The Primal Hunter

Jake deserved a goddamn award for his performance as the mysterious yet powerful Lord of Hunger. Ah, not those awards given for good acting, but those reserved for extremely shitty performances because hot damn had Jake felt embarrassed while saying his lines.

He could at least partly excuse how horrible it was by blaming Sim-Jake a little. In order to really sell it, Jake had infused his body with curse energy and even sent it emanating out of Eternal Hunger while mixing it with his presence. Shit, he went as far as to summon his Eternal Shadow to overlap with his own body during the entire thing.

This did inadvertedly result in Jake being affected by his own curse energy. No way around it. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Jake to feel like he could blame the remnants of cringe on Sim-Jake. At least his party members were kind enough to not say anything during or after his speech.

Not that they had much to complain about… because their plan had worked. Without them even having to use any of their two backups in case Jake’s acting had failed.

The ritual created by the Twinhead Emperor was in full swing as the curse and death energy exploded out of it. Over a hundred pillars of pure energy shot toward the sky as the two Twin Emperors merged into one being as their body was infused with energy all the meanwhile.

The energy pouring out of the many Totem Bone Spheres was the impurities, as the Twinhead Ogre only absorbed the cleanest of energy and Records. More than ninety-nine percent of this energy would not be used by the ogre as this ritual was never meant to raise their power, just their future potential. In all honesty, it was a damn impressive ritual, if also flawed in many ways, as it was rather forceful. Perhaps it would allow the Twinhead Ogre to reach B-grade, but akin to someone absorbing a fragment of the Viper and instantly evolving a few grades, B-grade would be the end of the Twinhead Ogre’s Path.

Well, if he ever did manage to evolve… something Jake and company were going to make sure that wasn’t gonna happen. As the ritual was winding down, a system message appeared before Jake and the others.

Event unlocked: Return of the Twinhead Emperor.

The culprits behind the war on the Vast Plateau were moments away from having their wish come true at the sacrifice of most enlightened beings on the Plateau. Their ritual was complete, everything ready, all factors accounted for… except for the appearance of five unknown entities.

Despite their prior plans, the Twin Emperors have decided to once more merge with one another, rebirthing the Twinhead Emperor in a state more powerful than ever. They viewed it as their only choice to face this threat, even if it ruined all they had been preparing for.

Now, with all hopes of evolution squashed, they seek only their own survival and revenge on those for forced them into this state.

End the Path of the Twinhead Emperor once and for all, thus ending not only the conflict on the Vast Plateau but the cause of it. Do so that it may never happen again.

New Bonus Objective gained: Do not allow a single party member to be slain during the battle while fully slaying the Twinhead Emperor for good.

It was a message saying something borderline identical to what was on floor seventy-five with the event boss here, except it now even had an added bonus objective. Jake and company had completed all of the bonus objectives on this floor already, so to get a new one was a bit of a surprise… plus it communicated that the difficulty of this fight was high, as the only other time Jake remembered seeing a bonus objective like that was during their fight with Minaga.

Jake stared down at the Twinhead Ogre as the ritual fully came to an end. The whole thing had only taken ten or so seconds, as the ritual had already been well underway by the time Jake appeared and interfered. As all the energy began to die down, the ritual kept humming with energy as the two figures standing at the center turned into one.

The ogre had gotten slightly taller and was the same bundle of muscle as before. His armor had changed quite a bit, as it was now a mix of the two Twin Emperor’s prior equipment. All the most important places were protected by metal, while the rest was just cloth. The only mostly visible flesh was on the ogre’s arms, legs, and face, with a kilt the only thing defending his legs, with even the feet wide open as the boss wore some sandal-looking footwear.

or necks, as it should be called now. Two heads rested side by side, each having the face of one of the Twin Emperors. On the respective sides of their heads, they also wielded the weapons

Jake

–

a bit lucky the boss had not risen in level further… because if the Twinhead Emperor had, this

transformed after the two had merged into one. Before, they had both been incomplete, while now, reuinited, the Twinhead Ogre could show their full power once more. In pure power,

a B-grade, this

heads of the Twinhead Emperor yelled, infusing his voice with mana. Jake felt

thank you… I’d rather not deal with you at all,” Jake said, acting as much like a being born of a curse as

is not your

as hundreds of spear-like roots shot up from underneath. At the same time, a thin, piercing blade of water shot at the Twinhead Emperor from one side as a golden beam arrived from the other. Jake didn’t use any direct

in pain, but he still continued doing his part. A shadowy version of himself also flew out of his body, barreling down toward the ogre with a katar in hand as the real Jake prepared to use the cover

not meant to be

Right as they did, the eyes of one of the heads began to glow as something entirely unexpected happened. The soul attack Jake had made was entirely taken on by only one of the heads, allowing the other one to control the body and energy

did not look powerful enough to block the attack, but Jake understood when he saw the barrier slightly reflect the trajectory of the drill of wind from above, making it crash into the golden beam

that had taken on the

Eternal Shadow, didn’t even bother to dodge as it threw its weapon. It wasn’t even close to hitting the ogre but pierced through several layers of rock

who had been flying far up in the air - had all taken up hidden positions Jake had made using stable barriers of arcane

the remnant curse energy he had filled the sky with. He even felt that the Twinhead Emperor was no longer fully aware of him, allowing him to once more begin to enter stealth while flying upwards. In his quiver on his back, an arrow was also being created as Jake began making all of his

the other four could

went straight for the Twinhead Emperor, blade already in hand. He was the only true melee fighter of their party, making him alone in close combat more often than not, at least when the

at the boss, Miyamoto knew the merged ogre was powerful. He did not have Jake’s ability to judge others’ power extremely accurately, but he had been in plenty of fights himself and had acceptable insight when

would need it no matter what, and out of everyone, his was the one that could be used for the longest. It was based on water and time, both concepts rather gentle in nature, though it did come at the sacrifice of

side, which, in retrospect, was perhaps not the best, as he found himself confronted with

struck the ground, making it erupt as an explosion of death mana washed over the old

the Sword Saint was going for, but a small cut was still left. Without waiting for a full response, the old man retreated slightly, which proved a good

to keep the ogre engaged and focused on him. However, clearly, the boss wasn’t taking him overly seriously yet. Miyamoto was, in effect, only

pierced down, aiming straight for the left head. Unfortunately, the ogre had been prepared as he raised

hitting the ogre in the arm, making the blast go slightly off-course. This allowed Sylphie to penetrate through the flames, but she was still forced to abandon fully committing at the very last second when a pillar of rock shot up toward her. Still, she managed to use all her momentum to launch a bullet of air that hit the ogre in the shoulder,

had yet to move a single time but had stayed mostly still throughout the entire battle. Yet he was not really losing any ground at all, handling the

Sword Saint kept a primarily defensive style, as he stayed engaged with the right side of the ogre. He dodged all the blade swings and the blasts of death magic as he left minor wound after minor wound. Sometimes, he was a bit too slow to fully dodge an attack, which