The Primal Hunter

Chapter 1031: Primal Hunter vs Celestial Child (8)

Chapter 1031: Primal Hunter vs Celestial Child (8)

Explosions and cutting waves of crescent moonlight reshaped the landscape as Jake and Ell’Hakan battled across the planet’s surface, tearing everything up in their path. Most of it was sand, but there were also plenty of massive rocky plains for them to destroy as Jake constantly redirected Ell’Hakan’s blow away from himself and into the environment, with the nahoom not caring in the slightest as he continually released his rain of starlight shards.

Courtesy of the Void Sphere, none of their destruction was reflected in the real world, and neither did they encounter any other living beings as they continued fighting, the fight having taken on its own tempo. Ell’Hakan had slightly powered up once more despite his state seemingly worsening, making him able to constantly put pressure on Jake.

Not that Jake was losing out much as the battle stayed surprisingly equal for a while, with Jake constantly retreating and forcing Ell’Hakan to give chase to avoid Jake pulling out his bow, as while Ell’Hakan had a slight advantage in melee combat, it was the opposite when distance was established.

Jake did wonder a few times if attacking even mattered much, as despite doing a lot of damage, Ell’Hakan seemed to not care in the slightest. In fact, it seemed to almost make him stronger as despite losing another arm and taking multiple injuries, he simply healed everything immediately using his odd starlight energy. Or, well, considering he called himself the Celestial Child, perhaps calling it celestial energy would be more accurate.

However, Jake soon became confident that despite nothing seemingly changing, his attacks did have an effect. He began to notice that the poison still running through Ell’Hakan’s body began to move differently when it sought to attack his vital energy, almost as if it met obstructions or cut-off paths. Moreover, as Jake focused more on the poison in Ell’Hakan’s body using Sense of the Malefic Viper, he began to notice the small cracks.

Not on any armor or weapons, but on Ell’Hakan’s Soulshape, indicating his soul was breaking apart in real-time, and whenever Jake landed a blow, he only sped up the process. Seeing this, Jake even doubted it for a moment as he questioned how Ell’Hakan could remain so damn blasé about everything. If Jake could detect the massive amounts of soul damage going on, so could Ell’Hakan, right?

Because Jake sure as hell noticed how much his forearm hurt every time he moved it, the damage from being grabbed earlier taking annoyingly long to heal. While it wasn’t enough to negatively affect his combat prowess, it was bad enough to make Jake extremely cautious of ever allowing Ell’Hakan to catch him like that again.

To avoid being caught, Jake had also chosen a very specific direction to move in, as the two of them were rapidly moving toward where the largest population of the nahoom had once presided: the capital city.

He planned on using the area to his advantage, as the nahoom really liked building tall towers and large buildings that should help block many of Ell’Hakan’s attacks, while Jake felt confident that these obstacles would instead only lead to more of his arrows hitting as he got more opportunities for tricky curving arrows.

Soon enough, the city appeared as they went over a sand hill, Ell’Hakan shooting a beam of moonlight straight through the sand as it was kicked up everywhere during his pursuit. Jake dodged the beam as he shot an arrow that the nahoom decided to dodge, slowing him down slightly and giving Jake a chance to use a few instances of One Step before his opponent turned into a beam of light and pursued once more.

He appeared in front of Jake as he unleashed an explosion of starlight that Jake purposefully blocked with a barrier of arcane mana to launch himself toward the city. He was ready to be attacked again, but instead, the nahoom began talking while giving pursuit.

“Even now, it stands proud, a beacon of life and a testament to the power of the nahoom in the middle of the desert,” the Celestial Child spoke, turning his attention briefly toward the capital city Jake was nearly at.

“I do find it appropriate for this to be the site of the battle, and I shall bury you here once you’re dead, erecting a monument to serve as a warning and reminder to all who dare try and walk a similar path to yours.”

“Reminder to whom?” Jake yelled back in between using One Step. “How many did you kill of your own kin already? Are there even any alive to build the monument for you?”

“I did not kill my kin. They simply gave their lives to protect this planet. They know that should I fail to slay you, it will mean the end of this world, your very existence a threat to the universe,” the Celestial Child responded calmly. “You also underestimate the nahoom. We are a hardy race, and even if you had succeeded in your plot of destroying the planet, we would have survived through our kin spread throughout the galaxy. Kin that shall return and help rebuild once you have fallen.”

The confidence of the nahoom was almost impressive, and Jake would have had at least an iota of respect if he didn’t know it stemmed from Ell’Hakan mind-fucking himself into oblivion. He truly was utterly delusional, believing everything he said with genuine conviction as if it were the absolute truth.

While that was pretty damn laughable, Jake also recognized how dangerous it was. Ell’Hakan was effectively closer to an elemental or spirit now with his current body, only hanging on due to the constant influx of faith energy and an insane display of Bloodline-fueled Willpower that could truly only come from someone so broken.

Finally entering the capital city proper, Jake instantly used the many tall towers to his advantage. Ell’Hakan followed, but he seemed in less than a rush. In fact, rather than chasing after Jake directly, he instead flew up into the air. Initially, Jake thought he was doing this to keep better track of Jake, but instead of looking downward to where he would be, the nahoom instead stared directly at the sky.

Up there, the twin moons were still glowing brightly, though neither of them had released any attacks for quite a while. Seeing Ell’Hakan stare at them, Jake just shrugged mentally as he shot an arrow toward him, the nahoom at least aware enough of himself to quickly move and block it.

“Impatient... but very well,” Ell’Hakan said as he turned toward Jake. “You are powerful. More powerful than I had expected you to be, even considering I do not believe I underestimated you. Considering the failing state of my vessel, dragging things out needlessly seems ill-advised... so allow me to hurry things along.”

The Celestial Child held out his arms to each side, and from Jake’s perspective, it looked like he held a moon in each hand. The light behind him suddenly intensified, and Jake’s eyes opened wide as he felt a wave of warmth wash over him right as he was blinded.

... wait, why wasn’t that enough?

As Jake was once more sent flying through the air, he questioned himself why it wouldn’t be enough? Pride of the Malefic Viper made it easier to control the area all around him, made it easier to summon magic there, and even allowed him to attack anyone within his presence with mental attacks.

Right now, Jake’s presence extended quite far. If he wanted to, he could even make it extend at least dozens of kilometers in every direction, though it likely wouldn’t work to infuse that entire area with mana using Pride. Doing so would also be extremely wasteful, as it all came back to the importance of scope versus intensity.

That’s when Jake got his idea to fight back. Right now, he had his presence extend quite a good distance away from himself to fight any ranged attacks, the skill having proven very useful against the falling star shards, but right now, he didn’t need that.

Jake focused as he slowly retracted his own presence, consolidating it. It shrunk from extending a few hundred meters in every direction to less than a hundred, then fifty, forty, thirty, twenty... Jake kept retracting his presence until it was only in a five or so meter radius all around him.

Right as Ell’Hakan closed in again, trident raised and ready to strike, Jake made his gamble. Activating all his Willpower, Jake focused on Pride of the Malefic Viper as he imposed his will upon the world in his immediate surroundings.

Rather than try to make his own domain, Jake did just the opposite... he willfully expelled any domains. Leaning into the concept of Pride itself, Jake simply didn’t allow any domain to affect the area his presence had already laid its claim on, arrogantly only allowing his own magic to exist there.

Jake felt his mind be strained as he pushed his Willpower further than usual, the double domain fighting back against what Jake was trying to do. Blood began to drip from Jake’s nose as he strained himself too much... but soon, it was replaced with a wave of confidence as he felt his body lighten up and the moonlight’s effect on his body severely lessen, making him know he’d succeeded. The extra Willpower also instantly became useful, Jake instantly feeling he got it as he barely had to even check the notification.

Skill upgraded: [Pride of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)] --> [Pride of the Malefic Viper (Legendary)]

Ell’Hakan’s attack arrived just then, but Jake could move again. He dodged it significantly faster than before, taking the nahoom by surprise as Jake landed a counterattack by stepping forward and quickly jabbing his opponent in the chest.

The Usurper stumbled back and swung to counter, but Jake was faster as he kept pace and landed another stab, dodged the swing, and stabbed one more time for good measure, every attack of his resulting in even more cracks forming across Ell’Hakan’s already rapidly breaking down body and soul.

“Even now, you grow stronger,” the Celestial Child said as he dodged back from one of Jake’s attacks.

“Wouldn’t feel right if you were the only one,” Jake smiled, using his newly improved Pride to manifest magic all around him as hundreds of arcane bolts appeared instantly. At the same time, he also finally consumed a health potion to try and better his current state.

He had taken quite the pummeling, leading to wounds covering his entire body, most of them burning with celestial energy. The vital energy instantly flooded his body and began to heal him, the nahoom in front either not noticing or not caring.

“Perhaps it wouldn’t, and it does prove you are worthy of being recognized as my adversary,” the Celestial Child responded right as the sun above flashed, a massive laser of pure light descending as the nahoom charged again. Jake quickly released his mana bolts, sending them flying in an unpredictable swarm as he dove forward.

Dodging the sunbeam, Jake clashed with Ell’Hakan yet again, the nahoom no longer taken by surprise from Jake successfully nullifying most of the two domains’ effect on him. To clarify, Jake was still burning through mana to resist it, and even then, some of it continued to leak through. The effect was just so much less now, and his scales could handle it for the most part.

As Jake and Ell’Hakan crossed weapons, their magic also met all around them, arcane energy clashing with celestial magic as they rapidly tore through the capital city. Jake occasionally got the opportunity to create distance and use the environment as he had originally planned, but Ell’Hakan was equally quick to adapt as he was rarely taken by surprise.

Somehow, the fight had moved to seeming equal again, almost having turned into a battle of endurance. Jake was burning through his resources quickly to keep up with the stronger Ell’Hakan, while Ell’Hakan was burning through his very existence. Jake had long stopped holding anything back, even using another two Eternal Shadows to dodge while landing solid counterattacks, despite the increasing cost of using the skill consecutively.

Both of them had to know the fight was nearing its end, with Jake only having one burning question in his mind... did the Celestial Child have any more tricks up his sleeve?

Because Jake almost hoped he did... this desire soon to be realized.