The Primal Hunter

How many phases and different abilities can a single event boss have?

The Twinhead Emperor’s answer to that was apparently just a “yes,” as he always had more to show off. From what Jake and the others had gathered, the Twinhead Emperor primarily had the warrior move the body while the shaman stood for magic and energy control. This also proved true, even as death magic was unleashed, except the shaman head wasn’t even fully awake. Instead, the soul was wholly focused on controlling the magic, truly functioning as a second extremely powerful Virtual Mind.

As for the magic itself… it was rather basic, if extremely powerful in scope. Clearly, the Twinhead Emperor had absorbed a shitload of death and curse energy into the blade from all the different battlefields and was now unleashing it upon their group. Usually, this wouldn’t be that huge of a problem, as a bunch of undead filled with curse energy would just attack everything indiscriminately… except for one minor detail.

Jake and company had been the cause of many of their deaths and clearly the target of their resentment.

From where the ogre had stabbed down his sword, a deep pitch-black pit opened up, and within seconds, Jake heard screams coming from beyond the grave. Spirits began to pour up from the hole all around the ogre, screeching with anguish and anger as the boss opened up what looked like a portal to the underworld.

Gritting his teeth, Jake quickly pulled out his bow and shot an Arcane Powershot at the Twinhead Emperor, who was protected by the beam of death surrounding him. The arrow pierced through the death energy but was severely weakened by the time it hit the boss. Not letting up, Jake kept shooting, landing several on the boss, who focused on protecting his heads while doing the summoning magic.

He continued loosing arrows until he was forced to stop as the summoned spirits began to close in on him. Checking them out, he saw their levels weren’t super impressive, pretty much mirroring the soldiers they had killed on the battlefields.

[Cursed Battlefield Ghost – lvl 302]

[Cursed Battlefield Ghost – lvl 306]

[Cursed Battlefield Ghost – lvl 311]

Each of these spirits was a mix of black and white ethereal energies in a humanoid shape. Their eyes were hollow, and while they did look like the many different enlightened races they had slain, many of them looked very disturbing. Especially the beastfolk, who did not have a single trace of hair on their ghostly bodies, looked off.

Retreating, Jake focused on getting some distance. Jake counted around a hundred total ghosts already summoned, with a few still exiting the abyss every second or so, but it was clear the boss was running out of ghosts to summon. Every ghost wasn’t really a single dead individual, but more the gathering of energy from several. Most of the energy had also been absorbed by the bone spheres, and this felt more like the leftovers.

All of these ghosts were coming straight for Jake, seemingly ignoring his entire party. Something that proved pretty damn unwise as soon it started to rain. Jake responded by empowering the small stable arcane barrier covering his body to not get infected by the rainfall as he knew what the Sword Saint was doing. At the same time, he also stopped retreating, as he instead circled around and began taking potshots at the boss.

By now, the Twinhead Emperor was finished with his summoning and stood back up and used his blade to block Jake’s attacks. However, he didn’t move as he instead seemed to be focused on controlling his legion of ghosts. The boss naturally also felt the rain infused with time magic as he commanded his ghosts to spread out and head toward the rest of his party - something that would prove more difficult than he liked.

A few ghosts were flying away but were suddenly rebuffed and sent flying back toward the boss. A powerful wind swept through as a tornado formed around this entire section of the battle. Far up in the sky, Sylphie was flying in circles, making the tornado even stronger and effectively creating a barrier, forcing all the ghosts to stay within the somehow unaffected rainfall.

a smile. “Abandoned, huh? Or do they believe you are enough on your own? Very well, you can

Twinhead Emperor charged with his army of ghosts rapidly surrounding Jake. Wings sprung on his back as

their methods of attack, but they were far from harmless. Every ghost could summon tangible long white claws to try and cut him, release blasts of pure death energy, and even just charge straight through his body, dealing

spot as several ghosts managed to land blows, with the Twinhead Emperor getting too close for comfort quite

starting to get a bit too hairy, Jake finally got the message he had

“Now.”

disappeared. Only for half a second, everything warped, as Jake appeared

“Rain of Time: Reversal.”

All the ghosts were ripped up, some of them scattering from the attack alone, as even the Twinhead Emperor was caught in the mythical skill. Only a dozen or so ghosts died from the initial activation of the skill, but the

of Time: Thousand Blades

rain collected in the sky above before rapidly descending toward the ogre and the many ghosts. There still weren’t quite a thousand blades… but the old

that it's taken without permission

the ghosts and the Twinhead Emperor himself. Dozens more undead were slain as they were stabbed through, but a bit over a third still remained even after the mythical skill had been used. Partly because the Sword Saint had focused more than half of the falling blades on the big

defend himself. Even so, he was still stabbed more than a hundred times, leaving his back even more damaged than before. He didn’t really seem to

of the wind as she made it close around the many

as the boss finally roared. A torrent of death energy erupted from him, the boss standing back up with a furious look on his face. Swinging, he sent out a wave of pure death, creating a hole in the tornado that he quickly passed through, followed by the twenty or so surviving ghosts. Two did end up getting caught as the

using his mythical skill after already using Glimpse of Spring and being heavily injured early on. Both he and

far from ready to meet the ogre in combat as

he saw Dina had decided it was her turn to show off a bit. A green aura exploded out from where the dryad was standing as her entire body began to transform. Her antlers grew, her dress changed, and she even grew a bit taller. It was

by thick bark-covered vines as the ground erupted. At the same time, Dina’s aura washed over both the boss and the many ghosts, the dryad purposefully controlling

taking root right on top of the boss. The ethereal summoned tree stood nearly ten kilometers tall, as its thick trunk covered the Twinhead Ogre, Sword Saint, and all the

at a rapid pace, the experience was not the same for the undead. It turned

grey body of the Twinhead Ogre also beginning to rapidly break down. His skin cracked open as life mixed with death, Dina not

resist but

as the world was covered in darkness. Only a second later did

ash. Quickly looking over, he saw Dina down on the ground, propping herself up by her elbows as her transformation had been undone, blood flowing from every orifice due to the backlash of having her transformation forcibly undone. Jake saw the worry in her eyes as he

black metal fragments sticking out of

up his