Tower of Fate - Chapter 13: Pig Wrestling (Patreon)

*Beast Identified* [Adult Male Boar-Beast (common)] Level 6 – These male boars are highly aggressive solitary hunters. Their speed, strength, and ferocity have all been upgraded from their pre-System version. They kill not just for food but to try and sate an endless bloodlust. Didn’t anybody ever teach you what happens when you get down in the mud with a pig?

I drew my sword and approached quietly from behind. The boar had a thick, hairy body, and I wasn’t feeling confident about going for its throat. Instead, I prepared for a singular thrust into where I thought its heart was. Nice and clean. It would have been perfect had the suited man not regained consciousness long enough to feebly swing his axe towards the creature.

The boar took a few wary steps back, and that was when it spotted me. It snarled and turned away from the man to face me instead. I guess I should be flattered that it considered me the greater threat. The boar snorted and then charged. I dove to the right while swinging my sword. Still, it almost clipped me. The beast was faster than I expected and I barely managed to get clear of it. What’s worse was that my sword had only landed a shallow cut along its side.

I expected it to turn around for another charge, but instead it kept going and disappeared into the bushes.

“Hugo, do you see it?” I asked.

The crow took off from his branch and began circling from above.

“He’s there!” he said, spotting him and communicating that fact in the worst way possible.

“I need a little more information,” I growled.

“To your right!”

I swerved in that direction as the boar broke out of the bushes. It rammed into me before I could react. The sword fell out of my grip and for a moment, I forgot about levels and instinct took over. I saw an animal that was smaller than me and thought that I could dominate it by sheer size alone. I grabbed its sides with my bare hands and tried to stand my ground. The problem was that this wasn’t an ordinary boar. Hell, I’m not even sure if it would have worked with the regular version of the animal.

The beast boar was both stronger and heavier than expected. It slammed into me like a small car. My legs instantly buckled out from under me and I felt the back of my head hit solid earth as it bowled me over.

I was in too much pain to do anything but gasp. My vision swam with stars and dimly I wondered if I was suffering from a concussion. Luckily, the prospect of being eaten or gored to death by the boar broke through the hurt and confusion. My hand found the knife at my belt and drew it. Expecting any second now for the beast to come and try and to finish the job it had started.

But there was no follow up.

That didn’t mean the danger was over. I forced myself to my feet and saw that the boar was gone. No, not gone. Hiding. I’d seen this trick before. It would strike and then retreat into the bushes before attacking from another direction.

My sword lay ten feet away. Have to get to it before the boar comes back.

I took a step and my left hip screamed in agony from where the beast had hit me. There wasn’t time for a second step before Hugo cried out, “behind you!”

Taking another direct hit from the creature was unacceptable, and I doubted my ability to dodge to the side of it in time. So instead, I grabbed the nearest tree branch and hauled myself up. A combination of my newfound strength and acrobatics skill made it smooth and easy to perch myself up on the thick branch.

Before I could get settled, the tree shook violently and I almost fell off. Was that an earthquake? Looking down revealed the boar snarling in incoherent rage. It pointed its head down and rammed into the tree. The tree shook and groaned again. Another hit and I heard a crack. The tree wouldn’t be able to take much more of this and the next nearest tree was too far away to get to. All I had left was my knife, but it would have to be enough as I prepared to jump down.

“Arise!” yelled Hugo.

Suddenly, a ghostly Norris crawled out of the ground. The boar turned at the sight of him and sniffed the air before dismissing him and getting back to ramming the tree. The cracks were getting bigger. I was about to make a move when Norris jumped onto the back of the boar and tried to wrestle it to the ground. The boar squealed and frantically attempted to shake the goblin off.

“You can jump in anytime you know,” said Hugo testily.

“Doesn’t he have a weapon?” I asked, watching Norris, who was less fighting the boar so much as holding on for dear life.

“No,” Hugo replied, sounding grumpy.

I snapped my fingers. “That’s right. He had a sword. What happened to that?”

“I don’t know. Stop talking and help. This is taking a lot of concentration!”

“I mean, it’s not because he’s dead, because he’s still wearing his clothes. Unless you can bring back the soul of cotton?”

“Lucas!” he cried.

I dropped down from the tree and picked up my katana. It felt strong in my hands and raised my resolve despite the searing pain in my side when I walked. While the boar was distracted by Norris, I moved from behind to grab one of its tusks for better leverage. My sword penetrated its belly easily this time. The beast’s eyes widened. It squealed and took off running, with me and the ghost goblin being dragged along with it. I stabbed it again, deeper this time. More of its blood was getting on me, but I didn’t care. With every drop, I could feel my pain diminish and my strength return to peak form.

The boar swung its head to-and-fro to try and shake me loose, but I had too much of its blood for that to happen now. We both kept going. It running and me stabbing until eventually the boar ran out of energy and collapsed.

*DING!* You have slain [Adult Male Boar-Beast (common)] Level 6 – Experience Points and Currency Acquired.

*DING!* Class: [Blood Reaver] has reached level 4 – Experience Acquired.

*DING!* [Sword Work Skill] Increased to level 4

Currency? That was a new one. Maybe I can use it to operate one of the payphones? If I ever find one, that is.

Hugo flew down, looking concerned. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I said, before looting the corpse.

It wasn’t an exaggeration. Enough of the boar’s blood had gotten on me that I was now back to perfect health. Though it did make me wonder about the state of my clothes. I looked down at myself and noticed something strange. During the fight, most of the blood had landed on my cloak, but there was now no longer any sign that it had been there. Not even a dry stain.

I smiled. I was starting to like this magic cloak more and more.

“Let’s go see the new guy,” I said.

We went over to the suited man, who was currently sat on a stone tending to his leg wound. He tore off a piece of his ripped pant leg and used it as a bandage for the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

“So you survived then,” he said to me without looking up.

I wasn’t sure what I expected from the man, but it definitely wasn’t sullenness.

“Yeah, it’s dead,” I replied.

The suited man grimaced as he stood up. I eyed the axe hanging in his hand as he walked towards me with his jaw set. “You stole my kill,” he said.

“Hey! We saved your life, asshole,” said Hugo from a nearby tree branch.

The suited man became startled and looked around. “Who said that?”

“He’s right,” I said. “You’d be dead if we hadn’t come along.”

The suited man noticed Norris behind me and must have assumed that the voice came from him. His eyes flashed with anger when he looked back at me before his face twisted into an ugly smile. “Yeah, and you got all the rewards for it too, didn’t you? All those experience points,” he sneered, stepping closer.

Anger rising at his ungratefulness, I lowered my voice and asked, “you want to fight me for them?”

The suited man’s eyes went from my sword to my magic cloak and then again to the goblin squad leader ghost behind me. My appearance may have looked a little muddy from rolling around with the boar, but he saw no wounds on me from fighting the thing that had nearly killed him. That, coupled with the fact that no System identification messages had popped up, meant that he probably considered me to be a higher level than him. Factoring in all of that, the suited man decided that fighting would be more trouble than it was worth.

“Bah!” he spat before turning and limping away.

“You’re welcome!” I shouted after him.

“That was weird, right?” asked Hugo when he was finally gone.

“Not very neighborly,” I concurred.

“Should we follow him?”

“Absolutely.”