The Primal Hunter

Jake raised his arms as the thunderbolt hit him, sending him tumbling back. His entire body was smoking, but his Scales of the Malefic Viper had nullified most of the attack. He took out his bow again as he side-stepped a massive blade of wind coming towards him.

The wind blade tore into the clouds below, cutting off a huge part of it and sending all the surrounding birds and elementals scurrying even further away. Jake smiled a bit as he fired a Splitting Arrow towards the small bird that was his opponent.

It dodged all of them easily as the hawk zoomed through the air, far faster than any opponent Jake had ever fought before. Simultaneously, a constant stream of attacks headed for him, but he was no slouch when it came to speed and avoiding blows either. Jake was enjoying the small bout quite a lot, and his opponent also seemed to enjoy being able to let loose its power and practice its newfound strength.

Hawkie had gotten a lot faster and stronger after his evolution.

And while the power-dynamic had changed slightly, with Hawkie no longer utterly outmatched… it still wasn’t the superior predator.

Jake flapped his wings as he chased after the far-faster bird while shooting the occasional arrow. One would assume it could get away… but Jake had quite a few tricks up his sleeve. His gaze landed on the hawk, making it freeze up momentarily, and at the same time, solidified the mana under his foot as he took a step.

He appeared right above the hawk, stepping on an arrow he had fired just beforehand. He was now right above Hawkie and within range of the bird. Jake reached down and pulled the bird towards him with a hastily constructed web of mana strings.

Hawkie had only been frozen for a moment, but it was enough for Jake to land his hand on the hawk and grasp the wings that were already crackling with electricity to get him off.

“Won’t work,” Jake snickered as he dragged the hawk down and smashed it into the cloud.

Size had some strengths and some weaknesses. Being large made you immune to some physical attacks from smaller forms, such as pretty much making it impossible for them to tackle you. But it made you slower and a far easier target.

In the same vein, being small made you susceptible to being wrestled around by a larger opponent. This was especially true for the Stormsong Hawk that relied on speed and high damage output to fight. In summary… Hawkie was screwed if Jake got hold of him.

“I win again,” Jake said with a big grin as the hawk pecked his hand in annoyance.

“Don’t be a sore loser; it’s just sparring. Besides, I doubt I could catch you if you decided to just bail from the fight,” Jake shrugged.

Hawkie, of course, knew this but was still a bit sour. Today was far from the first time the two had fought, as it was just one of many bouts. It was great practice for both of them, and Jake had learned a lot about magic combat from it.

It was rare to find an opponent that could shoot lightning bolts at you to practice making a mana barrier.

“Aight, let’s head back,” he said, motioning for the hawk to follow. It happily did so as Jake threw one last glance towards the massive tree on the cloud continent. Jake could feel that this is where Hawkie and Mystie had gone when they were gone for over three weeks. They were doing as the Thunder Roc and Storm Elemental had done before and claimed the massive tree for themselves. With Mystie putting down formations to increase the absorption rate and Hawkie already at 99 when they left, the hawk had achieved D-grade pretty quickly.

It did help that Jake had killed all other powerful contenders for the tree, making Mystie able to easily handle any other bird or elemental that decided to get in the way of Hawkie’s evolution. He did see that many other birds and elementals now swarmed the tree, and it was just a matter of time before a new D-grade would appear.

Arriving back at the lodge, Jake touched down on the ground, and instantly a tiny goofball of a hawk jumped out of the lodge and ran up to him.

“Chirp! Chirp!”

on his shoulder. She had begun getting a bit big for his head, even if she did occasionally climb there anyway. He kept playing with her

projects. He had

him to 89. Just one more level and he would get the final skill in the

that he only had enough for a total of twenty attempts or so. It sounded like a lot… but this was also his first time

Used in a myriad of recipes related to

A berry that provides a soothing effect to whoever consumes

had already used a bit of the ash in prior concoctions as he had enough of it to do that. He patted himself on the back for burning down all the traps within the Forgotten Sewers and looting all the

actually was mana; it just acted so differently. So ethereal. He had trouble controlling it within the concoction but found that his Pride of

of Power. He had done so when no one else was around, but he still felt stupid for doing it. Naturally, it hadn’t done jack-shit, and the only real feedback he got was

never seen anyone using Words of Power while doing alchemy. Still, Jake was totally welcome

again but returned to the methods he

porch, where he sat down on a chair and summoned his

lot of Purified Water for this concoction. No, nearly all the liquid would stem from his own blood and the juices inside the berries. He

bit different. He had several batches he had taken out daily to use Cultivate Toxin on to prepare them for these concoctions. It

let it all swirl a while as he integrated the moss and his blood. He was meticulous throughout the entire process, not rushing anything. He wanted to make the most potent toxin possible, not create a lot of it – his only goal

throw the entire mix for a loop for a few moments, with Jake working to stabilize it. It was an easy task for him now, but a few months ago, he would have had all the contents of

finished up now, he would have just made a large batch

the Lesser Ethwood Ash and threw it into the cauldron before quickly placing the lid back on. The expert craftsmanship behind the cauldron completely sealed in all the energies, including the mysterious ethereal energy that the ash released when Jake directed

used all his willpower and mana control to try and integrate it… and eventually, he

found in the fungicide, but at a very low intensity. He

poison not being toxic enough to reach the threshold of uncommon-rarity and have enough potency while at the same time

careful

And it’s gone.

a moment, and instantly all the soul-affecting mana was gone. Consumed by the poison around it, turning it

up the cauldron, downed a mana

the entire concoction was ruined because he added too much common-rarity fungicide

third attempt failed when he used Touch of the Malefic Viper at a too high level of intensity and

had managed to raise the toxicity level adequately. However, the ethereal energy from the ash still wasn’t ‘active.’ It was more a catalyst than anything else, and the Soothing Bellberry would be the effect it

clash with everything else in the concoction. Jake already knew this would happen, as the berry wasn’t considered a toxin at all.

of soothing the mind into instead soothing the experienced effect of the fungicide for

body

small part of it. This was another reason he had limited attempts… because he, of course, had pieces of Lifevine to