The Primal Hunter

Jake and his party were faced with a choice… run away and drag things out until the Twinhead Emperor’s empowered state ended, or try and fight back while buying time. Directly confronting the boss was definitely not advised, something they were all in agreement with. Jake usually wasn’t a fan of just running away, but if his party decided to do just that, he wouldn’t object.

“We should retreat for now. Fighting directly is too risky,” the Sword Saint quickly said as he received some emergency healing from DIna. She couldn’t restore his resources and fatigue, but she could get him back in temporary fighting condition… or at least well enough to launch one more good attack.

“I concur,” the Fallen King instantly agreed.

“Me too-“ Dina tried to say but was cut off by the boss.

“You wish to flee? To drag things out? You all seem to thoroughly misunderstand something,” the Twinhead Emperor said as his staff began to light up. Jake felt the entire environment shift as the mana all around took on the aura of the ogre. “It’s already far too late to run.”

Then, Jake felt the pressure as his body felt far heavier. The ground all around them cracked as everything buckled, even the mana in the air itself getting pushed down. It wasn’t suppression of aura or anything like that, but something far more tangible. Gravity magic...

A fucking complicated school of magic that was, needless to say, pretty damn strong. What’s more, the shaman clearly wasn’t done as he pointed his staff toward Jake and the three others around him. A massive flamethrower flew out, unaffected by the increased gravity that weighed everything else down.

Reacting quickly, four barriers appeared. One golden, one green, one of water, and one of stable arcane mana. The flames washed over the four attempts to block the attack, as each was burned through in moments before finally the flame shattered the final one and sent all four of them scattering in four different directions to dodge the attack.

The Twinhead Emperor wanted to follow up, but just then, a blast of wind descended from above, making the staff’s head smash into the ground, resulting in an explosion that sent the boss stumbling back. It was naturally Sylphie who went on the offensive.

Several more bullets of wind shot down, the boss raising a hand to block them with his own barrier of wind – only to then have an arrow strike him in the shoulder, as Jake took the chance to launch an attack of his own.

A long, thin blade of water also struck the boss mere moments later, followed by a blast of force that pushed Jake’s arrow further into the ogre’s shoulder. These attacks were not done with the intent to try and deal damage to the Twinhead Emperor but to try and limit his mobility and disrupt his attacks at least a little bit. Plus, dealing damage should help hasten his demise still.

Sadly, their attacks proved to have little effect as the ogre stomped down, making the ground erupt as ten large boulders flew up, and with a hand motion, each condensed into small stones. Pointing his staff once more, the stones all began to glow molten as cracks formed all over them before he sent them flying toward the four non-birds in Sylphie’s party.

Jake quickly reacted as he shot down three of the approaching boulders that were aimed for the Sword Saint and Fallen King. When he hit them, all three exploded, sending sharp obsidian shards flying everywhere. This gave them some early warning as to the nature of the attack, so when the remaining seven arrived, everyone was ready as they erected barriers and made good distance.

Even so, the Sword Saint failed to deflect every obsidian shard, as one tore straight through his stomach and another through his thigh, while the Fallen King had over a dozen join the black metal shards already sticking out of him.

Bobo, Dina’s living armor, managed to block every single one of them while Jake dodged and prepared to continue his own counterattacks. He shot several arrows that were all sent flying by a blast of wind as the ogre swept his free hand upwards.

A large plate of earth was lifted and flipped over right on top of Jake and his party, but before it could crush them, a tree sprouted from the ground smashed into it, and tore it in two. Dina was back for a bit of action as she channeled mana into the otherwise dead ground, making it explode with life as hundreds of vines shot up.

However, the boss easily responded with a scoff as the gravity around him increased, crushing all the vines back into the ground. Raising his staff toward the sky, the shaman mumbled something silently as a single bolt of lightning shot upwards.

Once it got high enough, it exploded into a massive black thundercloud that instantly began rumbling. During this magic, Jake managed to land a single arrow, as he found himself struggling with the increased gravity, but luckily, Unblemished Arrows made things easier as it made his arrows less affected. The Sword Saint and Fallen King also shot their ranged attack, but all to little effect.

Someone who was luckily not struggling at all was the lightest and smallest person in their party of five. A barrage of wind blades fell upon the shaman, making him groan in pain as he tried to use his staff to block. Using his staff, he shot several large blasts of fire toward the hawk, trying to hit her, but Sylphie simply transformed her body into wind time and time again to avoid taking any noticeable damage.

Having realized her plants couldn’t do much, Dina had also shifted her attention to helping Jake and Sylphie with buffs and defensive barriers whenever necessary. She was also still helping the two oldies recover, allowing the Fallen King to not be entirely out of commission as he soon landed a barrage of golden beams and blasts of force, making the ogre stumble and for Sylphie to land another good attack, sending blood flying.

tanking everything. He was fully on the offensive, as he quickly stopped bothering to deal with Sylphie and went after the slowest people in their

began raining toward her, the ogre lifting a hand as cold energy began to condense. A massive spear of ice was summoned and thrown, Dina barely managing to make a tree shoot up and block in time. Meanwhile, Sylphie and Jake continued trying to attack

bad…

“Jake and Sylphie…”

assured her, giving her the

“Ree!” Sylphie also agreed.

Pushing herself, she once more entered her empowered form as trees began shooting up all around her, each of them

a moment, he stopped, and using Mark, Jake saw the Soulshape of the Twin Emperor temporarily look as if it was wrapped in golden chains. Not for long, but enough for the next attack to arrive, as the

“Glimpse of Spring: Erosion.”

was not weakened. The stream of water soared toward

ability to stop the ogre too weak. He managed to move

water struck him in the right knee, blasting off the entire leg beneath it. Landing on the ground again, the shaman used earth magic to form a new temporary leg quickly before turning toward his

enraged gaze, the boss looked toward Dina and the two with her but found a dense dome of wood had formed to protect them. Taking out his anger, he pointed his staff as a torrent of lighting descended upon it, along with a flamethrower from the staff. Taking advantage, Jake released a Powershot, striking the Twin Emperor in the arm, making him nearly drop his staff, as Sylphie did a quick fly-by and left

rightfully on Amazon; if

the Twinhead Emperor grimaced as he saw a burnt wooden dome that was rapidly

Sylphie actively attacking him. The problem with this technique was that Dina couldn’t do anything else when using it, nor let anyone out. Something the shaman quickly realized as he didn’t bother attacking the dome again. Instead, he turned his attention to the two people remaining outside still with

it was only the two of them left… because Jake felt that the Sword Saint was practically unconscious, while the Fallen King could barely maintain himself with all the damage he had taken. Once the dome expired or was destroyed, and if the boss still lived, things wouldn’t be good, and unless the Sword Saint wanted to take the massive risk of using his full Transcendence in his current state, the three of them had little other choice than using the escape tokens they still had saved from Minaga’s Labyrinth… so

least ones that aren’t just for decoration at this point,” Jake taunted the boss, trying to get an emotional reaction and drag out

bow. The Arcane Powershot pierced through the flames before finally getting deflected by the staff. The ogre had not

attacking plenty on her own. Erecting an ice barrier, the boss blocked the wind attacks while continuing to launch spells toward a quite frankly struggling Jake. Under normal circumstances, he would be able to

Jake’s senses were focused like never before as he kept track of every single shift of mana in the atmosphere, moving before the magic even manifested. As his read on the

strikes he tried using to keep her in check. Her assistance

shrink in density. It was odd to describe, but Jake felt as if he could effectively see the soul slowly fall apart. With the poison and accumulated damage, the ogre would die soon no matter what happened… so all

in time if things

which was when the shaman did something entirely unexpected. With a flick of his wrist, the

ground dented, and Jake felt the pressure instantly as he smashed straight into the ground from the gravity field suddenly increasing in power several

time… does not seem feasible,” the ogre said while blood poured out his mouth as he turned his head and raised his other hand toward Sylphie in the sky. “But

dense wave of wind. The Twin Emperor looked at it as his hand began to glow with power. At the same time, his entire body began to shine as every single set of runes enveloped him in light. His body practically burned as his soul was set

bend before my

hand as if Sylphie had lost control of it. At the same time, the thunderclouds above suddenly became

smile on the shaman’s face, Jake got a bad

above moved. Wind began to gather as a giant

her pure wind form, began to shoot out wind blades to cut it open, but all her magic was simply absorbed by

further. Sylphie struggled, and Jake tried to stand as he looked up, and his eyes opened wide. Somehow, the wind was getting so condensed that Sylphie began

tighter and tighter. Sylphie was soon entirely forced back into her physical hawk form as Jake saw something he never thought he would.

the Malefic Viper to intensify the poison, exploded his Mark to try and deal some more damage, and even used Gaze…

mention his name, but he could

she did have the Phoenix Feather gifted to her, but it was risky to use… maybe… no, he shouldn’t tell her to, but… Jake didn’t want to know what could happen if she didn’t get out. He finally stopped doubting what had to be done as he