The Primal Hunter

Jake could admit when he was wrong. Sometimes, at least. This was one of those times.

Witches aren’t fun to fight.

Dark tendrils lined the walls, all of them semi-ethereal as they sought not to physically attack people but leave them with some odd dark affliction that wasn’t a curse but seemed a lot like a curse. This particular affliction did damage and fucked with your senses, throwing them for a loop. Jake could definitely feel the roots of the magic in the dark affinity, but outside of that, he had no idea what he was dealing with.

“Hexes, try to avoid them. They are difficult to dispel,” Dina warned after Sylphie was hit and proceeded to smash into a wall as she became unable to tell up from down.

Okay, so they were dealing with hexes. Great.

Jake tried to claim the upper hand right off the bat when the fight had begun and activated Arcane Awakening at the stable 30%. The Sword Saint and Fallen King had also joined him – with Sylphie trying but getting hit by another few tendrils.

The first barrage of arrows released from Jake got blocked by a black disc of pure energy that popped into existence not close to the witch, but only five or so meters in front of Jake, making him nearly blow himself up if he hadn’t reacted fast enough to make all the arrows stable.

It wasn’t like the old man or Fallen King did much better. Rainclouds began to condense all around the room, but dark magic instantly influenced them, and the rainclouds became clouds of black smoke that flew toward the swordsman and encircled him.

Out of all of them, the Fallen King did have the greatest success as he released a golden wave of force that the Dark Witch seemingly couldn’t do much to influence. Yet the moment it was about to strike, the witch seemed to just disappear into nothingness, leaving nothing more than a pile of black smudge behind that absorbed the Fallen King’s golden wave.

Within the first ten seconds, it was established this fight would be annoying, and in the following minute, it was made extremely clear it would be very annoying. They were caught within the domain of a witch, one she had spent more than a century in. And it showed as their party found themselves bombarded by magic from all sides. Magic of varying kinds, from simple black bolts to odd hexes that did nothing but try and mess with you in some way. The Sword Saint even ended up getting hit by one that just made everything smell like absolute shit.

However, it wasn’t all bad.

“She is running out of energy or at least spells,” Dina said through their Golden Mark. “Look, the runes on the wall are fading with every second.”

“And her mind clearly isn’t all there,” the Sword Saint added.

Jake had to agree. The spellcasting was complicated due to its inherent nature, and yet it felt sloppy and clearly not performed by someone with a plan. Usually, the most annoying opponent was someone who could string attacks together and claim momentum. This Dark Witch just threw everything and the kitchen sink at them, hoping something would hit them in the head. What was kind of weird was how her focus obviously shifted from Jake, Sylphie, and the Fallen King throughout the fight, instead focusing nearly all of her offensive magic on the Sword Saint and Dina.

This did confuse them initially until Jake realized why.

“You two are the only ones affected by the Karmic Plague.”

Sylphie and the Fallen King were considered monsters and thus immune, while Jake had Palate of the Malefic Viper, which he had already used to remove any semblance of the plague from his body.

“Great, good to know,” the Sword Saint grumbled as he found himself surrounded by odd eye-shaped objects that didn’t look like they were doing anything except just staring at him menacingly.

The old man sent out an omnidirectional cut, making everything warp around him as he pushed away the eyes, only to find several of them appearing again, this time covering his sword and robe, freaking him out a little. Dina cast some spell on him that made the eyes instantly disappear, but this only seemed to pull the attention on her.

Sylphie and the Fallen King tried to do something to the Dark Witch, but she was seemingly impossible to lock down. To make matters worse, the dark aura in the room wasn’t just there to limit visibility and enhance her own magic. Jake had activated Arcane Awakening at 30%, yet he felt himself dropping in power ever-so-slowly, down to a level where it felt like the boost was only at 20% now.

they themselves were depleted. The best way to deplete her seemed to be attacking repeatedly, but none of

try to land a hit,” Jake said right after the Sword Saint shot out a beam of water, the Dark

had the Mark. It wasn’t gone, though… just scattered. He nocked an arrow and drew the string as he held back on doing anything as he allowed Dina to protect him while waiting for her to appear. Not that she had to do

he felt the energy from the Hunter’s Mark begin to gather. Without any hesitation, he turned and shot a hastily charged Arcane Powershot toward where she was about to pop into existence. While the arrow

frozen for a moment, allowing the extremely fast arrow to strike her, and she only managed to turn herself into a sludge again halfway through the following

his sense of touch and balance. Everything felt

energy gather close to him, but before they could even fully appear, the dark aura clinging to Jake’s form was dispelled

he assumed was some kind of hex through the power of pure Perception. Jake’s feeling of indignance for her daring to attack

seek, Jake was gonna

seconds later, Sylphie slammed into her after following Jake’s direction, with a massive golden beam hitting her at the next place of appearance. With every strike, the Dark Witch didn’t seem to

and weirder magic began to appear. At one point, Dina even had to struggle as Bobo accidentally shot a thorn into her stomach; his senses somehow switched around, making him

old man had it even worse, as he didn’t have a Bobo to defend him, forcing the Fallen King to step in a few times to avoid the swordsman taking a dangerous blow. His

battle of perseverance continued, and Jake soon knew that holding back was not an option. Arcane Awakening activated at the offensive 50%, with his other party

doing one more thing:

wanted to make a poison aimed to do just that. The internal layer would be with the usual concepts, even if his knowledge about the Dark Witch was pretty much non-existent. When it came to the second layer, Jake would lace it with quite

a bit of time, and his Protean Arrow should be

got it,” the Fallen

as the outline of a crown appeared floating above him. In the very next moment, the crown shattered, sending

Witch had just reappeared as the golden aura washed over her. The hood covering her hunched-over form was blown

where…” the voice of the Dark Witch echoed throughout the hall as Jake threw

had to take

glowing, and the dark aura making them all lose power was gone. Jake’s danger sense also

know you could do that,” Dina said, sounding pretty exhausted from having dealt with the attacks from

it not only natural I would

Jake was code for the Fallen King not actually knowing he could do it either. He had just suddenly figured out a potential solution halfway through the fight

still grumbling about not being allowed to use his super cool new arrow, they got

Objective Completed: Dark Witch

Nevermore Points. The number felt both too small and too big. They had fought a level 300, true, but it wasn’t a true level 300 witch. It was more like they had fought the mostly passive defensive spells cast upon this domain before she

the

When I felt the Karmic Plague

where the witch was standing. She patiently waited as she cast some kind of magic on herself. Her body warped slightly as her crooked back straightened, and she stood up

the fight either… yeah, definitely not gonna try and fight a witch dozens of levels above myself within her domain again, Jake told

carefully as they floated down, her eyes especially on the Fallen King and

Lifeform. From your aura, I suspect it was you who managed to awaken me from my stupor?”

full of smugness. At least Jake interpreted it

I must thank you,” she said, bowing toward the Unique Lifeform before turning

shouldn’t be. The lady had spent a long-ass