The Primal Hunter

Jake stood back along with the three others as they allowed the Sword Saint to do his thing. More than seventy combatants remained, and despite being on opposing sides, they had teamed up to face this one swordsman. Nevertheless, the outcome was clear.

Rain fell from the sky, every droplet piercing into their barriers and shields. The swordsman himself fought them in a simplistic fashion as he moved swiftly between foes, never giving them any chance to surround him or catch him out in a vulnerable position.

Even when his sword swings didn’t manage to leave injuries, the piercing rain did. These tens of thousands of small piercing droplets fell every second, making them simply impossible to block. The water itself, even when blocked, also contained the concept of time, weighing and slowing down everyone the more soaked they got. Moreover, Jake knew this was only the first part of the old man’s mythical skill, an extremely powerful move for sure.

The only big downside was that to use this skill, the old man had to be fighting alone… not because it was a requirement, but because it would strike everything and everyone in the area indiscriminately.

When about sixty enemies remained, the Sword Saint used the next move. The rain began to slow down before stopping in mid-air while the old man floated backwards as he took a stance, pointing the blade toward the ground and grasping it with both hands as he knelt. With a slow movement, he began to move the blade upwards, the floating droplets doing the same.

“Rain of Time: Reversal.”

Instantly, he swung upwards, the raindrops following along. The ground below was torn up as every single droplet reversed in time and pierced toward the sky, as it looked like the old man had just swung a blade dozens of kilometers long and wide.

Every single person caught in it was cut up, many of them ripped apart altogether by the powerful strike. Only about twenty of the most powerful C-grades remained, all having used powerful defensive skills or hidden items to survive.

It was the same skill the old man had already shown off quite a number of times before. It had been the mythical skill he gained in D-grade that had downgraded to legendary when he evolved… a downgrade that had now been reversed. Because the old man had upgraded it back up to mythical once more, as the skill was no longer finished even after this move.

Rather than use the skill to restore a bit of the used resources, he activated a second part. Pointing his blade toward the clouds above made of pure water, he spoke once more.

“Rain of Time: Thousand Blades Descent.”

All of the rain that had fallen coalesced into blades far up in the sky as the Sword Saint swung down once more. Every single blade of water descended with his strike, and rather than simply flying straight down, they each aimed for the still-living combatants.

The poor twenty or so survivors tried to defend themselves but were unable to as each was already injured. Limbs were sent flying as every single one of them was cut apart, and many of the blades of water were colored red with blood as they continued down and pierced into the ground, penetrating the rocky ground for dozens of meters as the terrain itself began to look like swiss cheese. Definitely not a good sight for anyone with trypophobia.

Breathing heavily, the old man sheathed his sword before flying back toward the group, looking pretty damn tired. As he got closer, Jake couldn’t help but yell:

“Six hundred and thirty-seven!”

“What?” the Sword Saint responded as he soon reached them, looking quite confused.

“You said there were a thousand blades, but I only counted six hundred and thirty-seven,” Jake said as he shook his head in disappointment. “That’s just false advertising right there.”

“Really?” the old man responded with a tired sigh.

“I call it as I see it,” Jake shrugged and smirked.

“Don’t you have a skill called One Step, Thousand Miles? I’m positively confident I have yet to see you ever travel even a hundred miles in a single step using that skill, much less a thousand,” the Sword Saint shot back.

range… plus, I didn’t make that skill; it’s a set upgrade path. You made that skill, so the name should at least be

is a lie, as I see no

the sage, not me,” Jake said, deciding to change the subject, considering he was getting mercilessly attacked from two directions at once. Looking at the Sword Saint, he asked what they were all

indeed,” the old man politely accepted the change of subject

reason the old man had handled this small battlefield alone was for him to get one more level before the final fight with the Twinhead Ogre. He had been level 289 in his class and, with this level, had gotten

over this breakpoint, but sadly for Jake, he was still a bit behind. Not to say he hadn’t

reached level 285 - Stat points allocated,

…

Edge] has reached level 287 - Stat

(C)] has reached level 274 - Stat points allocated,

simply because this particular floor didn’t suit his Path that well. Jake wasn’t made for big wars or conflicts; he was instead far more specialized in hunting down powerful singular individuals. In truth, Jake’s Path also wasn’t super well-suited for group combat

asked as the Sword Saint went off to the side to focus

his own relative lack of levels. “At least, I guess that’s what they’re doing

“Ree?” Sylphie inquired.

speed, collecting them all will take two weeks more at most,” Jake responded as he focused on the two Hunter’s Marks

be taking place. Finding this location had once more been tasked to Jake as he was the scout of the party and, quite

illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report

in the middle of nowhere, but when Jake used a

warp a bit, and as he had a Mark on them, he saw their Soulshapes shudder ever-so-slightly. Their very souls wanted to merge back together, but the two ogres did some simple-looking magic, stabilizing their souls before the two exchanged some words Jake couldn’t hear before they both went

last and to keep track of the two ogres. Well, Jake turned out to be pretty lucky, as his mark lasted more than an entire month, which coincidentally was also the time between the ogres meeting up. It was a bit annoying that he

a great idea, as when they cleared one of the last few battlefields, both Twin Emperors started to make their move. They began to go to all the old and abandoned battlefields one

cleared out the final active battlefield, which meant it was time for the

toward the ritual circle so we can begin to set things

it again?”

Sylphie assisting

Sword Saint was a bit worse for wear after using his flashy and powerful mythical skill that Jake totally wasn’t jealous of. He could only reverse rain and create a torrent of

about the new skill he had unlocked. It was a defensive one that allowed him to shift his location in space back a second or two while summoning a water clone where he had been standing prior, allowing him

version of Eternal Shadow. Jake’s skill was definitely better there, especially considering the old man’s skill was only of

expected, he found over a hundred totem bone spheres sealed beneath the ground at different focus points of the magic circle. Using

Jake asked the Sword Saint, wanting

as you expected, we should have at least two weeks left when

further preparations, not really,” Jake said after he was done looking at the ritual circle. “It’s fully complete already… has been for a long time. It just needed its

the Sword Saint frowned. “Do we

it all planned out in my head,” Jake grinned as he looked at the old man. “I will need

Sword Saint nodded in agreement as the two of them went down toward the

spheres for recovery. In truth, he and Sylphie didn’t have many things to prepare, as they just made sure to be in absolute peak condition for when Twinhead Ogre appeared… because if one thing was

approximately the same time. They spotted each other from afar and gave knowing looks before they began depositing the Totem Bone Spheres in their assigned spots. Getting everything in place only took about half an hour, a bit quicker than usual, as this time, they didn’t have to be careful and keep everything