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.”

going straight 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

he blocked as a small red beam was fired out. It had no physical impact as it hit his katars, but Jake instantly felt both weapons heat up to a ridiculous degree, burning

was momentarily bathed in a shadowy aura; the heat instantly consumed, and just in time, too, as he dodged

as easy as

bent his back to dodge, looking like

before, the demon no longer going for massive damage but just catching out Jake. It was waiting for him to

one versus one, he would have to fight far differently and take significant risks, but if all he had to do was buy time,

just happy with building up Hunting Momentum. His one annoyance was that none of the poison he had infused into the Demon Lord had managed to stick.

began to land a few minor counterattacks. Not with the intent to do

can’t find it. I guess the deliverer is just

in response, as Jake just grinned. He didn’t have time to look at what was happening elsewhere

their house to be that hot and she also knew

make the house less hot, even if it had made Horny Red Guy super mad. But that was okay because Horny Red Guy was one of the

follow the plan. Sylphie was the best at following plans, after

his Smelly Pot to defeat the baddies

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.

also had to fight the Tower Guy with four other baddies, so she knew she had to be careful. She tried her way as she ensured the baddies couldn’t go anywhere to help

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 like her, but they slowly began to ruin her wind, which was rude. In fact, Sylphie had deduced that all these

other baddies also 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 use one she didn’t like that much because it was super-duper hard to use. But at least the Tower Guy stood still,

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

got faster and faster, tiring 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 could do the Big

super wind turn around. Sylphie didn’t like the skill because it was so hard to use, but Big Wind Meet Go Big

[Sylphian Storm Convergence (Legendary)]

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

alongside it was a 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 sort and,

to quickly finish the Tower Demon to