The Primal Hunter

Blood flew into the air as Jake managed to slice the neck of Minaga, making him stumble back. His one arm already hung limply at his side as he tried to retaliate with the other using a blast of fire, but Jake dodged under it and stabbed Minaga in the arm.

A final eruption of power sent Jake stumbling back as a rain of lightning bolts struck him, making his entire body tingle from the impact and his scales crackle with energy. Minaga himself looked spent as he stood there, leaning on his staff.

Jake pulled out his bow, showing no mercy as an Arcane Powershot hit Minaga square in the chest, sending him flying into a wall with another hole in his chest. Activating his Arcane Charge from the Mark, he made Minaga flash with arcane energy as he groaned momentarily.

Still embedded halfway into a wall, he looked at Jake.

”Heh… good fight. I at least had fun. You are also the first one to win, so take pride in that! Good luck with the rest of our battle,” Minaga said as he smiled. ”See you soon.”

With those words, Minaga’s clone turned into wisps of energy that moved and created three portals, each with the figure of one of his party members above it. The one not showing was the Sword Saint’s, and Jake knew why, as the old man had informed them of his special ”lesson” with the Unique Lifeform. After he had informed them of that, there had been radio silence, but considering they had not gotten any notifications about failing the bonus objective, he should still be fighting.

Jake felt happy but was not really proud of being the first one to finish his fight. In fact, it was completely expected. The clone he fought was weaker than the real Minaga by a great deal, but it was still level 275, which meant his Big Game Hunter skill remained active as powerful as before, and all of his skills that allowed him to do more damage to higher-level foes still worked. He was truly the best in fights like this.

Focusing on where to go next, he looked through the portals as he quickly reached out using the Golden Mark.

”Done with my clone. Where should I head next? Anyone needs help badly?” Jake questioned, unsure where to go. They had not communicated much as they were all busy with their own respective fights, so Jake didn’t know the situation in the other rooms.

”Ree!” Sylphie complained through the link, clearly not happy with how things were going on her end.

”I can hold on for a while longer,” Dina said.

”Leave me be,” the Fallen King said dismissively, sounding almost offended by Jake even daring to ask if he needed help with handling the other Unique Lifeform.

No answer from the Sword Saint. Not that it mattered, as helping him was not an option.

Jake didn’t delay as he jumped through the portal with the figure of Sylphie depicted above it, and the moment he arrived on the other side, he was buffeted by powerful winds as he got a lay of the land.

If Jake’s fight had been a focused fight with emphasis on micro-strategy that led to little impact on their surroundings, Sylphie’s fight was the exact opposite. The entire room was thoroughly torn up all around him as magic of a massive scale ravaged through. With no party members to watch out for, Sylphie let loose and became a living whirlwind of destructive winds, filling nearly half of the room.

Minaga had clearly responded in kind as massive magic circles floated around him, large-scale spells thrown out as if mana wasn’t even a resource to him. Giant freezing tornadoes met Sylphie’s winds as they canceled each other out, both parties trying to land smaller and more deadly attacks whenever an opportunity presented itself. That usually took the form of Sylphie occasionally attempting a fly-by, with Minaga sometimes finding an opening to land a beam of light or a highly-condensed ice shard or metal spike.

A sort of balance had been reached, and Jake truly had no idea who would win if it continued. He had no interest in finding out either.

Sylphie and Minaga crashed within the tornado as their domains overlapped, and Sylphie’s charge was met with Minaga striking out with a palm of whirling flames. A giant inferno exploded from their impact, and the fire was rapidly dispersed by the powerful winds. Just as Minaga prepared to strike again, he suddenly cursed.

”Well, shi-”

A fully charged Arcane Powershot hit him in the side, blasting his barrier apart and sending him reeling back with blood trickling down his side. A stable arcane arrow had penetrated deeply into his shoulder, and he did not have time to pull it out before Jake made it explode.

Sylphie quickly followed up as she unleashed a giant blade of wind, sending the Unique Lifeform tumbling back even further. Minaga stabilized and went on the offensive, but facing two opponents was much more difficult.

He seemed to know this too, as he tried to be ultra-offensive, knowing that if he didn’t, he would fail to accomplish anything. Rather than dodge, Minaga tanked several attacks as dozens of magical circles popped into the air around Sylphie. She tried to get away, but a few of the circles lit up, sealing the area. The rest of the circles began glowing with increasing intensity, and even when an arrow pierced Minaga in the chest and sent him flying, he didn’t lower his hands but finished the spell.

All of the magic circles shattered at once, releasing pulses of dark energy that washed over Sylphie. A screech echoed throughout the hall, making Jake worried. He moved to make sure Minaga could do nothing more as he blasted the Unique Lifeform back repeatedly as Sylphie got her bearings.

The explosions of dark magic had not just hit her but all of the wind that was connected to her. Her entire body seemed to give off black smoke as it had invaded her body, almost like a poison consuming her from within. Jake did not register it as poison, but he knew it was damn close.

Minaga had a hard time dealing with Jake alone due to how injured he was, and when an enraged Sylphie rejoined the fight, things got even worse for him. Coupled with what injuries he had taken from Sylphie during their one-versus-one fight, Jake and his bird niece managed to finish off the Unique Lifeform within the next few minutes.

”Two down - and with the old swordsman doing his thing - two to go! Do hurry, though!” Minaga’s voice echoed as his body faded into wisps of energy, spawning two portals. As they were still forming, Sylpie flew over and landed beside him.

”Ree,” Sylphie said, sounding sad as she took out a small bottle from her vest and ate it.

That dark mana spell had severely damaged her mana pool, forcing her to drink a mana potion. She was also a bit low on other resources from Minaga’s magic and her long fight, but she sounded confident if disappointed in how hard of a time she had.

Jake calmed her down as he telepathically confirmed that the Fallen King still refused help, making the two of them head to Dina’s arena next.

What met Jake and Sylphie upon entering was a raging inferno as Minaga’s chosen school of magic to deal with Dina was clear. It seemed to be working pretty well, too, based on how much ash was spread everywhere, making it appear as if an entire forest had been burned down throughout their fight.

Dina was flying around the room as she repeatedly defended herself, Minaga chasing after her as he released fireballs, blasted out flamethrowers, and summoned what looked like living creatures of pure fire to chase after her. Dina kept calling green barriers or vines to defend herself, even if they got burned down in seconds.

Yet even as she was clearly on the back foot, Dina looked nearly untouched as she near-perfectly defended herself from the constant barrage of spells. Even when Minaga mixed it up and used things other than fire, she was ready and responded appropriately.

Jake and Sylphie entering the arena naturally changed the situation quite a bit. Quite a bit in this instance, meaning a Minaga that was utterly screwed as the three of them teamed up, and with Dina helping out the two of them, they could be far more offensively-minded. Knowing one had a healer on their side did wonders for one’s self-confidence, and in this case, it even allowed Sylphie to get healed up a good deal.

Minaga did give it a good shot, but the clone was just too weak compared to the real thing and didn’t have the same powerful composite magic. Or maybe he did, and Minaga just chose not to use it. Hearing that the Sword Saint would fight Minaga in a ”special way” just confirmed something Jake and the others already knew: the Unique Lifeform was not serious.

Which made sense… because if he was a god – which he one-hundred percent was - they wouldn’t stand a chance at all, even if his stats were heavily reduced. Just through sheer experience and skill, they would have been fucked. That he held himself back to a certain threshold was only to be expected and that the old man had convinced Minaga to slightly let go of these self-imposed restrictions was indeed risky as fuck. Not that Jake could blame him. The Sword Saint had a hard time finding people around his own level of power skilled enough in pure technique to fight him.

After fighting Dina’s clone for around five minutes, it, too, bowed out as it summoned one final portal, which they promptly headed through. What met them was an even more intense sight than what Jake had seen in the two prior rooms.

The Fallen King stood on one side, his entire body filled with wounds as several sections had huge swats of his bark-like skin ripped off, and one of his legs looked halfway cut through. On the other side was a Minaga who had lost both an arm and a leg, with his entire body truly telling of the intense fight. He even lacked two of his four eyes as claw marks bled across his face.

”Do not interfere,” the Fallen King’s voice echoed in their heads just as they appeared.

”Arrogant as always,” the Minaga clone smiled. ”I say always, even if I don’t really know you, as honestly, all of us Unique Lifeforms are the same, aren’t we? All arrogance. With actual power to back it up, mind you.”

Scoffing, the Fallen King’s body exploded in golden light as he summoned two golden hammers on chains. He swung one as Minaga jumped using his one leg, dodging it. The second hammer descended from above, but Minaga flung himself out of the way using telekinesis as he pointed his staff at the King, shooting out a highly condensed beam of light.

It hit the King’s barrier, making him float to the side as fast as he could. Just as the bubble was burned through, the beam barely missed him, allowing the Unique Lifeform to counter once more. Both hammers swung wildly as the two wisps in the King’s eyes began to glow.

Both hammers began shining brighter than before and briefly sped up, hitting Minaga who tried to block, flinging him across the room. Jake thought it hadn’t done much, but he frowned when he got a better feel for that golden glow.

Soul magic.

Jake saw Minaga get to his feet, but he had clearly taken a lot of damage. That hammer had not just hit Minaga’s physical body but directly impacted his Soulshape, rocking it and damaging it. Jake could already imagine the headache one would get if hit directly.

Nevertheless, Minaga was not down for the count yet, as a magical circle appeared below him. It accelerated him forward, flying towards the King as he infused mana into his staff. It began to grow thicker and longer as the King tried to stop the other Unique Lifeform.

Minaga chose to take the golden blast of force directly to the face, sending blood flying everywhere as he swung hard, hitting the Fallen King in the side faster than he could react. The barrier broke, and the Fallen King folded like a lawn chair around the large staff before getting blasted into the wall at the far end of the room.

Dina looked worried and was about to make a move, but Jake held out a hand and stopped her. A second later, a dense golden beam erupted from the broken wall, hitting the now-kneeling Minaga who was missing half of his face. He didn’t move, but the moment the beam stopped, the Unique Lifeform fell over forwards, dead.

”Wow, good job, you killed one of five clones all alone! Truly proud of you, fellow Unique Lifeform!” Minaga’s voice echoed through the hall.

Out of the broken wall, he had been thrown into walked the Fallen King, his right arm utterly broken and his entire mid-section full of injuries. Yet he gave off an indomitable aura and a strong sense of pride. With Minaga’s body dissolving, Dina no longer held back as she took out her staff and fired off green lightning that began slowly mending the King’s broken body.

Soon enough, a portal appeared, this one bigger than any of those prior. On the other side, Jake could see Minaga sitting with his legs crossed atop a raised platform as energy revolved around him.

”You good to go?” he asked the Fallen King, who floated over next to him. He saw the golden lines pulsing through his body, making it clear his boosting skill was going. If not active at full power, then close to it.

”I shall do fine,” the Fallen King said dismissively.

Jake threw Dina a glance.

”The body of the Fallen King is just a vessel… unless it is utterly destroyed, he will be fine,” she explained.

Kind of already knew that, Jake shrugged as he led the others through the portal. This also meant the Sword Saint had succeeded. If not, they would have gotten a notification, so he had to be fine. Well, not necessarily, fine, but still not lethally injured.

Arriving on the other side with the three others, they appeared standing below the newly raised platform Minaga was sitting on. An orb of energy floated above him, nearly ten meters in diameter, radiating with intense power.

Right after they arrived, another portal appeared beside them. Jake looked over as what at first looked like a bloodied rag fell out. However, on his second inspection, he saw it was the Sword Saint who landed on the ground hard, looking like he could barely stand, as he fell to his knees.

The reason he looked like a rag was due to all the blood and tattered clothes. His body was marred with more wounds than Jake could count, nearly no part of his body untouched. Even as he kneeled there, blood slowly dripped from his body, making it clear many of the cuts were incredibly fresh.

Jake stared at the old man with wide eyes.

”What the hell happened to you in there?”

The Sword Saint looked at the ground and smiled slightly as Dina focused intensely on healing him. The countless wounds on his body slowly started to close. Even so, it was clear he had taken significant damage, and he was in horrible shape, especially considering his boosting skill was going at full power.

Yet he smiled to himself.

”I survived a tough lesson,” the old man spoke as he seemed to recall what he had just experienced with an expression of fondness.