The Primal Hunter

It was war. On one side was a general with his four commanders and an army of soldiers willing to fight and die for their leaders. An organized group that worked together and used synergy to become more than what they were individually. There were thousands of them, every single one towards the end of D-grade.

On the other side were two people. A hunter with a bow and a dragonkin who seemed to finally have found an opportunity to let loose. These two were naturally the heroes of this fight. The brave men who would stand against the evil mushrooms.

It was also a display of something else… the disparity of power even in the same grade and level bracket. Jake was at a lower level than most of his opponents, and Draskil was still lower than a few of them. One would think their numbers would matter, that their synergy would allow them to fight. It didn’t.

Maybe if they had actual tactics and not just sometimes tried to take hits for one another, it would matter. Maybe if they had ritual magic or complex formations. Had healers working together to form large barriers. However, as it was, they had none of these things, which made what transpired next only describable by one word:

Massacre.

Two words?

Justified massacre.

Explosions of arcane power lit up the cavern as Jake bombarded his opponents.

A dense mist of poison hung thick in the air as Draskil and Jake both pumped it out of their wings. Jake killed primarily using explosive arrows that tore mushroom men apart with ease and followed up with occasional kill shots with stable arrows, while Draskil had a far simpler style.

He was more the rip and tear sort of fighter. His entire body was a weapon that none of their opponents could even scratch. His scales offered defenses to nearly all magic, his attacks unstoppable to the mushrooms as he tore their limbs off and ripped up their flesh, leaving rotting wounds behind.

Draskil also showed fighting methods Jake could never even attempt. His tail was like a fifth limb that whipped around and sometimes even impaled his foes. If not, he used it for movement, yanking himself back or using it to push himself, or while he was mid-air as a counterweight to allow him to rapidly reposition.

The dragonkin did not show any magic besides some to strengthen himself. Jake did notice how he also had the Pride skill like Jake, but his version was clearly far more focused on the mental attack aspect and making a domain of intimidation without any of the mana-control amplifying aspects.

Jake was actually pretty certain Draskil had all the of the Malefic Viper skills. He had believed it for a good while, but after the dungeon, it was more obvious. He clearly had Palate based on all he ate and Sagacity to properly store the knowledge. Jake did think Sagacity was still at a relatively low rarity, and Draskil did say that he had some bad skills he was working on. Besides that, he clearly had the wings, claws, and scales skills. These were likely unavoidable racial skills for any Malefic Dragonkin.

Sense of the Malefic Viper was also obvious based on how well he found mushrooms. That just left Blood and Touch. Jake was most unsure about Touch, honestly. Draskil also had Blood based on how he had used some of it as a weapon once, but Jake had yet to see the dragonkin use the familiar glow of Touch of the Malefic Viper. It was possible he had it and just never used it, but it was also possible he didn’t have it or had changed it to a form very different from what Jake used. Like a purely non-combat version or something.

Now, Jake could just ask him, but where was the fun in that? He would rather just try and figure it out himself while slaughtering an army of mushroom men. The human and dragonkin had already killed hundreds before meeting up as Jake turned to Draskil.

“You want the big boss?” Jake asked. “Just remember we need all the Lifecores intact.”

Draskil grunted in confirmation before asking: “We need the small ones?”

Jake shrugged. “Some, but not all.”

Draskil then grinned. “You wanna see my breath?”

Jake asked. He wasn’t sure what

mana in the environment stop before getting dragged in like Draskil’s mouth was a vacuum. Intense mana

that swept across the cavern below. It was only a few meters in diameter when it hit the ground and made a grand sweep from one end of the cavern to the other. Not a single mark was left on the ground where it hit… but everything between

that emanated death and decay had been formed as everything the breath had touched had decayed to nothingness in an instant. It did not matter if it was a plant or mushroom men over level 180. They had all just

attack. There was no grand explosion, no massive scar left by the breath… just an eerie nothingness. It had simply killed everything it hit, and even more scary was

breath had killed only about ninety mushroom men that had been hit. Mind you, it didn’t matter where they were hit. As long as a single part of their body had touched the breath, their

attack on Jake, he would have to dodge it using his precognition. The beam moved faster than any attack Jake could make, and if he didn’t move before it was released, he would have no way to get out of the way. And if he didn’t dodge in time? Well, then Jake

with

“Ah, but don’t use it on essential foes…

jokingly dismissed his words. “I

made for members of the Order, not just those who were supremely talented. Jake

to get some killing done.

had given her permission, that was true, but she still felt unsure about actually doing it. In the end, she agreed to it after she and

it clear he didn’t care if she invited people over and had told her that he would just not be there if she did. Meira was still perplexed why someone like the Grand Elder even bothered spending time on her, and it made her even more confused when she considered that her Master had clearly been the one to make him accept such an

not think about it too much and instead did her best in everything. Her Master clearly had plans, and Meira would do her best to follow his will and try and make them a success. If inviting her friends over was something he had explicitly given her permission to do, and if even the Grand

had been allowed to bring them to the library. Meira felt proud of herself for that and was happy that the three of them had agreed to come. The only one a bit reluctant was

friends

out stepped Izil. The

“A token of my appreciation to you and the Lord of

was far above the four of them in status as

accepted it. “I

asked

answered. She would not have dared to invite them if her Master was

they entered the house and she had stored the basket properly, Meira saw that the gate outside

to greet them and got a disapproving look from Nella as she approached. “I hope you treat your owner better than guests,” she scoffed once Meira got close. “Or maybe you just

be a bad host, especially not if

as she walked out of the mansion, glaring daggers at Nella. “And if you two had been here on the agreed-upon time, there

joking around,” Nella said dismissively, Meira now feeling even more awkward as she had apologized. She still wasn’t good

spoke, throwing Meira out of her thoughts. “You didn’t lie about him being a black token, it seems.

busy elsewhere,” Meira once more

have loved to meet him. Now, if

them followed as Meira wanted to keep the mood good, but Izil and Nella had been less

Izil asked:

Grand Elder had been staying there most of the time, but he wasn’t there now and wasn’t truly living there. Also, she shouldn’t share he was there at all. “There is currently only

Utmal and Nella both frown a bit as

it as a telepathic connection was formed. “Meira… I didn’t want to ask before but are you a slave of the owner