Chapter 70: A Broken Ankle and a Furious Boar
This is the perfect time to attack, Nuan thought, her focus narrowing. She gripped the spear tightly, lifting it over her shoulder to aim.
Back on Earth, whenever I hunted boars, I always messed up the initial strike and ended up having to go one-on-one against them with a knife. This one is a massive, aggressive fantasy beast. One shot. I’ll kill him by driving it straight through his ribcage into his heart.
Nuan waited, her muscles tensing, until the wallowing boar finally rolled over, completely turning its thick back to her position.
Blue Buddy, activate the Silent Walk ability! she commanded fiercely.
[ Activating Silent Walk ability... ]
[ Duration: 00:09:59 ]
Instantly, the ambient sound of her footsteps disappeared. Nuan slipped out from behind her cover, closing the distance seamlessly as she drifted from one tree trunk to another.
She paused, waited for the boar to grumble in satisfaction, and then crept even closer until she was standing at the very edge of the open clearing, completely exposed.
She waited another agonizing few seconds for the boar to settle into the mud.
Now!
Nuan took two explosive steps forward, planting her good foot firmly into the earth, and threw the heavy wooden spear with every single ounce of raw human might she possessed.
Whoosh!
But just as the spear left her hand, the boar shifted, rolling heavily to scratch its stomach against a submerged rock. The change in position ruined her trajectory.
Instead of piercing the heart, the spear missed the vital chest cavity entirely—it slammed violently into the beast’s front shoulder, tearing through the meat of its right foreleg before burying itself deep into the thick mud below.
The boar let out a piercing, high-pitched squeal of absolute rage and pain.
"Crap!" Nuan yelled.
With lightning speed, she willed a second wooden spear out of her inventory, pulled her arm back, and hurled it at the thrashing animal.
But the boar was already frantically scrambling to rise. The second spear went wide, merely tearing a long, bloody gash through the thick outer hide of its flank before thumping harmlessly into the mud bank.
The massive boar hauled itself up onto its three remaining functional legs, its small, dark brown eyes locking directly onto Nuan standing in the open.
It lowered its head, its sharp, curving tusks glistening with lake water and blood, and let out a guttural, furious snarl.
Nuan stared at the angry, charging tank of muscle. Oh, oh... I am completely doomed.
Nuan’s eyes widened in sheer terror as a 600-pound tank of pure muscle and fury barreled toward her. At this terrifyingly short distance, the sheer velocity of the beast was overwhelming.
I should have used the bow! the thought flashed through her mind, but there was no time for regrets. She had to make a split-second decision to torture her injured ankle once again if she wanted to live.
Nuan threw herself sideways, her body twisting in mid-air. The sharp, curved tusk missed her thigh by a mere couple of inches.
She crashed heavily onto the muddy ground, landing awkwardly on both feet. The moment her right foot braced against the earth, a blinding, white-hot spike of agony shot from her ankle, traveling straight up her spine and exploding into her brain.
"Gruhh!!!!" Nuan screamed, a raw sound of absolute agony tearing from her throat.
But the boar gave her no time to breathe, let alone let her ankle recover. It pivoted sharply on its good hind legs, its hooves churning the mud as it charged at her again.
Driven by pure survival adrenaline, Nuan scrambled upward. As the beast closed in, she didn’t try to run—she couldn’t.
Instead, she timed its momentum and lunged sideways, trying to vault directly onto the boar’s back to avoid the tusks.
Her right ankle twisted violently under the pressure, sending another wave of sickening pain through her knee straight to her brain.
She managed to grab a handful of its coarse, muddy bristles, but the boar was thrashing violently. With a massive, bucking heave, the beast dislodged her.
Nuan was thrown off its back, crashing heavily into the slick, wet mud.
"Rughh! Ahaa!"
The furious boar spun around, its heavy back legs stomping wildly in the mud as it tried to crush her under its hooves. Nuan rolled frantically through the muck, the heavy stomps throwing wet dirt all over her face as she barely dodged the trampling hooves.
The beast stopped stomping, lowered its massive head, and locked its bloodshot eyes onto her. It was barely a meter away. With a guttural grunt, it drove its sharp tusks straight toward her chest.
Flipping onto her back, Nuan sat up in a panic. She pulled her knees together, her hand catching the shaft of the second spear that was still stuck firmly in the mud beside her.
She yanked it free with a surge of desperate strength, gripping both ends of the wooden shaft and holding it horizontally like a shield just as the boar slammed into her.
Clack!
The boar’s razor-sharp tusks struck the hard wood with bone-shattering force. The sheer, raw strength of the prehistoric beast began pushing her backward across the slick mud.
The intense physical strain instantly triggered a violent, agonizing wave of menstrual cramps. Between the bleeding, the cramps, and the broken ankle, a fresh wave of tears slipped off her cheeks, mixing with the mud on her face.
Her backside dragged painfully against the rough gravel beneath the mud as the boar relentlessly pushed her back. She tried to plant her feet to create leverage, but her right ankle completely refused to move, sending only sparks of white-hot agony whenever she put pressure on it.
Slowly, her elbows began to buckle. The wooden spear shaft was being forced closer and closer to her chest, the sharp tusks vibrating against the wood mere inches from her throat.
The boar stopped pushing for a single fraction of a second, drawing back its head. Nuan’s burning arms felt a momentary wave of relief—only for the beast to violently shake its head and strike again with double the aggression, driving its weight down to crush her shield.
This is it. My arms are giving out... I’m completely done for! Nuan thought, her grip slipping as the wood pressed against her collarbone.
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