Author's note

Today the title is not "IMP" anything... And also, I started this chapter super late - so light late-night proofreading (Like, going over it once fixing a few things I think didn't fit.. Yay, I'm half-arsing it again.) It is, however, over the daily word-limit this time, so a bit less half-arsed than yesterday in total... but still a bit rushed. Yeah, I got caught up with stuff...

I'm getting caught up with stuff a lot lately, didn't even read Trolls chapters yet - like all three of the new-ish ones. You should totally do that, and I know I will when I finally get around to it here in the weekend. (You can read it here, in case you are wondering - don't let the number of chapters throw you off, he has got more words than I in total, by a large margin.)

Word count

This chapter: 1734

Total: 21454

NaNoWriMo target for the 13th: 21667

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Several days had passed, and they stood in the middle of the pine forest once more. In the middle of a large glade, a boar was standing flipping grass with its tusks and eating the roots. The boar was not small of stature, as it was the size of a modern-day car, dwarfing any and all other animals in the entire forest. It was golden-brown, with long stiff hair, and a mane as red as the morning sun. The tusks were about the size of a grown man’s arms and as pristine white as newly fallen snow. They extended from its snout on both sides, ending in a menacing razor-sharp edge.

With a lowered voice, Flasor spoke. “You see that? I’ve seen it before, but I didn’t dare trying to take it down.. It’s been feeding on settlement garbage, growing from it. If we took it down, we would have food enough for quite a while… and additionally, we might stand a chance at showing the local villagers we mean no harm.”

Aitken nodded slowly. “I wouldn’t count on the villagers, though.”

Flasor shrugged. “Worth a shot.” He looked back up at the gigantic boar in front of them. “So… they have a thick armoured skull and shoulder plates. If it charges you, you dodge. If you can counter attack its sides, where it’s almost fully unarmoured, you do that. Priority number one is to avoid getting stomped or crushed to death - all it takes is one good charge and we’re mashed imps.

“I’ll grab its attention, and you strike it from the side?” Aitken asked.

Flasor nodded. “That’s the plan.” He conjured up a fireball.”You might need this…”

Aitken caught it and juggled it a bit, before Flasor threw a second at him.

“Ah, hold up.” Aitken juggled them and struggled to keep them under control.

“I’ll head over here, and prepare a large one to strike from the side.”

Aitken nodded. “Okay.”

Flasor went into position, and when he had a fireball about half his own size, Aitken prepared himself mentally for a minute.

Okay, here goes.

He threw a fireball, striking the boar on the behind. In response, the boar turned around and snorted, scraping its hoof against the ground several times. Then it took off - With the fury only matched by its size, the boar charged at Aitken. The grass was pushed into the ground from under the hoofs of this mighty beast, and it approached at an alarming rate.

It had taken the boar several seconds to half the distance, and Aitken already considered his options at this point. He bent his legs, preparing for a last-second leap. He patted the thigh-thick tree behind him - the boar was gonna get it when it ran into that.

Flasor threw the firebolt towards Aitken, and he jumped sideways, leaving the boar to its fate - the plan was perfect.

The boar got struck by the large firebolt, and headed straight for the tree.

A crunching sound combined with the sound of something splintering to pieces resounded.

It had continued straight through the relatively thin tree, smashing it in the process.

The boar slowly grinded to a halt and turned around, barely fazed by the firebolt thrown at it.

It set off once more, towards Aitken with full speed. In response, Aitken leapt sideways - but too soon.

The boar changed its direction, aiming for Aitken as he was laying down.

He rolled with all his might, narrowly avoiding the deadly tusk.

He rammed the boar with all his might, straight for the heart - but the sword danced across the thick leather as the boar charged past him.

Flasor’s eyes grew wide - it was now running straight at him. He, too had to jump sideways, narrowly avoiding the deadly charge.

“Get to the trees! We’re blowing this off!” Flasor howled.

The boar turned around as Aitken approached a tree. When he finally got to the tree, the boar was already at full speed headed for him.

Aitken quickly grabbed his sword and put it in front of the tree, with the hilt pressed against the trunk.

“Come at me, and use your own inertia against yourself!”

“Get out of there! You’re sacrificing an arm if you keep holding that blade!”

Aitken hesitated a moment, and lifted the blade slightly. That should do it.

The boar thundered towards him, and was only a few meters from him - in other words, around a full second.

He let go of the blade, and threw himself to the floor.

An ear-splitting crash was heard as the boar smashed this tree, as well.

Aitken’s jaw dropped as the thick tree was splintered under the charge from the boar. His sword had embedded itself into the skull - but only a short bit of the tip - the rest of the sword was shattered like the tree.

The boar howled in fury as it left a small trail of blood behind it. - It was pissed, and wished to tear Aitken apart at this time.

He felt fear grip his heart and In the blink of an eye he had leapt for a nearby tree, heading for the top of it.

The boar came thundering towards the tree - hopefully this one would hold.

The boar rammed into the tree, and Aitken latched onto a branch as it shook violently from side to side. He felt his feet on the tree slide away and he clenched his fists around the branch so hard his knuckles turned black from the dark bones under his scales. The branch shook under the sudden shift in weight, but both the branch and the tree held up, and Aitken regained his foothold.

“Think it’ll just turn around and leave?” Aitken yelled.

“Not after that move of yours.” Flasor yelled back.

Well, darn.

Aitken broke off a branch. “I’m not intending on staying unarmed.”

Despite his words, he had no means to make his branch anything but a stick-o-war, and that’s all it was - a stick of war. The boar shook the tree from the ground, but Aitken held on.

“It’s unharmed by all our attempts, except your sword-sacrifice. What are you intending on doing?”

“Well, I’d show you if you could pass me your dagger.” Aitken yelled back.

“From here? Okay.”

Aitken’s eyebrows flew up, as the dagger flew through the air towards him. He ducked as the dagger struck right above his head.

“What in damnation are you doing?” Aitken yelled.

“Passing the dagger?” Flasor shrugged.

Aitken sighed and grabbed the dagger, cutting the stick into the shape of a spear.

“The wood isn’t gonna go through its hide” Flasor yelled.

“I know.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Trying to get the jump on it.”

Flasor remained silent until Aitken was ready.

Aitken leapt down at the boar, and landed on its back, digging the spear hard into the side of the boar.

The boar howled and started rolling over, breaking the spear in the process.

Panic spread in Aitkens eyes, as he desperately tried to stay on top of the rolling boar - which he stabbed multiple times all the way around as it rolled.

Not a part of the plan. Definitely not a part of the plan.

When it ended on its legs again, Aitken stabbed the knife into the side of the boar, and it howled and charged straight at a tree.

Aitken pulled the dagger and stabbed the eye of the boar.

The boar jumped towards the tree, but turned sideways mid-air. Aitken barely managed to jump off and the boar struck the tree full-force with a cracking sound.

Aitken dashed at it, and went for its eye.

Smock.

He flew several meters away.

Flasor was dashing towards Aitken, grabbing the dagger as the boar stood up once more. ”Gimme that!”

He shot a jet of flames into the face of the boar, and under the cover of the flames, he gouged out the remaining eye.

The boar howled and swung around wildly - but it was an easy target for the experienced Flasor, who quickly stabbed it multiple times in the sides.

“Die already!” He howled as he shot more fire at it

The puddle of blood spread, and the energy of the boar slowly disappeared. It fell to the ground, and stopped moving.

Aitken slowly got up. He had received a mighty bash but nothing was broken as the boar had smashed him sideways with its tusks on his upper arm.

“That’s gonna leave a mark.”

After a while of breathing and relaxing, Flasor went and put his knife the boar, peeling off the skin. “We’re gonna need the meat.. but what do we do with the rest? Want a bone to pick with somebody?”

“Ah, I’m good.”

“Wanna make a tent from the hide?” Flasor asked.

“You don’t think that thick leather would make for great armour?”

“Hm, maybe. You know how to sew?”

“Not really.” Aitken answered.

“But what? You’ll just wing it?”

“That’s what I thought, yes.”

“And add the black wolf hide on top?”

“That’s a good idea.” Aitken answered.

“Well good luck with that.”

“How come you don’t have any armor though?” Aitken asked.

“Never needed it, the crushing blow from an animal isn’t something a slab of leather will protect against. Sneak attacks is the best for that. Quick in, quick out - live to tell the tale.”

“But you never got attacked by humans?”

“Well, that’s why I take the precautions I do.” Flasor answered with a shrug.

Flasor kept cutting and chopping for a while, until a large sheet of hog-hide was in front of him, and a whole lot of meat on top of it. “Bone sword?” he asked.

Aitken sighed. “I might try something with the bones, some other time."

Flasor shrugged. “Suit yourself, I’ll just grab the head for showing the villagers.”

Aitken nodded. “Well, good luck with that. Where’s your nearest safehouse? I’ll go there and you can bring the head of hogzilla here to the villagers.”

Flasor smirked. “I see, well you do your thing I’ll do mine. Just head that way until you see a cave” He pointed over in a direction.

Aitken nodded. “Okay.”

“I’ll be off, then. To the village”

“Be careful” Aitken said.

“Worried about me? I’ll be perfectly fine, just you see.” He smirked once more before he walked off with the severed head in hand.

Aitken sighed, and put the bones and meat on the hide, and dragged it all along with him, ever so slowly. This will take ages. he thought, as he dragged it over the forest floor.

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Thanks for reading.