The Primal Hunter

Factions in the multiverse varied widely. Some factions integrated themselves nearly everywhere quite easily, such as the Court of Shadows. The Court of Shadows found themselves present even in territory and planets run by the Holy Church as long as they kept themselves covert. It was an unspoken agreement that the two factions had agreed upon for many eras and allowed the Church to get rid of individuals they would prefer not to send members after themselves. Let’s just say there were many circumstances where having assassins for hire was just more convenient.

Valhal was also the sort of place that could have ”halls” or small groups operate within other’s territories without dominating land themselves. They did occupy some land – unlike the Court of Shadows, where none knew the true location of their headquarters – but not as much as others. The reason for this was simple.

One could be born into the Holy Church. Born into the Risen. Born into the Altmar Empire. But this was not true for Valhal, the Court of Shadows, or the Order of the Malefic Viper for that part. One could have an easier way in, but that did not mean one was born into it. They were organizations that people could join and leave, closer to companies or guilds than empires and countries. Granted, their member contracts could be limiting, but there was always a way out.

Most organizations were also reasonable to some extent. They respected some universal rules set in the multiverse. But… some organizations could not truly be classified. One, in particular, stood out largely due to its power.

Ell’Hakan had been warned that in Haven, there was one person he was not to interfere with no matter what. One person he should even actively make sure the United Cities Alliance did not bother either.

Because some factions were what could only be classified as utterly insane. Usually, factions like these would crumble and break apart as insanity was not a good attribute for a leader to have, but there was one major organization in the multiverse that, despite its insane methods, managed to thrive.

An organization that had wiped out entire species for looking too much like one of the gods they prayed to. One that willingly had its members go to the domains or sacred sites of their gods despite half dying in the process. One that would be crazy enough to start a war in which trillions would die and swear an eternal blood oath to wipe out you and anyone with a karmic connection to you from the multiverse… over a statue. A work-in-progress statue.

It was naturally the Primordial Church. And the one person Ell’Hakan had been warned about was none other than Felix, the sculptor who was apparently working on a statue of the Malefic Viper - a statue shown by the Chosen himself. This mattered particularly much because the Chosen had, according to rumors, been the first person to see the Viper in Eras. This meant that in the eyes of the Eternal Servant, the Chosen was the only one who had truly ”seen” the Malefic One as he had met him both before and after he returned.

Ell’Hakan had been told all this directly by his Patron after the Eternal Servant himself had come to warn him. Warn him that the sculptor was to remain undisturbed until his task was complete. The Nahoom had not known what to think about this as he had honestly not even heard about this sculptor before arriving on Earth. In fact, he had been on his way to meet someone he had heard about and taken a particular interest in.

A certain man of technology by the name of Arnold.

A common misunderstanding was that spiders are insects. They weren’t but were instead distant relatives of insects, being classified as arachnids. Another common misunderstanding was that scorpions were insects, but they were arachnids and far closer related to spiders than something like an ant.

On second thought, most people probably did know this, but Jake didn’t. At least not the second part about scorpions being arachnids.

Post-system, these things were often mixed together, and these classifications kind of stopped mattering, but it was fun trivia nonetheless. One difference also did remain in the number of legs. Like spiders, scorpions had eight of them, and like spiders, these legs were honestly kind of weak and their joints rather exposed.

Jake leaped backward as he dodged the incredibly fast stinger aiming for him, quickly gaining distance from his large foe.

The scorpion had a sand-colored body, and its stinger stood more than twenty meters tall. It was an utterly monstrously large body, and the pincers were large enough to snap a human in half if caught. Several humans at once, probably.

Plating covered its entire body, making it look like an invulnerable tank, and Jake did indeed discover that trying to damage its armored parts was useless, with even his Powershot blocked and only leaving a nick. Now, for the far smaller scorpions, Jake could still blow them apart, but the C-grade in question was the real deal.

Sandstream Scorpion Lord – lvl

of his head, despite it hiding several hundred meters down and kilometers away. Yes, these worms had a very impressive range when it came to their

armor with the occasional arrow. Their fight had been going on for a good while by now, and the difference was quite

sand – probably what gave the massive scorpion its name – whirled around the scorpion and gathered as spear-like weapons that stabbed forward to try and catch out Jake. He easily dodged backward and took to the air as

chitin armor and formed a dome of sand around itself to stop his attacks while it tried to heal itself of some of the poison in its body. Jake smirked and simply began charging Arcane Powershot, having already seen the scorpion’s lack of ability to block it

of sand and struck the scorpion in the stinger, making it screech in pain as even more poison was delivered into its system.

and the scorpion also had significant innate poison resistance. Enough for him to not be able to build up a proper charge before triggering it. This is why he had just returned back to hemotoxins to

together with Draskil. No, he didn’t count the termites. And as the fight with the scorpion continued, it became clear this specimen was weaker than both

only fought melee foes, and those they fought with ranged options, their sand magic could face. He had noticed a distinct lack

massive scorpion

to attack. The stinger struck forward and penetrated into the sand Jake had just been flying above. A black liquid was excreted that somehow pulsed through the sand, and Jake felt it continue through it to hit anything hiding

avoid it was not touch the sand, making Jake never stay on the ground.

disadvantageous situation. After Jake managed to blow one of its legs off, the scorpion decided it was

he released massive amounts of stable arcane mana into the sand. The scorpion tried to manipulate the sand but found itself unable to move it as Jake had effectively frozen the ground with pure stability. This did not mean

faster, it chose to stand its ground as it finally went all out. Its entire body suddenly began shaking as Jake saw parts of it

only to barely avoid a stinger emerging. A stream of sand went towards him,

entirely gone as it just looked like just a big mound of armor, its joints also gone. Yet it

was actually a really cool trick and probably how it had hunted down so many worms who dared enters its area. Too bad its sneak attacks didn’t work on Jake as sneak attacks tended to not

even stronger in this form, leaving not a single opening. All it had were a few stumps sticking out, which were also covered in armor, making it like trying to

of the Malefic Viper activated, and the poison went

expected. Sand appeared on both sides as two massive pinchers appeared and tried to rip Jake off, making him dodge under them and smirk as he kept pumping

Jake reacted by pumping more poison into the scorpion. While Jake found his poison relatively ineffective at actually doing damage to the

stronger than anything he could make as his skin turned black and his insides began turning to mush. Emphasis on began. Nearly all other D-grades, even peak D-grades, would find themselves

penetrated the armor of the scorpion after it had been weakened and made cracks spread. Several more hits shattered a

any of it. He used Gaze of the Apex Hunter as a large arrow appeared from his quiver. One he had been saving for this moment. It was naturally

in the weak spot and sank into the scorpion’s body, creating an even bigger hole and sending out an intense wave of energy that ravaged its insides. Jake followed up with a few explosive arcane arrows that hit inside the hole and hence exploded inside

activated Mark of the Avaricious Hunter as the scorpion flashed with arcane light for a brief second, making it screech out in pain more. All it took after that was a few

building-sized scorpion finally collapsed on

Lord – lvl 202] – Bonus experience earned