The Primal Hunter

Yeah… this could go better, Jake thought, as he barely managed to roll out of the way as a giant tree-spear was shot towards him.

He managed to dodge it with Shadow Vault, but more were coming. And not just trees. Several large boulders were also thrown after him, along with pretty much anything within hundreds of meters of the King.

Dodging and weaving in between the attacks, he managed not to get hit by a single one. A slight positive, but ultimately, he was only buying time - time that wasn’t to his advantage.

The King of the Forest was clearly multitasking as he worked on clearing away the curse from the Nest Watcher and the energy from the Horde Leader as he attacked. Jake, on the other hand, was slowly running out of his resources. He had gotten back quite a bit of health from the potion, but both his stamina and mana were draining.

Limit Break had been active at 20% from the very first Infused Powershot. In reality, it had only been minutes, but he was already starting to feel it taking its toll. Deactivating the boost wasn’t an option as he would enter a state of weakness - a shortcut to a quick death for sure.

His remaining tools were limited. He only had two weapons left - an old common-rarity bow and his Venomfang dagger. The bow could handle at most one Infused Powershot before breaking, with the blade obviously his most reliable weapon.

His last tool was the Corrupted Mooncore Shard. A plan for that was beginning to form in his mind as he observed the floating King.

Despite everything looking so bleak, Jake wasn’t distraught in the least. He was shaking, not with fear, but excitement. At any moment, with the slightest mistake, he could die. Yet, he didn’t feel it was impossible. He felt like it was a long shot. A very long shot, one he would gladly take.

He was quite confident in his aim, after all. This was what he lived and would gladly die for. Not that he planned on seeing his path end quite yet.

Jake knew he couldn’t give the King too much time to heal the wounds caused by the Tusk and marble. He was currently circling as he dodged, slowly getting closer to the King floating above the crater he had created earlier.

He did also notice one other thing. The aim of the King was outright terrible. The only reason why he had to focus so much on dodging was the type of projectile used. The huge trees and boulders were just that: huge.

If it had been smaller spears and not freaking trees, he wouldn’t even have to dodge. The aim of the King was obviously compromised from the curse that inflicted him. This was likely also the reason why he didn’t shoot those ridiculously overpowered blasts of force.

Jake made use of that by running in more unpredictable patterns. Huge clouds of dust were kicked up with every attack, and Jake was more than happy to hide within them and use them as cover as he got closer.

At the same time, he took one of the arrows out of his quiver and held it in his hand. As he was avoiding being squashed, he began channeling dark mana into it.

By the time he was halfway there, the King was out of things to throw at him. So he began throwing words instead.

“What do you hope to accomplish? Do you believe you can win? Truly just an unwise beast.”

Jake ignored it as he snickered. Keep talking, you childish arrogant fuck.

to get out his one remaining bow as he nocked the arrow infused with dark mana. With a rapidly charged Infused Powershot, he fired it upwards at the floating

Forest managed to raise his hand and block the arrow with his ivory claws. The arrow harmlessly hit his body but then exploded in a cloud of dark mana. Dark

However, he wasn’t done yet, as he also used Shadow Vault to

as he released two blasts of mana from his gloves, propelling him downwards once more, sending him

escape the cloud of dark mana that Jake had made. Still unaware, he flew straight up into the rapidly descending Jake, who

handle, he smashed the knife

of the blow, but he did succeed in bringing the creature down with him. Like two meteors, they

absorbing much of the damage from the accelerated fall. Flipping his dagger to a backhanded grip, he charged

however, forced him down on one knee. The illustrious King of the Forest made

smashed into his face. It hit the mask and didn’t even leave a mark, making Jake swiftly switch target. Next, the King felt a stab his chest, and then a second and a third – directly into the wound

the same time, he was holding a small fingernail-sized

get his bearings. And he was furious. His entire body started burning with intense energy. His hand shot up, far faster than Jake could in any way react to, the ivory claw glowing with golden light. The claws aimed directly at the hunter right in front

flying towards his chest, as if it aimed to rip his body into several pieces. Just as it was

of the

air as it slowly moved upwards, the golden light it gave off amplified by the slowdown. Even more ridiculous was that the claw

opened his hand as he pushed forth the

of a Mooncore, corrupted by an immense amount of toxicity. It is unstable by nature and will not last more than a few months in

gamble. Within it, the energies were in equilibrium. But no more. Touch of the Malefic Viper had broken the balance, and now it was but

Viper on full display. He felt it crack as it lost contact with the

spread across the

the Bulwark of the Horde Leader and began channeling mana into it. Something he

claw as five deep scars were cut across

claw about to reap of the life of the human in front of him, as suddenly the figure disappeared. A movement faster than the King could ever imagine the weak human being capable of, his position had suddenly shifted to standing slightly to the right of the claw, now holding a shield in

that he hoped to never encounter again. A weird sort of

weak and beneath him - all except for the stag. It was the

far above his own. Able to use the power of concepts he couldn’t comprehend. Of all the Beast Lords, the Great White Stag was

sounded out before the first even had time to stop echoing out. Yet it wasn’t a big bang or

but a moment, light died. The world turned monochrome, and the artificial sun above was covered by a fractured moon, as the sky darkened. Like night had descended, the eclipsed

black rotting moon. A moon that was shattered and broken leaking out copious amounts of dark green

the explosion came. A storm of light and darkness consuming each other as well as the world around it. Like the moon itself had exploded on the ground, a

beings in the midst of it

of force produced. Covered behind a shield of rock, every single part of his body coated in dark green scales. He flew back nearly a kilometer until he found himself embedded in a wall for the umpteenth time that day. More bones were broken than not,