The Primal Hunter

Three minutes and fourteen seconds.

That’s how long Jake lasted in the first fight against Valdemar before he found his skull crushed. Not even by an axe either, but from a fist smashing his head into the sand so hard his face caved in. Three minutes and change didn’t seem like a long time, but when he mentioned it to Artemis, she had been damn impressed he had even survived that long.

At the beginning of their fight, Jake had held on well. He had kited Valdemar around, avoided his blows as best he could and tried to get a read on the man. He tried to read his tempo, his tendencies, and his habits as Jake looked for any minor flaws or openings to exploit.

Jake found many flaws and openings… too many, in fact. Valdemar was left wide open whenever he attacked, and he barely seemed to protect his vital areas while fighting. Most of Jake’s attacks, he just ignored, while he only bothered to block those that either took little effort or could actually prove dangerous. Valdemar did make sure to avoid any attacks to the face and neck, but hitting anywhere else didn’t seem to bother him much.

In total, Jake landed eleven arrows during the fight. He could have landed more, but he wasn’t fighting to win or even deal damage but to learn from his opponent. He had battled to figure out how he could drag out the fights and not just die immediately… because that was the number one lesson Jake took away from the fight:

Don’t get hit.

It seemed like a basic lesson, but Jake usually did take some hits. He would sometimes exchange blows to deal more damage to his opponent in trade for taking a bit himself, or he would block attacks he either couldn’t or judged he didn’t need to dodge.

Against Valdemar, that was not a thing. The reason he had ultimately lost his first life was because Jake had stupidly thought he could parry Valdemar’s axe and direct it into the sand. What had happened instead was that Jake broke his wrist, had his entire body twisted, and was unable to react when a fist slammed into his face.

Blocking or parrying any direct hits was thus entirely out of the question. At least when it came to the axe… Jake still wasn’t sure when it came to Valdemar’s fists. Because, yes, the guy also liked to punch and even kick… and holy fuck should Valdemar have gotten the title of Doomfoot instead of Jake.

Doomfist, too, considering a punch from Valdemar was more powerful than the hammer blows from the Necromancer. His kicks were even more powerful. But… Jake had discovered that he wasn’t entirely powerless. Because while Valdemar was overwhelmingly powerful, Jake could still dodge him, even if he did sometimes get hit with blasts from the sheer power of the Primordial’s blows.

In movement speed, he had Valdemar slightly beat if he just sprinted away, the boots that allowed him to run in the sand helping quite a bit. This only really counted for elaborate movements, though. Valdemar’s charging speed was insane as he pretty much kicked off the ground whenever he moved, propelling himself forward, not much unlike the Warmaster.

When it came to swinging speed, Valdemar was an utterly ridiculous monster, and it felt like his axe borderline just teleported around as he swung it. This also played into another thing Jake discovered: Valdemar never half-arsed anything.

Usually, fighters did feints, weak blows to land a stronger one, or, you know, had any kind of strategy or complex thought behind their moves. Valdemar didn’t do any of that. He fully committed to every single attack, no matter what. He didn’t do small jabs; he only threw haymakers. This was what left him full of openings… but also what made him so unbelievably powerful with every single attack.

So… yeah. All direct hits were to be dodged for sure.

All in all, Jake believed his first death had been a good one. Oddly enough, he didn’t feel that bad about the death at all, likely because he had ”planned” to die. He had accepted that deaths would happen and was ready for it to happen again. His Bloodline was even silent, though he had a good feeling it was just building up and preparing for the one fight Jake decided he was going for the win.

Because Jake was naturally not doing all this just to get killed nine times in a row… he was doing it to eke out a victory in the end. The Challenge Dungeon was made to be beatable, so Jake sure as hell wanted to beat it. He just needed to do the proper groundwork first by dying a few times.

Jake had died, he had once more appeared in an entirely white room as a system menu he had a feeling he would see quite a few times in the coming period popped up in front of his

Three Resurrection Points Available:

the challenge to the Warrior

the fight with the

that the fight with the

Choose one Resurrection point.

choosing to go back to a week before the fight began, as he did have some preparations he wanted to

that a bare-chested Valdemar wouldn’t have muscles so stupidly dense that he may as well have worn tough leather armor. With that in mind, he changed the arrow design with only the act of piercing tough flesh in mind. He could already leave nasty flesh wounds, but Jake wanted to do far more than that… he wanted arrows that could pierce straight through some weak

of Jake’s eighth life was to

Jake stand across from him, ready to retreat and make some distance, yet not backing down in the slightest as he straightened his back and looked directly at the

pressure from the man hadn’t lessened in the slightest. He had

definitely be able to make use of that. Of course, he couldn’t just lay an exact game plan, as the world wasn’t deterministic, so each encounter would play out slightly differently, even if Jake did the same

second one, Got

yet you still stand straight,” Valdemar grinned

the side to avoid the charge while shooting an arrow. Being in full sprint, Valdemar

try to bring out his katars as he ducked under the first axe swipe, feeling his hair nearly get ripped out from the rush of air that followed the attack. A fist came straight after, but Jake

from Royal Road. If

not caring at all if he made a smokescreen. He continued the attack as the glinting axe exited the sand first, swinging toward Jake, who was still a good three meters away while still retreating. A faint golden crescent wave shot out, and Jake raised his durable bow

Jake could block, and that was these energy waves. They were dangerous if they hit him straight-on, but he was fully capable of blocking them as long as he

got enough distance to shoot two more arrows, one hitting the chest of Valdemar, with the other one getting blocked by his axe. He shot one final arrow into the air before the monstrous warrior arrived and cleaved downward with his weapon, kicking up another explosion of sand and sending Jake

shoot any arrows as he quickly switched to his katars. Valdemar had left his axe embedded in the sand to continue his attack faster as he instantly closed the distance, using his explosive speed while he performed a wide kick. Jake didn’t even try to block as he managed to barely bend his back and dodge it,

once more barely avoided as he landed a single stab on the punching arm, sending a bit of blood flying.

above, hitting Valdemar in the collarbone, the impact making his knee buckle for a fraction of a moment. A flash of surprise appeared on his face as he looked at the arrow sticking out of his collar before gripping and

his back and walked back to pick up his axe. Jake didn’t even hesitate to pull out his bow and shoot two arrows. Valdemar turned his side to Jake and raised his arm, just

Jake’s arrows sticking out as he casually swung his axe and deflected another arrow Jake had

not even bothering to shoot any

Yeah, katars,” Valdemar smiled happily despite the several arrows sticking out of his body and the blood rolling down his chest from the nasty hole in his collarbone and the chest literally sticking out of his one pec. ”I tend to make a bit of a game figuring out what god my fighting pals are with… but you, I find pretty darn hard to place. So,

”I am the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, though

he looked at

man’s aura. ”The Malefic Viper is back and