The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t relax for even a moment as he immediately activated Arcane Awakening at its stable 30%. A level 311 humanoid was simply not anyone he could take lightly, and if he let his guard down, things could quickly get hairy.

In response, the bearded man and all of the lower-leveled people did something surprising. Rather than attack, they all turned on their tails and backed away at impressive speeds as the scalekin was the only one who slowly floated toward Jake.

At least they have a proper sense of when fighting is a bad idea.

Looking at the scalekin, Jake tilted his head. “You gonna remain silent and mysterious?”

As an answer, the scalekin pointed their wand at Jake as magic began to gather. Jake also quickly nocked an arrow and prepared to shoot as a white flash erupted from the wand. It wasn’t an attempt to blind him, but instead, just the air around the scalekin mage getting bathed in mana as what looked like fragments of silvery metal began floating around them.

With Sense of the Malefic Viper, he quickly identified the affinity. Some kind of metal affinity… with… oh fu-

Jake released the string of his bow right in time before he had to dodge to the side. A loud explosive sound rocked the airspace as a silvery bolt of lightning flew past him. Before Jake had time to try and nock another arrow, a second thundershock sounded as another bolt was released.

Dodging this one, too, Jake kept flying upwards to get some distance. The range of the lightning was limited, and Jake believed he had an advantage at longer range. As he began flying upwards, the arrow he had loosed during their initial exchange also arrived, but the mage summoned a large tower shield and blocked it, only getting pushed back slightly when the arrow exploded.

However, the blast did do something. It made the hood of the scalekin fly back, revealing what looked like an albino lizard of some kind, with what Jake recognized as clear male traits of this particular species. Did it matter that Jake figured out if it was a male or female scalekin? No, not at all.

Continuing his upwards flight, the mage below made another move. The air around him shimmered as the metal fragments began collecting into dozens of spears, and, at the same time, a magic circle of some kind appeared below him. A few of the metal spears were shot toward Jake, but he dodged all of them as they flew past him and into the clouds above, the attacks thrown haphazardly as the scalekin focused his attention on the magic circle.

Jake didn’t want to see what the scalekin was cooking up if he could avoid it and began to pelt his opponent with arrows. Likely because he knew he had a low chance of hitting Jake, the scalekin decided that rather than use all the metal spears to attack, the scalekin could use them as counters to Jake’s arrows to buy him some time. At least he tried to.

Shooting a series of arrows in quick succession, Jake controlled each of them as their flight patterns became unpredictable. The scalekin seemed surprised and blocked one side with a shield and used the spears on the other. Sadly for him, Jake wasn’t playing around, as right before the arrows hit, they split into dozens each, exploding before they even hit him or the shield. The resulting explosion sent the scalekin staggering back as the magic circle began to flicker as its caster lost focus.

Taking advantage, Jake released a Powershot he had begun charging when he shot the Splitting Arrows before. With the scalekin not entirely focused, he failed to react fast enough as the arrow hit him and blasted him down through his own magic circle, breaking it apart in the process.

Nocking another arrow, Jake was prepared to follow up but suddenly, his danger sense warned him. Turning around, Jake summoned a barrier of stable arcane mana as a white bolt of lightning struck him from within one of the clouds. With his sphere, he saw the spears he had dodged earlier had all stopped in mid-air behind him, and one by one, they began to transform into pure energy as another spear turned into a bolt of lightning.

Below him, the mage had also gathered himself, and it seemed like he was done playing around. The robe covering his body was already mostly ruined due to Jake’s attacks, and through the mage’s own power began to slowly disintegrate as pristine silvery armor revealed itself beneath, covering everything besides the scalekin’s face. At least it was for a brief moment before a helmet began to grow out of the armor, covering his face and leaving no obvious openings.

Dealing with the final lightning bolt from above, Jake turned to look at the mage. He looked like a full-plate warrior tank, and Jake didn’t doubt he was one tough bastard, considering the armor hadn’t taken any noticeable damage yet. To make matters more annoying, the mage had overcome one of the usual weaknesses of heavy armor – low speed - by firing incredibly fast lightning bolts.

Spreading out his arms, the scalekin summoned even more mana as what looked like metal blades appeared. Jake’s reponse was to nock another arrow as he decided to also take things up a notch. Arcane Awakening intensified as he activated the offensive fifty percent, aiming to dodge every blow and focus on dealing damage for now.

Shooting an Arcane Powershot, the mage responded as he held up an open palm, and from it, a speartip appeared before getting blasted out. It hit Jake’s arrow, and both exploded mid-air. As a follow-up from the mage, dozens of blades were also shot toward Jake, all crackling with lightning energy.

They met a barrage of arcane arrows in their path as the air filled with explosions of arcane energy and lightning. The mage kept summoning blades, and Jake kept shooting arrows as neither refused to back down, while both controlling their attacks to hit the others, when they didn’t try to have an arrow or blade sneak by. Occasionally, an attack on either side would make it through, but Jake easily dodged those while the mage blocked.

The attack speed on both sides slowly began picking up as Jake shot faster and faster, and he felt the strain. He also got the feeling this status quo was not good for him as he was burning through resources faster than he was comfortable with. One also had to remember that his foe was more than fifty levels above Jake, resulting in him likely having a deeper mana pool, especially seeing as he was a dedicated mage and not a hybrid like Jake.

Not all was bad, though, as Jake was also cooking something up. However, rather than do it with an obvious magic circle, Jake had a Protean Arrow getting slow-cooked within his quiver. Still, Jake would prefer to change things up, so he did just that.

Rather than continue their duel of blades versus arrows, Jake stopped shooting and instead began charging an Arcane Powershot. Without anything to impede their path, the blades reached him in less than a second, ready to slice him apart, but Jake was ready with his best counter to every attack.

With light movements, Jake dodged and swayed as the many blades flew by him. Some of them left lightning trails that tried to singe him, but his cloak and armor took the brunt of whatever went through, allowing Jake to keep charging.

He had gambled that the mage had stopped controlling every blade manually but was just firing them in his direction, and he had been right. The scalekin mage quickly realized his strategy wasn’t working but didn’t seem particularly bothered as he stopped summoning them.

Jake was ready for some other form of attack, but the scalekin just stood there as Jake charged his attack. Even if Jake was confused about why the scalekin was doing that, he wouldn’t abandon his attack but kept charging the Powershot to its full potential before releasing the string.

A shockwave of energy erupted as what little lightning energy clung to Jake was pushed away, and the arrow descended, surrounded by a dense wave of pure destructive arcane energy. As it went downwards, Jake saw the scalekin merely raise a hand as the silvery metal mana began to gather into a shield, which was when Jake realized why the mage had stopped attacking.

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The arrogant asshole was confident he could just block whatever attack I was charging… yeah, fuck that.

As the silvery mana had nearly formed a solid shield to block the arrow, all the mana suddenly stopped moving. Up above, Jake stared down as two glowing eyes were visible through his mask, unleashing a Primal Gaze, freezing not only the body but the energy of the scalekin.

The freeze only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it had entirely thrown off the scalekin’s timing. The unfinished shield shattered instantly when the arrow hit it, and even if the scalekin became able to move again, there simply wasn’t enough time to react.

Jake blinked rapidly to remove the blood dripping from his eyes after using Primal Gaze on a far higher-leveled foe and saw the scalekin get blasted downward at impressive speed as the arrow hit him. From his Hunter’s Mark and Sense of the Malefic VIper, he felt that the attack had done some damage. Not wanting to miss his advantage, he nocked another arrow and released an Arrow Rain as the sky filled with arrows.

The rain of destructive arcane arrows hit the ground soon after as everything exploded. Jake was happy they were pretty far away from the village because if not, there wouldn’t be much left of it as he stared down at the hundreds of craters below.

Despite the devastation, Jake clearly saw the silvery figure below stand back up, now sporting a nice hole in his otherwise pristine armor. He looked more annoyed than anything as he took to the air. Seeing no reason to let the scalekin do so in a relaxed manner, Jake decided to give him a few arrows along the way, but the scalekin still had his shield and managed to deflect them as he tried to get closer to Jake.

Jake felt the energy within his opponent begin to build up as the air around him quivered. Audible cracks could be heard as small sparks of lightning began to appear just as the mage pointed toward Jake and released a barrage of exploding metal fragments. Jake retreated as he saw the mage raise his shield toward the air with one hand and the wand with the other.

Not wanting to let him do his weird mage stuff, Jake chose to take a few scratches from metal fragments and shoot a quickly charged Arcane Powershot. He did this fully expecting the scalekin to dodge, but his opponent didn’t move at all. The arrow hit the same hole in the armor as last time, piercing the scalekin square in his chest and making him flinch… but he also managed to finish casting his spell.

Jake’s follow-up arrow was blasted to pieces as the mage shot a humongous lightning bolt into the air. An absolute pillar of pure power burned into the sky and even the ground below as Jake felt like something happened within it… which turned out to be kind of true.

When the light faded, what appeared wasn’t the mage but a massive pillar of pure metal in his place. It pierced kilometers into the sky and even deep into the ground, and Jake wondered what the hell was happening until the entire thing started moving slightly.

Parts of it began to turn into cubes and fall off, but mid-fall, they started to warp even more, forming spikes or other sharp metal objects. Soon, the entire pillar began to crumble as metal weapons rained down and covered the ground below, with the mage’s form soon being revealed, now sporting an entire cube of pure metal that surrounded and shielded him.

Well, isn’t this guy one tough nut to crack, Jake thought with a smile.

On the ground below, the many metal weapons began to stir as faint crackles of electricity surrounded them. Jake looked down and then at the mage in the cube as he sighed a bit. He had a plan, but it would take a bit to modify a certain arrow, so for now, he really only had one choice.

The very next second, weapons shot into the air, flying straight for Jake. Thousands of swords, axes, spears, arrows, and all sorts of other spiky things either went straight for Jake or formed a maelstrom of metal around him, sealing his movements.

Knowing there was no room to hold back, Jake went all-out as Arcane Awakening finally fully activated. The weapons came from all sides, but Jake was ready as he entered super-dodging mode. It reminded him a bit of some of Minaga’s trap rooms as attacks came from everywhere, but with a few well-placed barriers, arcane explosions, and two katars to deflect blows, he found the openings he needed as he remained relatively unharmed even as the attacks intensified.

Lightning bolts began to jump between all the weapons, sometimes also shooting for Jake, forcing him to summon his scales to handle the constant attacks. However, even with his scales and passive arcane barrier from Awakening, he still took some damage, as avoiding every attack simply wasn’t feasible, and the lightning bolts were pretty damn strong, especially considering how many there were.

This continued for nearly a minute as the pressure kept mounting. Jake didn’t doubt this was some killer attack the scalekin mage saved for a tricky situation as he sat inside his metal cube, hiding while controlling everything. The mana cost for the assault had to be extreme, but Jake didn’t bet on his opponent running out of mana. Besides, he was a Courier on a job and couldn’t drag out the fight too long… and by now, he was ready to finish it.

It took some extra time due to the focus he had to dedicate to not losing a limb, but soon, Jake’s preparations were ready. After dodging and finding a small opening, Jake released a large blast of arcane mana to give him a moment to act. Reaching out with his hand toward the metal cube, it began to glow dark green as Touch of the Malefic Viper activated to awaken the poison within the scalekin.

His opponent had been hit by two arrows, with especially the second one delivering a good dose. Sadly, Jake hadn’t had time to make any of his Heartrot Poison quite yet – okay, he had kind of just forgotten to – but it wasn’t a problem as he would most likely have used his Sleeping Night Toxin anyway.

While the scalekin had some impressive defenses, his pure Vitality didn’t strike Jake as very high, which was proven true when the poison was activated. Within the cube of metal, the scalekin coughed up blood and lost concentration as all the weapons flying around Jake stopped moving.

A large Protean Arrow appeared in Jake’s hand as he began flying toward the metal cube and charging a Powershot. The scalekin within was still struggling with the poison and its explosive activation of it, but he quickly noticed Jake approaching and gathered himself as the many weapons started moving again.

His reaction was commendably quick… but not quick enough. Shadowy energy surrounded Jake’s body as a second version of himself flew out of him toward the metal cube. His Eternal Shadow, with katar in hand, unleashed a Piercing Cursed Arcane Fang into the metal cube. A blast of lightning was released from the cube in response, dispersing the shadow, but the attack had gone through.

The piercing effect left a hole but didn’t go fully through, but it left just the opening Jake needed. Right before all the weapons reached him again, Jake released a string as the Protean Arrow flew forward and struck the same hole just made by his shadow, further amplified by Jake pouring in what little Hunting Momentum he had been able to build up.

When the Protean Arrow hit, the attack activated in two steps. Firstly, a large blast of arcane energy shot forward, blasting a hole in the cube for the rest of the arrow to pass through. The mage was partly hit by this arcane energy and moved to defend himself within as the second part – the arrow itself – struck him.

Within the cube, Jake saw the mage be penetrated straight through the chest as the arrow pierced him and pinned him to the back side of his own cube. After barely having to dodge a few weapons coming for him, Jake triggered the arrow with a mental command, and the entire thing exploded, with the cube serving only to amplify the power of the explosion.

It also turned out the cube was a lot weaker to getting attacked from the inside. The large arcane explosion left cracks all over the cube as it began to crumble and fall apart. Fragments began dropping to the ground, along with the many weapons and the mage himself.

Jake raised his bow and took aim again. The mage was badly injured and had even lost one of his arms in an attempt to contain the explosion, but he still tried to block Jake’s arrow as he summoned his shield again. The first arrow curved slightly just before it hit, striking the shield at a weird angle and making the mage spin in the air. To throw him further off, Jake even activated the Arcane Charge from his mark, making the mage’s entire body flash with destructive arcane energy, making him utterly unable to respond to the next attack. The second arrow hit the spinning mage in the back, sending him reeling even more as the third struck him square through the thin gap in the armor at his neck, piercing straight through.

Five more arrows followed as the scalekin remained in freefall, every one of them coated in poison. Jake had kind of expected the mage to have one more card to pull out, but before the scalekin even hit the ground, he felt all signs of life fade as he got a system message.

*You have slain [Scalekin - lvl 311 / Aluminium Magister - lvl 334 / Luxmetal Alchemist – lvl 288]*

Jake read the notification quickly and was a bit disappointed at the confirmation he indeed didn’t get any experience in this Challenge Dungeon either.

It wasn’t all bad, though.

“Pretty good fight,” Jake mumbled to himself as he turned to look toward the village. Right before the bearded man had left, Jake had thrown a subtle Hunter’s Mark on him. He was hiding away in the village, or at least he had been, as Jake now saw him begin to be on the move, likely after seeing the result of the fight.

After quickly flying down and depositing the body of the scalekin in his storage in case it would come in handy later, he began flying toward the village, ready for a second conversation with the fake package police.