The Primal Hunter

During the first era, humans had been viewed as a weak race. Even weaker than the other enlightened races. They lived for a short time, especially at lower grades, and the only real thing anyone agreed they had going for them was their higher reproductive speeds. They didn’t have any good racial skills, and their stat distribution was spread out to create jacks of all trades but masters of none. Moreover, as enlightened, they leveled slower than beasts or monsters and had to adopt a far more diverse path by focusing on both a profession and a class. Compared to other races, they just didn’t have much going for them.

As an example, the elven Altmar Empire began to rise during the first era, and other powerful factions were slowly rising and gaining recognition, with elves, dwarves, scalekin, and beastkin all finding their niches and fighting back against the monsters. Humans were just viewed as among the weakest of the enlightened races and an inferior variant… until Valdemar appeared.

With a single axe in hand, Valdemar showed the power of humanity as he exemplified the notion of a one-man army. He conquered empires, slaughtered armies, and became an unstoppable force none could stand against, with even monsters fearing him. Eventually, after there were already few, if any, that could face him, he rose to godhood as the first enlightened.

Without Valdemar, humanity would be far weaker than they were today. Jake would be far weaker than he was, and not just because of the Fang of Man skill he had gained, but due to the sharing of Records. Every single human was affected by the Records Valdemar sent echoing out into the multiverse through his rise to power, the same as how every snake was affected by the Malefic Viper.

In some ways, one could even call Valdemar the Forefather of humanity. The strongest and most influential human in existence… a human who stood at the peak of existence. It was something Jake recognized as fact, simply due to knowing history, yet, as stupid as it sounded, it wasn’t something he could fully accept.

Because to accept that Valdemar was the peak of humanity would be to acknowledge him as his superior. Even if he was stronger right now… Jake couldn’t accept losing when the playing ground was at least somewhat evened by the Colosseum of Mortals.

Walking up the steps to the arena with steady steps, everything felt the same as every other fight. The clamoring crowd, the announcer, Owen and Polly in the stands… everything was the same. The only true difference was Jake.

When he saw the large arena he had laid his eyes on so many times before, he only felt a sense of calmness. Yet, at the very same time, he faintly felt his own heart beat with excitement as it wanted him to let loose. But Jake knew patience. When he went all-out, he would be on a pretty short timer, and for this final confrontation, he would do everything in his power to pull out a victory.

For the ninth time, the announcer did his thing, and the gates lowered as Jake’s final battle against Valdemar began. He casually walked toward the center of the arena as he waited for his opponent to arrive. A few seconds later, he heard footsteps as the Primordial appeared, looking a little surprised at Jake just standing there, waiting.

“Definitely not ya first attempt, eh?” Valdemar said with a big grin as he also walked toward the middle of the arena. “But the look in those eyes is still good. How many times have we stood here before?”

“This is the ninth… and I am on my final life,” Jake answered truthfully.

“Got here with nine lives, eh? Impressive. Gotta make the last one count, then,” Valdemar said with a shrug as he slightly shifted his weight, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Jake smiled as he pulled out his bow. “I plan on doing just that. So let’s make this fight into an ultimate legend unlike any the Colosseum of Mortals has ever seen before.”

His words made Valdemar pause briefly as he laughed. “You’re no slouch, eh? A proper challenge! Good! Good! I asked you to say that, right?”

Golden energy began to shimmer around his body as he asked, Jake nodding in response. “It’s my last attempt, after all… so I might as well make it legendary.”

loudly before looking directly at Jake, his massive grin still marking his face. “Remember… you

incredible speed, but even so, Jake had already reacted and gotten on the move himself. The Primordial was many things, and predictable was definitely one of them, making it easy to read when he was about to attack or not. Actually responding

the first one hitting him in the arm as the Primordial was turning. The second one was swept away, and Jake knew that releasing a third

but swift steps, Valdemar was soon upon Jake again. The straightforward slash that looked easy to dodge was avoided by only a hair’s margin as Jake weaved in between the man’s hits as

to make distance before Valdemar could land a too-dangerous blow. He still wasn’t using his boosting skill and was thus still heavily outclassed in power and attack speed. His only real advantage was his higher movement speed and dodging ability,

and avoiding blows until he would unleash

equally knew that the Primordial had a tendency to rise to a challenge and match his opponent in power. Well, if matching them in power meant still thoroughly overpowering them. The point was he could overpower Jake more than he currently was if Jake powered himself up too early. Once he did go all-out, Jake knew he would have less than a minute to hopefully

eh!?” Valdemar laughed as he pushed Jake back, forcing him to skirt across the sand for a few meters before coming to a stop. “Imma give it to ya, ya either fought me a lot more than the ten times

nine lives fighting you already,” Jake smiled as he met the Primordial’s eyes. “And you

exact fight several times before and knew that soon Valdemar would change things up as he got bored of the status quo. He would change the tempo by

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would be Jake’s time to

or so more passed as Valdemar slowly picked up the pace as usual. Jake used a few more arrows during this time and tried to keep his distance and be in melee range as little as possible, but he couldn’t avoid taking

clearly more injured than Jake, even if his movements didn’t show at all. This wasn’t anything special, and far from

a roar, he stomped, releasing a shockwave of pure force, pushing Jake back through the sand as Valdemar used the momentum of his own stomp to lunge forward with a wide downward swing, aiming to take Jake’s arm. His explosive power would take most by surprise… but

he had done with every other major attack. However, rather than continuing to

spread throughout his entire body within moments, making him even faster as he propelled himself toward the surprised Valdemar at a speed

well. Jake had wanted to strike the heart or neck of Valdemar, but his free left arm moved into a defensive position instantly, forcing Jake to make the executive decision to strike lower where he couldn’t defend. Due to the lunging blow, Valdemar could not easily move his legs,

down into his thigh. The arcane energy coursing through his

tried to catch him in a bear hug, using the momentum of his movement to twist the katar

than anything Valdemar had done prior. However, even as Jake dodged, he was forced to block a wave of golden aura as it clashed with his own arcane energy, Valdemar having truly risen to the occasion as the golden aura around his body was

slightly shifted his weight away from the injured leg. Despite calling Jake out, the man had a huge grin on

doing as much as he wanted,

He knew that the Primordial would not be held back by having most of his thigh muscles torn apart for long, after all. Plus, it wasn’t like Jake had the

used some of his remaining arrows as Valdemar blocked what he could with his axe. He was down to less than a dozen only twenty or so seconds later, but in turn, Valdemar had a few more bleeding holes across his body, primarily on his

attack window as the wound on his thigh had been temporarily “fixed” with his fighting aura. The huge wound was almost shining now, and despite not healing, it didn’t seem to affect him much at all as he charged, having picked up his speed even more

before landing a light cut on Valdemar’s wrist, sadly not hitting any veins. Jake tried to do more, but Valdemar exploded in

all the way to his bone, Jake only used this opportunity to make some distance and shoot two more arrows. Taking a hit had slightly lowered the time his body would last while boosting, but he should still have enough time. He also still had one

did as usual, though with far more ferocity and power than before, as both he and Valdemar truly