Chương 14: Duel with the Great Boar

Standing three meters tall, six meters long, and possibly weighing over 4 tons, the black and red-furred boar at the edge of the stream subtly turned its enormous head to see the two Spirit Masters approaching it.

Liam and Mary became more serious at the sight of this creature, both of them completely changing what they had been thinking until a few moments ago.

"Are you going after that monster?" Mary asked, not believing he had chosen such a large and strong creature for them to hunt. "Have you gone mad? It's a damn peak first realm beast!"

"There's no way I could have known." Liam said, gripping his axe in his hands. "It might have left traces similar to those of smaller creatures... I just didn't expect there to be such a big boar in this place!"

"This must be the leader of the island's boar tribe. I've heard that in the animal world, there's always one creature that stands out from its peers and assumes the position of leader.

They are usually more impressive than the ordinary members of their race."

She said with a sigh, still standing behind Liam, aware if she tried to run, it would only make things worse for them.

Liam said, "It is not what I planned, but if we defeat it, our safety on the Eternal Doom Island will be guaranteed. There's hardly any demon that can beat it by that much."

She couldn't disagree with Liam on this point.

"So what do we do?"

He replied, "Let's do what we planned. Summon your spirit and distract it for me. I'll do the rest."

"Are you sure about that? All it has to do is hit you with one of its teeth and you're done," Mary said with concern.

"We have no choice. It's already locked us in as targets."

Liam moved without a second thought, stepping away from Mary as the creature ran after him, leaving the edge of the lake and making the ground tremble with every step of its legs.

Mary swallowed her saliva, but didn't hesitate to summon her demon spirit, circulating her mana as she gave orders to the demon-shaped spirit.

Dark smoke billowed from the demon body and it flew towards its opponent, who was already running after Liam.

Liam had a stronger aura and made the first move. The enemy was obviously targeting him first, moving into the position Liam wanted.

Noticing that his eyes were responding to Mary's powers, Liam saw through the smoke that covered dozens of square feet in the surrounding area. He changed his position, jumping onto a tree trunk, then leaping onto a rock, moving perpendicular to his original path.

As he landed on the rock, the boar missed him and hit the tree hard, shaking its massive trunk before it tilted away.

Liam's mind raced. 'What kind of power was that? If that attack had hit my body, it would have crushed me!'

A shiver ran down his spine, but he relied on Mary's skill as she moved to attack the enemy from behind.

While the enemy was disoriented, thinking it had just pinned its target against the tree, Liam appeared a meter away from the big boar and brought his axe down vertically against the top of its head.

The blow was quick and hard, the initial hollow sound of the blow followed by a cracking sound.

Liam gritted his teeth as he felt a sharp pain in both arms as he watched the axe shatter in his hands.

Not only was the boar's attack powerful, but so was its defense!

However, before the axe shattered, Liam saw a wound open on his target's head, blood oozing out, and a fracture appearing on the opponent's skull.

The boar's attack was definitely brutal, and the animal had a defense to be envied. However, as a Spirit Master on the verge of becoming a Spirit Lord, Liam's strength was no small matter.

If it weren't because he was armed with an inferior tool, he could have brought down the boar in front of him with the blow he had just delivered!

Amidst the pain in his arms, Liam leaped backwards, narrowly avoiding the boar's movement towards him, his eyes wide as he dodged the beast's large tusks—a reaction speed far superior to what one would expect from a creature of its size.

'That was close!'

He used the black smoke from Mary's ability to change position and draw the dagger he carried, his last remaining weapon.

'Mary must be close to her limit if she eludes it and continues to surround this area with smoke. I have to act quickly or in a few seconds we'll both be in an unpleasant situation.'

Thinking quickly, Liam poured more mana into his right arm than the rest of his body, determined to unleash a new attack before he lost their advantage against the boar.

Using the surrounding trees and rocks to move, he found his new chance when the boar ran towards another tree, thinking its target was provocatively waiting for it there.

'Be quick! I won't be able to handle him again!' Mary felt blood dripping from her nose while her face was as pale as a sheet of paper.

Fortunately, the strongest part of a beast like this boar wasn't its mind. Almost all the creature's power was in its physical part, which naturally gave the Spirit Masters a chance to manipulate the mind or alter the senses of their target.

But it wasn't easy. Doing so for just a few seconds was already Mary's limit!

As the boar lunged at another tree, the smoke dissipated, and Liam moved in for his ultimate attack.

Appearing above the creature, Liam used his weight to exert as much force as possible before striking the top of the boar's head with his dagger.

"Aaaagh!"

A sharp pain radiated from the bones in his hand, causing him to scream as the blade of his dagger penetrated the previous wound in the enemy's head.

The boar paused for a moment with Liam on its back before losing its balance and falling to the side. Hit in the brain, there was no way this creature could survive Liam's brutal attack!

"Liam!"

Mary noticed the boar's fall and ran towards them.

Her senses were excellent. As soon as the boar fell, she realized Liam had successfully killed the creature.

"The bastard's bones are too hard!" Liam shouted as he got up from the boar's body, feeling his hand broken in several places. "Even though I strengthened my right arm with all my remaining mana, I still injured myself trying to pierce its skull!"

Seeing he was okay, she sighed and smiled, turning her attention back to the large corpse they had been chasing.

"We've accomplished something impressive here. I'm afraid it has more meat than we can eat before it spoils. We'll have to leave part of its body behind."

"Its race mates will devour its body as soon as we leave this place," Liam said as he bound his right hand with the rags he had in his survival bag.

"Do you know how to separate the interesting parts for our consumption from the rest?" He looked her in the eye as he pointed to the body with his good hand.

"I know, don't worry."

She kneeled down and used her dagger to cut the boar's body into the interesting parts to remove the meat.

Other parts of the body of such a beast had their value, such as the skin, bones, and internal organs. There were Spirit Masters in Twin Lands who specialized in producing resources and artifacts from animal parts.

However, none of them had any knowledge of these resources and artifact production skills, nor would they be able to take the preserved boar body parts with them for future use.

Mary would leave over 70% of their target's body behind, taking only the meat they would need to feed themselves for the next few days.

With the meat in hand, they set out to find a place to rest and eat.

"This has been a wonderful experience, despite my injury," Liam said as he walked behind Mary, pointing her in the right direction, considering his senses were sharper than hers.

"Our weapons are unreliable against creatures close to the second realm. We can't rely on artifacts for our next targets."

"Hmm, do you think you'll be okay?"

"My regeneration ability isn't normal. I should be as good as new in two days at the most, so we can look for opportunities."