The Primal Hunter

Chapter 982: Rightful Burden Jake quickly nocked another arrow to release a barrage of purely stable arrows as he bombarded the creature he had Identified as something called the Desolate Child of Loss. It definitely wasn’t the kind of name of some “normal” race or anything like that; at least, Jake didn’t think so, but neither was it a Unique Lifeform.

In truth, Jake had no idea what the fuck they were dealing with. No one seemed to, but right now, it didn’t matter as he kept attacking to buy space for Sylphie and the Fallen King, with the latter especially in need of assistance.

The Protean Arrow Jake created had been one with the express intent of getting the Desolate Child of Loss away from the two of them and was made nearly entirely of stable arcane mana, and he had even tried mixing some neurotoxins. He was fully aware that the desolation would rapidly make anything he did to the creature lose all effect, but he didn’t need it to last that long in the first place.

From the looks of it, it proved to be enough and Eron, alongside William, quickly stepped forward to help. The healer flew to meet the two being chased as William activated his boosting skill to full power right away as silver armor covered his entire body, and raising his hand, a giant shield of pure metal appeared. Runes covered it all over, the young metal mage infusing it with more and more mana as he waited for his opening.

After Jake managed to land a powerful arrow that curved to surprise the Desolate Child of Loss, the mage made the nearly five-meter-wide and more than ten meters tall tower shield float down in front of him as he punched it with his palm, launching it down toward the Desolate Child of Loss.

Assisting the mage, Jake looked down at the Desolate Child of Loss as he did something potentially risky. His eyes glowed for a moment as Primal Gaze activated, and he stared at the soul of the creature as its soul also stared back at him…

What?

Jake stumbled back, but the skill had activated way more effectively than Jake expected, the Desolate Child of Loss screaming toward the sky in pain right as its entire body froze, and the metal shield slammed into it, sending it flying down toward the upper layers of the clouds at incredible speeds as William kept channeling mana into it to push it downward.

This made the remnants of the domain of desolation closest to them slowly begin to lose power, and with the Fallen King and Sylphie fully out of it, Eron quickly made his way to them. They both looked off, their bodies having lost their usual luster, as if they hadn’t been fully colored while everything else was. Sylphie’s usual vibrant green was muted and nearly gray, while the Fallen King’s gold was just glowing white lines, and both of them practically oozed out desolation into the environment.

Eron naturally knew their situation wasn’t that good, and he held nothing back as he appeared right in front of him. “We are in a rush, and I do not have the time to be gentle, so accept the unpleasantries that are to come.”

The healer held out a hand toward each of them as his body erupted in white flames, and his voice echoed as he boosted himself beyond his usual limits, even using Words of Power to further amplify what he was about to do. “May you be purged by fire.”

With those words, the two of them erupted as white flames consumed them, and Jake finally managed to gather his thoughts properly after using Gaze as he heard Sylphie screech from the pain of Eron’s arcane affinity forcefully burning away the desolation within their bodies.

He looked down toward the creature that had inflicted the desolation and saw it had managed to finally tear apart the metal shield, pushing it down, and even as he drew his bow to keep attacking, he couldn’t help but frown.

The feeling the Desolate Child of Loss gave off when he used Gaze wasn’t really one Jake could describe easily, but if he had to, he would say its entire existence felt… wrong. Jake had used Gaze on many things throughout his life, seen many forms of souls, and been confronted with many creatures, but this one was the one that made the least sense to him.

On the one hand, it reminded him of the Yalsten Shade of Eternal Resentment he had seen back in the Treasure Hunt. That creature had been a living curse spirit made from pure curse energy and the collective consciousness of all those who had powered the curse with their negative emotions. This Desolate Child of Loss definitely had aspects of that, but as mentioned, it felt wrong.

something that was truly one of a kind, yet also somehow oddly familiar. As if

would die within a few years if left alone, though with its Path, perhaps evolutions would be difficult, but certainly not impossible. Possibly, Jake even

up the Desolate Child of Loss, reminded him of

Divinity.

little. Truthfully, Jake wasn’t at all experienced in how exactly faith worked. All he knew was that the Holy Church was the foremost users of this kind of concept and intangible energy, but he had

that whatever he had seen when he used Primal Gaze wasn’t simple, but it did have a faint sense of feebleness to it, which was why his skill had been so effective. He didn’t know if

stable 30%, he really didn’t want to push himself too much further. Having a damaged soul and lowered resources really didn’t play

damage the Desolate Child of Loss as he began diving downward to keep the creature away from Eron and the two people currently being healed long enough for Sandy to eat them and get the hell out of there. He also told

has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found

dealt with most of Jake’s attacks pretty effortlessly but did take a few minor wounds, mainly because it seemed distracted. As they got even closer to one another, Jake entered the domain of desolation, his body already covered in Scales of the Malefic Viper, allowing him to resist it for

you…” the Desolate Child of Loss said, looking

voice with power to answer, Jake stood ready as he felt a powerful undercurrent of killing intent in the words despite the apparent confusion. It was as if the creature didn’t know why it knew him in

have never met before, so I would find it highly questionable if

perhaps it was due to the core he had eaten and was still

seemingly trying to collect its own thoughts. Then, it seemingly all

the creature stared straight at Jake, its bloodlust growing. It bent its legs slightly and pointed its spear forward, ready to pounce as it spoke one last time. “Unworthy… but must still be

side, Jake avoided the spear and countered as two katars

while trying to counter, but Jake was one step ahead and

spear harder. He was fully aware none of this would be possible without his scales, as they limited the effect the domain had on him, and if he lost them, he would probably not even be able to move at half his usual speed. With them, he was still weakened, but by far less. This was definitely a big reason why the Fallen King and Sylphie had struggled so much. The desolation simply weakened everything to absurd levels, and

within the Desolate Child of Loss was soon fully made desolate, allowing the creature to get even

fully focused on Jake with hatred he had no good explanation for, giving Eron

through and enter his body, but not faster than he could rid of it himself. He wanted to keep himself in a state where Sandy could eat him at any moment. Still,

Arcane Awakening fully activated, his body exploding with arcane energy. Jake felt like he had just set his soul on fire, and the pain was excruciating, as if he had just torn a wound open and decided to pour chili sauce on it. Still, he kept a calm head as he continued facing the creature

check out how the others were doing, he saw that Sylphie was already gone, having likely been eaten by Sandy, with the Fallen King still encased in flames as Eron had a

fighting. By now,

began to waver, and it was soon no longer able to stay active unless Jake forcibly kept it going… at which point he wasn’t just looking at setting back his healing journey