The Primal Hunter

Dealing with adds – short for additionals or enemies that one had to fight alongside the boss - in any kind of encounter was always a bit annoying. In most cases, the boss would enter some charge-up phase during the fight with the adds, and Jake had kind of expected this to be the case during their planning. This turned out not to be the case, with Jake having the sneaking suspicion it was due to them allowing the artifacts to be empowered.

Yeah, that seemed like something Minaga would do. If they were sabotaged, the Demon Lord would be unable to summon anything. If they did nothing, the boss would channel the spell or something to summon the Tower Demons, immobilizing himself for a while, and if they empowered him, they would have to face the boss and his minions all at the same time.

Alas, it was not entirely unexpected, so they had planned on taking advantage of one of their party’s unique traits: individual excellence. Each of them could fight exceptionally well on their own, which is why they spread up with one person heading for a Tower Demon each. Dina would rotate and assist all three of them, but seeing as the Sword Saint was the most injured, she started out by helping him. If any person managed to kill their Tower Demon, they would then help the others.

It was a good plan with just one problem: the Demon Lord himself.

If he was also in full fighting condition, it would be a nightmare battling him alongside a Tower Demon, much less a Tower Demon with its four Guardians.

That is where Jake came in.

As shown with the Sword Saint earlier, no one could fight the Demon Lord alone and keep him preoccupied. No one but Jake. If there was one thing he was good at, beyond anyone else there, it was dealing with a foe far more powerful than himself. He didn’t need to win… just buy time while keeping the Demon Lord focused on him as the four others killed the Tower Demons.

That is why he went straight to taunting. While repeatedly proving himself a threat and dealing damage was one way to keep the Demon Lord on his ass, constant insults and attempted ”attacks” using Pride also did wonders. In fact, it maybe worked a bit too well.

”HOW DARE YOU!?” the Demon Lord roared as he slammed his sword into the ground, exploding the area around him. Jake had already stepped down and teleported out of range, but the demon was relentless.

”How dare you ask if I dare!?” Jake yelled in response.

Several swift swings aimed to decapitate Jake as he dodged in between them, never allowing himself to be caught in any combo. His boosting skill was already active at the offensive 50%, as that also increased Agility, his most important stat at the moment.

”You!” the boss groaned as several magic circles appeared around him, the crown glowing as magic manifested. The casting had only taken a brief moment, and several flamethrowers were released in Jake’s direction in concert with the demon’s charge.

”Yes, you!”

Jake met the boss in his charge. A quick barrier of stable arcane mana was enough to slightly divert some flames, opening a path for Jake to dodge. As he slid under the legs of his opponent, he managed to wrap a string of arcane mana around it that he swiftly pulled on.

The demon was only slightly yanked before cutting the mana rope, but the action alone clearly annoyed him. Seemingly keeping his cool – as much as a Demon Lord on fire could – he shifted his stance slightly.

”For your insolence… death.”

Jake’s danger sense reacted as he barely managed to avoid the stab going straight for him. Still mid-dodge, the angle of the blade shifted, the direction changing in an attempt to bisect him. Using his katars, he managed to block and redirect the momentum to launch himself back. Yet just as he thought he was safe, the boss pointed a finger in his direction.

Crossing his katars in front of his chest, he blocked as a small red beam was fired out. It had no physical impact as it hit his katars, but Jake instantly felt both weapons heat up to a ridiculous degree, burning his palms even through the gloves.

Focusing, he had Eternal Hunger react as it was momentarily bathed in a shadowy aura; the heat instantly consumed, and just in time, too, as he dodged another beam, followed by a wide swing from the Demon Lord.

Not as easy as I thought, but…

”I am still waiting over here,” Jake said as he bent his back to dodge, looking like he was going for the world record in limbo. ”When is that death coming?”

He didn’t get a response as the boss kept up its rapid attacks. They were a lot faster than before, the demon no longer going for massive damage but just catching out Jake. It was waiting for him to make a mistake or take him by surprise with an otherwise unseen move.

Sadly for the dear demon, it had chosen the worst opponent imaginable. Granted, the Demon Lord was a lot more powerful than Jake, and in a one versus one, he would have to fight far differently and take significant risks, but if all he had to do was buy time, this was easy enough. If things did get a bit too hairy, he still had Eternal Shadow too.

No, for now, he was just happy with building up Hunting Momentum. His one annoyance was that none of the poison he had infused into the Demon Lord had managed to stick. The internal fire energy had simply burned it away too quickly.

As the fight went on, Jake even began to land a few minor counterattacks. Not with the intent to do damage, mind you. He just wanted to keep the Demon Lord mad at him. The taunts also did wonders.

”I think my death is late? Still can’t find it. I guess the deliverer is just incompetent…”

The angry demon roared in response, as Jake just grinned. He didn’t have time to look at what was happening elsewhere in the throne room, but he believed that his party was doing their jobs just fine.

Sylphie didn’t like Horny Red Guy, and she definitely didn’t like Horny Red Guy’s house. Sylphie was smart, so she, of course, knew that no one needed their house to be that hot and she also knew how rude it was to make it super hot when inviting friends. Even if Sylphie & Friends were not really guests, she still thought it was super rude to anyone who did just come to visit.

At least she had managed to help make the house less hot, even if it had made Horny Red Guy super mad. But that was okay because Horny Red Guy was one of the baddies, and making baddies mad was good.

She was a bit worried about Uncle when he wanted to touch the big red glowy thing, especially when it began burning him, but she had to follow the plan. Sylphie was the best at following plans, after all. Plans were good; Slashy Saint said that many times. Slashy Saint was also pretty smart – not as smart as Sylphie – but probably a bit smarter than Uncle. Uncle wasn’t very smart, after all.

He hadn’t even used his Smelly Pot to defeat the baddies yet.

Then again, saving your secret weapon was kind of smart. Sylphie saved her own, but that was mainly because using her secret move made her very tired, and she didn’t want to nap right now. Not before she was done following the brilliant plan made up by Sylphie & Friends to kill the Tower Guy. Tower Guy wasn’t actually a tower, but Flower Lady also didn’t look like a tree despite smelling of one, so Sylphie knew sometimes things weren’t as they appeared.

Tower Guy was still super tower-like, though, as he didn’t care much about Sylphie’s wind. Sylphie also had to fight the Tower Guy with four other baddies, so she knew she had to be careful. She tried her way as she ensured the baddies couldn’t go anywhere to help the Horny Red Guy who was fighting Uncle. It also helped make her invisible when the big tornado was there, so it was definitely smart to use.

The Tower Guy was not nice. He used his fire stick to shoot stuff at Sylphie, and all of the other baddies also tried to stop her from flying around. They were not super fast like her, but they slowly began to ruin her wind, which was rude. In fact, Sylphie had deduced that all these red guys were rude.

Sylphie tried a bunch of stuff, but the Tower Guy was too tower-like and made all of Sylphie’s attacks not as good as Sylphie would have liked. The other baddies also worked together, and one of them even healed her attacks, which was even more rude than the ones ruining her wind. She thought really hard, and without using her super secret skill, she decided to still use one she didn’t like that much because it was super-duper hard to use. But at least the Tower Guy stood still, so maybe it would work. That was one of the good things about towers.

Flying even faster than before, Sylphie began to make herself more windy. At the same time, she also summoned another wind that was even more windy than her usual winds. She wanted these winds to be as windy as they possibly could. It got so windy that the baddies decided to try and stop Sylphie, not knowing that was dumb. They were definitely not as smart as Uncle or the other members of Sylphie & Friends, as they all knew that when Sylphie made herself into a super wind while making another super wind, they had to go away.

The wind got faster and faster, tiring Sylphie out a bit, but she had to do it for her kinda super skill to work. Then, the wind – not her own super winds, the big wind that was everywhere – told her that her two winds were windy enough. That was good; that meant Sylphie could do the Big Bang.

Sylphie focused super hard as she flew away from the baddies while also pushing away the other super wind. Then, she made herself and the super wind turn around. Sylphie didn’t like the skill because it was so hard to use, but Big Wind Meet Go Big Bang was good. The real name was super boring, though.

[Sylphian Storm Convergence (Legendary)]

The Sword Saint struggled a bit with the pain as he stayed on the defensive as Dina healed him up. It was difficult to accept, but he was the least durable member of their party, and the matchup of fire affinity and his own water was a bit of a double-edged sword. While his rain-based attacks were incredibly effective, he was also very susceptible to fire-based attacks, which is how he got into his current predicament of needing quite a lot of healing. The Demon Lord was simply too powerful for him to face alone due to the large sweeping attacks and their area of effect.

Fighting the Tower Demon and the four demons alongside it was a reprieve, especially considering he had Dina help him. As he was healed and began to feel better, Miyamoto went on the offensive, targeting down the fire healer in the group of summoned demons. Dina assisted him by restricting two Guardians, allowing him to land several blows before he had to disengage due to the Tower Demon. The demon in question was capable of summoning fire beasts of some sort and, using its brazier staff, released barrages of fireballs constantly.

Nevertheless, after he pushed his boosting skill a bit further, they firmly had the upper hand. As the sole group of two, they were meant to quickly finish the Tower Demon to go and assist the others. Miyamoto was especially worried about Jake, who had to face the Demon Lord on his lonesome.

Using Rainblade on full power, he cut an arm off one of the demons as he turned and pointed his sword at the healer. Droplets appeared in a line as he used his Erosion Stab. Time slightly warped as he lunged, and even through a barrier, the head of the demon was pierced. Before any of the other demons could assist, he pivoted and beheaded the first of the demons. He was about to get struck from behind as vines shot up and pushed away two demons while simultaneously blocking a blast of fire from the Tower Demon.

Just as he was about to move in and strike another demon, a powerful gust of wind swept through the entire throne room, buffeted and warped by the large pillars.

Miyamoto couldn’t help but throw what was happening a glance. Despite the pillars, he had a clear line of sight. What he saw looked like two giant swirling waves flying around the demons, the swirling winds looking like they were trapped within a larger tornado. One of them gave off the aura of Sylphie herself, and the other was controlled by her, flying opposite – almost mirrored – to her own movements.

Then, she changed direction. The entire tornado expanded as these two waves went their opposite directions before Sylphie promptly turned in the air and began flying directly back toward the demons trapped in the middle of it all. The other massive wave-like gust of wind once more mirrored her movements.

Like two oceans meeting, the winds clashed. For a moment, it felt as if all of the air in the entire chamber had been sucked out, and even the brazier of the Tower Demon before the Sword Saint was momentarily extinguished.

Then, just as the air had all gathered, it exploded outwards in a flash of green lightning that forced all of them to put up defenses. At least the Sword Saint momentarily thought he had to until he remembered her words. The lightning actively avoided any of Sylphie’s party members, as they, according to her, were ”wind friends,” so her wind wouldn’t hurt them. That apparently also extended to this green lightning.

Sylphie’s attack had momentarily made them all stop in their movements, and the Sword Saint threw one more glance to see the aftermath. What he saw was a giant crack formed across the entire back wall, floor, and even ceiling right where the two massive waves of wind had clashed… two demons, now cut in four, laying alongside the fissure, both cut in two from head to groin as they had stood right where the clash took place.

Even the Tower Demon had lost an arm as it had failed to move away in time. Miyamoto had barely taken in the sight when the green wind descended on the Tower Demon once more. Despite having just landed a massive blow, she instantly resumed her attack.

Shaking his head, the Sword Saint flashed a smirk.

A bit embarrassing to see myself outdone by such a young one… and I even have help, he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath, he shifted his stance slightly as his boosting skill fully activated, and the rain descended from above, defying the fiery environment.

The demon screamed as the Fallen King crushed it against the wall as he tore the legs off another with a Golden Claw. Finally, he had broken the formation of the annoying demons, but before he could finish off his target, the Tower Demon lunged forward, swinging its staff.

Contrary to the others, this Tower Demon happily engaged in melee. Not that the Fallen King found this unfortunate, as he gladly proved his defenses were superior as he summoned a rectangular golden barrier to block as he pushed on it, the golden energy still connected to him.

Annoyingly, it allowed the demon to get some distance, even without its legs. Spreading his aura, the Fallen King faintly put pressure on them all as he directly attacked their souls. He felt their relative fragility and gladly took advantage.

Turning his attention back to the demon embedded in the wall, the King showed no mercy. A charged beam fired towards his stuck opponent, blasting a hole in the wall as the entire torso of the demon was blown to smithereens. Just as he prepared to attack again, the wind swept past.

The Fallen King felt the Sylphian’s power as it proved its dominance over the demons. An acceptable display of power by the party member he had been the most skeptical about, but her rapid growth and power had won him over. Though perhaps it was to be expected. She was a creation of the little hunter, after all. Considering the power of the Cosmic Worm and the True Royal…

How could his firstborn possibly be weak?