The Primal Hunter

Chapter 950: Jake & Covert Galaxy Politicking Chapter 950: Jake & Covert Galaxy Politicking

While floating down to meet the battered and beaten World Leader and other survivors, Jake couldn’t help but reflect a bit on the fight. More accurately, one aspect of the fight.

It had come as a bit of a surprise, but despite the Prima Guardian being in the middle of a battle against other people, Jake had fully benefitted from Lone Hunter throughout everything. It had been active from the moment Jake decided to kill the Prima Guardian, even as it was actively fighting several others.

This didn’t make much sense to Jake. How was it considered a solo hunt with so many people involved? However, when he considered it a bit more… why wouldn’t Lone Hunter have been active?

Jake was hunting alone.

He wasn’t allied with the World Leader or anyone else on this planet. They were just there. Background noise to his own hunt and – to put it bluntly – just part of the environment. It was no different from if Jake stalked two beasts fighting and decided to get involved in the middle of it to take them both down. If Lone Hunter didn’t work in a situation like that, Jake would have found it weird.

Perhaps it also played a role that these people simply weren’t strong enough to ever qualify as hunting companions. The final strike of the World Leader had been okay-ish but pretty damn telegraphed, and when Jake held it up against something like the Sword Saint’s Glimpse of Spring: Erosion… yeah, it was like comparing stabbing someone with a spear or a toothpick.

Returning his focus to the real world, Jake kept descending as everyone who’d survived just stared at him. It was moments like these he was happy to be wearing a mask, as he would have felt pretty damn awkward without it.

In their gazes, he saw a lot of different emotions, but none seemed outright hostile. One could argue that Jake should have stepped in earlier to see if he could save more of them… but why would he have? He’d only gotten involved once it was absolutely certain they would lose. In his mind, getting involved before that may have been a disservice more than anything.

Scenarios where talents face death were multiversally also recognized as opportunities for tremendous growth. Many of Jake’s skill upgrades had come in moments where things weren’t looking good, which was far from rare. Jake choosing to attack the Prima earlier may have potentially robbed the World Leader and others of such an opportunity, something he himself would hate others doing to him.

Besides, if he’d really wanted to be fully selfish, he would have waited for the Prima Guardian to kill everyone before attacking. As things were, he barely delayed getting involved as most of the time he’d spent waiting had been prep time for his opening strike.

Anyway, Jake took his time floating down to meet everyone, primarily to give them all a bit of time to gather themselves. Miranda had also talked to Jake about the importance of theatrics at times to leave a more lasting impression. Even Villy was a fan of showing off, though his reasoning was more about the importance of looking cool while doing something.

Some of the survivors had gone to help their more injured comrades, and Jake saw that the space mage had survived. Despite having been close to the epicenter of the crater, he had barely taken any damage but had only been blasted away. Jake’s destructive arcane energies had been focused on killing the Prima, meaning he had been spared for the most part, and with some healing, he should be okay.

Probably.

Arriving at the same height as the World Leader, she seemed to finally snap out of her stupor as she bowed her head. ”Thank you for saving us. I am Olliandra, the World Leader of this planet. May I know the identity of our savior?”

Jake felt a sense of caution even as she asked, which gave Jake a more positive impression of her. Even under these circumstances, she was level-headed enough to question who or what Jake was, as well as his intentions for helping them. Also, he could admit it was a bit weird for a guy to show up and just kill the Prima Guardian without further elaborating.

”Thayne,” Jake just answered, choosing to go with his last name. ”World Leader of the planet Earth.”

The woman looked like she was searching her memory about who he could be, but she seemed to come up blank. One of the reasons Jake had chosen to not go with his identity as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was to see if people even knew his name. He had been told that Ell’Hakan had spread some information about Jake but clearly hadn’t gone as far as to use his actual name… though he would come to learn in not that long that his brilliant ruse of only using his last name was kind of moronic.

Anyway, Ell’Hakan using Jake’s title over his name made sense. From the beginning, he had been trying to frame Jake as more of a symbol rather than a person. Only using his title would help accomplish that.

”I apologize; I do not believe I have heard of you,” the World Leader called Olliandra said, keeping her very polite tone. Despite her state, she also tried to keep an aura of dignity, which was pretty hard considering her missing arm and overall bloody appearance.

Jake decided to also be a bit polite as he took a quick look around. ”Rather than speak here, you should gather your allies and attend to the wounded. We shouldn’t waste more time than needed either. You have a Planetary Core to claim and an army of Primas to address.”

be willing

been pretty average so far. It looked a

the system, unless people were fully dead, chances are they would naturally stabilize themselves if left alone for a bit. There were circumstances where injuries could be bad enough to still lead to death, but unless harmful energies had been infused into the blows and lingered, this was rare. Okay, if poison was involved,

saw Olliandra look toward the crater

Prima Guardians do not leave anything behind. Any rewards are inside the Prima Vessel and only become available after all the regular Primas are also dead,” Jake

asked to clarify: ”Has your planet

course,” Jake just

this one?” she asked hesitantly. It wasn’t a secret that the Prima Guardians scaled based on the planet, and it wasn’t a reach

Jake simply shook his head. The levels and the sheer difference in power between the two variants did make them difficult to compare. In fact, the only real thing they had in common was their durability and their ability to somewhat adapt, though the level of adaption of the Exalted Prima Guardian had been insane. This one

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thing, as it had no counters to when Jake struck. It had also helped a bit that it was already damaged and had spent a fair amount of energy. Of course, the primary reason it had been so easy to kill was

pressing further. From the look in her eyes, she seemed to get what Jake was

Jake saw Olliandra clearly struggling just moving around, her boosting skill having done quite a number on her internals. Still, she hadn’t asked anyone for help, so neither would Jake offer. It wouldn’t look good for her either if another World Leader assisted her

massive and pretty damn impressive city. Tall and mostly rectangular towers were erected everywhere, the yellow-tinged stone really shining through. Quite literally,

seemed to have been, considering how quickly civilizations usually developed, but perhaps Earth had just been weird in that regard. Thinking on it further, the benefits of having been technologically advanced before the system were pretty much non-existent, while if you lived in a

cathedral-looking building, which Jake later came to learn also served as the royal palace. Scouting the capital city, it was quite clear no Primas had reached it yet, but people were on high alert, and there weren’t as many around as Jake would

who hadn’t bothered staying in the proposed meeting room but had gone to the clocktower that overlooked the city. He saw that she was joined by the space mage

joined Jake, taking out two chairs for her and the

talk,” Jake said. It was already enough that she prioritized meeting with him over going to claim the

you,” she bowed her head, something the space mage clearly didn’t like, but he tried to not let it show. He was pretty bad at being sneaky, though. Jake would really recommend

began. ”You are

Jake answered. ”But I guess that isn’t what you are

by them?” he followed up, his eyes glowing with reverence for a moment. ”Did the Celestial Child not turn

if he said the question surprised him. He would also lie if he said it didn’t

Child, huh,” Jake said, smiling beneath his mask. ”What makes you think someone like

fuck would only play into the guy’s plans. Better to just take the approach of finding

the leader of the Prima Guardian Alliance?” Olliandra asked, a bit confused. ”He is the Chosen of Yip of Yore, a god comparable or even superior to the twelve Primordials. If he didn’t send you… why

down the Prima Guardian,” Jake answered. ”As for the other nonsense you said… let me just give you some kind advice: don’t believe everything you hear, especially not when it comes out of the mouth of someone

by that?” the space mage asked in an offended tone, not even trying

me either. Just to show caution and to watch yourselves. Ell’Hakan can manipulate the emotions of others, often without them even noticing. Simply being aware of this is the best defense and you should continually question yourselves while in his presence if what you are feeling is genuine. That’s the only

did anything. Most World Leaders or politically inclined would, considering the plethora of skills we have to defend against or at least detect such

Jake

she was about to say something but stopped herself as she looked deep in thought. The space mage also kept

bowed once more. ”I thank you for your warning, Lord Thayne. It has given me much food for thought. We haven’t had many interactions with the Celestial Child,

space mage asked

to his sudden outburst. He didn’t even seem to notice, though, as