The Primal Hunter

The Warmaster, still on the ground, raised one of his swords toward Jake as it began to shine with mana. Jake temporarily abandoned his attack and dodged to the side as the entire blade was shot out like an arrow, as the man kept holding onto the hilt.

Jake thought he would have a chance to attack, but the Warmaster twisted his wrist as Jake’s danger sense warned him and made him duck right as a whip-like blade flew in from behind. The blade he had shot out had segmented itself into several sharp metal pieces with strings holding them together, and with a mere movement of his wrists, he had made it twist and whip around.

After dodging a few more slashes, the Warmaster pressed a button on the hilt of his sword, and the entire blade was dragged back and reformed the whole sword. Jake, who had been forced to make some distance, stared for a while as he spoke.

”Not gonna lie… I always thought those segmented snake swords or whatever they are called were hugely impractical and not useful weapons,” Jake said as the Warmaster had managed to fully stand up.

”Oh, but they are a questionable weapon, and as a general rule, I would not recommend them,” the Warmaster smiled. ”At least in any prolonged combat. However, they do tend to be useful for surprise attacks. The thing is that the skill required to control one is so high that it is rarely worth the practice. Of course, there are masters out there who still made it their primary weapon, none of which are to be underestimated.”

”And yet, despite it apparently being so hard, you, a blacksmith, have chosen to learn the weapon?” Jake questioned.

”The best smith is one who truly knows the weapons he makes,” the Warmaster nodded. ”In my eyes, to be a Weapon’s Master Blacksmith is to be a Warmaster.”

Jake smiled. It was a good philosophy in his eyes and one he knew many similar to the Warmaster shared. However, it often came about the other way around. That an archer would become a fletcher to make their own bows, a mage learning to craft magic tools to assist them in combat… or a hunter would become an alchemist to poison his arrows and help him recover during fights. Okay, Jake was a horrible example as his becoming an alchemist wasn’t planned but had happened entirely by happenstance, and he just made the best out of what he got.

”Then, by all means, show me the weapons you have mastered,” Jake said semi-jokingly as he pulled out his bow again.

The Warmaster didn’t hesitate as he charged forward once more, trying to close the distance and not fight Jake in a ranged battle. His speed was still impressive when he charged, but Jake had found quite a weakness as he did a wide dodge to the side as the man charged past him.

He took a while to stop as he skit across the sand, failing to block an arrow Jake had shot right as he dodged. Trying his charge again, the result for the Warmaster turned out identical as Jake once more made distance, taking advantage of how the charge of the Warmaster worked.

Jake had identified it as coming from his boots and had at first believed it just made him faster. This turned out to not be entirely accurate. Instead, it was a charge-like skill that propelled him straight forward at an impressive speed, which naturally resulted in significantly reduced maneuverability, making it much easier to dodge than Jake had first assumed.

After Jake had dodged two times in a row, the Warmaster also seemed to realize the jig was up as he switched approach. Rather than use the enchantment, he ran normally and chased the faster Jake around the arena for a few moments, Jake landing several shots on the man, though he sadly was still unable to explode the arrows due to the peculiar armor. The Warmaster continued until Jake suddenly stopped running as he noticed what the man was doing.

As he ran, the Warmaster slowly set up a net with a thin wire barely visible even with Jake’s high Perception. He strung it up between the pillars, limiting the space Jake could dodge inside unless he found time to destroy the wire.

Something Jake chose to promptly attempt as he purposefully missed an arrow right as he stopped, aimed toward one of the wires. Yet right as he did, the Warmaster seemed to slightly relax how taut it was, making it slack just enough for the arrow to miss.

He didn’t stop his charge either as he closed in on Jake, still wielding his two swords. Getting close enough, he swung with both as they split into segments and fell like whips. Jake dodged as best he could, but the movements of the odd snake swords were just too unpredictable, resulting in a few cuts landing here and there.

Jake instantly put away his bow once more and charged toward the Warmaster, who was also still going toward Jake. He had done so with the expectations of taking advantage of the snake swords effectively being whips, but the Warmaster had been prepared as he simply let go of both weapons as two machetes appeared in his hands.

Warmaster. The man tried to fight back, but with time, one thing had been obvious… Jake out-specced the Warmaster in Agility by quite a bit, while they were roughly equal

He also had to drop the

him through his sphere. Jake kept acting as if he didn’t know as the Warmaster positioned his remaining machete between Jake and the

Magnetism, Jake quickly concluded.

flew for him from behind, but Jake abandoned his attack mid-way through and dodged to

fragments of metal flying everywhere. Jake summoned a barrier of stable

work,” the Warmaster muttered as he

had them for a few moments as both began to burn right as he threw them, forcing Jake to turn his body and place the barrier in front of the

and left him with a few burns, but those two hatchets had not been as potent

back down as he closed the distance with two longswords now in hand. Jake took a moment to fully stabilize as he dodged the longsword swings and backed away a few steps. Right as he did, one

blocked with his bracers as he was still left with a nasty cut and skirted back as he quickly swayed to the side a moment too late. The spear in the Warmaster’s hand had instantly been dropped and replaced with something else the moment he had finished his thrust. What had appeared instead was a cursed object that Jake felt truly disappointed in seeing in the hands of someone who dared call

a

had been a good move from the Warmaster to use it, the weapon doing the exact job it was made to? Yeah, sure, but it was the

just really didn’t

groan, Jake pulled out the bolt as the Warmaster didn’t miss a beat and went in again, the dropped longsword replaced with a shortsword.

defensive, as he was done playing around after the insult of being hit by a crossbow bolt. He dodged the first swing as he stabbed forward, and after finding himself parried once, he

small shockwaves of destructive arcane energy with each blow. These shockwaves didn’t really do any damage, but they did mean that the usual impact the Warmaster expected from every clash had changed, throwing off his

could get it free from the katar, Jake twisted the weapon and forcefully moved his arm away

longsword from earlier. Opening his eyes wide, Jake was thrown entirely off

along the length of the blade as he went nearly entirely prone. The weapon

and stabbed into the knee of the Warmaster right as the man summoned

and the Warmaster down on one knee as he cradled his arm that looked halfway cut through. Jake didn’t want to assume anything and pulled

looked at Jake. ”To use my own wire against me like that… heh, I guess I really am

as he went over and offered the Warmaster – or Battlemaster – a hand. ”Eh, I wouldn’t say that. You are

to his own weapon… what an ironic end,” the Battlemaster

a Grand Champion! The Gauntlet of the Grand Champion has been completed once more as seven Champions have fallen before the Doombringer as he now stands at the apex of the arena of Mortals, a true master! Glory and honor await… unless he still finds himself unsated. Unless he wants to face

this speech as he was taken aback by the

stand as the medics began running in. ”Seems like a pretty damn basic title for a Grand

that symbolizes him perfectly,” the Battlemaster said while the medics checked he wasn’t going to die before simply standing back, waiting for Jake to

see for myself,” Jake smiled. ”You’re gonna be fine,

Battlemaster scoffed and pushed Jake’s hand off as he stood pretty stably. ”I didn’t surrender because I was on my deathbed but due to that large arrow of yours. I knew I didn’t have the tools to handle that one, which is also why I kept up the offensive to

pretty fair,” Jake said. ”I guess