The Primal Hunter

From the very first moment Jake laid eyes on the ritual circle, he knew there was no way the Twinhead Emperor would be capable of absorbing all the energy contained in the bone spheres. Each sphere held the death energy and curse energy of hundreds, if not over a thousand, dead C-grades alone. This wasn’t even mentioning the uncountable D- and E-grades who had also senselessly fallen in the conflict created by the Twin Emperors.

Even if the boss did then filter a lot of energy out to only absorb the pure Records, there was still a lot left over. This energy had all merged into the semi-intangible ritual circle, which remained mostly untouched despite all the physical destruction.

Now, the Twinhead Emperor was going to reclaim this energy as he stood in the center and raised his staff high. In their initial plans, they had expected the Twinhead Emperor to absorb the energy to help heal. This was still part of the boss’ plan, but Jake realized they had once again underestimated their opponent.

As the Twinhead Emperor reactivated the ritual, two things happened at once. Firstly, a few new runes appeared on his body as death energy began entering through these runes to heal, while secondly, a massive rune was summoned in the air, drawing in all the curse energy.

“Those runes on his body… they are reversing the concept of death into pure life energy,” Dina said, sounding a bit perplexed.

“Even better,” Jake grinned… because, in this rare instance, underestimating the boss had come to their advantage.

The boss had erected a barrier just around himself, as he couldn’t cover the entire ritual circle. As the Twinhead Emperor had just begun to absorb death energy and he condensed some curse magic, a raindrop fell upon the barrier. Soon, more began to fall all over the ritual circle, each drop containing the energy of time.

It took him a moment too long to notice something was off as Jake mentally activated their little trap. Before the two Twin Emperors had begun their ritual, Jake and the Sword Saint had spent a bit over a week doing some slight modifications to the ritual circle the boss had created. It was very minor ones they had overlaid on the other ritual circle. Without power, it had been borderline undetectable, but now, it was getting fed plenty of time affinity energy, which would be one fuel source.

The other? The power of pure hunger.

In the middle of the ritual circle, forgotten entirely by the boss, was a black piece of metal sticking out - a lone katar thrown by Jake’s Eternal Shadow right at the beginning of the fight. Now, this katar suddenly began to hum with power as it became one with the ritual circle.

“What have you-“

The Twinhead Emperor didn’t get further as he suddenly stopped, feeling the effects of the ritual. He had merged himself with it to absorb its energy… created a direct connection between himself and anything inside said ritual. And now, there was a very hungry katar, further empowered by the concept of time, that was more than happy to tap into this delicious connection.

“YOU! Lord of Hunger!” the Twinhead Emperor roared, Jake grimacing as he was still descending down from above. He really didn’t need to be reminded of that nickname.

Not that the ogre was wrong, as it was the energy of the Sin Curse that was suddenly overwhelming the entire ritual. It was so dominant that black intangible and semi-translucent tendrils rose from all over the circle and sought the Twinhead Emperor with pure hunger.

The tendrils began to latch onto the cursed rune above the ogre as they also pierced into the runes on his body, sucking out energy like leeches. Jake happily controlled it all as best he could, feeling the delight from the mythical weapon as it ate well from not only the ogre but all the remnant energy from the ritual itself.

Realizing he was not winning this fight for control, the Twinhead Emperor made a quick decision. The rune above him promptly exploded, releasing a black wave of energy that was mostly pulled in and absorbed by Eternal Hunger, but Dina did have to block the rest.

“Fine, have it your way,”the ogre said with anger as he raised a foot and stomped hard. Jake, flying above, saw cracks spread out from the Twinhead Emperor below. Dozens of them spread in moments from his position, hundreds of kilometers in every direction before he stomped a second time.

cracks instantly shook and fractured further. A massive earthquake shattered the terrain below, the sheer power enough to finally dismantle the entire ritual circle for good, dispelling all the tendrils. Giant masses of land began to rise, and others fell as the world looked like it split open. Jake also

quickly tried to check in with his party, but before he even got an answer, he pulled his bow

now engaging him in a one-on-one. The two of them were rapidly moving through the deep ravines, the

was already damaged quite a bit, which was part of why

was not

Dina suddenly yelled through the Golden Mark, Jake cursing internally as he released

to crawl out, made up of the stone itself. Jake

Earth Elemental – lvl

dryad, and I shall deal with these

added as she swooped in from above the crevice, crashing into an elemental that was closing in on Dina. The Fallen King also quickly made his way to the dryad, as Dina knelt down and focused while

space to not be wholly overwhelmed. The pressure on him was still intense, as the ogre used both staff and sword to try and take him down,

rightfully on

as well as he had hoped. The Heartrot Poison was very rooted in the concept of death, which the ogre had a high natural resistance to. The

green aura spread from the deep crevice with Dina in as she was finished with her magic. She, too, had made her preparations before the battle, which

as suddenly the ground erupted once more. Thick roots pierced out of the walls and floor of the deep valleys formed from the earthquake, quickly entangling all of the Summoned Earth Elementals at once. The Twinhead Emperor himself also wasn’t spared,

Sword Saint could get some distance… except he decided to use this chance to attack instead. Barely taking a step back, he raised his sword and took a stance, not allowing the many wounds marring his body to affect him. As he took a deep breath, his body exploded with power, and for a moment, his entire form changed

“Glimpse of Spring: Erosion.”

a beam from his eyes at the water stream. The thin stream was too fast, and even as the eyebeam hit, it was

of the ogre’s back as his own arrow rain also arrived, a dozen piercing into the arms and shoulders of the boss. In his chest, a hole big enough to pass a basketball through had opened from the Sword Saint’s Glimpse of Spring, dripping

powershot, a sigh echoed in his ears, the ogre’s aura changing once more. Below, he saw the Sword Saint rapidly retreat as Dina

I feel a powerful energy

make his way back toward

the Twinhead Emperor but quickly spread from there, soon making the entire huge root network rot from within. A dark mist spread from the boss, one that gave Jake a powerful response from Sense of the

of pure death, born from decay, further infused with a powerful curse. The form of the Twinhead Emperor had turned gray within the dense mist as the ground itself began to lose all color, and with heavy steps, the ogre began to walk toward Dina and company. With every step, the mist grew stronger, the Twinhead Emperor walking with his thick

the ogre suddenly shot forward as he sprinted toward Dina. The staff was gone… which was also when Jake noticed. The head of the shaman looked as if he was knocked out. His eyes were closed, and he didn’t do anything. Jake was confused, but luckily, his confusion didn’t last

soul… is purely assisting the other,” the Fallen King warned. “We face only the warrior as of this moment, limiting the diversity of skill for power.

in on his party, the Sword Saint having just made it back to them, pretty injured, along with the Fallen King. For them to enter this domain of

two oldies, Sylphie, make sure the poison doesn’t reach them… I’ll keep the big guy busy,” Jake said as he focused while stepping down, Pushing One Step to its limits. As a minor fuck you to the Fallen King, Jake also finally passed a barrier as he, with a single step, traveled more than a hundred miles. He appeared on the ground, right between the

the Twinhead Emperor spoke.

said, getting into a stance with katars drawn,