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.

that he thought it was her own fault more so than his. A part of him hated feeling that, but when he thought the scenario over,

established all casters had. Freezing up right after

all those failed, she could at least have managed to avoid getting a limb trampled off so they could fix it up with a potion like

everyone else in the group were aware of it, but no one truly wanted to voice it out. Leaving her behind was no different than leaving her to die. None of them wanted that on their conscience, and no one wanted

civilians in every sense of the word. 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 been in a

the eyes and demeanor of a fighter and was, without a doubt, the strongest person in the group except

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

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.

to his own party just felt sad. They would likely have lost several people, if not been wiped out completely, facing that big boar if Jake had not been there. Maybe they would even have suffered injuries from

If his instinct, his natural disposition, was to enjoy hunting and overcoming challenges, then he

semblance of resolve. He would

talking over at the two warriors' corpses, and 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.

that happen, he needed power. He had won today, but would he win tomorrow? What if there had been more attackers? What if they had been higher level, or he had made a mistake? His bloodline ability was

His instinct had no warning of it, and he ended up disarmed and nearly dead. The strike hadn’t been a danger to him directly as it hadn’t aimed

steeled, he walked over to the rest of the group, save for Lina, who was

you tell us what happened?” Jacob asked as he saw him walking over. Everyone seemed to avoid looking at the corpses, which was perfectly understandable. It was equally understandable that they avoided

I was keeping watch when

exactly what had happened, and he saw the concern on Jacob’s face as he described the ambush. The concern only

why would they attack us without reason?”

the levels. He purposefully left out the whole bloodline thing, though. The fact that one of the assailants had been level 7 came as

someone…” Caroline mumbled as she instantly gave

coming to Jake’s defense. “He may have saved us all. Please don’t blame him for that. We may

kept 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.

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 like that again with his new Sphere of Perception, which is the