After storing away the corpse of the salamander beast I resume looking for hoof tracks by the lake. As I'm looking for tracks I come across a lot of other tracks left by other various beasts. I even see some of these beasts, luckily they've all been herbivores so far, because iv run across quite a large amount of them.
It makes sense though since this is the closest and largest body of water around. Sapphire lake must be the watering hole for numerous beasts, some probably traveling over thirty miles from their den just to sate their thirst. That also means there must be a lot of predators around taking advantage of the surplus of prey in the area.
With that last thought at the forefront of my mind, I become more vigilant of my surroundings. So far Premeditation has been able to let me know when i'm about to face imminent danger but it doesn't necessarily keep me out of dangerous situations. So far it just warned me when I was already about to be attacked but didn't let me know that there was a dangerous creature or situation nearby, but then it would make sense that there was a certain distance from the dangerous situations I had to be in before Premeditation would work. Meaning that the creatures that caused the ability to ping had a greater direction range than my ability did. I would need to do some tests to gather the full scope of Premeditation.
Another day and night pass before I finally find the Tyrant Swine. I actually didn't need to track them because I found a herd of them that had come to the lake to get some water. The only problem was how big the herd was. There were ten of them all together, six adult Tyrant Swine and four adolescent ones.
The problem was that Tyrant Swine weren't only really strong for they're grade, like most if not all creature/people in World game they had multiple stats that they excelled in and unfortunately for me Tyrant Swines other dominant ability was constitution. Which meant that not only was their health really high because of their high constitution but their defenses were high as well.
I'm not sure if my Telekinesis is powerful enough to put holes through them like I had done to the previous beasts I had encountered. Looking at their bodies though I doubted it. The Tyrant Swine were only a little smaller than the Shadow cat I had faced, so they were only a little smaller than a full grown horse. The problem was not their height though, it was how large they were by width. If I was comparing them to a horse I would say that all the adults besides one were at least double the width of a horse. The outlier was obviously the leader of the herd because he was not only bigger than the Shadow cat but was also at least a third thicker than the others. The encyclopedia entry that I read about the Tyrant Swine said that a majority of their large bodies were not fat and muscle but were actually skin. Apparently a Tyrant Swine thick skin was actually why they were feared by Adventurers of the same rank.
Many adventurers found that even their most powerful offensive abilities weren't strong enough to pierce their defenses. The entry said the best way to take them out was to aim for their weak points, which were their eyes, snout and knees. The snout because a majority of it was made of cartilage and not skin, but the problem is that you wouldn't' kill the swine right away unless your ability was also powerful enough to pierce through its skull as well, and if a Tyrant swines skin was that strong then you can only imagine how strong their bones were. If you were going to target the snout then you have to do enough damage to make it profusely bleed from its snout and then would have to wait for it to die of blood loss. Given their big bodies that could take a long time. Now their knees were a weak point because they had to bear the weight of their large bodies. The strain of their own bodies makes breaking the knees much easier than piercing their bodies. The problem with targeting the knees though is that yet again it wont kill the Tyrant swine right away, It may even be inferior of an option than the snout because you were essentially just taking away its movement and not really hitting anything vital. The only reason the knees were on the list of weak points was because the act of successfully breaking it would greatly help with dealing with the beast overall. Those facts made the eyes the only sure way to instantly kill a tyrant swine, unless you had the power to break through their tough skulls and deal damage to their brain.
It was safe to assume that my telekinesis wouldn't be strong enough to break through their skin let alone their skulls. The best way to deal with them for me would be to aim for their eyes. I really had to go for instant kills if I wanted to take the herd head on.
For every swine I insta killed I would be one less swine that was attacking me. The real problem was that I wasn't confident in targeting their eyes while I dodged the five that would be attacking me at the same time.
I say five because the element of surprise would allow me to target one of their eyes while not having other distractions. Telekinesis allowed for practically pinpoint accuracy because I'm controlling it with my mind. While that was true, the more variables I was keeping track of with my mind the less I was able to focus on hitting something with pinpoint accuracy. Especially if my target was moving because I would then have to constantly adjust my aim to my targets movements.
While targeting the Tyrant Swine knees seemed that it was an option, I didn't even consider it because targeting them while they were moving meant targeting something that was essentially moving twice as much as their head would be, which wasn't really an option at all, at that point I might as well just target their eyes.
After watching the Tyrant swines movement for over an hour I came up with a plan that I thought was feasible. It was a plan that took into consideration of all my advantages, while also considering those of the Tyrant Swine's weaknesses.
When the beasts took a break and laid down to apparently take a rest, I knew it was my time to make my move. The beasts had moved away from the shoreline of the lake and were laying beneath the large trees of the surrounding forest. With the sun still being high in the sky, it made the amount of shadows in the forest plentiful. Using this to my advantage I used Shadow meld to discreetly surf the shadows and move into the position I needed to be in to start my plan. I popped out of the shadows onto a branch which was practically directly above the beasts. Luckily there was a branch suitable for my plan. From the ground to my location was a little less than fifty feet. The distance of the branch from the ground was important because through some experiments over the past day I found that the range of telekinesis was about fifty feet.
Now that I was in place i set my sights on the Alpha of the herd. I figured if I was going to get one free shot in I should target the alpha because he was sure to give me the most problems. Luckily it was laying on its side with one of its eyes visible.
I then drink a B rank potion. I may not need that much Energy regeneration, but I would be more costly to consume a C ranked potion only to find out i needed more energy and then have to consume a Instant Energy potion to be able to finish the fight.
The daggers I'll be controlling with my telekinesis for the duration of the battle will be my Tantos. Not only do they have longer blades than my simple daggers, them being twelve inches in length, they also do higher base damage when it's a piercing attack. After realizing that fact while making the plan I decided to buy two more Tantos or find another suitable weapon that has higher piercing damage to be used with my telekinesis.
I then control only one dagger to maximize my accuracy and consume the two-hundred Energy required to empower my Telekinesis to its maximum power. The Tanto shoots through the air, it's barely visible to the naked eye as it covers the distance to the alpha Tyrant Swine. Just as the Tanto is about to pierce the eye of the alpha, whether through pure coincidence, but more likely through animal instinct, it moves its head towards its body causing the Tanto to miss its eye and graze off its head.
While the alpha tyrant swine still processes that there is an enemy and before he alerts the rest of the herd, I consume the Energy to shoot my second Tanto towards the eye of a different Tyrant Swine. This one hits its mark and sinks into the eye of the beast to pierce its brain, killing it instantly. I then recall both Tantos as all the Tyrant Swine jumped to their feet ready to defend themselves from their attacker.
Unfortunately I couldn't repeat this tactic until all the Tyrant Swine were dead because while they're standing up their eyes are barely visible and most if not all of my attacks would glance off their skulls.
While the beasts look around for their attacker I shadow Meld towards the lakes shoreline and back to the ground, while still being in clear view of the Tyrant swine.
After getting there the Alpha Tyrant swine immediately sees me and initiates a charge towards my location. One of the beasts stays back with the babies while the other ones follow their alpha.
The sight of so many large beasts running at me and knowing that the only thing they have on their mind is killing me constricts my heart. I almost break from the anxiety, causing the thought of using Shadow meld to return to the trees to come across my mind. Whether it's because of my stone resolve passive or due to the tempering my mind has gone through from so many unbelievable things happening to me, I squash the thought before I have a chance to act on it.
With only that small amount of hesitation I raise the one Tanto I am controlling with telekinesis and shoot it one of the Tyrant Swine. At this distance I don't target the alpha again because I'm afraid its reaction time will be fast enough to avoid my attack. The dagger shoots through the air after I empower it with my Energy and buries itself into one of the Tyrant Swines eye causing its large body to crumple to the ground lifeless. The alpha has only covered about half of the distance to me. This time with apparent nerves of steel, I don't hesitate and shoot the other Tanto at another beast, with no fanfare another beast drops to the ground.
While recalling my Tantos I activate my Fleet Footed ability raising my Speed by twenty-five percent, then sprint toward the shoreline where there are no trees. Looking over my shoulder I find that i'v reached the appropriate distance and turn back around to face the herd of beasts that are out for my blood.
My plan becomes obvious at this moment, its kiting. A simple strategy that I learned from playing so many games over the years. All it requires is a large open space and for you to be faster than the intended targets. Every time I turn around I'll turn around and shoot my daggers towards the Tyrant Swines eyes, then every time they begin to close in on me I'll activate my Fleet Footed ability and run away, only to turn around at a certain distance and shoot my daggers at the Tyrant Swine again.
I gaze at the two remaining Tyrant Swine with pity in my eyes. If they were only a little smarter and just stopped chasing me instead of being mindless beasts, then this strategy would never work. With their temper and aggressive nature the Tyrant Swine they stood no chance.
I quickly shoot my dagger as the last remaining Tyrant Swine that wasn't the alpha, causing it to slump to the ground while its forward momentum causes it to slide a few feet before coming to a stop.
After running away again I set my sights onto the alpha. It's still rushing towards me, its eyes are bloodshot from anger and there's foam coming out of its mouth. I shoot my dagger towards it, but this time unlike the other Tyrant Swine it manages to shift its head out of the way of the dagger.
I frown when I see this, my heart gripped by anxiety again as I realized that this method isn't going to work unless I significantly reduce the distance between me and the beast. Just like last time my resolve firms and I weigh my options.
The whole time I've been kiting the beasts I've noticed that they've regularly activated some kind of skill that caused their movement speed to increase a decent bit for a few seconds, I remember from the encyclopedia that this skill is called Dash. The only reason that I hadn't been caught was because I had a lead on them and that my Speed stat already caused me to be faster than them by a good bit. The alphas skill though was significantly more potent than the other Tyrant swines. Not only did it make it faster than the others but it lasted for longer as well. The skill also didn't seem to have a cool down, either that or its cool down was negligible.
Taking this into consideration I decided that getting closer was probably not the right move. Especially because the Tyrant Swine were known to have a root skill called Bloody Glare which would immobilize you for five seconds. The skill only had a range of ten feet though which is why I haven't encountered it yet. After noticing that its movement skill seemed to be more powerful I didn't want to get close enough to it to find out if its Bloody Glare had an increased range or something as well.
With those thoughts going through my mind I quickly make a plan that I believe will have a good chance of working, though it was not without risk, especially because it relied on an element of Shadow Meld I hadn't tested yet but believed to be true. The plan could still work without that particular element, but the risk involved would only be a little less dangerous than shortening the distance enough for it not to be able to dodge my dagger.
With my plan decided on I changed direction. This whole time iv been running down the shoreline, taking advantage of the lack of trees to keep the beasts in my line of sight and to be able to run a straight line with no obstacles in the way. Now I'm heading towards the trees again.
When I get to the treeline I immediately make my way up into a tree and sit on its lowest branch. The boar enters the forest and charges the tree i'm in with its ability. The impact causes the entire tree to shake while making a deafening sound. Luckily my Agility is so high or else I probably would've been shaken out of the tree.
The Alpha Tyrant Swine does this for about an hour as its energy and aggression begin to fade, when they finally do the beast lays down at the bottom of the tree and looks up to me as it regains energy. Now I could've shot my dagger at it now but I just knew that even if the creature was exhausted it would still be able to move its head in time to stop its eye and brain from being pierced.
So I followed my initial plan. I use Shadow Meld, with us being in the forest and the sun being up the place was absolutely covered in shadow, the Tyrant Swines entire body was currently covered in shadow. I emerge on the alphas back swinging my Tanto dagger, its already inches away from its eye socket when I emerge. With absolutely no time to react I bury the Tanto dagger hilt deep into the unsuspecting beasts eye socket piercing its brain before it even registered I was there.