The Primal Hunter

Jake’s attention was firmly on the two newcomers, especially the scrawny-looking man. He was thin, pale, wore glasses, and even in D-grade, he still looked like someone who hadn’t left his basement for half a year. Yet he did have an aura of confidence, and Jake could see why.

[Human – lvl 165]

He was actually higher leveled than Jake himself, and it wasn’t spoofed or anything either. However, even so, Jake got weird vibes from him. His aura was oddly inconsistent, and his mana signature had an odd, well, signature. It was a bit familiar to Jake, but he wasn’t entirely clear where he had felt it before.

The other newcomer was the woman called Beatrice. She wore the kind of dress Jake would expect out of a high-society gala, and she clearly cared a lot about her looks. Jake also felt an aura from her as well as a domain of sorts. His senses heightened, and he quickly noticed how the subtle domain only affected Jake and the other man that stood next to her as well as all the male guards. Somehow it excluded family members and women. Jake did recognize this kind of aura as he had seen a familiar one before, though that one had been far less potent and controlled. It was a seduction aura of sorts, and Irin, the succubus, had a similar one.

Her level was also quite a bit lower, to say the least.

[Human – lvl 131]

Carmen looked at the two of them, and Jake saw her one hand slightly shake. Jake did not do anything to interfere but would let things play out how they should. Whatever happened, he would just follow Carmen’s lead, and from the looks of it, there was also her mother around now with far more insight into who was a bastard and who wasn’t.

With impressive calmness, Carmen looked at her cousin as she scoffed. “You’re still as big of a bitch as back then, huh? Nice guy you got yourself there by the way, I see you are still at least good at whoring yourself out.”

The nerdy-looking guy instantly turned aggressive, but Beatrice held his arm and shook her head. “No need to get mad, babe. She is just jealous. Look at that pathetic guy she managed to drag along.”

Okay, why am I getting attacked? Jake questioned but still chose to hold his mouth.

“I understand that the concept of having a man around and not fucking him is foreign to you. Oh wait, is that why you’re so popular in the family? It wouldn’t surprise me to learn you fucked half your cousins and uncles you-”

“Do not utter another word! How dare someone like you come in here and act like this!” a man Jake recognized as Carmen’s uncle screamed as he turned to her father. “Didn’t I tell you you shouldn’t have married that bitch and had a devil spawn like her!”

Jake saw Carmen begin to shake more and more before she finally just stopped. She took a deep audible sigh as she looked at her mother.

“Mom, who here would you prefer not to see dead?”

The woman called Maura looked bewildered before she turned afraid. “Please, let’s just leave; I am sure that if we send a message to the authorities, they will-“

“They already locked down the room,” Carmen sighed. “They don’t plan on letting any of us leave. So tell me… who do you prefer to leave alive?”

Maura didn’t answer but just looked dumbstruck as she stared up at the rest of her family. Jake saw the cold gazes they sent in return, and Jake honestly found it impressive. The sheer level of cohesion in this family was insane. Even her own husband, Carmen’s father, looked back with disappointment and anger.

“At least you realize the situation you are in,” the aunt said with a smile. “Now, we aren’t heartless enough to kill our own family. But house arrest is certainly the least of the consequences you will face. Beatrice dear, do you have any ideas on how we can involve little Carmen more in the family business?”

The cousin just smirked. “We always need more little whores. We can even take the mother.”

“No,” Carmen’s father finally spoke up. “I shall handle my own wife.”

Jake saw Maura shake a bit as she backed away. Honestly, looking at this entire situation… yeah, these people had a seriously lacking ability when it came to probing others. Jake took out the beeper he had gotten from Renato and sent a message, more or less making it clear that murder was going to happen.

“You are all fucking insane,” Carmen sneered. “And equally fucking delusional to think you can in any way tell me or anyone around me what to do when I am here.”

“Heh,” Beatrice laughed when she saw Carmen clench her fists. “Are you still doing that silly boxing thing? Think a little girl like you can fight? I thought you had learned your lesson the first time around, but it seems like you need another one? Ah, I just got a nice little idea for where you can work; we just need to chop off those useless arms. I am sure we have plenty of clients looking for a little para-play.”

Jake saw Maura look horrified, with Carmen’s father also frowning deeply, but the others barely reacted. He decided to finally get a little involved as he felt Carmen was about to make her move.

“Excuse me, what am I to do?” Jake asked. Carmen threw him a look, but he just tossed her a glance, and she seemed to get it.

A few people finally looked at him as they barely seemed to register him.

“You are trespassing and are not family. Guards, apprehend him already and put him in the dungeon for dear Alberto to play with,” the aunt spoke, and Jake instantly guessed the guy with Beatrice was Alberto based on his creepy smile.

The guards reacted, and Jake threw Carmen a look. She just nodded, so Jake smiled as two men flanked him on each side.

Two heads fell to the ground before anyone else in the room reacted as Jake now stood with a black blade in his hand. He could have just blown their heads off, but Eternal Hunger hadn’t been fed in a while, so why not use this opportunity?

His display instantly stopped them in their tracks. Carmen’s mother stared at Jake in disbelief as Carmen just laughed out loud, getting the attention of everyone. “Fine. You attacked first.”

Carmen stepped down and flew forward with incredible speed. She appeared right in front of her aunt a moment later and mercilessly chopped down on her shoulders. Blood erupted as two arms were severed, and she screamed bloody murder.

Not a single other family member moved to help but just ran away as some of them took out expensive-looking items to defend themselves. Carmen showed no mercy as she moved again and kicked her uncle so hard in his stomach that her foot went through. With a whip, she tossed him away as he smashed into a wall, blood flowing down the pristine marble.

“Alberto!” Beatrice screamed, and the man reacted. That is when Jake learned why the aura of man felt familiar yet also fake. He instantly lit up with red energy as power flooded the room and five summoning circles appeared. He saw that deep below, similar circles appeared as five creatures were teleported from below.

They all looked humanoid and wore armor and wielded weapons, but Jake felt nothing human about them. The reason why he found the energy so familiar was because he had felt it before – demonic energy. He identified one and found them all around the same level.

[Demon-Possessed Human – lvl 164]

Now he knew his fate if he was to be captured. He had a fully-fledged warlock on his hands, it seemed. It was a class Jake had become faintly familiar with. The demons that were summoned moved for Carmen right away as Jake still didn’t move. Alberto kept an eye on Jake as he also didn’t move from Beatrice’s side. Jake, in turn, stayed to protect Carmen’s mother.

Carmen was surrounded by demons in a moment as Beatrice yelled.

“Tear that bitch apart!”

“Fucking idiots,” Carmen scoffed. Golden runes lit up on her body, and Jake knew she had finally activated just a few of her boosting skills. “Do you have any fucking idea who I am?”

Golden light erupted as she moved. A possessed human chopped down with an axe as Carmen just caught it and proceeded to punch the man so hard in his chest it exploded, sending him flying back. Dodging under another blow, she landed a low kick and put another off-balance as she punched him so hard that his head was embedded in the stone below.

It was an absolute slaughter. They were simply not on the same level, and Alberto knew this. Jake was aware the man would make a move as he went over to Maura. “Apologies.”

He tapped her head and sent in a bit of Willpower, instantly knocking her out with a mental attack. He had a feeling it was better he got involved now. Of course, he still had to ensure Carmen’s mother was safe. And well… that was a task for the third musketeer.

From above, what looked like a green bullet fell. A section of the roof collapsed as the hawk smashed down and cut one of the possessed humans in two from head to groin before swiftly flying over and joining Jake. Jake had communicated with her the task she had been given as he left Carmen’s mother in the hawk’s care.

Beatrice, to her credit, seemed to notice things had gone south. She looked at Jake as she backed a bit away, with Alberto taking a defensive position in front of her. Jake felt that the man had already gathered some energy within his body and could release the prepared skill at any point. Moving to attack would be smart, but… this was not Jake’s fight. It was Carmen’s privilege to kill them.

“Hey… hey, how much is she paying you? I am sure we can figure something out,” the woman said as she released her seduction skill at full power, all of it directed towards Jake. He felt the level of mental influence, and it was at quite a high level if he had to say so himself. Still useless, of course.

“I don’t believe you can offer anything I want,” Jake just shot her down. “ And if I wanted a prostitute, I would go to a brothel.”

The woman looked shocked as Alberto was furious. He should probably have expected it, but his comment triggered the man enough to also make his own move. It was a bit premature as Carmen had only barely gotten done killing the second-to-last possessed human as they were actually respectably tanky with potent regeneration skills.

Jake felt the man’s aura flare as he knelt down and pressed his hands to the floor. The magic responded as Jake felt a gateway open. Jake briefly felt a connection be established with something far more powerful than anyone in the room as the man fully activated the trump card of most warlocks.

“Demonic Transformation!”

His body bulged as muscles erupted on his body. His skin turned red, and Jake saw a faint mirage behind him of a similar-looking demon. A true demon.

Demons were a rather unique race in the multiverse due to one of the racial skills possessed by all demons in C-grade and above. The Demonic Contract. It was the ability to make a contract with those significantly weaker than themselves and allowed the contractee to pull on their power and, in extreme cases, even allow the demon to possess them or someone else for a limited time, making them far more powerful. This was a very common path to power for demons, and these contracts could take many forms.

That was a simplified version, but Jake had no time to go through all the information in his head right now as the transformation was complete. From a small and scrawny nerd, he had become a three-meter tall demonic mass of muscles with an axe of bone.

Feeling the bellowing aura, Jake understood why even Renato was careful around the guy. Warlocks were notorious for being powerful at their levels due to the nature of their Path. It was a Path that had plenty of drawbacks too, but none that mattered at the current time.

Jake dodged as the axe swung down, and he retaliated with Eternal Hunger, getting a good stab in. The bulky demon barely cared but kept swinging wildly with every single axe hit tearing up the hall. A few shockwaves even reached the family members of Carmen and Beatrice, ripping them apart.

Carmen swiftly finished off the last possessed demon and charged over. Jake graciously bowed out and allowed Carmen to have her fun with the demon guy. At the same time, he made sure no one else left the room, including Beatrice, who had managed to flee into the room she and Alberto had entered from.

He followed her and appeared in front of her with One Step Mile in an instant. “And you folk talk about etiquette. Isn’t it rude to leave in the middle of a party without notice?” Jake taunted her.

“What the hell do you want!” she screamed. “What has that witch given you? Who even are you?”

“Lord Thayne, Chosen of the Malefic Viper and perhaps the most powerful man on Earth,” a familiar voice said as Jake saw the man in his white suit as he teleported into the room. Renato quickly glanced about and saw the carnage, while he frowned at seeing the fight between Carmen and the demon. While the demon probably had Carmen beaten in pure Strength, Alberto clearly had no idea how to fight, and it didn’t look like he knew the Demonic Avatar skill either to have the demon actually possess him. Carmen quickly wore him down as her fists fell like rain and sent blood flying.

Beatrice stared at Renato and actually looked relieved. “Mr. Renato! I am so glad you are here; these lunatics came in here and-“

“Shut it,” Renato cut her off with a death glare before turning to Jake. “Lord Thayne, thank you for informing me of the decision you and the Runemaiden reached. I have already made the necessary preparations, and the Salvento family will be punished according. If you and the Runemaiden choose to leave any survivors, that is.”

“That will be up to her,” Jake shook his head. He waved his hand and sent out strings of mana and tied up Beatrice, who was once more trying to sneak away. She fell to the ground and struggled, her stats pathetic for a D-grade. Jake had also tied shut her mouth for good measure.

The situation was firmly under control. The family members who had survived were huddled up in a corner, Carmen was beating down the only fighter worth a damn, and Jake had Sylphie bring over the unconscious Maura, who Jake entrusted to Renato.

And then he just observed the fight between the large demon and Carmen. He saw how she didn’t really use any skills but was just pummeling the transformed man. Jake felt how she let out all her frustrations and anger by using him as a living boxing bag, and honestly, good riddance.

Jake only knew a bit about what went into creating demon-possessed humans, and it wasn’t nice. It required you to completely break down someone enough to have them willingly take in a demon, effectively killing themselves to come hosts. Currently, he could see a lot of what was beneath the mansion, and it appeared like it had primarily belonged to Alberto and housed his workshop.

“Should send some men to the cellar,” Jake said to Renato. “And bring some healers.”

The man nodded gravely as Jake just stood there and kept watching Carmen let out all the pent-up emotions. Sylphie also joined him as they just let her do her thing before the demon finally died a slow and probably very painful death.

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