Although I am of the opinion only fools picked the extreme tutorial, there were, admittedly, select individuals who rose to the challenge. These men and women would go on to earn their places in my colleague’s, Stefan Sommer’s, book, Heroes and Villains of the First Age.
Wilfrid Pember – Historian – The Start of the Apocalypse
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“Just when you were about to engage the boar, Angela pushed you forward,” Mia said. Silas watched her like a hawk, and the intensity of his stare must have tipped her off as she suddenly waved her hands defensively. “It wasn’t me, I swear. When I saw it happen, I pushed the boar down to the ground but its momentum was too high and my mind just snapped.” Flustered, her cheeks were flushed, her brow creased, and her eyes shrinkwrapped in tears.
He thought through her claims. Angela definitely could have shoved him as she had been beside him, but why would she when he was about to face off the boar? For that matter, why would Mia do it either?
It made no sense to him until he recalled a particular point; he had wondered back then how Angela had run away from the hog whilst struggling with a limp. She had been covered in blood, seemingly her teammates’, so could it be she had shoved them as well? Used them to distract the monster while she got away? If that was the case, had she felt genuine remorse for her actions or had her tears also been an act to disarm them?
It seemed to make sense the more he thought about it. The boar had effectively ignored him to toss her down. Had she known it would make a beeline for her? Was that why she had urged them to fight it, so they acted as a buffer? Only to then, for whatever reason, decide it wasn’t enough and practically throw him at the boar to stop it.
Silas’s expression softened as he came to the conclusion Mia hadn’t done it. However, there was still something off about his theory as it hung off the fact the boar had a reason to hunt Angela down whilst ignoring the rest of them – maybe she had just been unlucky to be the closest one to the boar after it had toppled him over, and there wasn’t anything deeper to it.
He sighed and fatigue suddenly washed over him. Mia’s face was lined with worry as she watched him, and he decided he might as well trust her. After all, he shouldn’t have cleared the boar with his leap as he had been too close: he could have only done so if she had telekinetically pushed it down, only to then faint from the pressure. In addition, her side of the story checked out as he had found her collapsed with no injuries.
“After you fell, the boar went past me and assaulted Angela. It—” he stopped as the grisly image came back to him. It hadn’t just been attacking her, it had been trying to eat her. He hadn’t even known boars were carnivores, although then again he didn’t know much about their diets. The only thing he had seen a boar eat, or nearly eat, was the truffle thing the one before had dug out.
Suddenly, it all clicked. The boar hadn’t been following her footprints when it found them; it had been following her scent or potentially the truffle’s scent. It hadn’t been trying to eat Angela as he had thought; it had been trying to eat something she had hidden in her pockets. Could it be the truffle was a delicacy with some sort of magical property?
Silas shook his head with his mouth agape in wonder of it all, and only then realised Mia was still waiting for him, hanging off his last words. “It was trying to eat her, or maybe something she had hidden in her pockets,” he said. He told her his theory, before ending the memory off. “I killed the boar, but she was too injured by that point. She asked me to kill her,” he paused, “So I killed her.”
They stood in silence, and Silas cast his head down, unable to look Mia in the eye. He saw his hands were still sticky with red berry juice. No matter what Angela had or hadn’t been planning, it didn’t change the fact he was now a murderer.
It was Mia who broke the tense silence, as was her habit. “We should go back and check,” she said, “See if we can find anything on her. If there is a magical truffle…” she left the rest of the sentence unsaid.
Finally looking up, Silas met her gaze with a tense grimace. The last thing he wanted to do was return to the site of his murder, but what if they found something there? Would it suddenly absolve him of his murder as he could now rest easy knowing she had tried to kill him first out of greed, or would he still feel this same guilt? Silas didn’t know, but he pushed down the discomfort and nodded. “Fine. Let’s go.”
****
He grew more and more unsettled as they got closer, eventually asking Mia to lead. She gave him an understanding look and went ahead, taking a path that allowed them to spy on the site.
Once in place, Silas looked away as she squinted at the battle scene. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he turned around and saw her shaking her head. “I don’t have my glasses, so I can’t see clearly, but it doesn’t look safe.”
Curiosity triumphed over dread, and he moved forward and peeked at the scene, sensing a pit open in his stomach as he spotted two boars standing over the gory corpses. One was as enormous as the boar that had attacked them, while the second was smaller like the ones they had hunted yesterday. Nausea came over him, and he retched as he realised Angela’s lower half had been stripped of all flesh. He suddenly felt cold, so cold.
It was Mia’s voice that brought him back to reality. “Is that a person? What’s he doing?” she muttered in shock. “He’ll get himself killed.”
Following her gaze, he spotted the man she was talking about. He was striding towards the boars.
Silas’s mouth fell agape. What was the man doing? Did he not know how dangerous these boars were? A rush of heat warmed his body, and he knew he had to do something. Maybe if he ran forward now, he could shout at the man to turn around before he met the boars.
Silas turned to Mia. “I’m going to warn him. How far is the range of your telekinesis? If you can stop the boars with it.”
She frowned. “I can’t do it from here but if we move forward, then I should be able to stop the smaller one at least.”
He nodded in response, “Let’s do this.” They dashed forward, running past trees and over bushes, both heart and feet building speed. Without the additional points in agility, Silas would have earned a stitch for his efforts, but now he found this a manageable pace. A few seconds later, he was well ahead of Mia and almost there when he looked over and his expression decayed to one of dismay. He was too late – the boars were already charging at the man.
Suddenly, the smaller boar tripped and came to a crashing halt. Looking back, he saw Mia offer a thumbs up. At least they had stopped one of the two. When the smaller boar rose, he shouted, stealing its attention. It didn’t need any further encouragement as it charged at him.
Relieved by its predictability, he loosened slightly as the boar’s thundersteps paled relative to its larger kin’s. As it came into reach, he lunged forward with his spear and stabbed it through its mouth. Before it could squeal, he twisted the spear sideways, clenching his teeth under the strain it put on his arms. This was enough to change the boar’s momentum as it dived to the side of him instead of at him. He quickly finished the job before it could regain its bearings.
Turning around, he was just in time to watch the larger one hurtle towards the man. He could hear its steps from here, and his hands were trembling simply from the memory of engaging its kin yesterday.
Despite this, the man appeared calm as he raised his Dane axe, slow and deliberate, letting it rest there for a heartbeat as the boar raised its tusks to gore him. The axe came down with frightening speed and chopped through the boar’s head. He casually sidestepped as the boar smashed into the ground beside him, rolling over several times and spraying copious amounts of blood until its momentum ran out and it lay still.
Silas used his spear to hold himself from falling on his arse as he stared in shock. What? How? He froze up as he realised the man was crossing the field towards him now, looking just like a demon. The man’s Dane axe dripped blood across the ground as it rested comfortably in one hand, an axe and mace across his waist. Although he was equipped in the same System-provided armour as everyone else, he had an alarming air of danger with his 6’6 muscular frame, wild ginger hair tied in a rough ponytail, and his thick, striking beard.
Luckily, it appeared the man-giant meant no harm as he had a great, easy smile plastered across his face. Walking with a loping gait, he made it to Silas in no time and clapped the smaller man on the shoulder with a massive whack. Silas flinched gravely and stared at the man-giant like a deer in headlights.
The man-giant burst into booming laughter, much alike the boars’ thunder. “Well met, well met, laddie. I’m Aengus,” he said in a thick Scottish accent.
Silence answered. Still in shock, Silas looked around for help and spotted Mia timidly coming around the side.
“A quiet one, eh? I’ll get yer name sooner or later,” Aengus said to him, wagging his finger playfully. Realising Silas was distracted, he followed the smaller man’s gaze and spotted Mia. “Ooh aye, who’s this bonnie lassie? Hello, I’m Aengus,” he repeated cheerily, although Silas was certain she had heard his resounding introduction first time round.
He knew almost immediately they were in for a long, long day.
