"Dear oh my, nobody said they were Tusken boars." A shivering man said as he stared down the hill he was on. These things were notoriously territorial.
Beside him laid a passed out junior and a man with eyes that pierced a glint of unwillingness.
"Brother, are you really throwing them into that?" A sweet little girl asked as she held onto her smaller sister.
-The wind brushed against their hairs- The soul of one man stirred-
"The journey to ascension can only be found with information. For one to not know if they have worth or not, one must seek to find their selves. These were the words of the Roach emperor." Penta said.
He looked at all of them staring at him oddly at his sudden quote.
'Self-made quotes are way better than anybody else's.' He thought to which Penta's vain attempts at creating quotes led to a bolstering of his yet to mature emperor ego.
"Who is da roach emperor?" Little Sana asked finally.
"Uhm... a Big Ol'baddie!?" Penta replied while before quickly tickling Sana.
"Hahahwhwheahaaaa! STAHP IT! Hahahaha" Sana was rolling on the floor and the burst of cuteness made everyone forget where they were for a second.
Suddenly getting up. Penta took off his pouch and left it near the girls. He gently laid it down but it still left a rather large dent into the ground. The girls looked at him oddly and he simply stared at them with a deadpan serious face.
"Get the grilling equipment out that we got and set it up my adorable ones," Penta said while suddenly smiling.
He quickly shot out and grabbed the suddenly frightened Griss, following by the wobbly-legged Faren and shooting them directly at the boars.
Karu was punt kicked straight into awakening in the direction they were facing.
Ahead of the crowd was 20 large boars of a ferocious-looking nature. They were easily two meters tall and one even looked bigger.
"Noooooo!" The trio's unique combination soundwave managed to turn on the ears of the hungry-looking boars. The boars could care less as they saw prey falling into their territory and they didn't even have to move. What better service could they expect.
The boar's charged out as the trio unprepared started getting on their feet.
"Shit gather around and let's try and survive this!" Griss shouted managing to gather the trio into a formation where they were like a triangle.
"Oh wow. You guys know how to be serious?" A taunting laugh came at them.
"Grrrr" The grinding of teeth could almost be heard over the boars but Penta and the girls could easily see it. "Why are you doing this brother?" Kaya the little curious one started asking. As time goes on anyone can get familiar with one another especially with Penta's brotherhood-ness he developed. The Ego of "Honorable Brother" shall not be stained as such Penta behaves a certain way that shows many brother-like tendencies.
"Aw, and here I thought you would never ask! Haha, let me tell you my little Kaya. We are definitely in need of getting stronger and your lovely brother thought, why not?" He said as he returned his eyes over the trio that started throwing out some martial skills.
"Get the porters to become bodyguards so that my little Sisters get better training grounds with more people backing them? Hehehe, genius right? Now with them around and them getting stronger, you two will have the protection and time to get stronger." Penta finally let it out as he started snickering.
Seeing him say all that while returning to look like a villain. The girls had an obvious change of expression.
"Why!?" Kaya shouted.
This surprised Penta as he wasn't expecting such a reaction. 'Where is the your so great bro!?' He thought. Yet, looking over to her he saw tears in her eyes. Sana was hugging her sister and just started crying because her sister looked sad.
"Why what little Kaya?" Penta asked in a softer voice yet the gruesome yelling below them continued.
"Why are you doing all this for us? I cannot hold back from asking, why did you pick us up!? Why did you try and help us and why do you continue doing all this for us even though we never knew each other before!? None of it makes sense." She asked in one breath as though a heavy feeling left her.
She always thought she could appreciate her benefactor for all his protection but for some reason as it went along she just couldn't believe this life they were living and it pained her to not know why such a good person was there for them and looking out for them when the whole world left them alone after their parents had died.
The tragedies and mysteries of life were always confusing and Penta's actions were just as much so.
A short moment of silence extended between the step-siblings.
"Sigh... I may have already said it but you reminded me of my siblings and honestly, I just felt like it. No future purpose or planning I just winged it for 100% no reason..." Penta replied with an odd look.
Seeing this Kaya did not understand. What did that face mean? 'no reason?' She repeated.
"You know you are weird. I think you forget I am a one-years-old. Technically you guys should be my elders and I am the impulsive brat? Don't see why you are asking such a deep question. I'm just a little wiser than you hehe so I helped ya out." He stuck his tongue out and that suddenly infuriated Kaya. As she was about to go smack him he jumped backward and flew towards the fight.
"Sigh, this brother is truly a freak and for all the most random reasons. What is he thinking?"
----
The hell below was just beginning for the trio.
As Penta landed he immediately whacked one with a fierce punch and the boar died on the spot. He then gently landed on top of it before sitting down.
"Oy! You better have at least 60 kills spread between the three of you or you will not get any food!" Penta hollered before taking out his crystal and reading. Seeing this the trio couldn't help but get infuriated. None of the other boars even approached him as though he disappeared.
Penta's presence is only useful when he starts yelling, otherwise, he can become an easily inconspicuous person rather easily coming from a weird line of roaches.
Seeing this the trio was also longing to be stronger so that they can stand on their own feet and seeing Penta was the fuel that was needed with a little pushing from his end too. Penta seemingly not caring about the trio was actually heavily thinking about how to train them within this short time frame.
He was already at the peak of his energy cultivation but he couldn't take that step into that elusive first grade. It seems he needs to get accustomed to his current strength. Seeing as he was stuck here, he might as well learn this skill.
The trio wasn't really struggling it's just that they haven't really stopped for much else but eating and sleeping. Their mental exhaustion was similar to their accumulated fatigue.
Griss was using a sword made of flames that weren't spewing but more refined as it coated it in a sharp way. Faren was using earth spikes to disable the herd and its momentum and Karu used his affinity with plants to create vine spikes. The damage they were doing was very good. A boar would die every few minutes.
Penta seeing that they were fine, continued his reading while the girls started preparing the barbecue equipment as it wasn't heavy things and just a basic grill, even little Sana was able to help out.
The day slowly passed. As a few hours since the beginning of the hunt. There lay around 53 boars.
The trio was beyond exhausted. They were all panting heavily and on the ground. The world seemed to be spinning for them but thanks to their recent cardio training they managed to last and Penta helped out to keep the larger mobs at bay towards the end as he noticed they were struggling.
"Hahaha! Good job to Faren and Griss. It seems you met the quota. Karu... it seems you are seven shy." Penta said questioningly.
Karu was exhausted. These boars weren't anything special even if they were advanced levels because they were naturally dumb. However, the biggest issue was the pack was hard as hell to bully.
Karu could barely react even though he heard as he was just too tired.
"Sigh... you really need to work on getting to higher levels so that you don't exhaust yourself so easily. Alright, as you were the weakest you can still eat." And before Griss and Faren could rebuke he continued.
"But you are carrying all that back and skinning them and preparing the meat for dinner." Karu deflated at those words. He was already exhausted and he had to carry, skin and prep the meat. He was devastated. He looked over at his comrades but the eyes they showed pissed him off into another fury.
They looked at him with goating smiles and prideful eyes. Faren's neck ever craned out a little to push his non-existent chin into the air.
Karu forced himself up before turning towards the boars and just dragging them. He didn't complain and he just looked pissed. Penta just smiled at their antics. Griss and Faren were still gloating as they could finally take a rest and the fact that there was so much boar meat made them lose themselves in their imaginations.
"Brother what about the rest of the herd further ahead?" Kaya asked but Penta just smiled and said to not worry.
As if on queue, behind Karu who was dragging a large boar towards them, a pack of 46 boars with three enormous ones standing in their center. Seeing this an inevitable fight was clearly about to occur.
The strewn about corpses of its brethren did not help calm the fury in the boar herd. Pack creatures cared for another and are why they are pack creatures in the first place.
They charged furiously with the larger ones leading the way. The charge made a maddening noise.
"Right on time. My dear meat." Penta smiled before he shot himself in their direction. The past few days of training and reading has opened up a lot of possibilities to Penta's repertoire. He finally managed to create some moves that he can use to deal additional damage and he was excited to test them out.
"Brother!" The girls yelled but Penta simply yelled back." This is my fight! Hahaha! Let's show you girls your brother's smooth moves."
Everyone back up and just watched from the hill, including Karu who ran back.
They were all curious as to what he will do since he seemed more excited than usual. As Penta was flying towards the fury of the herd of boar's. His hands suddenly started glowing with purple veins. They created claws on his hands that seemed to be a primal beast's claws. It looked mystically dangerous.
"Hehe, with metallic properties I can harden these bad boys and use the remaining energy to pump them full of vitality." Penta mused at the creation he had made. Simple transformations like this were pretty common so it wasn't anything special but to Penta who doesn't even have more than one skill. He was far too poor at his energy usage.
Having lost his sword he was stuck thinking of a way to get some weapons but his points at the Tribe didn't allow for that.
"Slash!"Penta yelled but the surprising thing was that the slash actually left his hand. A glow of purple shot out and landed accurately on one of the larger boars causing it to trip and somewhat dampen the charge.
This had all happened in a small moment but this immediately put the savage little emperor on the advantage.
He immediately used his speed and started racing towards the boar's and became a merciless slaughtering machine. He killed left and right with one claw mark after the other. The boars were dying in one or two hits alone and they were having a hard time catching such a small and slippery roach.
"wow." Karu said as he looked at what was happening in front of them. The crowd was speechless except for little Sana who was cheering as though it was a show.
The poor army of 47 boars whittled down to one.
The largest of the boars the leader was standing there freaked out at this monster that they had provoked. It was the leader and it couldn't help but look around and feel saddened at the sight. it wailed and trembled before charging.
They really were pack creatures. Even the leader just thought of fighting for his dead brethren. Stupid move but it was nonetheless a show of what they had been worth dying for.
The slaughter-fest ended as fast as it started. Penta was robust and fast and the recent training with the heavy bag had left him to almost start leaving afterimages because of his speed. He was ecstatic at the results.
The claws were even stronger than what he had anticipated and the fact that he could use a long-range defensive slash made him even more stunned. Wild thoughts of being a genius entered his mind before he shooed them away thinking back to the skill he was learning.
The thought humbled him as he clearly was nowhere near getting close to even the basics of the skill. It was surprisingly more complex but his past knowledge truly did come in handy as to applying the ideas in different forms.