Savage Boars continued to surround the squad, each of them driving through with sharp tusks.
The uneven ground had become trampled and scorched grass the longer their fight prolonged. It was already difficult trying to maneuver around the protruding thick roots.
As Jace sprinted across, avoiding the charging boars, he noticed some of them were struck with arrows in a daze.
He quickly jumped over to one of them, thrusting his sword before they could register another thought.
[You have slain Savage Boar. You have gained experience.]
'Is she helping me? Seriously, I can take care of myself.'
Erin wasn't absent in their fight, rather she was somewhere above them in the clouding, dark trees. Her specialty wasn't necessarily close-combat but more in the ranged spectrum.
Each time a boar would slow down and turn about, preparing to charge again at the squad, she would fire an arrow in that short opportunity. It was ingenious, playing against the flaws of the rage-induced boars.
Was she trying to help him? He wouldn't even gain the full experience given by the Soul if another Climber assisted him in the slain.
'Whatever. Experience is experience, right? I shouldn't be complaining.'
Another boar caught him in his thoughts. It charged, snorting its big nostrils in anger.
Jace coiled his sword around his body, tensing the muscles in his arm.
[Skill Activate: Wide Slash]
The Savage Boar crashed into the ground with the momentum of its charge, bleeding from the deep gash on its skull. It was still alive, struggling to stand on stumbling legs.
Then an arrow sharply whistled from above, finally putting the persistent beast down.
[You have slain Savage Boar. You have gained experience.]
'Is she just going to keep her eyes on me the entire fight?'
Jace sprinted again, wiping the grimace off his face, and caught the other attention of any stray boars in his view.
He glanced at the other members in his squad.
Heather and Brita seemed to be doing fine, judging the gust of golden mist moving through the air.
'How many have they killed already, goodness, leave some for the rest of us.'
But that barbarian was nowhere to be seen. Though, Jace didn't really give it any matter. Klav most likely saw this fight as a sport.
A boar came charging directly onto him. Jace stepped out of the way, narrowly dodging the sudden attack.
Then another one followed behind his rear. It was too quick for him to react. He turned and braced, shielding his body with his arms.
Jace was completely lifted from the ground, spiraling back into the grass with a burning pain in his right arm. These boars were two feet tall and probably weighed just as much as him.
So, it wasn't a pleasant feeling being rammed into by them.
The Soul flickered into his eyes with a subtle hum.
[HP: 86/114]
'Yeah, I know, you didn't have to tell me that hurt.'
Jace rolled away and sprung from the ground. Knowing their strength and tenacity, they could easily toss around a weak Climber like him for dinner.
He refreshed his grip on the silver sword again, locking his eyes with the same boar that flipped him over.
'Come on, you bastard, get another piece of me.'
He dashed forward, enticing the boar to do the same. Unfortunately, he couldn't pull off that neat trick again at the beginning. The fatigue was already building inside him.
Instead, he weaved from the boar's limited line of sight.
The Savage Boar slowed down, realizing that there wasn't a human skewered in its tusk. But before it could turn around, a shadow already loomed over its body with a gleaming silver blade.
[Skill Activate: Wide Slash]
His face paled, reading the next line coming from the Soul.
[Activation failure. Insufficient mana.]
The boar winced back with a long cut across its face and neck. An attack without his Skill could barely pierce through thick skin. It squealed in anger, blaming its source of pain to the human in front.
'You have got to be kidding me—'
The boar exploded forward with its hind legs, surprising Jace since none of them had done this before. Did hurting it seriously give it a power boost?
In a natural instinct, he caught two of the tusks before it could impale him in the stomach. But doing so, he had lost the hold on his sword.
The boar squealed again, pushing against the human and wrestling them both around. He could feel his grip slipping off the boar's smooth tusk, drawing dangerously near his stomach.
Jace strained his voice, summoning any remaining strength, and hurled the enraged boar aside. He fell to the grass without anything to pivot his weight.
He couldn't stay still. He quickly scrambled for his sword before that boar could regain its attention.
Just as he grabbed it, he caught the movement of another Savage Boar charging right into him.
Jace was lifted off the ground again, feeling his legs glide along the grass without any effort.
Tremors of pain washed through his body the more he tried to wriggle away. He wasn't going to pull himself out, that was going to be impossible. This boar was trying to drive them both dead into a tree.
Jace defiantly shouted, planting his foot right back onto the grass as he regained his composure. He flipped his sword and plunged it into the boar's skull.
The boar jolted still, feeling the blade enter through its brain. But it was still persistent just like its other relatives, still pushing against the human in death throes.
Jace gritted his teeth, feeling the sides of his mouth fill with blood. He twisted his blade, extinguishing the last of its fighting spirit.
[You have slain Savage Boar. You have gained experience.]
Jace slumped forward through the dissolving mist, leaning on his bloodied silver sword for balance. His breaths were uneven, rugged, and beginning to become congested.
[Congratulations, Climber Jace! You have leveled up!]
[You have 1 Soul Point remaining.]
He wanted to laugh but all he could muster was a disgusting cough. He heard his name being shouted from the side, realizing the boar that he tossed away was still alive.
The Savage Boar charged again, carrying the sight of his slain brethren and afflicted with revenge.
Jace wanted to move. But he couldn't. The wound on his stomach had taken its toll on his body.
The boar came closer without any other force to stop its drive.
Erin tackled him, dragging them both away from the rampaging boar.
The boar drifted around, infuriated with its tusks being empty, then scraped its hooves on the grass for another round.
Then a stained great-axe was swung from above, cleaving the boar and climatic moment in half.
Klav wiped his nose, watching the monster dissolve in the air.
Erin stood off of Jace, noticing how he was clutching onto his stomach in a painful expression.
"You're bleeding," she said. "Can you stand?"
Jace tried to sit up, and in a agonizing groan, he sprawled back onto the ground. It was like his own body was trying to reject him from curling over.
Klav hovered through his view of the foliage. "Are you good, bread-boy?"
Jace decided not to respond, turning his eyes back into the comforting trees and silence. At least the fight was finally over.
Heather and Brita soon came over. They weren't shocked to see Jace was the only one in the squad that suffered an injury.
"Jace?" Brita kneeled beside him, spilling her cloak onto the grass. "Would you like for me to heal you?"
"No, don't do that," Heather ordered. "You'll run out of mana if you keep healing him. Give him a potion and he'll be good as new. We still have the day to fight for experience."
But Brita didn't listen to him. She reached for Jace's leather armor and lifted it over, revealing a gnarly, deep, and bloody wound from the boar's tusk. It wasn't a pleasant sight at all.
Klav chuckled. "You'll be fine, just walk it off."
"Yeah, walk it off," Jace said before coughing a round of blood.
Brita hovered her hand over his wound as she held her staff.
Heather sighed, rubbing his face in irritation. "Are you sure you don't want to give him a potion? What if you run out of mana during a fight?"
"Potions heal over time, they're far less effective than a spell. And if I run out of mana, then I can trust you guys to help me, just as I'm helping Jace."
"Alright, fine," Heather decided. "I can give some sympathy but if it goes against the balance of our squad, then it's a problem."
"Oh, come on," Erin folded her arms. "If it was you laying on that grass with blood coming out of your stomach, then you would have wanted to be touched by Brita too."
Heather furrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?"
"What?"
He sighed again. "Whatever. Catch up when you're done, I'll scout out the perimeter."
Jace was staring blankly during their argument. It always became an issue whether he should be spared by spells or potions.
'Honestly, potions taste absolutely awful. I would rather be healed by a spell than to drink something so repulsive.'
Then Brita conjured the healing spell, with mist of golden sparkles encircling around his wound, it didn't take long for his skin to close up like nothing had happened.
The Soul had given Brita the amazing ability to heal, a real treasure that all squad of Climbers needed.
'Would they need bread, too? I could make amazing bread from killing monsters.'
With the intense pain gone from his stomach, Jace could finally stand without toppling over like an infant.
He thanked Brita, again, and for all those countless times she had to fix him after a fight.
When the squad was finally settled to move again, they began venturing deeper in the Whispering Woods, ready for another encounter with more terrible monsters.
Though, Jace promised that he wouldn't have to be healed again. In the next fight, he was going to pull through at the end like the rest of them.
And by the look on their faces, he should have just kept that promise to himself.