Frenzy[1]

The fanged boar was monstrously strong and absurdly durable, but like all beasts, it had a weakness.

Its legs.

Due to the creature's massive size and the heavy weight of its tusks, it relied on powerful momentum to charge.

Damaging its legs didn't just injure it—it disrupted its balance and slowed its speed.

Just as Riley expected, the beast staggered forward, its front limb buckling. Its body lurched, and it nearly crashed into the ground.

Riley reached its side in that instant.

With a sharp leap, he climbed halfway up the beast's frame and drove one of his daggers straight into its left eye.

—34!

SQUELCH!

The blade sank in deep, and the boar howled in pain.

Blood erupted from the ruined socket, dark and thick, spraying across the grass.

Its left eye was destroyed.

Riley yanked the dagger back out immediately, flipping backward just in time to dodge a violent shake from the monster.

The beast reeled in agony, thrashing its massive body in every direction.

It could no longer see him properly, its vision cut in half.

But Riley wasn't done.

He ducked low, twisted beneath one of its stomping legs, and stabbed his other dagger into the side of its thick neck.

The blade hit hard muscle and scraped against something dense.

—10!

A small notification appeared.

Riley clicked his tongue. Just as he had thought, the neck was too thick. The dagger barely pierced the hide, let alone cause any real damage.

He yanked his weapon out and leapt away, flipping through the air and landing several meters back.

He skidded across the grass, crouched low as he regained balance.

The beast thrashed and shrieked, blood pouring from its eye socket and leg. Its movements grew more erratic by the second, but that made it no less dangerous.

Then—

ROAAAAARR!!

It threw its head back and roared into the sky.

Riley's eyes narrowed.

A tremor rippled through the clearing.

BOOM!

In a split second, a powerful shockwave burst from the boar's body.

A dome of raw force expanded outward, shredding the nearby grass and tearing up patches of earth. Trees bent and cracked as the wave of destruction swept out.

Riley's eyes narrowed, and he instinctively crossed his arms and braced himself.

But just before the shockwave reached him—

FSSSSHHH!

It dispersed into thin air, vanishing like mist.

Riley blinked.

—5!

A notification appeared in the corner of his eye, and his lips curled into a wry smile.

'It didn't even hit me, yet I still took some damage.' He thought, clicking his tongue.

The grass beneath his feet was only rustled slightly. Even the ground around him showed no signs of damage.

It was like the attack had simply decided to stop short of hitting him.

'It just like I heard.' He thought, smirking to himself.

In his past life, one of the things discovered about the boar was that when under pressure, it could release a powerful shockwave which travelled roughly ten meters around it.

That was why Riley quickly distanced himself away from it, to prevent himself from getting caught up in that attack.

He made sure to keep himself more than ten meters away, just in case what he knew turned out to be wrong.

However, it was still a risky plan, because if he had slightly miscalculated, and gotten caught up in the attack, he would surely be gravely injured.

He turned his gaze back to the boar, and his expression turned serious.

'From now, the real fight starts.' He thought.

[Lesser Boss: Mutated Fanged Boar]

[H/P: 113/120]

During the short time he stood at a distance from the beast, the cooldowns of his skills were already over, so he was fully ready for the next round.

Roarrr!!!

Suddenly, the boar roared to the sky, and its body trembled uncontrollably.

Thick veins bulged across the fanged boar's body, dark and grotesque as they pulsed with an unnatural energy.

They coiled under its skin like writhing serpents, glowing faintly with a deep crimson hue.

Riley narrowed his eyes, watching warily as the monster changed before his very eyes.

Its eyes, once dull and beastly, suddenly blazed a violent red. The boar's muscles stretched and doubled in size with sickening cracks and pulses of energy.

The grotesque fangs jutting out of its lower jaw—already large enough to pierce through trees—thickened like warped steel. The red lines around them widened, crawling up the length of its fangs and branching across its cheeks like veins of fire.

"Roarrrr!!!"

The beast let out another bellow, but this time it was deeper… more primal.

Riley's brows creased, and a long breath escaped from his lips. Beads of sweat clung to his forehead, trailing down his face and onto his collar.

The monster still bore the deep wounds he had inflicted—its left eye was destroyed, blood continued to pour from its leg, and its neck was still slightly gashed. And yet…

And yet, it felt even more terrifying now.

"This is its frenzy charge skill…" Riley muttered under his breath, bracing himself.

He'd read about it before in his past life, though it wasn't common knowledge among most players.

The information had only been discovered by mid-tier guilds after heavy research and countless deaths.

Unlike the last resort skill the Great Spiked Rat used when it was on the verge of death, the Mutated Fanged Boar's frenzy skill activated once its health dropped below half.

It was an ability that gave it a massive surge in power.

All of its core attributes—strength, agility, and vitality—were temporarily boosted by almost fifty percent.

And even worse, the boar would become completely fixated on its prey, disregarding all pain, defense, or caution.

A true berserker state.

Riley didn't need a system notification to tell him that he was now in far more danger than before.

He clicked his tongue, shifting his stance as he dropped into a low crouch.

With a thunderous bellow, the beast charged.

Its massive hooves tore through the grass as it barreled toward him like a freight train, shaking the very earth with its momentum.

Riley responded instantly, breaking into a full sprint—not away from the monster, but straight at it.

As Riley closed the distance, he angled slightly to the right, slipping into the creature's blind spot—the side where its left eye had been ruined. It gave him a few seconds, maybe less, to strike without immediate retaliation.

His muscles tensed, his daggers gripped tightly in each hand.

But then—

THUD!!

The boar suddenly lurched forward and slammed its massive fangs into the earth.

The red lines pulsated violently, like heartbeats made of lightning.

BOOOOOM!!

A deep, resonant tremor erupted from the ground.

Riley's eyes widened.

The tremor tore through the earth like an underground explosion, sending cracks across its surface, and even uprooting the grasses.

It was too fast.

The shockwave from the ground reached him in an instant, no warning, no time.

Riley stumbled.

His footing gave way. The broken terrain under his boots shifted, and he lost balance, lurching forward with a curse under his breath.

"Tch—!"

He tried to recover, to steady himself and roll with the momentum—

But it was too late.

A blur of red and brown appeared before him. The beast had already moved.

BOOM!

The boar's massive hoof slammed into his side with the force of a boulder. It didn't just hit—it launched him.

CRACK!

Riley's body flew through the air like a ragdoll. He spun wildly, unable to stabilize himself.

—30!

A sharp notification blinked in the corner of his vision.

"Guh—!"

Blood burst from his lips mid-air.

His vision blurred, and he felt a few of his ribs crack from the impact.

He crashed through a small tree, then rolled violently across the dirt and grass, carving a long trench into the earth before finally coming to a painful stop.

His stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, and he subconsciously clutched it with one hand.

Even though his current situation was terrible, and his body was injured, at that moment, the only thought that came to his mind was: 'I'm hungry… I need to eat.'