The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1031: Primal Hunter vs Celestial Child (8) Chapter 1031: Primal Hunter vs Celestial Child (8)

Explosions and cutting waves of crescent moonlight reshaped the landscape as Jake and Ell’Hakan battled across the planet’s surface, tearing everything up in their path. Most of it was sand, but there were also plenty of massive rocky plains for them to destroy as Jake constantly redirected Ell’Hakan’s blow away from himself and into the environment, with the nahoom not caring in the slightest as he continually released his rain of starlight shards.

Courtesy of the Void Sphere, none of their destruction was reflected in the real world, and neither did they encounter any other living beings as they continued fighting, the fight having taken on its own tempo. Ell’Hakan had slightly powered up once more despite his state seemingly worsening, making him able to constantly put pressure on Jake.

Not that Jake was losing out much as the battle stayed surprisingly equal for a while, with Jake constantly retreating and forcing Ell’Hakan to give chase to avoid Jake pulling out his bow, as while Ell’Hakan had a slight advantage in melee combat, it was the opposite when distance was established.

Jake did wonder a few times if attacking even mattered much, as despite doing a lot of damage, Ell’Hakan seemed to not care in the slightest. In fact, it seemed to almost make him stronger as despite losing another arm and taking multiple injuries, he simply healed everything immediately using his odd starlight energy. Or, well, considering he called himself the Celestial Child, perhaps calling it celestial energy would be more accurate.

However, Jake soon became confident that despite nothing seemingly changing, his attacks did have an effect. He began to notice that the poison still running through Ell’Hakan’s body began to move differently when it sought to attack his vital energy, almost as if it met obstructions or cut-off paths. Moreover, as Jake focused more on the poison in Ell’Hakan’s body using Sense of the Malefic Viper, he began to notice the small cracks.

Not on any armor or weapons, but on Ell’Hakan’s Soulshape, indicating his soul was breaking apart in real-time, and whenever Jake landed a blow, he only sped up the process. Seeing this, Jake even doubted it for a moment as he questioned how Ell’Hakan could remain so damn blasé about everything. If Jake could detect the massive amounts of soul damage going on, so could Ell’Hakan, right?

Because Jake sure as hell noticed how much his forearm hurt every time he moved it, the damage from being grabbed earlier taking annoyingly long to heal. While it wasn’t enough to negatively affect his combat prowess, it was bad enough to make Jake extremely cautious of ever allowing Ell’Hakan to catch him like that again.

To avoid being caught, Jake had also chosen a very specific direction to move in, as the two of them were rapidly moving toward where the largest population of the nahoom had once presided: the capital city.

He planned on using the area to his advantage, as the nahoom really liked building tall towers and large buildings that should help block many of Ell’Hakan’s attacks, while Jake felt confident that these obstacles would instead only lead to more of his arrows hitting as he got more opportunities for tricky curving arrows.

Soon enough, the city appeared as they went over a sand hill, Ell’Hakan shooting a beam of moonlight straight through the sand as it was kicked up everywhere during his pursuit. Jake dodged the beam as he shot an arrow that the nahoom decided to dodge, slowing him down slightly and giving Jake a chance to use a few instances of One Step before his opponent turned into a beam of light and pursued once more.

He appeared in front of Jake as he unleashed an explosion of starlight that Jake purposefully blocked with a barrier of arcane mana to launch himself toward the city. He was ready to be attacked again, but instead, the nahoom began talking while giving pursuit.

“Even now, it stands proud, a beacon of life and a testament to the power of the nahoom in the middle of the desert,” the Celestial Child spoke, turning his attention briefly toward the capital city Jake was nearly at.

“I do find it appropriate for this to be the site of the battle, and I shall bury you here once you’re dead, erecting a monument to serve as a warning and reminder to all who dare try and walk a similar path to yours.”

“Reminder to whom?” Jake yelled back in between using One Step. “How many did you kill of your own kin already? Are there even any alive to build the monument for you?”

“I did not kill my kin. They simply gave their lives to protect this planet. They know that should I fail to slay you, it will mean the end of this world, your very existence a threat to the universe,” the Celestial Child responded calmly. “You also underestimate the nahoom. We are a hardy race, and even if you had succeeded in your plot of destroying the planet, we would have survived through our kin spread throughout the galaxy. Kin that shall return and help rebuild once you have fallen.”

The confidence of the nahoom was almost impressive, and Jake would have had at least an iota of respect if he didn’t know it stemmed from Ell’Hakan mind-fucking himself into oblivion. He truly was utterly delusional, believing everything he said with genuine conviction as if it were the absolute truth.

damn laughable, Jake also recognized how dangerous it was. Ell’Hakan was effectively closer to an elemental or spirit now with his current body, only hanging on due to the constant influx of faith energy and an insane display of Bloodline-fueled Willpower that could truly only come from

than a rush. In fact, rather than chasing after Jake directly, he instead flew up into the air. Initially, Jake thought he

them had released any attacks for quite a while. Seeing Ell’Hakan stare at them, Jake just shrugged mentally as he shot an arrow toward him, the nahoom at least aware enough of himself

even considering I do not believe I underestimated you. Considering the failing state of my vessel, dragging things out needlessly seems ill-advised... so allow me to

in each hand. The light behind him suddenly intensified, and Jake’s eyes opened wide as he felt a wave

“Sunrise.”

rose up behind him, joining the twin moons in the sky, all shining

all the energy Ell’Hakan couldn’t absorb. This skill usage had

sun start by actually being a sunrise, it appeared already mostly risen immediately, the heat it gave off also representing this. Jake’s scales were immediately put under extreme pressure as the heat of the sun began to burn Jake, and despite the sun still not being at its highest point yet, things were already worse than when he’d fought against this skill last

on Royal Road

rising sun, the moons hadn’t gotten any weaker. In fact, it appeared to be

nature as the coldness was gone. Even the element of death had disappeared, with both of them entirely replaced

him. The Celestial Child had effectively activated a double domain, and right now, the only saving grace was that Jake had a moment to adapt as the

deteriorating soul as white cracks had appeared throughout, revealing glittering starlight inside the fissures in his body. Jake saw these fissures but didn’t have time to consider them more as he desperately moved his katars

it penetrated the already weakened scales. His opponent instantly followed up, and because Jake couldn’t move as he wanted

away fast enough. Jake was pushed back repeatedly as he tried to minimize injuries, the only harm he did to Ell’Hakan stemming from the few times some of

celestial affinity, burning into his soul along with his body, not to mention the fact

minor break after being blasted through a large stone

fight back as he kept resisting it with Pride of the Malefic Viper. However, the skill simply wasn’t strong enough to keep up. While it did allow him to

to stabilize the space, the combined powers of the sun and moonlight were just too difficult to battle at the same

Jake would have been completely and utterly fucked. The scales did also help analyse all the energy they absorbed, giving Jake some level of insight into the kind of magic he was dealing with, but proper analysis and discovery of a way to counteract it would

toward the ground as he smashed through

time, only to be struck in the back half a second later by a beam of starlight blasting him down a long street and through another five houses before he landed on

Jake caused an explosion of arcane energy, launching him upwards with his back blistering and burning from a combination

this damn domain... Jake cursed as he was forced

was, Jake didn’t have one. The closest thing he had was Pride, and that wasn’t a real domain skill. It was more of an aura skill

why wasn’t that

Pride of the Malefic Viper made it easier to control the area

extend at least dozens of kilometers in every direction, though it likely wouldn’t work to infuse that entire area with mana using Pride. Doing so would also be extremely wasteful,