fighting

In front of Jack loomed a boar that was taller than both of them even when it was sitting down. When it stood up, alert to their presence, Jack finally got a sense of just how massive it truly was. The boar stood at around 11 feet tall, with tusks protruding from its face. It had dark brown skin that shone everywhere except on its belly.

Before Jack could communicate anything to Matt, the boar stomped its foot on the ground and charged toward them. Jack and Matt both went in separate directions to avoid the attack. As the boar charged toward Jack, it couldn't stop in time and collided with a tree, bringing it to a full stop. The boar then turned and went after Jack, while the tree, unfortunately, broke and fell to the side.

As the boar charged towards him, Jack quickly used appraisal on it before attempting to dodge once again. He planned to assess the boar's strength before attacking, but since the boar was too close, Jack didn't have enough time to dodge fully.

Realizing that he couldn't dodge the attack, Jack quickly summoned some mana armor to protect himself as he was thrown aside and hit a nearby tree. He winced in pain, relieved that he had managed to avoid a direct hit from the boar. However, he had only managed to cover the front of his body with the armor, but not his back.

Matt was already going after the beast and wanted to do a sneak attack but after Jack had just been thrown around he used himself as a distraction since the boar was about to charge toward Jack.

Seeing what happened to Jack, Matt decided to not face it head-on but to stall enough for Jack to attack from behind.

Jack was standing up a little dizzy from the hit while trying to digest the information in front of him.

[ Race: Boar ]

[ Level: 59 ]

[ Health 100/100 ]

[ Strength: 211 ]

[ Speed: 51 ]

[ Stamina: 91 ]

[ mana: 230 / 230 ]

'It has a shit ton of strength no wonder it sent me flying.'

After recovering enough Jack ran to where the boar was heading. Once it got close enough, Jack thrusted his spear forward and expected to pierce the skin.

/ Ding /

The next thing after thrusting his was not the sound of flesh being pierced but the sound of metals colliding.

Feeling the pain from Jack's previous attack, the boar turned around and decided to go after him, learning from its previous mistake. This time, it didn't charge recklessly, but ran towards Jack at a moderate speed, using its head to try to hit him with its tusks. Jack was running backward, doing his best to deflect the tusks and check his surroundings.

Since Jack's initial attack had failed, Matt used more strength against the boar. He focused his mana, saying to himself, 'Lower enhanced strength, lower enhanced speed, reinforcement.'

Jack circled back around to get closer to Matt, and once he was close enough, Matt executed a horizontal slash on the left side of the boar.

The boar screeched, causing Matt and Jack to cover their ears. As the beast moved around, Jack managed to get out of its range. The boar then changed its attack toward Matt, allowing Jack to reinforce his spear with additional mana.

With his spear now augmented, Jack slashed the boar vertically and thrust his spear into it. The beast then turned its attention to Jack once again.

The two of them continued to trade blows with the boar, grazing it at times. Fortunately, Jack had used some of his mana to create an armor of mana for Matt's protection.

…

Two people surrounded an animal that was on the defensive, trying to protect itself with its tusks. The animal had numerous slashes and pierces on its body, but they weren't deep enough to cause fatal bleeding. However, the wounds were impeding its movements. The beast had activated a skill that made its skin sharp, pointy, and hardened, making it even more difficult for the two people to injure it.

Matt could be seen sweating while holding his sword in front of him. He was trying to look fine but in reality, his head was starting to hurt at a level where he could barely handle it. The skills were putting a strain on his mind that was starting to become too much. He couldn't just deactivate his skills and use them when attacking since the cost of activating the skill multiple times wasn't worth it. He had already deactivated the speed skill since it was not as needed as the rest of the skills. He was already running low on the mana he had.

Jack was faring no better than Matt. He had just a little bit under 150 mana left, and the cost of creating and maintaining the armor was high. If they were to receive a full head-on attack from the boar, the mana armor would not be enough to save them. It was merely a temporary shield that could absorb some of the attacks and last long enough for them to be thrown into the air before breaking, preventing the tusks from going right through them.

At the moment, Jack was backing away from the boar, allowing Matt to rest while also trying to maintain some distance between them. As he did so, he thought about possible weak points of the beast that he could attack. He focused on two potential spots for an attack.

Suddenly, Jack made a grave mistake. He took a wrong step on the uneven terrain and began to fall down. Seizing the opportunity, the boar used some of its own mana to speed up and hit Jack's body, sending him flying. Matt quickly ran towards the boar, hoping to distract it and give Jack some time to recover.

As Jack was falling, he quickly used the remaining of his mana to reinforce his armor. However, he was hit before he could complete the reinforcement and was sent flying through the air. During the impact, Jack heard a sickening crack emanating from his body. He was hurtling towards the river, and his body hit the water with tremendous force. Unfortunately, he also struck his head on a rock that was jutting out of the water. Thankfully, Jack was wearing a mana helmet, which prevented his head from splitting open. Nonetheless, the impact shook his head, and he could feel his consciousness slowly slipping away as he sank to the bottom of the river.