The Primal Hunter

It was a fight that he knew they could not lose. One that could perhaps decide the fate of the planet he had now come to call home.

The King meditated as he healed himself as much as possible. He wished he was skilled in formations to set up a proper one to help him in his regeneration, but sadly that did not fall within his skill set. Having anyone else make such a magic circle also wouldn’t prove very effective due to the uniqueness of a Unique Lifeform.

Consuming a Soul Marble, the King slowly absorbed it, and he felt his body fill with energy. He would take another one just as the Ashen Phantom Devourer attacked again, but that would also be his final one.

One might ask why the King stayed in a losing war for months. There truly was no logical explanation for this besides an unwillingness to retreat and abandon his claimed territory. He was a King, and an enemy had invaded his domain, so he had a natural urge to defend it. That he also knew the benefits he could gain from killing another Unique Lifeform also played a huge factor. Finally, he still had a good chance due to his ultimate move.

Hours passed by as he progressively felt better. He purposefully did not heal his natural armor fully but allowed cracks and missing pieces here and there to properly look like he had been unable to properly recover. One might also ask if using these underhanded tactics wasn’t above a Unique Lifeform, but the King would find such a question utterly foolish. To purposefully give up an advantage and act with overconfidence was how he had found himself slain once already, and he had no desire to repeat that.

His prediction of twelve hours turned out to be slightly off as only nine and a half hours later, he felt the other Unique Lifeform approach. The Fallen King could only hope that the little hunter was ready despite the pushed-up timescale, and if not, the King would simply have to hold on a bit longer than expected.

The King teleported out of his residence and saw the approaching mass. A soul equally as powerful as his own approached, its size and power nearly fully recovered in such a short time span. The giant cloud of ash moved ever closer as the taunting words echoed.

“Yet you remain guarding your pathetic kingdom in your ignorance. Behold the result of your folly: death.”

It had almost become a ritual by now that the other Unique Lifeform would start by saying something taunting and slightly annoying. Not that the King had ever been bothered by such childish words. Like before, he simply engaged but made sure to hold himself back a bit this time around to appear weaker than he actually was.

The Ashen Phantom Devourer struck with full force right from the beginning. Evidently, the intent was to slay him as soon as possible and overwhelm him so that the King would use his trump cards while the Devourer was still close to full power.

Staying defensive was difficult even if the King knew he was just buying time, and he did launch the occasional attack to not be too suspicious. Luckily, the other Unique Lifeform could easily misunderstand his carefulness as doubt and weakness, making it appear less out-of-place than it actually was.

Massive waves of ash crashed against the telekinetically formed barriers of the King like the tide of the ocean crashing into a dam. With every second, they grew in power, and the King felt the constant eating away of his energy from the dark affinity of his foe.

Nevertheless, he was far from defenseless. Both his claws glowed golden as he tore the wave apart and unleashed several golden waves of pure force, breaking apart the body of the Devourer. It rapidly condensed a new one as a mountain of ash formed and crashed down towards the King. Hanging on with his barrier, he was sent down, smashing into the ground as hundreds of tons of ash fell upon his body.

With annoyance, the King raised two fingers and sent out two thin waves of force that he swiftly moved in a circle, cutting a hole in the ash. He barely got through before the hole closed, the King avoiding being crushed. Yet just as he was out of it, the King was struck by a blast of ash, sending him tumbling back. Sometimes the Devourer infused the ash with pure space energy, making it look like a transparent flame despite it simply being pure kinetic force infused into ash.

An annoying but highly effective attack.

About five minutes passed as they fought, the King getting forced back more and more. A vague sense of doubt began to enter the King’s mind as he feared the little hunter was not ready. The King would have to pick up the pace himself and use his boosting skill prematurely if he was not soon ready. That could potentially throw off the plan.

Just when that doubt set in, he felt a weak attack on his soul from far above. It was the hunter’s gaze that had briefly landed upon him and attacked.

even affect him, but just

was the agreed-upon signal, and

force, making the Ashen Phantom Devourer defend. While

that whatever the hunter had

King felt a shockwave. Both he and the other Unique Lifeform momentarily stopped

have been shattered and fell

shade of the hunter’s arcane

at the orders of the Celestial Child, and while he did have some complaints about his station, he

Phantom Devourer had lost pretty handily, enough for him to assume that perhaps this Fallen King was superior. However, as time went

around, the fight was indeed much more fierce as both seemed to go all out. Then, suddenly, the Fallen King seemed to stop. He pulled out immense amounts of power as he seemed

he did excel in was Perception, and yet he had not noticed something had been

The Malefic’s Chosen.

took out a token and fulfilled his duty as he infused his message that the Chosen was there before crushing it. He took out another token in preparation to relay what was about to happen but suddenly felt a shift in space

and saw a figure had appeared only a kilometer or so behind him, having been

Who!? Wait…

figure rapidly made its way over as the

are you doing

He stared with wide eyes as strings wrapped around and neck, but surprisingly they didn’t harm him. Why would they harm him, now that

didn’t go further as his mind slowly gave out, and

C-grade jellyfish spoke as William opened his

William asked with a mix of

jellyfish answered without explaining further. William knewthat he couldn’t delay

William said as a magic circle appeared on the platform in the cave. The metal mage promptly flew over and landed on it as the space magic around him warped everything. The teleportation

He did not know who it was initially,

was hiding not far from him, holding a token and also observing. William did not know why, but his first reaction

the ground, William just shook his head. He knew he had just helped the monster… but it was necessary. William needed to confront him,

fight between the Unique Lifeforms and the monster… William already knew it was not anything he should get involved in. Whatever the hell that monster had done was exactly the kind of thing one could expect,

Approximately nine hours earlier.

wasn’t a lot, but to Jake, that was eleven mana

Arrows, Jake summoned a stable arrow and proceeded to take out a bottle of his sweet neurotoxin. He carefully soaked it in poison and, using stable arcane mana, covered the tip as he dripped a bit more poison onto it before covering it up, leaving a hollow

where they would remain effectively frozen in time. He did use his quiver to store poisoned arrows usually, but this was the most extreme case of him ever doing it. Frankly, the quiver was one of those things Jake barely thought about in