The Spotty Boar quickly shifted to the left, our eyes followed it immediately and adjusted our positions. It seemed to be waiting to get a better chew of the berries before charging toward us again, and all we could do now was to wait. Grandpa Jin did not want to startle it again, because the Spotty Boar was much faster than the bow and arrow.

“This boar is an exception. It loves to eat Death Berries, and somehow it’s able to digest all those toxins and convert them into energy and to create this toxic aura. Its whole body becomes the color of the berries and is deadly as well. LiNa, we have to be very careful because there is no cure for this poison.”

I nodded.

The Spotty Boar must be done chewing its mouthful of berries, and finally decided to charge toward us. Grandpa Jin shot another arrow, and unfortunately missed again.

Argh!

The Spotty Boar definitely did not run like a pig. It moved at the speed of light!

I might be exaggerating a little here, but it was so much faster than my human eyes can observe in detail. It looked as if all the movements were blurred out. In a blink of an eye, I got pushed away by Grandpa Jin again to avoid coming in contact with the Spotty Boar.

Grandpa Jin must be able to see better, since he was the one who reacted the quickest each time and even got a chance to save me.

My face was freezing cold from hitting right on the snow. As I spat out a mouthful of snow, I suddenly heard Grandpa Jin’s voice.

“Keep down!!”

Great…..I ducked down again, my body and face got buried in the snow once more.

There was a soft wind blowing over the back of my head. It was the Spotty Boar running so fast that it flew over my body. If I hadn’t lied down immediately, that little toxic piggy would have bumped right on my face.

I quickly got back to my feet, and saw Grandpa Jin shoot another arrow at it. This time the arrow was so close to its ear, but still missed. The Spotty Boar lifted its head and snorted proudly as if it knew its superiority in speed.

We ran like deers in all kinds of random directions after learning that the Spotty Boar seemed to have trouble turning corners. That was a weird observation, but enough to keep us alive for a brief moment. Couldn’t I believe one day I was being chased by a little piggy?

My heart was pounding so hard, and I was panting like crazy. I was never good with running, and was not expected to run a marathon ever.

Shortly after, something tripped me (or it was just my legs were getting weak) that I stumbled to the ground like a snowball down the shallow hill.

Roll roll roll the ball……….

Gently down the hill………..

Sadly, sadly, sadly, sadly…………

Life is not a dream……….

Oh, this was definitely not a dream because it hurts!

My head spun like a spinning wheel, and my vision got blurry due to all that rolling. Once I caught up the breath and got back to my senses, that freaking Spotty Boar was charging right toward me again!

It was running at the speed of light, so fast that I forgot to react. My legs were too weak to get back up again, more like I was stunned by the truth that I would be killed by this “harmless” little piggy!

It must have found out that I was thinking about bacon, and that was why it hated me so much!

Dude! You were full of toxins, how could I eat you anymore!?

During those couple seconds, a lot of thoughts went through my head. Grandpa Jin and Grandma Sha were right, that we shouldn’t come out here to risk the danger. I was naive to only think about saving someone, but now I even risked Grandpa Jin’s life. If it was my own, I deserved it because that was my decision.

Grandpa Jin did nothing but only being generous, how could I risk his life to save someone else, especially that ungrateful jerk?

I closed my eyes to accept my final fate, when SUDDENLY------------

SWISH------------

Then a loud sound of something falling to the ground!

I opened my eyes again, and saw that the Spotty Boar dropped dead right in front of me, with an arrow in its heart!

My back was wet with sweat, and my heart was pounding against the chest.

“LiNa, are you all right?” Grandpa Jin came over to help me get back up.

I finally calmed down a little.

My eyes sparkled with worship, “Grandpa Jin, I don’t know you so good with arrows! Wow, if you are in my world, you would be Olympic Champion!”

He grinned with wrinkles, “I just got lucky, it was one of the fastest moving creatures in the Land of Ruins, normally couldn’t be hunted down with bow and arrows. Next time we won’t be so lucky. By the way, what is an Olympic Champion?”

“Basically like a big race, and whoever won would be champion. Your bow and arrow skill rocks!”

He chuckled because I was praising him like no one else. Although I praised the skills, it was more like Grandpa Jin couldn’t watch his “daughter” die once more. I was like the image of his daughter, and seeing me in danger woke up all his greatest potentials.

Whenever I thought of this, my heart would be warm like a cup of hot tea. I was only an outsider on this land, but they treated me like a real family, or even more.

The aura around the Spotty Boar got darker and stronger. It kept spreading like a morning fog around its body.

“Stay away!” Grandpa Jin yelled.

We hurried and kept a safe distance from its dead body.

The aura went from pink to lavender, and then its body started to sparkle like fairy dust. The two dangling bulbs on its head blinked like two Christmas light bulbs to show the last bit of energy left.

I felt bad due to two reasons. One was that we had to kill this little piggy just to survive, if it wasn’t attacking us, we wouldn’t have actually taken its life. This was a new lesson for me. In order to survive on the Aniesian Continent, sometimes the only choice was to destroy the danger. The second reason I felt bad was watching this food go to waste.

If it was not poisonous, I would have utilized every piece to make a delicious meal. So wasteful……..

Then the sparkles started to rise up into the air like flowing stars. A curvy line of sparkles kept extending toward the sky, as if reaching the heavenly.

I was astonished, “Grandpa Jin, what is this?”

He stared into the sky, followed where the sparkles were going.

“That is the Heavenly Realm, where Goddess Aniela is. The boar is going back to the embrace of Aniela. That’s the final destination for all demons, beasts, and other creatures on this continent. One day we will all be there.”

The sparkles rose slowly upward, and the physical body became foggy, soon starting to turn into more dust and getting transparent. Soon after, everything disappeared, and even the aura gradually fainted away.

A gust of wind blew over the winter land.

There was nothing left, except……….

“Grandpa Jin, look!!”