The Primal Hunter

The last time Jake had faced the hydra, it had ended in his defeat due to a timer. In this dungeon, there was no such timer and no interruptions to their battle. Jake could spend an as much time as he wanted, as long as his resources allowed it.

Jake had no idea how long it would take, but inside his Soulspace, he already felt sim-Jake begin his part. Charging forward, Jake prepared to meet the hydra in battle. It still showed the same lack of intelligence as their first fight, but its power had grown significantly, as one would expect from a beast getting 39 more levels.

However, Jake had gotten even more levels and power.

The two-headed hydra turned toward him and got ready as he approached. Its instinctual knowledge was enough to identify Jake as a strong opponent, making it clearly take him seriously from the get-go. One maw snapped forward as the other waited to strike, evaluating what Jake would do.

Its massive teeth-filled mouth missed Jake as he side-stepped and jabbed one katar into its side swiftly. The blade only went five or so centimeters into the flesh as he retracted it, the scales and flesh of the hydra too durable for Jake to ignore. If he tried to really jam it in there, he even reckoned it would get stuck.

As expected, the second head descended and tried to snatch Jake up. Jake again dodged and tried to counter, but the first head swiped to the side to hit him. This forced him back as the second head lifted itself towards the sky and breathed in.

Space itself appeared to distort from the inhale, with Jake feeling the movements of massive amounts of mana. Air mana primarily. It was being extracted and absorbed in huge quantities at a time, making it look like a maelstrom had formed above the hydra. Even the clouds several kilometers up in the air were affected.

Needless to say, all this took a bit of time, giving Jake ample opportunity to move. The other head of the hydra naturally moved to stop him, and the four-legged beast even tried to stomp him with its large legs to keep him away as Jake dodged the head and got beneath. He ran quickly but managed to stab four times into the underbelly of the beast, each blow delivering a solid dose of poison from Fangs of the Malefic Viper.

Just as he got to the other side, the hydra roared with the head not inhaling. Jake felt his entire body tense up as the second head bent and aimed its maw straight at Jake.

Let me have it.

A massive sonic boom rocked the entire marsh as a bubble of pure air was released. Trees were uprooted, and Jake found himself impacted straight in the chest. Blood pooled in his mouth as he spat it out, flying through the air through a few trees that had survived. He slid to a halt as he landed on his feet, using both katars to slow himself down.

The released air had been far more potent in the beginning but was just a mild wind by now. Jake felt his ribs hurt a little from the impact earlier but still smiled. It needed to at least be this strong.

He stepped down as he teleported forward and, in only three steps, appeared in front of the hydra once more. Without hesitation, he attacked again. The beast happily responded as the two heads capable of swallowing him whole descended from above to eat him like a snack. Sadly for the hydra, such elementary attacks had no way of hitting.

both as he landed several stabs, the poison slowly seeping into the body of the beast. The scales were tough, and the hydra healed quickly, but it was outmatched. Jake had gotten stronger, and the level gap was severely lower than last time. He was no longer a complete idiot when it came to melee, either. In fact, he felt better than ever. A part of him had feared that only practicing with sim-Jake for so long would have made him worse

Then again, he knew he couldn’t expect too much. It was common knowledge that the smarter a beast was, the more dangerous it was. If this hydra had the same level of intelligence as a human or even just the Phantomshade

Snappy had been weak when he was still

to pin him down and attack him, positioning himself in such a fashion that only one head could strike at a time. Even if

stunning Jake again. The hydra quickly spun and swiped Jake with its tail, sending him flying back from the impact. It did little damage to him, but it did buy the beast some time. Instantly it began shrinking, using the skill Jake was already familiar with from

about four and a half meters tall stood before him, its gray scales now a darker shade. Jake felt its dense energy from a distance and knew it had improved this skill even

heads shot forward like two snakes, the many teeth biting down on air as Jake had already teleported back. With the very next step, he teleported forward again to counter, but a leg was raised to kick Jake, forcing him to block for the

had no time to counter as he got pressed by the now far faster beast. The only chance he got was for a slicing attack, but the bone katar

seem to have gained more tricks in the last 39 levels but just upped everything it already could to a whole new level, Jake concluded. It maybe did have one more trick. Hopefully it did because Jake was also about

landing a solid jab with

as he jumped slightly. The impact sent him flying, but

a blast of mana before stepping down and teleporting to keep up his constant assault. Wanting to really push himself,

managed to keep Jake at bay for the most part. More concerning was that even if Jake landed blows, he wasn’t doing much damage. The scales were thick and durable, making slicing attacks difficult, while the regeneration of the hydra made its wounds heal incredibly swiftly. It didn’t even feel like it drained a lot

regeneration that increased the more damaged the hydra was but also keep up this high damage output while the hydra got stronger and faster. It was indeed true the beast had few abilities, but those it had all seemed to

human soon got into a status quo of exchanging blows. Jake focused on what he had come there for as he finally felt himself be pushed, the occasional stunning roar and absorption blast putting him on the back foot at times. He knew that a single slip-up with end up losing him a limb to the maw of the hydra, making it all the more exciting. Jake also bit onto the fact that even if

few other tricks up

with his opponent as the ball was firmly in

his eyes closed as he also felt the battle outside and experienced everything like he was Jake

The winner was clear, especially if Jake decided to go all-out and not limit himself as he currently did. That would ruin the entire purpose of this exercise, though. Sim-Jake felt the rush of adrenaline running through his body as it ran through Jake’s body outside. As he stood there, he carefully

choices that could be made when responding to something. Dodge, block, counter. Even while dodging, he had a few decisions to make,

However, by then, it may as well just be considered a full-on counter. Every counter had a

wanted to fight. That had always been who he was. It was all he ever had. It was all he ever felt like he was good at. While he had lost all memories of who he truly

world before the system. He knew that. After his parents died, he never really had any reason to not act out his inherent impulses, even if it was a world that had developed to