Torith a litrpg adventur.., p.23
Torith: A LitRPG Adventure (System Universe Book 2), page 23
“Get ready!” Clay shouted, then ran into one of the forested areas.
Not long after, Derek heard a squeal, then rustling sounded through the area. Soon, Clay broke back into the clearing, followed by a five-foot-tall boar with two large bone tusks protruding out from the sides of its mouth, then curving back in almost like a hook.
The boar charged out of the brush and lowered its head just as Clay turned to face it. Clay set his feet and lowered his shoulder behind the shield. A loud crash sounded out as the tusks made contact with the shield.
Clay took a step back but held. He swung his sword out from behind the shield, and a small cut appeared in the hide of the boar.
“What are you waiting for? Attack!” he yelled. “I said attack!” Clay shouted again. The giant boar smashed into his kite shield over and over. Each blow caused his feet to slide back, inch by inch.
Finally, Thomas, from behind Clay, broke off to the right side and thrust his spear forward as the boar charged again. Thomas went for a probing attack, aiming for the wound that Clay had created at the beginning of the fight.
Derek nodded. It wasn’t a bad tactic.
His spear made contact with the wound on the monster’s shoulder. As the spear penetrated the muscle of the beast, the speed of his thrust slowed until finally coming to a stop a few inches into the boar’s muscle.
Thomas pulled his spear back, causing blood to fly out of the wound with it. The boar squealed and shifted its sights to Thomas. The boy had caused much more damage to the beast than Clay in such a short amount of time. It would be weird if its rage didn’t shift to the spear-wielder.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Clay yelled and bashed his shield into the side of the boar’s head.
Thomas ducked back in behind the tank. Not long after, the boar was charging back at the shield. Thomas slipped out to the left of the Warrior this time, staying small so as to not draw attention to himself.
Derek quickly shifted his attention to Alicia.
The support girl stayed in the back of the formation, watching the fight. There was nothing that needed her attention, and if she attacked, she would just get in the way. Neither Thomas nor Clay had been injured enough to warrant a heal.
Clay’s organs may have been shaken a bit because of all the charges he’d been tanking, but it shouldn’t be enough to cause him much damage. She could only sit back and watch, preparing herself in case something bad happened.
Derek once again wondered how she gained experience before focusing back on the fight.
At this time, Thomas had taken an extra step closer to the monster. Seeing this, Clay took a half step to his right, further pulling the boar’s attention away from Thomas.
Good move. Derek couldn’t help but compliment the tank on his awareness. It’s a shame. He shook his head.
Thomas quickly took advantage of the distracted monster. His hands glowed blue for a fraction of a second before the glow shifted over to his spear. Again, he thrust his spear forward. This time, a projection of his spear overlapped with his physical spear.
That’s his Soul Spear. Derek remembered the skills the boy received upon taking the Soul Spear class.
The projection of the spear moved forward at a faster pace than his physical spear. The Soul Spear made contact with the side of the boar. As soon as the projection hit, the extra piercing damage from the skill caused the projection to pierce the boar’s side with little resistance. The physical spear followed closely behind.
This time, instead of piercing a few inches of muscle, Thomas’s spear kept penetrating the beast. The projection cleared the way, and Thomas’s spear took advantage. In a split second, half of his spear was buried into the side of the boar.
Derek could only imagine all the organs that the spear had damaged. If nothing else, with the angle of the spear, there was no way the boy missed the monster’s liver. Even if it wasn’t an instant kill, it wouldn’t be long before the Horned Boar bled out.
Derek wasn’t the only person to see the boy’s skill. Alicia was staring wide-eyed at the battle. When the projection shot out of the spear, her entire demeanor changed for a second. Looks like Thomas never had to use any of his skills in front of her. I guess he didn’t talk much about his class either. Derek nodded. Good. I wonder if she’s having second thoughts.
Clay had also seen part of the attack but missed the beginning. He did well, holding in his shock, but Derek had seen his expression change for a fraction of a second.
Well, rare classes are… well… rare, and I doubt many common or uncommon classes would have skills like that at such an early level, Derek thought.
Thomas took a step backwards and, using his strength, ripped his spear back out of the boar. The monster let out a weak squeal and tried to turn but stumbled. Its front legs buckled, and it fell down, its chin landing on the ground. It let out a couple more weak cries before going silent. It was dead.
Thomas took another step back and shifted his spear to his left hand. He swung the spear hard towards his side, causing most of the blood to fly off in the process.
Derek laughed. Nice! Killing the monster, then looking cool afterwards. After surviving the insect dungeon, getting fed experience in the other dungeons, and even killing bandits on the road to Torith, Thomas had developed well when it came to battling.
He wasn’t a scared or shy little boy when an enemy was attacking. It was a sight to see.
Everyone took a break after the fight. The teen with the golden hair reached for the boar and stored it inside his storage ring. “I’ll keep the corpses for now. We’ll split the coin evenly when we return to the city and sell everything. Is that fine with you two?”
Alicia and Thomas both nodded.
Clay looked over at Thomas. “You’re better with a spear than I thought you would be. What was that skill you used? I’ve never seen nor heard of a skill like it before, and a lot of the guards around the city wield spears.”
Thomas furrowed his brows before answering. “It’s just a skill that came with my class.”
“And your class? What rarity is it?” Clay asked, irritated.
Thomas was silent and didn’t answer.
“That’s enough, Clay. Nobody likes giving out information about their classes to anyone, much less strangers. You know that as well as anybody. I still don’t even know what the name of your class is, and we’ve known each other forever,” Alicia chimed in.
Clay clicked his tongue. “Whatever. It doesn’t even matter. I was just curious. It was a nice skill is all.”
Thomas nodded. “It is.” He sat down and closed his eyes. “Let me know when it’s time for the next hunt.”
“What are you doing?” Clay asked.
Thomas opened his eyes. “Resting, waiting… I’m ready whenever.”
Looks like he hasn’t been neglecting his Meditation skill either. I know that his spear skill takes a good amount of mana, and he doesn’t have very much. I should ask him about his Meditation level later. By the looks of it, it’s at least level 5 or 6. He can hear and sense some of his surroundings, otherwise, it would be suicide to meditate here, Derek thought.
Alicia cast a quick heal on Clay to top off his health. Then she looked over at Thomas. “Thomas, did you get hurt any? Do you need health?”
Thomas opened his eyes again and smiled at the pretty girl. “No, thank you. My health is full. Clay didn’t let the monster get anywhere near me.”
It was funny seeing the difference in how Thomas spoke to the girl.
Alicia nodded. “That’s good. I still have a decent amount of cooldown left on my buffs. I didn’t think we’d be able to take out the Horned Boar that fast,” she said.
“I think we could fight them without your buffs,” Clay said. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said to Alicia when she scowled at him. “I was just saying, if we can take out the boars without the buffs, then we can save them for when we really need them. And you will have close to a full mana pool, so we will save on mana potions.”
Clay turned to the meditating Thomas. “What do you say? Do you want to try it without the buffs?” he asked.
Thomas nodded. “That’s fine with me. That was my first Horned Boar, so I was being extra careful. Let’s wait until Alicia’s skills are almost ready, though… Just in case.”
Clay nodded. “We’ll do that.” He looked over at Alicia. “Let us know when there are only a few minutes left.”
Alicia nodded. “Will do.”
After 15 or so minutes, Alicia finally spoke. “My skill will be ready in a few minutes.”
Clay nodded and stood. “Alright, I’ll go find the next monster. Get ready.”
Thomas opened his eyes and stood, spear in hand. “Let’s go.”
Clay ran into the forest and brought back another boar. This time, he wasn’t as fast as before, but he was still able to get back to the clearing before the boar caught up. “Get ready!” he shouted. Then he turned around with his shield. Like before, the boar crashed into his kite shield.
Without the defensive buff, it caused Clay to take an extra two steps back before he stabilized himself.
Thomas ducked into formation behind the tank before making his move. Again, he appeared at the side of the beast, forgoing the probing attack.
Derek wasn’t sure, but he suspected that Thomas’s Soul Spear was still on cooldown.
Again, Clay turned the beast slightly to the side to give Thomas a better angle. A small yellow glow fell over Thomas’s hands, and he thrust. The spear pierced the side of the beast, but without the extra attack buff from Alicia, and the extra piercing damage from Soul Spear, it wasn’t able to penetrate nearly as deep.
Derek frowned, but what happened next made him smile.
The yellow glow from before was Thomas activating his Flurry skill. It was yellow because it chewed through stamina instead of mana.
Thomas’s spear was pulled out of the beast’s side as quickly as it entered, but before the beast could even think about making a move, the spear was back in the freshly created wound. Thomas wasn’t entirely accurate, though. The second thrust entered at a slightly different angle, but it didn’t matter.
In just over two seconds, Thomas had made three thrusts, all in almost the exact same spot. By the end of his third thrust, his spear stopped, buried almost as deep as it had been on the previous monster.
Thomas retrieved his spear and jumped back, just in case he didn’t do enough damage, but it didn’t matter. The boar was dead. And they had done it without any buffs.
Derek smiled and sat back to watch the rest of the show.
31 ONE LAST BOAR
The group continued killing the level 50+ Horned Boars for a few hours. It would take mere seconds for Clay and Thomas to slay one of the monsters once Clay began tanking the beast. With each kill, their cooperation increased.
Thomas alternated using his skills to kill the beasts. He would use Soul Spear for one, Flurry for the next, then the third would take a little extra time as both of his skills were on cooldown, but the boar would die, nonetheless. After that, he would use Flurry again because its cooldown time was less than that of Soul Spear.
Alicia was rendered relatively useless after a few kills. She occasionally had to come in and heal when Thomas was fighting with just regular attacks. Noticing the situation, she saved her buffs for when Thomas’s skills were all on cooldown. After every fourth monster, the group would take a quick break.
Thomas’s hesitation at working with a noble slowly dissipated throughout the day. At one point, Clay had announced that his storage ring was almost full, and Thomas even offered to use his so they could continue.
Even Derek had begun to wonder if Clay and Alicia were actually going to make a move on Thomas. Perhaps, because of his show of strength, Thomas had forced them to change their minds. However, Derek was still able to catch the occasional tension between the pair when Thomas wasn’t looking.
Something was going on. Derek suspected they were trying to work themselves up for the task. If nothing else, their hesitation and delay in their plans, if they actually planned on doing something, had caused Thomas to lower his guard significantly.
Finally, after hours of watching the group mechanically slay Horned Boars, it happened. Thomas had just used Flurry to kill a beast, and Soul Spear was still on cooldown. Thomas turned to walk back towards Alicia.
With Thomas’s back towards Clay, the noble locked eyes with Alicia. With a serious look, he nodded at the woman. Alicia quickly shifted her gaze from Clay and looked towards Thomas with a glint in her eyes.
“Are we all ready?” Clay asked. “I’m going to go get one more monster, then I think we should call it quits for today.”
Thomas turned around and smiled. “Sounds good to me. I’m getting tired, anyway.”
With Thomas’s back turned, Alicia nodded at Clay while speaking. “Yeah, me too. If we hurry, we can have a good dinner when we get back. What we had for lunch can’t be called food,” she said and giggled.
With that, Clay ran into the forest to look for their last prey.
Derek realized that Alicia didn’t bother casting any buffs on the two this time. Surprisingly, Thomas noticed it, too.
“Ah, you didn’t buff our defense or speed,” Thomas said.
“Oh… I was thinking about dinner and I forgot. I’ll cast them when Clay gets back with the monster,” she replied.
Thomas nodded at her. It was a valid excuse, and it didn’t seem like it made the boy suspicious.
Derek sat forward from his perch on the tree. If something was going to happen, it would happen soon. Either just after, or during, the next fight.
Soon, Clay came running back from the tree line. Another Horned Boar was chasing him, just like all the others. The teen slid to a stop and turned around. Thomas ducked right in behind him, just as he had done many times before.
It was odd. Clay had been able to keep more distance from this beast than he had the others. Derek frowned.
The new monster broke through the tree line and entered their hunting ground. As the boar rapidly approached the tank, a smirk appeared on his face. Derek had an idea of what was about to happen. The question was whether he should intervene and stop it from happening or let it play out some. Either way, he would interfere before the kid died or got hurt too badly.
And, just as Derek thought would happen, Clay dove to the side just before the boar hit him. If the boar kills Thomas, nobody would be able to say anything.
Thomas’s eyes went wide at Clay’s actions. A yellow glow fell over his body almost instantly, and he moved his spear up from his side to block while trying to dodge to the side. Unfortunately, he was too close to Clay when the teen dodged the rampaging boar.
Derek was impressed by Thomas’s quick thinking. Haste was a skill that the boy hadn’t used in front of the others yet. It didn’t save him from being hit, but it allowed him to take a step and partially block the attack and avoid lethal damage.
Thomas’s spear swung in front of him, slightly parrying the tusks of the boar. That, combined with the step he took, caused the boar to miss hitting him center mass. Instead, only one tusk made contact. It tore into the side of Thomas’s abdomen and came out of his back.
His quick actions caused the boar to miss most of his vitals. It was possible that his kidney had been damaged, or maybe his spleen, but at least it missed his heart and liver. A health potion would be able to heal other organs, but the heart could have been an instant death.
The boar raised its head and swung Thomas into the air. Thomas flew to the side before crashing to the ground. Derek, watching from the side, examined the boy with Identify. Afterwards, Derek smiled. The boy had ‘injured’ and ‘bleeding’ status effects, but he wasn’t even in critical condition. That meant that he still had a good amount of health left.
Plus, Thomas was already moving with a red vial in his hand. He rolled to the side, unstoppered the vial, and drained it all in one gulp. The results were visible as the dripping blood slowed to a stop. The bleeding status was removed, and soon his injured status would be, too.
Luckily for Thomas, instead of chasing after him, the boar turned back to Clay. Clay was the one who initially provoked it, so he still held its attention.
“Damn it!” Clay cursed as he took a charge with his shield. He summoned his sword and raised his free hand. With a quick motion, he pulled it down and yelled, “Take care of this!”
The six hidden guards jumped out of their hiding places and charged forward. Clay had to hold the Horned Boar’s attacks for an extra ten seconds, but the boar couldn’t break through his defense. Soon, the first guard arrived, and, with a slash of his sword, the boar was beheaded.
Clay dismissed his shield and scowled at the guard. “Took you long enough to get here,” he scoffed. Then he turned and walked over to Alicia, who was standing with a frown. “Even with all that work…” He shook his head and sighed. “Well, I guess it really doesn’t matter.”
At this time, Thomas had made his way back up to his feet. The health potion had done a great job of healing him, but there was still a wound in his side. The potion couldn’t completely heal him in such a short time.
Thomas glared at the pair standing in front of the newly arrived guards. “Why?” he asked.
“Why?” Alicia laughed. “Why would someone of your status have something as precious as that?” She pointed at Thomas’s hand. “Who asked you to go around flaunting a storage ring? If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself.”
Thomas’s gaze grew colder. A single tear ran down the right side of his face, but he didn’t whimper, and his voice didn’t break. “Just over something like this…” He raised his hand and fiddled with the ring with the other. “Everything we did… the weeks running missions and spending time with each other. All of it was just because you wanted to steal my ring!” Thomas yelled the last part before breaking into laughter.
“He”—Thomas’s laughter continued—“was right,” he managed to say. Finally, he calmed down. His eyes were red, and more tears seemed to have rolled down his face. “I should have listened to him. He gave me so many warnings about you.” He glared at Alicia.
