The Primal Hunter

Jake launched himself into the air to avoid the charge of the four clones, and just in time, as the space he had just occupied imploded from the impact of four paw-swipes infused with potent space magic.

He pushed his wings to fly faster as he felt the approaching beasts. Twisting his body, Jake turned and shot off blasts of arcane mana as he also landed a Mark of the Avaricious Hunter on all four of them. Not for the damage necessarily, but as much to keep track of them.

Four forms flanked him during his ascent. A part of Jake had hoped they wouldn’t bother chasing him, but clearly, they were out for blood. Two usual responses would appear in this kind of scenario. Fight or flight. Jake’s survival instinct was by far his most potent one… and not a single doubt was in his mind at that moment.

Fight.

Blasting arcane energy to one side, he propelled himself into one of the Panthers and took it by surprise. In mid-air, he took hold of its pelt and tossed it towards another of the beasts as he began flying sideways, his wings leaving poison mist in his wake. Taking out his bow, he fired arrows directly ahead of himself, away from the beasts. The arrows flew straight for a while but soon began bending as they did a one-eighty turn and flew back in Jake’s direction as they also split into five each.

Jake flew between several arrows as the Panthers chasing him were hit by arcane explosions. They blocked it, but it bought him enough time to properly turn and shoot a well-placed Arcane Powershot into one of the clones.

It hit the beast, and right away, the poison entered its body. When it did, Jake quickly noticed a difference… these clones were stronger than the one he had destroyed earlier. Not by overly much, but probably around ten percent.

Clones… split power somehow?

Jake wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that the Panthers were done playing around. Before, they had chased him rather cautiously, which indicated they did not have a proper measurement of Jake… which furthermore probably meant there had been no shared memory or memory transfer from the clone. All they knew was that he had killed one.

However, even so, it was clear that the clones could communicate, at least while in close proximity.

Space around Jake suddenly seemed to shrink as he didn’t really move forward as he flew. Dark mana began collecting all around him as black bolts appeared in the warped space. None of which Jake had time to address as he had to rapidly dodge to the side as a Panther teleported in front of him, only to find another one trying to take advantage of the opening. He barely managed to dodge between the swipes of two beasts by twisting his body and creating a platform of mana to step off.

He tried to get away, but the dark bolts bombarded him, and as space constricted even more, he found it difficult to move as he wanted. In melee, the two panthers continued their assault as Jake was on the backfoot, not getting any chances to retaliate.

Need to get distance, Jake gritted his teeth as he tried to break out of the contained space one of the panthers had created. Both melee weapons had appeared at this point, and he managed to land a few minor wounds on the two beasts, but they also managed to hurt him as several claw marks marred his body.

In a gamble, Jake dove forwards between the two Panthers. He spun around as arcane edges expanded from both blades to try and scare the Panthers away. It worked on one of them, but the one he tried to scare off with Bloodfeast Dagger simply swept the edge away and attacked instead.

Jake ducked at the very last moment, turning his body to block with one of his wings. The Panther tore up the flesh on it and promptly bit down on the joint. The teeth sank into the flesh as pain ran through his body. The Panther bit down even more, ready to rip off the wing entirely. He knew the wing was a lost cause, so he decided to make use of it.

wing as Arcane Awakening was directed to overflow it with energy. In a flash, it began burning with pink-purple energy before

and into its mouth, not to mention the damage caused by the explosion itself. Jake himself had lost a wing, and if that was all, he would

Jake barely blocked with an arm that he pushed into the feline’s mouth to avoid the sharp

mana to protect himself from dark bolts bombarding him. He did so long enough for the Panther currently biting down to begin shaking him violently, trying to rip off his arm entirely. He was tossed around, but he managed to not lose the arm as the Panther eventually let go due to the

a tattered arm and a lost wing, he fell as he blocked the bolts as best he could. On the positive side, he had gotten out of the compressed space, but on the negative side, he had taken a lot of damage. He had managed to also do some damage to the Panthers and had infected all but one with poison. However, the winner of this first exchange had clearly been the

all. It had just done some space magic,

terrible move as it quite frankly gave him too much space. He had no natural obstacles he could use to block and was just surrounded

was now a stealth archer

Jake would honestly accept the result if they chose to disengage, but he failed to hold back a faint smile when he saw them chase. His body was hurting, and Arcane Awakening

to enter stealth once more as they lost track of his position. Jake had already noticed earlier how they needed a moment to locate him whenever he had teleported,

them still flying in the air far above – the uninjured one. It had not moved but stayed far up, nearly at the clouds. At

triangle pattern as they searched. Pulses of dark mana passed over him as

hide and had decided to rip it out of the ground and tear it apart. Jake took the chance and fired an

was blasted in the back and was sent flying through several trees with an arrow now stuck in it. The moment he attacked, all of the Panthers

a second later, a black crescent wave passed, followed by several more as

Panthers assaulted another area, only for Jake to pop up again

Stealth Attack bloody worked every time they

made fools of three times in a row.

ran. Pride of the Malefic Viper activated for the first time as mana began condensing in his surroundings. Repeated arcane explosions sounded out in his wake, but the Panthers

distortion in the air as Jake jumped just as a Panther appeared. He managed to get over the attack and condensed a platform of mana to stop his momentum just in time

Taking it by surprise, Jake managed to land a cut with

Fuck.

space was already distorting as it became clear he had once more been trapped within some kind of spatial seal. However, this one was far more

direction, but that resulted in him not being as fast as he should have been. A Panther teleported, and Jake barely managed to block as two more appeared. The second one he dodged by the skin of his teeth while he was forced to simply take the hit from the last one as his back was ripped up. His cloak and armor, together with the passive shield of Arcane Awakening, managed to take much of the blow, but his equipment was shredded, with five

back and landed on the ground just as he teleported away. The clones chased him quickly as different spells flew all around him. Jake gritted his teeth as he repeatedly teleported in tandem with

side, one above, and so on. The arrows curved around to hit the Panthers, with most of them missing but a few landing as intended here and there. The Panthers adapted swiftly and grouped up to make

At least it was left behind as Jake suddenly felt its call. He didn’t think but just

about it, Jake manipulated the shape of the blade slightly as he made it larger and firmly a two-handed weapon. He then dismissed