The Primal Hunter

Jake stared toward the sky as the spinning sphere of wind had stopped in its tracks. The ogre’s eyes opened wide as his clenching hand began to glow even brighter than before, but he couldn’t close it any more, no matter how hard he tried. Instead, the opposite happened.

The Twinhead Emperor’s fingers were forced apart as the shift happened. The sphere of wind scattered as Jake felt the atmosphere change entirely, and he saw the sky almost vibrate as the wind began to gather from all around. Jake also felt the pressure from the ogre lessen as he saw the clear look of shock on the Twin Emperor’s face.

Clouds were torn apart far up in the sky and in the horizon as more and more wind blew toward Sylphie from all over the Vast Plateau. Every single iota of environmental wind mana no longer felt as if it was just that: environmental. Instead, it had the clear aura of the hawk in the sky, who was gathering more power than Jake had ever seen her control before.

Then, everything suddenly stopped.

The wind was still, and Jake saw the Twinhead Emperor stare as Sylphie beat her wings a single time, making it move once more.

A soft wind swept down, making Jake’s clothes flap a bit as he saw the attack descend. There were no fancy colors and no real sound, as all that arrived was a stream of wind headed straight for the boss with speed rivaling Jake’s fastest arrows.

Right before it hit, Jake saw the expression of confusion and hint of fear on the Twinhead Emperor’s face.

“Authority… how can-“

Jake didn’t hear the final words as the attack arrived. A pillar of wind descended upon the Twinhead Emperor as Jake was pushed backward from from the wind that spilled over from the sides of the constant stream of wind.

While sliding back, Jake observed as the ogre got hit. Immediately, the skin of his face was cut, and he was forced to close his eyes and raise his arms to defend himself. The ogre’s arms were cut up next, skin and flesh tearing off from the sheer pressure and cutting nature of the wind. The boss tried to use smagic to summon a barrier of stone, but the mana didn’t have the slightest chance to gather before it was blown away by the constant wind.

It was like a small localized jetstream of pressured and intense air, smashing down on the boss and the boss alone. What’s more, it wasn’t stopping but rather only seemed to grow stronger. Moreover was the impressive effect on the surroundings. The wind blew harmlessly past everything, not even cutting into the ground, with the only one feeling the pressure being the ogre, whose leg and stump were already halfway forced into the ground, and the parts of his body that were hit directly by the wind stream weren’t doing good.

Bones were showing on the Twinhead Emperor’s arms, and barely any skin remained. It was death by a million cuts, as the jetstream somehow only seemed to intensify with every passing second, shearing off more and more flesh as the ogre roared.

“I… will… not… fall… alone!”the Twinhead Emperor roared loudly as his body exploded with a second wind of energy as he attempted to-

“REE!” Sylphie screeched with anger as the rising energy was smashed right back down; the stream of wind further empowered as it took on a light green glow from being infused further with Sylphie’s sylphian concepts.

With a new desperate roar, the boss tried to reach out toward his staff, only to find Jake holding onto it with a vice grip and a few chains of stable arcane mana. For a moment, Jake saw the Twinhead Ogre open an eye and glare toward him in anger before the eye was hit by the wind, the pupil and eyeball cut apart.

The ogre’s arms fell limply to his side soon after, no longer protecting him as the wind bore down fully on his face and body; his entire face getting sheared off as his torso began to suffer the streatment, the second head that had belonged to the warrior already unrecognizable.

It didn’t cas a surprise when Jake heard the system messages a second later as the seemingly impossible to finally put down boss finally succumbed to his countless injuries.

*You have slain [Twinhead Emperor – lvl 335] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 288 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 289 - Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 275 - Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points*

Even after the boss died, the wind didn’t stop as the Twinhead Emperor’s energy left his body, leaving it defenseless as the wind had a field day. Only a few seconds later did Sylphie stop as the jet stream subsided, and Jake felt the atmospheric wind return to normal, as the little hawk no longer exerted control.

All that was left of the Twinhead Emperor was a ruined corpse, with half of its flesh sheared right off the bones, with even these bones covered in thousands of small cuts. A dozen or so meters off to the side, Jake saw a door had popped into existence, the one leading to the next city floor, making it clear the floor was now complete.

Looking up, Jake saw Sylphie descend, just gliding on the wind slowly. Without any hesitation, Jake flew up to her as he felt just how exhausted she was. It was not as if Jake was in peak condition himself, but from the looks of it, Sylphie was in an even worse state.

Once he reached her, he let the small hawk glide into his arms as he caught her. Sylphie was covered in wounds all over and even missed a lot of her feathers, making Jake’s heart hurt as he gave her a light squeeze.

“Ree?” Sylphie let out a low screech as she looked up at him.

Jake shook his head in response. “No, just relieved you’re okay.”

Floating down, Jake went toward the wooden dome. On the way, he saw the sheer devastation their battle had wrought, as it looked like a natural disaster had hit the Vast Plateau. It wasn’t unexpected, considering it was a fight between powerful C-grades, but Jake still felt this one had been particularly rough… and it had definitely been a close call toward the end.

As Jake and Sylphie approached the wooden dome, it soon began to unravel. Once it did, Jake laid eyes on the Sword Saint leaning against a rock while the Fallen King sat on the ground, not able to stand easily due to the lack of an arm and a leg. Dina was the one who looked the best, but Jake knew her resources were quite spent. Who knew that healing wounds inflicted by intense death energy would be difficult?

Well, Jake did. That’s why he liked to use it in his poisons. But Dina definitely also knew.

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“Good job, team,” Jake said as he saw them, flashing a smile. “You all look like shit.”

“All the hair on the left side of your head is burnt off,” the Sword Saint shot back, having recovered quite a lot from Dina’s healing while in the dome, though it was clear the old man wasn’t going to be fighting any tsoon, as he looked barely able to lift a sword.

“I never argued I am not also in the category of people currently looking like shit,” Jake grinned as he sat down with Sylphie, all of them taking a rest as no one talked for a moment. He reflected on the fight as he scratched Sylphie somewhere she wasn’t injured, the bird happy using the space between his legs as a nest.

There were definitely things that could have gone better, and they had probably not prepared enough or spent enough tlearning about the skills of the Twinhead Emperor before they chose to fight him. If they had had a small bout with each of the Twin Emperors individually, they would have learned quite a lot, Jake reckoned. But they hadn’t. Partly because they were pressured for tand partly because they had overestimated themselves a bit.

In many areas, they also got lucky, and Jake estimated there had been a good chance one of them would have had to use their escape tokens if just one small thing had gone wrong. Luckily, it hadn’t, and when things did look like they were about to take a turn for the worse, Sylphie had cthrough as she had done… something. Jake still didn’t know exactly what that something was, and he wasn’t going to begin interrogating her here and now.

“I would set up a restoration circle, but…” Dina muttered as she frowned.

“Relax, dryad. There is no rush, so simply relax and recover,” the Fallen King said.

“Yeah,” Jake said with a reassuring smile. “Everyone, just chug a potion when you can, I still got plenty.”

The others nodded as they all relaxed for the next hour, barely any words being exchanged during this tas most meditated. Everyone had consumed a potion at spoint during the fight, Jake himself taking his after the solo fight to buy twhen the warrior head had taken full control.

As they rested, Jake also decided to finally check out the system messages he had received upon completing the floor… and things were a lot better than expected.

Eightieth floor completed. 16,000 Nevermore Points earned.

Bonus Objective Completed: Do not allow a single party member to be slain during the battle. 30,000 Nevermore Points Earned.

Grand Achievement earned: Slay the Twinhead Emperor after fully allowing the two Twin Emperors to merge in an exemplary manner, thus ending the conflict of the Vast Plateau for good. 100,000 Nevermore Points earned. Due to completing a Grand Achievement, you will receive a 10% multiplier of all Nevermore Points at the final calculation.

First of all, that was a lot of Nevermore Points. Secondly, getting another 10% multiplier had not at all been expected. The only other event boss they had gotten a percentage bonus for was when they beat Minaga, and that had been a 25% multiplier. Jake did kind of feel like the Minaga reward had been a bit too much, but then again, that fight had been a lot harder overall.

Checking his Nevermore Points, Jake saw he had finally broken the two million mark and then some.

Current Nevermore Points: 2,120,950

Besides the Nevermore Points that he and the others had just gotten, the rest of the floor had only rewarded 21,000 more, coming from a few bonus objectives and achievements. This was a lot less than on other floors, but that was to be expected. It had been very similar on floor seventy-five and the event boss there. All of the achievements and objectives more or less got boiled into doing the event, resulting in just getting a whole bunch of points from that alone.

Tpassed, and with potions and Dina eventually setting up a restoration circle, they all quickly began to recover. The backlashes from boosting skills and overusing certain skills – such as the Sword Saint’s Transcendence – would take a while longer to shake off, but after only a few hours, they could all move about just fine. Jake even had all his hair back.

The door leading to the city floor was not far away, but they weren’t going to enter it yet… because while it would be nice to head there right away to relax on the city floor, they all knew there wouldn’t actually be any relaxation going on, at least not mentally.

While the fighting was most certainly finished, there was still a bit of politics left to go and simportant decisions to be made. One of which was to figure out the order of who they believed would end up with the most Nevermore Points, so they could have those with less fully finish Nevermore first.

This was all for the Leaderboards… because during this tin the World Wonder, they had confirmed how the rewards worked, and Jake did think parts of it were a bit dumb. But, to make a quick summary, it mattered a lot when someone got on the Leaderboards… because just holding a spot for a mere moment would reward one the sas if they held it for thousands of years. There were potential rewards if one held a spot for the rest of the era, but all of that was way too far off for Jake to even think about.

Anyway, this all meant that their plan was to finish Nevermore one after another, having each person finish faster using tdilation… with Jake naturally being the last to go because, to the surprise of no one, he would definitely end up with the highest final evaluation. At least from their group… though Jake hoped he would just be the highest. Period.

But he had a feeling there were quite a few people who wouldn’t like that much.

Ell’Hakan nodded, satisfied that they had managed to accomplish their goal, and just in time, too. The large beast lay dead before them, with the others now scattered, having lost their will to fight after their leader had died, ending the life of the final of the Mad Beast Kings.

A door appeared not far away as he turned to his party members while skimming the floor completion notice.

Eighty-second floor completed. 16,400 Nevermore Points earned.

Completing these two last floors had been done quickly, with little regard to bonus objectives or achievements, but the Nevermore Points gained had still been more than worth it. It was a bit sad they did not encounter more opportunities for Grand Achievements because the one from floor eighty had most certainly been a welcaddition.

Grand Achievement earned: Make the Twin Emperors fully merge once more and bring harmony to their Path as the Twinhead Emperor, ending the conflict of the Vast Plateau for good. 80,000 Nevermore Points earned. Due to completing a Grand Achievement, you will receive a 10% multiplier of all Nevermore Points at the final calculation.

It had taken quite a bit of… Bloodline Therapy to get the two halves of one whole to agree on things and merge once more, but it hadn’t been something he couldn’t handle. Ell’hakan just felt fortunate he didn’t have to fight that monster, as he doubted they could have beaten the Twinhead Emperor without having to resort to things he would prefer to avoid, and even then, it wasn’t an assured victory.

In fact, he doubted many could beat that boss… but he did see the party of the Malefic’s Chosen doing it. They had a lot of trump cards to throw in, and Ell’hakan knew not to underestimate the hidden cards of someone who had managed to not only fight but defeat the absolute monster that had been Valdemar’s image in the Colosseum of Mortals.

“We must hurry and finish before too many others have a chance to do so before us,” the Saintess of the Holy Church reminded him as she stood with his two remaining party members, one of their comrades sadly having fallen during this final floor.

Ell’Hakan regarded the Saintess before nodding and walking the door with her. She had been far more helpful than he had ever expected, truly earning her recognition as one of the ten most talented C-grades of this generation in the Holy Church. He most certainly did not regret the deal he had struck to get her and the Church as a whole on board to support him.

To allow the Holy Church to obtain his Bloodline was but a small price to pay for their cooperation. Ah, but nothing would happen with the Saintess; Ell’Hakan wouldn’t want too much to do with her after Nevermore if he could avoid it. He liked people he could influence, and absolute fanatics were quite difficult to sway in any way. He was also fully aware she had no positive feelings toward him and had her own Path to walk.

Anyway, his decision to enter talks with the Holy Church had been quite a good decision if he said so himself, especially when one considered the further implications of their deal… because to obtain his Bloodline, he naturally had to be alive, and for the best results, they wanted him to get as strong as possible before he would pass on the Bloodline.

This naturally meant they had a vested interest in keeping him alive, earning him quite a good ally… and a backup plan in case the winds of change did not favor his current Patron and Yip of Yore failed his grand plan.

Pushing down these thoughts and focusing on the present, he walked through the door to the city floor, Ell’Hakan refocusing and straightening his back. Soon, it would be tfor his final score and placement on the Leaderboards to be revealed, and needless to say, he was more than confident in his placement… and not just on the two publicly known Leaderboards, but the third hidden one.

The All-Star Leaderboards.