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.

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

shadow emerged from his body to meet the Guard, intense curse energy revolving around Eternal

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

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 the attack miss

fell to 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

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

the Guards from his many previous 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

Queen as she sent out another wave of golden energy, combating Jake’s poison and trying to cleanse her Guards. Unluckily for her, she was not powerful enough to

to dodge the Protector as it suddenly teleported away, appearing

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

mused as he refocused on killing Guards. One by one, they died, with the Protector finishing off the Guard down on the ground, the

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

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

she faced an uphill battle. Jake finally managed to blast off a leg, slowing

the next attack. A proper Arcane Powershot to finish off the Protector only seemed right, so he nocked an arrow, took a deep breath, and began

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

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

Queen’s Protector – lvl 239] – Bonus experience earned for killing

stop 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

making barriers, and kept trying to do anything she could to survive. The cavern began to rumble as weak Isoptera

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

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 to teleport over and finish her off.

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

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

Jake was far faster. He caught up and