Jack had positioned himself strategically, in the perfect position to pincer the approaching enemies from the side to minimize risk to themselves. It was a pity, if given more time he could set up some type of makeshift trap or obstacles for the boars, but he had none.

“We’re going to pincer them. Don’t worry, they’re going to blow right past us at their rate,” Jack whispered to the group, repositioning himself more to the side and using his free hand to angle Sarah’s spear at the correct angle.

“How the hell do you know that?” Andrew whispered in response, choosing to remain in formation up until now.

“A skill I got for reaching the next level,” Jack hurriedly explained to avoid suspicion. “Now focus.”

A few tense seconds passed, and once again the rhythmic thumping of animal footsteps could be heard- but this time it was clear that there were more than one targets.

“Don’t use your Qi Skill until the last few seconds, or you’ll burn through your entire reserve. And James?” Jack felt it prudent to explain, because Qi was their greatest advantage, and not a resource that could be squandered easily.

“Yes sir?” James added the sir almost instinctively, years of working in the customer service industry building up a habit.

“Try not to miss,” Jack added, without holding any real hope for him. It was a very difficult thing to hit a moving target, especially when the target had been enhanced to be faster, stronger and more potent.

“Ye- yeah,” James whispered in affirmative, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead.

Thirty tense seconds passed as the footsteps were now clearly audible, before they abruptly stopped. Did they lose track of their group or were they never tracking his group to begin with? Or….

“Damn it,” Jack muttered to himself in realization. How did the first boar manage to track them in the first place? It charged at them merely a few minutes after the trial began, almost as if it could pinpoint their group's position with clinical precision.

“They’re heading right for us! Prepare!” Jack called out, and the footsteps resumed with far greater ferocity and speed- a series of grunts promising violence echoing out.

“Hold your ground! It’s too late to run now!” Jack spoke out the plain truth to avoid giving this shifty group any ideas. It was true, if they broke formation now it would be a disaster. All of them would likely die, except Jack who had vigilantly invested all his points into Constitution. As long as it was still a Level 2 Twilight Boar, Jack was confident of escaping with minor to medium wounds.

Merely a few seconds later, the twang of a released bowstring echoed out, the Qi empowered shot cutting through the air at an impressive speed. This time, James had remembered to actually use his given power and the result was immediate- the shot, while slightly off target, managed to hit the boar that was charging from the left flank in the back, penetrating deeply into the flesh and causing it to fumble in its charge.

The other two boars that had burst from behind a clump of dense bushes continued on in their charge unabashed, determined to impale their targets at any costs. Jack was no wildlife expert, but it didn’t take one to know that this behavior was clearly unnatural.

“Sarah, take the right one!” Jack called out, loudly enough to get the boar’s attention on him. That might have taken her by surprise, but he wasn’t in much of a position to care. Jack took two steps to the side, creating distance between himself and Sarah- if he were correct, then the boar would adjust.

Sure enough, one of the boar’s noticed, angling its direction sideways to head for him, while the other continued to charge towards Sarah. James, aiming from the far left, was separated from their group of three by six or seven meters, focusing on the boar he had shot earlier, while Sarah had Andrew for support in case things went awry.

“Come on!” Jack yelled at the boar, continuing to hold position. But he immediately realized that something was wrong. This boar was almost identical to the Twilight Boar he had faced earlier, but it’s fur had streaks of gold running through it. That alone was not a significant observation, but the boar was far faster than the other two.

Lv. 3 Twilight Boar Detected.

His survival instincts went off as Jack shifted hastily from a combat stance into an attempted dive and roll. Normally he would not risk such a risky move in combat out of a chance of injuring his neck, but his body was far more robust compared to earlier.

A short burst of searing pain erupted in the right side of his abdomen as Jack dived with his left arm held forward, using it to cushion the impact on his neck before rolling forward and back onto his feet, slightly shaky. A crashing sound echoed out in the background, followed by a noise of most likely wood splintering.

Jack pivoted on his foot to face the boar, who hurriedly extricated its neck from the Douglas-Fir tree, leaving a ten inch deep incision wound in the tree. Cold sweat ran down Jack’s forehead,as he doubted that he was anywhere near as resilient as a six decade old tree, even with his enhanced constitution.

He applied pressure to the wound with his free hand, but while it hurt terribly it was only a surface wound. The boar had recovered far faster than expected, shaking its neck wildly much like a dog or a cat would to remove wood splinters from its fur, giving Jack a few seconds to think clearly. The creature was a level higher than him, but the obvious had not missed Jack- it could have charged at anyone in the group, but it chose the most powerful one. That meant he could counter it.

The short reprieve was over as the boar once again locked eyes with Jack, and both of them knew what came next. The boar began its charge, while Jack used [Qi Pulse], slamming his left foot into the ground. But instead of directing the pulse in a broad area of fifty meters, he only focused it on his immediate surroundings- he knew that, based on the information he’d received, this was a theoretical possibility, but actually doing it mid combat came with risks. Nevertheless, this was the only means of countering the boar he could think of.

Jack entered a state of hyper-awareness, feeling the boar’s legs make contact with the earth at a rapid pace- feeling the rhythm, no, the pulse of its movement. For him time felt slightly slowed down, but at the same time it felt as if his body was no longer his own- but since he understood the boar’s rhythm and the rhythm of the world around him, predicting its movement was no longer a risky task.

Jack canceled the pulse half a second later, sidestepping towards the left, pivoting on his foot and slashing out with his [Qi Blade], without even looking at the boar from start to finish, his eyes focused on following the trajectory of the blade he’d visualized. Looking meant thinking, and thinking meant time wasted. That was a luxury he could not afford.

The boar’s severed head dropped onto the ground besides him, blood pooling at the bottom of his leather boots.

Qi Pulse has reached level 1!

Qi Pulse has reached level 2!