6 The Woods (2)

"This is the third location.", Kate surveyed the grassy patch from behind a tall bush.

Under the moonlight, they spotted no monsters in the area; only rocks of different shapes and sizes.

"No enemies? Let's go check if the treasure is here.", Allen suggested.

Kate nodded and the both of them went towards the middle of the grass patch.

-rumble-

The ground suddenly quaked, before they even got to the center of the patch, a large boar whose tusks were made of sharp stone charged right at them coming from behind the trees.

The boar uprooted the trees on the way and even crushed a boulder, intimidating the two of them.

Allen narrowed his eyes and checked the incoming boar from far away, he said to Kate "Don't attack it! It's a rock boar, it's skin is as tough as a boulder, even dagger flashes won't injure it!"

What was dagger flash? It was the same qurter moon-like arc that flew from Kate's dagger when they encountered the first Bloodthirsty Wolf.

Kate was about to charge forward to end this fight when she heard Allen's sentence.

For once, she reluctantly nodded and she and Allen sidestepped to the left and right of the boar respectively.

"How will we kill it then?", Kate shouted as the boar charged right at her. She dodged every attacks in time and continuously backed off.

"Wait, I'm trying to remember!", Allen shouted back.

"I'm going to hold it off then!", Kate took out her dagger and sent attacked the stone boar with dagger flashes.

-clang- -clang-

The flashes only made sparks on the boar's skin, nonetheless, it still kept the beast's attention towards her.

...

Time passed and Kate shouted, "Hurry up!" She knew that she couldn't hold on much longer, her energy was decreasing after dodging and attacking the boar for awhile now.

"I remember now!", Allen shouted. It was rather hard to remember something about the stone boar, specially that he also read about other monsters too.

"What's its weakness?!", Kate exasperatedly asked.

"A pickaxe! It is afraid of pickaxes!", Allen shouted back.

"..." 

'Afraid of a damn pickaxe? What kind of a concept was that?!' Those were the thoughts of Kate.

"Are you kidding me, right?", Kate asked as she closely dodged another charge of the boar.

"No! It's true.", Allen replied loudly.

"How about weak spots instead?", Kate dodged and was almost hit by another charge of the boar.

Allen paused and shouted again, "It's eyes are the only soft parts of its body that are exposed, make him blind!"

Kate heard what Allen said and she immediately hid her dagger and took out two throwing knives, then she threw one towards an eye.

-sou-

The boar didn't react on the time and its right eye was hit by a throwing knife!

The beast let out a roar as it was blinded on its right eye. Roaring in anger, it lost track of Kate and came towards Allen instead. The boar somehow felt that it was this kid's fault that its feeling excrutiating pain.

-whoosh-

Even though it's just a stone boar, its speed was still very fast! Like a horse, the enraged beast charged wildly at Allen in a much faster speed.

"Oh no.", Allen was caught off guard by the change of speed and was almost hit by the boar; luckily, he dodged right on time.

He started backing off from the boar at a fast pace, however, the beast closely tackled him.

"Don't get too far away!", Kate climbed up on a boulder and aimed at the other eye of the stone boar.

Allen knew what to do and led the the boar right at Kate's location so the latter could easily aim on the remaining eye.

On the other hand, Kate smirked knowing what Allen was doing and focused on the other eye of the boar.

Suddenly for Kate, time seemed to slow down. Breathing in deeply, she threw the throwing knife, aiming for the remaining eye.

-sou-

The throwing knife then cut through the air in a fast speed towards the boar.

-pshew-

With a sound of a flesh being pierced, the boar's eye was successfully hit by Kate!

This time after getting completely blinded, the boar roared louder than it even made the nearby birds fly away in fear!

"Now, it can't see us.", Kate said.

Allen immediately sticked his back at the boulder where Kate was standing, "Yeah, but let's just be quiet for awhile."

From the name of the stone boar alone made the said beast separated from the normal boars, like earlier it's difference is that it's skin is as tough as a stone to the point it could destroy boulders.

Just like a Bloodthirsty Wolf, the stone boar focuses on it's strength too, however, like the former, the latter also has one shortcoming, and that was it's instincts were much weaker than the former!

But the next scene caught the two off guard. A green third eye appeared in area of the glabella of the boar!

When Kate spotted it, she asked Allen about the boar's third eye, "Umm... should we be worried about that?"

Allen then looked at the stone boar's third eye, he sucked in a cold breath under his mask and nodded.

He then said...

"Now we really need a pickaxe."

***

Meanwhile, back at the Crescent Town...

In the necromancer's temporary residence...

The necromancer was still awake in his room, under the light provided by the candle on top of a desk, which was the only serving light in the room, he was writing something on a piece of paper. 

He suddenly stopped and muttered, "I hope my apprentice will be alright in the woods."

"Oh don't worry, he probably will be.", a deep voice echoed out throughout room.

The necromancer immediately stood up and grabbed his staff beside him.

He aimed the staff on the darkness around him, "Who are you?"

"I think I should be the one asking the questions first. What are you doing in this city?", the voice asked.

"You'll never know!", the necromancer said.

"Let me rephrase that question then... what is the treasure that your organization seeks for?", the voice asked, with a hint of mockery under its tone.

The necromancer's countenance changed and summoned skeletal guards around him.

"Hehe... how cute, I've killed thousands of those already.", the voice sneered.

The necromancer however, seemed unfazed and sighed, "Hais, an assassin, I will never win in the dark." Suddenly, the necromancer made a devilish smile. "But I'm already a step ahead of you."

"Don't worry... I know I'm just talking to a clone, hahaha...", the deep voice laughed, coupled with the darkness, it seemed like it came from the depths of the inferno.

The necromancer's clone showed an even uglier expression and grabbed at the paper he was writing, however, before he even got hold of it, his body was cleanly cut in half at the middle.

Afterwards, the clone's body and the skeletons around it turned into piles of dust.

A hand stretched out from the darkness and grabbed the paper that the clone was writing on and retrieved it back to the darkness.

After which, another hand stretched from the darkness and crushed the fire on the candle.

"Nighty night, necromancer, don't wake up ever again.", the voice chuckled.

***

Inside an inn...

An old man opened his eyes, he sat up the bed hastily, "I must escape this town! I shouldn't have sent Warren by this time." He was sweating profusely like he experienced a nightmare.

***

Back in the woods...

-crack- -boom-

"Roar...", the boar roared as it destroyed another boulder. That was one of the many boulders it destroyed in the area by this time!

Behind a particular boulder, Allen was panting in fear while Kate has a solemn face. Both of them had already recovered most of their energy by now.

"I remember now, we need to destroy it's third eye, then it would get killed! Most of its life force is focused on that place, it probably opened that eye as a last resort to kill us.", Allen replied under his panting voice.

"I don't have any throwing knives left.", Kate then looked at Allen, the boy said, "I don't have any throwing knives at me, but you can use our daggers."

Kate shook her head and said, "They're too heavy to throw with my strength."

Allen relaxed a bit and said, "Then that stone boar has to be killed at a close distance."

"I could try to flicker near it's eye and stab it.", Kate suggested.

"No, that eye gave the boar sixth sense, it could just sense you appearing near it before you even appeared.", Allen disagreed. Recalling what was written in a certain book that he read.

"What should we do then?", Kate asked.

"I have a plan...", Allen relaxed a bit and went closer to Kate, explaining his plan.

...

In a few seconds, the boar was about to crash onto an another boulder when...

"Hey, I'm here! Come right at me you big chunk of chewy rock meat!", Allen stepped out from behind a boulder and shouted at the stone boar.

The stone boar looked at Allen, as it was about to charge, it seemed to hesitate at the last moment.

'A stone boar with sixth sense is really good at discerning tricks... but its low wisdom is its weakness.', Allen thought and he shouted again, "So are you staying there? You really are a piece of chewy, scared, pile of meat that just got a little bit of wisdom!" He emphasized the last part of the sentence with a loud, stretchy voice.

The stone boar seemed to understand what Allen said, then it roared in anger again, and charged like a maniac at the kid.

The boar's speed is now faster than before! The third eye has obviously gave it a considerable amount of strength!

However, Allen just smiled and when the boar was about twenty meters away from him, he said, "Now!"

The boar sensed something was wrong but it was too late already! It was already ten meters away from Allen and the boulder, and it was already in the range of Kate's flicker ability.

Kate's body disappeared from behind the boulder and reappeared on the air in front of the stone boar! 

Due to the stone boar's momentum, it couldn't stop, afterwards, Kate stabbed towards the incoming beast's third eye.

-clang-

However, the boar closed its eye on time and let out a snort, Kate then fell on the ground and rolled away.

The stone boar opened it's eyes again, however, it forgot one thing ~ rather, it forgot one human, and that was Allen!

Due to the monster being fully focused on Kate, Allen took the chance to charge forward. He then stabbed the third eye after Kate rolled away! 

The third eye at the same time was already opening when Allen met it with a cold dagger.

-pshew-

The dagger penetrated through the eye and the monster let out an anguished howl! Allen immediately backed away from the beast, there was nothing he can do right now, but one thing was for sure... and that was the stone boar was already considered dead at this point.

The boar was about to charge at Allen in fury once again when it lost all of its strength and collapsed to the ground!

A loud thud echoed into the surroundings as the beast fell.

Although exhausted, Allen still laughed and smiled under the mask in glory.

Kate suddenly said, "Catch." She then threw a pill at Allen.

Allen caught the pill and looked at Kate, hoping to answer his unsaid question.

Kate on the other hand, seemed to know what was Allen thinking and said, "It's a pill that can replenish energy." After which she got one under her sleeves and swallowed it.

Allen immediately swallowed it too and felt a cooling sensation all over his body, and once again, he felt that his adrenaline went back to its peak and the exhaustion disapppeared.

After recovering his energyn he then retrieved his dagger from the boar's eye.

The girl then took out another orb and crushed it. After which, the crushed remains of the orb glowed.

Kate smiled and looked at Allen, "It's near here. Come on, let's report it back."

"Nope, you're not going to report it back", a voice caught the attention of the two kids.

Kate was about to charge into the newcomer from far away when a figure made of black smoke rushed to her and the both of them disappeared.

"Kate?", Allen called out worriedly.

"Don't worry about her, both of them were teleported away.", Warren paused and examined Allen.

He grinned and said, "A ghost is actually haunting you for killing it?"

After another pause, he shouted, "Die!"

He pointed staff he was holding at Allen. Then the staff released a series of deathly energies formed as balls that came towards him.