The Primal Hunter

By far, the King of the Forest was the strongest enemy Jake had ever faced, yet he had won in the end. It was a hard fight, sure, but he always kept his head cool to look for a way to victory. A mindset he had kept from then to now.

He thought the King would be his most significant challenge for a good while… until he met it.

It was more insidious than any enemy he could ever imagine. Its cruelty and evil instincts were overflowing with every one of its actions.

Jake had been practicing his flying once more after his round of meditation. Practicing gliding around and not falling down. Until suddenly, he sensed it in his sphere. A figure had invaded it and was fast making its way towards him.

Faster than anything he had encountered since the King. Even quicker than the mantis. He was prepared for an attack, but it never came. Instead, the figure appeared right beside him, where he saw its form clearly.

It looked like an ordinary hawk. But Identify made it clear it wasn’t.

[Galesong Hawk – lvl 90]

It was the smallest beast he had ever seen at such a high level. It didn’t appear to have grown a single centimeter from when it was just an average everyday hawk. But what it lacked in size, it clearly made up for in speed.

As he observed it, so did it observe him back. Perhaps he had entered its area, him now being well and truly outside of the boundary of the ‘city.’ It looked at him… and scoffed. How he knew it scoffed, he didn’t know. He just did.

It sped up as it passed him, only to make a large circle and fly right up to him again on his other side. Repeating the same damn scoff as it began circling above and beneath him. Jake just silently gliding along in a straight line.

Clearly, it didn’t get the reaction it wanted, as Jake just tried to ignore it. He wasn’t in any shape to fight it in the air, and so far, he hadn’t actually felt any aggression. It also wasn’t the first bird or flying creature he came across, so it wasn’t that interesting.

And then it did it. It flew up once more, flying right above Jake. He ignored it. But then suddenly, it sped up and headed straight for the top of his head. His danger sense didn’t even give him a small warning before he felt it.

It fucking pecked him. Right on his noggin. An absolutely unprovoked attack.

It didn’t do any damage, but it still hurt like hell. Not physically. Mentally.

“What the fuck?” he cursed out loud as he began wobbling back and forth in the air. He had to use all his focus on stabilizing himself once more - a challenging endeavor with the damn bird still flying in circles around him.

After he barely managed to avoid spiraling out of control and falling to the ground, the next ‘attack’ came. This time, it just flew up in front of him and flapped one of its wings into his face. He tried to grab it with his hands, but the bird was far faster than him.

What the… he thought, as he was forced to flap his wings uncontrollably, trying to remain in the air.

The bird kept looking at him as he flapped desperately. It attacked once more by firing a blast of wind in his direction, hitting one of the wings.

but did the exact opposite. He was wholly balanced for a brief

another gust of wind, Jake, this time, didn’t try to avoid it

is up with this bird? He questioned. It clearly wasn’t actually attacking him, but rather it felt like it was reprimanding him for something. Did it not like his way of flying,

around Jake, occasionally striking with blasts of wind,

slowly began to turn to gratefulness as the bird took hours out of its day to teach him. However, the entirely needless pecks and slaps with its wings weren’t

into a tree. He got up just in

a break, I have had wings for less

at him with the same

replenish his fast-emptying pool of internal energy while sitting on a fallen log. This

this as he took out another. “Want

words, it clearly got the gist of his meaning. Moving one of its wings, a gust of wind picked up the bottle as Jake allowed it to be blown

tree, surprising Jake with its high skill in manipulating wind. It was pure manipulation, not unlike his own manipulation of pure mana or what the metal

at the bottle for a few seconds before it ripped the small cork out with its beak. After smelling the liquid for a second and throwing Jake yet another glance, seeing him also drinking one, it lifted up

but its next action confirmed that it indeed did. It

are awesome, right?” he laughed as the bird screeched

seemed so random. By now, he was used to beasts either running away or attacking him. One

wings a bit behind him to familiarize himself with the feeling,

flew down and gave him a nice peck on top of his head. “Ow, what

chirp in response as it landed

considering how novel the experience of chilling with

seconds later, got hit by a gust of wind, making him fall backward off the log he was resting

what?” he looked up at it, questionably. Was

Jake thought it was funny until it fired a blast of wind at him. That is when he got it. Is it calling me

the bird was willing to teach, he was

answered by slowly lifting its wings and making a few flapping movements in slow motion. Jake got the hint as he began imitating its movements.

get angry as he noted that he had indeed messed up. He nodded as he began adjusting

bizarre, to say the least - a human with wings sitting on a log imitating a screeching hawk. Apologizing every time

had to end. Only a few hours of practice in, the bird suddenly stopped giving directions as it looked up to the sky. Jake followed its gaze

the same time. Once more imitating the bird, Jake made

control of his wings. And in conjunction also how he moved through the

the air as it threw a few glances his way. On the other hand, Jake’s eyes were focused on the wings of

there was a big difference between a human’s physique with wings and a hawk’s, but many concepts

first things he had noticed upon taking flight the first time was the internal energy movements in the wings. It allowed him to fly despite the questionable aerodynamics and other inconsequential things,