Growl!
The Blue-Jade Warthog let out a guttural sound, asserting its territory.
Dark bluish eyes locked onto Jun Wu as it stepped forward. Jun Wu held his breath, his heart pounding fiercely.
Though fear gnawed at him, he refused to run, steeling himself for the confrontation.
His resolve burned brighter than ever amidst the tense standoff.
Thinking of those damned bastards who killed his family, he felt unwilling to retreat.
It's either he dies trying or accomplishes his goal, no matter the cost.
In the stillness of the forest, tension grew nerve-wracking. Suddenly, the Blue-Jade Warthog lunged forward, baring its fangs, eager to tear its prey apart in a fierce attack.
Jun Wu stood frozen, fear creeping from deep within his soul. The beast's speed was overwhelming, leaving no time to react.
Before he could regain his senses, the beast was already in front of him, a danger he couldn't escape.
'I need to move my body!' he screamed in his heart.
Just as the deadly claw of the beast was about to rip apart his flesh, Jun Wu managed to shift his body at the last second.
Ahhhh!
The force from that attack pushed him to the side, ripping a portion of his flesh.
Although he dodged at the last second, he wasn't unscathed. A vicious claw slashed across his waist, blood pouring out rapidly.
Pain shot through him, reminding him just how close he had come to dying.
The Blue-Jade Warthog growled, annoyed that its prey managed to escape from its clutch.
Slowly, it turned and locked its feral gaze on the human. This time around, it was determined to rip apart its prey.
Feeling the beast's gaze on him, Jun Wu held his waist with his left hand and watched the beast with vigilance.
'This is reckless… I shouldn't have come to the forest.' he thought, regret eating him inside-out.
'I thought I was strong enough but I was wrong. I'm weak.'
'Too weak. Even a mere beast mocked me.'
As his courage diminished, regret and uncertainty appeared on his face. The Blue-Jade Warthog sensed weakness and lunged forward, ready to capitalize on its prey's weakness.
Jun Wu watched the incoming beast attack and wanted to give up. He had lost courage and wanted to give up.
Suddenly, his father's face appeared in his mind. This was the face he saw before he died.
"Nooooo!" he screamed, his face reddened and moved to the side as if he was scared to look at his father's face.
This minuscule action saved him from the savage claw of the Blue-Jade Warthog.
Ahhhh!
A miserable scream escaped from his lips and he came back to his senses. Pain shot through his body, a deep reminder of how perilous his situation was.
On his left thigh, a chunk of flesh was torn away, revealing the exposed bone—a jagged white fracture pulsing with blood.
He staggered back, agony coursing through him. Every nerve in his legs was painfully tense.
"I can't die yet. I can't!" he shouted to his face, burning with fierce determination.
He couldn't disappoint his parents. Not now, not ever.
He looked at the Blue-Jade Warthog and screamed like a madman.
"You want to eat my flesh! Come eat it. Come! What are you waiting for? Come you damn beast."
The Blue-Jade Warthog snarled, baring its fangs. It was as if it could sense Jun Wu's provocation.
It lunged forward—this time, it was not going to miss.
Jun Wu tightened his grip on the hammer, muscles trembling from adrenaline and pain.
As the beast closed in, he swung—once, with every ounce of fury, memory, and raw instinct he had left.
Bang!
The Blue-Jade Warthog was sent to the side, crashing heavily to the ground. Its head was dizzy, seeing stars.
Blood gushed from its head. It whimpered in pain and shook its head sluggishly before it turned to look at the human.
What happened?
Its prey was weak. Where did it get such strength?
Its instincts couldn't be wrong.
It growled loudly and lunged at the human once again.
Jun Wu's confidence surged after his first strike sent the Blue-Jade Warthog flying. It dawned on him—he was not as weak as he thought.
He just needed to focus and follow his training.
Watching the beast's incoming fierce attack, Jun Wu was strangely calm and raised his hammer using One-Handed Wield and the Heavy Swing skill.
To him, the beast was no different from the iron at the forge—cold and unforgiving.
Bang!
The heavy hammer struck with crushing force, sending powerful shockwaves through the beast's head.
It crashed to the side, its skull shattered. Brain organs, pink and viscous, spilled out amid bloody fragments.
The beast was more dead than a doornail—a visceral explosion of flesh and bones.
Watching the dead beast with a shattered skull, Jun Wu exhaled and inhaled to calm his nerves.
He looked at his toned muscles, and a cold grin appeared on his face.
"It's not that I'm weak…" he muttered. "It's just that I'm inexperienced, which made me doubt myself."
"In the future, I must not allow doubt in my thoughts." he vowed, a firm determination appearing on his face.
Just as he prepared to catch his breath and treat his injury, a twig snapped in the distance.
Instantly, he tensed up, gripping his hammer for any sneak attack.
Whoosh!
From the side, a beast lunged forward, ready to tear the target apart.
Jun Wu did not hesitate—he moved forward and rolled on the ground, avoiding the attack.
His experience had taught him one lesson: when a beast attacks, don't stay in one position. You need to move.
And indeed, he was right.
A beast landed in his previous location, glaring at him fiercely.
"Another Warthog?" Jun Wu creased his brow and got back on his feet.
"No… this looks like a female."
A look of realization appeared on his face. The first Blue-Jade Warthog was male, while this was female.
The female was smaller than the male.
'Let's see how many hammer strikes it's going to take to kill this one.' he thought confidently.
The female Blue-Jade Warthog growled angrily and lunged at him.
Bang!
Jun Wu's heavy hammer struck its head, shattering skull fragments and splattering blood everywhere.
The beast collapsed, its breath seizing—completely dead, silenced by the brutal blow.
Looking at the dead female Blue-Jade Warthog, Jun Wu did not relax his vigilance.
He waited a couple of moments for another attack, but nothing appeared. Finally, he let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, he heard a chime in his mind.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ +100 EXP ┃ Level: 2 ( 220 / 1000 EXP )
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┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Stamina +2. Endurance +3 Strength +3 Heavy Swing +1 One-Handed Wield +1
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┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ New Stat Unlocked: Attack +4
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┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ New Skill Unlocked: Ironbreaker Smash
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*****