Limitless Evolution Through Conquering Primal Beauties-Chapter 24 - Dying Alive

Leonard finally saw the creature clearly, and his heart almost stopped.

From behind the fallen trees, a creature emerged that he could never have imagined before. It was a gigantic wild boar. It stood about two meters tall and was three and a half meters long from snout to tail.

Thick black fur covered its entire body, standing upright like sharp spikes ready to pierce anyone who dared approach. The most terrifying part was its four tusks, two from the lower jaw and two from the upper jaw, each as long as Leonard’s arm. They were dark like old rusted metal, their tips sharp and frighteningly hard.

The monster’s eyes were red like something that had lost its sanity, like a fire burning out of control. It was rampaging, crashing through small trees that blocked its path without care, crushing bushes and leaving a trail of destruction behind it.

And the moment those red eyes caught Leonard and Lily, it immediately changed direction.

The boar monster charged with its head lowered, all four tusks pointed forward like a raging bull ready to gore its enemy. The ground trembled beneath each of its steps. The sound of its snorting breath was like a heavy machine at work.

Leonard felt his legs freeze. His mind screamed for him to run, to move, to do something, but his body refused to obey.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" he shouted, his voice nearly breaking.

Lily grabbed Leonard’s arm and pulled him hard, forcing him to move. The girl’s face had turned pale and her eyes were wide with fear.

"MUTATED BEAST! BLACK TUSK BOAR!" Lily shouted while dragging Leonard as she began to run.

Leonard had a thousand questions in his head. Since it was a pig, did the pig beastkin in the village also eat this creature? Would that be considered cannibalism? How could something that big exist so close to a settlement? But there was no time to ask. No time to think. The boar monster was too fast.

They ran. Leonard tried with all his strength, but his weak and untrained legs were clearly slower than Lily’s agile movements. The distance between them and the monster kept shrinking. Leonard could hear its heavy snorting behind him and feel the vibration of the ground from its steps growing stronger.

"Leo! Get on!" Lily shouted while bending slightly, offering her back.

Leonard did not think twice. Pride? Shame? A man’s honor? None of that mattered now. His life was on the line. He jumped onto Lily’s back and wrapped both arms tightly around her neck.

Lily immediately ran with long leaps that no normal human could perform. Every time her feet touched the ground, she jumped again, weaving past trees and rushing through bushes at a speed that made Leonard dizzy. The wind roared in his ears. Lily ran as fast as she could, but the boar monster kept chasing them.

Leonard looked back. The boar monster was still there, pursuing them with the same ferocity. It crashed through trees without hesitation. Tree trunks as thick as a man’s thigh fell like matchsticks when it struck them, yet it did not slow down at all. Its red eyes remained locked on them.

"LILY! HOW CAN THAT MONSTER BE HERE?!" Leonard shouted in panic.

Lily answered while still running. Her breathing was slightly strained but steady.

"I DON’T KNOW! MAYBE IT’S A MUTATED BEAST THE HUNTERS CAUGHT AS FOOD RESERVE! MAYBE IT ESCAPED BY ACCIDENT!"

Leonard did not have time to process the information. He looked back again and tried something new. With all his willpower, he focused his gaze on the boar monster. Just as he expected, a system screen appeared before his eyes.

[ Mutated Beast ]

[ Species: Black Tusk Boar ]

[ Stage: 2 ]

[ Evolution Progress: 2014/3000 ]

[ Threat Level: High ]

[ Status: Untamed ]

Leonard quickly analyzed the information. Stage 2. Evolution Progress 2014 out of 3000. That meant it was already more than halfway toward the next stage. Meanwhile Lily was Stage 1, and he himself was Stage 1 with zero progress.

’Even if both of us fight it, we cannot win,’ he thought with dread. ’Our strength is not comparable.’

The monster kept chasing them. The distance grew smaller. Now it was only about ten meters behind them. Leonard could hear its snorting clearly. A chill ran down his spine as he imagined his body being rammed by that massive monster and pierced by those terrifying tusks.

"LILY! TO BORAMI’S HOUSE! QUICK!" he shouted as loudly as he could.

"I AM GOING THERE!" Lily shouted back while continuing to run. Her voice was starting to sound more breathless.

Leonard looked back again. The boar monster was very close now, only a few meters away. He could clearly see the details of its tusks glistening with saliva, the muscles moving beneath its black skin, and its blazing red eyes.

Then when he turned forward to check their direction, he felt something terrifying.

The impact came from behind.

The boar monster rammed them with full force. Leonard felt four simultaneous punctures through his body, from his back through to his stomach, through his chest, through his shoulder. An unbearable pain exploded through every nerve and every cell of his body.

The world spun.

They were both thrown forward by the monstrous force. Leonard flew through the air, his body rolling across the rocky ground, slamming into a small tree trunk, hitting a large stone before finally stopping in a patch of bushes.

He lay on the ground, unable to move. His body was destroyed. Four gaping holes pierced him, in his stomach, his chest, his right shoulder, and his left waist. Blood poured from each wound, soaking the ground beneath him and forming a spreading red pool. The pain was so overwhelming that Leonard wanted to scream with all his strength, but only a weak groan escaped his lips.

Yet in the middle of that pain, he felt something strange. Something moving inside his body. Fine tissues creeping together, muscles closing, organs rearranging themselves.

Regeneration.

He could feel it working, and working fast.

Leonard grimaced and tried to rise. His body had not fully recovered yet. The holes were still there though they were slowly shrinking, but at least he could move a little. He turned his head to the side with a stiff neck.

Lily lay not far from him, about ten meters away. The girl was also trying to stand, her face covered in scratches, but she did not seem as badly injured as Leonard. Perhaps because Leonard’s body had taken most of the attack. Perhaps because Lily was stronger and more agile. In any case, Lily was already halfway standing while Leonard was still crawling on the ground.

But the boar monster had already turned around.

Its red eyes locked onto Leonard. The monster snorted loudly and scraped its lower tusks against its upper tusks, producing a horrifying metallic grinding sound like a blade being sharpened on stone. Then it began to run straight toward Leonard with its mouth wide open.

’Damn it!’

Leonard’s survival instincts kicked in. In a panicked motion, he grabbed the bone axe that had slipped from his grip when he was thrown earlier. It lay about a meter away. Leonard crawled toward it and grabbed it.

Just as the boar monster reached him.

THUD!

Four tusks pierced his body again.

Leonard screamed. A scream of pain from the deepest part of his soul. Blood burst from his mouth, splashing across his own face and the monster’s snout. He was carried by the boar’s charge, his body hanging from those four monstrous tusks like a rag doll skewered in place.

The boar monster shook its head violently, trying to tear Leonard apart. Leonard could feel the tusks shifting inside his body, ripping flesh, crushing organs, breaking bones. The pain was unimaginable. He wanted to faint. He wanted to die rather than feel this.

But something inside him refused to give up.

In the middle of that unbearable pain, Leonard could still think. With the little strength he had left, he grabbed one of the monster’s tusks with his left hand. It was slippery with blood, his own blood, but he gripped it as tightly as he could. His right hand still held the axe.

He swung the axe toward the monster’s eye.

CRACK!

The axe blade sank into the monster’s left eye socket. Leonard felt it pierce through the eyeball and crush whatever lay behind it.

The boar monster shrieked, a high pitched scream that hurt Leonard’s ears. It thrashed wildly and flung Leonard’s body away.

Leonard was thrown across the rocky ground. His body rolled until it crashed into a large boulder. He could not move. The pain was overwhelming and he nearly lost consciousness.

But his right hand still held the axe tightly.

The boar monster went berserk. Its left eye was now blind, leaving only a horrifying bloody hole. It scraped its tusks together again with a loud grinding noise before turning around.

Its remaining eye found Leonard.

It growled, scraped its tusks together again, and charged toward him once more.

Leonard clenched his face in pain as he felt his body regenerating quickly. New tissues formed, wounds closed, bones fused together. The process itself hurt intensely, a burning and itching sensation throughout his body.

He could move again. He tried to stand.

But the monster reached him first.

The second charge hit him and sent him flying. Leonard had not even stood up yet. He was still half crawling when the tusks pierced him again. The monster kept running, dragging Leonard’s skewered body along its tusks and smashing him into small trees along the way.

Then came the final impact.

The monster slammed Leonard’s body into a massive tree. The trunk was about a meter wide, thick and solid.

CRASH! 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Leonard felt his bones shatter. His back, his ribs, his spine. Everything was crushed. The pain was so intense that he almost blacked out.

But he knew with absolute certainty that if he lost consciousness now, he would die.

"AAAAAAAAARGH!"

Leonard roared, a scream of pain mixed with pure fury. Rage from somewhere deep inside him, perhaps born from the pain, perhaps from survival instinct, perhaps from something buried inside him that he had never known before.

He attacked. With a broken body and shattered bones, Leonard swung his axe at the boar monster.

The first strike hit its snout. But the boar’s hide was too tough. The axe left only a small scratch.

The boar monster retaliated by biting Leonard.

Its bite crushed Leonard’s shoulder. Its powerful jaws shattered bone and its sharp teeth tore through flesh. Leonard screamed but kept attacking.

Second strike. Third. Fourth. Fifth.

No effect. The boar’s hide was too thick. The axe could not penetrate.

The monster kept biting. Leonard felt his left arm being torn from his body. The pain was unimaginable, yet strangely he was still conscious and still furious.

He felt his body regenerating in the middle of the monster’s attacks. New tissues formed only to be torn apart again. New flesh grew only to be eaten again. A mad cycle that never stopped, endless pain without pause.

Leonard was close to giving up.

But in the middle of that madness, in the middle of unbearable pain, he remembered something.

Its eyes.

The monster’s eyes. The left one was already blind. The right one was still red and wild, watching him through the blood covering its face.

Leonard waited.

The boar monster bit again, crushing Leonard’s leg. Leonard screamed, but his right hand still held the axe firmly.

When the monster lifted its head to bite again, Leonard saw an opening.

Now. With every last bit of strength he had, with the burning rage in his chest, Leonard swung the axe at the boar monster’s right eye.

CRACK!

The axe blade sank in.

The boar monster shrieked. Its body convulsed and thrashed wildly before beginning to stagger.

But it did not fall.

It went completely berserk. With both eyes now blind, the boar monster lost all control. It could not see its enemy. It could not see anything. All that remained was pain and pure rage.

And it began to tear everything apart.

Leonard, still trapped between the monster’s jaws, felt bite after bite crushing his body. The boar monster bit left, right, up, and down without direction or purpose other than destroying whatever was in its mouth.

Its bite crushed Leonard’s stomach. Leonard screamed, but the monster kept biting. His legs were bitten, crushed, and chewed apart. His thigh bone snapped repeatedly and his flesh was shredded like minced meat.

Leonard felt his body regenerating, but the regeneration could not keep up with the monster tearing him apart. Every time new tissue formed, the monster bit again and destroyed it. It felt like endless torture, dying while still alive over and over again.