The Primal Hunter Volume 5

Choice

Choice

T

he last time Jake had faced the hydra, it had ended in his defeat due to a timer. In this dungeon, there was no such timer and no interruptions to their battle. Jake could spend as much time as he wanted, as long as his resources allowed it.

He had no idea how long it would take, but inside his Soulspace, he already felt sim-Jake begin his part. Charging forward, Jake prepared to meet the hydra in battle. It still showed the same lack of intelligence as in their first fight, but its power had grown significantly, as one would expect from a beast getting thirty-nine more levels.

Jake, however, had gotten even more levels and power.

The two-headed hydra turned toward him and got ready as he approached. Its instinctual knowledge was enough to identify Jake as a strong opponent, making it clearly take him seriously from the get-go. One maw snapped forward as the other waited to strike, evaluating what Jake would do.

Its massive, teeth-filled mouth missed Jake as he sidestepped and swiftly jabbed one katar into its side. The blade only went five or so centimeters into the flesh before he retracted it, the scales and flesh of the hydra too durable for Jake to ignore. If he tried to really jam it in there, he reckoned it would get stuck.

As expected, the second head descended and tried to snatch Jake up. Jake again dodged and tried to counter, but the first head swiped to the side to hit him. This forced him back as the second head lifted itself towards the sky and breathed in.

Space itself appeared to distort from the inhale, with Jake feeling the movements of massive amounts of mana. Air mana primarily. It was being extracted and absorbed in huge quantities at a time, making it look like a maelstrom had formed above the hydra. Even the clouds several kilometers up in the air were affected.

Needless to say, all this took a bit of time, giving Jake ample opportunity to move. The other head of the hydra naturally moved to stop him, and the four-legged beast even tried to stomp him with its large legs to keep him away as he dodged the head and got beneath. He ran quickly but managed to stab four times into the underbelly of the beast, each blow delivering a solid dose of poison from Fangs of the Malefic Viper.

Just as he got to the other side, the hydra roared, though it didn’t inhale. Jake felt his entire body tense up as the second head bent and aimed its maw straight at him.

Let me have it.

A massive sonic boom rocked the entire marsh as a bubble of pure air was released. Trees were uprooted, and Jake found himself impacted straight in the chest. Flying through the air and the few trees that had survived, he spat out the blood pooling in his mouth, then slid to a halt and landed on his feet, using both katars to slow himself down.

The released air had been far more potent in the beginning, but by now, it was just a mild wind. Jake’s ribs hurt a little from the earlier impact, but he still smiled. It needed to at least be this strong.

He stepped down, teleported forward, and, in only three steps, appeared in front of the hydra once more. Without hesitation, he attacked again. The beast happily responded, the two heads capable of swallowing him whole descending from above to eat him like a snack. Sadly for the hydra, such elementary attacks had no way of hitting.

Jake dodged both and landed several stabs, the poison slowly seeping into the body of the beast. The scales were tough, and the hydra healed quickly, but it was outmatched. Jake had gotten stronger, and the level gap was severely narrower than last time. He was no longer a complete i***t when it came to melee, either. In fact, he felt better than ever. A part of him had feared that only practicing with sim-Jake for so long would have made him worse against an opponent like the hydra, but that fear had been needless.

In reality, the movements and attacks of the hydra just seemed so damn inadequate. It was a beast that fought based on its instincts, making it all too predictable. In some ways, Jake was a bit disappointed. Then again, he knew he couldn’t expect too much. It was common knowledge that the smarter a beast was, the more dangerous it was. Had this hydra possessed the same level of intelligence as a human or even just the Phantomshade Panther, it would’ve been far more frightening.

Not that Snappy had been weak when he was still a dum-dum.

Jake managed to land dozens of strikes, stabbing one of the legs several times, hoping to weaken it. He circled the large beast, making it harder for the heads to pin him down and attack him, positioning himself in such a fashion that only one head could strike at a time. Even if the hydra was dumb, it was clearly aware this was not good, and thus changed tactics.

A massive roar was released, stunning Jake again. The hydra quickly spun and swiped Jake with its tail, sending him flying back from the impact. It did little damage to him, but it did buy the beast some time. Instantly, it began shrinking, using the skill Jake was already familiar with from the first time around. This was when the true fight would begin.

Rather than try and take advantage of this slight opening, Jake let it finish. Soon, a hydra about four and a half meters tall stood before him, its gray scales now a darker shade. Jake felt its dense energy from a distance and knew it had improved this skill even more than last time, making him smile.

This time, he wasn’t even the one to attack. Incredibly swiftly, the beast ran towards him, not even using a movement skill. The two heads shot forward like twin snakes, the many teeth biting down on air since Jake had already teleported back. With the very next step, he teleported forward again to counter, but a leg was raised to kick Jake, forcing him to block for the very first time in the battle.

Jake did so by reflecting the blow towards the ground as one of the heads flew in from the side. Once more, he dodged, but he had no time to counter before he was pressed by the now far faster beast. The only chance he got was for a slicing attack, but the bone katar just slid helplessly across the thick scales. To his surprise, he also noticed that the many wounds on the hydra were nearly healed, and even the poison in its body was being rapidly consumed.

Does not seem to have gained more tricks in the last thirty-nine levels, Jake concluded. It just upped everything it could already do to a whole new level. Maybe it did have one more trick. Hopefully it did, because Jake was also about to get a bit more serious.

Jake’s body exploded with power as a head came for him, Arcane Awakening activating at the safe 30%. His body was flooded with energy as he dodged the attack, landing a solid jab with Eternal Hunger. He had taken the hydra by surprise, allowing him to penetrate all the way to the handle and pull it out again in one swift motion.

Roaring in anger, the hydra spun again to hit him with its tail. Jake angled himself and pointed both weapons towards the tail as he jumped slightly. The impact sent him flying, but the momentum of the blow also made both katars penetrate the tail as if the beast had just slammed itself into two nails.

Jake barely allowed himself to fly backward before he canceled part of the momentum with a blast of mana, stepping down and teleporting to keep up his constant assault. Wanting to really push himself, Jake even boosted Arcane Awakening, this time using the destructive mode. The increase in all his offensive stats grew from 30% to 50% as Jake got even faster and hit even harder.

Yet the hydra kept up well. It was clearly on the back foot, but it still managed to keep Jake at bay for the most part. More concerning was that even if Jake landed blows, he wasn’t doing much damage. The scales were thick and durable, making slicing attacks difficult, while the regeneration of the hydra made its wounds heal incredibly swiftly. It didn’t even feel like it drained a lot of health points doing this, as the beast probably also regenerated that at an insane pace. Moreover, Jake came to discover the hydra did have one new trick…