The Primal Hunter

Jake tended to be rather good at predicting what the response to his attacks would be. He had expected the closest boars to rush towards their now dead comrade, or perhaps to all start searching frantically for the killer.

It turns out that this time Jake had predicted a bit wrong. Just a tiny bit. While the big piggies didn’t react much to him channeling mana, they apparently really didn’t like it when someone made the ground explode and killed one of their pals.

In fact, they liked it so little they all appeared to have gone berserk. More than 10 Steeltusk Boars were currently rushing red-eyed towards the pillar Jake was hiding on, the ground shaking beneath their every step. It wasn’t just their footfalls causing the shaking either. Mana swirled in the air as rocks of all sizes rose around them.

The enraged beasts, however, had one major issue. They had nothing to attack. They reached the corpse of their comrade, full of fire and fury, with no outlet in sight.

Jake had smartly focused every fiber of his being on standing absolutely still while covered by his camouflage cloak, channeling everything he had into utilizing Advanced Stealth.

Without any immediate target, the boars did as any reasonably enraged beast would do. They began destroying everything around where their comrade died - including the pillar he was hiding on.

Huge boulders started flying about, and the pillar itself began being ripped apart. One of the beasts even rammed the thing, causing it to shake.

Jake, getting the hint, jumped off the pillar, hoping to land behind the boars surrounding it. He fell through the air, boars still in his sphere as he observed them. He watched them all through his fall, and not a single one of them noticed him.

That is until his feet hit the ground. As if he had set off an alarm, all of the beasts turned towards him in an instant, eyes red, gleaming with a thirst for revenge.

Well, fuck, Jake thought as he legged it.

He sprinted straight back towards the gorge, the enraged beasts following him with more vigor than ever before. Scratch that, it wasn’t just vigor. They were actually significantly faster than they had been before, catching up to him at a pace far faster than he found comfortable.

Forced to use Shadow Vault more than three times in less than ten seconds, he knew the situation wasn’t sustainable. He did manage to reach the gorge once more, but all that did was to make his path of retreat more linear.

The gorge was the only place he could flee to, though. The rest of the valley was full of more boars and, of course, the Horde Leader itself. Running through that would only serve to increase the number of crazed beasts chasing him.

So, Jake ran through the gorge, the stampede close behind him. They didn’t even bother flinging spells at him, but the shaking caused by their running did slow him down slightly. He had to Shadow Vault repeatedly to get just a small semblance of distance, but in mere seconds they would catch up once more.

Jake’s mind worked at high speed, trying to find a solution. Stop and fight? No way he could kill them all; he counted 14 of the damn things, all around or above level 80. It wouldn’t be impossible to win, but he would likely have to use his Moment of the Primal Hunter as well as everything else he got. The end result would still be him out of commission for quite a while. Fighting was swiftly designated to last resort.

Keep fleeing? He could lose focus for a mere moment and get impaled or run out of stamina far faster than them. They didn’t appear to slow down either. Based on what he knew about the boars, endurance wasn’t an area they lacked in.

also out of the question. No way he could manage to shoot a single arrow as things were. Even if he did manage to shoot

noticed that the air around them seemed to give

as he dodged, and he felt the energy slowly seeping out. It wasn’t mana; no, it was stamina. Somehow the beasts

limbs as he went too far with the energy. But while

the lack of an outlet for the energy, making it repeatably build up in his arms in a constant cycle. His final

outlet wasn’t exploding their limbs, no, it was their entire bodies. As the energy was burned through, they released it through their pores. A concept Jake

feared to try before. His control of energy had only increased since then, and he thoroughly believed that if these damn pigs could do it, so could he.

look inwards. He felt the inner energy that flowed through his body - stamina. It was in a constant cycle as it circulated through the metaphysical veins he had come to call meridians. He could feel the energy moving faster now that he was running

circulated to keep him moving and fighting. A more powerful body naturally required more

could keep him up and awake for an entire day. Now he would be

the power of the stamina flowing through his system. As he expended more stamina and performed more requiring tasks, the speed of the flow increased. If that was true… perhaps the opposite was

now… he would finally put it

constant idyllic flow. And then he pushed it. He pushed the flow ever so slightly to move faster. For the cycle to rotate more quickly.

only a little while Jake focused every bit of willpower he had to control it. At the same time, he

speed increased. Every footfall was faster than the one before. The boars that

his body swell. He felt stronger and faster than before. It felt like when he had gotten one of the titles that increased his stats

faster, while Jake focused all of his willpower to stem the tide. It was challenging

his foci could be entirely on his internal struggle. The experiment had worked. The flow of the stamina had increased, and so had his power. Now the issue

began to control the energy more, willing it to slow down as much as he could. But he knew he needed

managed to make it all the way to the entrance of the dungeon once more. More importantly,

he had seen, but it

dungeon had thrown the energy ravaging his meridians into disarray. With renewed

flow somewhat. But he still needed to find an outlet for the energy. It was still ever so slowly building up, and even if he felt himself get stronger

- a twitching muscle or a tapping finger outside of his control. Like mini seizures, symptoms

still, but his body desired to move; it demanded to move. But he knew indulging it would only worsen his condition. He needed it to calm down

as he sat there,

out of his nose and mouth. Soon it also came out of his ears and

and more outlets appeared now on his skin. From his arms, chest, legs, every single