Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 043. The Boar (2)

Paia, having taken Anagin’s kick, stepped back a few paces while rubbing his stomach.

“...This is a bit awkward, you know?”

“I’m awkward, too. I kicked you, intending to send you flying.”

Anagin couldn’t help but feel a strange kind of admiration as he looked at Paia, who had endured the kick.

Originally, he meant to send Paia flying along with the bandits behind him, but Paia had endured it and stopped after only a few steps.

The guy was surprisingly strong.

“Or maybe it’s all that fat?”

While Paia was still behind him, Anagin turned away and began untying the rope binding the old man’s grandson and granddaughter.

The children—who had been glaring at him like they wanted to kill him just moments ago—now looked confused at the unexpected turn.

Well, of course, they’d be confused. He had just told them to insult their grandfather.

Once Anagin completely loosened the rope, the grandchildren realized the truth and wore apologetic expressions.

They must’ve assumed he lied to Paia just to save them.

“Don’t make that face. I meant everything I said earlier.”

Anagin said it plainly after seeing their faces, telling them not to misunderstand.

He truly did think the old man was an idiot. Why would someone who treasured his family more than anything do something so pointless and put the kids in danger...? He should’ve only cared about his family.

Just as the girl was about to get angry again—

“I’m very disappointed, you know?”

Paia shouted.

“You smashed a practitioner family to pieces, so I thought you were at least somewhat impressive, but you’re throwing it all away over a few brats.... Truly disappointing.”

“Lucky for me. It’d be humiliating to be praised by a guy wearing a pig's hide.”

Anagin spoke his mind without filtering anything.

There were people whose praise was more shameful than insults—and one such example was a guy wearing a pig hide.

“You’ve just thrown away a golden opportunity for the sake of two kids.”

“The two kids are your parents. And don’t flatter yourself. It’s annoying.”

(T/N): I don’t get this ‘parents’ thing. I tried checking other translations, but still the same.

Anagin stood up and faced Paia.

Not only Paia, but his underlings had already drawn their weapons.

“I never planned to work with you idiots anyway. I just followed along because I wanted to see what your ‘practitioner method’ was and what kind of people you were. Just for fun.”

Anagin revealed the second reason he had followed the rookie bandit.

He had simply been curious. Curious about what the Forest Brotherhood was.

He had been slightly intrigued when he heard about them from Ponytail, and since a chance to confirm it showed up, he took it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

“Now that I’ve roughly figured out what kind of trash you are, I’m done.”

“Ha.... And what kind of trash are we?”

“The same as my first impression. Two-legged beasts hiding in the mountains doing banditry.”

“.......”

Paia clamped his mouth shut.

He was clearly offended.

Well, despite everything, Paia had actually thought well of Anagin at first.

The way he crushed the Dolos family alone, his reputation, and his bold attitude. Arrogant—but possibly useful.

He had thought that maybe, for the first time in a while, they’d found someone worthy of the Forest Brotherhood.

That was why he even bothered telling him about Periphetes’ conditions.

If he truly disliked Anagin, he would’ve ignored him and killed him from the start. The dead don’t talk, after all.

But instead of accepting the courtesy, Anagin mocked it.

And then he hammered it in.

“Oh, and don’t worry too much. I’ll figure out that practitioner method myself. If I beat the crap out of your precious Forest Brotherhood long enough, I’ll probably learn it eventually.”

“You think you can get out of here alive?”

“No. I’m planning to kill all of you and then leave.... Hm, maybe not all, that might be too many?”

“You arrogant little bastard—!”

One of the waiting bandits charged at Anagin with a mace. More bandits rushed in behind him.

“Pinku-Pinku.”

Anagin gently pushed the grandchildren backward.

The moment the children were about to fall, Sphinx—who had disappeared like the wind—reappeared like the wind and caught them in her arms.

“I’ll leave them to you.”

Anagin said briefly, then charged forward. He drove his fist into the bandit, swinging a weapon at him.

Crack!

The bandit’s face and his iron mace shattered under Anagin’s punch.

Not figuratively, literally.

Like a red firework exploding, the man’s head burst apart. Anagin grabbed the headless body and swung it.

[Human Club]

Shouting the skill name, Anagin swung the headless corpse like a club, smacking down the bandits.

A dozen bandits were sent flying, bodies mangled and torn.

Of course, the corpse he used as a club also became mangled, but it didn’t matter. There were weapons lying everywhere.

Anagin grabbed the ankle of a fat bandit who had fallen on the ground, lifted him in one go, and slammed him down.

Thunk-!

With a wet crunch, two bandits were crushed flat.

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

The bandits, who moments ago charged in excitement, now felt their blood run cold.

The brutal sight before them, and the resulting fear, had completely overwhelmed their initial anger.

“Whew—! You really know how to fight like a Gigant.”

Paia, who had been watching the battle from behind, spoke in admiration.

“Overwhelming attacks using raw brute strength. Half-baked cowards can’t even imitate that.”

Paia wasn’t wrong.

Gigants certainly possessed strength far beyond ordinary humans, but that didn’t mean all of them fought like Anagin.

Making people explode, splattering blood, tearing organs apart with your bare hands—most didn’t have the nerve or the stomach for that kind of fighting.

“That’s why it’s a shame. If you’d joined us, it would've been fun. And even better if you hadn’t let a couple of brats sway you.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the bandits hurled arrows, stones, and spears at Anagin.

At the same time, several bandits charged toward Sphinx and the children.

They wanted hostages.

If he tried to stop those guys, he’d get hit by the projectiles; if he stopped the projectiles, the children would get taken.

He was being forced to choose. So he chose.

To do both.

Crash-Thump!

Anagin used a corpse as a shield to block the incoming projectiles, simultaneously kicking a fallen spear-knife to strike the men approaching the Sphinx.

Not only that, he then hurled the corpse he was using as a shield at the bandits eyeing Sphinx.

The flying bandit exploded like a watermelon, spraying blood everywhere.

“Uuughhhh....”

The bandits’ faces went completely pale, and one by one, they started to retreat.

Even for bandits, this was too horrifying.

His master’s voice rang in his head.

‘War, battle, fight, argument. In any form of conflict, the ones who get scared first are the ones who lose.’

‘So that’s why you beat me up in the middle of lunch?’

Just as the momentum was tipping entirely toward Anagin—

“You shouldn’t run.”

Paia kicked one of the retreating underlings and sent him flying toward Anagin.

The bandit screamed as he flew.

‘As expected of a Gigant, huh?’

Anagin thought this as he punched the incoming bandit square in the face.

Kicking a grown adult into the air like that, only a Gigant could manage that.

The moment Anagin’s fist met the bandit’s face, blood exploded, and the man flew again. Then, from all directions, more bandits and women began flying his way.

Paia had dashed around, grabbing the fleeing bandits and throwing them at Anagin like projectiles.

Anagin swung his fists, swatting them all away, painting the surroundings red with blood droplets.

As his vision grew increasingly red, Paia closed in and threw a punch.

“Whoops.”

Matching the trajectory, Anagin stepped back while flicking a Harpy Witch’s feather.

Paia’s punch, deprived of proper weight transfer, failed to land effectively. The feather aimed at Paia’s eyeball was stopped by Paia’s open palm.

A small bead of blood rose from the wound pierced by the feather.

“That stings!”

As Paia clenched his fist to charge again, Anagin threw another feather.

Whoosh—!

His target was Paia’s eyeball.

Paia blocked with his arm this time.

The Harpy feather failed to pierce the boar hide wrapped around Paia’s arm.

Whoosh—!

Regardless, Anagin threw another Harpy feather—

Or rather, pretended to.

Expecting another feather to fly at him, Paia raised his arm to protect his eyes—but in that brief blind spot, Anagin slipped in and drove a fist into Paia’s ribs.

Thud!

He’d meant to break ribs, but the boar hide was sturdier than expected, making the hit unsatisfying.

‘Magic armor?’

Anagin was puzzled by the defense, which was beyond his expectation, but.

‘Whatever. If I keep punching, it’ll break.’

Anagin dropped the thought and went back to throwing punches as usual.

Harder, stronger.

Thump! Thwack! Thwump!

Naturally, Paia wasn’t just standing there taking it.

He blocked Anagin’s punches and swung his massive arms in return.

‘He’s got fundamentals. And some technique too.’

Anagin thought while blocking and dodging Paia’s blows.

He wasn’t just swinging with brute strength—there was training behind it.

But that was all.

Anagin’s punches kept landing, while Paia’s attacks failed to deal any real damage.

After a dozen or so traded blows, Paia began being pushed backward. The balance of their clash had broken.

With every punch Anagin landed, Paia was forced a step back—his posture crumbling more and more.

Just as Paia was about to collapse backward, Anagin noticed something.

Even though their boss was losing, the bandits’ faces didn’t show defeat. They had something they were relying on.

Thunk.

That source of confidence revealed itself.

The punch Anagin landed on Paia’s head made a disappointing sound.

Suddenly, the skin felt tougher, the skull thicker, and the impact simply didn’t penetrate.

It wasn’t just his imagination.

“No wonder.... For your level, the old man went down too easily. So this is why?”

Anagin stared at the boar hide merging into Paia’s head.

“If you’re about to die anyway, what’s the point of knowing that?”

* * *

The boar hide fused entirely with Paia.

Now a two-legged boar, Paia instantly recovered all the accumulated damage. Relying on his heightened defense, he began to pressure Anagin relentlessly.

He abandoned defense completely and unleashed a furious barrage.

He swung his arms wildly, slammed forward with headbutts—pressuring Anagin without restraint.

Kkyeeeeeeeek!!!

In his boar-form, Paia wasn’t just faster—his size had nearly doubled, and his strength increased even more.

How?

“It’s Sa-nyeom!”

Sphinx, who had been watching the fight, shouted.

Magic that infuses the Yeom of a dead beast into its hide to control it.

Now that she mentioned it, the Energy Paia was emitting was mixed with something strange.

“You realized too late!”

Paia blocked Anagin’s punch with his forehead, then grinned as he lunged with his head.

From the hide Paia wore, a dark crimson aura burst out, blasting Anagin away.

It felt just like being rammed by a boar, truly a sensation he hadn’t felt in a long while.

Anagin, who was thrown backward, quickly got up and regained his balance, seeing the two-legged boar charging toward him.

Taking advantage of the moment when Anagin had lost balance, Paia attempted a full-force body blow at incredible speed.

Crack!

Anagin barely dodged and grazed Paia’s ribs with an elbow strike.

The combined force of Paia’s charge and Anagin’s elbow produced a nasty sound. Paia’s ribs had cracked.

An injury inflicted at the exact moment he believed he had seized the advantage hurt even more.

The pain created an opening.

As Anagin moved in to close the distance—

[Kkyeeeh-!]

Paia let out a sound like a pig being slaughtered.

At the same moment, a dark crimson aura erupted from the boar hide, forming a semi-transparent boar that smashed into Anagin.

Faced with the unexpected counterattack, Anagin could only manage to block.

Because of the unexpected strength, Anagin was pushed back.

Fortunately, thanks to his defense, he didn't sustain a fatal injury.

‘And it feels like a one-time technique.’

Anagin thought this as he watched the summoned boar, which had hit him, disappear.

If he closed in again, he could finish Paia. He had already seen the technique once—he could handle it.

Just then, Paia gathered all the Energy in his body into his hand.

Paia released the gathered Energy as if to discharge it, grabbing hold of Anagin.

It felt like being clutched by a massive hand.

‘Ekpémpein.’

Anagin recognized the technique instantly.

It was his first time seeing it, but he knew it was Ekpémpein—shortened as Ek.

One of the ways to use Energy that the Dolos Patriarch had taught him.

It was a technique to release Energy outside the body to send it flying or to grab a distant opponent.

“Hrrgh!”

Paia clenched the hand releasing Energy, tightening his grip on Anagin.

Goo-goo-goo-gook...!

The force exerted by the Energy was certainly stronger. However, it was not at a threatening level.

‘Ah, the discharged Energy loses a lot of efficiency.’

Well, there was bound to be waste if the Energy inside the body was artificially discharged outwards.

‘So what is he thinking?’

Anagin wondered why Paia had used Ek.

At best, it would only hold him in place.

Fortunately, he soon understood the reason.

[Kkwehk! Kkweeeeh-!!]

Paia let out cries like an incantation.

From the boar hide draped over him, a massive surge of Yeom flowed out, forming a single shape.

It was a wild boar. A very massive wild boar, the size of a house.

It resembled the earlier technique, but something was different. That difference was…

“Did he feed it with people?”

Sphinx muttered in a shocked voice.

“A mage, are you? Sharp eye! I personally raised the boar’s Sa-nyeom. With human flesh and blood!”

Paia laughed proudly.

Then he turned to the grandchildren beside Sphinx and grinned.

“Don’t worry, brats. You’ll see your grandpa soon. Inside the boar’s—”

—Chwaaaak!

While Paia was rambling happily, convinced he had secured victory—

The sound of something being sliced echoed.

Anagin had cut through the Energy Paia was using to hold him.

He infused Energy into the Beast Cleaver.

It wasn’t difficult.

Because Energy(Γι) can cut Energy(Γι).

A textbook response when dealing with released, weakened Energy.

No one had taught him, but Anagin followed his own reasoning, tried it, and succeeded.

“.......”

Paia, convinced he had restrained Anagin, froze in shock.

His panic made him desperate—and in desperation, he threw his incompletely-summoned boar straight at Anagin.

Kkyeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

The summoned boar, fueled by almost all of the Yeom contained in the hide, charged at Anagin with terrifying force. And then......

[Trotter Slice]

With a single cut, Anagin sliced off its forelegs.