234: Chapter 234 Battle Against the Wild Boar Herd

"Very well."

Hu Gualing had no objections to Xiao Niao wanting to stay in the back. After all, in their understanding, whether it was DPS or support, as long as it was a ranged class, one had to hide in the back to ensure their own safety. Even though Xiao Niao now possessed the 'Recovery Spell' skill and had also added a new dark blue quality staff, he should have some ability to cope if he were accidentally targeted by a monster. However, this corridor naturally blocked attacks from monsters outside. If such a good geographical advantage wasn't utilized, it would be a bit of a waste. So, let Xiao Niao stay here.

Thinking this, Hu Gualing walked to the entrance of the corridor. He spread his arms and legs into a 'big' shape, bracing them against the stone walls on both sides of the corridor.

The reason he did this was because the corridor entrance was quite narrow. For Tang Yao and Xiao Niao, they could pass by turning slightly sideways, but for his burly physique, there was no way to pass directly; he couldn't squeeze out even if he turned sideways. Fortunately, this entrance wasn't as narrow everywhere as it was near the ground. The gap higher up was a bit wider. When he previously fled into the corridor from outside, Hu Gualing had jumped up in a moment of quick thinking while being chased by the Irritable Red Wild Boar, squeezing into the corridor through the wider gap higher up. Now that he was exiting the corridor with no monsters chasing him from behind, Hu Gualing naturally didn't need to be so panicked or embarrassed. He calmly climbed to a suitable height and jumped out easily.

This movement attracted the attention of the five wild boars that were resting. They all lifted their pig heads and looked towards the corridor. Seeing this group of players, who had been hiding in the corridor like cowards, finally come out, their state immediately changed. Their eyes seemed to light up, and led by the Irritable Red Wild Boar, they charged straight at Hu Gualing.

"Hmph." Hu Gualing put on the steel knuckle duster and let out a cold snort. Although these five wild boars were charging at him together, their Aura looked quite daunting. However, the position where these five wild boars were originally located was not far from the corridor, meaning there wasn't enough distance for them to build up a charging sprint. Therefore, Hu Gualing wasn't too worried. He stared intently at the pack of wild boars rushing towards him, led by the Irritable Red Wild Boar. "We will take out the lead Irritable Red Wild Boar first!" He said this to Tang Yao behind him without turning his head.

"Alright." Tang Yao held her long sword and turned her body slightly, then walked out of the corridor. She had no objections to Hu Gualing's tactic of taking out the Irritable Red Wild Boar first and crisply replied "Alright."

Actually, generally speaking, when facing a boss monster with a few ordinary small monsters as subordinates, players usually need to take out the small monsters first before focusing on the boss. Because the individual strength of the small monsters is not strong, and each monster's HP is much lower than the boss's, but because their numbers are large, they can unleash a high frequency of attacks. If the small monsters are left alone, the pressure of taking damage is very high. Conversely, if one targets the small monsters first and kills them one by one, the pressure can be greatly reduced, allowing everyone to focus on dealing with the boss together. The same logic applies to dealing with this Irritable Red Wild Boar, which is an elite boss monster. However, the tactic Hu Gualing proposed this time was unconventional, violating the usual practice of clearing small monsters before fighting the boss. This was because they had already clashed with this Irritable Red Wild Boar before and knew that although this Irritable Red Wild Boar was a mini-boss type character—otherwise it couldn't lead four ordinary wild boars as subordinates—its HP was not as high as the Fearless Black Wild Boar they had encountered before.

At that time, this Irritable Red Wild Boar was chasing behind Hu Gualing and got its head stuck in the corridor entrance. They took advantage of the Irritable Red Wild Boar being stuck in the narrow entrance, unable to move forward or backward, and attacked it, revealing its HP bar. However, at that time, Xiao Niao had not yet learned the 'Detection' skill and could not see the specific numerical value of the Irritable Red Wild Boar's HP. But based on the damage and the length of the HP bar, they estimated with the naked eye that it was around two hundred, at most less than two hundred and fifty HP. This amount of HP was not too much for an elite monster, so focusing fire to take it out first and then clearing the small monsters seemed like a suitable choice.

Holding this thought, Hu Gualing decided on the tactic. When the Irritable Red Wild Boar, moving faster than the other four ordinary wild boars, arrived in front of him in the lead, due to the height difference between them, Hu Gualing lowered his head and watched the area in front and below his body. Unhurriedly, he extended his hands forward, in the direction from which the Irritable Red Wild Boar was charging. When the wind kicked up by the charging Irritable Red Wild Boar could already slightly blow the hem of his novice cloth garment, his whole body suddenly curled into a ball in mid-air. He pressed his hands onto the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar, and his nearly two-hundred-jin body curled into a ball, concentrating his center of gravity as he rolled over the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar.

The Irritable Red Wild Boar, which was in the middle of a Charge, was already a bit stunned to suddenly lose its target in front of it. Then, being pressed by the nearly two-hundred-plus jin weight on its back, its entire body suddenly sank a notch, just like an overloaded car.

This sudden scene not only made the Irritable Red Wild Boar stunned and unable to react for a moment, but even Tang Yao and Xiao Niao were surprised to see Hu Gualing suddenly pounce onto the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar and roll over. They knew that Hu Gualing's Lazy Donkey Roll Movement Technique was often invincible for dodging monster attacks, but when they had seen Hu Gualing use the Lazy Donkey Roll in battle before, he was always rolling around on the ground. How could it be like this now, directly using his hands to support himself on the monster's body and rolling over twice?

After Hu Gualing rolled over the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar, he naturally dodged the Irritable Red Wild Boar's Charge, but this didn't mean everything was fine, because behind the Irritable Red Wild Boar were four ordinary wild boars. Although these four ordinary wild boars had no affixes and their Aura didn't look as imposing as the Irritable Red Wild Boar's, looking only at their size, they were about the same as the Irritable Red Wild Boar. Moreover, their attributes should be about the same, which caused them to run forward in perfect unison, looking a bit like a cavalry squad charging. Although Hu Gualing had changed into a pair of blue fine-quality pants in the Dungeon, adding a full 5 points of defense, he wasn't arrogant enough to not dodge and rely purely on his Physical Body defense to withstand the Charge of these four ordinary wild boars like a battle formation. Instead, when he just landed on the ground, he tapped his feet on the ground and, using the momentum from rolling off the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar, jumped forward again, leaping over the back of an ordinary wild boar that was charging from the front.

One roll plus one leap sounds long to describe, but in reality, it took only a little over two seconds. Hu Gualing had smoothly dodged the Charges of the Irritable Red Wild Boar and the four ordinary wild boars in one go. After he landed on the ground and stood still, he felt relatively relaxed and didn't feel too much strain. The only thing he wasn't used to was that in the Dungeon, whether facing the Mutated White Wild Boar or the Millennium Tree Demon, both bosses were huge, one larger than the other. During the battle, Hu Gualing had to keep his head tilted up to observe all the bosses' movements, which brought him a very strong sense of oppression. But now that he was out of the Dungeon and facing these monsters outside, although the Irritable Red Wild Boar was an elite mini-boss, it hadn't yet escaped the category of ordinary beasts. Not to mention that its size was far inferior to that of the Mutated White Wild Boar, even its way of moving couldn't be like the Mutated White Wild Boar, which could stand upright on its two hind hooves. It could only walk on all fours like an ordinary beast. Furthermore, this Irritable Red Wild Boar wasn't known for its size, so when Hu Gualing faced it, he had to keep his head down the whole time to observe it, which made Hu Gualing, who had gotten used to keeping his head up in the Dungeon, feel a bit unaccustomed.

However, with this, without the feeling of oppression and tension, and with his mind relaxed, he appeared quite calm in his responses.

At this moment, after standing still, Hu Gualing turned around and punched the butt of the nearest ordinary wild boar. -17, a damage number popped up from the head of the ordinary wild boar, and its HP bar appeared as well. Hu Gualing glanced at it and estimated that this ordinary wild boar must have at least 150-160 HP. At this time, Xiao Niao's voice rang out, "Irritable Red Wild Boar, 240 HP; ordinary wild boar, 150 HP!" Xiao Niao, holding the green wood staff inside the corridor, used 'Detection' and saw the HP of the wild boars outside.

Hearing the exact information provided by Xiao Niao, Hu Gualing nodded secretly, thinking that his judgment was indeed correct. Although this Irritable Red Wild Boar was an elite mini-boss monster, its HP was not much higher than that of the ordinary wild boars. Seen this way, the initially formulated tactic of taking out this Irritable Red Wild Boar first was absolutely correct.

The ordinary wild boar that was attacked stopped charging towards the corridor, turned around, and locked onto Hu Gualing, who had already jumped behind them. The other three ordinary wild boars and the Irritable Red Wild Boar at the front also felt the commotion behind them and all turned around to lock onto the hateful player who had just teased them. They all angrily buried their pig heads, kicked the hard rock ground vigorously with their hind hooves, and with their tusks leveled, charged head-on at Hu Gualing.

Hu Gualing gave a chuckle, not feeling particularly nervous. If he had been forced this close by these five wild boars before entering the Dungeon today, he really wouldn't have known how to handle it. But after going to the Dungeon and seeing a real boss, these five wild boars charging at him together didn't count as a big scene. Although his raw strength hadn't increased much, just this change in mentality and the improvement in combat experience allowed him to face these five wild boars again with composure, despite having the same base attributes and similar skill levels.

At this time, Tang Yao also took the opportunity to attack the wild boars with her long sword.

Just now, when they were charging towards the corridor, the one in the lead was the Irritable Red Wild Boar. Now that the wild boar pack had been attracted by Hu Gualing and had turned around, this Irritable Red Wild Boar naturally became the one left at the very back. Tang Yao, holding her steel long sword, immediately slashed at the back of the Irritable Red Wild Boar that was closest to her.

-24. Although the Irritable Red Wild Boar had already run towards Hu Gualing, Tang Yao's sword still landed on its hindquarters. The sword strike dealt 24 points of damage, which perfectly caused the Irritable Red Wild Boar's HP bar to drop by one-tenth. It seemed that this Irritable Red Wild Boar, despite being an elite mini-boss, was not that difficult to deal with after all!

Just as Tang Yao was thinking this and feeling a sense of relief in her heart, unexpectedly, the Irritable Red Wild Boar, which was originally running towards Hu Gualing, stopped its running form immediately after taking damage. It turned around again, and the pair of small eyes on its red-haired pig face stared at her, filled with irritable and angry emotions. Then, kicking the ground with its hind hooves, it charged at her with its pair of tusks leveled.

"Ah!" Tang Yao was slightly startled.

However, she wasn't scared by the Irritable Red Wild Boar's sudden attack. Rather, it was because when she fought the Mutated White Wild Boar and the Millennium Tree Demon in the Dungeon, she discovered that once these two bosses were attracted by Hu Gualing's aggro, as long as Hu Gualing was still near the boss, they wouldn't easily change their attack target so suddenly.

Yet this Irritable Red Wild Boar was so sensitive in its reaction compared to the two bosses.

Seeing that the Irritable Red Wild Boar's attack was imminent, at such a critical moment, Tang Yao had no time to think about anything else. If this Charge—without acceleration or a running start—from the Irritable Red Wild Boar was in Hu Gualing's eyes, he might only need to turn slightly to dodge it, and it would have no threat at all. But for Tang Yao, just the initial speed of this Irritable Red Wild Boar was already very fast, and coupled with the fact that it was so close now, it was completely impossible for her to dodge. Fortunately, having gone through the Dungeon once and been resurrected several times, she had also improved her combat awareness significantly. She immediately focused her spirit and used the Spirit Shield skill she had learned from the skill book dropped by the Millennium Tree Demon.

After using this skill, Tang Yao felt her mind move slightly, and a spherical light shield that was very faint, almost transparent, appeared around her body. As soon as this spherical light shield appeared, the Irritable Red Wild Boar crashed into it. With a bang, the already very faint spherical light shield shook, and the color seemed to fade a little more, but regardless, it was not broken.

In contrast, the Irritable Red Wild Boar was bounced back as if it had crashed into a thick piece of glass. Although it didn't receive any reflected damage, from the anthropomorphic expression of shock and doubt on its red-haired pig face, it could be seen that this suddenly appearing Spirit Shield had caused it quite a bit of psychological impact.