The Primal Hunter

Frogs in all shapes and sizes, birds that ambushed with pecks nearly as fast as Jake’s arrows, and a plethora of other annoying animals hounded Jake, Sylphie, and Carmen as they made their way deeper into the mangrove. The first frogs they encountered were a good indicator of what they would face.

They were all specialized creatures adapted to their unique environment. They all made use of the many ambush possibilities offered by the dense branches and leaves above or the river below. Granted, Jake was the worst kind of opponent for them as the current him would never fall into an actual ambush, but some attacks were difficult to deal with even if you knew they were coming.

The mangrove was also more than a little annoying fighting in, especially for an archer like Jake. The creatures made full use of the winding roots for cover or hid away underwater to avoid his blows. Sylphie didn’t care much and was able to maneuver well enough to sometimes even take advantage of the environment herself. Carmen could do the same, just hiding away behind cover until her opponent was forced to get close or give up.

Jake still managed pretty well with melee attacks and could land some arrows here and there, but the deeper in they got, the more his archery fell off. When they reached their first target within the mangrove, his archery felt borderline useless.

The first target was a Prima Arnold had already scouted out before. It wandered with a small flock in this part of the mangrove and was a terror to most wildlife. When Jake finally saw it, he could get why. It was a bird with incredibly long and slender legs, a smallish body, a long neck, and an even longer beak. Identifying it, he confirmed it was indeed a Prima.

[Spearbeak Ibis Prima – lvl 190]

Its most notable feature was the beak. It was long, almost to the point of looking impractical, but Jake soon saw why that didn’t matter. The two humans and hawk made a plan as they engaged the Spearbeak Ibis Prima and its flock that consisted of seven more ibises, each of them around level 180.

“Same tactic as always?” Carmen asked before they engaged.

“Will try,” Jake said, a bit miffed at how it usually went. He felt like his opening salvo of Arcane Powershot often ended up just missing or being fired way too early as the opponent either noticed him or was just moving already, and with cover never more than ten or so meters away, most beasts could quickly escape his arrows.

The opening attack did go as expected, but Jake was forced to switch his target to one of the followers of the Prima as the damn Ibis walked behind a large root just before he released the string. The arrow tore off one of its legs and made it fall into the river below. Sylphie attacked the Prima together with Carmen but were pushed back as it was joined by the others in its flock near-instantly.

This was also when Jake learned the reason for the long Prima beak. Rather than fight, it escaped behind a root, but it still pecked forward as its beak simply bent around the root and pecked Carmen in the shoulder, sending out a shower of blood.

Jake and the others had fought one other group of Ibises before and knew they were all fast and had powerful attacks, but they had hoped to take advantage of their low durability. The ibises walked on water like it was nothing and could even run and kick off roots to launch themselves around at incredible speeds and even use their wings for further speed and maneuverability while in the air.

The Prima took this to an entirely new level as their group of three fought a foe that had truly made the environment it lived in its own.

There was never a moment when it was exposed as the Prima switched between the trees and dove under the roots all the time. The bird was only about two and a half meters tall, but the beak could extend to be more than fifteen meters when it pecked forward, truly proving the name Spearbeak.

“I can’t get close,” Carmen said as they all retreated a bit and hid behind a mangrove tree. “I go for the weaker birds?”

“Alright,” Jake nodded as he looked up at some of the branches above where Sylphie was hanging upside-down. “Help Carmen finish them off. I will try to handle the Prima for now.”

“Ree!” Sylphie agreed.

“Sure that is a good idea?” Carmen asked. “If I can’t get close, can you?”

Jake shook his head. “Maybe… but that isn’t why I want to handle the Prima alone. I see an opportunity.”

Carmen stared for a moment before nodding firmly. “Got it.”

even without Jake having

he fought the beasts…

one of the biggest issues: line of sight. Arrows could only fly in a straight line for obvious reasons, and a peck could also normally only go straight… but the Ibis

power. One would think a strike curved into a crescent would be weaker when it hit, but for the Ibis Prima, it

exploded the area to force the Prima away from Carmen and Sylphie as he pursued it. The long-legged bird didn’t seem to care as it allowed Jake to chase,

chased, missing every single one. At the same time, he was forced to block or dodge the spear-like beak repeatedly. Their fight was incredibly basic, with one person just shooting arrows and the other

didn’t actually want to make his

a hit and accomplish what he was attempting to do, but something was missing. Missing to do

Controllable arrows.

so why couldn’t he control his own arrows mid-flight? The problem was that arrows in flight tended to be quite

would often just result in him forcing it to slow down. This would make it

guides on controlling mana bolts and tried a few of those out, but it always came with the

arrows in particular: they liked to destroy stuff due to his arcane affinity. This included any “strings” of mana Jake

also tried to change the arrow design, but that hadn’t worked either, as his arrows just flew too fast. The passive destructive abilities of his arcane arrows also helped alleviate the effects of wind resistance or any other resistance for that matter. This was awesome for making arrows go fast and straight,

bending space or manipulating time to make the arrow’s flight unpredictable, but for obvious reasons, that wasn’t quite

continued, and finally, something happened that changed the situation. Jake jumped away from a beak spear as suddenly

as Jake was pecked in the chest, sending him flying back with a hole through his right lung about the size of a fist. Jake just stared as he had no idea what had just happened. How could it have two

Ibis Prima had entered open space to pursue him, and now Jake truly saw how it attacked. Before, he had thought the break actually extended, but it wasn’t quite

time the Ibis Prima attacked, it pecked forward and sent out its beak at such a speed it fired off a mirror image of sorts that looked like the physical beak… a mirror image so “real” it actually

Jake felt the sheer level of focus that went into the attacks. The beak was extended and curved, always at

It was a beautiful technique. He saw the straight beak be aimed towards him once more, but it suddenly seemed to bend as it came from an angle, forcing Jake to

shot again, with every arrow just harmlessly hitting roots or falling into the river below. The Ibis Prima had already hidden away again and used the cover of the

the Prima’s every move as he tried to mimic what it did in

as his arrow bent

Bend.

the side even if he had fired it right in front of him, smashing

Bend!

as it

Bend!

it, infusing the arrow with a bit of his intent. It merged with the arrow and bow effortlessly, just like all his prior attempts. When the arrow was pushed forward by the string, it seemed to bend

around the massive root the Prima was hiding behind, and he heard the beast cry out in surprise

tried to do it like the Ibis Prima but found it impossible. The Ibis Prima retained that connection between itself and the beak all throughout the attack, something Jake could not do. No, he had to find a better

controllable arrows weren’t something he could do. He would lose momentum if he tried to control them too much… so what if he didn’t guide them? What if he just gave them

trajectory before he even shot it. He re-defined what a straight line was using his own Willpower, just like the Prima had. Rather than try

it bent predictably. This did perhaps seem like a flaw, but it

saved looking at it for later. For now, he had a Prima to kill. The beast quickly

in the process. It looked like Jake was just firing arrows like normal to any outside observer, but they all flew at different angles and bent around the roots. Granted, this did result in them