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.

he stared down and looked at the Sword Saint below him. His body was more damaged than before, but he also noticed something else. A few faint signs of wrinkles had appeared on his face, and a couple of strands of gray hair had appeared. It was subtle, but it looked like

Hunt will

Mistless Plains. Their battlefield would slowly begin to shrink

the Sword Saint as he yelled, his curiosity failing to

exactly did

believe the answer to that question is pertinent right now. What is more important is how long it will last. Spring is but one of four seasons, and as summer approaches, so must fall before we enter winter once more. It is a cycle that forever repeats…

at the

figured out how the teleportation worked too, and it

was a god damn rainstorm, it made no practical difference if it was just pure teleportation or not. The only real difference was perhaps the forewarning as the Sword Saint infused the drop with mana and then changed places. It was

wings as the Sword Saint chased him as they flew through the rain. He wanted to avoid melee more than anything,

didn’t result in Jake being injured because he was significantly slower or weaker. No, it was that every single sword swing moved in near-unpredictable ways, and he felt like his scimitar was magnetically pulled to his opponent’s sword whenever he

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, Jake did begin to

Jake manipulated the four bolts manually as he also fired his bow, looking for an opening. More bolts soon joined the original four, these ones without any bottles within. His head hurt from controlling them while also fighting semi-normally, but the domain from Pride allowed him to keep up the

resources at high speed. His opponent seemed to not be in a rush

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

Powershot, he noticed the liquid coming out of some of the bolts 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

around his body to wash it off while also blocking the Powershot. Jake pressed his advantage

fight, arcane energy had been building up within his Mark

area flashed with arcane energy for a brief moment, further amplified by his Arcane Powershot exploding as Jake felt himself be pushed back. He felt the damage

leaking blood, with faint arcane energy coved every inch of his skin. He was breathing heavily as he stood

many wrinkles covered his

longest days. May we embrace the blessing of the sun, but never shun the gifts

him as the mana intensity did too. The rays of sunlight became brighter as the clouds

“Summer Rain.”

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

begin to feel worn down and he felt heavier as the rain continued to fall on him.

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 his

stamina didn’t move as fast as before. Gritting his teeth, he still fired a Splitting Arrow of exploding arrows towards the Sword Saint, finally forcing the man to no longer just bask in the

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 when he tried to block, he was also slightly too slow as he

This is…

wanted to. It didn’t take long for the swordsman to catch up and force Jake even further back

…Like being underwater.

he tried to fight off the effects of the rain. Arcane mana whirled around him as Arcane Limit Shatter was pushed as far as he could

just need to buy time, he told himself as he narrowly dodged the blade, only to see himself caught by a follow-up attack. Each wound was small

rain 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

being slowed down, Jake failed again and again to get enough distance between them. He tried to use more magic, threw bottles, and whatever else he could quickly think of,