The Primal Hunter

Jake looked directly into the eyes of the Horde Leader. They both paused for a moment as they considered each other. On one side, a small human down on one knee with a bow in his hand, and on the other, a boar the size of a huge truck.

Yet the boar was the one to avert its gaze first. Jake felt the weakness in its eyes. Exhaustion in its look. He quickly noticed that its wounds weren’t healing as he would have expected them to begin to. The poison in its body was also barely being suppressed. It was clearly far more injured than he first thought.

The reason quickly struck him - the contaminated Soilwater. While the Horde Leader had purged it all from its system, it had clearly been done at a cost.

Outwardly it didn’t appear to have any injuries, but its vital energies were severely diminished. It also explained why all the other boars had gone down so quickly and why it had tried to keep itself hidden in its dome. It was still recuperating all its lost health points when Jake attacked. A process Jake knew to be slow without the use of potions or other means to speed it up.

But the boar didn’t have any potions. It could only rely on its own body to heal. And now, in the middle of its recovery, it had a damn pillar of rocks collapse on it, and several arrows were delivering devastating blows and even more powerful poison.

Despite it all, however, it didn’t want to back down. It had adverted its gaze, recognizing its inferior position. But down for the count? Far from it.

Mana churned once more as a vortex of stone and soil surrounded the beast.

Jake knew it was preparing for something, but he was more than happy to take the slight reprieve offered and downed a health potion. The second the liquid entered him, he felt the warm energy spread throughout his body, and his injured lower body swiftly heal.

While the amount of health restored by the potion wasn’t much, he had to drink it. His movement would be hindered with his legs and feet injured, and standing still didn’t strike him as the smartest of tactics. Especially not when he saw what the boar was doing.

The vortex it had conjured was to gather one giant boulder above it. As if a black hole had appeared, more and more stones were sucked into it, adding to the massive mass. The earth compressed to a ridiculous degree.

What the sphere of highly condensed rock was to be used for Jake didn’t know, and he had no interest in finding out.

He once more resumed his assault of arrows as he fired upon the boss. For the first time in the fight, he used Splitting Arrow as he didn’t need accuracy, but just pure damage.

And damage it did. The boar seemed completely unfazed as it only lowered its head and let the arrows hit it. Those hitting its skull simply left a small red mark as they fell to the side, while those hitting softer areas managed to penetrate a few centimeters only.

But a few centimeters was all he needed for the poison to be administered.

After firing his sixth shot, the vortex’s sphere stopped as the boar’s preparation appeared to be complete. A huge, completely round orb hung above them. A ball of highly condensed earth nearly 30 meters in diameter hung there, like a small meteor waiting to descend.

Jake peeked at it as he fired another arrow. What was the damn thing planning? To throw a super-boulder at him or what? Its action appeared utterly nonsensical. The boars were stupid for sure, but the Horde Leader had shown at least a modicum of intelligence. There had to be more to it. Even with the sphere’s huge size, he could easily evade it with a good Shadow Vault.

Another arrow fired later he got his answer. The entire sphere seemed to be crunched together with little warning as it shrunk to a mere 5 meters across. The whole ball turned crystalline, and then the attack came. A small shard fired out from the sphere, heading straight for Jake. Its speed faster than any attack he had ever faced before.

He managed to barely lean to the side as he saw the shard penetrate the earth in his Sphere of Perception. And penetrate it did. It went nearly 8 meters down into the earth before it was stopped. Meaning that if the shard hit him, it would pierce straight through his flesh and bones.

only the beginning. Soon it fired another, and then another. Each one was no larger than a finger. Each one was avoidable as long as Jake

out his bow, but was

machinegun. And not the slower, perhaps manageable ones. It

upon by the barrage of shards from a sphere that didn’t appear to shrink in the least from the constant attacks. He dodged and weaved and tried to hide behind the terrain, but everything was just riddled

he barely managed to avoid getting his head blown off, leaving a long gash on his chin. Without his Sphere

had his Moment of the Primal Hunter to rely on. But he wanted to avoid using it if at all possible. It

from his first attack to now. He wasn’t feeling any of the strain yet,

It pierced straight through his forearm, cutting through the bone like it was nothing. The pain was immense, but all it did was to

eye, he saw the Horde Leader with the sphere floating above it. And an idea in his

huge boar. He was in the direct line of

draining for every shard that pierced through his shadowy form,

his Venomfang as he plunged it into the

it could not continue its attack without accidentally hitting itself. A fact

its legs were severely damaged, making it hard for the Horde Leader to move appropriately. That didn’t mean it was

towards him. His danger sense screamed at him as he ducked down just as it swiped above him

the valley’s side off in the distance, creating a vast scar on the mountainside. It was a strike that would

didn’t bode well for its already weakened legs, however. It tripped as it tried to support itself, it falling down unto its

natural toxins from his Venomfang, thus further damaging the boss’s already weak vital energy. He hadn’t hesitated to pour some of his own blood from his

managed to shoot out a few shards from the sphere above, but all of them missed. It was clearly on its last legs, as it tried time and time again to land

omen preparing to riddle his frail human body if he ever moved out of

the death of at

still succumb to its wounds and poison. It was dead either way. And in a last act of defiance, it decided that if it had to die,

squeal, the sphere above

he used Badger Jump to jump to the side as the explosion came, his purpose being to be

as he was hit, and he felt his resources all being drained at a dangerous rate. But luckily, the attack came all at

the body of their own

Leader – lvl 99] – Bonus experience earned for killing an

[Ambitious Hunter] has reached level 73 - Stat points allocated, +4

64 -

Hunter] has reached level 74 - Stat points

the ground. That final attack had been scary as hell. He had lost nearly 2000 health and as much mana and stamina just from the drain

mattered much anymore. The now hole-riddled terrain around Jake and

next dungeon panel, however, he was first