The Primal Hunter

Jake waited outside the building for a few moments as he looked through the Fort using his sphere. Hank and the four others went to another meeting room while Arnold looked busy with Jake’s Nanoblade. Arnold had it suspended in some device and was firing a laser or something on it. Jake wasn’t a craftsman, so he just shook his head and went on his way.

It had been close to a full day since Jake had been back in Haven, and it was approaching evening time. He had a meeting with Miranda planned, and while he could get engrossed in his practice, he hadn’t forgotten it. He would have to come back to the Fort again in a few days, but it was time to head home for now.

The return trip was swift as Jake didn’t have any other side objectives on the way. He was back in Haven before anyone even knew he had left the Fort – assuming they were aware he had been there to begin with.

When he got close to his valley, he noticed there was activity within. Jake frowned for a moment until he felt the auras of who it was.

The hawks were back.

He had barely managed to get into the valley before a large green projectile hit him in the chest. The projectile turned out to be a squishy bird that nuzzled itself against his shirt as Jake held the bird and rubbed her head.

“Hey there Sylphie, how have you been?” Jake asked while hugging her as she playfully squirmed in his grasp.

“Ree!” she replied, telling him it had been all good. While Jake was grinding alchemy and the dungeon, Sylphie had really entered her growth phase. She had been hunting actively, and coupled with her still naturally growing, she had gained quite a few levels.

[Sylphian Eyas – lvl 83]

It had been around one and a half months since Jake last saw Sylphie, and in that time, she had managed to go from 41 to 83. She had more than doubled it. One had to remember she was only a few months old, and she was nearly already a fully-fledged D-grade.

Jake wondered if she would reach D-grade by the time it was time for the Treasure Hunt. Sadly she wouldn’t be able to enter on account of being a beast and not a part of the enlightened species. Still, it made Jake happy.

While he hugged and nuzzled the young hawk, he also checked out Hawkie and Mystie. Neither had been slacking either during this period. Hawkie had been 109 and Mystie 116 back then, and now they had both gained a good amount of experience.

[Stormsong Hawk – lvl 120]

[Mystsong Hawk – lvl 126]

While they were slow compared to someone like Jake or Sylphie, the speed was still respectable. Especially considered that they protected Sylphie during all this time and focused more on her progress than their own. He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit when he imagined the little featherball reach the same level as her parents.

“You guys doing well too?” Jake asked his bird buddies. Both of them gave affirming sounds as they also assessed Jake. He saw a small trace of defeat in their eyes as they saw that he had grown as much, if not more than them.

of course, with her leveling so much, but she felt too strong. In fact… she

noticed his weird-ass time tree do something. Jake was a bit annoyed that no one was there to look out for and eat the bananas like he had told Hank, but quickly noticed why. He saw a banana ripen, and at that exact moment, a

“You made

put down a magic circle at the base of the tree that Jake hadn’t even noticed when he came back from the dungeon. It was so subtle. It just pulled in the banana and somehow stabilized

hug and, with impressive speed, zoomed over and scooped up

“Hey, that’s mi-“

it down, peel and

Now he at least knew

nuzzle up to him. He could smell the bananas on her. If

and petted her head. “But remember to share. Maybe I can make them even better?

had a feeling, it would be an uphill battle. She seemed to enjoy bananas a lot,

here, Jake chuckled internally. The birds seemed to want to hang around since Jake was back,

ended up playing with magic until Miranda came back. Jake fired small arcane attacks, and the birds blocked or deflected them. Jake also blocked their blows as he practiced, and he even had a few games of tag. Hawkie was still damn fast, and Jake needed to predict his movements

Jake called it tricks mainly to make him feel better because he didn’t understand what the little hawk was doing. He was embarrassed to admit he had no idea what the

and was speedy like wind, yet it seemed to be more. How exactly that was, he couldn’t pinpoint. All he was certain of was that

as his albeit playful arcane bolts were sheared away by her green winds, and those she didn’t just blow away failed to have any effect as she made a green bubble

Jake was beginning to think that was all Sylphie had – green wind and a

why he hadn’t expected it. Maybe it was because of Hawkie and Mystie and how they fought. The small frame of the hawks. Their usual use of magic. All of it had made Jake not expect the hawk to do the most obvious of

by first, her wing glowing green. The wing was like a razor-blade, and Jake managed to avoid it as it cut through the air, making odd sounds. In a swift turn in the air, she came back with another attack, this time using her talons. Jake was curious and raised his arm to block. He allowed her talons to strike… and the

them,

she had nearly ripped his forearm off. Her talons begun shining as she struck and had penetrated straight through the armor on his arms. It had then gone through his skin with only a tiny bit more resistance, drawing plenty of blood. Finally, the talons had

kept making apologetic screeches and nuzzling up to him, throwing glances at his already healed arm. The skin still

Hawkie? They just sat on the side, looking like

he had underestimated her. Those close combat attacks were powerful. He couldn’t help but

fragile if one did manage to strike her. Her small frame also made her susceptible to many of the same attacks that took down Hawkie. Her means of attack also weren’t that varied, but

small hawk refused to leave. She kept nuzzling up to Jake, and

together,” Jake said with a smile. He could be the babysitter of the little murder bird while the husband and wife hawks could go enjoy a nice date

and Sylphie kept playing – no fighting

was afraid she had brought too much, but it should be fine. Even if there were some leftovers, she could