The Primal Hunter

Thousands of lasers the width of a pencil spun around the room, cutting through it at intense speed and power. Every single person in Jake’s party summoned their best defenses or tried to dodge, as Sylphie turned her entire body into wind to resist most of the damage.

The Fallen King intensified the energy in his shield as best he could, and Dina jumped back as walls of roots continuously rose in front of her to try and block the attack, layer after layer getting burned through. On the side of the Sword Saint, he summoned several veils of water along with an odd painting that radiated intense energy. They all did their best to block or lessen the damage of the attack.

All except for one.

The moment before Minaga unleashed his attack, Jake rushed forward, stepping down as he teleported. Despite the shockwave slightly destabilizing space, he got more than halfway to the Unique Lifeform as the laser show began.

Because there was one place where the attack didn’t hit: right below itself. Right where Minaga stood.

Jake sprinted as the lasers arrived, more than a dozen beams sweeping in from the side. Despite this, Jake did not slow down in the slightest. Both katars appeared in his hands just as the first beam hit, but Jake was ready.

Using Eternal Hunger, he met the first beam of light with the edge as he reflected it off the weapon, the beam moving so fast he had to use the Blackpoint Blade as a bridge to make the beam flash past him. At the same time, Jake dove in between two beams and found every small spot he could fit through as he briefly met the eyes of Minaga, who just stared at him.

He kept staring as Jake dodged hundreds of beams within a second as he arrived in the safe zone right below the disco ball.

”That is some bullcrap right the-”

Jake kept going with his momentum as he slammed both katars into the chest of Minaga, who was still casting the spell. He penetrated halfway to the hilt with both weapons before the light show stopped, and his danger sense exploded as Jake jumped back, not even having the time to try and pull out his weapons.

A beam shot down right where he just stood as Jake pivoted around it, slamming a dark green glowing palm into the Unique Lifeforms side while the beam of light burned a hole dozens of meters into the ground. Minaga seemed to have had enough as the sound of the disco ball shattering sounded out, and thousands of razer-thin shards of glass descended upon Jake, forcing him to properly retreat.

Jumping back, he failed to fully dodge his own Blackpoint Blade that Minaga sent telekinetically flying after him, leaving a cut on Jake’s cheek. Eternal Hunger had already been recalled as Jake made his retreat.

Jake wasn’t even sure how prematurely he had interrupted the large spell, but he was sure as hell happy he had. Seeing as Minaga was not following up with more spells, Jake assumed he couldn’t, as he pulled out his bow and began pelting the Unique Lifeform as he checked in on his teammates.

Sylphie had managed to come out of it mostly unscathed, but she had consumed a lot of energy just from thousands of beams of light sweeping through her elemental form. Dina had also come out okay, though she too had consumed a lot of mana, repeatedly summoning her root walls, with Bobo only barely managing to block what did get through. She did get a nasty cut right above one of her eyes, though, but she was quickly healing it.

The Sword Saint was surprisingly unscathed as he stood behind a large painting. The painting itself had been utterly burned to a crisp with a few holes in it, and the Sword Saint did look like losing that particular painting was not a pleasant experience. From the telepathic mark, he also made it clear that was a limited useability skill with quite a high energy consumption.

Finally was the Fallen King, who – to put it nicely – looked like shit. The constant barrage of lasers had managed to get through his barrier, leaving hundreds of burn marks crisscrossing his entire body. The only untouched parts were the mask and the ivory hands and feet that were too naturally tough to be affected.

a move to at least get some revenge. Golden energy gathered in both of his hands as he unleashed a large golden beam full with energies

few seconds resulted in Minaga getting

toward the back of the room. Jake managed to dodge both of these as he navigated a stable arrow around

A spike of metal flew out from Minaga, piercing him in the chest and blasting him back until he hit a wall. Said wall then began to fold as if

now, they had begun to get a far better read on Minaga’s abilities as well as his overreliance on hand motions to cast. They found more and more small openings as the wounds on Minaga accumulated a bit at a time, with whatever damage

landed a solid Powershot a few minutes later, making Minaga reel back with a bloody chest, he suddenly stopped mid-movement as he grinned. His body

hit seventy percent health! Do you all know what that means?

heard this and wanted to shoot another arrow at Minaga, but he suddenly felt space around him warp as

walk out of the original as the orb above him exploded,

himself transported to another arena, standing alone in front of a

have successfully split you up, and on your lonesome, you shall face this clone holding an undefined percentage of my true power! Only after you have defeated it can you enter the arenas of your party members and assist them in killing their respective clones. After you have slain all of the clones, you may return to

It was a lot weaker but not weak by any means. What’s more, if they were all facing their own versions… Jake wasn’t sure how all the others would do, especially Dina, who had to consume a lot

Minaga said,

of delaying. Mid-charge, his speed increased as Arcane Awakening activated at the offensive 50%. His reason for entering melee rather than staying at range was

was better at was

to the side and, with another jump, continued his charge. With a swipe of the other staff, a barricade of rock

all as he stepped down one final time, teleporting to appear right in front of the Unique Lifeform. A staff flew down towards his head, but Jake had already slipped by it and landed a solid jab at

them away before he managed to land another cut. Minaga retaliated fast as he unleashed an explosion of fire, making Jake jump back. Mid-jump, he pulled out his bow and fired a single arrow in an instant, taking the Unique Lifeform by surprise

successfully interrupted Minaga by stabbing his arm, continuing his relentless assault. Jake had no plans of letting up as he continued his all-out aggression to never allow Minaga to cast a major spell, assuming he could even do the major casts in this split form. This required him to make some sacrifices as his Scales of the Malefic Viper had to handle quite

to get some distance. Jake

Momentarily.

avoid a large spike of lava as he once

had time on his side as the poison was slowly accumulating within Minaga, but he was also on a tight timeline. He had a nagging feeling that he was on a timer… as for if this timer was due to his party members being in danger or some unknown factor,

best course of action would

other party members also faced their respective clones. Sylphie’s room was a glorious battle of two domains of magic fighting one another as a bird and Unique

mindset. In the end, they were both Unique Lifeforms. A natural compulsion to compete was ingrained within both of them, even if Minaga was by all rights far more powerful, both in this form of himself within the

ever get to kin, and this left them with a need to prove themselves superior. It was the same as with the Ashen Devourer. As such, their fight was

the Golden Mark, and it was instantly approved. Rather than fight Minaga, she went entirely on the defensive, not even trying to attack unless it was to interrupt something she found too dangerous to block, avoid,

left Jake’s final party member…

as he prepared himself. The Unique Lifeform stood in front of him, seemingly just waiting for his