Limitless Path

Beth raised an eyebrow at them, not sure how the group thought a low level with what amounted to a long knife going after a higher-level boar was a great plan, but she remained unconcerned. Even Soph could likely punch the weaker boars to death at this point, let alone her ability to let one of her patented "babies" loose in under a second and fry the beast in an eyeblink.

John moved forward in front of the group, his weapon of choice held in a slightly trembling, white-knuckled grip. Beth glided forward behind him, leaving enough room that he was a decent bit in front, but still within easy range that she could burst forward past him in just a second. Probably unnecessary, considering that Soph already had little sparks dancing off the back of her left hand.

As he got close, he seemed to get a little more nervous, if his slightly stuttering steps were any indication. Beth made no comment, just trailing behind as he approached the boar. The huge pigs clearly had poor eyesight and bad hearing, foraging for food with their keen sense of smell, as John's rather noisy approach wasn't noted until he was right next to the beast.

Of course, all ideas of stealth flew out the window as John let out what Beth guessed was supposed to be a battle cry and charged forward with the long knife leading. She just sighed as the nervous shriek John had loosed only served to alert and orientate the pig towards him, causing his wild thrust to travel slightly wide, only scoring the beast's side.

The boar squealed in protest and retaliated by slamming forward into the late teen, just barely missing as John leapt to his right before stabbing the boar with another wild yell. His knife sunk deep into the left side of the beast and stayed there as the boar bucked and twisted, its hind quarters slapping the youth tumbling to the side as it circled to line up for a charge. Beth took a single step forward while clenching her right gauntlet into a fist before stopping as the boar's head was practically cooked off. She leaned back to frown at Soph before stepping forward and checking the beast was dead.

"Well, that was as piss poor a performance as I've seen in some time," Zack snapped out with a frown as he marched forward to the boar corpse. With a grunt, his frown only deepening, he jerked the long knife free before wiping it on the boar's hide and spinning it in his hand, giving it to a now mostly recovered John hilt first.

"Thanks…" John said, gripping the hilt of the knife tightly while looking down at the ground, shuffling a little in place as Zack was now looming over him.

"I think we might need a little more time with the ants," Zack said as he watched the youth fidget. "I don't know that you're ready for anything bigger."

"It's not really fair," John replied. "Just because she can shoot lightning, she can do whatever."

Beth sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she straightened up from inspecting the very dead pig, anticipating what was already starting off as an epic tirade from Zack. Pointing out that even Sabs with her use of even shorter knives could have still taken care of the boar far quicker and more efficiently seemed to really start to break John's spirit down, if the hunched shoulders and lowered head were any kind of indication.

Beth tuned out the dressing down and got to one of the tasks that would likely be falling solely to her, though maybe Kim had enough stats by now to assist. For now, she quickly and easily hoisted the huge beast's carcass into the air, noting a couple widened eyes from the non-dungeon-group people present as she easily trotted back to the trucks and tossed the huge corpse in unassisted.

She walked back into the field in time for Zack to finish his harangue, joining the group again as they moved forward towards where the giant boar that she had seen days before was still standing. Not seeing any notification of any kind of dungeon or anything, she assumed it was some kind of natural spawn point in the world for the beasts. That, or it was possibly just this special beast had spawned, and its presence was what was leading to the porcine plague.

The group stopped a distance away from the pack that circled the leader, Beth's nose scrunching at the rather strong smell of manure wafting across the field under a light breeze. There hadn't been rain for a few days, and the ground showed that it had been thoroughly churned when last wet, the remains of the fall harvest showing as chunks of stalks and yellowed leaves sticking up from the dirt.

"So, what's our plan for this?" Zack asked, turning to Beth while gesturing at the clump of boars and hogs.

"My plan would be to go in sword first and stop once they're all dead," Beth replied with a slight tilt of her head, drawing her blade with her right hand and resting it against her right shoulder. "But, judging from your reaction, you don't like that plan."

"While I enjoy operating under the doctrine of 'shoot them before they shoot you,' I think we're in need of something a little more complex here, soldier," Zack responded with narrowed eyes. "Besides, while we need food, we don't need that much food. We probably could only fit half the main herd on the trucks in one trip, and that's not counting the big bastard at the back."

"Why don’t we try a little more cautious approach," Kim interjected, giving Beth a shake of her head as she laid out her plan. "We move forward with us leading the group and Soph launches a shot at the nearest beast. We'll see if they try to charge or run when they're startled. Beth and Blood can provide support."

"A little too simple, if you ask me," Zack replied. "What if they do wind up charging us? What's your response?"

"We fight," Kim replied. "It doesn't matter that we can't use all the meat or whatever. I know it seems wasteful, but we'll have more beasts than we know what to deal with as mana keeps flooding the place. It's not really an issue to 'waste' a few beasts at this point."

Zack eyed the main pack of boars before turning that critical look on Kim's group. "You lot think you can deal with all that?"

"Easily," Kim replied confidently. "The only possible problem is the boss monster, but we have two boss monsters to their one, so I think we win," she continued, gesturing at Beth and Blood with a thumb while smirking.

"And what do the rest of us do in the meantime?" asked Thomas with a slightly quirked brow.

"Stand back and don't get hit?" Beth replied, planting the end of her sword in the dirt before crossing her arms over her chest and giving Kim a nod. "Let's get this rolling, we don't have all day."

Kim, in turn, nodded to Soph, who stepped forward and lined up on the next boar, only a little separated from the rest of the pack. She let the lightning build in her fingers for a moment before releasing a finger wide blast, straight as an arrow and ten times as deadly, smashing into the beast's head to instantly slay it. As the creature fell dead, the rest of the pack took notice, turning to all orientate on the group of humans.

Kim and Sabs immediately sprung forward, the team used to these kinds of situations from several weeks of dungeon clearing, understanding that momentum in a fight was highly important. As the boars started to stampede, Kim and Sabs reached them, cutting into them before they had a chance to start building momentum. Soph, at the same time, calmly picked off boars on the sides of the pack, preventing them from flowing around Kim and Sabs to attack the rest of the group.

Beth pulled her sword out of the dirt and started pacing forward, leisurely holding the blade out to her side. She let the other girls take care of the grunt work, noting that basically all the boars were under level ten, apart from the leader. She used Identify on the big brute, getting an interesting result back.

Embered Wild Boar, Level 14

A bit high for the other girls to take on, particularly since it seemed to be a more powerful variant, but Beth was entirely unconcerned. As the huge boar hunched its slab-like shoulders and lowered its head, Beth suddenly exploded forward across the field, bringing her sword up in front of her, angled slightly to the right.

Before the boss boar had taken more than three steps, Beth had arrived in front of it, planting her left foot before stepping to the right. The boar attempted to twist, but its bulk and building momentum worked against it, allowing it little more than the room to wiggle a little. Its efforts ceased quite quickly, however, as Beth calmly twisted to her left, bringing her sword down in a swift, powerful slash that fully cleaved through the beast's neck. She continued to twist as the corpse of the boar barreled by, stepping to the side to avoid being run over.

As she finished her maneuver, she was left facing back towards the group, noting that most of the boars were dead, with Sabs working on killing the last beast in fighting shape. There was a final boar that had been mauled by Blood but left living so that one of the members of the home group could get a little experience finishing it off. The boar didn't last long, with a combination of strikes from Beth's parents finishing it off quickly and neatly.

Beth turned to the boar she had just killed, realizing rather quickly that she had a bit of a problem. She cleaned her sword off on the boar's hide before sheathing it, looking at the boss beast with a sigh. The massive boar was of such a size that there was no way she could grab both the rear and front legs at the same time. Hell, it would be difficult enough for her to grab both front legs at the same time, which was the next task she performed. She turned the boar on its back and started dragging it back across the field toward the trucks.

When she made it back to the vehicles, she let the front of the boar drop and stretched, twisting to loosen her back up slightly. She took a good look at the boar, then at the trucks, and frowned before turning to see how the others were progressing. There were close to twenty dead boars on the field apart from the boss that Beth had already dragged back to the trucks. None of the remaining boars of the central group were still alive, and the few remaining beasts in the field were at the far edges and seemed to be wandering away instead of checking on the aftermath of the battle.

"You know we can't store all of this?" Zack asked as he walked up, putting his right foot up on the boar before giving it a shove. The massive carcass didn't even jiggle in response to his efforts, causing him to turn his glare on Beth, vein throbbing away on his temple.

"Can't you make jerky or something?" Beth asked him. "I know people used to smoke meat when they had too much extra. Just do that. Besides, how many fridges and freezers do we have in the whole neighborhood?"

"We don't have the kind of operation to preserve that much meat. Certainly, not all at once without giving it time to cure," Zack replied curtly. "Is there any way for you to get those people you're going down and seeing to help?"

"You know, I have no idea," Beth replied. "If I could, they would charge for it, and I'm not exactly swimming in cash."

Before Zack could ask more, she held up her hand and said, "What about selling it?"

"You mean to the aliens you're training with at that arena?" he asked in response.

"No. I mean, I doubt they'd want anything to do with it. I can just hear Jaq's comments now. I meant to sell it to other people, like in town. Surely other people are having issues with food as well. They also might have people who have gotten at least a handful of copper. Make some money while keeping people fed? Doesn't sound like a bad thing," Beth countered.

"I suppose we can discuss this with the group," Zack replied. "Sounds like the sort of trade that Mr. Jones could and even should be involved in."

Beth rolled her shoulders and surveyed the field of carnage once again, noting the others lining up the boar corpses as Jack inspected them, analyzing the kill damage. She continued as she watched, "I really do have other stuff to do. What else do you need my help for?"

"You're not getting out of work that easily," Zack replied with a slight frown as he adjusted his belt and subconsciously checked his sidearm holster. "Nobody else here is able to handle that big bastard, and we'll need some help with getting these moved and hung up."

Beth turned away from the field as Zack finished and walked over to the boss boar, grabbing it by one leg with her left arm and wrapping her right arm partway around the body. She bent her knees slightly and pulled, rolling the corpse into her body before she lifted, pushing with her legs. The body lifted fairly easily, Beth slightly surprised at just how effective her STR stat currently was.

She walked forward with the body and slid to the side a few feet, lining up the body with the back of the second truck. She stepped forward and pushed with her right arm while shoving with her legs, shoving the boar carcass into the back of the empty truck. She stepped back slightly and re-configured her grip on the body before shoving again, setting it firmly in the truck. The body rested not just on the floor but was large enough to push down on the benches attached to the sidewalls as well.

She turned to Zack, dusting her hands off as she said, "Anything else?"

"Yeah. How exactly do you expect us to get that out without you, soldier?" Zack replied promptly, crossing his arms as his eyes narrowed while staring at her.

Beth looked at him before glancing back at the boar in the truck, then looking at Zack again. In her most innocent, 'I-don't-see-the-problem' voice she responded, "Use a rope?"

"Clever," he deadpanned back. "I should make you drop and give me a hundred for that."

"A hundred wouldn't pose a challenge. I don't think it would even strain my muscles now," Beth replied, flexing her right arm as she looked over and down at her bicep appreciatively.