The Primal Hunter

Dealing with adds – short for additionals or enemies that one had to fight alongside the boss - in any kind of encounter was always a bit annoying. In most cases, the boss would enter some charge-up phase during the fight with the adds, and Jake had kind of expected this to be the case during their planning. This turned out not to be the case, with Jake having the sneaking suspicion it was due to them allowing the artifacts to be empowered.

Yeah, that seemed like something Minaga would do. If they were sabotaged, the Demon Lord would be unable to summon anything. If they did nothing, the boss would channel the spell or something to summon the Tower Demons, immobilizing himself for a while, and if they empowered him, they would have to face the boss and his minions all at the same time.

Alas, it was not entirely unexpected, so they had planned on taking advantage of one of their party’s unique traits: individual excellence. Each of them could fight exceptionally well on their own, which is why they spread up with one person heading for a Tower Demon each. Dina would rotate and assist all three of them, but seeing as the Sword Saint was the most injured, she started out by helping him. If any person managed to kill their Tower Demon, they would then help the others.

It was a good plan with just one problem: the Demon Lord himself.

If he was also in full fighting condition, it would be a nightmare battling him alongside a Tower Demon, much less a Tower Demon with its four Guardians.

That is where Jake came in.

As shown with the Sword Saint earlier, no one could fight the Demon Lord alone and keep him preoccupied. No one but Jake. If there was one thing he was good at, beyond anyone else there, it was dealing with a foe far more powerful than himself. He didn’t need to win… just buy time while keeping the Demon Lord focused on him as the four others killed the Tower Demons.

That is why he went straight to taunting. While repeatedly proving himself a threat and dealing damage was one way to keep the Demon Lord on his ass, constant insults and attempted ”attacks” using Pride also did wonders. In fact, it maybe worked a bit too well.

”HOW DARE YOU!?” the Demon Lord roared as he slammed his sword into the ground, exploding the area around him. Jake had already stepped down and teleported out of range, but the demon was relentless.

”How dare you ask if I dare!?” Jake yelled in response.

Several swift swings aimed to decapitate Jake as he dodged in between them, never allowing himself to be caught in any combo. His boosting skill was already active at the offensive 50%, as that also increased Agility, his most important stat at the moment.

”You!” the boss groaned as several magic circles appeared around him, the crown glowing as magic manifested. The casting had only taken a brief moment, and several flamethrowers were released in Jake’s direction in concert with the demon’s charge.

”Yes, you!”

Jake met the boss in his charge. A quick barrier of stable arcane mana was enough to slightly divert some flames, opening a path for Jake to dodge. As he slid under the legs of his opponent, he managed to wrap a string of arcane mana around it that he swiftly pulled on.

The demon was only slightly yanked before cutting the mana rope, but the action alone clearly annoyed him. Seemingly keeping his cool – as much as a Demon Lord on fire could – he shifted his stance slightly.

”For your insolence… death.”

for him. Still mid-dodge, the angle of the blade shifted, the direction changing in an attempt to bisect him. Using his katars, he managed to block and redirect the momentum to launch himself back. Yet just as he

physical impact as it hit his katars, but Jake instantly felt both weapons heat

consumed,

easy as I

to dodge, looking

longer going for massive damage but just catching out Jake. It was waiting for him to make a mistake

demon, it had chosen the worst opponent imaginable. Granted, the Demon Lord was a lot more powerful than Jake, and in a one versus one, he would have to fight far differently and take significant risks, but if all he had to do was buy time, this was easy enough. If things did

the poison he had infused into the Demon Lord had managed to stick. The internal fire energy had simply

land a few minor counterattacks. Not with the intent to do damage, mind you. He just

death is late? Still can’t find it. I guess the deliverer

what was happening elsewhere in the throne room, but he believed that his party

of course, knew that no one needed their house to be that hot and she also knew how rude it was to make it super

Guy super mad. But that was okay because Horny Red Guy was one of the

glowy thing, especially when it began burning him, but she had to follow the plan. Sylphie was the best at following plans, after all. Plans were good; Slashy Saint said that many times. Slashy Saint was

used his Smelly Pot to defeat

saved her own, but that was mainly because using her secret move made her very tired, and she didn’t want to nap right now. Not before she was done following the brilliant plan made up by Sylphie & Friends to kill the Tower Guy. Tower Guy wasn’t actually a tower, but Flower Lady also

knew she had to be careful. She tried her way as

Tower Guy was not nice. He used his fire stick to shoot stuff at Sylphie, and all of the other baddies also tried to stop her from flying around. They were not super fast

worked together, and one of them even healed her attacks, which was even more rude than the ones ruining her wind. She thought really hard, and without using her super secret skill, she decided to still

summoned another wind that was even more windy than her usual winds. She wanted these winds to be as windy as they possibly could. It got so windy that the baddies decided to try and stop Sylphie, not knowing that was dumb. They were

Sylphie out a bit, but she had to do it for her kinda super skill to work. Then, the wind – not her own super winds, the big wind that was everywhere – told her that her two winds were windy enough. That was good; that meant Sylphie

the super wind turn around.

[Sylphian Storm Convergence (Legendary)]

him up. It was difficult to accept, but he was the least durable member of their party, and the matchup of fire affinity and his own water was a bit of a double-edged sword. While his rain-based attacks were incredibly effective, he was also very susceptible to fire-based attacks, which is how he got into his current predicament of needing quite a lot of healing. The Demon Lord was simply too powerful for him to face alone due to the large sweeping attacks

reprieve, especially considering he had Dina help him. As he was healed and began to feel better, Miyamoto went on the offensive, targeting down the fire healer in the group of summoned demons. Dina assisted him by restricting two Guardians, allowing him to land several blows before he had to disengage due to the Tower Demon. The demon in question was capable of summoning fire beasts of some

they were meant to quickly finish the Tower Demon to go and assist the others. Miyamoto was especially worried about Jake, who had