The Primal Hunter

Murder. Killing. Homicide.

The act of taking another human's life has many names in society. No matter the name assigned, it is a crime. It is immoral. And even if morals were completely ignored, the act of removing another member from society is, in most cases, a detriment to said society. The act of ending another life is innately abhorrent to humans, and even if the act was one hundred percent justified, it will often leave the killer traumatized by the experience.

In many comics, whenever a hero kills a villain is the moment he becomes a villain himself. It is seen as a turning point for the character - his or her fall to the dark side.

These were just some of the thoughts bouncing around in Jake's head as he was sitting on the grass, staring down at the ground, reflecting on his feelings of what had transpired that night.

He had killed not just one, but three people. Logically, he knew that it was self-defense. They had tried to kill him, so he killed them instead. It was justified, and in many countries, could even be considered legal. Heck, it could even be argued that he was in a situation comparable to a war zone, making the laws of war apply, in which case he had simply killed enemy combatants.

Even if he got over the fact that he had killed them, the way he had done so couldn’t be ignored, though. He did not think of the ferocity of his actions during the fight, but as he saw the corpses, it couldn’t be clearer how brutal he had been. Especially with the archer… he had pinned him down and simply kept stabbing him over and over with arrows until he finally stopped moving. It was a textbook example of excessive force.

The acts of brutality could perhaps be explained by Jake's inexperience in combat, the adrenaline pumping through him as he fought, and his enhanced instincts taking charge, but what he could not explain away was how he felt while doing it… and after. He felt nothing when he killed them. It was like he was just checking off three items on a list as he ended their lives one by one.

After the fighting, the only thing he felt was euphoric. He had never felt better. More alive. The relief, feeling of superiority, and overpowering sensation of ‘winning’ was just too intense, too addicting. If the feeling was due to his enhanced instincts as he suspected… that meant his base instinct, him at the very core of his being, enjoyed killing.

No, that’s wrong, he corrected himself. He had not felt any pleasure from killing the badgers, and he did not feel any particularly strong emotions after the big boar either. He only felt contentment after that. He did not enjoy the simple act of killing… he enjoyed the hunt. The challenge of the kill. He enjoyed the feeling of winning over his foe.

Jake had never been the confrontational or aggressive type; in fact, he strived to avoid conflict whenever possible. But he enjoyed a challenge. He enjoyed pushing himself to his limits and try to improve. To throw his entire being into something and strive for the top. It was why he had managed to get so good at archery. It was how he had managed to graduate as one of the best in his class. Not because he was particularly smart, he just liked to see the number on his test score go up, so he slaved away to make it happen.

He remembered one of his professors describing him as ‘driven’ and ‘ambitious’. Jake wasn’t sure if he agreed on either of those, but he did enjoy picking hard fights and coming out on top. What people misunderstood, though, was that it wasn’t because of the reward from the challenge. He did it for the challenge itself. The outcome wasn't necessarily relevant.

That is how he felt about the fight that had ultimately resulted in the death of three human beings too. He felt like the outcome, their deaths, was ultimately irrelevant. It was the process of the fight that was his goal and not the death of the three of them. It was just the unavoidable result of a life and death battle.

Which was the core root of his problem. After reflecting on his emotions and boiling everything down, he came to the realization that he just didn’t care much. Be they human or beast; in the end, they were just challenges to overcome. The only feeling of remorse or regret he ever felt so far in this tutorial was when Joanna got hurt.

A part of him hated feeling that, but when he thought the scenario over,

had. Freezing up right after tripping sure hadn’t helped her chances, either. If she hadn’t, rolling out of

avoid getting a limb trampled off so they could fix it up with a potion like the other leg. In other words, if it had been him in her position during the fight, he wouldn’t have ended up

no one truly wanted to voice it out. Leaving her behind was no different than leaving her to die. None of them wanted that

The only fighting any of them had ever participated in was sports like boxing. He doubted any one of their entire group had ever even

and was, without a doubt, the

him were far from new to fighting. They had a plan of attack, a damn good one in his opinion, and they had the guts to fight. They had the courage to take on the lookout of a group of 10 with only three people. Their hope had likely been to kill him quickly before he even had time to wake up the others. Then proceed to wipe out

levels also spoke to their proficiency. They had either dared to hunt down beasts or other humans to get their level, meaning they had fought most of the time since entering the tutorial. They were just unlucky to encounter Jake as the lookout. If it had been anyone else, the chances are

not been wiped out completely, facing that big boar if Jake had not been there. Maybe they would even have suffered injuries

but he had to acknowledge it. If his instinct, his natural disposition, was to enjoy hunting and overcoming challenges, then he could only see himself driven completely mad by suppressing

semblance of resolve. He would hunt, and he would grow

Jake could hear their discussions, which seemed to mainly revolve around who the attackers were, where they came from, and if there were more of them. Jake looked at them. They were his friends, his colleagues, and looking at Caroline, his crush. He wanted them to live, from the

had been more attackers? What if they had been higher level, or he had made a mistake? His bloodline ability was far from flawless. It did not grant him omniscience, but merely faster and more

as it hadn’t aimed at his body, only his knife. It was an attack to disarm him, and his natural instincts couldn’t recognize a complex attack like that. He also needed to think more while fighting

of the group, save for Lina, who

to avoid looking at the corpses, which was perfectly understandable.

was keeping watch when I

on Jacob’s face as he described the ambush. The concern only seemed to grow into confusion as he

attack us without reason?” Caroline

with the levels. He purposefully left out the whole bloodline thing, though. The fact that one of the assailants had been level 7 came as a big shock to them, as the strongest of them, Bertram, was still only level 2 in his class after the

murder someone…” Caroline mumbled as

defend ourselves,” Jacob said, coming to Jake’s defense. “He may

talking, mainly filled with concern for the future, Jake went over and picked up the knife he had dropped when the medium warrior attacked him with glowy-weapon skill. As he picked it up, he also finally

he had shot stuck in it. It was dead before he even hit it, with what looked like a long sword-cut across its stomach, something he presumed was the cause of its death, to begin with. He doubted he would get tricked