The Primal Hunter

The dryad didn’t seem to register the words immediately but finally reacted after a second.

“Huh?” Dina asked, confused. “I… I could… but why?”

The old man shook his head and smiled. “The four of us have either fought side by side or against each other before. We know about one another. I believe it would be pertinent to get a better idea of your skills, too, before we move on to the later floors so none of us are taken by surprise.”

Dina seemed to consider the words for a moment before nodding resolutely. “Alright.”

“I take it you are all fine with this arrangement?” the Sword Saint asked Jake and the others.

“It is acceptable to me as long as she does not take too long,” the Fallen King said.

“Ree,” Sylphie said as she flew over and landed on top of Jake’s head before quickly sitting down and resting. Apparently, she would need some time to properly digest the fairy queen thing.

“Fine by me,” Jake also shrugged, giving his approval. He didn’t really believe the Monarch of the Skies would give him a good fight, so why not share the love? Besides, he was interested in seeing how well Dina would handle the thing.

While the Monarch of the Skies wasn’t some pinnacle creature, it did feel pretty powerful for its level. Chances are it also had some of that special Floor Boss extra juice that Jake noticed all the other bosses had. The extra juice came in the form of expanded resource pools, specifically their health pools. That should push the Monarch up a level.

The highest-leveled boss so far in Nevermore had been the Lords they had just killed, and all three of those had been level 212. At 225, this did put the Monarch quite a bit above anything else and twenty levels above Dina herself.

Moreover, the environment obviously favored the Monarch of the Skies. Chances are it would turn into a battle in the air, and so far, most of what Dina had shown was summoning vines from the ground, throwing out seeds and growing soldiers, and some occasional enhancement magic.

Jake looked forward to what more she had to show, and he gladly sat back as Dina made her way down towards the large central island where the Monarch of the Skies stood with its eyes closed.

Still floating in the air a good distance away, Dina threw out two small seeds that grew to become spear-like trees. Using some kind of plant telekinesis, she kept them floating there as she took aim toward the Monarch below.

The second she threw them, the Monarch awakened. A whirlwind appeared around it instantly, and Jake and the others backed away to not get involved in the fight. The two trees entered the whirlwind unimpeded, but the ten-meter-tall winged creature still managed to dodge, resulting in the two trees stabbing into the ground, embedding themselves.

With lightning crackling on its wings, the Monarch was about to take to the air as suddenly vines exploded out of both trunks from the thrown trees, seeking to entangle its talon-like feet. It managed to avoid the roots with one of its feet, but the other was caught as Dina followed up her attack.

The ground below the Monarch erupted as hundreds of thorn-filled vines flew toward it. The Floor Boss reacted quickly and held out its hand as a lightning bolt descended from the thunderclouds above. The lightning hit the Monarch as its entire body exploded, getting rid of the vines and allowing it to get airborne. Moreover, the lightning had delivered with it a large white halberd that the boss now wielded.

“It is quite powerful,” the Sword Saint commented.

bad,” Jake did agree. The fact that it was effectively fighting within a giant formation that

retreat, she chose to engage the Monarch of the Skies directly as the two

she was also a dryad. A part human, part plant lifeform. An obvious weakness of any kind of manipulation-based class would

the element means bringing your own body? Well, you would

boss. Surprised, the Monarch stopped in its tracks and tried to retreat out of range from the wall of spiky vines, but before it could, the vines were shot out like spears, a few of them managing to

summon root spears or something, but instead, the staff began to

to fall off as the flesh began to rot within seconds. Jake’s eyes opened wide as she released several more green bolts of lightning while he tried to analyze the

own lightning, the two magics clashing in mid-air and exploding upon impact in flashes of white and green. After the Monarch failed to

Willpower-based attack.

bolts of will-empowered life energy into her foe, that rather than nurture life, carried with it intent to self-destruct. Which it promptly did, resulting in rot setting in and spreading to the surrounding flesh. It was an incredibly insidious

in the wounds healing quickly. Dina also realized this as she stopped her attack and changed her stance. The staff began

other once more, and it was clear this fight would transform into a melee battle, which did make Jake a bit worried, considering Dina was mostly a caster. However, it appeared

ever seen it. Jake was naturally talking about the mysterious Bobo, the Guardian of Dina. He had hoped to see this Guardian during this fight, not realizing… Bobo

spider-like limbs of wood speared out and penetrated through the breastplate of the Monarch. The halberd that had been aimed at Dina was also stopped as several branches grew out and took the blow. This allowed Dina to properly close in, and swinging her scythe, she sent out a crescent wave of green energy that tore into the Monarch, leaving a deep cut of rotting

finally see what had been hidden beneath her thick robe and saw a wooden suit of armor covering her entire chest, abdomen, and thighs, stopping just above her knees. It

Dina. Before it could even hit, a spear of wood was shot out from her armor to absorb the blow, allowing Dina

from the scythe hit earlier. It tried to back away, but Dina pursued with impressive speed as she continued attacking with ranged attacks in the form of

more spear-like vines that dug into the flesh of the Monarch, and as it kept trying to retreat, Jake saw something frightening. Leaves began to sprout beneath the breastplate of the Monarch as he realized that the hit from her armor – Bobo – had done more than just stabbing: it had planted

Jake used poison, Dina did something similar but far scarier in Jake’s mind. With her attacks, she implanted almost microscopic seeds that took hold inside the body of her foe. Jake hadn’t even noticed it before Dina chose to activate the many seeds she had planted within the Monarch, and damn, did it look scary as thorns and vines began growing out from beneath the feathers of the Monarch as

a giant pillar of pure lightning descended, bathing the Monarch in energy and pushing Dina back. Once the light faded, its form was once more revealed,

the large island, it had been summoned on, it didn’t notice what was about to hit

grasping the form of the Monarch. The vines were instantly singed by the powerful lightning, but ten

trees she had fired at the beginning had launched seeds into the island, and vines had slowly grown within while she fought the Monarch. Then, during the fight,

her way. The Monarch let out a loud screech as Dina transformed her arm into a long lance of wood that penetrated into its chest. Its

Monarch of the Skies, penetrating through its skin and even its

of the Skies. 50 Nevermore

Skies within half

“Ree,” Sylphie commented.

agreed with a

weak offensively, but I must say I find myself impressed by her ability to make use of

me wonder if her being a support type

after seeing her personal combat prowess,” the Sword Saint said