The Primal Hunter

”Valdemar is a fucking monster in human form, plain and simple,” Artemis said in between her bites of food. ” Mind you, I am not saying that he is the Grand Champion, but if that is the case, you have quite the battle ahead of you, and, well… be happy you have multiple lives.”

Jake nodded, fully knowing that was the case as he chilled in the healing pool a bit away. ”Say, if you fought this theoretical Grand Champion version of Valdemar… how would you rate your chances?”

”Well, if we fought a hundred times…” Artemis said, pausing for dramatic effect. ”I would probably be able to not die within a minute in at least some of them.”

”That strong?” Jake muttered to himself.

”I just told you he is a fucking monster. Valdemar is a being no one dares mess with in the entire multiverse. Other Primordials steer clear for the most part, and no faction wants to risk pissing him off. You must understand that even among those deemed his equals, he stands out. Most Primordials are diverse fighters. They have other essential pursuits. Their Paths include nurturing their factions, crafting, alchemy, research into magical concepts, dungeon engineering, or even making freaking pocket watches… but Valdemar only does a bit of casual brewing. He is the only Primordial that is just a pure warrior, through and through,” Artemis explained.

Jake remembered having gotten a similar explanation from Villy at some point, but Artemis just hammered it home. He remembered the thoughts he had of Valdemar that had made Carmen kind of angry… but they still rang true.

”He is really just a guy with an axe,” Jake said, mostly to himself.

”Calling a Primordial just ”a guy with an axe” doesn’t sound like something even the Chosen of another Primordial should do,” Artemis said as she threw Jake a sharp gaze as she had stopped eating.

”Doesn’t make it any less true,” Jake shrugged as he looked at Artemis. ”Nothing’s wrong with being simple. Simplicity is good. There is power in removing all complications and just having the core of a concept left.”

”Your phrasing still sounded borderline heretical,” Artemis said, with a slight tinge of concern in her voice.

”Only borderline?” Jake smirked. ”Isn’t it downright heretical to have a Challenge Dungeon where the objective is to beat up gods as a mortal?”

”That is different. All images are here with consent from the one who placed them here, with the express intent of having them used as opponents. And despite being a god on the outside, I am not a god in here. If I were a god, you wouldn’t be able to even talk to me like this or stand straight in my presence, something I am sure you are quite aware of. No, the only reason you can even have this conversation and treat me as an equal being is because we are both made to be level 0,” Artemis sighed. ”That’s just how the multiverse works.”

Jake smiled a bit to himself. Yeah… that was how it worked for everyone besides him. ”Eh, it’s how it works until someone comes along where it doesn’t work like that anymore. There is a first for everything, right?”

Artemis looked at him suspiciously for a moment as she smiled. ”I kind of hope that’s the case so you don’t become a disappointing mess when my true self inevitably seeks you out. I would find that very unappealing.”

”Time will tell, time will tell,” Jake waved her off. ”For now… this simple hunter has to focus on preparing to fight a simple warrior.”

Jake made sure he was fully ready to face Valdemar before he sought out the Battlemaster. He created his regular arrows, made his special arrow, and recovered his resources. There really wasn’t more than that he could do, seeing as gathering information was not really a thing.

Not due to a lack of information, mind you.

He had met up with Polly and Owen, who were now definitely officially dating, as they went out and celebrated him reaching the Grand Champion rank. Artemis had come along too and found it amusing how Jake interacted with the dungeon-created characters, but he hadn’t paid that any mind.

Polly had agreed to help gather some more information and, after a few days, had returned with a lot of eyewitness accounts, written records, and plenty of other snippets of information. What didn’t exist was recordings, though Jake had a suspicion that recordings wouldn’t help much going by the other intel.

rather than teach him about Valdemar’s fighting style, everything he gathered was just hyping Valdemar up as a true final boss who was seemingly borderline unbeatable.

Jake finally entered the Colosseum, the Battlemaster was back in his usual spot, wearing the same clothes and without a single mark

well, huh?”

had worse,” he waved him off. ”It was an enjoyable fight, though I doubt I will enter the arena again… it

have a fighting

already guess why you are here. To issue your challenge to

on,” Jake nodded. ”How does it

the procedures for challenging the Grand Champion but just said he could do it now. He really hoped he wouldn’t be told there were several months of

later. No ifs or buts from either party. A Grand Champion match is simply so monumental that the Colosseum needs this time to hype up the

to strain himself to not call out the horrible excuse for the set schedule. Oh, they needed time to sell tickets? Utter

would like to issue the challenge here

a few seconds passed before he spoke. ”It has been

Any tips

a sigh. ”So I only really have one piece of advice… know when to surrender. Even if

to spend, after all. Of course, he really hoped he wouldn’t have to use all of them… but doing it on the first try did seem like a

forest close to Artemis’ mansion for some more archery practice with a literal hunter goddess

promotions, a small festival of sorts was held in the center square, and s of ”The Doombringer vs.

in the Colosseum, standing before the large hallway leading into

If you

that Warrior what you

careful approach and feel him out before you try to commit to

to die,” the Battlemaster just shrugged… which wasn’t much better than Artemis, who had told him to try to

do my best,” Jake smiled as the timer reached zero, and it was time for him to go. The tunnel felt longer than usual for some reason as

during Path of the Heretic-Chosen flashed in his mind. The absolute power of

audience as the large arena soon appeared before his eyes. It was the same as usual, with the large stone pillars spread throughout

where the other

he hasn’t shown

arena! Today, two titans clash before our eyes as Grand Champions meet. Two absolute pinnacles of mortal existence, fighting it out till there is only one man standing. One, a Warrior who has never lost a fight, and the other, a man who has brought doom to anyone unlucky enough to face him during his rapid ascend through the ranks. A true Doombringer… who today shall meet someone who does not know doom. Who will come out on top? Who will be the ultimate Grand Champion?

confused as he nevertheless pulled out his bow and walked forward as the bars also lowered on the other end of the arena to show the empty entrance. He walked a few steps

was the bearded man he recognized immediately from the vision with the Malefic Viper,

on his arms. He only had a single weapon in the

throughout the multiverse were known as beings built solely for combat. Their evolutions had only taken them further and

explosive power. Jake knew that the human body had some innate limitations…

Valdemar stared back at him as he spoke, not

looks of it, you are even one of the younglings trying for the Leaderboards, eh?” Valdemar said with a big smile as he looked at Jake.