The moment I called upon my skill, I could feel my body becoming lighter, but also stronger and more resilient. I could feel my magical capabilities increasing to the point where I felt capable of doing anything I set my mind to.

Of course, fighting the King Boar snorting in front of me was no exception. Now I could fight him the same way I had fought Vulcan.

I had been saving it and Berserk Wolf for use only as last resorts because of their side effects. But thanks to Healthy Body, I no longer had to restrict myself that way when using Ero Boost.

It wasn’t foolproof, since the effects were temporary, but I wasn’t alone. I just needed to lower his HP enough for a finishing blow. That was within my reach.

"Grronk!" Speak of the devil. That creature sensed that I was different now and saw me as its only threat, forgetting about my Valkyries.

"Rick." Justine was sitting awkwardly on the ground with one hand pressed against her chest.

"Don’t worry. I intend to finish this quickly," I said to her, turning to face her with a smile.

At that moment, the King Boar dashed towards me, trying to take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t looking at him. The creature’s tusks cut through the air, ready to impale me.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

Just like when I faced Vulcan head-on, his movements seemed to be in slow motion. With my agility, I quickly shifted my gaze back to my enemy and saw that I wasn’t even close to being in danger. His trajectory was completely predictable, aimed straight at my chest in a frontal attack.

I simply struck back. I clenched my fist and punched his tusk with all the strength I had. His head, which had been hurtling fiercely towards me, snapped to the side from the force of the impact, and his beautiful ivory tusk shattered under my blow.

"HRRREEE!" The creature grunted in pain from the impact.

"We’re just getting started!" I said to the creature, which was still trying to recover from my punch.

I stayed at point-blank range, thrusting my palm forwards.

"Fireball!" The ball of fire quickly formed in my palm, and without hesitation, I hurled it straight at the King Boar’s snout. The intense flames of my attack spread across the entire front of the creature’s face like a flamethrower.

But it wasn’t enough. Despite the attack being effective against him, that monster was a damage sponge with a ridiculous amount of HP. He got back on all fours, glaring angrily at me with his red eyes.

"Thanks for your attention, my little piggy friend." I mocked him for giving me exactly what I needed to activate my skill. "Mystic Eyes."

I called upon the skill I had obtained thanks to Diane. I could feel some of the mana in my body gathering in my eyes, activating my Mystic Eyes. It was a powerful skill that allowed me to paralyze enemies who made eye contact with me.

"Ice Spear."

Beside me, several spears of ice took shape, surrounding my body in midair like my own personal arsenal controlled through telekinesis.

"You hurt my Valkyries quite badly," I said, staring at the giant pig paralyzed in front of me. "Don’t think for even a moment that your death will be peaceful."

I effortlessly commanded my icy spears, which arced into the sky before plummeting at full speed towards the King Boar and burying themselves in his flesh.

"Thunder!" I pointed my hand towards the creature, firing a powerful bolt of yellow lightning directly at him.

I kept attacking him with one spell after another, alternating between the elements of the Sage class’s offensive magic. After firing so many spells at him, I started panting just as the effect of Mystic Eyes wore off.

The pig could now move freely again.

"Damn pig," I said irritably to the monster. A normal monster would have been dead a long time ago.

I knew his strength was at Boss-level difficulty, but it was simply frustrating to keep chipping away at his HP. It felt like it would never end.

Just as the creature came charging towards me, its body exploded midway through its attack.

"Erina," I said to myself, not even bothering to look for where she had fired her Explosive Bullet from. The explosion surged towards me, its heat threatening to engulf me.

I stayed where I was, not believing that I would take damage from an ally’s fire. That wasn’t the Erina I knew, so surely she wouldn’t hurt me. I remained standing my ground, deciding to trust her.

That was when the flames stopped right in front of me, as if some kind of invisible barrier were protecting me from danger. I recognized that skill. I had used it myself not long ago.

"Crystal Wall," I said, touching Alicia’s magic. I could swear I could feel the young woman’s desire to keep me safe.

"Rick." It wasn’t Erina’s voice, nor was it Alicia calling out to me. Now, beside me, a red ponytail fluttered in the wind.

Sarah had already recovered from her injuries and was now standing by my side, sword in hand and a confident smile on her face.

And she wasn’t the only one. I saw that Alicia, Diane, and Justine were now surrounding me. The only exceptions were Camula and Erina, but I knew they were also keeping a close eye on our fight, just waiting for the right moment to assist us.

I didn’t need to exchange a single word with the girls by my side, and I wasn’t even sure I could. I didn’t think any words that came out of my mouth could have expressed how happy I was to have them close to me, supporting me.

No. Instead of exchanging words with them, I called upon my Swordmaster skill, the one that had granted Sarah and me victory against the Boss.

"Flame Sword."

My black sword was covered in flames, but this time they weren’t the same color as before. When I faced Zalrorg and used this skill, my flames had been red, like Sarah’s.

Now that I had changed swords, my flames had taken on a more purplish color, somewhat matching the color of my blade.

It was a dark shade of purple, like the kind of sinister power a character from the dark side would use, but I didn’t dislike the aesthetic change.

Sarah seemed to understand what I wanted to do and used the same skill I did, her sword becoming covered in her usual red flames.

I knew the physical damage from that attack would be reduced against that creature, but the same couldn’t be said for the fire, and our skill still had one more advantage to consider.

[ Flame Sword: The user can cover the blade of their sword in flames for a short duration. The flames on the weapon can feed on other sources of fire and grow stronger.

Cost: 8 MP]

Flame Sword could become even stronger when combined with other fire powers we possessed, and luckily, behind us stood a beautiful Sage who could give us all the firepower we needed as we unleashed our attack against that giant pig.

The problem was that we needed a little time to prepare, and from the smoke of the explosion, the King Boar emerged with another ferocious attack. He must have sensed the mana from our attacks and decided to strike first, using the smoke as camouflage.

"Barrier!"

A giant shield appeared in front of us, stopping the creature’s attack from reaching us.

"HRRREEE!" But the King Boar wasn’t done yet.

Unlike the smaller Boars that crashed into her Barrier and toppled over, that creature kept pressing against the shield with an unusually intense killing intent.

"Ugh!" A groan of pain came from Alicia, who could feel the force of the attack through her own body.

I looked at the young woman and saw that the hands she held out in front of her to maintain the shield were injured, blood running down her fingers.

"I’m fine," the princess said, as if she knew what was going through my mind. "Hurry up and combine your powers! Hurry!"

I did as Alicia asked. Sarah and I brought our Flame Swords together, forming an X above our heads. The flames surrounding Sarah’s blade quickly changed color, becoming the same as mine.

"Fireball!" At the same time, our Sage fired her flame attacks towards the point where our swords touched, and with each attack, the flames grew more intense.

"Urgh!" Alicia groaned in pain, doing everything she could to hold back the enemy as it slammed wildly against her shield.

With each blow from the monster, Alicia’s Barrier cracked further. Soon, our only defense would be completely destroyed.

"I can’t hold it much longer!" Alicia warned us, her voice filled with pain.

"You did well, Alicia," I said to her. "Leave the rest to us."

At that moment, Alicia could hold out no longer, and the Boar came charging straight towards us. Sarah and I then unleashed the combined power of our attacks against him.