Although she was sharp-tongued, once she realized it was Victor Wang, Eula held back a bit and stopped using her elemental power.
Still, the heavy Favonius Greatsword in her hands generated slicing sword winds as it swung, distorting the air with every movement.
Victor Wang had no choice but to draw his Wentian Sword and defend himself with great effort.
"You have to let me explain!"
Compared to a claymore, the advantage of a longsword was its agility, but it lacked the weight to parry strong attacks. Without a shield, it was nearly impossible to block a claymore's assault with just a longsword.
And in front of Eula, knowing he was at fault, Victor Wang couldn't take the initiative to strike back. Agility became meaningless—he had to rely on his elemental power to reinforce his sword and hold the line.
Clang! The claymore clashed with the longsword, sending out bursts of metallic echoes.
"I came to Dragonspine to find wild boars!" Victor Wang took the chance to explain during a brief lull.
"Wild boars?!"
Images of the round curves and plump body of a boar flashed through Eula's mind. She was filled with a mix of shame and fury. Her grip tightened, and her swings came faster and harder.
"You came all this way to find boars and ended up here, huh?! I'll knock you out so you can go dream about them instead!"
"No no no! It's snow boars! And the Great Snowboar King!"
The words great and snow rang in Eula's ears like a thunderclap. What did that mean? Big and snowy white?
"The Great Snowboar King, huh?!"
"The Great Snowboar King, huh?!"
"I'll personally send you to meet the Great Snowboar King!"
"Stop! I can't take this anymore! It's really a misunderstanding!"
By now, Eula's two-handed claymore danced as swiftly as a one-handed sword. Using the sword's momentum and her body strength, her strikes came like an avalanche. Her movements, elegant as snowflakes, transitioned into high-difficulty stances.
But Victor Wang had no time to admire any of it. He twisted the wheel on his sword's hilt, releasing a tiny Pyro particle—Xiangling's torch had fallen into the snow and gone out during the earlier tumble.
With his left hand, he generated a large anemo vortex, aiming it at the snowy ground to evaporate the snow. The terrain beneath them was soon exposed, revealing dark rocky earth, while thick steam rose between them, obscuring their vision.
Eula let out a cold snort. Cryo energy surged from her, freezing the mist and sending shards falling like snow, restoring visibility.
Victor Wang used the chance to backstep and then propelled himself into the air with a blast of wind beneath his feet.
"It really was a misunderstanding! Lumine and Xiangling are with me! We split up to search for boars, and I just happened to run into you!"
The ice lance that had been aimed skyward halted in place.
"Lumine? The Honorary Knight who defeated Stormterror?"
Victor Wang almost forgot—he had jumped ahead in Eula's story quest, so technically she and Lumine had never officially met. Thankfully, Eula had at least heard her name.
"Yeah, yeah! And Xiangling—the famous chef from Liyue's Wanmin Restaurant."
"You're really out here looking for wild boars? In this freezing snow mountain? What kind of boar would even live in a place like this?"
"That's why we're just exploring. There's a book that says a species of snow boar, believed to be extinct outside, might still exist here—including their king, the Great Snowboar King."
["Yeah! I'll vouch for my master! Even though he got nosebleeds from what he saw, ending up here really was an accident!"]
Eula's expression stiffened, but she dismissed the ice lance floating in the air.
"I doubt you could've predicted my exact movements. If it was a coincidence, come down. I won't hit you."
"I'm not coming down! You haven't even said the line! I don't feel safe!"
"Hmph." Eula was so exasperated she actually laughed.
With one hand on her hip, she flatly recited, "I'll remember this vengeance!"
Only then did Victor Wang land.
"Who was the other one speaking just now?"
"That was the sword spirit awakened by Albedo and me—name's Little Wen. It was the one that told me there used to be boars in this area!"
["Ahem! The world has changed a lot. With time, even landscapes shift,"] came the voice from Victor Wang's sword.
Eula studied the weapon carefully and confirmed the voice did come from the longsword.
"Where are you going next? I'll come with you. I want to see for myself if there are any boars in this mountain—and this so-called 'Great Snowboar King.'"
Victor Wang rubbed his nose awkwardly. "I've kind of reached a dead end here. Didn't find boars, but I found you… I still don't know which direction Lumine and Xiangling went. I was planning to head back and meet up with them."
He located the torch buried in snow and reignited it using Pyro energy.
"Look at my footprints. If we follow them back, we'll reach the rendezvous point. Once we meet up, I can prove I'm innocent."
"Hmph. That was my plan all along."
They traced the steps back to the Statue of The Seven. Awkwardly, neither Lumine nor Xiangling had returned yet.
Eula folded her arms and rested with her eyes closed while Victor Wang trembled in the snow.
"Just wait a little longer… a little longer."
Minutes later, Lumine and Xiangling finally arrived.
Before Victor Wang could introduce them, Eula stepped forward.
"You must be the Honorary Knight Lumine, who drove out Stormterror? And you—Liyue's renowned chef, Xiangling?"
Honorary Knight Lumine, golden-haired and in a white dress, was unmistakable.
"And you are?"
"I'm Eula of the Knights of Favonius Reconnaissance Company. We've been stationed on Dragonspine for a few days. I just happened to… run into Victor. I was curious about this Great Snowboar King he mentioned, so I came along."
Without the weight of her usual grudges, Eula was quite easy to talk to. Introductions went smoothly.
Paimon couldn't hold back. "There really are boars to the southwest! Lots of them! All frozen! And there's a pitch-black cave—Lumine said she sensed something inside. Might be the Great Snowboar King!"
"To the south, we also found a group of frozen boars. Same species as the one we caught this morning. But no sign of the Great Snowboar King."
"Northwest had no boars. Only Eula—ow!"
Eula stomped hard on Victor Wang's foot with her heel. "Mention me and wild boars in the same breath again, and I'll immediately get my revenge."
"Why?!" Victor Wang genuinely couldn't understand.
"Hmph!"
So, this is what they mean by 'a woman's heart is like the depths of the sea.' Terrifying…
Sensing tension between Eula and Victor Wang, Lumine quickly stepped in. "Let's go check out the cave to the southwest!"
The cave wasn't far from the Statue of The Seven. It didn't take long for the group to arrive.
"This valley… it can't be man-made, can it? How could such a perfect enclosure exist in the mountains?" Xiangling said, confused but excited.
Paimon panicked. "Wait, if someone raised these boars, we shouldn't mess with them, right? We already got scolded by Draff this morning…"
"Impossible. Even if they were bred by someone, that person must've been gone for ages. No one's lived on Dragonspine for a hundred years."
Eula had explored Dragonspine countless times, but this was her first time seeing entire herds of frozen boars. It surprised her—but she was sure only Treasure Hoarders and Fatui were active here.
The Knights and Adventurers' Guild did have plans to develop the area, but they hadn't started yet.
"If that's the case, shall we press on?"
The group exchanged glances and walked through the frozen boars—still posed as they were in life—until they reached a cave at the end of the valley.
With torches in hand, they ventured deeper into the cave for dozens of meters until they reached its end.
There stood a massive boar, frozen in ice.
Its limbs were thicker than a human torso. Its tusks as wide as Eula's thighs. The eyeballs deep in its sockets were possibly the size of a human head. Its front shoulders stood four meters tall, body length over five meters—no exaggeration.
"Whoa—!"
Xiangling's startled cry echoed in the cave.
"A boar that big actually exists?!"
"The Great Snowboar King… it'sreal…"
The sense of pressure seeing it in first person was completely different from viewing it in third-person in the game.
With that size, a single stomp could kill someone in war. A single charge could flatten anyone.
Well, any normal person.
"So, what do we do? Defrost it?"
"I say we melt just enough for a vital strike—get it while it's still immobile," Victor Wang made a throat-slitting motion.
"Mm… feels a bit unfair, but I agree."
"Then here I go."
Xiangling summoned flames, targeting the boar's heart. A round hole slowly melted through. She then stabbed her spear forcefully—two meters long, it went in barely half a meter.
"This hide is tougher than a magical beast's!"
The Great Snowboar King let out a roar more like a tiger's than a boar's.
"Sorry, sorry! I promise to eat you with deep gratitude!"
Xiangling twisted her spear deeper. The boar roared louder. Cracks spread from the melted hole across the surrounding ice.
She quickly channeled Pyro energy, causing a burst to explode inside the boar.
"ROAR!!!"
The boar's flesh beneath the ice turned crimson. Its eyes glowed blood red. With a sharp crack, the ice shattered.
"Get out! Now!"
The group sprinted for the exit. In a cave, there was no room to dodge if the Great Snowboar King charged.
It shook off the remaining ice, eyes glowing red, and chased after them. Once outside, it howled to the sky. In response, other frozen boars nearby broke free from the ice—chaos ensued.
Xiangling summoned Guoba, roasting small boars instantly. Lumine amplified her flames, a wind gust slamming a pile of boars into the Snowboar King.
Eula, wielding her ruthless claymore, landed lethal strikes on necks.
A several-meter-high fire tornado surged, but the Snowboar King leaped over it entirely—and slammed down toward the group.
Thud!
Snow trembled. The four scattered to dodge.
After several furious stomps, the Snowboar King lifted its head and summoned huge snow chunks from above, forcing everyone to keep dodging.
Victor Wang shouted, "Its berserk state can't last forever! Once this wave ends, we all attack!"
Sure enough, once the blizzard attack ended, the blood hue faded from the boar's body, and its attacks weakened.
"Words didn't work—time to beat it down!"
Xiangling unleashed her elemental burst. The spinning Pyro wheel slammed into the Snowboar King. Eula followed with an Lightfall Sword, blasting it point blank.
Victor Wang triggered a Gale Blade imbued with Cryo energy—forcing the boar to endure a mix of fire and ice.
Already wounded in the heart, the Snowboar King could no longer stand. Its vision went black as it collapsed.
"Snowboar King hunt complete! I cannot wait to cook this guy—let's do it right here!"
Xiangling quickly built a campfire in the cave.
"I'll help!" Paimon, the ever-hungry one, was happy to lend a hand.
Using snowmelt-washed stones as a grill, along with leftover ingredients from the morning, Xiangling carefully selected leg meat from the Snowboar King's front limbs. The smell was mouthwatering.