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1058 Words
With a gentle effort, he pushed himself up and slipped into his tent. Even with [Endurance] banishing his fatigue, he quickly fell asleep.
The next morning, Matt slowly stretched, and felt the scars on his back c***k slightly. The pain was a reminder that he needed to actually wear his under armor.
Murmuring to himself, he said, “The best lessons are the ones learned with blood.”
It was odd, as it had been so long since he had been injured. He always had information about rifts and chose his targets carefully. He only suffered injuries if something went wrong.
That essentially was exactly what happened last night. He hadn’t expected a flock of bats.
Wait, what’s a bunch of bats called? Ravens are conspiracies and crows’ murders…but bats?
Putting a note in his AI, Matt left the tent and started stretching. The gentle movements opened up some of the scabs, but [Endurance] was doing its job now that he was awake and could channel his mana into it.
It was odd. Matt could feel the skill’s effect speeding up the healing process. He was putting all of his available mana into the skill, which meant almost 35 MPS. It was an amount of mana that most couldn’t sustain for long.
After breakfast, they returned to the arduous task of killing boars. By mid-day, they had cleared the soundings of boars, and were prepared to push into the clearing where the rift resided. As they came to it, a massive boar that was nearly the size of a small vehicle accosted them. It was clearly the boss of the rift.
Matt tightened his grip around his blade and checked his AI for everyone else’s signals. When he got them, he charged into the clearing around the flickering tear in reality responsible for the boars that dominated the valley. The boss immediately saw him and activated a skill they hadn’t yet seen or accounted for.
The beast charged, and nearly teleported with its sudden burst of speed. It was so unexpected that Matt was unable to block or defend himself and was instantly sent flying. [Cracked Phantom Armor] was able to hold out and protected him from taking more damage.
Matt curled up while tumbling to a halt and scrambled to regain his feet as the boar continued its charge. It was either trying to trample or gore him, and he wasn’t keen on either option.
Pulling mana from his mana stone, he filled his mana pool, and before his channeling skills drained his current mana, cast [Hail]. He used the skill to buy himself enough time to roll out of the way.
[Mage’s Retreat] empowered his body to the point that he was able to circle around the beast, and he sprinted over to the spot he had dropped his sword.
With his longsword back in hand, he cut a deep furrow in the large monster’s flank. That was when Liz, Aster, Camilla, and Malcolm unleashed their attacks from the monster’s rear.
The boar tried to turn away from the sudden pain, but Matt lunged forward and dug his blade into the beast’s face. A small burst from [Mana Charge] went off as the blade scraped along the beast’s face. It blew away a chunk of flesh from the monster’s jaw.
Then, the beast activated the same charging skill from before, and blew right past Matt mid blow. When he rolled back to his feet after the shock from the charge, he quickly discovered that his blade was wrenched from his hands. He scanned the area for it but was unable to find it anywhere on the ground nearby.
When he looked back to the giant boar, he found it. The charge skill had driven the blade all the way through its cheek, and out of the back of its head.
It squealed in pain and shook its head as hard as it could to remove the pain, but that moment of confusion allowed Liz to guide her spear into the beast’s eye. Contrary to Matt’s expectation, and their plan, the beast didn’t go down with the second impaling blow.
Instead, its cries of pain increased, and it started to glow with the telltale signs of [Berserkers Rage]. With heavy, clomping steps, it rushed the mages at the edge of the tree line.
Camilla ran forward toward the threat with her weapons at the ready. Aster quickly hopped to the side and sent a wave of redirected ice from Matt’s [Hail] at the boar’s hooves, trying to disrupt its footing.
Liz followed up their attacks, and sent slashing whips of blood forward, cutting at the beast’s face.
Malcolm shot one last [Mana Bolt] and turned and fled deeper in the woods.
Camilla took the charge from the boar by distracting the beast with her extendable mace, while using her whip to wrap around its neck. With a firm anchor, she launched herself onto the back of the charging monster.
While the maneuver looked cool, Matt cursed the impulsive move. She was preventing Aster and Liz from attacking, for fear of hurting their teammate.
Camilla stored her mace and used her control over her whip to bring the tip to her right arm. She used the bladed whip like a saw and cut through the monster’s massive throat.
When it crashed to the ground, she somehow managed to keep her balance and stepped off the corpse with a flourish.
Matt cried out, “No essence!”
That caused the triumphant look on her face to quickly fade, while the beast tried to stand and get one last charge in. Camilla kicked the hilt of Matt’s blade while it was still embedded in the boar’s head, causing the blade to twist. The bite of the sword finally ended the monster’s life as it drove further into its head.
Then, the essence poured into him, and he slowed his sprint toward Camilla and the boss monster into a jog.
Camilla’s torn-up arms quickly knitted themselves together, and she called out, “Hey Malcolm, you can come back now.”
Matt ignored him. He hadn’t expected the man to do as much as he had.
“You good?” While his teammate was healing from the self-inflicted wounds, he was worried that she had taken another hit that he didn’t see.
- Writer
