Layla and Vic both nodded, ""Roger!""
The four of them had the highest firepower in the group. Dan was also strong, but in a different sense, that was not combat-oriented. He was best at information gathering and support.
Cage ran towards the Earth-Hog while grinning ear to ear. He figured it was about time to break out the skill he had gotten when he had initially reached Stage One.
Shadowy wisps started to permeate on Cage's skin and along his body.
[Shadow Step!]
He abruptly turned into a shadowy blur and sped across the landscape. However, it didn't end there. Multiple streaks of black spread out and converged on the beast from numerous directions.
The beast tried to strike out at the shadows, only to find that its attacks passed right through!
Boom!
Before the beast could register what had just happened, it felt an impact at its side and fell over.
Cage clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Tsk, didn't even cause any internal damage."
He had tried to kick it and at least cause some damage, but his attack had only knocked it off its feet.
An idea flashed through his mind, "In that case, let's try this..."
While the beast was still down, Cage ran over to one of its two tusks and began furiously hacking away at it.
The combination of strength and his [Resonation] skill did quick work and severed one of the tusks from its body.
He only had less than a second before the beast stood up again, so he quickly grabbed the tusk and jumped back to see what it would do.
Layla ran up next to Cage and shouted, "If you can stall it for a little, then I can deal a heavy blow."
"Stalling, I can do." A smile bloomed on his face, "Maybe even better, actually..."
Cage threw the tusk into the air towards the Earth-Hog.
[Shadow Step]
Turning into a shadowy streak, Cage jumped into the air above the beast while it was occupied with his clones.
Cage grabbed the tusk and tightened his grip.
"You seem pretty stupid, huh. Let's see just how thick the skull of yours is..."
[Burst!]
*Spurt*
It grazed the beast's neck and found a new home inside the rocky ground. The wound was bleeding profusely. However, even an injury of that scale was nothing in the face of its high vitality.
The beast groaned in pain.
Regaining its senses, it stomped its hoof again.
Cage sighed, "You gotta be kidding me..."
A rock the same size as the giant beast broke away from the ground and rose up into the air. It then hurled it towards Cage, and behind him, Layla.
'This is gonna be a pain to deal with.'
He heard a voice call out to him from afar, "Duck!"
The voice was Arman's. Cage instinctively followed the command, sensing a danger so enormous that he lost his sense of reason for a moment. If he didn't duck, then he instinctively knew that the upper half of his body would be no more.
Arman was in a unique state on the expedition team. He was what's known as a sniper and was allowed to help where needed.
A sniper has the power to influence the entire battle in just one moment.
[Compression Shot!]
Booooooom!
A small stone, the size of a pebble, moved at a speed fast enough to create a sonic boom.
Time seemed to slow down as Cage saw it pass through him where he was less than a second ago.
It crashed into the boulder zooming at Cage and pierced clean through, In the process, turning the boulder into dust and shrapnel.
The attack continued and then hit a bullseye on the Earth-Hog's forehead.
The beast staggered backward as its pupils became undilated.
It fell to the ground in a dazed state, and blood began to gush from the wound on its forehead.
[Compression Shot] would compress about ten tons of earth into a single point and then launch the compressed earth at high speed. Needless to say, the kinetic energy it possessed was enough to turn an average human into a bloody mist.
Layla excitedly shouted, "Alright, I'm all set! Let's have some Earth-Hog meat for dinner, shall we?"
A torrent of mana rushed at the dazed Earth-Hog.
[Marked: Brittle Body!]
[Marked: Blood Clot Failure!]
[Marked: Enhance Injuries!]
(A/N: Layla is out here playing an RPG stacking all these debuffs... )
The Earth-Hog's injuries expanded and grew deeper. Most notably, the gash on its neck had expanded to almost half of the circumference of itself.
Cage was sure that it had also had internal injuries from Andrew's earlier attack, which were now enhanced by who knows how much.
Cage couldn't help but glance back at the woman known as Layla, 'So many debuffs... I need to remember not to get on her bad side.'
The Earth-Hog was in a pitiful state. It was barely even able to stand up due to its own weight.
Vic smiled, "I'll finish it off, then we can eat some fo-"
"ROOOOOAR!!!"
Everyone turned to where the bestial roar originated from.
The brush shook.
Another Earth-Hog made its grand appearance.
Before anyone could react, it had charged towards one of the weaker members of the expedition team.
Like a ragdoll, the targetted team member got thrown several meters away. His neck was twisted at an odd angle, just a glance, and you could tell he was dead.
Cage cursed internally, 'It was already hard enough fighting one of them, and now a second one appeared... It even killed one of us already. Great, just great...'
Andrew started giving orders, "Layla, Vic, finish off the first one. Everyone else is to fight the new hog!"
Seeing the new threat that was already causing mayhem, Cage went deep in thought.
'If I use my other elemental skill, I should be able to kill it... But the mana cost for using Tier 2 magic is too high. I might even suffer backlash...'
Cage decided to see the situation first. If it called for it, then he would use it.
He went over to where Layla and Vic were. He quickly grabbed the tusk and then ran back to fight the newcomer. Cage would make use of the tusk to its fullest. He also had the idea of creating a new weapon from it.
Cage was already proficient with daggers, but he still wanted to try countless other weapons.
Cage quickly caught up with the others who had formed a perimeter around the second Earth-Hog, moving on from pointless thoughts.
They were in a stand-off. Both sides were waiting to see who would make the first move.
The beast scraped its hoof.
"..."
Everything was silent.
"ROAR-!!"
The beast charged, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.
Andrew and the other close-range fighters went in to try and stop it and provide an opening for the others.
Cage ran forward and flanked from the side. If it were a test of sustained strength, he would undoubtedly lose. He had high burst strength, and this was partly his downfall. Fortunately, he just needed to kill it before it had a chance to show off its endurance.
The beast was brought to a halt by Andrew, and the others combined strength.
Andrew grinned, for the beast had fallen for his plan.
Using his enhanced skill, where he compressed the turbulent air to a single point, Andrew brought it down and smashed it onto the beast's head.
[Gale Fist!]
Boom!
As if a bomb had gone off, a plume of dust was thrown into the air.
After just a moment, the dust cleared. The beast remained steady on its feet. It shook its head, removing any remaining dizziness.
Suddenly, the pained cry of a beast's last breath rained across the land.
Cage glanced back momentarily, 'It seems Layla and Vic finished off the other one...'
Turning his attention back to the beast in front of him, Cage felt something was... off.
The Earth-Hog inhaled, and it breathed out a white fog. The fog was as if you had exhaled on a cold day.
The beast opened its eyes, revealing them to be bloodshot.
"Oh, fu-"
Cra-crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack! Cra-crack! Crack!
Eight different stone mounds, all the same size as the Earth-Hog, rose from the ground. The ground tremored and cracked from the amount of mana being expelled. The mounds all gradually began to take shape into that of another Earth-Hog.
It was the same clone skill used before, but now there was a total of nine Earth-Hogs, one real and eight fake, that they needed to fight.
Could each of them take on an earth hog by themselves?
Probably not.
Just one Earth-Hog was already able to cause enough trouble for the majority of them.
The nine immediately started to wreak havoc. Only a few were able to hold their ground, but it wouldn't last. They would only hang on for a minute at best.
There was only one way to end it.
Cage sighed. He was definitely going to get backlash from this either now or later.
'Welp, hopefully, that backlash doesn't kill me.'
Cage had zero doubt that his skill would fail to kill the Earth-Hog.
Cage shouted, "All of you, get back!"
Although it sounded funny because it came from a child's voice, they still took it seriously and backed off.
Cage planted his feet firmly and took a deep breath.
The air around him began to cool rapidly, and frost began to form on the ground.
[Icicles of Death!]
Deep blue spikes of ice began to form along the length of Cage's spine.
A slight smile formed on his face. "Bye-bye!"
Spikes of ice bloomed from his back and extended rapidly towards the Earth-Hog.
The tendrils of ice pierced the skin of the Earth-Hog with holes as they riddled it with holes and emerged from the other side of its body, making it look like an icy pin cushion.
Frost rapidly spread along its body, freezing it from both inside and outside until it was turned into an ice sculpture.
Cage coughed up blood.
A Tier 2 skill was not something a Stage One was meant to possess.
'Too bad... The meat got ruined...'
Cage fell to the ground and fell unconscious due to the backlash.