There were four hogs staring at them, Hikaru realized they had formed a semi circle around he and nameless and they stared at them with a maddening malicious intent.
He glanced at the bag slung over Nameless' shoulder, it seemed the hogs were aware of the heads in the bag.
What an inconvenience.
This was probably due to their enhanced sense of smell. Hikaru began to wonder if this frenzy would made the hogs more powerful or harder to fight, he couldn't focus on this thought for long though, nameless suddenly jumped forward, raised one hand and pointed it at the beasts.
"You vile creatures!" He yelled passionately. "You will die by my sword, just like your fallen comrades!"
Hikaru tensed. Was it wise to provoke them further? They were already angry enough as it was, and they had he advantage of numbers.
As he reasoned this, killing intent suddenly surged from the hogs, and they shrieked, then they all charged forward simultaneously.
Oh crap!
Two of the hogs went for nameless, which meant there were two free hogs…
Double crap! Hikaru thought as the two hogs rushed at him.
The two hogs were now charring at him with a wicked frenzy, snorting and squealing loudly, and Hikaru felt himself start to panic. He had never fought before so he was very unsure of himself, he had hoped his first fight would be something calmer, like a hare or rabbit, or a small fox maybe, not two mad hogs.
Despite this, the hogs were now near him and Hikaru sprung to action, he threw his body sideways quickly and the first hog's tusk pierced the air where his stomach had been.
Oh gods, that was close.
Hikaru had now escaped the first hog, the problem was that he was still relatively in the air and the second hog was not very far behind. As Hikaru landed, he was going to be in the right position for the hog to gorge.
With all his desperation, he threw himself to the left… and felt the tusk graze his side as he narrowly escaped and tumbled to the ground.
"Arghhh." He cried as he felt pain slam into his body from multiple sources, his butt and tailbone which had hit the ground ached sharply, and his side stung from the graze wound he had now.
However, Hikaru didn't have a chance to properly feel his pain, the hogs were coming back.
He quickly got to his feet and ignore the stinging side, he held his sword and took a fighting stance and then began to think.
There were two mad hogs hunting him down and judging y the fact he hadn't received any notification for a kill, it meant the ones with nameless were proving to be a bit of a problem as well.
There was a very easy option for Hikaru, he could simply run towards nameless and depended on the summon to fight all four hogs and protect him. In fact this strategy was probably not just the safest but he surest, nameless would definitely kill all hogs eventually.
However Hikaru didn't want ti do it. If he was going to grow, he couldn't cmplety ride on nameless' back. Besides while he could potentially get stronger by claiming nameless' kills, he couldn't get more skillful in fights without doing lots of fighting himself.
Therefore he would have to fight the beasts himself.
Hikaru began to think of a plan to defeat the hogs, facing them head on was impossible and suicidal, but if he could be cunning enough, he had a decent chance of wining.
A thought occurred to him. The hogs were strong, however they were also simple minded. Right now, they were overwhelmed by emotion and would not stop to strategize, they also ran a lot. If he could find a way to exploit their momentum…
Ah..ah.. he muttered as a plan formed in his mind.
And then he started running.
Hikaru ran as fast as he could, knowing the hogs were hot on his tail, he swallowed and looked forward, he just needed to tick to the plan and he should be safe.. mostly.
He picked a suitable tree and ran towards it, then at the last minute, he side stepped.
As he expected, the hogs hadn't anticipated this move and they were unable to stop their momentum. The first hog slammed into the tree with a loud crack and the second one managed to change course at the last minute and disappeared into the bushes.
Hikaru you genius..
However he didn't waste too mc time gloating, he rushed to meet the first hog and stabbed his sword into it. However the hogs's skin was too tough and the sword bounced off.
What the hell? Hikaru thought and then without thinking, he leaped at the hog and wrested it t the ground, then he picked his word and tied to stab once more.
The hog kept struggling preventing Hikaru from hitting his target its throat. Eventually, Hikaru managed to find it and he droved his word into it.
The hog squealed as the sword disappeared into its throat and it struggled even fiercer, almost displacing Hikaru.
But Hikaru was hellbent on killing the hog and he held it in place and roe the sword deeper.
Die you wretched hog, die.
Eventually the hog stopped struggling and went limp, then Hikaru got a familiar notification;
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
As he was about to celebrate the kill, he heard two more notifications.
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
It seemed nameless had finally disposed of his own hogs.
Took you long enough...
As Hikaru made to stand up, the bushes suddenly stirred and then the last hog burst out, it charged at Hikaru but before either of them could process it, nameless was in between them.
He began to fight with the hog and after a brief struggle, nameless finally struck it dead.
[Wild Hog slain.]
[+1 Soul Core]
Hikaru collapsed to his knees and groaned with relief.