The rain was pouring down hard in the night, no moonlight to illuminate the darkness. The sound of thunder can be heard loud and clear, as if lightning has been striking down nearby. A flash of from the thunder shows a cabin, hidden far away from everything. Another flash showed two bodies lying down in front of it. One was of a middle-aged man lying on his back with multiple stab wounds, and a wound at the bottom of his head gushing blood. The second body was of a teenage boy, barely old enough to be able to use the nearby bow that laid next to him. He had a stab wound to his back, and his eyes focus on his father, who was laying down several feet away from him, as if before he drew his last breath, he saw his father drew his.

The door to the cabin was open, and inside were three more bodies. Two small child, and one infant. One was near the door, with a deep cut that goes down his entire body. The other child was on the opposite side lying face down with horrible multiple wounds on his back. His eyes wide open with tears still seeming running down his face. The infant was lying down in the center of the room, with a stab wound directly to the heart. Two more was in the room as well. One was a woman, on her knees, sobbing as loud as the thunder outside. The other was a dark shadowy figure. It’s red eyes glowed menacingly while it looked down at the sobbing woman. “Just kill me! Just kill me like you have done to my family!” The woman bellowed. “What have we done to deserve such a cruel fate?! Just kill me now so that I might join my family in the afterlife!” The shadowy figure just stare at her for a moment. It then raised its hand, and then struck down.

Alderick suddenly woke up, drenched in sweat. While still in a daze, he looked around. He saw the familiar boulder in front of him, and the seemingly endlessness of the plains that he was in. He now recalls he had spent a night outside sleeping on top of a broken boulder. The sun had risen, but he could see that it was still in the early mornings. He began to wonder, Why would I have such a dream? Do I feel guilty about killing those monsters? He stood up, tired of such nonsense running through his head so early in the morning. He gazed back towards the direction of the forest. The feeling of killing those goblins still fresh in his mind. He pulled out his dagger to look at. It was still covered in the blood of the goblins. He spill some water on it from his water pouch. Then reached into his pouch that strapped to his right side of his waist, and pulled out a piece of cloth. He used the cloth to wipe the blood off his dagger.

Once cleaned, he then gave another quick check on it. Satisfied, he put it away, climbed down the boulder, and made his way back to town. After a short walk, he reached the fork in the road again. Once he got on the road, he sees something in the distance on the road. A dust cloud. And it seemed to be heading his way. He stood there, confused as to what was causing it. He focus his eyes, and stare hard at it. He then made out a person running. As the person drew closer, he could slightly hear shouting. But being too far, he could not hear it properly, and was thinking of going closer himself. Just as he took a few steps, he heard, “RUN!!!!”

Al then looked to behind the person. He was being chased by something big and round. “RUN! RUN! RUN! GET OUT OF THE WAY!” the person shouted. A little panicked, Al started running back in the direction of the boulders. The person soon caught up to him, and started running alongside him. He now saw that it was a girl with bright orange short hair. A lighter shade of orange shirt with a back vest, brown shorts with two swords strapped to both side of it. Al then looked back to what was chasing them. It was a full grown Devil Tusk, a wild boar with two huge tusks, black fur with a silver lining of hair along his back, three tails and the size of bull and in the most crazy frenzy it could ever be in. It squeal like mad as it chased them.

Seeing what was chasing him, Al started booking it. A young Devil Tusk is slightly stronger than a goblin. A full grown one is way more than he can handle. Seeing this, the girl called out, “How can you just leave a girl as cute as me behind?!” But Al didn’t care, since she was the one who bought it to him. The girl started booking it as well, catching up t0 Al. Al then saw the boulders he spent the night at, and then looked back at the Devil Tusk, comparing its size to the boulder. It was smaller than the boulder, and it is known to not be able to jump high. Making his decision, Al ran up to, and climbed back up the broken boulder, then the bigger boulder. The girl then also started to climb as well, but was struggling.

Seeing this, and that the boar closing in, Al jumped down and helped her up. The board grinds to a stop in front of the boulder, squealing in anger. Al then looked down on the boar, hoping that it would soon give up. It soons started circling the boulder, no intention of stopping. “That was a close one. Thanks!” He turns to see the girl standing next to him. “But it sure looks like it ain’t giving up any time soon.” she added. “It looks like he won’t stop until we kill it, or it kills you.” Al remarked. “What? You can’t just let it kill me!” she shouted in response to what Al said. “ I wouldn’t. That’s why I helped you get up here. But why did you run after me instead of running a different direction?” he asked. “Um… hehe. Well… I was hoping you were a silver rank adventurer that would be able to deal with it.” She replied smiling at Al. “Well, sorry to crush your hopes, but I’m a copper rank that started just yesterday.” “EH?! What do we do now?! I’m also just a copper rank!” Al just looked at her with a sadden faced, then respond, “Well, we could just hope a silver rank happens to pass by soon. Oh, and I’m Alderick. Copper rank Mystic support.” “Ah, I’m Darretta, Copper rank Slayer damage.” She replied smiling.

Al and Darretta continued to look at the boar as it stomps around. A crazy idea came to his mind, since they have been here for quite awhile. “Maybe… maybe we might be able to kill it.” He said to himself quietly. “What?! Are you crazy?! Even two Iron rank members would have a hard time!” Darretta shouted to Al’s ear. “That’s true, but if we can slow it down, we can possibly slowly deal enough damage to it to drive if away. I will slow it down with Bind, and I will buff your agility. But while I’m channeling Boost: Agility, I can’t attack, so you’ll have to attack it by yourself.” “What?!” She exclaimed. “You want me to go fight that thing by myself, while you hide up here?! What kind of man are you!” “No, it’s just that while I’m channeling, I’ll be wide open. If it targets me, I’ll die. And then you will die next, by either the boar, or my ghost for having cause me to die.” Al says this while looking at her with a displeased and annoyed look for having brought this upon them.

Darretta turn her head away in guilt. “Hrrg Nnnn. OK! Ok… I’ll do what you say. But if I die! I will haunt you for the rest of your life!” She replied, and then drew her two swords. Al then turns back towards the boar. “Ok, once I cast Bind, you go attack it, and I’ll support you.” “Ok.” “Alright.” Al focus on the boar. “BIND!” The Devil Tusk lets out a squeal, then focuses on Al, completely forgetting about Darretta. At that moment she jumps down and strikes down on it. Even though she sliced down hard, it barely left a scratch on it. She then jumps back a few feet. “It’s fur is too strong, it might take me awhile to do some serious damage to it!” she shouted to Al. That attack had gotten the focus of the boar, and it made its way to her. But it moved slowly due to bind. “Boost: Agility!” Al shouted and began channeling the spell. Darretta then decides to distance herself some more from the boar. Due to the boost, she quickly got a lot of distance. She then lift one of her sword in front of her, and started focusing. The sword then started to glow a faint light blue. She then sweeps out in front of her. “Sonic Blade!”

Once she swings the sword, a shockwave flew towards the boar, hitting it directly in the head. It chipped one of the tusk, but left a pretty deep cut on the boars face. It let out a loud screech in pain as his head started to bleed a little, and stopped in its path. Darretta readies her swords and charges towards it. She thrust with both weapon at the wounded head. The boar then dodges to the side, and then head butt Darretta’s side, knocking her back. One of his tusk had stabbed her in her thigh. She was now having a hard time getting back on her feet, and was shouting in pain. It then started stomping the grounds, getting ready to charged then injured girl.

Just then, Al jumps off the boulder, and stabs the boar in the back with his dagger. It penetrated the back, but Al had a hard time trying the pull the blade out. The boar jumps away from Al, then jumps back to him, slapping him hard with its three tails, and knocking him back. Now the boar focuses on Al, and started charging, evidently showing that bind has wore off. It charged extremely fast, Al barely dodging to the side. It grinds to a halt some distance away from them, giving Al time to cast a Minor Heal on Darretta, allowing her to get back on her feet. After he had finishing casting the heal, the boar had turn around and started to charge towards him again. But seeing that the boar can not stop fast enough, this gave him an idea. He made a dash towards the boulder, and the boar charges him.

Al is now in front of the boulder, and wait for the boar to reach him. Just as the boar was about to reach him, he jumped out of the way, causing the boar to slam against the boulder. The impact was so hard that the ground around them started shaking. The boar had charged the boulder so hard that it left a huge cracked in it. On the other hand, the boulder had done much more severe damage to the boar. It had broken off its tusks, and stun it. Seizing this chance, Al shouted for Darretta to attack it once more. She readies another Sonic Blade, but this time did a downward slash, sending the shockway in a verticle line towards the boar. The attack cut the boar deeply on its sides, and it cried out in pain. “Again!” Al yelled. “I can’t! I can’t use it again in such a short amount of time!” Darretta yelled back.

“Then just run up and cut it! It’s still dazed from the boulder.” “It's too hard, I can’t cut deep enough!” “Just do it!” Darretta then dashes towards the boar, and started wildly hacking away at the boar, barely scratching it. “Boost: Sharpen!” Darretta’s weapon then glowed red, and she started to be able to cut deeper into the boar. It then squeal out, and started thrashing about, forcing Darretta to back away. It had now recover from its daze, but now is incredibly injured. Not liking the odds, the boar started limping away from the pair. “Hurry finish it off! Boost: Agility” Al told Darretta. She then dashes after it. And right when she reached it, Al switch back to Boost: Sharpen. She started wilding hacking away again at the fleeing animal. After several more hits, it goes down. She then walks to it’s head and lopped it off. “Divines blessed us! We killed a Devil Tusk.” She exclaimed excitedly at Al. Al then sat down on the grass, mentally tired from the fight. He could only smile back at Darretta, who was jumping around in happiness.

“So… how do you want to split up the boar?” Darretta ask Al once he recovered and had walked over to the now dead Devil Tusk. “I’ll take its meat, seeing as I don’t need its fur or tusk. You can have them all.” He replied. “What? I want some meat too!” Darretta debated back, with what looks like drools coming out of her mouth. After a couple of debate they decided to split the boar down the middle. They each ended up with half the meat, some of the boar’s fur, and one tusk each. Darretta gets to keep the head, seeing as she was the first to encounter the beast. “So… How did you come to be chased by this thing?” Al, now having the time to question Darretta. “Well, I was searching the fields for Bladed Grass. And I heard that wild animals likes eating them more than regular grass, so… I, uh… I follow some young Devil Tusk around… I guess the adult didn’t like me stalking its babies…”

Al showed a really annoy look to Darretta. It wasn’t about her causing the whole boar problem. It was merely the mention of Bladed Grass that ticked him off. He had completely forgotten he also had that quest. “So… how many were you able to gather?” “A little bit over thirty, I think. I don’t know if they are all herbs.” Al’s eyes light up. “Can I get some?! So I can also complete my quest.” “What? No way! It’s one silver coin per ten. I can’t just give away silver like that.” She replied, while covering her pouch, and slightly turning away from Al. “...Boar. I was just an innocent bystander. But you dragged me into it, and then I had to help you out. If not for me, you could be dead right now.” Al replied as he just stare emotionlessly at her. “Ehhhhhhhhhh… Fine… I’ll give you some.” “Great.” Al smiled. After a bit more chit chat between them, they both went their separate ways. Daretta needed to head off to a nearby village to send a letter, while Al needed to go back to town to turn in his quest. Al walked a pretty peaceful way back to Trisdia. He had to get into a line to go into town. Seeing as the line was fairly long, he knew he was going to wait for awhile.