The Primal Hunter

The power of every being’s soul varied widely. Levels were far from everything when it came to determining their fragility or susceptibility to manipulation, even if it was a factor. The Fallen King had encountered beings well into the 300s with incredibly malleable souls who fell to the slightest touch and crumbled before the slightest manipulation.

Those of the enlightened races had more powerful souls than the average beast. Unique Lifeforms were naturally in a league far beyond even these. Creatures with no true sapience had weak souls by default, though it was not necessarily a rule.

Making comparisons with anyone in the Fallen King’s party had little meaning, as all of theirs – save for perhaps Sylphie – were not ordinary. Ordinary in the way that they weren’t mutated in some way, either through a Bloodline or a Transcendent skill.

Variants of all races could appear with more powerful souls – even if they were not utter anomalies like his party - and the nature of their magic and affinities also played a huge role. Casters were naturally more resistant to soul magic, with the Willpower stat alone having a huge impact. All in all, there were many factors, but few set rules.

The only true rule was that the power of a soul was heavily related to how powerful the creature was… and if a creature happened to be both a powerful variant, had a Path that naturally resulted in a powerful soul, high level, and a further mutated soul… they would become an absolute nightmare if the goal was to cause any soul damage to them.

This was the exact type of opponent they faced with the Twinhead Emperor. Never before had the Fallen King seen such a powerful soul in another C-grade. Sure, Jake and the others had strong souls, but their real power lay in the quality of the Truesoul, not the pure quantity and overall power. This event boss was at a whole other level compared to them. It truly was as if they were fighting two souls in one body.

At the beginning of the fight, the oddly mutated soul of the Twinhead Emperor had been… off. It had been unstable as if it didn’t really fit fully together, and each segmented part of the soul was in conflict. However, now, everything seemed to have snapped into place, as the Twinhead Emperor had one of the most stable and powerful souls the Fallen King could ever imagine a non-Bloodline-having C-grade possessing…

Besides his own, of course.

While buying time for the hunter to unleash his attack, the job of the four others was to keep the boss busy, but the Fallen King didn’t plan on not also doing some damage of his own. Entering semi-close range, the Unique Lifeform summoned two hammers of golden energy as he slammed it into the boss. The shaman side of the ogre raised his now-glowing staff and blocked, as the warrior side swung his blade upwards, unleashing a dark wave of pure death energy to deter Sylphie.

This proved to be a mistake. While a torrent of wind-infused stone shards shot up from the ground toward the human swordsman, he didn’t even hesitate as he continued his charge. Right before he was struck, a powerful green barrier appeared around him, deflecting every single stone shard the man couldn’t dodge. The swordsman managed to get close as the ogre swung his blade down once more, aiming to crush the swordsman.

The boss swung down with force the Fallen King wouldn’t even dare to try and block, yet the swordsman merely met it with his own thin blade. If the Fallen King didn’t know this swordsman, he would have expected to see the small blade shatter and the man crushed, but instead, the large blade merely slid down the side of the small one as it struck the ground; the swordsman now having a clear opening as sliced his sword upwards.

Blood mixed with water flew into the air as the Twinhead Ogre had his arm cut halfway through, the swordsman not able to cut fully through it. Not because his blade wasn’t sharp enough, but because he had to retreat as a beam of condensed death energy shot out from the eyes of the warrior ogre, launching him backward, with Dina hurridly coming to his assistance.

Not wanting to be outdone, the Fallen King also got more serious. Swinging his golden hammers again, the shaman kept blocking, not getting distracted by his counterpart in the slightest. The Fallen King kept swinging, as every hit was easily blocked, the shaman even finding time to shoot lighting bolts toward Sylphie in between blocks.

That is, until the Fallen King suddenly mixed things up. A hammer flew for the shaman, and once more, he blocked. However, at the final moment before the hammerhead hit the staff, it unraveled into a net of chains that wrapped around the staff. Before the ogre had much time to react, the Fallen King made the side he was holding into a ball and shot it behind him with a massive wave of force.

The staff was yanked away, but the ogre kept a firm hold, which resulted in him getting lifted off his feet and forced to move for the very first time. With the staff disabled, Sylphie also finally found her opening as a green bullet flew down and flew by the outstretched arm holding the staff. Dozens of large, deep gashes were left across the left arm as the ogre groaned in pain, Sylphie turning in the air to do another fly-by.

Wanting to also attack again, the Fallen King prepared to strike, but suddenly stopped himself. And just in time, too.

King was about to move, making the ground erupt and sending the Unique Lifeform floating backward while defending himself. Sylphie was more unfortunate, as a torrent of lightning

fought the large blade with the assistance of the dryad.

worst and final mistake of your lives when you forced me into this state,”

he took a new stance and raised

The Fallen King was taken by surprise as a warning came through the Golden Mark right as he

from the impact of the large blade clad in death. Sliding

incoming… arriving

his boosting skill was already fully active as he was forced to face the full wrath of the boss alone. Magic and physical force both slammed into

Road, this story should be reported

The dryad was trying to assist as best she could but was significantly limited

“Four…”

incredible force with every strike. Using his own

ripped apart as he simply couldn’t block the attacks of what was effectively two people. His bark-like armor was cracked and torn as strike after strike sent him retreating further and further away. He also landed his fair share of counterattacks, but the battle could only be described

“Three…”

was still struggling to assist him, as the Fallen King had one of his legs entirely burned off by a powerful torrent of flames. The Unique Lifeform did everything, but his soul attacks proved useless

he was no longer able to fully block as the Twinhead Emperor stabbed the large blade of death forward in a

the two heads of the ogre said as the energy of death intensified even

“Two…”

King felt the energy

clasping his claws around each head of the two-headed ogre. Piercing into their skin, the Fallen King taunted

fear your energy of death? That my soul

did not use words to respond as all four eyes began glowing with power. Instantly, both golden claws had holes burned through them as the Fallen King

“One…”

was undeterred as he refused to let go. His claws were damaged, yet they kept piercing deeper and deeper into flesh as destructive soul-destroying force spread

magic as powerful impacts struck the already damaged body of the Unique Lifeform over and over again, the Twinhead Emperor having resorted to punches. Partly because hitting with his staff was difficult at such close range and

King made sure they weren’t moving a single step, even as his body was slowly getting torn further and further apart. The three others had just about broken out of

the energy in the air above, and the next, it was there. The Twinhead Emperor was even less aware and only reacted right before he was struck. Instinctively, the Twinhead Ogre wanted to

he saw the deathly attack strike as it penetrated through one of the skulls of the Twinhead Emperor before continuing its descent through the