The Primal Hunter

When fighting a larger foe, one had to always make use of that against them. The shark’s size made it far stronger in direct clashes, but Jake’s smaller size offered him more mobility and allowed him to make his way around the shark and be more maneuverable.

Not that the shark was slow. It did not only use its body but its magic to move in unpredictable ways. Jake had to constantly adapt as the entire body of the beast was its weapon, teeth-like scales protruding from its skin, all angled to cut him simply by brushing against the body of the beast. This meant that Jake had to constantly back away and make sure only his weapons touched his opponent. To make matters worse, then the Razorstream part of the shark’s name was not a joke. The currents of water around the shark cut him like it was filled with tiny razorblades, putting a constant strain on his Scales of the Malefic Viper.

The passive barrier from Arcane Awakening also helped – a skill he had been forced to use right off the bat to just put up a fight. Fully activated, too, as his body was flushed with power and every attack dealt a bit more arcane damage, and the passive shield took off a bit of the power from the razor-like water.

Jake clashed with the beast several times as he was slowly forced back, sim-Jake always at the back of his mind. As if Jake had two minds, they both analyzed their opponent on the fly and adapted their strategy. Fangs of the Malefic Viper made sure every stab included a good dose of poison, and his Hunting Momentum was slowly building up, but the Razorstream made it, so he constantly took damage, and he was hit all the time as the moment-by-moment fight had him the back back foot.

Fighting in water was just a lot harder, and even if he could use his wings to maneuver better than a human normally would, it was still far worse than what a creature naturally operating underwater could do. All of his attacks were weakened, too, as he always had to fight against the water to do anything. However, even so, Jake did not feel any true mortal danger because he always had one thing he could do to end the fight right there and then.

Retreating. Jake could easily get away at any point unless the shark wanted to chase him above water, in which case Jake would happily fight it up there. He was convinced the shark could fight above water if it so desired, and he could make the battle far easier by simply flying up a few kilometers, but he wanted this fight. Sim-Jake wanted this fight.

Jake was forced back by a powerful torrent of cutting water as his scales and arcane barrier both clattered from the thousands of small cuts. His armor was slowly getting torn to shreds, but in return, he managed to land a hit here and there.

Cuts from Jake’s katars quickly proved ineffective as the natural armor offered by the teeth-like skin proved highly resistant, meaning only stabbing would work. And katars were really good at stabbing things, so it worked out.

A large summoned maw of teeth tried to close around Jake’s leg as he barely managed to avoid it and charge towards the shark. It whipped its body around to smash him with its tail and push him away, but Jake had seen that move before. He ducked under the tail and stabilized himself to not get caught up in the resulting wave of pressure from the water. He then rapidly dove forward and stabbed the backside of the shark with Eternal Hunger before it could once more blast him with a wave of water magic.

Jake tried to summon mana strings to bind or restrain the massive C-grade, but the teeth on its skin moved and tore off whatever he used. Moreover, it began to release these teeth out of its skin like projectiles, each of them far more powerful than the magically summoned teeth in the water.

Both of them quickly seemed to realize that finishing the other off quickly was not an option as the shark dedicated its focus to whittling Jake down as Jake slowly wounded and poisoned the shark. The hemotoxin poison he used made the beast bleed even more than it should and colored the entire area of their fight red with blood. Not that the shark seemed overly bothered even after hundreds of liters had been drained. Its Vitality was above expectations. However, he also noticed one other important thing.

While Jake was not confident fighting underwater, the shark wasn’t confident fighting someone Jake’s size either. Something that had quickly become clear upon diving beneath the waves was that the scale of most creatures down there exceeded that of the land dwellers. Chances are, the only creatures that were small were weaklings that the shark could simply swat away or eat in a single gulp, making it completely unaccustomed to someone his size.

They both needed to adapt and overcome the holes in their fighting styles, and in this department, there was no competition.

Jake once more dodged a tail-swipe as he landed a small stab on the base of the tail. The beast rolled around to try and cut him like a meatgrinder, but Jake had already teleported back and pulled out his bow. A single Arcane Powershot was rapidly charged, blowing off many of the teeth acting as the shark’s armor and leaving a nasty wound. The beast knew it could not allow him to attack uninterrupted and conjured several ranged attacks to stop him.

Shooting off one more arrow, Jake made it split and explode as a cascade of blasts rocked the water and hid Jake from the shark’s sight. Jake took this chance to land another Arcane Powershot before the beast could locate him.

With speed surpassing anything prior, the shark was upon him as the sphere of cutting current around it expanded and grew in power. Jake responded in kind as Pride of the Malefic Viper flared to life, and Jake infused arcane energy into his surroundings to faintly stabilize it.

Resource-wise, Jake was nearly on par with a C-grade, at least when it came to mana. He directly engaged in a battle of environmental control with the shark as he met it in melee once more. Jake had a good few exchanges, and it had allowed him to build some Hunting Momentum, but it was not time yet to use it.

The two of them clashed several more times, both taking damage, with Jake being slowly pushed back by the larger foe. While he was building up for something, he knew the shark was too. However, as things were, he would gladly take advantage of learning some of his foe’s patterns.

An attack he had seen many times before was used. It was one where the shark tried to smash him with the side of its body to then follow up with a quick spin and a tail-swipe, with the spin actually just a feint. Jake allowed himself to be hit, even if he could have easily avoided it, and used the momentum from the blow to get shot a bit deeper into the water.

Already having committed to the move, the shark was not fast enough to react as Jake used One Step Mile and appeared right beneath its belly. With one hand, he stabbed Eternal Hunger into its body, and with the other, he stabbed once to break the teeth armor. In a fluid motion, Jake dismissed the katar on that hand and punched forward again, penetrating the wound he had just made with his hand.

He felt the muscles of the shark close around it, and his arm got stuck. Jake gritted his teeth as Touch of the Malefic Viper activated, and toxic energy was pumped directly into the guts of the beast. At the same time, Jake took control of the hemotoxin energy within it and forced it towards its heart. He had already thoroughly scanned and understood its physiology and where to hit. All of this was simply a setup for the final blow.

Realizing that Jake was doing far more damage than expected, the shark reacted violently. It began spinning around in the water, with the current sphere flowing in the opposite direction of the spin. The teeth on its skin also began shooting out toward Jake, and the shark shook his body in violent ways.

Jake held on as long as he could. However, the arm inside the shark’s body was fully stuck, the shark still not wanting to let him go. The teeth on its skin began growing towards the arm and dug into it. But it didn’t stop there as the teeth began growing into the arm itself, and, more frighteningly, Jake felt an odd sensation in his body.

Like his very blood was being manipulated. Blood began pouring out his nose and eyes as Jake made an executive decision. Without any hesitation, he used Eternal Hunger to cut off the still-stuck hand that had been embedded into the shark just below the elbow. The blood manipulation stopped instantly as Jake kicked off the massive body of the shark, swimming away from it.

As he flew back, Jake used his necklace to deposit a healing potion into his mouth, which he naturally consumed instantly. Dense vital energy entered his body as Jake felt it flow through his bloodstream and into the severed arm as it worked to reconstruct it.

Jake momentarily stopped up. Blood and healing… fuck, not now.

The shark came for him again, trying to press its advantage. Jake’s plan was slightly thrown off course, but he could correct it. Retreating, Jake bought time for his arm to regrow as he attempted to not get pinned down and eaten. Unable to properly use his bow, Jake switched to mainly using arcane magic and Eternal Hunger. One had to add that the healing from Eternal Hunger was one of those things he usually didn’t notice due to its passive nature, but it was not something to underestimate. Granted, Jake was underutilizing the mythical weapon and was far from able to properly make use of it, but just the lifesteal effect brought his longevity in combat to another level.

He ended up tanking many hits as he protected his left side, where an arm and hand were slowly growing out. Jake spent mana like it was no object trying to keep the shark at bay, shooting off endless barrages of stable arcane bolts. The explosive ones did nothing, but he had found that hyper-sharp stable bolts penetrated the teeth hide and caused damage.

One Step was also used liberally to take him away and constantly create distance too. In the end, it was impossible to avoid taking any damage as his body was littered with wounds after only a few minutes. But it was good enough.

The shark, drunk on momentum, did not show any caution as it charged. Jake, having regenerated his arm and hand, pulled out his bow. Surprise flashed in the eyes of the C-grade as Jake grinned and charged Arcane Powershot. Having already committed, the shark did not slow down but instead sped up as it opened its maw. A dense barrier of water was made as the entire sphere shifted and gathered in front of the shark. It churned and spun, aiming to cut everything apart, including any arrows Jake would shoot at it.

Jake focused to the extreme as Steady Aim activated at its fullest. The Arcane Powershot was charged to near-full power as he released an explosive arcane arrow. The super-charged arrow hit the barrier and exploded as Jake had already pulled out a second, far larger arrow.

This one looked nearly like a drill. It was entirely white and far longer than the one he shot before, with several odd markings on its body. It was an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, and with the barrier gone, he shot it fast without even using Arcane Powershot.

The shark was ready and prepared to dodge. Jake had been waiting for this moment as he, through the arcane energy filling the water, laid his eyes upon the large shark and used Gaze of the Apex Hunter for the first time in the fight. The C-grade froze, unable to dodge the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter… but this attack was not the true finisher.

Jake charged forward after the arrow, pushing both of his wings to the extreme to build up speed. The shark was not ready at all when the arrow entered the shark’s mouth. It was even less prepared when a charging human was about to do the same. Just as Jake was at the mouth of the beast, he took out both katars and activated all his Hunting Momentum built up so far.

His entire body filled with the concept as he shot forward even faster into the mouth of the C-grade shark. The arrow had done plenty of damage, and Jake bee-lined for his target: the heart. Just as he was in the body of the shark, Gaze wore off. The beast had only been stunned for a second, but in that second, the battle had entirely changed. The momentum had switched.

Upon entering the shark’s mouth, it became clear why it was keen on eating things. Jake had entered a maelstrom of teeth and incredibly fast currents as his entire body began getting cut apart. With full power, Jake used the bone katar to punch forward and released a Descend Dark Arcane Fang to cut through the inner walls of flesh to make his way to the heart.

The Hunting Momentum was all spent, but it allowed him to reach his target. Jake finally saw the heart and stabbed Eternal Hunger into it. The bone dagger disappeared from his other hand as Jake used Touch of the Malefic Viper with it to control and redirect all the hemotoxin poison in the C-grade’s body to the heart.

What hemotoxins did pre-system was primarily to thin the blood. Post-system, it had a similar effect but on vital energy. Blood was a vessel for vital energy and remained thinned, but the vital energy itself was also far thinner and flowed more easily out of the body, along with its decreased efficiency. So what happened when Jake plunged what was effectively a metal straw into his opponent’s container of highly-thinned vital energy?

He finally gave Eternal Hunger a good meal.

Razor-sharp teeth still flew all around Jake as he was cut up, but each wound healed as fast as it came as Jake stood his ground. The vital energies of the shark streamed into Jake through Eternal Hunger as the shark thrashed and tried to kill him. Intense pressure, long teeth trying to kill him, and even the flesh walls themselves closed in on him, but the shark was fighting a losing battle. Eternal Hunger greedily enjoyed its feast as slowly the shark’s struggles stopped.

Jake felt the stream of vital energy stop as everything went silent. The teeth around him began floating harmlessly as the body of the shark began withering and wrinkling from the inside.

*You have slain [Razorstream Shark – lvl 202] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 194 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 191 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

With ease, Jake cut his way out the top of the shark. With the beast dead, its body was weak and unable to resist even a casual slash. Jake looked at the shark and scanned it for any treasures and found… nothing. No, wait, on closer inspection, he found an uncommon rarity tooth.

He had felt it from the aura of the beast, but this hammered it home… Razorstream Sharks were low-tier beasts. They were firmly on the weaker end of C-grades. Jake just sucked at fighting underwater. This had been the toughest fight since the Phantomshade Panther… and it was an opponent he would have trashed if they had fought in the air.

“Are you finally done?”Sandy asked him as the worm happily swam over. Well, the worm did not really swim but seemed to still partly be swimming through space. Was a bit slower, though.

“Yes, I am done…” Jake said with exasperation.

“Would it make you happy if I said I was proud of you for killing the fish?”

“No, not really,” Jake said curtly.

“Good, because I am not… you move so weirdly down here. You really gotta work on that at some point,” Sandy lectured him.

“Just eat me already; let’s get out of here. And no more underwater adventures,” Jake shook his head.

“Fine, I don’t really like the stuff down here anyway. Too watery for my taste,” the worm agreed, making Jake want to smack the worm for convincing him to go down there to begin with.

Sandy ate him up, and once Jake was inside, he deactivated Arcane Awakening and let the weakness flood him. Okay, even if he complained, the fight had actually been good practice, and it had allowed him to test one of the many techniques he had theorized. The entire Touch-controlled hemotoxin into big slurp by Eternal Hunger was not made up on the spot but something he had considered for a while.

He had also gotten a flash of inspiration related to Blood of the Malefic Viper. All in all, it had been a worthwhile fight, but he still wanted to avoid doing that shit again. At least until he had a better way to fight down there.

Jake took a deep breath and got on with things as he felt a certain someone waiting for him in his Soulspace. Not wanting to make himself wait – because Jake knew he could be a bit impatient – Jake used Serene Soul Meditation to enter his Soulspace to talk to his other self.