The Primal Hunter

Outside Nevermore, in the Order of the Malefic Viper, the old mansion that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper used to live in looked much the same as before he went to the World Wonder. Despite not really having permission, Meira and the others kept using the place for all of their meetups, and Meira lived there full-time. It was simply the best meeting spot, even if the majority of the library was locked off to them.

This wasn’t because Meira didn’t have her own place now… it was more that she only really ever felt at home within the mansion. Whatever bad memories she had from the place were long replaced with good ones. Besides, she had taken care of parts of Jake’s garden for so long and had several experiments ongoing there, so moving would really be a hassle.

Teacher also said it was fine to stay, and Meira saw no reason to question that.

By now, it had been a few months since she evolved to C-grade and threw off the last traces of her former identity as a slave. She still had some parts of her past that lingered, and it was about high time to address them. It was also just something she wanted to do… something she had looked forward to doing.

”I’m surprised you didn’t wait for the Chosen of the Malefic One to return before doing it,” Izil, whom Meira had invited over, said. ”I’m sure he would have agreed to come along if you asked him.”

”I know,” Meira nodded. ”But this is something I have to do myself, okay?”

”Are you sure it counts as yourself when you take me along?” her fellow elf teased.

”It’s different, okay?” Meira said, a bit flustered. ”Anyway, there is no need to bother him with something that trivial. Besides, it’s about time I do it. I’ve delayed enough, and Teacher said that going would be good for my mental state. Records of who I am and where I come from are there, and… I want to go, okay? I want to do what I can.”

”I understand, trust me. But, I have been wondering, how will we get there? It is quite a distance away based on what you told me, and there is no gateway leading anywhere close,” Izil asked.

Meira just smiled. ”Well… I am the Chosen of the Grand Elder now…”

It still felt weird to say, even after several months, but it would be silly not to take advantage of that fact at least once in a while, right?

The spear shot past his temple, Jake barely avoiding the hit by tilting his head to the side and twisting his body. He dove into close range of the spearman, but his opponent was ready and stepped down hard to release a shockwave of wind, spewing up sand while propelling himself backward, trying to land another stab during his retreat.

Jake deflected the spearhead and gave pursuit, closing in and trying to land a solid blow. The hobgoblin quickly reacted as a gust of wind pushed him backward even more as he raised his other hand and released a blast of condensed fire mana toward Jake.

With a swipe of his katar, Jake pushed away the fireball, stabbing forward into the chest of the spearman. The katar penetrated slightly before Jake was forced to retreat away from a swiping spearhead, aiming to separate his head from his body. Almost like an echo, a flaming wind followed the spear, making Jake block with a surprised look on his face.

Thinking he had an advantage, the hobgoblin attacked once more. Jake smiled, having predicted this, and acted surprised on purpose as he slightly side-stepped the spear, turning his side to the spearman. With his left hand, he grabbed the spear shaft after putting the katar away and, with the other, stabbed toward the hobgoblin.

With an even bigger smile than Jake, the spearman twisted the spear to spin the weapon around as a whirlwind appeared around it. He clearly intended to either make Jake let go or break his wrists, either case resulting in him being in a prime position to attack. Neither of those things happened. The hobgoblin’s smile quickly faded as the spear didn’t move an inch, Jake having it in a vice-grip.

Stable arcane energy swirled around his gloves as he had infused them with it to trigger the enchantment, effectively freezing his own hand. He was fully aware that the gloves wouldn’t survive the ordeal, but hey, insurance was still a thing.

With wide eyes, the hobgoblin barely had time to let go of the spear and jump back to avoid Jake’s attack, but with him disarmed, he knew the fight was over. Considering his body already had plenty of wounds covering it from all of Jake’s prior attacks, he seemed to know the gig was up.

After the announcer had introduced both fighters, the Benevolent Monk once more walked into the arena and bowed toward the dwarf. ”Greetings, he who serves and is served by the earth. May I propose a friendly competition to-”

“Fuck off!” the dwarf yelled loudly. ”I ain’t doin’ ya stupid bloody competition, ya freak. Face me properly… or imma bury you here.”

The dwarf erupted with energy as the sand all around him rose and began to form rocky pillars. Across from him, the monk stood silently before sighing. ”Very well. I thank you for this coming match… and I shall respect your decision and return you to the earth once more.”

Jake came to learn after the fight that no one had ever rejected this proposition from the Benevolent Monk outside of the first few matches. His act of benevolence was to offer the possibility for a spar and not a true fight. However, should one reject this benevolence, the match would turn from a spar into a true battle… and when fighting for real, there was no room for mercy or benevolence, but what Jake could only describe as pure, unabashed violence.

Everyone there had likely expected the fight to be roughly equal, and while it did look that way in the first thirty seconds, things quickly changed. The defenses of the dwarf crumbled, and even as he pulled out more and more attacks and spells, nothing seemed to work as the monk proved himself far more deadly than Jake had seen him be during their fight.

Every move was one that aimed to kill, and he gladly took minor injuries himself to land blows on his opponent. Moreover, his body was clearly far more durable than it had any right to be, and after a while, Jake spotted a potential reason. While it was hard to see, even when Jake had fought him, odd energy patterns covered his body from head to toe. Like an invisible tattoo, Jake theorized these tattoo-like patterns perhaps functioned as replacements for equipment, as he did know that was possible, albeit extremely rare.

As more time passed, the fight became more and more one-sided, and while the monk was covered in wounds, big and small, he never lost momentum. By now, the dwarf was also clearly unable to escape through the sand anymore.

That was when Jake learned something more. Something quite frankly terrifying as fuck. At the end of the battle between the two anomalies, the monk moved in for a finishing strike as he peeled away the final line of defense of the dwarf, which was when Jake realized. That hit Jake had been struck with when he ”won” the fight against the monk – the one that had left him feeling half-dead for several days - was not some ultimate attack… it was the first strike in the series of a combo attack.

The first punch broke the stone armor and several ribs of the dwarf. The second ruptured his heart, the third destroyed his brain, the fourth burned away all remaining vestiges of his soul, and the fifth obliterated what was left of the body.

An eerie stillness overtook the arena as the monk stood with an outstretched fist covered in blood, droplets slowly dripping from his red fist.

”May you continue to serve the earth, even in death,” the monk said in his usual respectful tone as he bowed toward the huge fan-shaped blood splatter, which was all that remained of the Earthborn Faithful.

That day, it became clear as day… should you reject the benevolence of the Benevolent Monk, there would be no mercy, only death.

”Dude, I’m so glad you didn’t fight that monk for real,” Owen muttered as they watched the monk slowly walk out of the arena, leaving drops of blood in his wake, both from his own wounds and his fists.

”Yeah,” Jake nodded in agreement. ”The rematch will be quite exciting, though from the looks of it, only one of us will be walking out alive.”

This wasn’t just Jake wanting a fight to the death. He felt the pure killing intent and bloodlust from that so-called Benevolent Monk, and he knew that should he want a serious rematch with the monk, there really was only one way it could go. If the monk wanted a life-and-death battle, Jake wasn’t going to reject it.

”It… it isn’t sure you’ll meet him again, right?” Polly asked, worried. ”You already met and beat him once, and repeat matchups are incredibly rare.”

Jake just smiled at her. There was no fucking way there wouldn’t be a repeat matchup.

He just hadn’t expected it would be so soon.

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