The Primal Hunter

The Hive King was blasted away by an arrow hitting it in the back just before it had time to turn and continue its assault. Jake whipped his body around toward the Queen and released a Splitting Arrow, forcing her to conjure a barrier in front of her humanoid body.

The dozen or so arrows embedded themselves in the barrier, piercing it slightly. Jake saw her fear for a moment as the arrow penetrated somewhat, but her face soon returned to being cocky at their failure to actually hit her.

“I continue to be impre-“

With a mental command, Jake shifted the stability to destruction as the arrows all exploded right in front of her face, making her scream in pain and retreat.

You talk too much, Jake mused as he decided to make the Hive Queen his primary target. With Arcane Awakening now active, he was on a timer, and he didn’t want to drag out the fight too long. Seeing as the Hive Queen could heal, he would prefer to not end up fucking himself over by just fighting the King and having it constantly healed.

On the note of Arcane Awakening, it hadn’t changed after his evolution besides going down in rarity; it was his body that had changed. The toll the boosting skill had on his body was higher than before after the evolution, and while he still wouldn’t get a backlash from only using the 30% boost, the resource drain was still amplified. Hence the time he could use it was lessened. As he progressed through the grade, his body would once more acclimate to the skill, and he would be able to keep it active longer and longer. This was another reason why he started on the stable 30%.

He would save the full 60% boost for the finale. He wanted to savor this fight.

The Hive King seemingly enraged at his attack on the Queen, charged Jake recklessly, and finally, he felt something he had been missing from this fight. Bloodlust and killing intent. The King was no longer simply trying to injure and capture him. It was going for the kill.

Jake reacted accordingly, dodging away as he still focused his attention on the Queen. The explosions earlier had injured the humanoid upper body, but it was small insignificant wounds. He saw her begin to retract her human side, but Jake quickly capitalized on her transformation and managed to hit the chest of the humanoid body just before it merged into the rest of the large termite body.

The arrow had naturally been coated in poison. A poison that was now merged with the Queen’s body, making it spread fast as he felt the large ectogna fight it off. He wanted to shoot her again but was forced away by the King’s charge. He saw it open its mandibles, and the moment it did, his eyes opened wide as he ducked.

As the mandibles snapped shut, a second semi-transparent apparition of them also snapped where Jake had just been, with this second pair being roughly ten times larger. While in a precarious position from the quick dodge, Jake could not counterattack but found himself forced to blast himself away to avoid a second such attack cutting him in two.

barely avoided two more such attacks before he was in a better position to teleport away, but this annoyingly allowed the Queen to

King was hot on his heels even as Jake teleported, shooting an arrow toward the Queen in between every teleport. She raised walls of earth to block them while trying to predict

to avoid them. A few of the arrows he released managed to hit the Queen, which only made her pick up the pace of her magic as he saw her power churn more and more. Streams of

displayed proper killing intent now and didn’t waste

back, wings finally sprung as he began spreading a mist of poison behind himself, the King constantly running into it. At the same time, he began condensing an Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter, along with some other preparations. His occasional arrow at the Queen was enough to make her constantly poisoned, even if she worked to eliminate it, while the King now finally also got affected by the mist. What little

Queen, pushing away his poison mist and faintly cleansing the King, but Jake responded simply by pumping out more misty death. He

longer until he “made a

The Queen cut off the last paths as walls

to clash with it directly. Then, at the very last moment, his eyes glowed. Gaze activated as the King froze, and rather than attack, Jake

but Jake teleported around it, not allowing the Queen to impede him. Behind him, the King had finally unfrozen, the paralysis lasting far longer than one would

the Hive Kings. She let out a screeching sound as the earth below his feet began glowing, and Jake used a katar as leverage

mana to each as he turned to face the King. Unarmed, he dodged the first of its strikes but found himself forced to use Eternal Shadow to counter the next. His Shadow shot out of Jake as he countered with his real body, landing a palm strike on the forehead of the Hive King with Touch of the Malefic Viper active. At the very next second, his hand was airborne, and just before his entire body was torn in half, he disappeared, his body replaced with shadowy smoke as Jake switched places with his Shadow – none of the damage actually suffered. He had still lost

through the carapace… but barely, Jake concluded. He would have to wrestle with the Hive King for far too long to pump in any meaningful amount. Having it

at the Queen, she had finally managed to push both katars out of her body, forcing Jake to retrieve them using the mana strings. The moment he had both back in his hands, he attacked again, stabbing the Hive Queen several times before

but he failed to even after dodging tens of blows and retreating a bit. As he blocked one of its blows, he felt his arm hurt, and when he went to dodge its leg, a small scratch was left

Faster. Stronger.

nothing changing. It had made him let down his guard slightly, resulting

that looked almost solid, floating there like a ball of mud. Jake had no idea what it

dodged, the beam missing and flying toward one of the small plants within the cavern. When the plant was hit, it instantly turned into stone before crumbling into dirt. He assumed it was some kind of petrification, but it felt far more powerful than whatever that manticore in the

shoulder, making Jake spin in the air to reduce the damage from the impact. When he landed, Jake teleported away just in time to avoid the massive mandibles

him to not only dodge the extremely fast Hive King but also not get petrified. He still managed to adapt, the King’s powerup not impacting its patterns, giving him opportunities to get off potshots at the Hive