To boar or not to boar

Spoiler:

As much as Caelestis preferred treasure hunting jobs, where he stood to gain more knowledge, monster hunts were far more abundant, and rather profitable. It was certainly good combat practice, at any rate. Even if it didn’t quite exercise his brain in the same way seeking out crypts and ruins did all too often. But, money was money, and he didn’t mind doing a little monster hunting to get it. Money could also be a powerful tool to get the items and knowledge he sought.

In this case, he’d been commissioned to hunt the Erymanthian Boar and bring it back alive to a client. One other had also accepted the commission, and he intended to seek them out and hopefully work with the person to catch the creature.

Making his way up the paths where the creature was often spotted, the young man made his way up to the highest ledge he could possibly find- hoping to spot either the person who’d accepted the commission, or the boat itself. He wasn’t overly concerned about falling - he could still fly, after all. Thankfully, his enhanced senses would be a boon in this context, making it more likely he would spot one or the other.

With that in mind, he settled in to wait atop his ledge, eyes roving over the territory he was to search for the boar. Here in nature, the sounds and smells and sights were much less overwhelming on his senses, and he paused for a moment to take it all in. To anybody watching, he probably looked quite the sight - a skinny young man, perched precariously on a high cliff ledge, watching and waiting for something. His clothing probably didn’t help, greens and whites standing out against the grey rock he was standing on. With any luck, though, he’d end up attracting either the boar or the other mage to him with the obvious colors.

He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye- was it the boar? In the next moment, though, his excitement had deflated. Not the boar, not even big enough to be the boar… just an ordinary goat, climbing surprisingly rapidly up the cliffs. It was alone, and for a moment Caelestis debated on why that was. In the next, though, a conclusion came to him as to why exactly a goat would be climbing so rapidly when normally they were such patient climbers. The boar had to be nearby! He couldn’t rush things, though, so he continued watching with renewed vigor, hoping to catch sight of the massive monster he was supposed to be hunting. Being up high, in a vantage point, was never a bad thing.

He could definitely hear something large somewhere far below him, though whether that was the boar or something else was the subject of much debate. He hoped it was the former, so that he could quickly complete the job and get his money. He doubted boars could fly, after all- all he’d have to do was knock the thing off a high enough ledge to knock it out without killing it, and there was a good chance he’d be able to avoid having to expend too much magic or effort. He couldn’t kill the thing, which would have likely made things easier, but at the very least his wind wasn’t destructive enough to kill the thing immediately.

WC: 566
TWC: 566
Needed WC: 10,000 Total

HP: 800
MP: 800

It was tradition for those to took the Faraam creed to go on hunts to keep their skills and blades sharpened for battle. As a Faraam Knight it was Serena's duty to engage in such hunts,nand it had been many moons ago since she pursued a quarry. She had decided to take up a commission to hunt the Erymanthian Boar.

She was confident in slaying the beast, but the issues was the beast was be taken alive to the client. It wasn't difficult, but it was something Serena found tedious. After all the knight found that it was much easier to skin her prey and bing home a trophy of the hunt. Regardless of the conditions set by the client she would see it through.

She had entered the forrest a week in advance, stalking her prey gathering knowledge. She had a rough idea where the boars territory was. As Serena was packing up her camp  she heard a rustling of leaves. She turned her armored body towards the noise with her  gauntleted hand on her sword. Here eyes narrowed from beneath her steel helm that completely covered her face. An arrow suddenly whistled towards her direction, instinctively she parried the projectile with her sword while it was still in its scabbard.

"You all are not my quarry... I suggest you to leave... I would rather not spill unnecessary blood." Serena voice echoed from her helm. Another arrow shot forward, this time she tanked the shot by angling her body and allowing the curve of her plate armor to redirect the trajectory of the arrow fired at her. She sighed looking past the foliage but the vegetation and tree line was too thick for Serena to discern where the assailant was.

"Very well... have it you way." Serena muttered, as she took her armored fist and slammed it against the trunk of a large tree. With the explosive force of the impact, huge chunks of wood splintered as the lard tree groaned. Serena then grabbed a hold of the trunk and tore off another chunk of the tree. The wood creaked and splintered as the tree began to lean. A volley of arrows rained on Serena. She smashed the tree once more with her fist, causing the tree to tumble forward swatting most of the projectiles out from sky. The other arrows that managed to get trough missed their mark, however one was able to land at one of the gaps of Serena's plate armor. Luckily the chain mail and gambeson underneath her armor cushioned the blow somewhat, however the arrow head was still able to dig into her flesh, drawing blood.

She then grabbed the tree trunk lifting the whole tree using her free arm and lifted. She swung the tree like a giant bat breaking and splintering a portion the forrest canopy. The centaur look stunned at the Herculean strength displayed by the human before them. The knight tossed the tree aside causing to crush a few remaining tree that were still standing within the vicinity. "There you are..." Serena said to herself as she yanked the arrow out from her shoulder. Blood began leaking as crimson stained her her war torn armor.

The Centaur fired another arrow and as he mad a mad dash toward the denser parts of the woods leading towards the cliff. Serena in response slammed her fist into a ground pulling out a large rock, she crushed it in her hand threw a burst of bits of stone she crushed like a shotgun blast. The bits of rocks were thrown so hard that they flew at such a volatile trajectory, the torn trees and tree trunks caught in the blast splintered as chunks of wood came flying out in random directions. One of the centaurs leg was caught in one the blasts caused by Serena's monstrous throw causing him to tumble and fall.

"Tough bastard aren't you." Serena mused as she watched the centaur get up, shaking off the injury it had just sustained. The centaur then drew a spear it had on its back and charged forward. Serena quickly drew her blade from its scabbard and assumed as defensive stance. As her opponent charged, she used the broad side of her sword to redirect the spear head, while side stepping at the same time to parry the attack. She then used the forward moment of her blade to bring it around to a swing into a deep cut to Centaurs side as he barreled past her.

The centaur grunted in pain as he came around ounce more for an attack. Judging by how badly the centaur was injured Serena surmised that she could bring it down in one more strike. The centaur bellowed, letting out a battle cry as it charged once more in desperation. Serena took her blade and trust it forward and with twist causing her cross guard of her blade to bind with the spear. She moved her head to the side narrowly dodging the spear. She then pushed her blade down while twisting it causing the spear to splinter in half. She then shifted her stance and body weight, redirecting the momentum of her sword into a strike to the human torso of the centaur. The centaur stood on on its hind legs as he kicked frantically. Serena was able to quickly block one of the hooves, but flurry of blows managed to strike her on the head. Fortunately her armor took the brunt of the damage, but it did not leave her unscathed. The blunt force trauma was enough to shaken her a bit but, it wasn't enough to stop Serena.

She tossed her blade aside and tacked the centaur, despite her size her inhumane strength allowed her to bring the centaur down.  Before the centaur could get back up she put the creature in headlock. The centaur struggled kicked and thrashed, but like a viper clamping its fangs down ion its prey, Serena held on until she managed to strangle her opponent until and audible snap could be heard. Then the centaur's thrashing body went limp.

Serena sighed and let go, she got up and dusted herself off and made a swift silent prayer to her defeated opponent. "There must be more of you... but the question is where are they..." Serena murmured as she picked up her sword returning it to its scabbard.

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WC: 1,069
TWC: 1,635

The faint sounds of a battle reached Caelestis’ ears, which he ignored for now. While he was curious, someone else fighting something else was not his current concern. He had a mission, and he intended to see it through. And while the sounds of a battle seemed to abate quick enough, he was still hearing the sounds of something large moving about somewhere below him. His prey, perhaps?

Thanking his good fortune, the young man peered from his ledge, hoping to spot the boar. And spot the boar he did indeed. There was a decent sized cliff in the area, wide enough that the boar was nowhere near the edges even at such a large size. While Caelestis was sorely tempted to send some wind, the area was too high up to guarantee the boar surviving the fall should he push it off. Instead, the young man decided to do what he did best: fly. Floating up off the ledge he’d been perched on, the young man flew towards the area where he’d seen the boar, making no effort to be quiet. He didn’t intend for his quarry to be able to get away, so stealth wasn’t really what he was after.

It was the work of less than a minute of flying to reach the boar, which had been snuffling around looking for something. The young slayer looked at the creature, hovering about 10m above the cliff where it was standing. It hadn’t noticed the small, brightly coloured, flying child yet, so he took advantage of that fact. Opening his mouth, the winds seemed to gather and grow more intense for a moment before a screaming burst of wind seemed to slam into the boar.

The boar almost immediately roared in a fury, though the wind had slowed the reaction as it struggled to stay on it’s feet. Caelestis’ wind was quite cutting, and the creature seemed to recognize that as it stared at Caelestis with beady eyes, tossing it’s massive tusks to and fro as it attempted to find a way to get to the flying child.

He’d certainly gotten it’s attention, though he’d likely gained the attention of everything else in the area with his first spell as well. Because of this, he didn’t hesitate, and with a raised hand another burst of wind, this time tinted an odd green, rushed past him to slam into the creature. He couldn’t see any visible wounds on the thing, but it continued to roar in a fury as it was nearly knocked over a second time, unable to reach the floating thing attacking it.

Caelestis didn’t even try to get closer, knowing if even one of those tusks hit him, he was likely dead.

The boar seemed to calculate it’s chances of winning the fight, and seemed to come to the decision to flee towards the forest instead. Caelestis had to take a moment to pause before firing off another spell, so he instead flew after the creature, keeping it fixed in his line of sight as it fled towards the forest. The forest was a good call for the thing, even if it was huge. The trees would slow a flying opponent down, and the boar may yet be able to escape. Well, escape someone else. Caelestis wouldn’t let it escape him.

Shooting through the air at max speed, Caelestis was a blur of green and blue as he chased after the boar. It wasn’t quite within spell range yet, but once it reached the trees it would have to slow down. That was when the young slayer intended to hit it again, this time harder, and with more spells. If he could knock the creature out with his winds, he could figure out a way to restrain it and hopefully haul it out of the area to drag to the client. The boar was surprisingly fast, though, and it was all the young mage could do to keep up his current pace and make sure the boar didn’t get too far away. It wouldn’t escape, but tracking it would be a pain Caelestis was not in the mood to undergo.

Thankfully, the boar did indeed seem to slow as it reached the tree line, though it still plowed through the undergrowth like it wasn’t there. The only thing that creature really had to worry about were the trees, and it clearly knew the forest well. The trail of destruction was easy enough to follow, and Caelestis himself knew that he was going to catch up to the boar soon enough. It was still moving too fast for him to truly catch up yet… but it would surely get tired eventually.

With this in mind, he followed after the creature, forced to slow some himself to avoid crashing into the trees as he flew. If it weren’t so annoying, the young slayer would almost praise the quick thinking of the monster he was hunting. Instead, he glared in the direction he was following, keeping his mouth closed so that he wouldn’t accidentally catch bugs. He’d made the mistake of keeping his mouth open while flying exactly once. Never again.
WC: 861
TWC: 2,496
Needed WC: 10,000

MP: 735/800
HP: 800

Spells Used:

Serena made a dash towards the location of her prey. Each of her strides shattering the ground where her greaves would fall, propelling her with incredible speed. Like a juggernaut she barreled her way towards the cliff side. Her eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of green in the air, it wasn’t a leaf or a branch. It was humanoid in shape. She slowed her stride and focused her eyes towards the flying object in the air. It did not take long for Serena to realize that it was in fact not an object, but a person. A child, maybe a young girl. No, the person had feminine features but she had to get closer to confirm.

She watched from a great distance how the young child would fly up and command the winds to his will. Despite how she was unable to use magic herself, Serena had studied theories and history of mage craft extensively. With what she saw, she surmised the child indeed had great talent. She soon realized what the wind wielding mage was up to when to her slight surprise she saw the giant boar she was after come tumbling down the cliff after being shoved by the winds commanded by the flying child. She sighed to herself, thinking how dull her skills have gotten for a child to beat her in locating her quarry. She was not bitter, in fact she was impressed at the younglings feats. Just when she was about to call off the hunt and leave the boar to the child her head snapped towards the direction of the sounds of stampeding hooves. She cursed realizing the child was now the target of the boars centaur guardians.

With all her effort she launched herself forward, leaping and dashing at inhumane speeds in order to intercept the encroaching band of centaurs. Despite her immense strength allowing her to cover most of the distance quickly she was still slowed down by the tree line. Luckily her armor allowed her to simply run through or leap through the thick branches. Leaves rustled, branches cracked and snapped. A tree or two would tumble down after Serena ran through them. Granted, this method was brutish to say the least, however she didn’t have the time to dodge and weave through the tree line. The fast method to reach her destination was straight ahead. The trunks, boulders, and stones were simply minor obstacles that were in her way.

Large dust clouds, branches and bits id crushed stone was thrown in the air as the fully armored Serena ran ahead going through any obstacle like some sort of bulldozer. Her efforts were not in vain, with a cacophonous crash Serena broke through the tree line just in time. Without a word she leapt in a single bound using her body as a shield to protect the young wind mage from the hail of arrows that came from deep within the tree line. Some of the arrows splintered and shattered upon contact with Serena’s tempered armor, however many arrows were still able to find their mark at the gaps of her steel plates. Despite the shock of pain, Serena shrugged it off and rolled into a rough landing. She got up, and snapped the arrow shafts, leaving the arrow heads in her body. “Go child. Best hurry, Your quarry may get away.” Serena said without turning. Her attention fixated towards the direction of the hidden enemies.

She took a stance, gripping her sword with her two hands. She lifted her blade above her head as if preparing for an over head strike. Her body weight and armor shifted as she finalized her stance, and readied herself to unleash a sword technique crafted by the Edelweiss family. Her body tensed for a brief moment before she unleashed her strike. The blade cane down so fast a loud audible crack in the air echoed followed by a massive shock wave as the huge chunk of the tree line Serena was facing was utterly decimated. The kinetic energy of her swing rushed forward a portion of the cliff side was cut leaving a perfect straight line of sheer destruction. A shock of pain even worse than the arrows that riddled her body over came Serena.

This was the price she had to pay, her swordsmanship was destructive however at the cost of her body. Each swing and each maneuver Serena made, her body would break bit by bit. She would rapidly heal, only for her bones to fracture, and her muscles to tear when she would use her sword techniques. Even so, she was used to it, the pain and agony was nothing more than a minor inconvenience. She learned to use her pain as a tool, fire to temper and focus her will, fuel to her burning rage and bloodlust. This was her existence, this is what it meant to be a bloodhound knight of the Edelweiss family.

Serena laughed as she threw her arms outward, openly mocking her opponents. “Come out! A bee stings worse than your arrow.” She laughed maniacally as she taunted her hidden adversaries. Though her target was the boar, Serena was happy to settle with what she had. She noticed a corpse a centaur in a far off distance. It lay in the midst of the rubble of her initial strike. She sighed at disappointment, she was hoping for more of a challenge.

A spear flew towards Serena, with minimal effort she stepped aside and parried the spear out of her way with the broad side of her blade. “Tch… if you all want a chance at killing me… I suggest you all attack me at the same time.” She slung her blade on her shoulder crouching down in animalistic stance as if she was a wolf readying to ambush its prey. A faint red glow came from her eye casting and eerie blood red light to shine through the darkness of her helmet. A hoard of centaurs cane rushing out at, furious at her arrogance.

“Lambs to the slaughter…” Serena chuckled to herself as she let out a blood curdling battle cry. She leapt up in the air, her blade extended forward like claw as she dove towards her enemies.

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WC: 1,043 words
TWC: 3,539 words