The Primal Hunter

Jake was rubbing his hands as he looked forward to seeing Villy in a perilous situation that forced him to escape. Entering the vision, he was not sure what to expect. Maybe Villy getting beaten up? Him waltzing into the territory of some far more powerful monster, making him tug his tail between his legs?

As the vision appeared, it was neither of that. He saw Villy flying through an odd area with purple-ish mist everywhere. Comet-like balls of ice flew all around him, some of them several kilometers across while others were far smaller. Jake also saw that sometimes space itself seemed to crack, and small vacuums opened up, sucking in mist and some of the smaller comets.

He had a hard time figuring out what was going on. Villy was in his C-grade Wyvern form and looked incredibly distressed as he dodged comet after comet. It was like he flew aimlessly. A few minutes passed before a giant comet suddenly exploded, only to reassemble again but into a vaguely humanoid form. Villy did not hesitate and released a breath on the newly born… comet elemental? Ice elemental? Either or, he quickly dealt with it, but that didn’t at all give him a reprieve.

Finally, Villy seemed to spot something. With high speed, he flew to the side and, to Jake’s surprise, encountered a massive wall of purple ice. Flying alongside the wall, Villy soon found a small cave and stopped before it.

His body began morphing and shrinking, and within five seconds, the familiar humanoid form of Villy appeared. Familiar, yet foreign. He looked young in the vision, and Jake had a strong feeling this was the earliest vision of the would-be Primordial he had ever experienced.

Villy collapsed and leaned against the inside wall of the small ice cavern and breathed heavily. He closed his eyes for a moment before summoning a large metal plate of sorts to block off the hole, sealing himself within the cavern.

Sitting back down, the Viper surprisingly fell asleep as time accelerated. Once the Viper woke up again, he quickly took out some kind of magical device. It looked like a compass of sorts, and Villy frowned as he looked at it. After a bit, he took out another few weird devices as his frown only grew.

“Fuck,” he just said as he groaned and brought both his hands to his head. “The exits should have remained for at least another week… did that bastard lie to me? I swear…”

Just those few words made Jake put two and two together and realize what was happening. The Viper was in some kind of minor world or dimension, a bit like Yalsten but probably far smaller. Also, clearly far more unstable compared to Yalsten in its heyday.

Jake knew about these kinds of places. They were often small dimensions that resided in the infinite layers of space. One could not break into them, with the only way in certain natural entrances that sometimes opened, and one could also only exit through these small holes. These dimensions tended to be of incredible value exactly because of this. Any small world that had been isolated for a long time was bound to have given birth to several potent natural treasures, especially as many of these small worlds rarely tended to have beasts or monsters and had singular dominating affinities. There would still be enemies, but it was often only very specialized creatures like the elementals or creatures born to guard the treasures.

It appeared that Villy had entered one such place with bad information and found himself screwed over and trapped. Which maybe didn’t sound that bad if the world would open up again, but there were a few minor issues. First of all, how long would it take? It could take longer than Villy’s natural lifespan. One had to remember that Aeon Clok had killed people far more powerful than himself by sealing them in a world a bit like this and just having the passing of time kill them all.

Then there was also the issue that these places could get far more dangerous during their lockdown period, and based on the comets going wild and Villy seeming panicked, Jake assumed this was the case.

“I need to get out of here,” Villy talked to himself as he stood up and took out some more magical devices, including the compass.

“It hasn’t been that long… or is the layer meant to be this weak?” he muttered as he considered his options. Jake saw the Viper deep in thoughts before steeling himself. “It could work.”

Wings appeared on his back, making him look a bit like Jake with his wings out.

“Those fuckers… they somehow accelerated and sealed the entrances,” Villy said as he double-checked some weird magical circle on a map. “At least halfway sealed them.”

could truly escape a naturally sealed-off world like this. One had to remember that after Yalsten was sealed off, no one could escape, not even the A-grades. But if

them. Time seemed to move in odd ways as days passed with the Viper focusing on his wings. Jake got the feeling this was not some sudden burst of inspiration but him picking up the work on an ongoing project. The Viper had either worked on an escape skill like this before or had already completed several elements

was different. It was like the Viper poured different energies and manipulated the blood with variance, with each wing having different mixes of concepts as a result. Jake felt them

another, while those of opposite natures would attack each other. This did not fully apply due to the sheer variety of concepts in each wing, but it eliminated most of the potential conflicts that could arise. Also, the Viper’s infused intent in each wing

proven wrong. Nothing done would actually make him faster, but due to the nature of the magic, it would rapidly increase speed momentarily. The mist would erode everything in his path, making it like he was effectively flying in a vacuum of concepts. Considering the limited time the cocoon would last, fast movement

fly – pun intended. Feeling it like this, Jake had to admit that the Viper had truly been a monster. The toxic concepts that had taken Jake days to identify were found within hours by the Viper, and his level of energy control when it came to the toxic energy was utterly insane. He was at least slower than Jake in some

and got ready. Scales covered his body as he flew out of the cave

at the right spot. It was a

felt the skill be used for the first time. Both wings were infused with a lot of energy as Jake’s eyes opened wide at discovering how he infused

body like it was his own. The Viper rapidly gathered the energy and wrapped it around him like a

Viper shot forward towards the broken space. A faint trace was left in his wake as he went into the fractured exit point. The poison around him revolved at nearly impossible speeds, each particle of mist

could burn a small hole into it and pass through. Space reformed behind him like he had never been there, and Jake only saw a faint glimpse of darkness before Villy appeared in the outside world, surrounded by

felt a profound sense of weakness all over, and moreover, like a part of his Soulshape had been sacrificed to make the escape possible…

on was how to control the poison. He now realized he didn’t control it at all; it would control itself. What the Viper had done was sacrifice the wings themselves to infuse parts of

was Villy turn in a certain direction, murder in his eyes. Clearly out for revenge against those who had dared to try and

and Jake saw the vision again. Even if it appeared long, the entire vision had only been

the errors. He was confident and smiled as the vision ended, and Jake returned to the

sitting inside Sandy’s stomach, and instantly the worm was

like, you were gone and then back or something? That was sooo weird… you were still kind of

magic,”Jake just answered

should share,”Sandy

I will try to get out of here, and I can’t promise

go ahead; I will try

Jake

appeared. The skill had already upgraded the moment he returned, and the learned knowledge turned instinctual. Everything happened instantly with the system’s assistance, as dozens of wings superimposed upon each other and exploded, forming a cloud of mist around him.

as no concept reached Jake, not even light. He felt entirely isolated from everything, and even his Sphere went haywire

he was in

a moment to collect himself and saw the giant worm flying just above, and as he looked up, he also felt Sandy’s attention on

I mean, got out!”

admit that he had expected the fatigue to be more prominent. Then again, he had