The Primal Hunter

Thousands of lasers the width of a pencil spun around the room, cutting through it at intense speed and power. Every single person in Jake’s party summoned their best defenses or tried to dodge, as Sylphie turned her entire body into wind to resist most of the damage.

The Fallen King intensified the energy in his shield as best he could, and Dina jumped back as walls of roots continuously rose in front of her to try and block the attack, layer after layer getting burned through. On the side of the Sword Saint, he summoned several veils of water along with an odd painting that radiated intense energy. They all did their best to block or lessen the damage of the attack.

All except for one.

The moment before Minaga unleashed his attack, Jake rushed forward, stepping down as he teleported. Despite the shockwave slightly destabilizing space, he got more than halfway to the Unique Lifeform as the laser show began.

Because there was one place where the attack didn’t hit: right below itself. Right where Minaga stood.

Jake sprinted as the lasers arrived, more than a dozen beams sweeping in from the side. Despite this, Jake did not slow down in the slightest. Both katars appeared in his hands just as the first beam hit, but Jake was ready.

Using Eternal Hunger, he met the first beam of light with the edge as he reflected it off the weapon, the beam moving so fast he had to use the Blackpoint Blade as a bridge to make the beam flash past him. At the same time, Jake dove in between two beams and found every small spot he could fit through as he briefly met the eyes of Minaga, who just stared at him.

He kept staring as Jake dodged hundreds of beams within a second as he arrived in the safe zone right below the disco ball.

”That is some bullcrap right the-”

Jake kept going with his momentum as he slammed both katars into the chest of Minaga, who was still casting the spell. He penetrated halfway to the hilt with both weapons before the light show stopped, and his danger sense exploded as Jake jumped back, not even having the time to try and pull out his weapons.

A beam shot down right where he just stood as Jake pivoted around it, slamming a dark green glowing palm into the Unique Lifeforms side while the beam of light burned a hole dozens of meters into the ground. Minaga seemed to have had enough as the sound of the disco ball shattering sounded out, and thousands of razer-thin shards of glass descended upon Jake, forcing him to properly retreat.

Jumping back, he failed to fully dodge his own Blackpoint Blade that Minaga sent telekinetically flying after him, leaving a cut on Jake’s cheek. Eternal Hunger had already been recalled as Jake made his retreat.

Jake wasn’t even sure how prematurely he had interrupted the large spell, but he was sure as hell happy he had. Seeing as Minaga was not following up with more spells, Jake assumed he couldn’t, as he pulled out his bow and began pelting the Unique Lifeform as he checked in on his teammates.

Sylphie had managed to come out of it mostly unscathed, but she had consumed a lot of energy just from thousands of beams of light sweeping through her elemental form. Dina had also come out okay, though she too had consumed a lot of mana, repeatedly summoning her root walls, with Bobo only barely managing to block what did get through. She did get a nasty cut right above one of her eyes, though, but she was quickly healing it.

The Sword Saint was surprisingly unscathed as he stood behind a large painting. The painting itself had been utterly burned to a crisp with a few holes in it, and the Sword Saint did look like losing that particular painting was not a pleasant experience. From the telepathic mark, he also made it clear that was a limited useability skill with quite a high energy consumption.

Finally was the Fallen King, who – to put it nicely – looked like shit. The constant barrage of lasers had managed to get through his barrier, leaving hundreds of burn marks crisscrossing his entire body. The only untouched parts were the mask and the ivory hands and feet that were too naturally tough to be affected.

Despite clearly being damaged, the Fallen King did not seem affected and didn’t hesitate to make a move to at least get some revenge. Golden energy gathered in both of his hands as he unleashed a large golden beam full with energies of the soul-damaging variant.

Dina and the Sword Saint also engaged as Sylphie dove down, a whirlwind of slicing winds surrounding her. The next few seconds resulted in Minaga getting dozens of minor injuries as four people went ham on him during his period of weakness, while Dina focused on healing everyone.

Five seconds after the spell stopped, magic from Minaga reappeared. A tornado of fire erupted from his body, throwing away the Sword Saint, and with the other hand, he shot out a howling blast of snow and ice, launching Dina toward the back of the room. Jake managed to dodge both of these as he navigated a stable arrow around the magic, hitting Minaga in the chest. A blast of force hit the exact same spot as Jake’s arrow, making it pierce even deeper than before, and with a mental command from Jake, it exploded, bathing Minaga in destructive arcane energies.

Jake’s eyes opened wide as he was forced to summon a stable arcane barrier, a gust of wind sweeping towards him. It only managed to lift Jake off the floor and send him skirting back, but the Fallen King was less lucky. A spike of metal flew out from Minaga, piercing him in the chest and blasting him back until he hit a wall. Said wall then began to fold as if wanting to crush him, but the Fallen King released an omnidirectional shockwave, freeing himself.

Minaga attacking Jake and the Fallen King once more gave Sylphie and the Sword Saint an opening as they both struck. By now, they had begun to get a far better read on Minaga’s abilities as well as his overreliance on hand motions to cast. They found more and more small openings as the wounds on Minaga accumulated a bit at a time, with whatever damage Jake and the others took swiftly handled by Dina, who focused primarily on healing and landing the occasional strike if she saw a good opening.

After Jake landed a solid Powershot a few minutes later, making Minaga reel back with a bloody chest, he suddenly stopped mid-movement as he grinned. His body was full of wounds, but he seemed unbothered.

”Oh damn, I hit seventy percent health! Do you all know what that means? That’s right, it’s time for phase two!”

Jake got a bad feeling as he heard this and wanted to shoot another arrow at Minaga, but he suddenly felt space around him warp as Minaga took out an odd orb and raised it above himself. At the same time, his body began to oddly warp.

As they all watched, more Minaga’s appeared. Five versions of himself looked to almost walk out of the original as the orb above him exploded, and Jake’s vision momentarily went dark.

He found himself transported to another arena, standing alone in front of a clone of Minaga.

”Ha ha! After spending nearly half of my remaining health points, I have successfully split you up, and on your lonesome, you shall face this clone holding an undefined percentage of my true power! Only after you have defeated it can you enter the arenas of your party members and assist them in killing their respective clones. After you have slain all of the clones, you may return to the main boss room once more and face me in a final phase!”

Jake stared at Minaga for a bit and got a feel for the clone’s power. It was a lot weaker but not weak by any means. What’s more, if they were all facing their own versions… Jake wasn’t sure how all the others would do, especially Dina, who had to consume a lot of energy this far.

”What, no banter?” Minaga said, sounding disappointed.

Without hesitation, Jake charged. If he could only help the others after he was done here, it meant he had no intentions of delaying. Mid-charge, his speed increased as Arcane Awakening activated at the offensive 50%. His reason for entering melee rather than staying at range was also simple… he was pretty sure Minaga was way better than him at ranged combat.

What he did not believe Minaga was better at was dodging Jake in a melee brawl.

Minaga grinned at Jake’s charge as both staves appeared. One of them sent a flamethrower toward him, but Jake quickly jumped to the side and, with another jump, continued his charge. With a swipe of the other staff, a barricade of rock spears shot out of the ground, which Jake vaulted over before they had even fully emerged.

Dozens of orbs appeared all around Minaga as beams of light shot out, but Jake expertly dodged them all as he stepped down one final time, teleporting to appear right in front of the Unique Lifeform. A staff flew down towards his head, but Jake had already slipped by it and landed a solid jab at Minaga’s chest. This time the weapon penetrated far deeper than on the real version, leaving a solid wound.

Metal chains shot out from one of the staves right as Jake shot out a shockwave of arcane mana, shooting them away before he managed to land another cut. Minaga retaliated fast as he unleashed an explosion of fire, making Jake jump back. Mid-jump, he pulled out his bow and fired a single arrow in an instant, taking the Unique Lifeform by surprise as he got a nice hole in his chest.

Landing, Jake teleported into melee again as Minaga was already preparing to launch a ranged attack. He successfully interrupted Minaga by stabbing his arm, continuing his relentless assault. Jake had no plans of letting up as he continued his all-out aggression to never allow Minaga to cast a major spell, assuming he could even do the major casts in this split form. This required him to make some sacrifices as his Scales of the Malefic Viper had to handle quite the brunt of magic attacks Jake chose to endure or only partly dodged to avoid disengaging for too long.

Minaga eventually began adapting as he became more defensive and summoned metal barriers to defend himself as he kept attempting to get some distance. Jake tried to stay close, but a powerful mix of earth shards and wind magic made it difficult as momentarily, the fight shifted to ranged combat.

Momentarily.

Through the use of Eternal Shadow, Jake managed to avoid a large spike of lava as he once more closed the distance.

Jake had time on his side as the poison was slowly accumulating within Minaga, but he was also on a tight timeline. He had a nagging feeling that he was on a timer… as for if this timer was due to his party members being in danger or some unknown factor, he had no way of knowing.

Either way, the best course of action would be a swift victory, no matter the scenario.

Elsewhere, Jake’s other party members also faced their respective clones. Sylphie’s room was a glorious battle of two domains of magic fighting one another as a bird and Unique Lifeform flew within, trying to find chances to strike at one another. Both sides consumed vast amounts of resources, with no clear winner in sight.

The Fallen King fought Minaga straight on, the other Unique Lifeform meeting him with a similar mindset. In the end, they were both Unique Lifeforms. A natural compulsion to compete was ingrained within both of them, even if Minaga was by all rights far more powerful, both in this form of himself within the dungeon and his true, likely divine, version outside.

Other Unique Lifeforms were simply the closest they could ever get to kin, and this left them with a need to prove themselves superior. It was the same as with the Ashen Devourer. As such, their fight was fierce, as both parties went all out from the get-go, trying to prove themselves the better Unique Lifeform.

Dina took a far more calculated approach as she communicated her strategy through the Golden Mark, and it was instantly approved. Rather than fight Minaga, she went entirely on the defensive, not even trying to attack unless it was to interrupt something she found too dangerous to block, avoid, or heal through. She was strong, yes, but in a one-versus-one, she was likely the weakest in their party overall. Her offensive prowess was simply not that impressive.

This left Jake’s final party member… the Sword Saint.

Miyamoto listened to Minaga finish his speech as he prepared himself. The Unique Lifeform stood in front of him, seemingly just waiting for his opponent to make a move… but the Sword Saint had something bothering him.

”You’re holding yourself back, aren’t you?” he asked Minaga.

”What makes you ask that?” Minaga asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

”Your movements are at moments almost intentionally stilted when you swing the staff. As if you are purposefully making sure you do not pass a certain self-imposed threshold of technique. I have done so before when practicing with others,” Miyamoto answered.

”Man, you are crazy good at fighting for a C-grade, you know that?” the Unique Lifeform shook his head.

”I shall take that as a compliment,” the Sword Saint bowed.

”It was, so you should! Anyway, yeah, you are right, but it is what it is. Or do you not want it to be what it is?” Minaga questioned.

”This may be inappropriate of me to ask, but…” the Sword Saint said as he sighed. ”Would you allow to me experience your guidance?”

”You want me to not hold back as much?”

”Yes, as impertinent as that may be,” the Sword Saint nodded. He knew he was being selfish in his request. They were there to beat the fight, and here he was, asking for guidance instead. As the others were trying to win quickly, he was just talking. No… he was asking for his fight to be made harder.

Minaga looked at him for a second before just smiling. ”You know what? Fine, I can bend the rules a bit. From here on out, this clone will not use any magic, but I shall raise my technique level to a proportional degree to make up for it.”

”I thank you,” the Sword Saint bowed. ”I will also not-”

”No, you do everything you can to win,” Minaga dismissed him. ”Trust me, you will need it. Also, I am changing your victory condition. Rather than defeat me, the other four clones just have to be destroyed.”

He knew not to argue as the Sword Saint just nodded.

Minaga looked at him and grinned as he waved his hand, a sword appearing floating in front of him. It looked like a weak common rarity steel sword that you could buy in bulk for cheap, and the Sword Saint did not feel anything special about it. What’s more… it was blunt. Not a shred of an edge present.

”Well then. Prepare yourself. The lesson is about to begin, and you have only one task.”

Reaching out, he grasped the sword, and the moment he did, Miyamoto jumped backward on instinct as his eyes opened wide.

”Survive.”

Miyamoto desperately took a defensive stance as he felt like a child standing before his sword instructor for the very first time. Fear mixed with excitement as he prepared for a duel with someone of skill incomparably superior to his own.