The Primal Hunter

Everything had honestly worked out as Jake had planned. He had slowly weakened the Necromancer with several arrows and limited his mobility enough for him to confidently land a blow that, by all accounts, should have been lethal. There was nothing wrong with anything he had done… the problem was the opponent he had done it to.

From an outsider’s perspective, the fight definitely looked over. Jake was poisoned and had a nasty hole in his shoulder, but was otherwise able to keep fighting, while the Necromancer had a hole that allowed Jake to look straight through his body and out the other side. Yet Jake was the one who found himself pressured as he bombarded the Necromancer with several more arrows, trying to somehow make his opponent fall over.

One of the arrows hit the open hole in the Necromancer and curved upwards as it penetrated his body and exploded. More blood and flesh were sent flying, but it didn’t seem to affect the man much, and Jake soon noticed the main problem.

He apparently didn’t need his flesh and muscles for shit. Every shred of power was embedded within his skeleton, and as long as that remained, he would be able to move around. These bones would naturally be far more difficult to break than flesh, and just a few arcane explosions would not get the job done.

What’s more, the miasma was spreading far, far faster than before. Every drop of blood the Risen had spilled evaporated and turned into even more miasma, filling the arena way more quickly than Jake was comfortable with. He knew something had to change, so he tried all he could.

He isn’t healing… so it should be possible to make him unable to continue fighting? Jake theorized.

The Necromancer’s steps were still heavy and slow due to his heavily injured legs. However, Jake had an issue if he wanted to end the fight quick… he was down to five arrows. Moreover, with his shoulder badly injured and poison spreading out from it, Jake couldn’t shoot powerful arrows anymore, and quasi-Powershots were not an option.

With his remaining arrows, Jake tried to make the Necromancer entirely incapacitated. His knees were already in horrible condition, and Jake wanted to at least take a leg off. If he did that, then he should be able to close in safely and somehow finish the Necromancer off with his katars.

Was it a good plan? No, but it was everything he could come up with immediately, and quite frankly, he didn’t have the time to think up anything more elaborate as the miasma was growing in intensity and density. Despite how much he tried, he couldn’t fully eliminate the toxins in his body either, as he was repeatedly forced to breathe in miasmic fumes.

Using his still far superior speed, Jake got around the Necromancer and, through much struggle, managed to land an arrow on the knee of the Risen. Sadly, his second shot was blocked by a hammer, and even when Jake tried to shoot from an awkward angle, the Necromancer also blocked the third.

With only two arrows remaining, Jake gave it his all. Despite his growing headache, he unleashed a Fear Gaze and, due to that, landed a second arrow in the same knee as the first. The Necromancer was brought to his knee, and right as he wanted to remove it, Jake landed the final one as he rapidly closed in.

Mentally, he commanded the arrows to explode. The resulting explosion heavily damaged the kneecap and left an opening for Jake. Using his bow, he swung it down with one of the sharp ends straight into the knee and, using it almost as a crowbar, tore the entire leg of the Necromancer off.

The strain snapped the sharp tip of the bow, but Jake didn’t have time to even consider it as he had to dodge a swing from the hammer of the now one-legged Necromancer, who was mid-fall.

Jake stumbled back as he coughed up more blood, getting a bit of distance to try and stabilize himself. That is when he realized he had made another mistake.

His opponent pushed himself to stand using his hammer as an odd ethereal chain appeared in his other hand. His movements were oddly calm as he swung it down and wrapped it around the leg that Jake had just severed as he let go of the chain. Before Jake could even react, the falling chain moved by itself in mid-air and wrapped around the thigh of the Necromancer as it yanked the leg and reattached it.

forward. It was obvious that the leg was stiff as hell, and he seemed unable to bend the knee more than a few degrees…

Fuck me, Jake cursed.

Running forward with all the strength he had, he had a katar in one hand and his bow in the other. Still being faster, he dodged the first hammer swing as he jammed the bow into the leg with chains keeping it in place. The bow penetrated through the already broken

hammer. He penetrated through the seams and was bombarded with miasma from the

Necromancer punched him hard in the chest. Groaning, Jake still refused to back down as he stabbed the Risen once more, and

finally saw it. Using his katars, Jake redirected the hammer into the sand, and as it smashed into it, Jake used the momentum to slide one of his katars up the handle of the hammer. A trail of arcane energy was left behind as Jake swept his weapon upward, four fingers flying up with it. With a swift, arcane-empowered kick, Jake followed up and made the Necromancer stumble back, his hammer

He was on a tight timer, and even

to

Necromancer’s armor. His opponent struggled as he tried to land attacks, but Jake did all he could to not take more damage than

state. In a crucial moment, a coughing fit overtook him, making Jake slightly too slow, dodging as a hand wrapped around his forearm and pulled

and squeezed him against his body. His sense of danger was going haywire, and he tried the only thing he could think of. Jake barely managed to get his arms free as he stabbed both katars into the Risen’s neck. His opponent barely reacted as Jake roared, and he tore his arms apart with as much power as he

helmet with a single antler on it flew into the air as blood splurted all over Jake. It landed with a heavy thud on the sand… but

blood covering his body from the severed head began to evaporate as the miasma formed all around him. Jake struggled with every shred of strength he had, even making his body explode with arcane energy to try and get free, but he found his pathways

miasma closed in. Jake kept trying to get free as his body weakened… his resources emptied, and his internal organs began to decompose. His vision went dark as time seemed to slow down, and he pulled on the final thing he had. A deep thumping sound echoed a single time, but instantly, Jake stopped it as he got an odd sense of wrongness… a second later, a message echoed in

You have died.

reach its conclusion. Jake’s strategy had been all fine and good, assuming he faced a normal

man that not even Primordials had any confidence in killing. Not necessarily because he

really wasn’t any shame in it, was there? If one did have to lose a life during the Challenge Dungeon, doing so to the Transcendent

Holy Church and had, throughout the eras, slain

He was a fearsome being that the Blightfather sent to any conflict he wanted to ensure victory in, striking fear

Jake had picked the first opponent to kill him pretty

was an

own Chosen… how shameless,” Minaga muttered,

the slightest sense of shame from betting on Jake dying. ”In the presence of your great friend and

of course, he wouldn’t as he practically threw the Viper an ingot of metal that Vilastromoz gladly accepted. He

again, the Viper would put

very next moment as a system menu popped

Three Resurrection Points Available:

the challenge to the