it had.
I glanced to the side,
and there I saw the second wild boar trying to launch an attack.
Its body trembled violently, not just from pain, but from the effort of gathering its nearly exhausted remaining energy.
The tremble it produced was very weak. Far, far weaker than what the leader had produced, even weaker than what it had produced before.
That weak tremble wasn't strong enough to make me lose my balance. It wasn't even enough to significantly disturb my position. But it was there, a touching proof of loyalty in its own tragic way.
I pressed my foot deeper into the ground, ignoring the pain exploding from my wounded thigh, then locked my stance and focused my gaze on the leader.
When it was close enough to me, the leader lunged, using its last strength, its one intact tusk aimed straight at my chest.
This was its last attack. A desperate strike from a creature that already knew it had lost, but refused to surrender. Refused to die without taking its enemy with it.
And this was also my last attack.
I did not dodge.
I stepped forward.
Straight into the charge, on my wounded leg.
Time seemed to slow.
I could see every detail, the broken end of the left tusk, the right tusk still intact with a slight crack, the leader's eyes blazing with final resolve, its body trembling from poison and exhaustion yet still pressing forward, and blood dripping from his mouth leaving a trail in the air.
Then, at the last second, I tilted my body.
The tusk missed, just centimeters from my chest. I could feel the wind from its movement sweep across my skin, and could see its sharp tip pass so close to my face.
Then I raised my hand and—
KRRRSSHHHH!
My nails plunged directly into its eye. Penetrating deep, past the eyeball that burst under the pressure, through the soft tissue behind it, until it touched the hard skull bone.
Poison flowed directly, and unimpeded, towards the leader's brain.
"SKREEEEEEE—!"
The roar was deafening. Louder than before.
The leader staggered back, its head shaking wildly with brutal force, trying to dislodge my nails from its eye socket.
My nails was pulled free with a disgusting wet sound, and I was flung backward, then fell hard to the ground.
I fell knees first, then hands, pain exploding from my thigh but I ignored it.
I got up immediately and stared at the result of my attack.
The leader was still standing. Its large body was trembling violently now.
The eye I had pierced was gone, just an empty hole oozing dark blood, flowing freely, drenching its face. The other eye was still open, but had completely lost focus, just staring blankly into nothing.
Its legs were unsteady, and its body leaned sideways, losing all balance.
It tried to take a step, one leg lifted and trembling, searching for footing.
But it found none.
Then, slowly, like a large felled tree, that huge body began to collapse.
First, its front knees touched the ground with a dull thud. Then its hind knees, its body leaning further. Then its entire body fell sideways with a much heavier sound.
THUUUM!
The ground shook from the impact. Dust and dry leaves billowed into the air.
Its breath still came out, ragged, irregular, bubbling with blood in its throat, growing weaker with every passing second. The remaining eye stared towards the sky, unfocused, as if searching for something it would never find again.
Then the last breath left.
"SKKRRE….."
Then silence.
Only the sound of my own heavy breathing remained, coarse and irregular in the air.
I stood there, body limping, leaning more heavily on my uninjured leg. My body was covered in scratches on my arms, shoulders, and worst of all, the puncture wound on my thigh that still bled.
But nothing was fatal.
The leader was dead.
I turned to the side, searching for the second, injured boar.
It was still standing there, several meters away, its body trembling violently. The broken leg still hung uselessly, blood still dripped slowly from the wound. Its eyes looked at me with a mix of pure fear and... resignation.
It knew its leader was dead. It knew it couldn't run. Not with a broken leg. Not with a body already too exhausted.
But it still tried to fight.
The ground beneath me began to tremble, a very weak tremor, almost imperceptible, completely uncoordinated. More of a desperation than a strategy. A final, futile effort from a creature that already knew it would die.
KREK! KReek… Krekk….
The tremble grew weaker and more irregular.
I approached it with slow but sure steps. Each step with my injured right leg made the wound on my thigh throb sharply, fresh blood flowing out with every pressure, but I ignored it.
The boar retreated, trying to move away even though it knew it was futile. Its body wouldn't cooperate. Its healthy leg trembled too violently to support its weight alone. It tripped over its own feet, lost its balance, then fell sideways with a pitiful, dull thud.
I stood over it, looking down.
There was no victory in my gaze. No satisfaction, and no joy.
Only... emptiness, and deep exhaustion. And a slight respect for a creature that fought to the end, even when all hope was gone. Even when its body could no longer manage.
My nails rose for the last time.
And I ended it. Quickly. Without making it suffer longer than necessary.
KRSSH!
"SKKRRreee—!"
Its body convulsed once, a final reflex, then went completely still.
Three down.
It was all over.
I retreated a few steps, unsteady and limping, then fell to sit on the ground still riddled with spike holes and cracks. My breath came out in a long, trembling sigh that sounded more like a groan.
"Haaah… finally."
My body was covered in scratches, exhausted, and blood still flowed from my thigh.
This fight was far harder than I had thought. Not because of their physical strength alone, but because of their earth magic. Especially the leader, who had patiently saved its power, waited for the right moment, used small spikes repeatedly to test and drain my energy, then released large spikes at crucial moments.
Even when my poison had weakened it, and when its tusk broke—the pain must have been immense. Yet it fought with everything it had. Stood firm until the very last second, and never surrendered.
And that second boar… even knowing its leader was dying and its own body was badly wounded, it didn't flee, didn't leave its leader alone. Instead, it forced itself to gather its last remnants of energy to help, even though the tremor it produced meant almost nothing.
That made me respect it, in a strange way.
The leader, and the second boar, taught me a valuable lesson with their final battle.
And now... I will take their power.