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.

and blasting a few Guards to 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 Guard was close enough to disturb him, and he had a way of handling that one

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

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 the Guards while the Protector disappeared in

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

ground as every single leg 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 teleported and blocked, using its body to protect the

went towards it, and Jake saw legs grow out in real time as it rapidly began healing from all its

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

energy, combating Jake’s poison and trying to cleanse her Guards. Unluckily for her, she was not powerful enough to fully cleanse

to kill him. Then, something unexpected happened. Jake was about to dodge the Protector as it suddenly teleported away,

saw that this 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 switched its target and tried to eat the

died, with the Protector finishing

Queen, the Protector, and Jake. By now, the Queen had to realize it was fucked, and he reckoned they both knew what it had to do: call the Hive King. But before that, he wanted to

the Protector. From the other side of the cavern, he began 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 slow, with Jake’s curving

she faced an uphill battle. Jake finally managed to blast off a leg, slowing down the Protector, making it unable to attack

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 causing the wall behind him to crack and crumble from

around itself, with 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 he felt the bow beginning to give up and partly because he deemed

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,

– lvl 239] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above

but continued 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. Jake showed no mercy as he simply released another Arcane Powershot, blasting her again.

flying as parts of 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

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 the Queen, with the sole intent of taking down her barrier for the

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 to teleport over and finish her off. Even finding a trajectory for his arrows to fly was

Jake spoke as he 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

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

releasing a blast of arcane mana to blast 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