after 30 minutes of preparation, Luden is finally ready to take action. He climbs the same tree that overlooks the boars; once up there, he brings out his newly upgraded Luden's crossbow.
The new crossbow has eight holes instead of six and has two strings for an extra oomph in power; this new crossbow can even kill mutated beasts if aimed right.
Once he loads the strings, he dips the arrow in the paralyzing poison of one of the planets he found and prepared before the test, just in case the arrow doesn't kill the boar.
He aims at one of the mutated boars and waits for minutes for the perfect opportunity and angle. After two more minutes, he finally finds it and releases the arrow. It flies from where he is right into the boar's windpipe in a split second, not giving the boar time to react.
What followed was a long scream and howls of one of the boars struggling for breath in the forest. Luden didn't even have time to properly put his crossbow back in his back when he exhaled and pulled one of the ropes to hurl himself backward into another tree.
Suddenly, there was a booming sound, and the tree he was standing on was toppled by one of the awakened boar's charges.
Luden doesn't even give the boar time to lock into him and jumps from one tree to another using the vines he put before. Swinging from side to side, he can only hear the boar's mad charge while the other gasps for breath and life.
The quiet forest shook with a mad screech sound, followed by a great boom every few seconds. You could only hear a screech followed by a boom. Trees fell one after another while the mad boar chased. This time, Luden didn't jump to the next tree; he waited for the boar to come to his first trap zone.
Once the mad awakened boar came into the zone, it triggered one of the trap wires, and a puff of smoke mixed with different powders soon started to affect its vision and sense of direction.
"Yes," Luden exclaimed. He noticed the other normal boar was right behind it. He jumped a few trees while the other boar followed, getting into the second trap zone and waiting for the normal boar.
The boar gets into the zone, but to Luden's dismay, it doesn't step into the trap because of a mishap; Luden made it too strong for a normal boar to trigger it. Luden's eyes narrow, and he uses all his force to brace for impact and tools. And boom, the boar charges into the tree he is standing on.
Luckily, this is normal; the boar doesn't topple it. But it made Luden almost lose his footing on the tree. Once Luden shakes off the impact, he jumps to the next tree and runs to the third zone before the boar again charges into the same tree.
Once again, in the third zone, Luden waits for the boar, but luckily, this time, the boar triggers the trap and gets launched up into the tree by one of its legs.
Luden doesn't waste any time because he knows the rope won't hold the boar's weight and fetches his crossbow and cocks it and aims it into the now screaming boar.
Luckily he doesn't have to cock it too much because the boar is close and a normal one. Finally, he launches it into its skull, killing it on the spot.
Luden doesn't even take a breath of relief, looking into the other awakened boar that was disoriented, only to find it charging at him again at full speed. Luden knew he was done for if that charge hit. Looks behind him to see he is close to the hill; he doesn't even have time to use the rope; he jumps into one of the branches, twisting it to launch himself into the other ropes that go up the hill. He hears a loud boom followed by a tree that nearly misses him.
He doesn't even look back and tries to climb the ropes up the hill. He then hears a boom, which is followed by a shockwave of the boar charging at the hill, which almost bursts his organs alive. He ignored the pain and finally made it up the hill.
He embraces for another of a boar's charges. He changes his location to the final trap he has set. And tries to lure the boar there. The boar charges up the hill repeatedly but notices Luden missing and standing on the other side, running to his location with frenzy again. Luden reaches the trap, looks down, notices his trap, and knows he only has one shot here. Once the boar reaches Luden's area, it charges right where the traps are. But Luden doesn't pull the rope, waiting for the right opportunity. He embraces the shockwave again, and boom, Luden almost loses consciousness and starts spitting blood. Collecting himself and waiting for the boar's last charge. As the boar charges again, Luden finally finds the right opportunity, yells, "NOW!!" and pulls the rope. The trap springs trigger, impaling the boar and ending the intense struggle.
The last thing the boar's eye greeted before he hit the hill was tens of spikes before it slammed itself into them, and finally, there was a boom.
The last boom was the last thing Luden heard before he lost consciousness.
Meanwhile, the two wolves were gasping, their mouths wide open, about what they had just seen. "Did you see what I just saw?" says Naha.
"Yes, Naha, he did it," says Deano, complaining that this was too much stress. He lost count of how many times the boy almost died.
But soon, he comes back to his senses. "Quick, check if he is okay," exclaims Deano.
Both of them rush to where Luden is.
Naha rushes near Luden, checks his pulse and breathing, and soon takes a breath of relief. "he is okay, nothing too serious," he says, looking back at Luden. "Haha, you persistent little shit. You killed three adult boars with two of them being awakened," says Naha. Proudly,
Deano looks around, smiling. "Okay, we can't interfere too much since he is okay. Let's guard the area until he is awake. If he fails to wake up, it's his loss."
Naha nods sadly, and both of them get back.
As they settle in to guard the area, Deano admires Luden's impressive feat. Naha keeps a watchful eye on Luden, ready to react if needed.
Ten minutes later, Luden woke up and shook both wolves again with his recovery speed.
Luden slowly wakes up and examines the area. First, he looks down at the boar that hit the spikes and finds it dead.
He slowly climbs down the hill, walks to the next board hanging by a leg, and finds that it has fallen and is no longer breathing. Faintly, he walks to where the first boar he shot at and finds it dead, with signs of it straining on the ground. Finally, Luden is overcome with happiness and exams. "Yes, I did! This goes to show to these old stupid wolves that kept telling me you can't hunt more than one awakened animal on your own," and he starts to cut their middle tusk one by one, feeling proud of what he achieved.
Meanwhile, Deano and Naha's faces darken at Luden's remarks, and they swear to scold him at the camp.
Soon, Luden finished collecting the three tusks that he needed from the bodies of the boars; knowing the pack would take care of the bodies of the dead boars, he looked at the sky, realizing that there was only some time left. He set off again to search for another boar.
Going back from where he came, he heads north long enough and checks his pouch only to find that he has enough powder for one more hunt.
Finally, he spreads some powder on the ground and follows the next trail.
After an hour of searching, Luden finally found a corpse of a normal three-tusked boar and traces of a recent fight nearby.
Looking at the boar's head, he finds its tusk missing; knowing another wolf has gotten to the boar before him, he sighs, looks at the sky, and notices it is time to return.
Finally, he finds traces of the camp and returns to the pack.
Just as dusk is about to fall, Luden makes it to the pack camp. He greets all the wolves he sees and finally goes to the big area where they met in the morning.
Once he approaches, he sees almost all the cubs are back like him, and some are resting while others are boasting and some are tending to their wounds.
Once he is there, all the eyes are on him, seeing that he is fine and only dirty; some sigh with disappointment, while others are happy to see him fine.
Luden finds a place to sit and starts taking a breath of relief. Today was exhausting.
The wolves waited until everyone returned from their hunt. Soon, the elders and Grey, accompanied by the rest of the adults, came to the area. Grey nodded at Luden with a proud smile.
The same elder who spoke this morning came forward and examined all the 40 cubs, nodding, "Today was a great day for all of you; some of you did excellent, while others did okay, and some failed."
"Starting with those that failed. The elder continued, "Those who failed to track the boars that the test marked come forward."
Two wolves come forward in shame, and the elder comments, "Tracking prey is an important part of being a hunter, and the most essential. I must say you two have missed the mark by a big margin. This time, reflect on yourselves and improve your skills; move to the left."
"Those of you that an adult wolf has rescued, come forward."
Three cubs came with their heads lowered. The elder looked at them. "It's not a shame to fail; all of you three, though, overestimated yourselves and tried to hunt something that you were not prepared to hunt yet, resulting in an adult coming to your rescue; know that you would have been killed today if this wasn't a test. You are automatically disqualified; continue to the left side."
The three wolves go to the left side in disappointment.
The elder smiled, "35 out of 40 is a very good number in my opinion—not great, but good. Now, I will announce the pointing system. Hunting a Juvenile is -2 points," says the elder, smiling. I hope your parents told you this before. We don't hunt for sports but to provide for ourselves only; hunting a juvenile is a waste for the forest and will damage its system," says the elder sternly.
"Medium boar is 1+ point, adult boar is +2. Now, for those who managed to hunt awakened ones, the medium is +4, the adult one..." Before the elder had finished, most of the cubs started to scream and were amazed in their minds. Medium is okay, but large? That is way above their limit, and someone hunted these?
The elder clears his throat. "The large one is 10+."
"Those of you who only hunted medium unawakened ones, come forward.
Ten wolves come forward and present the tusks they collected. A few adult wolves come forward and count the tusks; after a few minutes, they give the elder their number.
The elder nods and starts recounting to summarise from the top to the bottom.
1. Ardis: 5
2. Nivah: 5
3. Duelc: 4
4. Arden: 4
5. tomo: 4
6. .
7. .
8. .
The elder continued, "Now those who hunted large and medium boars come forward."
Sixteen wolves come out and hand their tusks in the same process; after a few minutes, the adults report to the elder, and he announces the points individually to summarize.
1. nesy: 9
2. desa: 8
3. Gaha: 6
4. Daeno: 5
5. Bachel: 5
6. .
7. .
8. .
The elder clears his voice and continues, "Now those who hunted an awakened medium boards, come forward."
Six wolves come forward product. But soon notice that three people, including Luden, are not following, and their eyes narrow. A few minutes later, the elder recounted the point to Sumrrazie.
1. Kinea: 12
2. Huja: 10
3. Lopes: 8
4. Dax: 6
5. Raz: 5
6. .
7. .
8. .
The elder smiles and finally turns to Luden and the two wolves. They come forward; Luden and the other two wolves go to the adults and hand them their tusks. Luden reaches into his pouch and hands him the large one first. The adult takes the first tusk he hands, examines it to find it belongs to an adult boar, and nods, saying, "Next." Luden takes out a tusk 3 times the size of the first one. The adult's eyes narrow, and he examines it and finds it's a big one belonging to the adult boar and sighs. Just as he is about to leave and do his report, he watches Luden grab another one from his bag. He notices this one is slightly bigger than the last one, exhales, and looks at Luden in amazement; finally, he composes himself and reports to the elder.
The elder comes up again to announce these results. "First, Dargo has collected a tusk of one large awakened beast. Still, in the process, he injured himself, resulting in his inability to continue to hunt after a discussion with the other elders. We decided we wouldn't take any of his points away due to his injury, and for his feat to even mean killing an adult boar is 10 points. Next is Kara, who had one adult and two medium-awakened boars for 18 points. Lastly, we had Luden, who managed two adult awakened boars and one adult normal one for 22 points." The final point count is as follows:
Luden: 22
Kara: 18
Kinea: 12
Drago: Huga 10
Tuea: 9
.
.
.
As soon as the elder finished announcing that Luden was the one with the highest point and the new batch's team leader, there was an uproar among the wolves. Most were amazed, and some started to question how Luden managed to kill two awakened wolves, and large ones at that. The elders tried to hush them down, and some questioned the credibility of his hunt.
Finally, Grey came forward and howled to hush everyone. "Those who escorted Luden, come forward."
Naha and Deano slowly made their way to the middle, and all eyes followed them. Grey looked at them and told them to explain Luden's routine.
Naha came forward and said, "Yes, Alpha Leader," and explained Luden's route from start to finish.
Meanwhile, Luden is sweating like crazy because he hasn't even discovered he was being followed. He remembers a few remarks he made along the way, and his face blackens.
Once Naha reaches the part where Luden tries to hunt three boars simultaneously, and two of them are awakened, all the other wolves say, "Is he crazy? Three?" "Yeah, and don't forget, two of them are awakened." "And they are adults on top of that." "Surely he didn't try to hunt them, right?"
But the moment Naha described how he laid traps and killed them individually, the whole pack quieted down; it became so quiet that you could hear the wind. It was interrupted by Grey's high-pitched laugh: "HAHA, that's my son." Grey was about to continue, but he met the elder's fierce gaze, shrank his head, and stayed quiet. The others returned to their senses and looked at each other with amazement. The adults had always heard how good a hunter and smart Luden was, and now they finally got a glimpse of what he was capable of if he was given enough time to prepare; deep inside, they knew with his lead, these young wolves would achieve great things while they hunted.
The elder cleared his voice, and everyone turned quiet. "Is there anyone who wants to protest about today's decision?" The group remained silent, their eyes avoiding the elder's gaze. No one dared to speak up against the decision that had been made.
"Very well, we wish Good luck and congratulations to young Luden for his display of skills. Starting tomorrow, you will become the new team leader. We wish you the best of luck and successful hunts in the future. May you bring fortune to the pack. And good job for the rest of you; I hope you help Luden lead the team to fruitful hunts in the future."
After everyone gave their congratulations to Luden, they, one by one, went on their way to their den. Soon, Luden and Grey, too, finished and brought the news to now-anxious Tasha.