Frostbound

"Hang on there cowboy, what's the thing's level first." Hal said while pulling Kyle back by the collar of his breastplate.

"Oh... right, I forgot that you guys couldn't see it. It says that it's a level 5 Highland Boar." Kyle said.

Ok, that's doable. The boss of the wave was a level 4 so this boar wasn't much higher than that. We also outnumbered it six to one. We all also had double the amount of skills we had last time and double the amount of fighting experience. A small part of my brain thought that this was overkill, but the rational part that was looking ahead to the future where I would be putting a piece of wood between me and a 150-200 pound boar thought that there weren't enough people.

Before the rational part of my brain could conjure up anything else on why this was a bad idea, I saw Hal give the signal. All of our ranged members fired off their attacks. We could all see the boar through the trees and we were roughly 30 yards out. The arrows were the first to hit, being faster than the ice bolt flying through the air. Kyle hit the front shoulder of the boar while Hal hit a couple of inches lower and over from where the front leg connected to the body. It was a perfect shot ... if it was a deer ... and you had an overpowered rifle that could get through the ribcage to pierce the heart.

When the two arrows hit, almost simultaneously, the boar went wild. It jerked so hard to the side that Alice's ice bolt missed completely. After being attacked the boar instantly noticed us and started charging towards us. Staring at an angry boar that was barreling its way towards me was a new experience, and not one that I was fond of.

When we were initially planning how we were going to approach this, someone had the idea of jumping over the boar when it charged so it flew by underneath us. In this moment I couldn't help but thank whatever god there was that we didn't decide on that plan. It didn't look very big from 30 yards away but as it got closer we realized that it was a lot bigger than we thought it was.

Standing at about four and a half feet tall, I didn't think that I could jump over it even if I had springs on the bottom of my feet. Jack and I shared a look that said this was not the smartest thing we ever agreed to. But we marshaled up some courage and walked slowly to meet it. Now we weren't dumb enough to actually meet its charge, the plan was to dodge to the side at the last second to get the boar to run into the tree behind us. Kind of like they do at rodeos with bulls. It was something that Kyle had come up with and nobody had thought of a better idea.

Watching it close the distance, I didn't know which part to be more scared of; the fact that much weight could move that fast, or the sound of breaking branches and hooves thumping rhythmically on the ground getting closer and closer. Jack and I both tensed, getting ready to leap to the side with all our might when an arrow hit right in the middle of the beast's forehead... sinking in less than an inch.

That did not spell good news. If the arrows couldn't penetrate the head to kill it, the only way to kill it would be to get a lucky shot through the eye. Or tire it out and stab it until it couldn't fight anymore. I could only hope that [Precision Shot] worked better than what I'd seen so far.

Jack and I both dodged out of the way of the charge quick enough not to get hit, but the boar didn't continue on and ram into the tree behind us. It slowed and veered out of the way quicker than I thought possible with the amount of momentum that the thing had built up. If I hadn't witnessed it first hand I would have thought that it wasn't possible.

With its charge broken, it was time for the next part of the plan where Jack and I held it in place so the ranged attackers could pepper it with attacks. I walked to one side of the beast while Jack walked to the other. We both had our shields up and braced with both hands, both hoping that the beast would turn and face the other. I even activated [Fortified Body] and felt my body strengthening with mana.

My luck had run out apparently because the beast chose me. We were only standing a few feet from the thing so it couldn't charge with a ton of force but when the thing hit my shield it took everything in my power not to lose my footing. It was like standing still while a 200-pound linebacker got a five-foot running start to smash into you. My higher center of gravity didn't help matters either.