Thin Mist Forest, outskirts.
Bang!
Shredded leaves mixed with grass seeds fluttered down. The fresh, distinctive scent of plant sap in the air was covered by a foul, rotting stench.
The shrubs and brambles, tough and troublesome as steel wire, making every step through them difficult, were crushed and pulped with ease, leaving only a mess across the ground.
Aoo—
A furious, bestial roar burst through the forest. The terrifying sound waves it sent rolling outward even made the dense canopy overhead, like a vaulted dome, tremble and sway.
It was a huge wild boar nearly nine feet long, its shoulders almost as high as an adult's.
Its entire body was covered in coarse, brown bristles, and parts of its surface were wrapped in a layer of hardened mud like armor. Scorching breath sprayed from its nostrils, and two tusks curved upward from its snout, their gleaming tips leaving no doubt as to their destructive power.
Dense bristles clotted with mud, thick and resilient skin, sharp tusks, and knotted, powerful muscles...
Together with the intense aggression unique to wild boars.
Even the hunters that stood at the top of the food chain in ordinary forests would rarely provoke such a frenzied, enraged creature unless they were starving.
Under normal circumstances, a wild boar of this size would, barring special circumstances, basically find it very difficult to encounter any danger capable of threatening its life.
But now, this wild boar looked to be in rather bad shape.
A large chunk of the fur on its back had been sliced away at an angle, revealing the pink muscle writhing beneath. Two deep wounds in the shape of a cross overlapped across its flank, and as its four limbs moved, blood gushed out, making the outline of its organs faintly visible.
As for