The air was thick with the smell of blood and the heat radiating off the beast. The boar's snout was millimeters from impact.
[T0m-54: That's it! He has no room to react!]
[Yul1_087: Oh god, I can't watch!]
[0n_Kn15T: So long, lone wolf. It was a good run.]
But fate, seemingly written, twisted at the very last fraction of a second. Just as the impact looked unavoidable, Sora's body blurred.
"[Dash]."
A trail of silver flames danced for a moment in the space he had occupied a millisecond before.
Thanks to [Cognitive Enhancement], his slowed perception had let him catch the exact moment his [Stab] cooldown expired, giving him just enough of a window to swap cards in his last breath and equip [Dash].
Sora shot backward, slipping past death by the thinnest margin.
Still in the air, carried by his own momentum, he didn't stop attacking. He extended his hand toward the mass of white fur still barreling forward without slowing.
"[Air Slash]," he said.
Compressed air gathered into an invisible blade in front of his palm and launched forward with a sharp whistle, striking the animal's ruined face dead on.
The hit didn't just deepen the empty sockets Larry had torn open; the force of the air pressure drove the embedded dagger a little further toward the center of the skull.
[Yul1_087: He's alive!! Still alive!! I nearly had a heart attack.]
[Hunted_99: Those reflexes... activating Dash in the last available frame is insane. Though I thought he was a mage, how does he even have that skill?]
[0n_Kn15T: Don't celebrate yet. This isn't over. That beast isn't stopping.]
The boar, now a force of blind and agonized nature, didn't slow. Its hooves carved furrows into the earth as it tried to push even faster.
Sora, still at the tail end of his backward trajectory, didn't let his feet touch the ground yet.
"[Double Jump]."
His feet struck an invisible platform of energy in midair.
He launched upward again, letting the mass of flesh and tusks thunder past beneath him.
As he descended slowly back toward the grass, his mind was already on the next move.
His heal cooldown had expired, and he didn't waste it, swapping the skill in immediately.
He landed on one knee, breathing ragged, his vision edged with red as his HP hovered at a critical five percent. His pulse hammered at his temples like something trying to break out, his vision growing hazier with each second.
The boar was skidding, throwing all its strength into a turn for one final charge when it realized it had missed.
"[Ice Stake]," Sora said, his voice little more than an exhausted whisper.
Freezing currents of frost converged in front of his palm, crystallizing into a translucent projectile.
When it fired, the stake cut through the tall grass, scattering moonlight into hundreds of silver flashes that lit the night like a cold bolt of lightning.
The impact was surgical. The ice drove into the joint of the boar's right foreleg at the precise moment the animal was throwing its full weight into the turn.
The sound of bone snapping under the pressure of the stake combined with the monster's own momentum rang out across the entire meadow.
The charge collapsed completely. The Lunar Boar lost its footing and rolled violently across the ground, throwing up clouds of dirt and grass, until it came to a stop just a few meters from Sora, letting out low, rasping grunts.
The boar was done.
Sora drew in a breath of cold air that burned his lungs. Behind the wooden mask, his breathing had become a rough, uneven echo.
With a gesture, the dagger dematerialized from the animal's skull and reappeared in his hand.
He walked forward on unsteady legs, every inch of his body screaming from the earlier hit.
His feet sank into the flattened grass while his heart hammered against his ribs, a violent rhythmic reminder of how close he'd come to permanent silence.
[T0m-54: No way... HE DID IT! He actually killed it!]
[4inz_Sam4-67: YES! Larry has been avenged! Take that, you disgusting monster!]
[Hunted_99: Unbelievable. He held on with a thread of HP and didn't make a single mistake at the end.]
[Yul1_087: I'm actually tearing up with relief. Thank god he's okay.]
Sora stopped in front of the beast. The Elite Lunar Boar still struggled weakly, its hooves scraping the ground with fading strength, its breathing a broken wheeze.
"You were a tough fighter," Sora murmured, his voice hoarse and worn. "But your time's up."
Before delivering the finishing blow, Sora closed his eyes for a moment. His hand moved through the air, dropping [Cognitive Enhancement] and slotting in the [Small Drop Rate Buff] in its place.
Only then, with a tired and deliberate motion, he drove the dagger into the animal's belly and pulled it in a long, clean arc. The boar's body tensed one final time before collapsing and dissolving into a dense white mist.
[+1,575 EXP] [+1 Elite Lunar Boar Tusk] [+1 Elite Lunar Boar Hide]
[Level Up!]
[+5 Attribute Points] [+5% Spiritual Core]
A sudden warmth, revitalizing and electric, bloomed in his chest and spread all the way to his fingertips.
Sora felt the exhaustion lift and the sharp pain of his injuries melt into a faint tingle as his HP restored completely.
He let himself fall backward into the grass, which still held the cool of the night.
"Phew... that was close," he breathed, staring up at the sky where the stars seemed to be celebrating with him.
[T4mal_07: I'm genuinely speechless. This bastard actually pulled it off.]
[K1ra_X8: Damn, that guy is something else. Whatever his class is, I'm a little jealous ngl.]
[Yul1_087: HERE, you earned it, masked man!]
[Notification: You have received a donation of +500 White Spectral Essences from user "Yul1_087"]
Sora blinked at the glow of the holographic notification.
A faint smile spread across his face, hidden from the world. He couldn't use Spectral Essences yet, the currency of the Spiritual Realm, but getting a donation this early was a very good sign.
He let out a long breath. It had been a long night.
"Alright... I think that's enough for today. I'll find a village and head out from there," he said.
He'd pushed himself far enough for one day.