Chương 7: Hunt

Stepping past the treeline put them into something closer to savanna than forest, trees scattered here and there but never dense, tall grass and thick stands of bush taking up most of the open ground instead. The air out here smelled different than it had back at camp, drier, carrying a faint mineral edge underneath the green, like dust that hadn't settled in a long time. With sightlines this open, Alex figured the smart play was height.

Find the tallest point nearby, get eyes on the surrounding area before committing to any direction, and avoid walking blind into something none of them were ready for. They hadn't gone more than a minute from camp before they found their first sign of life. The warthog was built low and stocky, gray hide stretched over a barrel of a body balanced on legs that looked too long for it. Coarse black bristles ran in a jagged line down its spine, and thick, fleshy pads framed a broad, tusked face.

Four curved ivory tusks jutted upward from its snout like hooked daggers, pale and worn smooth at the tips from what Alex guessed was years of digging through hard ground. Small, watchful eyes tracked the grass around it from beneath twitching ears, never quite settling in one direction for long. Its thin tail stood straight up as it trotted along, waving like it had somewhere important to be.

For something built that awkwardly, every motion it made hinted at speed and stubbornness in equal measure, the kind of animal that looked clumsy right up until it needed not to be. Mia caught sight of it first, dropping low and waving the rest of them down with a sharp, practiced motion. They huddled close, voices dropped to a whisper.

"It's level 4," Alex said, eyes still on the thing as it grazed.

"I took down a level 5 solo yesterday. Four of us against this should be manageable. What's everyone working with, skill-wise?"

"Charged Shot and Duplicate Arrow," Mia said.

"Mana Bolt and Mana Shield," from Liam.

"Piercing Strike and Reinforce Body," Jeremy said.

"Power Strike and Reinforce Body," Alex finished. It didn't take long to put together a rough plan from that. Mia would open with a charged shot aimed at dropping it in one hit if luck was on their side. Liam would follow up with Mana Bolt to keep pressure on from range. Alex and Jeremy would hold the front if it survived the opening volley and came in swinging.

"If it runs instead of charges, let it go," Alex added quietly.

"We're not chasing anything out here we don't have to. Better to lose a kill than walk into whatever it runs back to." Mia nodded without looking away from the warthog. Liam looked like he wanted to argue the point on principle, the same restless energy Alex had clocked in him back at camp, but he kept it to himself. They watched the warthog for a few minutes, waiting for its guard to drop. Eventually it did, settling down low into the grass, more relaxed than alert. That was the opening.

A single bolt ripped out of the brush and caught the warthog square in the back. Given how little time Mia had actually spent training with a bow, Alex hadn't expected her aim to be anywhere near that clean. It wasn't enough to drop the thing outright, but it definitely got its attention. The warthog scrambled upright, scanned the field once, and charged straight for the bush she'd fired from. Alex and Jeremy moved to intercept before it could close the distance, shields raised.

A faint shimmer of mana wrapped around the warthog's hide as it ran, visible enough that both of them clocked it as something other than a normal charging animal. A streak of blue light came arcing in from Liam's position, missing wide the first time, but the second bolt caught the warthog in the flank hard enough to leave a real dent. No blood yet, but the hit had clearly landed somewhere that mattered. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road.

Please report it. Before it closed the last stretch of distance, Alex threw one of his javelins, putting his weight behind the throw the way he'd practiced a thousand times with a barbell instead. It missed clean, sailing past the warthog's shoulder into the grass beyond. He felt a flash of annoyance at himself, but there wasn't time to dwell on it. The warthog was already on top of them. Alex and Jeremy both triggered Reinforce Body in the same breath.

Jeremy ended up a half-step behind, leaving Alex alone at the front for the actual impact. More arrows streaked in from Mia, the duplicate copies barely managing to break skin, which suited Alex just fine, every one of them was a distraction the warthog had to account for. He brought the flat side of his hammer down across its face in a clean arc, holding back on mana deliberately.

No telling what else might be close enough to hear a Power Strike go off, and he wanted something left in reserve if a second threat showed up uninvited. The warthog twisted its head, tusks raking for an opening, but Alex's stance held under Reinforce Body, absorbing the worst of it without giving ground. More arrows thudded home. Then Jeremy finally closed the gap, spear glowing faintly with his own activated mana, and drove it straight through the side of the warthog's skull.

It resisted for a few more seconds, legs still trying to carry it somewhere, before finally going still. Essence flowed into Alex as the kill registered, thinner than it should have felt for a level 4 kill, split four ways instead of landing solely on him. He caught himself wondering, just for a second, whether he could have handled this one alone too, whether four people had been more caution than the fight actually called for.

He pushed the thought down just as fast, almost annoyed at himself for having it at all. He didn't know what else might be hiding out here, and there wasn't a healer anywhere close enough to help if something went wrong. Betting everything on his own ability to survive wasn't a risk worth taking yet, not out here, not when getting greedy with a kill could just as easily get someone else killed instead. Strength didn't mean much if it talked him into decisions that got people he cared about hurt.

Jeremy pulled his spear free and straightened up, something close to genuine excitement breaking through on his face. Thirty years old, and in all the time Alex had actually spent around him, he'd never seen Jeremy look quite like that. They weren't especially close, not in the way Alex was with people he'd grown up wrestling and fighting beside, but Alex had always respected him in a quiet, distant way.

The man taught computer science at the university level, the kind of steady, unflashy career that fit someone who'd clearly worked hard to win Ace over in the first place. Ace wasn't an easy person to impress. Whatever Jeremy had done to manage it, Alex figured it had to count for something.

"Did you see that?" Jeremy said, still staring down at the spear like he half expected it to do something else on its own.

"I actually hit what I was aiming at."

"You drove a spear through its skull," Alex said.

"I think you did better than hit it."

"First time for everything." Jeremy laughed, short and a little disbelieving, and wiped his free hand against his leg before realizing there wasn't much point cleaning off leather armor that was already a lost cause. Seeing him grin like that now, after weeks of looking mostly blank since this whole thing started, felt like its own small victory. Alex made a note to mention it to Ace later, if the moment ever came up naturally. She'd probably want to know her husband had finally cracked a real smile out here.

The rest of the group wore similar expressions, relief mixed with the particular high that came after surviving something that could have gone the other way. Mia kept scanning the grass around them for any sign of more warthogs closing in, but nothing else moved. There were others further out, plenty of them, but this one had wandered far enough from its group that the four of them had felt safe taking the fight.

No level-up notification followed, but a small handful of tutorial points landed for each of them regardless, four points apiece. Alex retrieved his javelin from where it had landed in the grass, and Mia walked over to collect her arrow from the warthog's side.

"How's that work, exactly?" Alex asked, nodding at the bow.

"I figured you'd be conjuring those out of mana eventually."

"Eventually," Mia said.

"For now I just buy them. They're cheap enough at the shop." He filed that away, then turned his attention back toward the open grass ahead of them. There was more ground to cover, and the day wasn't getting any shorter.