“Get up, Sam,” he whispered.

HP: 587/640

“Come on...” Sam used his arms to push his upper body up from the ground. “I can do this.”

HP: 585/640

Perhaps Triple-A was showing him this visual approximation of his decreasing health as an encouragement to get his butt moving. More likely, it was reminding Sam that Herculean was still active.

HP: 583/640

“I get it,” Sam growled, and waved the reminder away with his hand, causing it to disappear like a wisp of smoke.

He got up on one knee, although his body still ached from the near twenty-foot drop. It took him a second more to take stock of his situation, the cracked floorboards beneath him and the hulking figure to his immediate right that was even slower to rise than Sam was.

“Right,” he breathed. “Round two...”

The Boar rose to knee height about the same time Sam got to his feet, and it had just enough sense to turn its thick neck around before the hero stepped within its range.

“Don’t get up on my account, buddy!” Sam bantered.

He balled his left hand into a fist and sent it rising up the underside of the Boar’s snout.

“Herculean!” Sam roared.

The sound of his knuckles slapping against hardened skin and the bone-crunching crack that followed was music to the adrenaline-pumped hero’s ears.

Sam watched, half in awe, at how his single fist managed to send that hulking horror up off the floor. He quickly followed up his uppercut with a straight right fist to the Boar’s exposed gut that sent the monster hurtling toward the staircase they’d somehow avoided during their earlier crash.

“Cool, so this is what I can do at level fourteen...” Sam was glancing down at his hands. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

With the sound of the Boar crashing into the staircase being so loud, Sam almost missed the angry grunt that came from close behind him. Although he would later claim that it was the gods’ awful smell that had alerted him to the second Boar.

Instinct made Sam leap up to avoid the tackle that would have broken his spine. He tumbled in the air and landed perfectly on both feet right behind the second Boar’s back.

“Holy Zeus,” Sam breathed. “I’m never getting used to this.”

He didn’t give the Boar time to turn around. Sam just raised his leg up and push-kicked that horror on its fat backside.

“Hercu—”

Sam stopped himself from crying out ‘Herculean’ again because he decided it wasn’t going to be his catchphrase.

“I’ve really got to workshop a battle cry,” he said just as he backed away from his opponents. “And where in Hades are Maeve and Thunder?”

Unfortunately, Sam’s push kick hadn’t sent the second Boar careening toward its thrashing brother by the staircase. The horror had managed to stop its own momentum and quickly turned back to face Sam with glaring red eyes that promised a lot of violence was coming his way.

Sam wasn’t intimidated though as confidence brimmed inside him. It was a confidence he wasn’t used to, this certainty that he had the strength to fight off two delta-level Boars while he waited for Thunder and Maeve to finish their errand.

The second Boar lowered its head so that the two pointed tusks protruding from its mouth were now aimed at Sam.

In response, Sam switched to a fighting stance, arms up and feet planted firmly on the cracked wooden floor.

“Now would have been the perfect time for a battle cry,” he said wryly.

Then the Boar charged.

Sam tightened his fists, ready to pull off some powerful one-two combinations. “Oh, boy... here we go!”

But then something unbelievable happened, the kind of cringe-worthy moment that caused Sam’s eyes to widen in absolute horror.

The first Boar had gotten back on its feet, but instead of flying over to Sam in a fit of rage — as Boars were known to do — it had gone after its comrade instead. The first Boar snuck up behind the second one, clasped thick fingers over its pudgy neck, and pulled it back so that the horror could bite into its brother’s shoulder.

“Oh gods, it’s a cannibal,” Sam gasped.

Remember that other more terrifying kind of Boar Sam didn’t want to meet? Well, it turned out that they’d already met.

Sam was frozen in place for his feet had suddenly turned into jelly. And although he felt sick to his core by what he witnessed, Sam couldn’t help but be mesmerized by this act of cannibalism.

The first Boar chomped down on the second Boar’s neck while the other thrashed against the cannibal’s attack. Dark ichor spilled out of the wounded horror’s wounds and splashed onto the floor beneath them.

“Styx...” Sam breathed.

It was like watching a National Geographic episode of Savage Kingdom, but from way too close a vantage point. And it was this proximity that caused Sam’s own flight or fight response to momentarily go on the fritz.

“I also enjoy watching nature take its course,” a familiar British voice whispered into Sam’s ear.

Sam felt the sharp sting of cold steel graze him in his left side before he dodged to the right.

“There’s just something so spellbinding about two predators going at it...” the Trickster droned on while Sam moved away from the mad villain. “...survival of the fittest and all that.”

WARNING! You have been poisoned and will lose HP and SP while the effect lasts. You are also at risk of experiencing secondary effects of [Paralysis] and [Bleed].

Although the wound on his side was already closing, Sam couldn’t repress the shudder that came with seeing his own blood coating the blade of the knife in the Trickster’s hand.

ALERT! [Regeneration (ζ)] has successfully counteracted the poison. Poison debuff effect has been removed.

“Fancy seeing you here, Trickster,” Sam said in a more confident tone than he felt.

The poison might be gone from his system, but the creeping fear that dampened his confidence remained. After all, how could he not be wary of the villain who’d nearly killed him last night?

“The feeling’s mutual, Mr. Healer slash Mr. Archer slash Mr. Sewer Rat,” the Trickster chuckled, his violet eyes gleaming as they gazed at Sam with something that might have been admiration. “Apologies for all the nicks... I don’t actually know what to call you?”

It was a question Sam didn’t have an answer to. One more thing to figure out besides his battle cry, two things he had no time to think about while in the current situation.

“Looks like you didn’t find the bow,” Sam said, and then faking a grin of his own. “I wonder how your boss feels about you failing your mission.”

It was barely a second, but the shadow of doubt definitely flitted across the surface of the Trickster’s face before the villain reformed his patented deranged smile.

“Trying to make me spill my secrets, I see,” the Trickster laughed that mocking laugh of his. “You’re not nearly as good at it as your partner. Where is my good friend, Crow?”

He glanced left and then right before shifting his gaze back on Sam.

“Not lying in wait somewhere to ambush me, I suppose...” the villain decided. “He’s more of a night creature and it is still light out, after all... and he probably would have come to your rescue by now... just like last night.”

It was Sam’s turn to frown at that jab of him needing to be rescued. He was just about to verbally counter too, but then this hair-raising screech reached his ears, forcing Sam’s attention to his right.

The second Boar had just let out its death cry for the first Boar had already eaten half of its entire mass, and this included the chest area where most horror cores were located. All that remained of the horror was a half-eaten carcass with its bones exposed while dark ichor and guts littered the floor.

“Holy Zeus,” Sam whispered.

As for the first Boar, its gray hide had turned a garish red shade and the fat all over its body was now even thicker, sporting the bulging muscles and popping veins of a bodybuilder.

“It’s not as big as the Erymanthian Boar of legend, but that thing had eaten up half a city before Hercules found it,” the Trickster commented. “Still, this one should be enough for a Mr. Archer who doesn’t have a bow...”

If the Trickster hadn’t spoken, Sam wasn’t sure he could have taken his eyes away from the horrific sight of predation before him.

“You look like you’re about to hurl your breakfast on the nice floor, Mr. Healer.” The Trickster’s voice was thick with mockery. “But the strong devouring the weak is only natural... isn’t that how your precious hero society operates as well?”

“There’s nothing natural about this, psycho,” Sam spat. “And you didn’t used to agree with that either... I remember how you were up in arms against the ranking system before your... accident.”

Sam hoped there was a bit of the old Trickster left in this meat sack of madness to connect to, but the devilish grin plastered on the villain’s face told Sam that the inspiring man he’d met once before was no longer in the driver’s seat.

“Godsdammit,” Sam hissed.

Then he launched himself forward with fists drawn back, signaling that the time for talk had ended and all that was left was the coming smack down.