After wearing his armor and making sure that the link between them is working, Cain guided them outside to have a light meal. It was snowing, a storm loomed in the distance making it clear it wasn’t the time to travel.
This was just perfect for Cain as he will be abusing the exp system. He had before explained how it will behave but he didn’t say it’s reversible.
“We would be making our way toward Furberg through the forest. Kill all the monsters that you can see in a one-of-one battle, if possible kill more than one as it can reward you with more experience.”
He was running and the girls just chased after him, Selena was doing okay but Alice and Sofia weren’t that good at running. “Cain slows down a bit, the snow is making it hard to run.” Sofia cried. The snow was quite deep and their boots weren’t made to run on it. Each time she stepped on the ground, her legs will sink in.
“Then fly, you both can do it!” He reminded them. Sofia could fly with her flames and Alice had her wings.
“I will be wasting MP!” Sofia cried, “What if someone saw us? And it is too cold for me to expose my wings!” Alice added up with a weak cry.
“Alice, you’re wings get a lot of blood, they won’t get cold that easily, especially if you were flapping them. For you Sofia you won’t need to worry about MP that much, well slow down quickly!” Cain looked back at them, “I just want to get away from the village as soon as possible so we can start finding monsters.”
“There is one up ahead-nya!” Selena suddenly stopped pointing at a Giant boar that was munching on a dead deer. Selena was used to hunting with Cain since they did it last time.
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[Charge]
[Tusk]
[Relentless]
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“Alice, this one is yours.” Cain immediately jumped into a tree with [Fly] Selena climbed after him. Alice, Sofia and Gracie stayed on the ground looking at them.
“You have to kill alone-nya! Sofia, Gracie move away-nya!” Selena yelled at them, the boar had already noticed their presence and is hitting the ground with its hooves.
“Hold up Cain, I can’t do that!” Alice cried shaking her head, the boar was almost twice as big as her.
“He only has 42 HP, your [Cursed Decay] should be able to kill him in about half a minute. All you have to do it hit him once,keep you magic active while staying alive. Don’t worry I will interfere if you was about to get hurt.” Cain assured her.
“You two get away-nya, it’s coming-nya!” Selena screamed at them. Sofia used her [Burning feet] to fly toward the tree while Gracie jumped into the tree’s shadows and appeared behind Cain from his shadow.
…
Alice took a deep breath, her heart was pounding as if it wanted to explode. As she looked ahead, she saw the boar toppling trees down like they were nothing. Her teeth started to crack, her hands refused to gather magic. Facing a monster alone was different than when she had Sofia and Selena fighting at her side.
“Cain…” She was about to cry, all she could imagine was the boar stomping her to death.
“Fly, you don’t have to stay on the ground.” Cain’s voice came from the top of the tree. She looked up to him, his two eyes were glowing faint blue as the sun made his face barely visible. For a moment she could swear he was smiling. “You’re a devil, remember what you gone through when you leveled up your wisdom.”
Alice didn’t have time to remember such a thing, she pulled her hood down and transformed. Her wings easily ripped two holes in her back and spread wide. With a single flap she was more than six feet in the air, with another flap she was about fifteen feet in the air. and with her third flap she was about thirty feet in the air. She was almost as high as the trees’ top.
“You have to way to kill it. Slowly with you aura from rang but you risk him fleeing Or getting closer and hitting him with cursed decay for a faster kill, but you risk getting hit.” Cain said from behind her.
Hearing his words, Alice wanted to go with the safer option and use her aura. There was no meaning to risk her life. But as soon as she was about to unleash her aura, Cain called her again.
“I would prefer you get close and hit it with cursed decay.”
“But that risky, that thing would kill me in one stomp!” She yelled at Cain who interrupted her.
“Taking more risk will grant you more experience, remember that if what I predicted is right and this bandit attack was just a distraction. Furberg should be already under siege, the more time we waste getting stronger, the more people there are dying and starving.” When a town is under siege, the main strategy is to cut water and food from them and starve them until they surrender. With Williams preparation they should last a month, but will Morena being involved, anything might happen.
Alice looked at him, ‘Why does he think that we’re the only one who could save the city? Amaterasu’s prophecy talked about the catastrophe and not Ourals attacking’ Alice though but she soon shock the though from her head.
“You better not let me get stomped!” She said as she gathered cursed magic in her palm. “Do your best!” Sofia encouraged her.
The boar was stomping on the ground angrily, he was too dumb to recognize Alice’s devilish presence. For example, even though a griffon was stronger than this giant boar. It would have run for Alice long ago since it could recognize her dreaded presence, since it’s more wise and has better instincts.
After waiting for the boar to calm down a bit, Alice swooped down at him line an eagle trying to grab a mouse. Her goal was to land a touch and then retread immediately as that all she needed to cast her [Cursed Decay] on him.
The boar reacted immediately and jumped the side n the last moment, Making Alice hit the ground head first.
As her vision was still blurry from the impact, she could feel the ground shaking under her for a moment. With her wisdom she instinctively flapper her wings and flew to the side successfully avoiding the boar’s charge.
She flew up again wiping the tears from her eyes. She wasn’t crying, she just smashed her face on the ground when she landed earlier. [Holy Healing]
“Even thought you’re wiser, you feel to his bait. He relaxed to bait you down.” She heard Cain’s voice again.
“You should have warned me!” She yelled at him.
“If I did, you will be less likely to remember it next time.” He replied while keeping an eye on the boar, he was observing her enemy more than she did.
“I did smash my face on the ground, I though you said you won’t let me get hurt?” She yelled at him again, she couldn’t understand what he was thinking about.
“I will protect you if you were in danger, but otherwise I count all of you as strong enough to stand on your own. Remember this, All of you aren’t so weak to need my protection. And you hit yourself, I said I will protect you from the boar not yourself.”
“At least tell me how to deal with this thing!” She cried again.
“Cain at least tell her how to deal with it-nya, even I needed your advice when dealing with a monster stronger than me-nya!” Alice patted Cain’s back.
Cain sighed, “I believe I told that monster was weaker than you…It doesn’t matter now I guess.” Cain gave up, he better help Alice or they will stay here all day.
“Listen well, observe the boar breathing. He will exhale rapidly just a moment before charging. When you’re diving down, keep an eye for that and change your directing to follow him when he try to evade you.” Cain pointed down at the boar.
“It will take him at least a second to retreat and another second to take a breath before attacking. You have that time window in your hand to touch him and run safely!”
“Do you really think I can pull that first try?” Alice yelled again.
“Look at him closely, your eyes aren’t that of a human neither is your reaction speed. With those your high wisdom you should be able to pull it easily if you concentrated.”
Alice turned back toward the boar and stared at him as hard as she could, quickly enough she noticed that she could see him moving slightly. Even if she was thirty feet in the air, she could see his slightest moves as clear as the day. With that, she should be able to see what direction he will run to. Her wings should be able to handle hard turns as she wasn’t that heavy.
She took a deep breath. Her heart calmed down when she gone through the plan multiple times in her head. She was slowly getting used to using her wisdom to calm herself.
Alice swooped down as fast as she could while keeping her eyes on the giant boar. As Cain said, at the last moment she noticed him exhale rabidly with his legs shifting slightly. ‘To the left…’ she guessed it and started turning at the same time.
Both Alice and the boar changed direction to the left at the same time. Selena was surprise by how fast Alice’s body changed direction, her wings must have been quite strong.
The boar panicked when he saw Alice following him with her glowing eyes, as the beast tried to change his directing again. Alice had managed to touch him on his back.
The giant boar felt an extreme surge of pain and oinked loudly when Alice’s [Cursed Decay] cause his back to start decomposing. The beast rolled on the ground as he stumbled on his own legs. His back hide fell off as it had rotten already.
Alice quickly made her retreat and landed beside Cain on the tree. “See that, I did it!” She yelled with a big smile on her face.
“Nicely done, now we wait a couple of seconds for him to die. Make sure your magic stay active!”
They sat on the tree and waited for the boar to die slowly, even though she was the one to kill him. Alice gave the poor creature a last prayer.