Danger in the Woods

The weeks of staying on the jungles, Qiu can hear the sounds of battle constantly from the city, reminding him that the battle is far from over.

From his daily training and his more consistent meat intake, one can tell that Qiu has grown bigger from when he first started hunting.

The Ivory stance is the basics of all Ivory Tiger martial arts.

The Ivory Tiger style is one that emphasizes on defence, malleability and toughness, due to the strong affinity of the style with the metal element.

Hence, it is one that is great for soldiers, in combat.

What kind of danger could the woods pose, one such danger would be the one faced by Qiu right now.

Like Hercules' Erymanthian boar, Qiu had his own giant boar to deal with, right now.

It was three man tall, while five man wide, it had brown skin and a pair of tusks that feels like it can pierce through the flesh of any loving being, it is truly a beast.

Qiu had stumbled across the giant boar, when he heard a loud scream coming from deeper with the forest from where his cave was.

As he suspected it came from a girl that was hiding out in the woods. As battle continued in the region.

The girl had black hair and eyes and one can tell that she is not doing so well in the forest, with her clothes being worn-downed and body as skinny as a pair of chopsticks.

The girl was backed into a tree, while being chased by the wild boar, having no other choice she let out a scream in hopes of getting help from someone, and that someone is Qiu.

Qiu did not hesitate when he jumped in the way between the giant boar and the girl, he has been taught by Wu and Xu that being a soldier, he should always place the safety of others first and always help those in need first.

And this is what he had done. Helping those that needs the help.

"Stay away from here, run!" Qiu shouted at the girl.

'The question for me now is how do I handle the giant boar.'

'If I remembered correctly, when Xu brought me to the forest to patrol around, he said that the giant boars native to the forest are impenetrable by swords, hence heavy hits are the way to go.'

The Ivory Tiger style four arts - Ivory Tiger palm, it is a style that is a combination of the Metal palm style and Tiger palm style, a well structured heavy attack within the Ivory Tiger style.

And so as the boar charged at him, Qiu faced the giant boar heads on and in the Ivory stance getting ready to stroke his palm.

As the boar charges closer, Qiu became more and more hesitant as to why he had to jump in, but he could not back down now, he had to see it through, calming himself down he gets ready to strike his palm.

As the boar became inches away from him, Qiu let out his strike and landed a hit on the forehead of the giant boar.

The impact of the two forces pushed Qiu all the way back to the tree at the back, while the boar was only pushed back a few inches.

Having seen the boar only be pushed back by a little, Qiu had no other choice, but to grab the girl's hand and run.

The pair headed to the top of a hill, luring the giant boar there.

On top the hill, Qiu placed the girl on the tree while he stood on the edge of the hill.

Standing at the edge of the hill, Qiu waited for the boar to charge at him, and when it does he will jump to the side and let the boar fall to it's death.

As he stood and watched the boar charging towards him, Qiu in his mind practiced the jumping many times.

And when the boar was about to hit him, Qiu jumped off to the sides and to his horror, he had jumped roo late and the boar had scraped his legs when he jumped, leaving a scratch and changing the trajectory of Qiu in the air.

Now, Qiu is dangling on the edge of the hill, while the boar has fallen and no where to be seen, at least there is one thing to be glad about. But on the other had, Qiu is pretty much dead if the edge crumbles.

"Hey, can you come over and help me up." In a moment of danger, Qiu called for the help of the girl he had saved from the boar.

It might be the shock from the boar chase has not subsided or what, the girl just sat on the tree stoned and not moving.

As Qiu called out to her again and again, the girl had finally cam to her senses and hurriedly came to help him.

As he got up, he laid his left arm over her shoulders as his left leg was hit and had a pretty big scratch from the boar.

As they were walking, Qiu pointed out the direction to his cave to the girl, to bring him over to, as he had gathered some herbs and could help with the wound, especially with stopping infection.

Upon closer inspection of the girl on the way to the cave, Qiu recognized the girl he had saved, it is one of the older kids that called him the pale demon in the city, and her name is 雪丽(Xueli) meaning beautiful snow, if only her heart is as beautiful.

Xueli is the daughter of one of the famous merchants in the city, and was birthed with looks that does not lose to any Urumqi girl, Xueli is popular amongst the boys from a young age.

Having being brought up with riches and affection from boys around her, Xueli developed a spoiled demeanour to wards others she sees as below her, and one of these people is Qiu.

Qiu has not had any less of a mocking from her and her childhood friend 藤(Teng), the son of a local official working for the local court house.

In the Qian dynasty, merchants are a class lower than even farmers as the main court do not see any societal benefits that they bring to the society, other than scamming the masses for they wealth.

Hence, many merchants would either claim their ancestor to be an official for the court or have their children marry into officials' families to increase their status symbol in society.

And clearly Xueli's father has chosen the second route, by having Xueli grow up with Teng being childhood friends to develope feelings for each other and later getting engaged.

Memories of Xueli mocking and making fun of him passes and the pair makes their way to the cave. Qiu does not know whether Xueli had noticed him or not, but upholding his integrity as a soldier (potential) he could not leave her alone.

Hence when they reached, he let Xueli stayed in the cave with him until the battle is over, to search for her family.

And in the meantime Xueli helped Qiu treat the infection, with Qiu mashing down the herbs and Xueli applying it onto the wound to stop infection.