A God in a Xianxia world

Chapter 54 - Red Skinned Boars (3)

Moving forward and coming out of the sword slash, Tom had a slight smirk on his face. This time, he had been successful in hitting his mark and clearly felt the impact of his sword against the creature's leg.

What's more, when his sword had hit the leg of the boar, it had easily cut into it, achieving Tom's goal of wounding one of its legs. The crashing sound behind him as the boar fell to the floor was testament to this. The only unfortunate thing was that he was unable to cut off the leg. Nevertheless, the wound he'd inflicted wasn't minor and the drawing cut he'd made on it had opened up quite a bloody mess.

[Yes, that it, that's how you do it] thought Adam, internally praising Tom.

"Good going. Now you just have to finish it off, but, remember not to take your guard down, it's down but not out" shouted Adam to Tom.

Tom, turning back around to face the boar, flashed his eyes over to Adam after hearing his words and gave a slight nod. This however, wasn't something he needed to be told. Of course he wouldn't be careless at this stage. He knew well enough that even wounded animals could still be dangerous. In fact, many, in their last death throes, would pull out all of their remaining strength in a last ditch effort to escape or kill their attacker, something one should always be prepared for. This time however, Tom didn't think it was going to be a problem.

Tom looked on at the boar as it struggled to get up, but, it crashed to the ground when it tried to put its weight on its wounded leg. With three good legs it would still be able to stand up and move about, but, Tom obviously wasn't about to give it that chance.

As it was starting to stand up, Tom ran forward and with both hands grasping his sword, he thrust it into the side of the beast, penetrating into its innards and earning a pained squeal from it. Then, after pushing the sword in as far as he could, Tom continued to push against the side of the beast and forced it to fall over on its side.

The boar started kicking it legs out and thrashing about, but, this was to no avail. It was no longer in a position where it could harm Tom and Tom certainly wasn't about to allow it to be. Furthermore, Tom continued applying pressure to the sword and holding the boar in the place on the ground, preventing it from getting the leverage and footing it needed to raise itself back up.

The boar continued to struggle about on the ground, slowing bleeding out. Each of its jerking movements increased the size of the wound where Tom's sword was and was bringing it closer and closer to death. Finally, after a while, Tom twisted his sword inside the boar and with one final squeal, the boar fell limp, the last of its life having been extinguished.

While Tom wiped some of the sweat off his brow, it had taken quite a bit of effort for him to hold the boar down in place, Adam walked over to him.

"Well done Tom, well done" he praised, with a smile on his face.

"I was a bit worried for a second at the start but you really did it"

"I told you, no worries" replied Tom as he looked over to Adam.

"Took a while to die though" he said calmly while frowning at it. Internally he felt a bit annoyed.

[Can't believe it took me this long to kill a pig, this is ridiculous]

"Hmm, I suppose you were holding it down for about 5 minutes. If you had managed to get it in the neck or had taken your sword out to stab it again, it would have been much faster. Ultimately though, safety comes first. I remember on my first trip to the forest, like you, I encountered a pack of Red Eyed Wolves. One of my guards bisected a wolf in half and after he turned his back, the wolf jumped at him with just its front legs and bit into his head. It really showed that you can never be too careful" said Adam.

Hearing this story, the guards who had followed not too far behind and those that had remained with the horses but which had drawn close after Tom pinned the boar, winced and sucked in a breath of cold air.

"Oh, I remember that. Wasn't that Mallory?" asked Harrison.

"Yes, it was Mallory. He'd worked for the clan for almost 50 years. It was such an unfortunate way to go. None of us saw it coming" lamented Adam.

"Hah" sighed Pike. "It's unfortunate but these things happen, don't they? You never know what's going to happen in the forest, what'll happen in life" said Pike.

"Hmm"

"Yeah"

"Amen to that" agreed several of the guards as they contemplated on Pike's words.

"Well, like I say, safety comes first. You really need to be careful in the forest, I mean, you just turn your head away for a second and you could end up dead. Too many people have died in this place because of that kind of carelessness" said Adam, before turning his head back to Tom.

"Remember Tom, you can do anything if you're alive, but nothing if you're dead, so, when you're dealing with beasts, stay vigilant, never rush and always confirm the kill" said Adam.

"Of course" replied Tom.

[Nothing I didn't already know but ok] thought Tom.

"Ok then" said Adam after clapping his hands, before pointing at the dead boar in front of him.

"We should put this on the wagon and get going again. After all, it's still early. Plenty of time to continue on" he said cheerily.