The Primal Hunter

When Jake chose to issue the challenge, he had assumed her to accept pretty fast, as she had clearly already been researching him for months, yet she chose to wait an entire month, just like the Necromancer and Archmage. Jake really wasn’t sure why but ended up concluding she needed more prep time… which could only mean she was getting something big ready. That, or she was just not in a rush to get her ass beaten.

One also had to remember that elves lived several times longer than humans, even if they were only G or F-grade level 0’s. Jake was very abruptly reminded of this when Polly shared she was fifty-seven years old, and Jake had to resist with every fiber of his body to not call her an old hag. Okay, he had not tried that hard as he had failed to resist only ten minutes after she told him, which had earned him a few angry slaps on his arm, but hey, at least Owen already seemed to know, so her age was no obstacle to Jake’s matchmaking ventures.

Anyway, this difference in lifespan meant that waiting a month probably didn’t feel as long to her as it did to Jake. At least, that was one theory he had.

The month quickly passed as Jake made all of his preparations based on the research he had done. He once more jam-packed his quiver with arrows, hoping it would be enough for the upcoming duel. One he really, really hoped would be an archery duel. Jake would very much like an archery duel, and for it not to turn out that the Lord of the Hunt was just a damn druid who carried around a bow.

Meeting up with the Battlemaster just before the fight, Jake got a few good pieces of advice.

”When you fight the Lord of the Hunt, don’t just believe you are battling an archer. While that is certainly her main power, she has integrated nature magic with it near-flawlessly. Do not under any circumstances disregard any of her arrows, even if they miss, for they may never have meant to hit you in the first place. What’s more, watch your feet and don’t get yourself caught in her tempo, as if you do, you may just find yourself entangled in something you would very much prefer to not engage with,” the middle-aged man advised.

”Man, you are incredibly forthcoming with information today,” Jake smiled as he watched the timer till the fight would start count down. ”Couldn’t you have warned me about the Necromancer or the Phoenix Queen too? Especially that Necromancer guy.”

”I could have, sure,” the Battlemaster nodded as he smirked. ”But I didn’t. No, the reason I am giving you this advice is because she came and asked me yesterday about you. Now, normally, I would have said no and not said anything, but she said that if I gave some information on you, I could give you some information on her, too.”

”Wait, so what would have happened if I hadn’t decided to check in with you before the fight?” Jake questioned. Technically, he didn’t have to talk to the Battlemaster after the fight was scheduled, but he just had to show up for the starting time.

”Well, then you would have missed out due to your own lack of manners,” the middle-aged man stated curtly.

”You know what? That’s kind of fair,” Jake smiled. ”Just one more thing. I really want a pure archery duel. Will I get an archer duel?”

The Battlemaster broke out in a massive grin as he chuckled. ”Funny you should ask… because she asked the same thing.”

Jake stood behind the bars as he observed his opponent through the gaps. Using his eyes and his sphere, he saw that she was indeed an elf, and even before the battle had begun, she already had a quiver full of arrows and a bow in her hand. Good start there.

Armor-wise, she wore stuff very similar to Jake, except she also had her big cloak. Currently, she had the hood down, revealing her long hair and face with odd tribal markings on it. As Jake observed her, so did she observe him, and based on the intensity of her gaze, he was facing a true genius. A person of unquestionable smartness.

For she was no doubt a Perception-focused fighter.

Using Identify almost on instinct, Jake was a bit taken aback at the result.

[Wood Elf]

It turned out that wood elf was an actual race. Jake hadn’t known that but just assumed people who were called wood elves were just regular elves who lived in the woods… which was honestly a pretty bad assumption considering dark elves were their own race. Wait, did this mean there were high dark elves, the same as there were regular high elves?

So many questions, so little time, as the announcer was done with his empty speech introducing the fighters

”Without further ado, let’s see these two archers face off! Lower the gates!”

As the gates lowered, Jake walked forward with calm steps as his opponent did the same. She also pulled the hood over her head, obscuring most of her features, but it also served another feature. Her cloak seemed to flow oddly, creating something akin to an optical illusion whenever she moved, with the effect reminding Jake a bit of the old Prismatic Cloak he used to wear.

Not that it would affect Jake much, but he could see how it could throw off other opponents, especially those morons with lesser Perception.

Jake stopped walking a good fifty meters from his opponent, strategically right next to a pillar. Funnily enough, his opponent did the same as they looked at each other. As he was about to speak, she broke the silence first.

”Tell me, he who is called Doombringer… are you truly an archer as they all seem to say?”

Her voice was so obviously hinting at something that Jake could only shake his head in response. ”Why? Because a mere archer would never have the chance to beat you?”

”That is not the case. I merely wish to know if my instincts are correct. Archers are but warriors who use bows… it is their weapon, much like any other. It could be a bow, a sword, or a spear. So I ask once more… are you just an archer?” she said as her sharp green eyes were momentarily revealed beneath her hood.

Jake met them and grinned. ”Meaningless semantics, but no, I don’t call myself ”just” an archer, and I am quite sure you already knew that. Which is why I have quite a pertinent question.”

She smiled as she crouched down, successfully reading the mood.

”How dare you call yourself the Lord of the Hunt before a superior hunter?”

Right as he finished his words, his opponent had nocked an arrow and released it. Jake instantly dodged behind the pillar he had purposefully stood next to. In his sphere, he saw her nock another arrow. Thinking quick, Jake faked her out by not going all the way around the pillar as she expected but fired his arrow while never leaving the safety of the pillar.

It curved around, straight for the wood elf. Jake hadn’t expected it to hit, and it naturally didn’t as she quickly shot her second arrow into the pillar Jake was hiding behind, joining the first one. Then, she moved behind her own pillar, making Jake’s arrow miss. With a thought, he made it explode, but the pillar absorbed the impact without even leaving a mark on her cloak.

Jake smiled as he nocked another arrow, but his smile soon faded. Good one.

Quickly moving, he got away from the pillar he had been behind before it turned into a problem for him. The Battlemaster’s warning had been quite warranted as Jake saw that the two arrows she had shot earlier were more than just attempts to hit him. Each of them had sprouted after hitting the pillar, sending what looked like tendrils of grass into it to rapidly tear it apart from within. Like weeds ripping through concrete, she had planned to take away Jake’s defenses.

Seeing Jake react faster than she had expected, the wood elf came out from behind her pillar and tried to land an arrow on Jake, but he easily dodged it as he shot his own after the elf, once more curving it around. The wood elf only narrowly managed to avoid it as it came from a tricky angle. After dodging, she also chose to abandon her pillar and moved out into the open.

A good choice. All the pillar had done for his opponent was obscure her view, while she had quickly identified that Jake seemingly didn’t need visual contact to locate his opponent. So, despite how counterproductive it seemed, having the pillar as cover would harm her more than it would help.

One would think that an archery duel right out in the open would lead to a quick resolution, but it proved not to be the case. Jake and the elf both rapidly fired over a dozen arrows after one another, as both dodged flawlessly while keeping up their own assaults. The more time passed, the more sure Jake became.

Her instincts… are like mine.

Bestial Survival instincts. It was a skill Jake had been offered that had instantly been transformed into Moment of the Primal Hunter, but seeing the elf dodge as she did, he became sure she had something similar, but naturally far superior to the rare skill he had been offered back then.

Was it an innate talent? A special skill? A passive Transcendent? Jake didn’t know, but he knew that he was facing another beast in human form as she erratically moved to dodge every single arrow he released with a huge toothy grin on her face. Smiling to himself, Jake faced her head-on for a few more seconds as the arrows kept flying for a few more seconds, but this couldn’t last.

Through his sphere, he saw that the wood elf was also quickly running out of arrows, the same as him. She also seemed to realize this, and at nearly the exact same time, both of them switched strategies. Jake summoned a barrier of arcane mana to deflect a few arrows with the intent of winning the arrow trade duel, but the second arrow never arrived after he deflected the first one to strike the sand right between his feet.

Instead, it was shot into the air. Jake glanced up as the arrow seemed to bloom in mid-air before exploding. Tilting his barrier upwards, Jake blocked the small rice-sized projectiles with ease, but he quickly realized the goal had never been to hit him with them.

Instead, all the small projectiles turned out to be seeds, and from the lifeless sand, plants began to sprout. Jake had at first been worried and ready to blow up the area around him, but he quickly realized none of them were attacking. No vines sprouted to try and entangle him, and no wooden branches were shot up and tried to impale his foot. Instead, they were just shrubs, weeds, and grass… all of it harmless.

However, the relief was short-lived.

The many arrows the elf had shot during the fight were embedded in different places in the sand all around him, with a few also in the wall far behind him. As one, all of these arrows suddenly began to react with the intense nature energy from the newly formed undergrowth of the arena, with each doing something dependent on how far away they were from Jake.

If an arrow was close, it exploded into several grasping vines, while those at a medium distance sent out just one thin, sharp vine. Finally, those at a long distance – primarily those embedded in the arena wall far behind him – shot out small thorns like were they blowpipes.

Jake’s eyes opened wide as he tried to dodge the dozens of attacks arriving at once. Releasing a blast of arcane mana to blow away some vines bought him a second of time, but when one entangled his leg – the one he had just deflected to be between his legs a few seconds earlier - he became unable as the wood elf naturally didn’t just sit still while Jake was dealing with her trap.

Hardening his skin with a barrier of arcane mana allowed him to block most of the thorns that he now felt had poison on them, but the arrow from the elf wasn’t something a quick barrier on his skin could block. An arrow struck Jake in the thigh, and as he also struggled to get free, he instantly grasped it with his free hand and sent a powerful wave of destructive arcane mana into it. This proved to be a good choice as he made it disintegrate right as it began to bloom within his leg… Jake really didn’t want to know what would happen if an arrow bloomed within his leg.

The second arrow that the elf shot, Jake managed to deflect using his bow, though he still got a nasty cut on his shoulder. When she loosed the third one, Jake had already gotten free and stomped down to clear much of the shrubbery in his immediate area as he fled away from anywhere she had embedded any arrows.

Like him, her arrows were pre-prepared and meticulously made. Each of them had intense magic infused into them, making them all incredibly dangerous, even more so than Jake’s own arcane arrows. Her shooting speed was also equal to Jake’s own, despite his recent improvements and constant application of arcane energy to push his body further. Jake’s only real advantage was that he could make his arrows curve, but she made up for that by being slightly faster movement-wise compared to Jake.

All-in-all, they were incredibly equally matched, and Jake didn’t want to see himself be outdone. It wasn’t fair he was the only one injured, right?

Moving quickly, Jake dodged an arrow as he shot one of his own into the air before quickly shooting another toward the elf who was standing out in the open. She dodged the arrow flawlessly as Jake shot another one that seemed like it would entirely miss, plus it was far slower than any of those prior.

He saw a moment of confusion on her face as Jake grinned right as he shot his fourth one, this one straight for her at full speed. She naturally dodged it, still keeping an eye on the third arrow… right as the first one he had shot into the air descended. Clearly, she had been aware of this one, too, but she had not expected what happened next.

The arrow Jake had shot into the air exploded before it reached the ground, hitting the third arrow that was still in mid-air. The shockwave sped it up and changed its trajectory far too quickly and in a far too unpredictable manner for the elf to be able to react in time as she, too, was struck in her thigh.

Jake tried to make it explode, but like him, she instantly grasped it and infused her own nature energy right as he tried to, stopping the activation as she snapped it off, still leaving the tip embedded to stop the bleeding.

Both archers stared at each other for a second. Jake had only five arrows left in his quiver, while the wood elf had two. Yet right at that moment, the wood elf gave a teasing wink as she lifted her cloak, revealing a second bundle of tied-up arrows at her hip with more than twenty additional ones.

Well, I’ll be damned, Jake thought as he couldn’t hold back a smile himself. When he had dodged around before, he and the wood elf had switched position, meaning Jake was now standing where she had been when they exchanged their barrage of arrows… meaning he was surrounded by his own stable arrows of arcane mana.

Arrows that were far too durable to break just from being shot into a wall or the sand, so when Jake sent out dozens of strings of arcane mana, he quickly yanked eighteen out of the sand and back into his quiver; the elf gladly giving him the time to do so as she also put her additional arrows into her quiver.

Their eyes met, both slightly wounded with nearly full quivers once more as round two began, yet also both unable to hold back a smile. Jake had to admit he was having fun, and clearly, so was the wood elf.