Emil’s legs were tired, from how much walking he had done these last several hours. It was now the beginning of sunset, soon nightfall would come. The smell told Emil that he was close, before anything else. If there was anything worse than normal fecal matter, it was burnt fecal matter. However, he didn’t want to risk going ahead yet. Depending on the wind, they might smell him before he got close.

He pulled Theo from his shoulder, and gave it a set of instructions. To find the pack and then come back when it spotted them. When it returned, he wanted it to point its legs in their exact direction. During these last two weeks, he had figured out that it could also follow these kinds of instructions. He then sent the roach to fly ahead.

While it flew off, Emil sat down against a tree. He pulled out a flask of water, and began to drink from it. After a few minutes of getting to rest, Theo returned and landed on his hand. It pointed its legs almost directly to their right. Emil rubbed its head with his finger, and had it return to his shoulder. The trail he had been following went to his left, meaning at some point the pack must have curved back around.

‘Hmm, wonder if I should try to paint Theo’s back. If I tell it to face true north, would it know what I mean? If so, I could draw the directions on it, and use it as a compass. Let’s see here.’ With that thought, Emil ordered the undead roach to face its head towards the north. However, it failed to do as he had commanded. Instead, it spun around in a circle a few times before falling. Emil caught Theo before it could hit the ground

‘Well then, that settles that. But that does tell me something important. Theo can do what I order, but there are limits. Obviously, there are the things that are physically impossible. Like if I asked it to go to the dig site and back in ten minutes. But now I know there are certain… abstract things it can’t do too. It seems like a bug doesn’t really have a concept for true north, so it can’t point at something it can’t understand. At least, I guess that’s the reason why.’

But even if that was the case for a living insect, Theo was now tied directly to his will. As such, because he knew what true north was, wouldn't that let it know too? In any case, Emil could know where north was based on the sun. It wouldn’t be as precise as a compass, but just the general direction would be good enough for him. But in any case, it was now time for him to wait until the sun had fully gone down.

When he felt the right time had come, Emil stood back up and stretched. He had wished he knew how many of the boar there were, but that was something he would soon find out. However, it was soon as he had that thought, that he immediately realized something.

‘Ah shoot, I should have asked Theo to do that. I could have told it to point in their direction, and then indicate how many there are with its legs. And if there were more then of them than its legs, to do some kind of movement and then indicate again.’ While he could still have it do that now, at this point, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. He trusted that he would be able to safely count their numbers for himself while they were asleep.

Emil began to make his way in the direction his roach had pointed. By now, the pack would likely have continued onward before coming to a stop for the night. But that was fine to him. It was unlikely they had traveled very far between Theo finding them and now.

He eventually came across a spot with many mounds of dug-up dirt. Emil knelt down and placed his hand against one of them. It was still warm to the touch. It was directly beneath several lush trees. Meaning that due to the shade, it was heated from a boar’s fire, not the sun. But with how cold the ambient temperature was, they had to have been here recently. So they couldn’t have gone too far from where he now was.

When Emil continued to follow the trail, there came a point where he could hear grunting. He was close by now. Squatting down, he slowly and quietly moved closer to the source of the noise. After navigating his way around the brush, Emil spotted them.

There were eight in total that he could see, huddled together in a tight group. To him, they all looked like they were sound asleep. Their coats were a dark red with streaks of orange. The biggest had tusks easily as long as his arm. Of them, the two centermost in their pile seemed to still only be piglets. The next four were larger. But it was the last, outermost pair that was the biggest.

To Emil, there were a couple of ways for him to go about this. The adults were at opposite ends of the group. So if he fired from the correct angle, a well-aimed shot with Negative Void could at least kill one. How much damage it did after that, however, would depend on their natural resistance. The boar’s tough skin also offered protection against magical attacks. Their best resistance was against fire of course, but if he remembered correctly, they were actually weak to electricity.

But he had no idea how Negative Magic would fare against them. The best-case scenario was that it completely ignored their resistance and shred through them like any other animal. Where he could kill multiple with just that one shot. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there was the possibility of it being partially negated. To the point where it failed to even kill its first target, and only infuriated it instead. There was no way to know for sure.

However, he still had three other options he could potentially do instead. One, use a Dark Arc, and attempt to hit them all at once. Two, sneak up to them and cast Negative Touch. Then lastly, use Death Magic. But each one had its own pros and cons.

Dark Arc would be weaker than Negative Void, since its power would be spread out. The touch spell required him to be in close range, something that could quickly get ugly if they became aggravated. As for Death Magic, there was of course the rebound. Emil almost immediately dismissed the last two as just bad ideas. So now, it came down to the Arc and Void.

Emil steadily circled around the group, and got himself into position. Both of the spells would need to be cast from the same spot, no matter which one he chose. But as he kept his eyes fixed on them while moving, his mind leaned in favor of Negative Void. With their varying sizes, an arc-shaped spell would hit them differently. The spherical shape of his original idea would at least be more predictable in its result and thus reliable. He decided to go with that.

With his hand raised and aimed, he poured twenty points of Mana into the spell. It manifested in front of his palm, and with no hesitation, Emil let it fly. The sphere of power sped through the air and slammed into the flame boar’s head.

-20 Mana

With a sickening plop, it drilled straight through its body. The spell absorbed its mass, and only grew larger. The smaller boar that had been immediately behind the first was split into two halves. With the size the Void had now picked, it fully absorbed the piglets in the middle. All that was left of them was blood-stained grass.

Finally, the carnage came to an end with the adult at the opposite end. The dark sphere didn’t have enough strength to fully go through it. Instead, it ripped apart its behind before dissipating.

For a moment, its bones and organs were fully visible. The boar let out an ear-piercing squeal while shooting a cone of flame upward. Blood poured out from its grievous injury as it turned around.

That had gone far better than he had expected. With just that one spell, Emil successfully took out half of the pack. Now there was one heavily injured adult, and three teens that still remained. They all quickly woke up while loudly grunting. Wildly, they turned and looked, trying to find the threat. But they hadn’t found him, not yer at least.

Emil prepared for a second shot. But he understood that now they knew there was danger. So this time, they would sense him beginning the spell. And when they did, all of them would undoubtedly charge straight for him.

Meaning that Emil would only get one chance to aim it properly. If he missed, it would result in either being gored by their tusks or being roasted alive by their flames. There was zero room for error, it was now or never.