The Primal Hunter

Was it a sign of intelligence to willingly kill yourself to try and take down your would-be killers with you? It was undoubtedly a sign of ego and proof the Earth Elemental Prima had been no simple-minded creature. Calling it smart would perhaps be a bit too much, but it certainly did have some level of intelligence not found in its regular brethren. They just died when they ran out of mana and fought the same way from the beginning till the end. They simply didn’t have the mental faculties to display desperation.

They displayed this as even with the entire place coming down, they kept attacking Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen, putting extra pressure on them as they tried to make it to one of the tunnels leading out of the cavern.

“Blocked off here!” Carmen yelled.

“Here too,” Jake noted as he quickly surveyed their surroundings. “Fucker managed to direct the force to collapse the entrances first.”

He also sent out a string of mana as he tracked the mana of the fragment dropped by the Prima. It was currently falling to the ground along with the broken pieces of the pillar, making it easy enough to snatch it along with the Orb dropped by the Earth Elemental Prima.

“Plans?” Carmen asked while smashing an elemental to pieces as she looked up at the rapidly cracking ceiling, clearly knowing it was only a question of when, not if, the entire mountain would come down. “I have an escape talisman, but it only works for me.”

Jake looked up too as he held down and destroyed another annoying elemental. “We break out of here.”

“How?” Carmen asked with exasperation. “While I don’t see myself dying, it will take a long-ass time to dig myself out of this fucking place, and if these elementals survive and keep attacking, it could get dangerous.”

Sylphie agreed as she kept killing elementals, clearly waiting for Jake to decide what they were going to do.

Jake held out his hand as a transparent flame appeared. “Trying to trap an alchemist under a rock without any will of its own is pretty dumb; that’s all I’m gonna say.”

He manipulated the flame as it revolved around him and shot it off towards a nearby wall. It simply seemed to remove a part of the wall, confirming his theory. Jake had taken lessons in using his Alchemical Flame, and he still vividly remembered the one about Soulflames and properly merging your flame and your will. Jake was far from that stage, as the dragon back then would have just snapped and made the entire mountain disappear, but he could at least manipulate his flame well enough to dig them out.

Above, a large section of the cavern ceiling cracked, and a massive boulder fell down, causing a chain reaction as everything began collapsing at once. “To me!” Jake yelled, and the two complied, disengaging from the elementals still causing them trouble.

In an act of irony, the elementals were crushed by boulders falling down on them, making them lose their forms and become unable to assemble themselves again. Jake spread out his hands as he manipulated his Alchemical Flame and formed a barrier of transparent fire around them. A rock fell down on top of the barrier and was consumed as it made contact with the fire, draining Jake’s mana in kind.

“Let’s go!” Jake said as he walked to the wall and began walking into it, creating a new tunnel with his flame. The stones weren’t that tough, and he had managed to burn through the incredibly durable stone back in Yalsten to steal the doors back then, and this mountain couldn’t even hold a candle to the mountain towers back in the hidden vampire realm.

Even within the newly-formed tunnel, the cracks kept spreading, and it kept collapsing upon them.

“Can you keep this up?” Carmen asked as she cradled Sylphie close to her chest and walked close to Jake, who had been forced to make the bubble of Alchemical Flame smaller to reduce mana expenditure. They were practically huddled together as Jake and Carmen slowly moved forward.

“That fucking Prima did something… or maybe the pillar was just holding this entire mountain up,” Jake muttered, annoyed. “Depending on how deep we are, I may run out of mana.”

“Got it. Say if you need any help,” Carmen said, nearly hugging him from behind as they moved forward. They soon began going at a bit of an upwards angle as Jake closed his eyes and focused on not only his magic but also his mana sense and intuition. He went for where the earth mana became thinner, meaning what was closer to the outside.

Jake’s flame didn’t give off any light unless he used it to heat up an object and set it on fire. However, what he was doing currently didn’t really utilize any heat as he infused his flame with destructive arcane mana. The malleable flame accepted it without complaint or resistance.

Jake could still see due to his high Perception and his sphere, but it was clear that Carmen had a hard time. Sylphie managed by not having to

a potion with the new special enchantment of his necklace, allowing him to consume it right away. The way it worked was a bit… off. Jake literally had a bottle placed in his stomach as far as he could tell, but the bottle disappeared instantly as it

became critical. It was the time it took Jake to consume the full amount a potion could restore, meaning he was constantly losing mana. As the hours

punch and blow ourselves out?”

Jake said. “But if we do that, we need to spread out. The shockwaves you send out would end up causing issues for Sylphie and me and will surely cause cave-ins. This is also assuming the

moving forward, it wasn’t as bad. However, if he began making big moves, it could make everything above collapse and put intense pressure on them. No,

Jake couldn’t help but smile a bit himself. If Neil was there, he would have just teleported them all out or

a quick apology from Carmen, who made

efficiency and thus speed, but he didn’t get any worthwhile progress using Alchemical Flame, and a skill upgrade was definitely out of the question.

would mean the tunnel collapsing down on them and slowly drowning them in soil and stone, so that was out of the question. Jake could stabilize the surroundings with mana, but what was the point of what if the entire purpose of the break was to

“Ree?” Sylphie suddenly asked.

again?” Jake

repeated. Jake nodded along at

could work… definitely…” Jake muttered,

here,” Carmen sighed.

something incredibly risky but also potentially cool as fuck?” Jake asked as he shared the idea with her. The woman at first had a look of utter disbelief with her mouth wide open before

dumb. Of course, I am up for it, and if it fails, well, I guess

snickered too. “Sylphie. Fire

early-tier E-grades, but on this desolate mountain, no other predators existed. The lizard was only the size of a house cat, with the rodent being nothing more than an overgrown hamster. Both were able to utterly slaughter a human pre-system, but in this new world, they

It had barely gotten halfway down as suddenly everything began

transparent flames erupted from the mountain. It sent the lizard tumbling and rolling down the mountainside as it just tried to escape with its life intact from the three monsters that had appeared.

wasn’t going to go rodent-hunting on this mountain again, that

they began their escape. The biggest reason was the lack of

for what they

the heavens!” Jake yelled the moment they erupted from the mountain, getting an eye roll from Carmen, who flew up alongside

from Carmen’s grip

asked the moment they were

you saying the Sylphie-Jake Wind-powered Mountainpiercing Drill isn’t a great

sadly as she

her sad puppy-hawk-eyes. Carmen finally gritted her teeth

Jake had to admit she was a smart little hawk. She had actually been observing Jake’s flames and had managed to analyze

As Sylphie’s mana was filled with intent, Jake’s flame wouldn’t work against it, and Sylphie had good enough

like six or seven times longer to use the shortcut tunnel than if they had just moved over

a break?” Carmen

amount of mana he had pumped out during their escape was insane, and Jake was down to less than five percent when

to grab the Orb from