The Primal Hunter

”As we both know, the Bloodline offers abilities that are on a qualitative level at the peak of the multiverse. Merely doing by instinct, dodging anything and everything is simplicity itself, but that does leave one obvious flaw: attacking. Don’t get me wrong, the instinct to attack weak points is still there, but such a simple instinct may do more harm than good. When attacking, you are forcing a reaction, not being the one to react, meaning our predictive instincts are far less useful,” sim-Jake explained as he flew towards his foe, Jake easily keeping up.

“So let me show you how I truly fight. Ultimately, that is what you are here for, isn’t it?”

Jake didn’t confirm as they both knew the answer. He stopped a bit away from the spider-like creature that had already noticed the approaching human. It was sitting on a massive web with hundreds if not thousands of eggs beneath it. Its many eyes were shining purple as it looked at sim-Jake and didn’t do anything until sim-Jake stepped his foot onto the web. It was likely due to a system restriction of some sort, or maybe it was just a territorial creature.

“One word,” sim-Jake added under his breath as his body exploded with power as the sky above darkened and thunder rumbled.

“Counter.”

A spider several times faster than sim-Jake descended upon him. A leg bathed in deep shadows shot forward, but rather than block, Jake dodged under it and stabbed the side of the leg, using the creature’s momentum to make his katar sink in deeper.

The spider made a screaming sound as it attacked again, but the same pattern repeated as several blows were exchanged. Sim-Jake was clearly using a very intense boosting skill at this moment, and Jake saw him begin to take damage as the intensity of the dark sky above increased. When the web below began shining silver, sim-Jake did not hesitate to jump into the air away from it and floated backward. The spider followed him into mid-air, where he finally blocked a blow, but as he was in the air and already going backward, all that truly happened was that he was sent flying.

“Two objects colliding will result in damage from the sum of their speeds upon collision. Two objects hitting each other, each going forty kilometers an hour, is the same as a single object smashing into a solid object at eighty. Simple physics, really, and even if this law doesn’t truly apply anymore in its elegant simplicity, it is still a thing. It is hard to stop an attack mid-swing no matter what, and the blow will deal more damage if you hit it mid-swing as not only will you hit it – your foe will hit itself upon your weapon,” sim-Jake communicated as he landed on the ground below. He clearly knew the spider did not want to follow, as he sat down and stared at it, drinking a potion. His boosting skill was also deactivated, but the dark clouds above persisted.

“Winning in a single engagement is naturally out of the question. This beast is far too durable and even has energy stored inside the web. However, it is also territorial to the level of making it a fatal weakness. It will not leave its net and the eggs it protects unless absolutely necessary. The unique dark lightning I use is a perfect weapon for a situation like this. The dark mana hampers regeneration and lowers its perception while the lightning burns its mana. An additional effect gained from merging these two concepts also means it burns stamina,” sim-Jake explained as he regenerated.

Jake looked at the spider and did detect the dark lightning still lingering. The dark clouds above seemed to also pressure the entire area, something that only affected the spider.

Ten minutes later, sim-Jake rose once more. “Second round.”

He stormed forward as he engaged the beast in yet another bout of melee with his boosting skills fully active. His fighting style was like before. A mix of dodging and then the occasional stab whenever an opening presented itself. It all looked incredibly simple, but the more Jake watched on, the more confused he became.

Wait, that was such a good opening? Why stab there? Wait, did he delay the strike? Why? Now! No? What?

Jake was very engaged in the fight, but he didn’t get it. It seemed, well, not random, but arbitrary when sim-Jake chose to strike. He let obvious openings pass and instead went for tiny, tight openings to land a hit.

Yet the result was clear as the spider slowly got whittled down. Sim-Jake retreated several times until, finally, the spider seemed to realize this could not go on. The entire web began glowing and moving as the energy stored within was fully absorbed, making it fall apart.

The spider, with renewed vigor, attacked sim-Jake and left the web. Its eight legs carried it forward at a swift speed as it followed Jake when he tried to disengage. This forced their brawl onto the ground, where Jake saw how the dynamic instantly changed.

This time, sim-Jake went on the offensive. Power revolved around his weapons as lightning roared forward. It covered the spider, but as a D-grade, it was far too durable to take any noticeable damage. Sim-Jake nevertheless went close to attack with his weapons. The spider retaliated as suddenly sim-Jake pulled back. He delayed his attack by a mere moment, making the spider miss with a dark lance of magic, allowing sim-Jake to land a blow uncontested.

Once more, the spider tried to attack its attacker, and it missed by a narrow margin yet again. Jake observed and stood there dumbstruck. The spider was missing, despite its far higher speed and power. No, sim-Jake did not dodge… it was the spider missing. In every exchange, its timing was off. Like they were dancing, following set steps in the choreography, but sim-Jake was almost half a second behind, making the spider off-tune.

The spider was, purely stat-wise, probably three or four times stronger than sim-Jake. It was a wider gap than any opponent Jake had faced during his Tutorial besides the King of the Forest. In all of Jake’s fights, he had been struggling, he had overcome his limits, and he had come out victorious. Sim-Jake did not need to overcome any limits. He had spent his entire life pushing himself towards perfection, and the system had only allowed him to flourish more.

This did not mean he wasn’t struggling. Jake saw how his simulacrum was running out of energy and had taken many minor wounds - sacrifices made to avoid more dangerous blows or land a counterattack. Of course, these would build up and, with time, become an issue.

If the spider had simply fought from the beginning and not allowed sim-Jake to constantly reset and consume potions, it would have no doubt won. But… it hadn’t. It had allowed itself to be slowly whittled down. Sim-Jake had targeted one leg many times and finally managed to sever it. This led to a chain reaction as it stumbled, only to get another near-fatal stab with the katar into one of its eyes. It retaliated, but sim-Jake turned to lightning, dodged behind it, and stabbed again.

and finally, sim-Jake landed

like they had never been there. Sim-Jake himself shook for a moment as he spat out blood and fell backward onto

voice. “Never show

who stood near the corpse of the slain D-grade. “Thank you

the scene ended. Jake frowned deeply. What?

a pull was on him or something. A summoning. He tried to figure out what it was, and his

“Granted.”

in a chair across from sim-Jake. Confused, Jake looked at what the hell was going on. Him appearing there was not a usual scene transition at all… it was instead as if he had been asked

Store expires,” sim-Jake

a thought, he could reject it, but he

feet for the first time in a long time as

himself – of sim-Jake. No longer a mere observer

he said in a melancholic voice. “Good to

nodded in recognition. “When did it

I met Umbra I truly understood. We have the same Bloodline. I am a Bloodline Patriarch, which means I am the only one with it… except you. Which means you are either some descendant from

distressed or, at a minimum, weirded the hell out. Then again, perhaps his simulacrum had already gone through all that before during a scene Jake

seemed. There did appear to be some limitations as it had to ask Jake for permission before

I am unsure how to handle this situation,” Jake said. “But I guess an

that, let me ask you a question,” sim-Jake said.

“Yes,” Jake just answered.

you are also older, aren’t you?” he

“Yeah.”

you, who would be stronger?” he

if he stood

than me in certain areas while I have you beat in others.

would that

Jake just said as he stared his other version

didn’t protest that answer but instead asked: “Do you trust

“I do.”

Besides you… which should maybe have been a clue too. Trusting you is just trusting myself, after all. Now, if you will enlighten me what exactly

in my life. In your case, it was not stopping mom and dad from leaving the house the day they died. I did that

better

whole world with apathy and boredom, so that part did suck, and I never really did form any meaningful relationships with anyone outside of my family either, but it was sure as hell better than you,” Jake

said with a wry smile before turning a bit serious. “But this does mean

how this

the figure of the Guide, who was still just sitting there,

system entity looked at them. “Both are