The Primal Hunter

Jake stood defensively in front of Carmen as the Monarch looked at him. The others would be arriving, but it would still take a bit. Carmen had closed her eyes, and Jake felt like her energy had become calmer, making him think she had passed out.

“You have no need for concern. I possess no desire to slay her or you for that matter; I merely need to win and make you leave,” the Monarch said casually.

“Yeah… don’t fault me for not trusting you,” Jake answered, totally fine with talking for now. “Also… you said earlier you sealed off the entrances to this realm. Does that mean no vampires escaped Yalsten?”

The Monarch gladly answered, for some reason not in a rush either, or maybe he genuinely wanted Jake to know the answer. Or maybe, just maybe, it was the gaping hole in his stomach with wriggling flesh trying to heal. “Some did make it out beforehand. Quite a lot, actually. Yalsten also was only one of many places where we vampires lived, just one more sealed off than most others, hence a great refuge and easier to defend from outsiders.”

“To be honest, I would find it odd if an entire race just died off like that. I have a feeling the system or at least interested parties wouldn’t want that.”

“I would agree under normal circumstances… but the vampiric race is not a naturally-occurring one. It is difficult to say to begin with if the system cares for the survival of any race, and as for allies and interested parties… the Malefic Order was one of them,” the vampire said as he shook his head.

“Yeah… again, the Order could be filled with vampires, and I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been there or met any members of the Order, for that matter. At least not any normal members,” Jake explained.

“…How has the Chosen of the Malefic Viper never been in the Order or met anyone from it?”

“Eh, it’s complicated, but as the universe is newly integrated and all that, I haven’t had a chance to go anywhere and have only met him a few times. We do speak quite often, though,” Jake kept explaining, not really caring that much about giving information out.

Jake wasn’t leaving the Hunt, so either he would kill the Monarch or the Monarch would kill him. Either scenario would end in whatever he said not mattering. Also… he didn’t really care.

“You speak directly with the Malefic One?” the vampire asked after trying to figure out who ‘him’ was, being more and more confused.

“On a regular basis, yeah. The last time we met in person, it was to do some alchemy and chill together with him and Duskleaf. We had a good time. The time before that, we had beers and talked about life and all that,” Jake kept saying, dealing mental damage with every sentence.

“…”

The Monarch just kept staring at him, Jake staring back. Carmen lying on the ground was apparently still conscious, and her pained face had changed to one very visibly saying: “what the fuck?”

he had actually assumed she had passed out. Turned out she hadn’t. Well then… Nah,

deal with those problems whenever they arose. There was no reason to make things more difficult than they were. He would just keep things

he didn’t have to keep narrating about himself as

down beside him as Caleb appeared, electricity running across his body. The Monarch

“Curse.”

moved simultaneously. The brothers went in opposite directions, with Caleb picking up Carmen

may speak the truth about not caring about killing Carmen, he sure as hell did want

side?” Jake asked as he appeared

by blocking his weapon and paused as he simply held Jake in a standstill. “The Holy Tyrant and her slaves, together with

pushed back as the Monarch got free and tried to turn into mist again, but Jake quickly used Gaze as he froze the vampire for a brief moment. He engaged again, noticing that the Monarch took it relatively slow

Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, if not stronger. Which made sense, considering it was a skill that had clearly left her severely drained afterward, while for Jake, it was just a bit of mana and

the guy’s head had already healed like it was never there. Probably still did some

a long time, not sure it makes sense to judge the current factions for crimes of the past,” Jake argued, mainly just trying to waste time. He had left a Mark on Caleb and Carmen both to keep track of

will of Umbra, the Holy Tyrant or the Blightfather. While the mortals may have changed, perhaps even the Pantheons underwent a transformation… those ancient gods are still in command. Their power is unshakeable because their will is

“People do change, no matter how ancient. The gods you know of are now more than tens

me you know so little of how the world works. They became gods because they followed their paths. They remain the most powerful because they keep following their path. Their path is the deepest creed they follow, their very fundamental principle of life. Their meaning. If your dedication to your path was so weak that something such as time could change, they would have

many other things. There is nuance to everything,” Jake countered, more just to argue than anything else. He was out of his depth, and he knew it. He had

towards your family, friends, or anyone else. To him, they are insects that will become dust in the blink of an eye, forgotten by both of you. You say he is a friend… if that is so, the only reason is that he genuinely believes you will become a god,

or not, especially the second half… but the first half sure was spot-on. The Malefic Viper did seem to care little about mortal life, he viewed killing as natural, and he did treat Jake as equal to him

was something so fundamental to him it wouldn’t change? For the Viper, it was apparently all about getting stronger all the time or something like that, and while Jake was on board for that, that wasn’t really something he would call his path. In fact, just thinking about his path felt like a waste of time. Because while

was far

another person had

was strong, and some faint energy from the slain clones

old man had heard their talk. Either his perception was stronger than expected or… well, actually, the Monarch did kind of project his voice all-over. The Sword Saint addressed the vampire’s words

shows a rigid mind. Freedom has many forms, and while I do not know this Viper myself, far less what impact of having walked a path for time immemorial can have, then I do know a bit of having walked through life with a single path from start to end. While the fundamental drive and motivation may not change… the person walking it can. His perspective may shift… and his dream be realized through achieving other goals than originally intended,”

in the thousands, and on the other side, an old human who, even if he was