The Primal Hunter

Jumping, Jake avoided both Guards trying to get him from behind, focusing his attention on the Protector in front of him. It leaped up to chase him, making Jake kick off a platform of condensed mana to clash with it again. However, this time he didn’t make it a competition of pure power.

Rather than block, he dodged in mid-air, using Eternal Hunger to stab it in the side three times. It turned to try and catch him, but Jake was faster, vaulting on top of it as he stabbed into its abdomen with both katars as he pushed mana into them. Two explosions resounded within the Protector, yet despite the obvious pain, it spun its body, throwing Jake off.

He was forced to teleport away before he could land as more Guards tried to pin him down. Teleporting three times in a row, Jake got quite a distance into the cavern and found a good spot. Whipping his body around, his bow appeared, and he started blasting, having decided to get rid of some of the guards.

Nocking an arrow, he drew the string and loosed it, quickly nocking another and releasing that too. With Steady Aim, he had ample time to aim properly, despite firing several arrows a second, each one capable of blasting back a Guard.

Each shot was methodical, and he managed to release twenty shots before the first Guard made it to him. Finding himself in the groove, he didn’t bother switching weapons. He sidestepped its charge without even looking as he kept shooting at a particular guard in the distance that was already injured.

More guards came, but their charges were simplistic and nothing more than simply throwing their bodies at Jake, mandibles first. Calling them C-grades was honestly a shame, even if they did have powerful bodies. Before even evolving, he could have killed these Guards one on one.

Now it was just one-sided. The only two in the cavern posing any sort of danger were the Queen and Protector, and even then.

Jake repeated his current tactic as he dodged everything while shooting down the termites one by one. The poison quickly took hold, and even if the Queen tried to heal them, it was far from enough. She seemed to realize this and got serious.

Energy gathered around the Queen as she used the same group buff he had seen last time. A wave of golden energy washed over all the Guards, with the Protector shining especially brightly. They all got stronger and faster, making it a bit harder to dodge them all.

Jake glanced at the Queen and tried to target her. After dodging, he rapidly fired an Arcane Powershot, but to his surprise, the Protector that was behind him suddenly appeared in front of the arrow as a shield appeared, blocking his arrow and sending it flying back.

He tried again, but the same thing happened as somehow the Protector managed to teleport perfectly into the trajectory of his arrow. Even when he tried to curve the arrows and shot rapidly, the Protector teleported several times in a second to block every single arrow, displaying a level of speed far above anything shown before.

A conditional skill to protect the Queen, Jake concluded. The name Protector was not for nothing, and while there probably were ways around it, like disrupting space to make teleportation harder or limiting the movements of the Protector, none of these were things Jake could do. So he chose an easier tactic.

If the Protector wanted to protect the Queen that badly, he was all for it, as it made aiming every shot the easiest thing in the world.

magic of her own, but Jake felt that it wasn’t of the offensive kind, so he didn’t care much. At the same time, only one Guard was close enough to disturb him, and he had a way of handling that one without

to remain standing there. Yet he still responded. A shadow emerged from his body to meet the Guard, intense curse energy revolving around Eternal Hunger in its hand. It

seconds into charging, he was forced to release the shot as more Guards approached, including the Protector itself. Jake released the arrow just as they were upon him, the blast from loosening it pushing back

but things did not go as expected. The barrier it conjured was broken instantly – Unblemished Arrows helping a bit there – with the shot then continuing into the head of the Isoptera Queen’s Protector. At the very last moment, it managed to angle its body a bit, making the arrow

ground as every single leg on the Protector’s left side had been torn off, with one of its mandibles also missing. Yet

in real time as it rapidly began healing from all its injuries. Annoyed, Jake considered repeating the blow he had made before but decided it would be easier if there were no annoyances to deal with. Hence why he chose

the poison within nearly all the Guards from his many previous arrows. He pushed Touch of the Malefic Viper as all around

her, she was not powerful enough to fully cleanse

suddenly teleported away, appearing down on

Guard was the one he had struck with the Eternal Shadow earlier, and he felt the heavy curse energy from it. The curse of hunger. It desperately tried to attack the Queen with its mandibles, but when the Protector stepped in, it simply

on killing Guards. One by one, they died, with the Protector finishing off the Guard down on the

and he reckoned they both knew what it

shooting arrows at the Queen, every one of them forcing the Protector to teleport back and take the blow. The Queen did try to dodge, but it was big and

every attempt. The damage on the Protector quickly accumulated, and while the Queen tried to heal it, she faced an uphill battle. Jake finally managed to

finish off the Protector only seemed right, so he nocked an arrow, took a deep breath, and began charging. Arcane power revolved around his body, making the air vibrate and

the Protector now fully healed and charging toward Jake. Sixteen seconds into charging, Jake released his breath and let go of the string. Partly because

Protector teleported as expected, appearing right behind the Queen’s barrier. Its own barrier appeared, ready to meet the arrow that thrummed with power. It tore through the cavern, distorting space in its wake and causing widespread damage. Jake felt the fear of the Queen just as it impacted the barrier, blasting straight through it and into the Protector. The termite tried valiantly to protect its Queen, but its own barrier fell as fast as its mother’s, allowing the arrow to pierce into its body. It had no time to try and angle its body this time

– Bonus experience

as it hit the Queen, pushing her back and leaving a large hole in her carapace. She screamed in desperation, summoning several more barriers to defend herself.

barriers, and kept trying to do anything she could to survive. The cavern began to rumble as weak Isoptera Warriors began swarming in, all of them only in

time to use. He charged his blow while releasing a few arcane bolts to blow up E-grades getting close. After

hit the Queen, making her screech out in pain as the energies invaded her soul, causing immense pain. The army of weak termites tried to stop Jake and even began raining from the roof of the cavern to cover him and the

termites on the cavern roof began falling, limp. They hit the ground

living beings remained within the cavern. More were entering, but

away all the D-grades falling towards him as he beelined for the Queen. She tried to escape down the tunnel towards the egg chamber, but Jake was far faster. He caught up and teleported above her as he released an arcane blast to send himself downwards. With an axe kick, he