The Primal Hunter

”Are you sure about this, Jake?” Owen asked with genuine worry as they walked back to the Colosseum the next day. ”You should at least go to the crafters before the match… maybe you see something you like and decide to buy it, right?”

”It’ll be fine,” Jake waved him off. ”I will go check out the crafters after.”

”But… if you lose the match, you risk getting demoted and will have a harder time rising to higher ranks. That is assuming you don’t die or lose a limb,” Owen tried to convince him. ”You mentioned that you wanted better equipment at some point, so why wait?”

”Let me ask you this, Owen,” Jake said. ”That spear of yours, will you keep using that even when you become a Gladiator? Assuming you become a Gladiator, that is. Which you really should be able to, considering… you know.”

”Probably not?” Owen admitted, totally ignoring that last part of what Jake said.

”So at that point, when you buy a new weapon, the spear would just be a bunch of wasted points as you can only sell stuff back for half of what you paid,” Jake pointed out very accurately. ”Meanwhile, if I don’t buy anything, I don’t waste anything.”

His logic was truly flawless. Extremely risky but flawless, nevertheless.

”Okay, okay, I’ll trust you, geez,” Owen shook his head. ”Have you considered, at the very least, allowing Polly to obtain information on your opponents? Even if you don’t want to spend Colosseum Points on proper information packets, there is still a lot to discover.”

”Maybe later, but not now,” Jake said with a smile. ”But I will say that today’s match will be different than the one yesterday. I have something new to show off.”

”Oh, like that weird mental trick you use to make people tense up?” Owen asked with interest.

”Not quite, not quite. I believe it will be a bit more… destructive than that,” Jake teased.

”I look forward to seeing it, then,” Owen smiled, clearly intrigued but not prying.

”Destructive…” Polly, who had remained silent so far, muttered. ”You haven’t used any magic so far, but… do you know a bit? I heard that some spellblades combine the two…”

”Perhaps,” Jake kept teasing. ”All shall be revealed during the fight. Well, some shall be revealed during the fight. Revealing everything at once is boring.”

After that, Jake signed up for the fight and sat down to wait for it to start. He ignored any information he could have gathered and faced the entire challenge raw.

He meditated a bit before the fight as he mentally ran through his plan for the fight, as small sparks of energy circled through his body, confirming all the pathways in his physical body and Soulshape. Soon enough, he was called for his debut match as a Gladiator, and with not a single trace of worry, he walked into the long tunnel toward a far bigger arena than the one he usually fought in.

This one would be nearly a hundred meters in diameter, with a few pillars and such placed throughout to not give magicians and ranged fighters too big of an advantage while also spicing up the battlefield and opening up new strategies. They would maybe be an annoyance to him in the future, but not today.

Walking up the first flight of stairs, it became clear the layout of how to enter the arena had also changed slightly. From there being two gates, there was now only one large mesh of bars blocking the entrance, allowing each fighter to see the arena and each other before the fight began.

Jake’s first opponent as a Gladiator definitely lived up to the name, just going by looks. His opponent stood nearly two and a half meters tall, really cheating in the weight-class department. He wore a big spiked helmet, ringmail pants, bracers, leather gloves, and heavy metal boots. Most of his arms were left bare, and his chest was entirely exposed, showing off what looked like a… ten-pack? He was definitely ripped. Needed to be, too, with the giant axe he carried.

His size was naturally impossible for a normal human, but Identify informed Jake of what he was right away.

[Half-Ogre]

– or if it was just the system or Wyrmgod that messed with the rules a bit. It was entirely possible that they were born at F-grade… Jake hadn’t really met many ogres. Considering this made Jake wonder about the logistics when an ogre and human

take on an up-and-coming Gladiator that only yesterday reached his rank! A figure I am sure many of you are excited to see in the big arena… that’s right, it’s the master of kicks, a martial savant,

than ten thousand people cheered loudly, Jake using a single Pulse to see that Owen and Polly were also both in the crowd. He had no idea where the hell all these people came from, as while

on the Crushing Edge. He has earned that name for a reason. Standing as one of the tallest fighters the Colosseum has ever seen, with muscles able to crush bones, he

Jake really needed on his opponent as he had a good idea of

or the Crushing

commanded, the horizontal mesh of bars first disappeared before the vertical ones lowered into the ground. Right when there

Jake placed the bow on the ground

began running. While running, a shiver of energy went down his right leg. Stamina tinged with his arcane affinity infused every vein, every muscle. If one could see beneath his pants, one would see faint veins of pink-purple covering

easy, even with his reduced stats. In fact, it was far easier now than before, as there wasn’t as much to control, while his pure level of skill in controlling

the sensations of increased control, and even if he didn’t have skills, Jake rarely ever used

stamina and wrapping his foot in a faint shimmer of protective

other as the crowd went even wilder than before. The half-ogre roared as

running at full speed, jumped into the air as he spun his body around. A trail of arcane energy

A small localized explosion of arcane energy rocked the arena as metal spikes from the helmet flew everywhere. The giant half-ogre was sent airborne and

landed on the soft arena floor, feeling the sand between his toes on his right foot. The leather boots were shredded to pieces

Jake noted as he checked and saw that the half-ogre was still alive, though, without healing,

before Jake turned around and began walking toward the exit. As he moved, the arena came back

that!? What power does the kick of the Doomfoot truly hold? Has he been hiding his power all this time? Suddenly had an epiphany?

but at least he wouldn’t face questions from others. Not like

bow on the way, Jake walked straight to the Battlemaster, who somehow seemed to be aware of everything that had happened in the arena despite not having moved a

the Gladiator training area as he waited for Polly and Owen, who predictably came over right away. After stalling for a bit, Jake

magic… what was it?” Polly asked with wide eyes. ”I… I’ve felt powerful

answered. ”Asking me about it will not help. It is innate to me, and even if you trained from now till the day you die, you wouldn’t ever be able to learn

expected. Also, he really wanted to point out the hypocrisy of that question but assumed the guy had his reasons. Same as Jake

it have helped if I revealed it earlier outside of making the fights even more boring? It would also have been too much and risked killing several of my prior opponents. Unless my

wider eyes. ”I… I would

level of challenge increases, so shall

you this powerful?” Polly questioned.

I won’t answer. Anyone that may or may not have had an impact on my Path is not anywhere near here and will not show up in or around the Colosseum, so no reason to even think

and not something that could be replicated. The truth

made it far more powerful than it had any right to be. It wasn’t as simple as an Arcane Awakening-level powerup… it went far above

would unleash it all into one wave of pure destructive force through his foot. In prior fights, Jake hadn’t

wasn’t even close to Jake’s limits. If he wanted to, he could pour every single shred of mana he had into one

wouldn’t even be a