The Primal Hunter

While Jake was the first to notice what was happening, everyone naturally became aware when a huge magic barrier surrounded them, and people suddenly appeared on all sides.

”What the fuck?” the elemental mage asked as he readied himself.

Jake’s first course of action was not to answer but took a step towards where the cube had been as he quickly swiped all the loot. This did earn him a few glances, but he was happy to see there was nothing accusatory in them from the rogue, the assassin, or the elemental. However, the earth mage did glare daggers, as the man had already begun backing away.

The shadow assassin had also realized the earth mage was in on it and turned to him: ”Are you for real? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

”Oh please, stop acting all surprised; you’re a fucking assassin and a thief,” the earth mage replied in a snarky tone. ”This is a Treasure Hunt, and I’m just playing by the rules.”

Jake didn’t bother with the earth mage but had turned his attention to someone else. It was a man who stood at the top of the hill, surrounded by others. Jake was pretty sure he recognized him and a few others of those around him. Those are…

That is when Jake recognized them from the World Congress. These were city leaders and people related to cities that weren’t involved with any specific factions. The independent forces. He remembered Miranda talking about them making internal alliances, and that seemed to be true… he did wonder why they had chosen to attack him, though. Jake looked at the man at the helm and Identified him.

[Human – lvl 130]

He was the strongest person Jake had seen in quite a while. Nearly Jake’s own level. Then again, he was a city leader, and those tended to level quickly. Looking at those standing with the man, Jake saw that nearly all those closest had levels above 120.

”Lord Thayne,” he heard the man yell from atop the cliff. ”I had hoped not to meet again under such strenuous circumstances, but here we are.”

Jake looked up at him. ”I think you accidentally activated a barrier or something.”

”No, no, this is quite the purposeful act,” he answered back with a smile.

The elemental mage, rogue, and assassin all scurried closer to Jake as it became clear what this was. Jake looked around him a bit more and counted one hundred and seventeen people, one hundred and eighteen counting the earth mage. All of them were naturally D-grade. Most were between 100 and 110, but a lot were also above 110.

”Are you sure you want this? I’ll give you a chance to wisen up.” Jake asked. This really seemed like an entire thing, and Jake felt like this could all turn real complicated quickly. There were many city leaders there, and he could already begin to predict the issues this would create for Miranda.

At the top of the hill, the man shook his head as he began rambling. ”Do you know how screwed up the current status quo of Earth is? A large religious organization is the largest faction. A god damn assassination cult is among the most influential forces. We even have non-human monsters sitting in the high seats. This planet is slowly being claimed by outside forces. Gods and their factions from outside our universe are claiming our planet. I, no, we, will not stand for this.”

The man paced a bit back and forth as Jake was just listening to the man rant.

”The choice is either to be subservient to some higher power or get screwed over. Yet, that is something some of us won’t do. We refuse to give up our world and deliver it on a silver platter to exploitative foreigners. We are here because we refuse to be ignored. We will reclaim our planet, and we will make things right. Purge the undead and return to secularism.”

Jake scratched his head, not exactly sure what the guy was getting at. Wasn’t this guy as extreme as everyone else?

”What has anything of this got to do with me?”

on Earth. Do you know the reason why we’re not listened to? Because people think we’re weak. That we can’t stand up for ourselves. That’s why we have come here. To show we can, and what better demonstration than taking down the first city owner of the planet and the most prominent

to mention the bounty from it. I heard he killed three Counts of Blood, and he sure as hell got a lot more besides that,” the

what my comrade is trying to say is to

A barrier was sealing them all in. One side had come prepared and the other taken by surprise. All of this had been done to make Jake into an example. For the independent faction to

aware they likely couldn’t kill Jake, they were confident in forcing him to leave the Treasure Hunt. A few of them were even using magic

of what he relied upon was reputation over actual feats of strength. He was powerful because people said he was powerful. He was a Progenitor, but most didn’t know what that entailed. He had killed Counts of Blood, but the other six had been slain by several different factions. None of the people present had seen him actually fight. While they had heard some about how he had publicly slain the first Count of Blood,

he partly was. He was also isolated, and the three people he had to assist him would not

their tactic wasn’t entirely asinine, they had made several mistakes. The first one was to seal off the entire space, giving not only Jake and the three others issues escaping, but themselves too. The second mistake was to not attack but stop up and monologue. Perhaps even giving them

man said. Not the information he gave, but his choice of words. For while Jake could handle a lot of insults, there were some things he couldn’t take. Some words

really didn’t like being called a

Much less a slave.

open

swirled around him as Limit Break activated at 20% instantly. His presence infused with his mana blanketed everyone present, not only pressing down on

down at all the people present as they were mentally torn down. Weakened. Fragile. Slaves to their

Pathetic.

holding back. Killing humans was something Jake tended to avoid. It was messy and led to complicated situations. It was something he only

a case of the

the ambushers. The fear of a predator so far superior to themselves

for

people fell to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. Their eyes glazed over, and not a hint of life in their body. Within an instant, the force of nearly ten dozen was cut down by a third – the weaker of

down, red now mixed into the yellow of his eyes as two small drops of blood ran down his cheeks. It didn’t stop him as the bow

skull. The man didn’t die instantly, but he became unable to act. Unable to teleport himself out of the Treasure Hunt. Jake followed up with another

trying to help their downed comrade. Five arrows fell upon the man, exploding on impact as Jake had just set the scene

IN POSITIONS!

a shield around himself as Jake fired an arrow at him. The shield cracked

A healer.

types and not the independents. Of course, there were exceptions. People who simply reveled in the sense of power that came from wielding the life of others in

light was sent out, pushing back the effect of Jake’s presence. While that did stop them from continued exposure, it didn’t dispel what they had already experienced. Pure dread was already ingrained in many of those present. Dread that would

taking cover, the only three people not affected by Jake’s initial salvo moved. The rogue, assassin, and elemental mage had been excluded from everything as they weren’t the target of Jake’s ire, while

the chest and smashed into the ground by a sledgehammer of ice before his one arm was cut

the mood was set. The formerly confident group, believing that outnumbering the group twenty-five to one would make it easy, came

did matter. The Holy Church was proof of this working. They were known for conducting grand rituals with hundreds if not thousands of

individuals with a few parties. They had all come to intimidate, believing they were far superior. Sure, Jake was strong, but was he stronger than a hundred

he did choose to fight, could he truly kill them when they had so many people around them to assist? To put it simply… they had clearly come without fully realizing this would be a fight to the death. They honestly believed it was all just intimidation,