Kifeda stared up at the sky of the trial area from atop the cliff he had scaled. It was a featureless blue expanse, without even Sol or a being like her dragging an orb of fire through the sky. His guts twisted with his constant desire to soar through that expanse.

His Player interface suddenly blocked his unobstructed view.

‘Kifeda, chosen of Hodr. You have been inactive and on the border of the trial area for over five minutes. Return to the Wild Hunt or face disembodiment until the end of the trial.’

Kifeda huffed out a long sigh. He launched himself from his perch, plummeting down the side of the cliff. A smile crept onto his face as the treeline of the valley far below him rushed up to meet him. [Arrest] activated with a thought and his momentum disappeared in an instant. Joy filled him at the sensation as he hovered in the air just a few feet above the tallest branches.

The effect ended and he dropped onto a branch with a deceptive lightness. He had expected it to take longer to adapt to the changes that his massive increase in stats had provided upon his jump to D-Tier. Logically, he knew differently. His mother had explained the Player system of the Nine Realms to him long ago. His new intellect stat made learning and adapting much quicker.

His newly increased agility and dexterity enabled him to run along the branches of the canopy. The leaves rustled no more than they did in the wind. He made his way across the trees in a beeline towards his target.

He hadn’t truly been wasting his five minutes at the top of the cliff. He knew what would happen if he tried not to compete in the Wild Hunt. So while seeing the sky had been his primary goal, scouting had been a close second.

He had still been asleep when the first trial had started. Not that his slumber had stopped him from being unceremoniously teleported to the trial. After a blinding light that even the most tightly shut eyes couldn’t fully block out, he’d awoken to the sounds of the forest now beneath him.

Kifeda thought as he ran.

The type of trial he was facing had also been announced. It was a simple kill quest: Slay as many boars as possible before the time limit.

From his perch, he’d seen several herds of them nearby. He heard grunting coming from the forest beneath him.

Kifeda went to work immediately. He slipped through the branches as quietly as he could, spotting the boars as they rooted through the underbrush. He threw one of his [Twin Fangs of the Viper] at the boar farthest from him. The knife passed through the beast’s spine with ease, and it collapsed.

Kifeda mused.

His next blade struck into the haunch of one of the other boars. It began screaming like exactly what it was. A stuck pig.

The boars all began panicking, snorting and squealing up a cacophony. They also all ran the opposite direction of the wounded one. Straight to him.

He dropped into their midst once several had already passed beneath him and let loose. His fists and feet flew out with unerring precision. Each blow struck a vulnerable area. In less than a minute, ten boars were down. Less than five minutes later the herd was wiped out.

Kifeda thought as he scaled the trees around him once more.

He dropped his concerns for stealth. This was a game of speed.

After slaughtering a few more herds, each taking longer and longer to find, the forest changed. The sounds of the creatures of the forest went silent. A moment later a terrifyingly loud squeal ripped through the forest. Twice more, it sounded out. The noises of the forest resumed— full of panic now. Birds exploded from the canopy around him, fleeing to the edges of the valley.

The bright blue sky began to darken, black clouds forming a funnel over the center of the valley forest.

he thought.

A massive spectral boar formed under the funnel cloud.

With a resigned sigh, Kifeda began running towards it.

Nothing could ever be easy in the Nine Realms.

By the time Kifeda arrived the other competitors were already engaging the beast. He watched as they blew cooldowns tailored to fights against hordes or large beasts. A large fireball ballooned up from a mage, striking the monster in the side. An archer loosed a single arrow that multiplied into fifty, which all detonated on impact.

He shuddered as unbidden memories from the wars of his childhood resurfaced.

Kifeda thought.

Indeed, as Kifeda watched the others throw massive abilities at the giant hog, it shrugged them off and continued to grow. He activated [Hide] and moved as close to the monstrosity as he dared. As he did, he noticed movement beneath him.

The boars of the valley were streaming below their feet in a wave that covered most of the valley floor. What he had originally thought to be the giant boar’s shadow writhed and grew with its spectral form. In actuality, it was a massive horde of pigs that was growing by the second.

Kifeda mulled this over as his stealth timer ticked down. An idea began forming, but the risk would be massive. He could see the spectral boar’s legs growing by the second, and there was no doubt to their power. Trees that had been touching its hooves were shoved aside and uprooted as it continued to expand.

Worse still, the pig was beginning to stir.

It let loose the same roaring squeal it had as it began to form, and Kifeda was forced to clamp down over his ears to protect them. Even with the massive increases to his constitution and endurance, it had almost burst his eardrums.

Kifeda heavily considered abandoning this particular trial and retreating to the cliff edge to watch the fight.

With a grumble, he instead dropped to the floor far below him.

he thought.

The scene was eerie. He lashed out against the rampaging hordes of boar below him, felling them in droves. In turn, the boars simply… ignored him. With a mindless determination they continued to drive themselves towards the writhing mass of pig ahead, like pilgrims at the last stretch of their journey to meet their god.

The hordes around him began to thin. The growth of the ghostly guardian of their species slowed. Its speed and power, however, did the opposite.

With a massive cry that drove Kifeda and the other competitors to their knees with its strength, the boar charged.

The mage that had been launching massive fireballs into it was its first victim.

The explosive volleys of the archer were cut off soon afterwards.

Kifeda felt blood trickling from his ears, the sounds of the forest and the battle had been replaced by a tinny static. He rose to his feet. The chips were on the table. The beast was beyond the ability of the challengers to stop.

His eyes swept to the whirling, roiling mass underneath the monster, like a living shadow under the beast. Almost unbidden, [Sprint] activated and he was among them like death incarnate.

The effects were immediate and surprising. A strange pressure assaulted Kifeda, one that he couldn’t immediately place. A moment later, his instincts screamed a warning. He burst away, barely in time to survive.

A blast of air and torn up dirt pelted him from behind. The giant boar’s hoof had cracked the ground behind him. It drew the leg back, revealing a crater large enough to house a small family.

Kifeda swore, using the last remaining seconds of [Sprint] to tear through the forest.

His legs carried him easily up the trunks of the trees until he was once more running on top of the canopy. His ears, finally healed from the assault of sound that had burst them, alerted him that he was not moving fast enough. The monstrous boar was totally fixated on him.

It tore through the forest behind him, each footstep forming a new crater. Kifeda poured on speed for all he was worth.

“Now what did a measly level fifty do to draw such ire, hm?” a deep male voice said in his ear. “You weren’t even part of our attack on the beast. Did you insult its species somehow?”

“I might have said something about bacon pancakes,” Kifeda huffed as he ran.

“Ha ha ha, you should duck then,” the voice laughed. “Haven’t had much time to practice with the new toy yet.”

Kifeda dove through the trees, catching himself in a bone-jarring roll. A high pitched scream of air and force parted the air above him. He finished his roll just in time to see a laser the size of his arm fade out of existence. His head whipped back to the spectral boar.

A gaping hole had been burnt all the way through its body.

“Packs a mighty big punch, doesn’t it?” the voice said, now accompanied by a stout man in golden svartstal armor. On his shoulder rested a massive cannon. “Tyr’s latest prototype.”

“Not big enough apparently,” Kifeda said, gesturing to the boar. The hole was rapidly filling back in before their eyes. Up close, Kifeda noticed that he could see individual streams of the green spectral energy rising from individual boars.

“Looks like the Great Tree really doesn’t want to take it easy on us,” the man said. “Mind telling me what you really did to make it mad? Might be what we need for this fight.”

Kifeda mulled over the situation for a moment. He was fairly sure that he knew why the boar had attacked him. It had only paid attention to the people who had attacked it originally. Once he had started attacking the boars, its attention had never wavered.

The hole finished filling up. The eyes of the beast swiveled to him once more. Kifeda made the decision.

“Kill the little boars,” Kifeda said. “Ignore the big one.”

“Ahh, should have figured it out myself,” the man replied. “Name’s Maxton. Chosen of Tyr.”

“Kifeda,” he said. “Chosen of Hodr.”

“One good turn deserves another, Kifeda,” Maxton said. “I’ll draw the attention off you for a bit. Make sure to take full advantage of it.”

With a burst of speed that Kifeda could barely follow, the armored man shot into the horde in front of them. Boars dropped like rain in the line he carved through them. As he did, Kifeda noticed that the monster above them visibly shrank.

Kifeda thought after he checked the remaining time.

There were still ten minutes left on the clock.