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.

the other side of the cavern, he bought himself enough time to charge a proper Arcane Powershot. The Queen seemed to be charging some 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

to him, but rather than block, he chose 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 clashed with the Guard, resulting in the Eternal Shadow dispersing and the Guard being thrown to the other side of the cavern with a deep stab in its head,

were upon him, the

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 skirt off its side, making

on the Protector’s left side had been torn off, with one of its mandibles also missing. Yet when Jake shot another arrow, it still

she was gathering toward the Protector. A stream of gold went towards it, and Jake saw legs grow out 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

arrows. He pushed Touch of the Malefic Viper as all around him, the festering wounds of the Guards began growing as the poison was empowered and

trying to cleanse her Guards. Unluckily for her, she was not powerful enough to fully cleanse it, and the flaring poison gave Jake

suddenly teleported away, appearing down on the floor of

from it. The curse of hunger. It desperately tried to attack the Queen with

with the Protector finishing off the Guard down on the ground, the Queen seemingly unsure how to handle

he reckoned they both knew what it had to do: call the Hive King. But before that, he wanted to make sure

of them forcing the Protector to teleport back and

and while the Queen tried to heal it, she faced an uphill battle. Jake finally managed to blast off a leg, slowing down the Protector, making it

so he nocked an arrow, took a deep breath, and began charging. Arcane

and charging toward Jake. Sixteen seconds into charging, Jake released his breath and let go of the string. Partly because he felt the bow beginning to give up and partly because he deemed it powerful enough. The blast decimated the cavern wall, the arrow itself flying

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

slain [Isoptera Queen’s Protector – lvl 239] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy

a large hole in her carapace. She screamed in desperation, summoning several more barriers to defend herself. Jake showed no mercy as he simply released another Arcane Powershot, blasting her again.

the massive ectogna’s body were blown off. The Queen kept healing, kept making 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 late D-grade. It was truly a desperate move, and Jake decided to finish it

naturally an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter which he had summoned quite a bit ago but only now found a good time to use. He charged his blow while releasing a few arcane bolts to blow up E-grades getting close. After charging enough, he released the rest of the bolts towards

to arrive. It 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 Queen. An endless army was before him, impeding his path to the Queen, making it impossible for him

opened his eyes wide and used Gaze of the Apex Hunter. For a moment, all was still as the clattering stopped. Then, the termites on the cavern roof began falling, limp. They hit the ground hard, never to move again, as the ground of the cavern was entirely covered in thousands of

remained within the cavern. More were entering, but Jake now had the opening

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 smashed the Queen into the ground before letting loose with