Chapter 7: Stampede
Thirty-five Ironhorn Boars came through the trees all at once, and the sound they made arriving was not thirty-five separate impacts but one continuous wave of noise and force that hit the clearing before Arthur had fully processed the count.
The ground shook.
One of Cassian’s followers went pale. "Run!"
Arthur looked at the approaching wall of black fur and bone. "That’s a lot."
Mithra looked at him. "That’s your observation."
"I was trying to stay positive."
"They’re going to flatten us."
"I know. That’s why I’m staying positive."
Vedas watched the stampede and then turned his head. "Many boars."
"See?" Arthur said. "Vedas agrees."
"I wasn’t helping," Vedas said.
"I know."
Cassian’s voice cut across all of it, flat and immediate. "Formation."
The change was instantaneous.
The casual arrangement collapsed into something practiced. The Taurus stepped to the front and dropped its axe to ready, blade angled to intercept. A flame-backed crocodile moved left to anchor the flank.
The black hawk launched upward without being directed, already gaining altitude.
A deer moved to the rear, and even as it settled into position, Arthur felt something shift in his legs. Some lightness that had not been there before. A spiky ape cracked both knuckles and moved into the gap between the Taurus and the crocodile.
Arthur memorized it, and then the boars arrived.
Then Mithra crouched slightly and looked at Melo, who was still on Vedas’s shoulder. "It’s time, sweetheart."
Melo looked at the stampede.
Then at Mithra.
Then back at the stampede.
She stretched before jumping off Vedas’s shoulder.
"Show them, my dear," Mithra said.
Light erupted from Melo’s body.
Arthur’s arm came up instinctively. The light wasn’t blinding, but it exploded outward from Melo. And when Arthur’s eyes adjusted, the fox on Vedas’s shoulder was no longer the fox that had been there a moment before.
She grew instantly.
Not like something was changing but like something revealing its true size.
Melo grew to the size of a horse with cosmic-colored fur, and three eyes opened in sequence, all of them glowing.
Nobody spoke.
One follower blinked and then blinked again. Then slapped himself. The others immediately looked at him. "I wanted to make sure."
"Melo’s a little shy," Mithra said with a faint smile.
Nobody in the clearing believed this. Not even slightly.
Melo’s three eyes lit up together, and the air distorted.
Suddenly the boars weren’t running where they intended. Several in the front rank veered sideways without apparent cause. Two collided with each other at full speed. A third charged a section of empty ground with absolute conviction, then pulled up short and looked confused. The tight formation of the stampede came apart within seconds, boars scattering into uncoordinated pairs and individuals.
Then they arrived.
Arthur drove his spear into the nearest boar’s side. It released a roar as it crashed into the ground, and then he ended it with a kick to its face. Then he pulled out his spear and rushed off to the next one.
Beside him, Vedas caught a charging boar on his shield. He was only pushed back a few steps before thrusting his spear straight through the boar’s face.
Armor Piercing activated.
The spear punched straight through the boar, and the boar went down.
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Warrior]
[Level 2 —> Level 3]
Vedas looked at Arthur.
"Obviously," Arthur said before Vedas could say it.
Vedas looked proud, and he puffed his chest out.
The battlefield became chaotic. The ape grabbed a boar in each hand and then started using them as weapons. Smashing the boars into each other one after another with a growl.
The crocodile sent bursts of flame in controlled arcs that redirected incoming boars and controlled where they went.
The hawk circled overhead and screamed warnings downward at angles and distances that gave the people below just enough time to respond.
The deer glowed at the back of the formation, and the lightness Arthur had felt in his legs since it moved into position had not faded. He was moving faster than he should have been, and he could tell Vedas was too.
A boar broke through the left side of the formation.
The hawk had not caught in time, and by the time the warning came. The boar was already close to ramming into a follower of Cassian. Arthur saw it happen. Saw that he was not close enough, and Vedas was already mid-movement on a different target.
Then Mithra was not standing next to him anymore.
He almost missed the moment she left.
Two steps, by the time he tracked it, and the distance those two steps covered was not the distance that two steps were supposed to cover. Arthur saw her move, and that was the problem.
He saw every step, but his body simply couldn’t keep up.
The sword produced a line through the air. A single clean silver arc appeared behind Mithra, barely visible at the speed it traveled.
The boar ran three more steps past Mithra before the information arrived. Then the boar came apart in pieces, and Mithra was already watching for the next target.
Arthur stared at her for a full second before he remembered where he was. "How?" he said.
Mithra glanced over and gave him a smile. "Training."
Arthur nodded seriously. "Looks like I need more training."
Mithra smiled. "A lot more."
Arthur laughed. "Good. That means I can still get stronger."
He watched her take the next boar, and then the one after that, and he stopped trying to track the result and started tracking the method instead.
Mithra’s feet barely left the ground at any point.
Every movement flowed into each other rather than stopping and restarting. The sword was slashing and striking like an extension of her body with no wasted movement.
Arthur smiled. "I want to learn that."
Mithra glanced over while cutting down another boar. "Then survive today first."
Arthur laughed. "Good point."
Cassian moved into his field of view, and Arthur pulled his attention back.
The noble fought cleanly.
The Taurus took the front, and Cassian worked behind it. Cassian slashed across the boar’s left side, and a second later, the Taurus crushed it with its axe. Arthur watched Cassian rush towards another and slash into its face. Then he moved to the side as Taurus slashed through the boar’s face with its axe.
"You’re good," Arthur said, from a few meters away.
Cassian looked over, which cost him a brief half-second he covered without apparent difficulty. "Oh?"
"I thought nobles spent more time talking."
One follower immediately turned away. Another started coughing. A third suddenly found the trees extremely interesting.
Cassian stared at Arthur with a dazed look. "I’ll take that as a compliment," Cassian said.
"It was one."
"Somehow that doesn’t help."
Five boars broke away from the herd and charged Vedas together.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "Vedas!"
Vedas planted his feet.
The first boar slammed into his shield, but he didn’t move. Instead, his spear pierced through its face before the second one came charging at him.
"Here!" Arthur threw his spear. "Catch!"
Without even looking, Vedas caught it. "...Got it."
The second spear shot forward, and then another boar collapsed. Then he hurled his spear back to Arthur, who caught it.
Then Vedas opened his mouth. "FREEZE!"
The remaining two boars froze.
Arthur didn’t waste the opening as his spear flew.
THUNK.
THUNK.
Both boars dropped.
[Level Up] ]
[Level Up!]
[Goblin Warrior]
[Level 3 —> 5]
Everyone stood, breathing.
Arthur pointed at Vedas. "Four levels. In one battle."
Vedas blinked. "...Really?"
Arthur nodded. "You were amazing."
Vedas scratched the back of his head. "...We were amazing."
Arthur smiled even wider. "Yeah. We were."
Melo watched the treeline, and when nothing appeared, she sat down, apparently satisfied. Then the hawk screamed overhead and dove, angling for a section of forest to the northeast.
Cassian’s head came up. "The mark."
Arthur peered forward and saw the glowing crystal ball way ahead of them. It was illuminating the area around them.
He looked at Cassian.
Cassian looked at him.
Neither group moved.
"Why do I feel like you two are about to have another argument?"
Arthur smiled while Cassian scoffed.
Neither group moved.
Arthur smiled. "Still racing?"
Cassian met his eyes. "...Yes."
Arthur nodded. "Good." He tightened his grip on the spear. "I’d hate for today’s adventure to end already."
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