Perched on his tree branch, Ikaris' pupils narrowed into a slit and he locked his gaze on the Demonic Boar. He focused intently on the massive hog about to disappear into the ferns and managed to roughly gauge its level.
'My passive skills seem to be working, but just barely.' He frowned as he made this observation.
He jumped silently onto the branch of the nearby tree so as not to lose sight of the mother boar and her young, then zeroed in again, this time to test his See-Through Vision. The thick bristle of the beast faded away, revealing the layer of connective tissue directly underneath.
Ikaris instantly broke into a sweat.
'It works, but this creature does have some magical resistance.'
'If your passive abilities work, no need to hesitate. Kill it." Magnus advised listlessly.
The teen silently nodded, then clutching the tree trunk like a koala, he slid to the ground, slowing the descent with his claws. He did his best to muffle the sound of his landing, but the mother boar had keen hearing.
"Grooink!"
'Fuck!' Ikaris cursed inwardly as he braced himself for a hard fight, but was appalled when he saw the Rank 2 Demonic Boars scurrying away with her cubs. 'My breakfast, come back!'
Forgetting his precautionary principle he dashed after his prey, sprinting with an agility and footwork unimaginable from a puny teenager like him. The boars were clearly not expecting such speed, and the straggling marcassin of the group was immediately caught up.
Despite the fact that the beast weighed the weight of a full-grown warthog, the boarlet squealed in terror and the mother boar skidded to a halt, her hooves sinking deep into the soft earth. Seeing the human approaching dangerously close to her precious baby, her bloodshot eyes turned red and after scraping the ground twice with her hooves she charged him headlong.
"GROIINK!"
It was Ikaris' turn to brake suddenly and he barely swerved to avoid it. He simultaneously slashed with his sword, hitting the thick neck of the beast, but all he heard was a thud as the bones in his arm vibrated as if he had just hit a solid block of metal.
Before he could check the damage, he was forced to dodge again, but this time he didn't counterattack with his sword, but with his magic.
'See-through Vision, Heart Puncturing.'
Using these two spells in the middle of a fight was no easy task, but this was not his first attempt. His Secondary Sparks had passed the initial critical phase and concentrating on casting these two spells was becoming easier and more instinctive.
The thick hair of the Demonic Boar faded away to reveal the toned muscles, then the rib cage beneath. It took him a second casting of the spell to glimpse the surface of his heart. It seemed risky, but it only took a split second. As soon as the heart appeared in his field of vision, his only offensive spell struck.
BAM!
In his effort to concentrate, he had forgotten to dodge the third charge, but it wasn't that serious. He parried with his sword and let himself be flung backwards as the huge beast slowed down, squealing in pain as if it were having a heart seizure.
Ikaris heaved a sigh of relief as the boar froze in place, but his face darkened when he saw that the creature did not fall. The place where he had struck with his sword was not bleeding either.
The frightened marcassins crowded around their mother with worried oinks, and she grunted back to let them know she was all right. A passerby watching the scene now would never have guessed that this boar had just had his heart perforated.
The boy should have been moved by this touching scene but he was hungry. The magical strength of this Rank 2 Demonic Beast could not be ignored and he could feel his legs wobbling with exhaustion. Cautious, he decided to find out a little more about his opponent.
"Appraisal."
[ATTRIBUTES:]
[Rank 2 Demonic Shield Boar.]
[Age: 3 years old.]
[Weight: 988kg.]
[Magic Power: 0.89 points.]
[Magic Defense: 0.89 points.]
[Strength: 17.8 points.]
[Agility: 3 points.]
[Constitution: 19.6 points.]
[Vitality: 23.6 points.]
[SKILLS:]
[Frenzy lvl2]
[Iron Skin lvl2]
[Intimidating Groink lvl2]
[Demon Charge lvl2]
[Tough lvl2]
The result of his Appraising proved to be shallow, but he now understood why defeating this large boar was so difficult. This thing wasn't a Rank 3 Demonic Beast yet, but it had already acquired its Magic Defense attribute. Perhaps a trait inherited from one of its parents.
Besides being almost 4 times stronger and tougher than him after his conversion to a Crawling-Thrall, it had a consistent Vitality and various other Secondary Sparks like Iron Skin and Tough making the creature even more tenacious. Iron Skin was self-explanatory, while Tough allowed the beast to continue fighting at its full potential despite the accumulation of injuries.
"Spam your Heart-Puncturing Spell without giving it time to recover. It's the only way to take down this kind of monster." Magnus said after Ikaris reported the contents of the Appraisal to him.
He didn't have to be told twice.
With a determined look, the boy tucked back the strand of sweat-soaked hair from his forehead, then cast Heart-Puncturing again.
'Heart-Puncturing, Heart-Puncturing...'
The mother boar, who thought she was out of the woods, suddenly spat out blood and convulsed for a few seconds before collapsing helplessly on her side. The kids panicked, squealing non-stop but this time nothing could save their mother.
With hunger in his belly and saliva dripping from his mouth, Ikaris threw himself on the wounded beast whose heart was now riddled with holes. Long before the boarlets could react, he thrust his sword to the hilt into the eye of the huge pig, impaling it to the brain.
Oiiinkkk!
One of the young boars started to whine and charged madly at Ikaris' knee, knocking him to the ground. The teenager calmly rolled in the grass, landing in a crouch. He couldn't find his sword in his hand and when he looked in front of him he realized that it was still lodged in the eye of the mother boar he had just killed.
Seeing the boarlets glaring at him furiously, their eyes red with hatred, the boy shuddered, but only a sneer disdainfully came out of his mouth.
"Wait!" Magnus interrupted him, "You could capture them and tame them."
Ikaris was tempted, but seeing all those boars about to charge him he ruled out the idea. There was enough intelligence in the eyes of these pigs that they would never trust him. Besides, how would they keep them in his village? He didn't even have enough to make a pen for them.
"No, they leave or they follow their mother into my stomach." He coldly announced their death sentence.
As if they had sensed his resolution, the nine marcassins shot at him simultaneously. It took a lot of guts not to bolt in front of nine big boars, but after defeating the Rank 2 Demonic Boar, Ikaris remained unruffled.
"Heart-Puncturing..."
The first boar collapsed three meters away from him and Ikaris side-stepped to avoid a second. This boar galloped a few more steps then collapsed in turn.
The boy then pressed both hands on the forehead of a third one and flipped over it into the air. Landing behind it, the beast froze, then fell dead on its side.
Ikaris danced for a few dozen more seconds, placing a Heart-Puncturing Spell at every opportunity. A moment later, the forest grew quiet again.
All the young boars had been killed.
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