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.”

had to remember that after Yalsten was sealed off, no one could escape, not even the A-grades. But if this was not a natural sealing but one simply accelerated by mortal

and toxic blood move within 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.

of the process. The first thing he picked up on was that each wing was different. It was like the Viper poured

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 was now physically removed from one another, and focusing his intent to accomplish the two tasks in separate wings was far more

this note, then Jake had thought that the fast movement Villy had displayed in the first vision was part of the skill’s effect, but that was quickly 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

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

out of the cave and into the storm of comets. He dodged them more easily now due to his smaller humanoid form, but it was clear he was not as fast in this

until he was at the right spot. It was a weird fractured point in space that looked almost like a broken phone screen

Viper took a deep breath as he got close and slowed down. That is when time slowed down, and Jake 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

he experienced Villy’s body like it was his own. The Viper rapidly gathered the energy and wrapped it around him like a barrier. When he did

space. A faint trace was left in his wake as he went into the fractured exit point. The poison around him

it. Even if the Viper was strong, he was not strong enough to break a space tunnel like this… but he 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 large snowy mountains. Behind him, a crack in reality had been formed, but

over, and moreover,

been stuck 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 himself into it. His own will and

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

if it appeared long,

He was confident and smiled

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

what did you do? I felt something super weird just now, like, you were gone and then back or something? That was sooo weird…

magic,”Jake just

should

the results? Can you stop for a moment, so I can test this out? Just be warned, I will try to get out of here, and I can’t promise this won’t be a little painful. I may just

I will try and stop you,

ahead,” Jake

system’s assistance, as dozens of wings superimposed upon each other and exploded, forming a cloud of mist

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

was

mist had already dispersed upon escaping. He took a moment to

got out!”

expected the fatigue