Chapter : 599

This was a new kind of battlefield. The dense, claustrophobic forest had rewarded stealth, ambush, and the careful use of cover. This place, the Savage Brushland, was an open, exposed arena. There were no shadows to hide in, no canopies to offer concealment. Engagements here would be fought out in the open, under the watchful eye of that unforgiving sun. This was a land that favored speed, raw power, and above all, combat endurance.

A profound sense of vulnerability washed over him. It was a feeling he hadn't truly experienced since his very first, tentative steps into the Soul Farm. It was a sharp, clarifying sensation, the cold prickle of caution that kept a soldier alive. He welcomed it. Complacency was a luxury he could not afford.

He chose not to summon his spirits yet. He needed to acclimate, to let his own enhanced senses adjust to the new, overwhelming stimuli of this biome. He began to walk, his steps measured and cautious, his eyes constantly sweeping the horizon, his hand resting loosely on the hilt of his practice sword.

The first sign of life came not as a sight or a sound, but as a feeling. A powerful vibration through the soles of his boots. A low, rhythmic thrumming that was steadily growing in intensity. It was the sound of immense weight moving at speed.

He reacted instantly, his combat instincts taking over. He spotted one of the larger sandstone outcroppings a hundred yards away and sprinted toward it, his movements economical and swift. He reached the relative safety of the massive, sun-warmed rock and pressed himself flat against it, peering around its edge.

Then he saw them, and his breath caught in his throat.

His initial thought was ‘boars,’ but the word felt laughably inadequate. It was like calling a hurricane a stiff breeze. A herd of them, at least a dozen strong, was thundering across the savanna. Each beast was a moving mountain of muscle and bristle, easily the size of a ducal carriage. Their backs and skulls were covered in a thick, overlapping carapace of what looked like solid bone, a natural armor that would likely shrug off anything less than a direct hit from a cannon. Their legs, though stout, were thick as ancient tree trunks, built for a charge that would be nothing short of unstoppable. And from their massive, ugly snouts jutted two colossal, curving tusks, each one the length of a man’s arm, yellowed and scarred from countless battles. They were not just weapons; they were twin scythes designed for gutting and disembowelment.

They were magnificent. They were terrifying. And they were heading in his general direction.

As he watched, frozen in a state of awe and profound caution, the lead boar—a colossal bull with a deep, jagged scar that ran from its eye to its snout—skidded to a halt. It lifted its massive head, its flared nostrils twitching as it tasted the air. Its small, intelligent, and furiously red eyes swiveled, scanning the landscape.

Then, they locked directly onto his position.

It had scented him. An intruder. A foreign presence in its sun-scorched kingdom.

There was no threat display, no warning roar. There was only a singular, instantaneous, and unified decision made by the herd’s collective, primal consciousness.

The alpha male let out a deafening, explosive snort, a sound that was pure, concentrated rage. And then, as one, they charged.

The ground began to tremble in earnest. The rhythmic thrumming became a deafening roar. They were a living avalanche of bone, muscle, and fury, an unstoppable force of nature aimed directly at his hiding place.

A sharp, dangerous thrill, cold and pure as ice, shot through Lloyd’s veins. The goblins had been pests. The slimes had been a chore. This… this was a true challenge. This was a hunt.

He stepped out from behind the rock, a single, defiant figure in the path of the stampede. He knew, with absolute certainty, that his own power, his Steel Blood and Black Ring Eyes, would be useless against such overwhelming kinetic force. This was not a problem that could be solved with finesse.

This was a job for the gods he kept on a leash.

“Well then,” he murmured, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face as the thunder of their charge grew to a deafening crescendo. "The welcoming committee seems eager. It would be rude not to offer a proper greeting."

He raised his hands to the sky, one crackling with the cool, crisp energy of the storm, the other beginning to smolder with the searing, destructive heat of a contained inferno. The game had changed, and he was more than ready to play.

Chapter : 600

The earth itself seemed to groan under the weight of the stampede. The pounding of two dozen massive hooves was no longer just a sound; it was a physical force that vibrated through the soles of Lloyd's boots and resonated deep in his chest. The herd of Wild Boars was a singular, terrifying entity—a moving wall of muscle, bone armor, and razor-sharp tusks, driven by a unified, primal fury. The cloud of ochre dust kicked up in their wake was a roiling, golden shroud, promising a swift, brutal, and unmarked grave for anything foolish enough to stand in their path.

Lloyd remained rooted to the spot, a lone, unmoving bulwark against the oncoming tide. His face was a mask of placid concentration, but his mind was a supercomputer running a thousand combat simulations per second. The sheer kinetic energy of that charge was a problem of terrifyingly simple physics. Direct opposition was not just foolish; it was suicidal. He couldn't stop an avalanche. He had to dismantle it. He had to shatter its momentum, break its unity, and deconstruct the charge piece by piece before it could ever reach him.

As the lead boar, the massive scarred bull, closed to within a hundred yards, the System’s voice, calm and ever-present, chimed in his mind, officially laying out the terms of engagement for this deadly new market.

[NEW REPEATABLE QUEST AVAILABLE: SAVAGE CULL]

[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT 20 WILD BOARS]

[REWARD: 150 FARMING COINS]

One hundred and fifty coins for twenty boars. The math was instantaneous and brutal. Each of these magnificent, terrifying beasts was worth seven and a half coins. He let out a soft, almost inaudible whistle. That was more than the reward for an entire patrol of goblins. The System wasn't just presenting a challenge; it was offering a contract of immense profitability. The risk was absolute, but the potential return on investment was staggering.

"The terms are… compelling," he murmured to himself, the grim warrior’s focus momentarily giving way to the predatory glee of a merchant discovering a priceless, untapped resource. "Consider the contract accepted."

With the business arrangement formalized, it was time to deploy his assets. His heavy artillery.

"Iffrit!" His mental command was not a suggestion; it was a blade of pure, focused will. "You are the wall. Not a static defense. A moving one. I want a line of fire. A curtain of absolute annihilation. I want you to burn the very ground they run on. Deny them the path."

A wave of pure, ecstatic, destructive joy flooded the psychic link from his demonic spirit. The concept was simple, elegant, and involved massive amounts of fire. The earth itself will be their pyre.

In a blast of suffocating heat that made the air shimmer, Iffrit materialized. The nine-foot-tall demon of magma and living flame didn't even bother with his sword. He drove both of his massive, obsidian-black hands deep into the cracked, sun-baked earth. A low, subterranean rumble began, the sound of a volcano stirring in its sleep.

"Fang Fairy!" Lloyd's second command was equally precise, a counterpoint of cool strategy to Iffrit's brute force. "Their eyes are small, their skulls are thick, but their legs are their engines. Your priority is mobility disruption. I want you to turn the ground into a trap. Create zones of pain, fields of paralysis. Shatter their charge. You are the ghost in the storm."

From the empty, superheated air beside him, Fang Fairy flowed into being, a being of cool silver and crackling azure light. Her very presence was a refreshing oasis in the oppressive heat radiating from Iffrit. Their rage is a weakness, Master. It blinds them to the whispers of the storm. I will be the whisper they cannot catch.

With his two gods of war in position, Lloyd initiated the engagement.

The ground directly in the path of the charging herd erupted. Iffrit roared, a sound of pure geological fury, as he channeled his volcanic power not into a single point, but along a wide, sweeping line. A fifty-foot-long fissure tore open in the savanna, and from its depths, a solid wall of roaring, crimson flame shot twenty feet into the sky. It was a curtain of pure, elemental chaos, a line drawn in the sand with the very fire of the planet's core.

The lead boars, their minds consumed by a singular, charging rage, had no time to process the sudden appearance of an inferno. They plowed headfirst into it. Their furious, challenging roars were instantly transformed into high-pitched squeals of unimaginable agony. The superheated flames vaporized their thick, bristly hides and flash-cooked the flesh from their bones. Two of the massive beasts, including the scarred alpha, collapsed in fiery heaps, their unstoppable momentum extinguished, their bodies becoming little more than grotesque, burning pyres.