212 Follow the fairy, please! part Ryu clenched his legs around the amarok as the trapjaw boar came close, he braced for the impact but what happened was something entirely different. Famine pounced on the beast and bit it behind its head.

A loud shriek was heard on the forest in an obvious call for help. The boar did its best to get free, but the amarok quickly shook it from side to side breaking its neck.

“Wow! that was incredible!”

Mia cheered, but Ryu didn’t feel safe yet, he ordered the amarok to move forward but it was too late. Famine was already feasting on the corpse of the creature, it was about half of its size and eating it completely would take him a long while, if even possible.

After dismounting, Ryu tried to pull the reins as he commanded his pet to keep walking, but it was impossible. Drool was dripping from his maw and had a blank stare of ecstasy on his face.

“Come on buddy, I promise I’ll get something nice for you to eat, just keep walking”

Even with Ryu’s enhanced stats the huge beast wasn’t budging an inch, leaving him no choice but to let it finish his meal.

It didn’t take long until the first sounds coming from the distance started to resound in the forest. Ryu grabbed Risa’s sword from the saddlebag and prepared himself for an unnecessary battle to death.

Mia watched in horror as no less than ten trapjaw boars appeared in the distance and rapidly surrounded them and, to add insult to injury, Famine was still eating and paid no heed to the enemies around them.

.....

“Master Ryu, we’re completely surrounded!”

“I know, stay on top of Famine, if things go dire just escape”

Ryu said as he carefully placed the wurm hatchling on Mia’s hands. The little creature didn’t seem to have an issue with this and rapidly wrapped around Mia’s arm beneath with it’s long and thin slithery body.

The first to attack was the biggest of the herd of wild boars, Ryu attempted to place the sword on his side as he had seen Risa and Lorenzo do before, but it was so heavy it touched the ground. Instead of slashing at the boar Ryu decided to kick it’s snout redirecting its charge towards a tree. In a daze, the boar shook its head and attempted a second charge, only this time it was filled with mana.

“It’s using the bash skill!”

Ryu gasped. Just as he finished speaking, mana started to flow from within all the other beasts and wrapped their bodies, focusing particularly on their hind legs. They were all considered rank C beasts which meant they should be able to defeat them, but their bigger numbers made it uncertain. As much as Ryu hated to admit it, he was at a disadvantage.

He was the only fighter available, but all he could do to was dodge their onslaught in hopes of finding an opening. And even in the slim chance something like that happened, he couldn’t wield Mia’s sword properly.

“If I had known something like this was going to happen I would have practiced with this sword before”

There was little to no value in letting his frustrations out and he was well aware of this fact, but he did feel just a little bit better, enough for Ryu to realize something. This sword probably required a skill he didn’t possess, which meant that no matter if he was able to land a hit it would probably be a lot less effective than when Risa used it. As if it wasn’t enough, Risa needed a couple hits to dispatch her enemies, meaning that the sword itself had a low attack damage.

Thinking about this, he came to a conclusion. It was better to fight with a weapon he was already familiar with, even if it wasn’t as flashy as Risa’s sword.

“Mia, hand me the tree branch!”

Mia did as asked and threw the complete branch in Ryu’s direction, the wood was too hard to remove the side branches on the side with his bare hands, but luckily for him he had just the proper tool. After planting the branch on the dirt he maneuvered Risa’s sword and, just as expected, he ended up crafting a staff.

It was of a comfortable size and Ryu could feel it was a proper weapon, but the boars gave him no time to identify it and they kept charging at him with the bash skill activated.

Faster than they should be, more resistant to damage and in great numbers, one of them managed to tackle Ryu. Instead of letting himself be flown away by this, Ryu mustered all of his strength and performed a lock on the boar’s jaw with the staff keeping it shut.

This completely nullified the boar’s capability of biting, but it also left Ryu defenseless against the rest of the enemies.

Hurt, tired and fearing the end was near, Ryu relied on his last resort.

Mana quickly flowed from his body right into his palms, his eyes glimmered in deep blue as he focused on casting flames, but nothing happened. All the mana he expelled was soaked into the branch on his hands.

Whatever Ryu was trying to do, the trapjaw boar wasn’t going to let it happen and bucked as hard as it could to shake the pesky human.

Stubborn as always, Ryu refused to let go of the staff and continued to pour mana into it, his mana reserve was nothing to be scoffed at since he had been using magic on his daily life since he learned it, not only that, but he also practiced the use of flames and earth repeatedly. But it didn’t matter how much mana he spent, the staff would absorb it completely.

Close to giving up, Ryu let go of one end of the staff and wielded it in one hand against an incoming beast. The strike was so powerful it broke the boar’s skull with ease.

Waving the staff in the air with both hands mimicking Anne’s movements, Ryu managed to stand his ground against the wild beasts that threatened to end his life right then and there.

After each successful hit, a loud sound was heard and another boar would drop until only four of them remained and they finally relented their attack.

Both Mia and Ryu were glad to see them disappear into the deep forest, but Ryu also wondered what had just happened. Still tired, Ryu sat on the ground and proceeded to analyze the staff.

>Staff (good)

It wasn’t that great a weapon and his power was way beyond expectation, Ryu tried to solve the mistery that lied in front of him analyzing the staff until Mia finally answered by letting out a question.

“Master Ryu, just how high is your blunt weapons skill?”