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 the final blow. He stabbed

he spat out blood and fell backward onto his back. His eyes were now bleeding, and Jake saw his

a coarse voice. “Never show weakness and give your

face and looked towards Jake, who stood near the corpse of the slain D-grade. “Thank you for observing what may

Jake frowned deeply. What? Final

He tried to figure out what it was, and his eyes opened wide

“Granted.”

from sim-Jake. Confused, Jake looked at what the hell was going on. Him appearing

interact with him within the confines of this room until the Tutorial Store expires,” sim-Jake said as he turned and looked at

of this. With a thought, he could

felt solid ground beneath his feet for the first time in

met the eyes of himself – of sim-Jake. No longer a mere observer but a physical entity now within the

said in a melancholic voice. “Good to finally meet you… me.

simulacrum and nodded in recognition. “When did

the only one with it… except you. Which means you are either some descendant from the

would have been at least a little distressed or, at a minimum, weirded the hell out. Then again,

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

honest; I am unsure how to handle this situation,”

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

“Yes,” Jake just answered.

are also older, aren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

same time as you, who would be stronger?” he asked with a

was exactly the kind of question he would ask if he stood before another version of himself. He

if we switched situations, I am sure the answer would be the same. You are stronger than me in certain areas while I have you beat in others. You have abilities and skills from growing up I do not, but my upbringing also means I have some things

what would

as he stared his other version in the

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

“I do.”

trusted anyone besides myself since I was a child. Besides you… which should maybe have been a clue too. Trusting you is just trusting myself,

system as part of a system event showing what would have happened if I made a different impactful choice at some point in my life. In your case, it was not stopping mom and dad from leaving the house the day they died. I did that in my world, and it resulted in me growing up with a family,

the better or

myself depressed since I was a child, viewing the whole world with apathy and boredom, so that

we are dysfunctional no matter which choices we make,” sim-Jake said with a wry smile before turning a bit serious.

how this entire

who was still just sitting there,

at them. “Both are parallels of the other and hence