He charged at the golem with his massive tusks, piercing the rock golem. The beast continued to charge into the golem, the construct trying to hold it back to no avail. The behemoth was just too strong for Creed’s golem, slamming it into the mountainside and shattering it like little pieces of leggos.
I heard Creed’s cry of frustration behind us, but he stayed put like I’d instructed him. Batto was the boar’s main target again, however he didn’t have to worry—the cavalry had arrived.
Rufian's phoenix was raining fire on the boar from above, distracting the beast. At first I thought that was a careless move on Rufian’s part seeing as Batto was up there on the boar’s back, but Batto was fast, easily evading the flames. The boar was now surrounded, causing the beast to panic.
With the boar’s attention divided, I leaped in from behind. Grabbing onto the boar’s tail, my body swung from left to right, the creature trying his best to whip me off of him. He was doing exactly what I wanted, and I moved myself into position to set my plan into motion. Disabling his mobility would help our efforts a lot, and as he swung his tail back and forth, I was hacking away at his thighs with my long sword.
The view and smell wasn’t pleasant, but it was a sacrifice I had to make in order for me to compete with his great size. HP was melting off bit by bit, the beast beginning to falter with our group contributing to his demise. Rufian fed him flame shots, and with his legs being weakened, he did little to protest. Batto and the phoenix continued to hack and cook the beast from up top, disorienting him.
Unfortunately, the overwhelming assault started to become too much for him, and he tried to haul ass out of the fray.
“No!” Batto cried, the beast running with a field of patchy flames on his back. He wailed and grunted, pushing through the pain to head to the upcoming body of water. With only a few hundred HP left, he retreated and wanted to put out the fire eating at him. But Batto knew that if we allowed him to escape, there would be no dinner for his village.
So onward to plan B.
Since it was only us two on the beast, Batto and I left Rufian and Creed behind, leaving us to fight alone.
I held on tight, my sword ready to strike. The boar was massive and his speed was insane, so it wasn’t going to be easy to find an opening. I needed to find a sweet spot between his tough bristles as he stampeded for refuge. With tight timing, I waited to get closer to his hind thigh, and then when I got close enough, I got my chance.
With one swift strike, I managed to penetrate his skin, causing him to slow down some. The gash was deep, allowing me to swing my body over and use the hilt to hang onto. With my Enrage still active, I tossed punch after punch into the boar’s leg, punching clean through every time.
The beast roared in pain, more determined to get rid of me. He rampaged through the trees, trying to throw me off, but I held on tight. I heard Batto struggling up top, probably on his last strings of mana. We needed to finish this battle fast, before we lost him.
“Shit, this guy’s relentless!” I grunted under my breath. Even with a clear limp on the leg I was hanging on, he didn’t know when to quit, and hell, neither did we. I could hear Batto resorting to physical attacks as we got closer to the body of water, the sound of his slashes reassuring. The boy was fast and relentless, the boar losing HP faster and faster. I did my fair share as well, crossing my fingers that creature didn’t reach the water before we were done with it.
“We are not going to lose!” Batto gave one hell of a battle cry, and with a final critical blow, the boar fell to the ground with a loud thud, gliding mere inches away from the bank of the large stream.
Holy shit that was close…
Batto breathed a sigh of relief, plopping on the beast’s back. After I pulled my sword out and jumped off the creature, I took a moment for my own, wiping the sweat and grime from my face. My arms felt so sore from the intense battle. Enrage invulnerability didn’t save me from my muscles aching from swinging like a damn piñata while trying to avoid back shots from tree branches and vines all while traveling forty miles and hour.
It was finally over, and the village of Citron would have food for weeks to come…
“Great job, Batto,” I called out with a smile.
“Haha, you too, Syodas!” I panted.
“You’re tapped out?”
“Yeah…”
“Need a lift?”
“Nah, I’m good. I’m just… gonna lay here and… rest a bit.”
“Heh, you deserve it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Batto said he killed the beast for the final blow. He plunged his spear deep into his spine, right where his neck met his back. Batto said that he was scared it wouldn’t have done the trick, even after he’d done more damage with his lightning magic powering it. But luckily for us, our team effort was enough, and right on time, too.
Not too long after, I noticed the rest of our party rushing toward us. Honestly, I had to do a double take because I could have sworn I saw Rufian riding on the shoulder of a tree golem with Creed on his back. No doubt Rufian was still on his cool down time for his teleport, because I just couldn’t picture that dude doing that!
At least it was nice to see him warming up to the boys.
A smile stretched on my face when I saw Creed titter with uncontrollable laughter. “Brother!” he shouted with his hands stretched out, then jumped off of the golem to dash to the giant beast.
Creed ran up to us, his eyes wide with excitement. “You did it! You did it!”
“We did it,” I corrected. “You had a part in it too, Creed.”
“No way! All I did was manage to get my one golem broken into pieces!”
“He’s not wrong, you know,” Rufian said cheekily as he joined us, and I gave him a playful glare.
“If you didn’t do anything, then you wouldn’t have gotten EXP, right?”
And just like that, his eyes lit up. “LEVEL 45!” he broke out, barely able to contain himself.
I noticed I got a notification coming in for me as well…
I jumped 11 levels!
If I could, I’d do back flips. I allocated my 58 points and updated my stats:
Name: Silas Bruer
Race:
