The city is near. I'm currently at the edge of the forest where it breaks into a grassy meadow, and breaking the meadow is the city wall, approximately 2 kilometers from my position. I've circled the city multiple times, and this seems like the easiest point of entrance given two reasons: the group of Battlemages have excellent line of sight to eliminate any stray demon beasts, and there's only one demon beast in question barring my path.
A 4 meter long, 2 meter tall, 2 ton behemoth of a boar.
Over the past few hours of baiting and observing it, I've noted its top speed can reach around 15 m/s. It has mediocre turning capabilities. Most pertinently, it boasts a pair of bloody tusks each the size of a medieval knight's lance. Appropriately, the boar wields them in much the same way. It had thundered up to a grazing cow that was unaware of or unable to avoid its imminent death, impaling the sow. The boar is currently in the process of savagely tearing chunks off its corpse.
Indeed, I would be warier if I needed to face it in direct combat, but my preparations should be sufficient to delay it long enough for me to dash to the city. I can only hope the Battlemages take pity on my forlorn, ragged, childish figure. Perhaps childish is stretching it; after all, few 13 year olds would dare boast of more defined muscles, the offspring of both deliberate exercise and my exertions to survive in the forest.
Regardless of what I'll have to confront after my mad dash for the walls, I need to deal with this boar first. My mobile arsenal consists of two stone daggers strapped to my waist, a stone spear slung over my back, and a woven grass knapsack containing emergency food, water, and all manner of herbs. None of these tools are likely to injure the boar unless I target vital regions like the eyes or anus, areas that the boar will be highly guarded against anyway.
I begin by shouting "HEY!" at the behemoth.
Now it's growling, now charging. It should reach me in 10 seconds. I pray that I set up the pitfall trap correctly, although now isn't really the time to second-guess my artisan skills. It gets so close to me that I can almost smell its dark orange fur coat. I deftly leap to the side, avoiding its charge.
However, it might have anticipated this; how could it not, after innumerable prey escaped its jaws by performing the same trick? But in turn, how could I not predict its anticipation? Unfortunately, planning each action to be taken in future combat with any semblance of precision is simply impossible; I'm unaware of how experienced the boar is, and vice versa. In this case, where I'm hoping to lead the boar into a pit dug behind me, the best I can do is take the course of action that maximizes the ease with which I remain in a position to kite the boar.
That means dodging its charge by leaping to my left, ducking under its swiveling tusks as it attempts a redirection, kicking off of those tusks to swiftly jump back to my initial position, and dodging its charge for a final time, forcing it to plummet into the hole filled with sharpened sticks.
Now is the time to run: boars are not particularly adept at jumping, so I can expect at least 10 minutes before it kicks enough dirt down from the walls of the pit to clamber out and recklessly charge me again. 4 minutes in, and I'm already almost halfway to the city. 1100 meters to go. 1000 meters.
[Wait, what? The boar JUMPED out after dislodging only half the dirt I imagined it would need? I've never seen any boars in the jungle do that before.]
A sickening feeling germinates in the pit of my stomach. Of course I hadn't seen such a thing, since I took immense care to avoid any demonic beasts like the plague. Since it never needed to leap while hunting prey, I didn't ponder any further on what I thought was an obvious flaw. I was reminding myself not to underestimate it even while preparing to face it, since demon beasts completely outclass wild animals in every possible way, but of course every possible way signifies a high probability that many weaknesses will not be retained in the stronger demon beast versions of wild animals. However, no need to dwell on my mistake any longer.
[What do I do?]
It'll reach me when I'm about 400 meters away from the walls. Even with the superior vision of Mages, it's unlikely the soldiers manning the city wall will notice me in the tall grass unless they were specifically looking for me. They might notice the boar at that distance, but it'll be too late at that point anyway. No, I need to face the beast.
It's here, in all of its smelly, orangey, tusky glory. I leap at it while twisting to avoid the lance-like protrusions of bone, kicking off its face to grab its tusks as it tries to skewer me. Before it begins violently shaking to remove my grip, I dangle from its left tusk with my right hand. In one smooth motion, I remove my spear from my back and swipe it across its left eye.
As it roars in pain, my grip finally comes loose and I collide hard with the ground. Ignoring the pangs of pain that likely correspond to a broken rib, I repeat the process to blind its left eye. Unfortunately, it manages to blindly slam one of its tusks into my right leg after tossing me into the air.
An awful crunch echoes through the air. It's a demon beast after all; even though it's of the Soldier level, it's still far faster and stronger than an Intermediate Mage, let alone me. I'm left half crawling, half stumbling to the city, hoping to any higher beings that the boar won't notice which direction I departed towards. My experience with stealthy movement under dire circumstances, honed in the forest, barely keeps me hidden from its perceptive ears.
[How long has it been, 10 minutes? 20 minutes? An hour? Please, can someone on the wall notice me or the boar rampaging near me?]
My prayers are answered as I'm 200 meters away. A troop of Battlemages comes roaring down the wall after spotting my limping figure. I allow myself to collapse as they reach me, making sure to point them to the boar a distance away. I've finally reached civilization.