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.

didn’t make that skill; it’s a set upgrade path. You made that skill, so the name should at

not possess a skill called Sagacity of the Malefic Viper? That, too, is a lie, as I see no sage before me,” the Fallen King decided to team up with

getting mercilessly attacked from two directions

indeed,” the old man politely accepted the change of

get one more level before the final fight with the

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

of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 285 - Stat points allocated, +50

…

reached level 287 -

[Human (C)] has reached level 274 - Stat points

others 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

update on the Twin Emperors?” Dina asked as the Sword Saint went off to the side

are collecting their bone spheres pretty quickly,” Jake answered with a smile as he stopped thinking sad thoughts about his own

“Ree?” Sylphie inquired.

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

had once more been tasked to Jake as he was the scout of the party and, quite frankly, just the

should you find

had marked one of the Twin Emperors and followed him to the meeting place of the two bosses. This meeting point was in the middle of nowhere, but when Jake used a Pulse, he understood. A massive magic circle was put there, hidden

of them meet up had been pretty damn boring, but he did notice something interesting. When the two Twin Emperors were close to one another, both their bodies seemed to 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

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 had to go re-mark them every month, but luckily, he only had to do it a

few battlefields, both Twin Emperors started to make their move. They began to go to all the old and abandoned battlefields one by one, sometimes even returning to where the

all the bone spheres were gathered. Jake and company had also just cleared out the final active battlefield, which meant it was time for the next step

make our way toward the ritual circle so we can begin to set things up there,” the

it again?”

assisting us,” the old

around them. The 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 falling swords; how was that even

over their plans once more as the Sword Saint also shared a bit about the new skill he had unlocked. It was a defensive one that

skill was definitely better there, especially considering the old man’s skill was only of ancient

Jake released a pulse to inspect the place, and as expected, he found over a hundred totem bone spheres sealed beneath the ground at different focus points of the magic circle. Using his knowledge of ritual magic, he could also see that the two ogres needed just twenty more spheres, and they should

till we’re kicked out of Nevermore?” Jake asked

Sword Saint answered. “As long as the Twin Emperors are as fast as you expected, we should have at least two weeks left when they get here. That should

“It’s fully complete already… has been for a long time. It just needed its batteries to get powered

Sword Saint frowned. “Do we still

Jake grinned as he looked at the old man.

the two of them went down toward the

In truth, he and Sylphie didn’t have many things to prepare, as they just made sure to be

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