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.”

didn’t 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 fix the atmosphere in the room. Food orders had not even been placed yet, and things were already quite awkward with

she stood up and bowed deeply. ”I greet the Malefic One,

doing anything besides focusing on keeping his mouth shut and not trying to convince them that it wasn’t necessary. He knew that was a losing battle, and ultimately, what did it have to do with him

the only one not a friend or at least acquaintance of Jake left in the room, with the one who had brought her – someone Jake assumed to be her

Villy seemed to not really give a shit about her, or really any of them as individuals. Jake wondered why the Viper had even come,

what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, I wonder?” Jake asked Villy after he was done getting

wanted to come and hand you something personally for your upcoming journey to Nevermore and noticed someone mocking my Chosen, and thus me, so I felt compelled to teach him the errors of his ways,” Villy said. ”This is what I came to bring

in his inventory without even checking what

as fuck prank before I went public as your Chosen, at which point it would be too late,” Jake saw through the ancient snake god. ”You saw your chance, and you jumped straight at

blame, so just play along and enjoy the damn item,”the Viper answered, making Jake suppress a

it will prove useful,” he spoke, trying to

on with your matters. Oh yeah, and keep your mouths shut about Jake here

as time resumed to normal in the

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

surprisingly seemed to work 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

look at Scarlett, probably asking something telepathically, as she stared at

himself. That was probably another reason why Villy had so casually intruded: they

something,” Irin spoke, her breathing still labored. ”I still find it difficult to comprehend how you

are all serious and tense all the time,” Jake just

it’s all very much… something,”

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

I apologize. Did another attendant already take your orders?” the

Villy before shaking his head. ”No, we would like

as he proceeded to note down what they wanted. The waiter coming now turned out to be damn great timing as it

Adder still looked out of place and even offered to leave, 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 something. Once the food came, she

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

the opportunity to catch up with old friends while 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 fallen behind her when it came to conventional

introduced Scarlett to the Azure Dragonkin. This was also when Jake learned that the Adder was

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

you are a friend of Scarlett, you 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