The Primal Hunter

The entire room appeared frozen as Jake and Villy grinned at each other, Jake finding the prank from the Viper funny. He had, of course, seen him act like a servant, as Jake’s sphere didn’t care about the illusion the god had placed upon himself. From the Viper’s grin, Jake had acted just as predicted, resulting in a great prank.

At least Jake thought it was a good prank… the problem was, someone else clearly didn’t.

”Are you mocking a Primordial?” the Azure Dragonkin practically roared as he stood up. Scarlett tried to stop him as she realized, but she was too slow. The Dragonkin went not for Jake but for the poor waiter as he grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground.

”A mere servant using the name of the Malefic One in vain to mock him and his Chosen in the very same breath,” he seethed, tightening his grip. ”Fucking heretic. I should kill you on the spot.”

The jovial smile of the Viper slowly faded as he looked at the dragonkin. He did not speak as his illusion slowly dissolved, revealing the humanoid form of the Malfic Viper. At the same time, Jake felt a wave of energy pass through him, and on the floor below, he saw those eating suddenly freeze halfway through their actions; time itself stopped.

Then came the presence.

The arm of the Azure Dragonkin began turning to dust as he tried to scream, but he couldn’t get any words out as he was slammed into the ground. Blood poured out of his eyes, mouth, and nose, and his face warped from an expression of overconfidence to pure terror.

”You just had to go and ruin a good time,” Villy stared down at the shaking dragonkin. Jake, for his part, released his own presence to try and protect the others at the table as he saw everyone else besides himself freeze up.

”The Venerated Azure Dragon, huh. You are blessed by a mere whelp of the true Azure Dragon Patriarch, and believe yourself above everyone else,” Villy shook his head before looking up and addressing everyone else in the room. ”It was a fun prank, right?”

Everyone nodded, not a single person daring to disagree. Even Jake nodded, not because he felt compelled like the others, but because he genuinely agreed.

”See, you just have no sense of humor,” the Viper said. ”Now, if that isn’t blasphemy, I don’t know what is.”

”F… forgive…” the Azure Dragonkin tried to stammer out as Villy just sighed.

”Forgiveness? Alright, off you go. I am already done with you,” the Viper shrugged, waving his hand as the Azure Dragonkin disappeared from the room. Jake considered if Villy had killed him, but he didn’t feel like he had.

”A mere mortal whelpling isn’t worth killing; better for him to learn a lesson,” Villy said, clarifying he wasn’t dead as he went over and took a seat at the other end of the table opposite Jake.

”What did you do to him?” Jake asked curiously, wondering what the Viper meant when he said he had taught him a lesson. He didn’t believe for a single second removing an arm and giving the guy a fright was enough for the Viper.

”You saw what I did; I destroyed his arm,” the snake god said with a grin. ”Oh, but not the usual kind of destruction. Let’s just say he will have to enjoy the rest of his journey through C-grade jerking himself off with his other hand.”

ask further. He was curious why Villy hadn’t just killed the Azure Dragonkin outright, but he could always ask about that later. For now, he wanted to

bowed deeply. ”I greet the Malefic One, Forefather of snakes,” she said in an extremely

Jake being the only one not doing anything besides focusing on keeping his mouth shut and not trying to convince them that it wasn’t necessary. He

most nervous person in the room: the Thundervenom Adder. She barely managed to stammer something out, her gaze filled with fear. It did make sense; she was the only one

seemed to not really give a shit about her, or really any of them as individuals. Jake wondered why the Viper had even come, and a thought quickly appeared… but he still

I wonder?”

noticed someone mocking my Chosen, and thus me, so I felt compelled to teach him the errors of

and handed it to Jake. Jake accepted and put it in his inventory without even checking what it was as he sent a

tropey as fuck prank before I went public as your Chosen, at which point

we aren’t equally to blame, so just play along and enjoy the damn item,”the Viper answered, making Jake suppress a grin as he instead simply

it will prove useful,” he spoke, trying to at least sound a bit

in the room. ”Carry on with your matters. Oh yeah, and keep your mouths shut about Jake here until

teleported away as time resumed to normal in

as Jake broke the tension with a joke. ”Relax, the big bad snake

as Irin breathed out in relief. Only now did he see she had been clenching her fists so hard her nails had dug into her hands, making blood spill on her dress. The others were

asking something telepathically, as she stared at Jake with

was the Chosen, Jake reminded himself. That was probably another reason why Villy had so casually intruded: they all knew who he was

Irin spoke, her breathing still labored. ”I still find it difficult

tense all the time,” Jake just

said, it’s all very much…

had to be the one to break it. Luckily, at that moment, a waiter – a real

another attendant already take

looked at the glasses left by Villy before shaking his head.

out to be damn great timing as it brought a sense of normalcy back to the room, and after he left, the tension was

but Scarlett wanted her to stay, and Jake didn’t care, so she remained even if she didn’t really speak at all unless asked

to be a pleasant evening, and Jake ended up eating several kinds of food he quite frankly had no idea what truly was, but it was still damn tasty. After his visit, he could definitely understand why restaurants were so popular

eating, learning what everyone had been up to. Reika had unsurprisingly just been doing lessons and steadily progressing, having even upgraded her token to a gold token, giving her a private residence she had brought Bastilla to. Her alchemy had clearly progressed, and Jake got the feeling he had

as much time in the Order and had mainly just cultivated her venoms while trying to make new friends. She had met the Thundervenom Adder during one of her lessons, and seeing as they were both snakes, they had connected, and the Thundervenom had later introduced Scarlett to the Azure Dragonkin. This was also when Jake learned that the Adder was effectively working for

staying with Jake and Scarlett could easily be viewed as a betrayal by the Azure Dragonkin, who probably wasn’t happy with losing an arm. The Dragonflight definitely wasn’t happy and would maybe even punish her and place the blame on her, even if it was bullshit. So, he decided

are also invited along with her to the ceremony next month, and I hope you can attend,” Jake said with a smile as he threw Irin a look before going back to the Adder. ”In fact,