The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t relax for even a moment as he immediately activated Arcane Awakening at its stable 30%. A level 311 humanoid was simply not anyone he could take lightly, and if he let his guard down, things could quickly get hairy.

In response, the bearded man and all of the lower-leveled people did something surprising. Rather than attack, they all turned on their tails and backed away at impressive speeds as the scalekin was the only one who slowly floated toward Jake.

At least they have a proper sense of when fighting is a bad idea.

Looking at the scalekin, Jake tilted his head. “You gonna remain silent and mysterious?”

As an answer, the scalekin pointed their wand at Jake as magic began to gather. Jake also quickly nocked an arrow and prepared to shoot as a white flash erupted from the wand. It wasn’t an attempt to blind him, but instead, just the air around the scalekin mage getting bathed in mana as what looked like fragments of silvery metal began floating around them.

With Sense of the Malefic Viper, he quickly identified the affinity. Some kind of metal affinity… with… oh fu-

Jake released the string of his bow right in time before he had to dodge to the side. A loud explosive sound rocked the airspace as a silvery bolt of lightning flew past him. Before Jake had time to try and nock another arrow, a second thundershock sounded as another bolt was released.

Dodging this one, too, Jake kept flying upwards to get some distance. The range of the lightning was limited, and Jake believed he had an advantage at longer range. As he began flying upwards, the arrow he had loosed during their initial exchange also arrived, but the mage summoned a large tower shield and blocked it, only getting pushed back slightly when the arrow exploded.

However, the blast did do something. It made the hood of the scalekin fly back, revealing what looked like an albino lizard of some kind, with what Jake recognized as clear male traits of this particular species. Did it matter that Jake figured out if it was a male or female scalekin? No, not at all.

Continuing his upwards flight, the mage below made another move. The air around him shimmered as the metal fragments began collecting into dozens of spears, and, at the same time, a magic circle of some kind appeared below him. A few of the metal spears were shot toward Jake, but he dodged all of them as they flew past him and into the clouds above, the attacks thrown haphazardly as the scalekin focused his attention on the magic circle.

Jake didn’t want to see what the scalekin was cooking up if he could avoid it and began to pelt his opponent with arrows. Likely because he knew he had a low chance of hitting Jake, the scalekin decided that rather than use all the metal spears to attack, the scalekin could use them as counters to Jake’s arrows to buy him some time. At least he tried to.

Shooting a series of arrows in quick succession, Jake controlled each of them as their flight patterns became unpredictable. The scalekin seemed surprised and blocked one side with a shield and used the spears on the other. Sadly for him, Jake wasn’t playing around, as right before the arrows hit, they split into dozens each, exploding before they even hit him or the shield. The resulting explosion sent the scalekin staggering back as the magic circle began to flicker as its caster lost focus.

Taking advantage, Jake released a Powershot he had begun charging when he shot the Splitting Arrows before. With the scalekin not entirely focused, he failed to react fast enough as the arrow hit him and blasted him down through his own magic circle, breaking it apart in the process.

Nocking another arrow, Jake was prepared to follow up but suddenly, his danger sense warned him. Turning around, Jake summoned a barrier of stable arcane mana as a white bolt of lightning struck him from within one of the clouds. With his sphere, he saw the spears he had dodged earlier had all stopped in mid-air behind him, and one by one, they began to transform into pure energy as another spear turned into a bolt of lightning.

Below him, the mage had also gathered himself, and it seemed like he was done playing around. The robe covering his body was already mostly ruined due to Jake’s attacks, and through the mage’s own power began to slowly disintegrate as pristine silvery armor revealed itself beneath, covering everything besides the scalekin’s face. At least it was for a brief moment before a helmet began to grow out of the armor, covering his face and leaving no obvious openings.

tough bastard, considering the armor hadn’t taken any noticeable damage yet. To make matters more annoying, the mage had overcome one of the usual weaknesses of heavy armor – low speed - by firing

to nock another arrow as he decided to also take things up a notch. Arcane Awakening intensified as he activated the offensive fifty percent, aiming to dodge every blow and focus on dealing damage

hit Jake’s arrow, and both exploded mid-air. As a follow-up from the mage, dozens of blades were also shot

arrows as neither refused to back down, while both controlling their attacks to hit the others, when they didn’t try to have an

strain. He also got the feeling this status quo was not good for him as he was burning through resources faster than he was comfortable with. One also had to remember that his foe was more than fifty levels above Jake, resulting in him likely having a deeper mana pool, especially seeing as he was a dedicated

However, rather than do it with an obvious magic circle, Jake had a Protean Arrow getting slow-cooked

their path, the blades reached him in less than a second, ready to slice him apart, but Jake was ready with his best counter to every

that tried to singe him, but his cloak and armor took the brunt of

manually but was just firing them in his direction, and he had been right. The scalekin mage quickly realized his strategy wasn’t working but didn’t seem particularly bothered as

form of attack, but the scalekin just stood there as Jake charged his attack. Even if Jake was confused about why the scalekin

the arrow descended, surrounded by a dense wave of pure destructive arcane energy. As it

taken without authorization; if you see

could just block whatever attack I was charging… yeah, fuck

to block the arrow, all the mana suddenly stopped moving. Up above, Jake stared down as two

a fraction of a second, but it had entirely thrown off the scalekin’s timing. The unfinished shield shattered instantly when the arrow hit it, and even if the scalekin became able to move again,

Hunter’s Mark and Sense of the Malefic VIper, he felt that the attack had done some damage. Not wanting to miss his advantage, he nocked another arrow and released

far away from the village because if not, there

the air. Seeing no reason to let the scalekin do so in a relaxed manner, Jake decided to give

around him quivered. Audible cracks could be heard as small sparks of lightning began to appear just as the mage pointed toward Jake and released a barrage of exploding metal fragments. Jake retreated

him do his weird mage stuff, Jake chose to take a few scratches from metal fragments and shoot a quickly charged Arcane Powershot. He did this fully expecting the scalekin to dodge, but his opponent didn’t move at all. The arrow hit the same hole in the armor as

lightning bolt into the air. An absolute pillar of pure power burned into the sky and even the ground below as Jake felt like something happened within it… which turned out

the mage but a massive pillar of pure metal in his place. It pierced kilometers into the sky and even deep into the ground, and

to crumble as metal weapons rained down and covered the ground

tough nut to crack,

the cube as he sighed a bit. He had a plan, but it would take a

of swords, axes, spears, arrows, and all sorts of other spiky things either went straight for Jake or formed a maelstrom of metal around

no room to hold back, Jake went all-out as Arcane Awakening finally fully activated. The weapons came from all sides, but Jake was ready as he entered super-dodging mode. It reminded him a bit of some of Minaga’s trap rooms as attacks came from everywhere, but with a few well-placed barriers, arcane explosions, and two katars to deflect blows, he found the openings he needed as he remained

attacks. However, even with his scales and