Ethan could only see one weakness on the Bloodtusk Boar that was stuck, and he planned on exploiting it.
With hesitation, he stepped in and delivered a brutal oblique kick to the boar's right front leg. He drove down his heel with his full weight, targeting its knee joint with everything he had left.
Thud.
The impact jolted up through his leg, but the joint held. Thick muscle and dense sinew absorbed the blow, the limb bending only slightly before locking again.
'Not enough? Then I'll just keep at it.'
Ethan didn't pull back far this time - he stayed close and latched onto the boar's fur.
He then began hacking down again and again, stomping, driving, attacking the same leg with everything he had left. Striking with his heel, shin, and foot, there was no finesse, just repetition and desperation.
Each strike landed with a dull, meaty impact. The boar bellowed, thrashing, but its leg refused to give.
Then-
Crunch!
The joint finally gave way, folding at an angle no living thing should bend.
The Bloodtusk Boar screamed as its leg collapsed beneath it.
Ethan staggered back, breathing hard, his leg numb from the repeated impacts as the wounded beast began thrashing even more violently.
'Movement,' he thought coldly. 'That's your biggest weapon.'
Blinding it was the other thing he had considered, though it barely relied on vision anyway.
But this? This took away its speed, its charge, its terror.
However, the beast was far from giving up and was still a dangerous creature that he couldn't write off just yet. On cue, the boar finally tore its tusks free, ripping chunks of bark from the tree as it stumbled backwards.
Now on three legs, with one rendered useless, it turned to Ethan with rage burning in its eyes.
Ethan beckoned it forward.
"Come on, piggy," he taunted softly.
It lunged, but it was slow and awkward as it dragged its broken leg.
Ethan dodged easily, staying just out of reach, forcing it to move again and again until its breath grew ragged and its strength bled away.
It was adapting to the loss of a leg, but it was no longer nearly as much of a threat as it had been. Meanwhile, the blue-eyed man proceeded to target its other front leg each time it attempted to ram its tusks into him.
Both were on their last legs, but one more literally so than the other.
And it was only a matter of time before...
Crack!
Another of the boar's legs gave way under the constant strikes and its own weight.
'The bigger they are, the harder they fall.'
Ethan was panting and had used the last of his strength to break two legs of the giant beast that, on paper, should have been impossible to defeat. Even he could hardly believe he had managed to, as it collapsed to the floor.
It struggled to get to its feet with only its hind legs remaining - there was no attacking now when it couldn't even stand anymore.
As such, Ethan took his time, catching his breath as he savoured the taste of taking down such a creature.
But before his Beast Assimilation expired after running out of MP and being overcome by fatigue, he got ready to finish the job.
Finding a large rock that he could lift only with two hands, Ethan carried it over to the helpless beast. It struggled to move or attack as it looked up at the man, almost praying for mercy, but it found the maniacal smile of a predator.
Ethan didn't hesitate, smashing the rock down onto the beast's dome.
If their roles were reversed, he would be the one getting killed, so there was no need for guilt. This was his reward as the victor, taking the life of the other and feeding on its flesh, just like a beast.
He managed to create a split in its hide, some blood splattering onto him, then he struck it again.
And again.
And again.
The brain matter and blood didn't bother him, and he continued crushing the beast's skull with the large rock until...
{Beast Eliminated!}
Another familiar message followed.
{Would you like to acquire this beast as your own?}
Ethan stared at it, chest heaving.
He considered it, especially because of its stats, but the thought of assimilating with a boar made his stomach twist.
'No.'
{Beast Capacity: 1/2}
He stepped back, wiping blood from his knuckles.
Even if he acquired the beast, he assumed it would reset to an infant, just like Wolfy. An infant boar likely wasn't better than an infant wolf, especially since it wasn't a predator.
More importantly, he had limited slots.
Even if he managed to reach S Rank, there were only seven.
But in the pursuit of perfection, was he hindering himself?
'If I'd taken the water snake… I might've swum faster, or been able to go downstream and get away from the beast.'
Hypotheticals like that in hindsight wouldn't help, and there was no point in dwelling on it.
'Regrets are for the weak and victory for the strong. I don't remember where I heard that, probably some shitty action movie, but it sounds pretty cool.'
That's when it hit him all at once.
Pain, fatigue, dizziness - it was worse than anything he had felt before.
It felt like he had been run over, then helped back up, just to get run over again.
Immediately, Ethan turned back toward the beast's massive corpse, which now had a caved-in cranium with its brain splattered around it.
'Dinner is served,' he joked as he took in the result of his brutality.
One thing was clear: he needed to eat, and fast.
But there was one issue...
'How the fuck am I supposed to butcher it?!'