Mission name: Boar Hunts!
Mission rank: C
Objective: Reports of an overly large wild boar attacking the locals has prompted ninja action. Hunt down and kill the boar.
Location: Hi no Kuni
Reward: 150
Mission description: There has been word outside the village of a massive boar running a muck and injuring villagers that travel into the wilds for food. The task has fallen onto you to find this animal and kill it.
Mission details: The boar is not alone and in fact, is an entire pack of five overgrown boars. These boars coordinate attacks well with one another but easily pushed off balance they take time to get back up. There is another boar, an infant at that, that comes out in the middle of the fighting to attack, completely useless in appearance and size, it poses no threat but the other boars become enraged upon seeing it and attack you in a more reckless manner. The largest boar has D2 all D2 stats, while the others are all D1.

Wearing a hunter's garb for this mission, Airi was send to handle a rampaging boar. A giant one, at that, but only one. Since she was home in the woods, administration had decided she had the advantage on this terrain, and Airi as well was under the impression she would be fine. As a guardian of Nature, she wasn't keen on having animals killed but only most other hunters that could have been send, this kunoichi would make the most of it. A giant boar had a lot to offer, after all. The skin could be tanned and used to craft pouches or vests, the meat could be cooked or smoked and serve as rations for the hungry and the tusks might make a fine decoration, trophy or maybe a tool. Even if she didn't know what she could with the bones just yet, at least the boar wouldn't go to waste should it be necessary to put it down.

That said, Airi had made some preparations for the fight. Setting up a few simple traps, hidden vines would serve as trip wire. Even if that wasn't enough to take them down exactly, it would make it much easier to ensure a swift and merciful kill. One other trap was supposed to catch a boar within a makeshift net, removing it from combat at least for a while and lastly, hoping to scare the boar more rather than to kill him, Airi had made a dart trap from Mokuton thorns and vines. The thorns weren't really damaging, but she hoped they would be enough of a nuisance to bring them to other thoughts.

The only thing that really troubled her, was that the intel had proven to be seriously lacking. Something she wasn't used to from administration. How exactly were they not able to provide the fact there was not one huge boar, but a pack of them? Boars weren't exactly subtle about their presence. As Airi had discovered, they had left countless footprints, had been digging between the roots of various trees which, due to their unusual size, had left more than just a little bit of damage to the green guardians. And the brushes had not been pushes aside, but had instead been trampled through. This mission was stretching the edges of C rank, and poorly paid in comparison with the danger that it involved. A boar was a reputable foe to deal with when unprepared. A giant foe would certainly prove more than a challenge. But a whole pack of them? She'd have some words with administration afterwards.

She'd have to bring this mission to a good end first, though, but at least her traps were set. Standing up, she dusted herself off and clapped her hands. Muscles loosened, mind focused, heart with Nature. Dropping the masquerade of civilisation, it was time to become the huntress. Summoning forth a small pack of mud wolves, Airi snuck quietly up to one of the giant boars that had secluded itself to search the roots for mushrooms. Knowing the boars had no means to destroy the mud wolves, Airi would send the three of them to tackle that one while she lured the others away. That'd still leave... four of them for her? Airi sighed.

Rustling the leaves to draw their attention, the alert boars quickly shifted their gaze towards the brush she had reached. Crazed eyes looked at her direction, followed by big snouts sniffing the air. As one gave a warning squeal, A well aimed pebble hit one straight between the eyes and send it into a rage. The others soon followed the charging boar, and Airi send her wolves to take down the loner from another side as she jumped to the side, dodging the charge and spraying the passing boars with about 20 thorns. At that point, it was time to sprint away.

With three wolves tackling one boar which had no means to win, there were still four alive and raging, now springing behind Airi who zigzagged as much as possible to slow down the boars' dangerous charges. As she cunningly avoided her own traps, the leading boar tripped immediately, halfway sliding over the floor and halfway trampled by its own raging comrades. One more down, but the others cared little for giving up.

Guiding them to yet another trap, a loud squeal of panic cleaves the air is the giant boar was caught in the fishnet and pulled up and away from the battlefield. As it squirmed to get released, Airi could see she had quite misjudged the strength of her vines. The net wouldn't last under the weight of the giant boar, meaning he'd unluckily plummet into the ground first. It wasn't what she had wanted, but there was currently little time to put it out of its misery as two more boars were still hot on her heels despite briefly having tripped over yet another trap.

With her traps running thin and her small repertoire holding just one more useful jutsu she saw little means to solve this properly. There was a risky trick she could try to take out one more boar, swiftly but then there was still the matter of the last one. Airi focused chakra into her feet, ready to run up a tree briefly so she could flip back to reach the back of the boar. Finishing the moulding of chakra for her Heartseed jutsu, she executed her plan. She ran up the tree, hearing one of the boars bunk hard against it as it was too late to avoid the confrontation. While dazed, Airi landed behind him and slammed her palm on his back. Briefly, before the second boar crashed hard into her, but enough to trigger the thorns that had buried themselves within its skin. As the boar angrily ran its tusks over Airi, the other one died squealing as plants mercilessly grew out of its body.

Jumping away from the last boar with barely making any distance between the two of them, Airi moulded Thornvines into shape, grasping the last boar tightly with three vines of 10 meters length. Fervently the beast squealed and gored the vines, but it was enough to prepare for a last confrontation. The boar, versus the makeshift spear of wood and kunai. without any hesitation or hint of fear, the boar charged... and found itself meeting death's door as the spear drove itself deeply into its flesh, snapping in the progress and throwing Airi once more away under the boar's short temper. However, the moments after that were the last the boar would suffer.

Panting and bleeding from various wounds, Airi took a moment to recollect her thoughts and compose herself. She knew she wasn't done just yet with the whole job, but she required a brief break where she could bandage the most serious wounds first, applying some medicinal herbs in the progress. She'd have to see an iryo-nin afterwards, as was mostly the case when undertaking such dangerous missions, but with the herbs and bandages in place, att least the bleeding would stop quickly.

Once bandaged, she walked to the dead boar to retrieve her kunai from the gore, washed a little bit with suiton water and tucked it away. Eyeing the giant boar, felt some sense of remorse. To lose its life for the sake of villagers... most likely it had just been protecting its nest. She sighed, patted the corpse as if to wish a sibling goodbye and started skinning the boar and cutting up the meat as good as possible.

Five boars. She'd never be able to put all of that to good use on her own. The administration would hear her complaint.

[Exit]

wc 1308/1000