Chapter 17: The Magical Apprentice

 The young mercenary faced the first hunt of his life with aplomb in the creeping undergrowth.

 Filled with rage, the beast hissed and slammed into the skinny human in front of him again and again, to tear him apart with its fangs and knock him off his feet!

 The underbrush is the black-backed tusker's home turf, and the powerful force plows a deep furrow through the bushes and weeds.

 In the face of the black-backed tusker's frantic pounce, Arthur had the calmness and composure that a teenager of this age should not have, and always dodged the attack only at the moment it came to his body. It seemed to be an incredibly dangerous process, but every dodge was precisely calculated, refusing to waste even a single bit of strength.

 While Arthur was dodging, the sharp hunting knife in his hand slashed over the black-backed tusker's body again and again. Although the wounds pierced each time were not deep, after dodging a dozen of lunges, the black-backed fang pig's body was already covered with a dozen wounds that kept gushing out blood, and its black mane was already as if it was blood-stained.

 The scene was dumbfounded as they watched Tony and Angus in the distant trees!

 Doesn't this kid know fear? This is clearly practicing with this magical beast!

 Knowing that even second grade mercenaries couldn't cope with the frenzied black backed tusker, some first grade mercenaries who were hunting for the first time were even scared out of their wits.

 How could they know that in the eyes of Arthur, who had long been used to seeing even more vicious orc warriors in the orc camp, the wild-haired black-backed tusked pig was not as vicious as the seat wolves in the camp.

 After another pounce, the black-backed tusker didn't charge up again, its body was already trembling slightly, the uninterrupted blood loss had already made it start to become weak, but its blood-red eyes were still staring at Arthur, which were still full of tyranny, madness and anger!

 This was the precursor to the black-backed tusker's full-blown outburst, and the frenzied tusker would rather die together than turn around and run for his life!

 Arthur gripped the hunting knife in his hand once more and bowed slightly, his eyes equally tight on the black-backed tusker, now that he was truly serious!

 The black-backed tusked pig and Arthur suddenly moved at the same time, charging at each other head-on.

 The running black-backed tusker pig's four hooves fired up and leapt up from the ground, wrapping up a huge force and slamming into Arthur from top to bottom from the air.

 The sheer force was enough to knock Arthur off his feet, and before doing so a pair of fangs would easily pierce through the leather armor and open Arthur's chest.

 Greeting the crashing black-backed tusker Arthur did not have the slightest intention of dodging, and similarly leaped into the air. Arthur jumped higher than the black backed tusker, the hunting knife in his hand flashed with a cold light and had stabbed out like lightning.

 This was clearly a move to die together! The key to life and death was whether the black-backed tusker's tusks opened Arthur's chest first, or whether Arthur's hunting knife penetrated the tusker's body first.

 It's the "Death Decision". Every move is a death sentence!

 But just at the moment when the man and the beast collided, a sudden change occurred!

 The pair of tusks in the mouth of the black-backed tusked pig violently shook its head and suddenly shot out, like two flying daggers shooting up and down towards Arthur's forehead and face.

 Tony and Angus on the tree in the distance couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise, they had forgotten to remind Arthur before that although the black-backed tusked pig was only a level one magical beast, as long as it was a magical beast it possessed an innate magical skill!

 The black-backed tusk pig was naturally no exception, and its innate skill was to shoot out a pair of tusks. The tusker that had lost its tusks had basically lost most of its attacking ability, so the tusker would never easily give up its pair of tusks until it was in a critical moment to save its life. To fight for its life so early, it seemed that Arthur's previous teasing had really pissed it off, and the black-backed tusker was already out of rage!

 Facing the fangs that shot up, Arthur did not dodge. Even if he wanted to dodge at such a close distance, he just made an effort to slightly sidestep his body in the air, trying his best to avoid the vitals of his body, his arm reached forward, and the knife stabbed out even faster.

 One fang instantly sliced through Arthur's cheek, bringing out a bright red line of blood. The other easily pierced through the leather armor on Arthur's chest, and the huge inertia pushed Arthur down hard.

 The hunting knife in Arthur's hand didn't touch the black-backed tusker's body after all!

 Seemingly exhausting its last ounce of strength, the black-backed tusked pig followed suit and flopped to the ground, its massive head smashing right in front of the fallen Arthur.

 Before the black-backed tusker stood up and attacked again, Arthur, who landed on his back, was the first to pop up like a spring, and his body lunged forward in a smooth manner, the foot-long blade in his hand stabbed into the tusker's eye socket like lightning.

 The black-backed tusked pig swung its head frantically and let out a hoarse hiss.

 Arthur clutched the hilt tightly and spun the blade hard, churning the black-backed tusk pig's entire brain.

 The black-backed tusked pig's body shook trying to maintain its balance, and after a few attempts it still flopped heavily to the ground, never to move again.

 Arthur fell back a few steps and sat on his ass.

 A fang was still stuck in his chest, and the blood on his left cheek was still traveling down, but Arthur had no more strength in his body, and the last blow just now had exhausted the last bit of fighting energy in his body!

 To realize that the deed of a mercenary who had just stepped into the threshold of a level one warrior hunting a level one magical beast alone was about the same as an old mercenary getting drunk and saying that he had once hunted a dragon!

 Arthur propped himself up on his hands in an effort to tilt his head back and flashed a wicked grin at the giant oak tree in the distance.

 "That little bastard, I should have known we'd follow." Tony couldn't help but curse, and was ready to slink down, hugging the trunk of the tree.

 "Ah, no!" Angus, who was on the sidelines, suddenly let out a gasp.

 The exclamation was accompanied by a loud roar.

 Arthur, who was much closer, jerked back, his face, which had already lost a great deal of blood, turning even whiter!

 A slightly smaller black-backed tusker charged like mad, slightly shorter tusks and the relatively smooth bristled features on its back indicating that it was a female tusker.

 "Damn, meet a pair of tusked pigs who are in love, this is just to take revenge!" A strange thought surprisingly popped into Arthur's head between life and death.

 Between life and death within the chest and abdomen a ball of fire, the body's last potential was instantly stimulated, Arthur rubbed a moment from the ground stood up. The violent action tore the chest wound, Arthur pain is a grin.

 Only a few steps forward Arthur stumbled and fell again, so weakened he could not escape!

 In an instant, the black-backed tusked pig had already reached Arthur's back, and a pair of sharp tusks had been aimed at its hindquarters, delivering a final stabbing blow.

 Angus's hunting bow had just been drawn when Tony's head slammed hard into a tree trunk, a hundred meters away, and it was all too late!

 The moment the black-backed tusker and Arthur collided, a huge ball of fire exploded from between the two, and both of them were sent flying backwards!

 Third level magic. "Explosive Fireball!"

 Angus and Tony froze for a moment ...