The Primal Hunter

It was a fight that he knew they could not lose. One that could perhaps decide the fate of the planet he had now come to call home.

The King meditated as he healed himself as much as possible. He wished he was skilled in formations to set up a proper one to help him in his regeneration, but sadly that did not fall within his skill set. Having anyone else make such a magic circle also wouldn’t prove very effective due to the uniqueness of a Unique Lifeform.

Consuming a Soul Marble, the King slowly absorbed it, and he felt his body fill with energy. He would take another one just as the Ashen Phantom Devourer attacked again, but that would also be his final one.

One might ask why the King stayed in a losing war for months. There truly was no logical explanation for this besides an unwillingness to retreat and abandon his claimed territory. He was a King, and an enemy had invaded his domain, so he had a natural urge to defend it. That he also knew the benefits he could gain from killing another Unique Lifeform also played a huge factor. Finally, he still had a good chance due to his ultimate move.

Hours passed by as he progressively felt better. He purposefully did not heal his natural armor fully but allowed cracks and missing pieces here and there to properly look like he had been unable to properly recover. One might also ask if using these underhanded tactics wasn’t above a Unique Lifeform, but the King would find such a question utterly foolish. To purposefully give up an advantage and act with overconfidence was how he had found himself slain once already, and he had no desire to repeat that.

His prediction of twelve hours turned out to be slightly off as only nine and a half hours later, he felt the other Unique Lifeform approach. The Fallen King could only hope that the little hunter was ready despite the pushed-up timescale, and if not, the King would simply have to hold on a bit longer than expected.

The King teleported out of his residence and saw the approaching mass. A soul equally as powerful as his own approached, its size and power nearly fully recovered in such a short time span. The giant cloud of ash moved ever closer as the taunting words echoed.

“Yet you remain guarding your pathetic kingdom in your ignorance. Behold the result of your folly: death.”

It had almost become a ritual by now that the other Unique Lifeform would start by saying something taunting and slightly annoying. Not that the King had ever been bothered by such childish words. Like before, he simply engaged but made sure to hold himself back a bit this time around to appear weaker than he actually was.

The Ashen Phantom Devourer struck with full force right from the beginning. Evidently, the intent was to slay him as soon as possible and overwhelm him so that the King would use his trump cards while the Devourer was still close to full power.

Staying defensive was difficult even if the King knew he was just buying time, and he did launch the occasional attack to not be too suspicious. Luckily, the other Unique Lifeform could easily misunderstand his carefulness as doubt and weakness, making it appear less out-of-place than it actually was.

Massive waves of ash crashed against the telekinetically formed barriers of the King like the tide of the ocean crashing into a dam. With every second, they grew in power, and the King felt the constant eating away of his energy from the dark affinity of his foe.

Nevertheless, he was far from defenseless. Both his claws glowed golden as he tore the wave apart and unleashed several golden waves of pure force, breaking apart the body of the Devourer. It rapidly condensed a new one as a mountain of ash formed and crashed down towards the King. Hanging on with his barrier, he was sent down, smashing into the ground as hundreds of tons of ash fell upon his body.

With annoyance, the King raised two fingers and sent out two thin waves of force that he swiftly moved in a circle, cutting a hole in the ash. He barely got through before the hole closed, the King avoiding being crushed. Yet just as he was out of it, the King was struck by a blast of ash, sending him tumbling back. Sometimes the Devourer infused the ash with pure space energy, making it look like a transparent flame despite it simply being pure kinetic force infused into ash.

An annoying but highly effective attack.

About five minutes passed as they fought, the King getting forced back more and more. A vague sense of doubt began to enter the King’s mind as he feared the little hunter was not ready. The King would have to pick up the pace himself and use his boosting skill prematurely if he was not soon ready. That could potentially throw off the plan.

Just when that doubt set in, he felt a weak attack on his soul from far above. It was the hunter’s gaze that had briefly landed upon him and attacked.

Too weak to damage him or even affect him, but just strong enough for him to sense.

It was the agreed-upon signal, and the King did his part.

Activating his boosting skill, the King attacked with massive waves of force, making the Ashen Phantom Devourer defend. While it was still defending, the King spread his presence and focused all his power on restricting the domain.

He hoped that whatever the hunter had prepared would be enough to-

The King felt a shockwave. Both he and the other Unique Lifeform momentarily stopped as their senses sought the sky.

A sky that looked to have been shattered and fell as crystals in shades of purple.

The shade of the hunter’s arcane affinity.

Perhaps this clash could be the last, the observer noted with hope. He had been stuck in the mountains for months now at the orders of the Celestial Child, and while he did have some complaints about his station, he did not complain. It was the will of heaven’s child; who was he to argue? Besides, he knew he was the weakest of those who had been brought to this new planet.

He had looked at this battle play out so many times already, and he had noticed the shift. The first time the Ashen Phantom Devourer had lost pretty handily, enough for him to assume that perhaps this Fallen King was superior. However, as time went on, the momentum shifted, and the Devourer slowly began winning out. Once more, he, as a servant, could only admonish himself for questioning the actions of the Celestial Child.

This time around, the fight was indeed much more fierce as both seemed to go all out. Then, suddenly, the Fallen King seemed to stop. He pulled out immense amounts of power as he seemed to hold the Ashen Phantom Devourer still. Is this perhaps his trump move?

He got his answer at that very moment. As a servant, his skills were limited, but one thing he did excel in was Perception, and yet he had not noticed something had been brewing far up in the sky. When he saw it, he instantly recognized the energy signature.

The Malefic’s Chosen.

The servant quickly took out a token and fulfilled his duty as he infused his message that the Chosen was there before crushing it. He took out another token in preparation to relay what was about to happen but suddenly felt a shift in space behind him.

He quickly turned and saw a figure had appeared only a kilometer or so behind him, having been teleported in.

Who!? Wait…

The figure rapidly made its way over as the servant spoke:

”What are you doing he-”

The words got stuck in his throat as nothing more than a hiss came out. He stared with wide eyes as strings wrapped around and neck, but surprisingly they didn’t harm him. Why would they harm him, now that he thought about it? Why was he even…

His thoughts didn’t go further as his mind slowly gave out, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

--

”It is time,” the C-grade jellyfish spoke as William opened his eyes.

”Has he appeared?” William asked with a mix of anticipation and reprehension.

”Yes,” the jellyfish answered without explaining further. William knew that he couldn’t delay and had already spent many days steeling his resolve.

”Take me there,” William said as a magic circle appeared on the platform in the cave. The metal mage promptly flew over and landed on it as the space magic around him warped everything. The teleportation was truly marvelous, and only a few seconds later, William found himself standing on a small cliff on the side of a mountain.

Instantly he felt the wave of pure power descending. He did not know who it was initially, but soon he realized.

Yet another thing also caught his eye. A nahoom was hiding not far from him, holding a token and also observing. William did not know why, but his first reaction was to charge the alien. The other party had already seen him, but before he could finish asking why William was there, strings had already wrapped around his neck.

William sent through a powerful pulse of pure karmic energy. He manipulated the man until he fell. Knocked out but still alive. Seeing the token that had fallen on the ground, William just shook his head. He knew he had just helped the monster… but it was necessary. William needed to confront him, and Ell’Hakan showing up would ruin that. Moreover, he would prefer for no one else to know he was there or what he was doing.

As for the fight between the Unique Lifeforms and the monster… William already knew it was not anything he should get involved in. Whatever the hell that monster had done was exactly the kind of thing one could expect, as the entire mountain range was bathed in a hue of purple.

--

Approximately nine hours earlier.

Prep work for any large project was always hard work, but Jake had enjoyed his time doing it. Twelve hours to prepare wasn’t a lot, but to Jake, that was eleven mana potions right there and a whole lot of mana. After his conversation with the King, he got to work.

Using Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows, Jake summoned a stable arrow and proceeded to take out a bottle of his sweet neurotoxin. He carefully soaked it in poison and, using stable arcane mana, covered the tip as he dripped a bit more poison onto it before covering it up, leaving a hollow tip with a bit of poison inside.

After that, he tossed the arrow in his quiver and summoned another, only to repeat the process. Hours passed as Jake kept making arrows and putting them in his quiver where they would remain effectively frozen in time. He did use his quiver to store poisoned arrows usually, but this was the most extreme case of him ever doing it. Frankly, the quiver was one of those things Jake barely thought about in his daily life but was actually incredibly valuable to him.

[Quiver of Perriniality (Legendary)] – A quiver created from the leather of a powerful B-grade beast with the ability to create minor subdimensions within its skin where it stores different natural treasures to use as weapons. Made into a quiver, it now retains those same effects. Allows the wearer to infuse mana into the quiver to conjure arrows. Allows the wearer to store conjured creations classified as arrows within the quiver without experiencing any energy decay for an extended period of time. The inside of the quiver is spatially expanded, allowing the wearer to store arrows of varying sizes. The wearer will have innate control of the inside of the quiver when bound. Enchantments: Perrinial Quiver.Requirements: lvl 135+ in any humanoid race.

He was glad that the arrows stayed classified as weapons even after he modified them slightly with a toxic payload. Jake had made sure that he didn’t break integral parts of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter’s Arrows skill either because he would need a function of that skill later.

A hundred arrows were soon stored. Then two hundred. Three hundred. The bottles of poison emptied one by one, as Jake had to consume a mana potion here and there as he began the second aspect of the project. Inside the quiver, an arrow began to appear as Jake closed his eyes and focused.

It was entirely purple but had green threads running through it. Its size was incomparable to anything Jake had ever made before, and he was happy to see that his willpower did slightly help him also affect the shape. It was naturally an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, and the one he was summoning was incredibly thin for its size and close to five meters long. His time observing the Unique Lifeform had been primarily to make this exact arrow.

Once it was fully summoned, Jake began the third part. In the real world, Jake began weaving a net of mana strings and wrapping it up tight in preparation. He could sadly not do it in the quiver, so this had to be enough.

Hours kept ticking by as Jake was ready after the seventh. He knew there was a chance the Unique Lifeform would come earlier, and his guts told him he wouldn’t have the full twelve hours. He trusted himself as always and went with seven to prepare in order to be safe.

Jake then spent the next hour summoning stable arcane bolts. During this time, Jake had never been topped up with mana and consumed a mana potion every time he could, primarily to ensure he was always close to full in case the fighting began.

Soon, Jake spotted the Ashen Phantom Devourer emerge from its underground hunt. Jake did not hesitate for a moment. Arcane Awakening activated at its full 60%, and he unleashed Pride of the Malefic Viper to better control his mana.

Hundreds upon hundreds of arrows were taken out of the quiver as he threw them out. Using Pride, he froze them all and made them levitate as he finally reached the final arrow. The massive Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter emerged, and Jake’s many magic strings instantly sought towards it and wrapped around it. These strings then flew out from the large arrow and wrapped themselves around the hundreds of smaller arrows.

His head was pounding, and his body was overflowing with mana as he finished his massive tapestry of arrows. In the sky hung a vast spiderweb of interlinked arrows with stable arcane bolts also mixed in here and here. As a final thing, Jake infused stability into all of the strings to make sure they didn’t break.

Taking a deep breath, Jake finally took out his bow and nocked the massive Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter that all of the other arrows were attached to. He began charging Arcane Powershot as the energy flooded the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter but didn’t harm any of the strings on it.

Today Jake also learned something else about Hunting Momentum. While it did build up when he observed a target and stalked it, that charging was usually incredibly slow. But preparing to strike like this? It had been building far more than expected, and while it was far from maxed out, it was an added bonus he would in no way say no to as he infused it all into the Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter.

Go.

The strike contained everything he had, and the opponent wasn’t even aware it was coming, making Stealth Attack also further amplifying the power of the strike. Jake released the string as an explosion rocked the sky. The clouds parted all around him as the massive arrow began descending, dragging along with it over four hundred other arrows and well-over a thousand arcane bolts.

It did not stop there. Jake unhesitantly began flying downwards, chasing his arrows.

Nothing could stop the attack and a few unlucky creatures that got in the way died simply by being too close to the descending strike. Jake kept pushing himself as the arrow naturally flew far faster than he, and soon enough, it exited the final layer of clouds just above the Ashen Phantom Devourer’s domain.

Jake gritted his teeth and strained himself more than ever before. Blood began pouring out his nose and his head felt like it was about to explode. Yet he grinned as he knew he could do it. He felt the connection to every single arrow, all four hundred and eleven of them, as he used every shred of his willpower to use the skill, even using Words of Power.

“Splitting Arrow Rain.”