25 Fight!!

Adam had to wait a couple of days to see action. He had been sitting on a log by the fire on the village's plaza for a long time. Suddenly a shrill whistle cut over the regular din, and all the tribe "defenders" stood up almost in sync.

He had to assume someone had spotted a beast approaching the village. Adam stood up and followed the rest of the members of the defense team.

In front was the chief with his large sword. Adam focused on the weapon as he had not had a chance to do it before. The blade was long and wide but paper-thin. It had several runes engraved in the metal. To Adam, it seemed of superb craftmanship, not something anyone could do without experience.

Of course, Adam wanted to scan the blade to get as much information as possible. As it were, he did not want to start something with the chief before he was ready. This train of thought made Adam remember something.

[System. I want you to record as much information from the beasts and the Tengu's fight as possible. Who uses what weapon, movement tactics, tricks, all that stuff. It will give us an advantage later on. Understood?]

<Yes. Record everything about everyone. I am already doing that>

Adam was a little taken back about this glib answer. The System was showing a lot more personality lately, and that was not inherently bad. However, Adam needed to remind it why it had not evolved before meeting Adam.

[Ok, good. So you can provide an analysis of the usual movements at the plaza, which Tengu does what jobs and who I need to talk to get inside the village's storage, right?]

There was a pause for a couple of seconds.

<I will need to review the data. I recorded but was not doing analysis. You are the one with the ideas. I did start to translate the Tengu language>

Adam was surprised. It was the first time the System did this kind of analysis on its own, without him prompting it to do it.

[Great. That will make me less dependant on Yorky. How far along are you with that?]

<Almost 20%. The language has a lot of ear movement and eye placement that affect the meaning of the words. It is similar to you humans and the tone of voice>

[Tengus convey tone with their ears. That is funny]

The defenders, including Adam, were already on the bloody patch of grass in the usual defense position. A straight line, all of them facing out from the village. For Adam, they were not doing enough to prepare.

From the previous fights Adam saw, the beasts attack randomly on the line. Those attacked did what they could to survive. The rest of the defenders flanked the beast on both sides to do as much damage as possible. The only Tengu he noticed attacking weak points was the chief. The rest just hit whatever was nearest.

Adam already had a plan to reform the whole combat training for the Tengus. It was going to be the basis for his future army tactics. At the moment, he decided not to mention anything. He should first take control of the Tengu and then implement the changes he wants.

Adam was fidgeting in his armor when he first got a glimpse of the beast. It was a big spiky boar, probably the same height as Adam. It had curved teeth that jutted from its mouth and bent backward towards its eyes. It also had pointy, think hairs in its back that probably were tougher than Adam's spears.

As soon as the beast had a look at them, it started charging to full speed towards the defenders. It also ducked its head a little to maximize the effect of its tusks.

Adam grabbed his shield's strap with his right hand and prepared his feat to resist the impact. Logically he knew, if the creature charged at him, he would be trampled. The difference in weight was too big. He just wanted to defend as much as he could in the first few moments of the fight.

Luckily for Adam, the boar went for the Tengu a couple of places to his left. As expected, the Tengu who received the charge could not resist. The creature went right over him, and Adam expected it was dead. However, all the others attacked right away when the beast lost momentum.

Seeing the beast stationary, trying to kick or impale with his tusk the nearest defenders, Adam got a sudden surge of energy. He rushed to the side of the animal with one of his spears in his hand.

[System. Analyze the boar. Point out weakspots]

<Try to touch it with your hands. For even a second will do]

In Adam's vision, a couple of zones took a slight yellow color. The eyes, the back of the knees in the legs, the throat, and the inside of the mouth.

He stabbed his spear to the eye nearest to him. The creature moved its head quickly to dodge the blow. The spear only scratched the skin next to the eye. It seemed this creature was well accustomed to battle with human-like enemies.

As the beast was now guarding his eyes, the defenders in front of it did not have to avoid his tusk all the time. That allowed the Tengus on that side to attack more often.

Adam went for an upwards blow to a spot the System had marked as a weak spot on the neck. The spear did not face much resistance and pierced the skin. When Adam yanked back the spear, the wound started to bleed a lot.

This, of course, brought the animal's attention squarely on Adam. It adjusted its stance and started attacking Adam, trying to drop him to the ground.

Adam focused on defending. He even dropped the bloody spear to the ground, where it was stepped on by the boar and broken.

The boar used the side of its head to hit Adam, and he countered by planting his feet on the ground and placing his weight behind the shield. The hit lifted Adam up three inches from the ground, and he was pushed back by almost a meter.

Adam had been trying to avoid getting away from the animal as it made it harder for it to gather momentum. He did not want to be trampled liked the first Tengu. The distance allowed Adam to notice the damage the others had been able to do.

There were scratches all over the upper part of the animal's hide, where the weapons could not pierce. There were also two deep cuts on the other flank of the animal from where Adam used to be. It would seem the chief's weapon was put to good use.

There was little speed the boar could get in a meter, but Adam supposed it was now working on pure instinct. It did its best to charge at Adam, gathering enough speed to make him worry. Adam noticed something on the shield's structure broke when he received the impact, and it folded in his hands. Adam started to panic and dodged to the side to avoid a tusk coming for his torso. The armor on his body would not help if those pointy things hit him directly.

He got his spear on his hand again, thinking there was no reason to let the boar attack undamaged. If he was going to get hit, he would try to take at least one of the eyes. Maybe it was enough to kill the beast.

He then heard something he would not expect in this situation. The boar made a sound of pain and anguish that meant one of the others had managed to hit something important. Taking a few steps back, Adam saw the chief extracting his sword from deep in the creature's guts.

The boar gave a couple of steps, each more wobbly than the last, then dropped to the ground. Adam saw the exact moment where its eyes lost the intelligence spark that made it so dangerous.

The beast was dead, and the village was safe once more.