The Primal Hunter

Jake felt the arcane energy wash over him from the explosion, even if he was a kilometer up in the air as it completely destroyed the Mistless Plains beneath him. It had to have done a lot of damage, and Jake was already preparing a follow-up as he heard the voice of the Sword Saint.

“Rainblade.”

A feeling of dread spread up his back as he suddenly felt the arcane energy move. It began spinning around itself as it gathered contrary to Jake’s will. His eye opened wide as he finally saw the Sword Saint stand there, his body covered in even more wounds. But, he had the same stable and confident stance as before while he spun his blade in his hand, making the arcane energy spin along with it as he saw millions of raindrops guide and control it.

He pointed the spinning blade up towards Jake, and he saw all of the arcane energy be gathered in the middle of what looked like a whirlpool of water. He stared into the eye of the storm that was his own destructive energy as his danger sense reacted.

*BOOM!*

A massive blast of arcane energy and rainwater was blasted up towards Jake as if fired from a canon. Jake reacted by teleporting away, narrowly dodging the projectile of pure energy fired after him. Then, with shock, he looked at it fly into the air as it blew up several kilometers above him, sending a wave of force down that destabilized him in the air for a moment.

Turning his head, he looked down at the confidently smiling Sword Saint as Jake became utterly aware.

He didn’t need to do that… he just wanted to see if he could.

Smiling, Jake nearly failed to hold back a laugh as he dove straight into continuing his attack. He shot down a Splitting Arrow as the Sword Saint also responded by swinging his blade. Jake believed he was doing it to block Jake’s arrows… he was wrong.

A crescent wave of water was fired up towards him, and contrary to what he would expect, it only grew in power as it flew through the air and absorbed any and all rainwater it encountered. By the time it reached Jake, it was more than fifty meters in length while still as thin as a string of hair.

Jake avoided it but felt like he was being subtly pulled towards the attack as the rainwater impacted his body and softly pushed him. That is when Jake noticed something else. His Scales of the Malefic Viper had been active from the start, but now after the Sword Saint had used Rainblade, he felt his scales slowly begin to absorb mana.

What did this mean? It meant that even the damn rain had become a passive effect that slowly began dealing damage or some other adverse effect. It was ridiculous but far less ridiculous than what the Sword Saint did next.

The old man pointed his sword upwards, aiming at him. Jake expected him to maybe extend it or something like that, but his danger sense activated from all around him. In a swift move, Jake spread out his arms as he formed an arcane barrier around himself and poured in as much power as he could before the attack arrived.

“Torrential Droplets.”

Every single raindrop with dozens of kilometers reacted as they all began glowing with mana and moved according to the swordsman’s will. Millions of drops headed towards Jake faster than the speed of sound, and he knew his current defenses would in no way be enough.

Jake screamed as he fueled his mana and will into Pride of the Malefic Viper as he poured more mana into it than ever before. A domain was established as a purple glow emanated from his body. Barrier after barrier appeared around him, creating a ball of nearly pure arcane energy more than twenty meters across as the raindrops arrived.

A battle between the rain and his arcane energy began as Jake was attacked from all sides, his arcane energy slowly being whittled away from the millions of small attacks. The sphere of arcane energy slowly shrank as it was consumed from twenty to fifteen to ten meters. It kept shrinking by a meter every second as Jake held on until it was only a mere four meters across, still obscuring Jake’s body.

Then suddenly, the attack stopped. Jake momentarily felt a moment of relief before his danger sense reacted again, making him twist his body. A blade of rainwater cut through his sphere as it swept upwards, Jake groaning in pain as his thigh was stabbed into and cut through.

It hurt, but it wasn’t serious enough to impact him. The only bad thing was his mana expenditure which was not insignificant. But at the same time, he had a feeling that the Sword Saint wouldn’t be able to keep up his current power forever.

and a couple of strands of gray hair had appeared. It was subtle, but it looked like he had aged at least a few years since their battle had begun. That meant he was on a timer, and whatever he

will end

battlefield would slowly begin to shrink as time went by, but at least for now, they

Saint as he yelled,

did you

will last. Spring is but one of four seasons, and as summer approaches, so must fall before we enter

head at the non-answer. Good enough, I

as the Sword Saint also reacted, teleporting once more. Jake had finally figured out how the teleportation worked too, and it was honestly

pure teleportation or not. The only real difference was perhaps the forewarning as

the rain. He wanted to avoid melee more than anything, as

swing moved in near-unpredictable ways, and he felt like his scimitar was magnetically pulled to his

tried to kite the Sword Saint, but every once in a while, the man still found an opening and landed a blow as Jake’s body got more and more bloody. However,

four small bottles as arcane mana condensed around them, breaking and destroying the glass entirely, leaving only the liquid within. It was an expensive way to fight but necessary. Jake manipulated the four bolts manually as he also fired his

his resources at high speed. His opponent seemed to not be in a rush either as the occasional raindrop was fired from his blade and hit Jake, or the blade extended

an Arcane Powershot as Gaze activated, and the bolts closed in on the Sword Saint. Naturally, the Sword

too late. For the first time since his transformation, Jake saw the man open his eyes display a hint of fear as his body was splashed with four bottles’ worth of uncommon Necrotic

body

been building up within his Mark of the Avaricious Arcane Hunter. Even before his transformation, it had been building up – and the transformation hadn’t made

a brief moment, further amplified by his Arcane Powershot exploding as Jake felt himself be pushed back. He felt the damage done to his opponent and prepared to keep attacking

with faint

black hair had clear signs of graying, and many wrinkles covered his body and face. Jake felt like he was beginning to get an advantage,

end, we enter the longest days. May we embrace the blessing of the sun, but never

intensity did too. The rays of sunlight became brighter as the clouds changed color and became darker than before

“Summer Rain.”

fully understand what the Sword Saint had just done as he looked up and saw the now middle-aged man simply stare at the sky as sunlight and rain hit him. That is when Jake noticed something… the

felt heavier as the rain continued to fall on him. It felt tiring to stand there in the warm rain, even if it was also

head, Jake nearly smacked himself as he exited his stupor. No, now was not the time to relax as the Sword Saint was slowly healed. He pushed

and even his mana and stamina didn’t move as fast as before. Gritting his teeth, he still fired a Splitting Arrow

react like before, but his body just didn’t move as he wanted it to. He was off by a few centimeters as he took a cut in his side, and

This is…

half the distance he had wanted to. It didn’t take long for the swordsman to catch up and force Jake even further back in a desperate struggle to not have

…Like being underwater.

was pushed as far as he could take it. He managed to

just need to buy time, he told himself as he narrowly dodged the blade, only to see himself caught by a

seemed to corrode the arcane energy. One massive difference between the Vault and here was that in the Vault, the water was just there. It was a natural part of the environment and was entirely neutral. But the rainwater?

tried to use more magic, threw bottles, and whatever else he could quickly think of,