The Primal Hunter

His eyes snapped open as the remnants of the dream left him. But unlike normal dreams, he could remember every single detail vividly.

Jumping out of bed, he threw it back into his necklace along with everything else. Right now, Jake was in a really shitty mood.

He was angry. And sadly for the Den Mother, it had been chosen as his outlet. Jake was tired of feeling like he was stuck in some big game. Tired of not knowing why the hell people kept messing with him. Even now, he didn’t know exactly why Richard had wanted him dead or why that red-robed spearman had believed he had murdered his son.

No, instead, he would just do what he did best: Challenge and improve himself.

Taking out one bottle of hemotoxic poison, he recklessly splashed it over a bundle of arrows in his hand. He summoned his bow as he walked towards the beast.

Applying the Mark of the Ambitious Hunter was done as he lifted his bow, nocked the arrow, and charged an Infused Powershot. He didn’t aim for the head of the beast as it would likely miss.

Charging it as much as he could without affecting his combat-effectiveness afterward, he released the string. The arrow was released in an explosion of mana and stamina, as Jake didn’t even wait for it to hit before nocking another. He was angry but also oddly focused.

Perhaps he felt offended by his own thoughts - by his own perception of the weakness that he carried within. He was angry at himself for believing that he was weak. That the only reason why people wanted to manipulate him was because of his own weakness. And the best way to kill that feeling of weakness was to prove that he was strong. At least Jake believed it to be so.

On the other end of the cavern, the Den Mother woke up abruptly when the Infused Powershot was released. It instinctively tried to dodge but was still hit in one of its hind legs - a minor injury, but more than enough for the poison to enter its system.

The follow-up arrived far earlier than the beast had expected too. Five arrows struck it simultaneously, penetrating only a bit, but penetrating, nevertheless. The creature was surprised but not distraught as it located its attacker.

With no hesitation, it charged towards the arrogant human who had dared to attack it. It had been the Den Mother of this group of badgers for such a long time, and now some lone human dared intrude upon its lair? One that felt far weaker than itself even.

It felt the poison, it knew something was wrong, but it didn’t have the mental faculties to comprehend what exactly it was. All it knew was that it had to kill the human in front of it as fast as possible.

The first swipe was dodged by the pesky human as Jake Shadow Vaulted to the side, still releasing arrows whenever possible. The Den Mother had predicted this, as it turned its head and opened its mouth.

Out came a torrent of green gas that eroded the very ground it hit. It enveloped the human, as the Den Mother gleefully observed what it believed to be the death of its prey.

Instead, it was met by another Infused Powershot that tore right through its shoulder and out the other side. With the shot, the usual explosion of mana occurred as it blew away all the gas.

Surprised, the giant badger locked eyes with the human and felt something it hadn’t in a long time. The feeling it had when it looked at its Den Mother back in the day, the feeling it felt when the King of the Forest had confined it to this cavern.

Fear.

It had misjudged. What was in front of it was not prey; it was a predator, just like itself.

Screeching in fear, it hoped to throw Jake off balance temporarily. The sonic wave passed over him, but he just closed his eyes as he stood unmoving, firing yet another Splitting Arrow.

pop, and the blood flow down the side of his face and unto his neck. He felt the pain, but he didn’t care. He

the Alphas in every way. It was faster and stronger, its hide was tougher, making his arrows do far less damage, and it had far more skills and what seemed like a higher level of

time, Jake was the one entirely in the drivers’ seat. And the beast felt this

mentality of prey. A dangerous situation if it

going for him, it was

forcing him to Shadow Vault once more. Even in his arrogance, he wasn’t stupid enough to take a swipe of the beast’s

the favor with another barrage of arrows. The Den Mother’s wounds were slowly building

initially pulled it from, as it made another screech. This one was not a sonic attack, but something entirely else different - a

ground rumbled as three explosions of dirt

of his poisons lessen with his Sense of the Malefic Viper. Along with it, the wounds on its body started wriggling far faster than before as they rapidly

Jake thought, not discouraged

as he quickly brought it out along with a handful of arrows as he doused them. He still couldn’t see the level of the Alphas, but he could feel that all of them were weaker than any of the others he had faced so far. The ones too weak to gain the favor of

the Alphas all seemed in a rush to earn as they charged towards Jake. They took a few seconds, allowing Jake to fire a fully powered Infused Powershot. The badger in the front didn’t have any possibility of changing

normal arrow’s penetrative force. He knew he couldn’t kill it with a single shot,

its face - quite a few even finding their way into its eyes. One could only imagine the pain as the

hemotoxin-poisoned arrow on one of them before they reached him but didn’t have time to shoot the other. He hated to do it, but he

few arrows but quickly noticed something vital. The two badger’s teamwork was… lackluster, to say the least. Whenever he Shadow Vaulted, the beasts both struggled to chase him individually, bumping into each

Both wanted to earn the favor of the Den Mother, and the best way to do so would be to kill the puny human that had wounded her.

weakness he would gladly take

bow as he took out his sword and dagger. While the beasts were stronger than him physically, the gap had only narrowed since he had entered

still on the Den Mother. He decided to let it be to help keep an eye on the large badger. Besides, it was even damaging her little by

the badgers startled them slightly as they also accidentally made eye contact with him. They, like the Den Mother, felt a sense of danger from

Shadow Vault, as he stabbed an arrow in between its ribs. Only one

it. In one fluid moment mid-dodge, he briefly let go of the dagger, as a bottle of Necrotic Poison appeared. Catching the dagger once more, he smashed the

get to him, but its ‘comrade’ was in the way, so all it managed to do was to try and go around

circling around the badgers as he landed minor cuts here and there. He made sure always to stay extremely close to them, making their big

as the third Alpha charged over. It could only use one eye, and from the looks of it, it was the one most

that the fight got easier as another one joined. Like completely feral animals, they tried to crawl over one other and tried to push the other out

each other, Jake of course gladly accommodating their carelessness. He honestly believed fighting one of the beasts would be more challenging than three due

one as he kept building up

there. Luckily none of them used that skill to release their spikes of poison. Then again, it

at the Den Mother, he saw that it was getting closer and closer to being fully healed once more. The hemotoxin in its body had indeed shown its worth by

ground, Mark of the Ambitious Hunter being applied seconds before it died. Jake didn't want to miss out on that bonus experience,

second succumbed to blood-loss, leaving only a single badly-wounded Alpha left standing. It was too slow and weak by now

dip relatively low. The fight had gone in his favor, but