The Primal Hunter

Jake did not have time to consider anything but the battle in front of him, not even the notification he had gotten after he escaped the collapsing space tunnel. His body was marred with wounds, and the only injury on the Panther was a single cut left with Eternal Hunger. A cut that had benefitted from Stealth Attack as he had been hidden in the folds of space.

A swipe came from the right as Jake managed to block. A follow-up from the left forced him back as the beast rapidly pushed its advantage. Lacking an arm made fighting incredibly difficult, especially considering the foe he faced.

Stronger. Faster. Every single spec of the Panther had been heightened. However, he was certain of one thing… it lacked energy. While the Panther had not fought in melee, it had used large-scale magic, especially with that final attack. Additionally, chances are it had portions of its energy reserved due to the clones, and even if it gained its stats back, that didn’t mean it also gained mana, stamina, and health.

That is the reason why it didn’t use any complex magical attacks right away, coupled with a potential adaption method. At least Jake guessed that was why as he was smashed downward by a swipe. His left arm was rapidly regenerating as he focused on his vital energy to make it happen. The holes covering his body would have to wait for later, and he managed to stop the bleeding by blocking off the wounds with the passive barrier of Arcane Awakening.

Jake fell down as the Panther charged him. A swipe sent crescent waves of dark space mana towards him, making everything vibrate. Jake stopped his fall as he stepped down on his one good leg, teleporting away. He found himself traveling further away than usual but didn’t question it as he quite frankly didn’t have the time.

The beast did not have any interest in letting him escape and teleported in pursuit. A pulse of dark mana was emitted, but Jake felt no sense of danger from it. The pulse somehow hit the fabric of space itself as several small cracks appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the airspace.

Tendrils of dark mana emerged and lashed at Jake, forcing him in specific directions. He knew the Panther planned this but was forced to comply. A spatial prison was slowly formed around him… yet he didn’t feel like it was an issue. Jake stepped down and, with no fanfare, teleported straight past the spatial lock and out of it.

This was clearly not a part of the Panther’s plan, and Jake took the chance to fire off a blast of mana to accelerate himself towards the ground. Picking up on what Jake intended, the Panther tried to stop him as it chased. Another pulse and more cracks in space appeared, sending tendrils out to stop him. Jake looked down and saw the ground half a kilometer away, tendrils blocking his path. Without hesitating, he stepped down and appeared below, once more passing any obstacles.

One Step Mile definitely upgraded, he thought as he jumped forward, dodging a blast of space mana that blasted a several-meter deep hole in the soil. Jake got below some trees and attempted to hide and give him more time. His arm was slowly regrowing, but he was no Eron and couldn’t just instantly regenerate. He needed a few minutes and fighting while healing was a bad idea. Any half-arsed attack on the regenerating arm would set him back, just wasting the vital energy.

Jake sprinted as every step hurt like hell, but he could not slow down. A pulse passed, and just as it did, he stood completely still and used Arcane Stealth to hide. It worked, as he began running again, but then suddenly a figure entered his Sphere.

The Panther ran a bit off to the side of him and would luckily pass, so as long as he stayed sti-

A second Panther entered. Then a third. And a fourth. Dozens of Panthers appeared and scouted the jungle, and Jake was in disbelief… until he finally felt their energy signatures. It was weak. Each of them was barely tangible as they scoured the greenery for him.

Rather than clones, these were illusions or mirages. At first glance and even to his sphere, they appeared real, but they were effectively just energy constructs. But even if that was the case, Jake knew they weren’t harmless… especially not with so many of them.

Even if they couldn’t hurt him – which he was certain they could – their presence alone made hiding near-impossible. They scouted around, and while Jake was confident in his Arcane Stealth when standing still, he did not believe himself infallible.

Something that was proved correct as an illusion approached. It sniffed the ground and moved past him at first but stopped just as it did. It turned around and walked towards Jake, and lifted its paw to swipe at the stable barrier covering Jake with suspicion.

not give it a chance as he stabbed forward. Eternal Hunger penetrated the illusion, and instantly the construct turned to black smoke. As he ”killed” the illusion, he felt the true body of the Panther above

and other greenery. Fifty meters would usually be good enough, but in this case, it wasn’t. The Panther had fully locked onto him, and Jake noticed a small mark left by the illusion just a

itself seemed to contract as a tunnel was formed. The very next moment, a Panther was before him with its claw bathed in dense black energy. Jake tried to block but was sluggish from the odd movements of space. He had no time. The beast went straight for his neck to sever his head, but in the final moment, he

also knocking him back. His entire head would have been carved apart if not for the wooden mask on his face that allowed him to

eyes was not an option, as even if

option, but luckily he only needed a bit more time. Flesh wriggled as most of his left arm had reformed by now. The Panther attacked once more, and Jake

would likely be dead by now, but he held on. His skin was flaying more than before due to Arcane Awakening having been active for so long. He was in an incredibly precarious situation as

as the Panther tried to take advantage of his weak left side. Instead of meeting no resistance or making Jake dodge, the paw impaled itself on a dagger

second step, teleported to the side as he spun in the air, taking out his bow. He managed to only get a single

remaining illusions

that instantly exploded, destroying all the

minor issue of no eyes, but he could still track it with Mark and his sphere and feel the poison ravaging its body. The Panther seemed to believe he was unable to find it as Jake felt dark magic move below, and his Sense and Mark both got obscured partly. While he could not see it, he imagined the beast had created a dark mist or something to cover itself. It appeared that it wanted to

it had failed to realize how bonkers his Perception stat truly was. The winner was clear in a battle where it

away and teleported into the air. Jake felt some of his poison infect the beast and followed up. Curved arrows blanketed the air as he consecutively activated Splitting

few exploding ones here and there as it seemed to have a difficult time differentiating between exploding arrows and the stable ones. The unpredictable curving didn’t

a few more times, Jake tried to keep a distance as he attacked. The Panther chased and teleported too, trying to lock him down, but his upgraded One Step Mile seemed to primarily be about breaking

sky, wayward blows tearing up the jungle below. Jake even got a kill notification at one point as an Arcane Powershot missed and struck something

impacted his body. He suddenly felt like his sphere was full of stuff… mana. It brought him back to the first time in the Forgotten Sewers rat dungeon. He reacted a bit slow when his danger sense warned him, resulting in Jake getting blasted back by a

cat-like figure charge him from the side, and he reacted promptly. Believing the Panther did

to explode in his

as his right arm was filled with wounds, and his chest burned with black spatial energy. Five more figures then appeared in his sphere as the beast was back to using exploding illusions. All of them were shrouded by the domain of black mana, making Jake unable to distinguish

hit and exploded. The remaining ones closed

attacked from different directions, and it was a pure matter of chance… he would think usually. Because he also felt something else that conflicted with

away. A Panther managed to follow him, and Jake blocked as he was sent tumbling back by what had to be the real one. Another of the three illusions then came, but Jake once more blocked as that too was real. He realized this when he tracked not only Mark of the

Jake instantly realized. Likely

The Panther was not doing that well itself, poison ravaging its body and the many blows Jake had landed during some of their scuffles doing work. Jake was certain he had been right about it lacking energy. It had low health points, stamina, and mana from the get-go. Contrary to Jake, it also had no potions to

closed in once again, but this time Jake was ready. He had gotten some distance and instantly drew his bow and nocked a special arrow. He had plenty of time to

charged Arcane Powershot. He had only one shot as his resources were

this attack would be powerful, and Jake constantly felt it shift with the beast not just charging in but