The Primal Hunter

Jake quickly nocked another arrow to release a barrage of purely stable arrows as he bombarded the creature he had Identified as something called the Desolate Child of Loss. It definitely wasn’t the kind of name of some “normal” race or anything like that; at least, Jake didn’t think so, but neither was it a Unique Lifeform.

In truth, Jake had no idea what the fuck they were dealing with. No one seemed to, but right now, it didn’t matter as he kept attacking to buy space for Sylphie and the Fallen King, with the latter especially in need of assistance.

The Protean Arrow Jake created had been one with the express intent of getting the Desolate Child of Loss away from the two of them and was made nearly entirely of stable arcane mana, and he had even tried mixing some neurotoxins. He was fully aware that the desolation would rapidly make anything he did to the creature lose all effect, but he didn’t need it to last that long in the first place.

From the looks of it, it proved to be enough and Eron, alongside William, quickly stepped forward to help. The healer flew to meet the two being chased as William activated his boosting skill to full power right away as silver armor covered his entire body, and raising his hand, a giant shield of pure metal appeared. Runes covered it all over, the young metal mage infusing it with more and more mana as he waited for his opening.

After Jake managed to land a powerful arrow that curved to surprise the Desolate Child of Loss, the mage made the nearly five-meter-wide and more than ten meters tall tower shield float down in front of him as he punched it with his palm, launching it down toward the Desolate Child of Loss.

Assisting the mage, Jake looked down at the Desolate Child of Loss as he did something potentially risky. His eyes glowed for a moment as Primal Gaze activated, and he stared at the soul of the creature as its soul also stared back at him…

What?

Jake stumbled back, but the skill had activated way more effectively than Jake expected, the Desolate Child of Loss screaming toward the sky in pain right as its entire body froze, and the metal shield slammed into it, sending it flying down toward the upper layers of the clouds at incredible speeds as William kept channeling mana into it to push it downward.

This made the remnants of the domain of desolation closest to them slowly begin to lose power, and with the Fallen King and Sylphie fully out of it, Eron quickly made his way to them. They both looked off, their bodies having lost their usual luster, as if they hadn’t been fully colored while everything else was. Sylphie’s usual vibrant green was muted and nearly gray, while the Fallen King’s gold was just glowing white lines, and both of them practically oozed out desolation into the environment.

Eron naturally knew their situation wasn’t that good, and he held nothing back as he appeared right in front of him. “We are in a rush, and I do not have the time to be gentle, so accept the unpleasantries that are to come.”

The healer held out a hand toward each of them as his body erupted in white flames, and his voice echoed as he boosted himself beyond his usual limits, even using Words of Power to further amplify what he was about to do. “May you be purged by fire.”

With those words, the two of them erupted as white flames consumed them, and Jake finally managed to gather his thoughts properly after using Gaze as he heard Sylphie screech from the pain of Eron’s arcane affinity forcefully burning away the desolation within their bodies.

He looked down toward the creature that had inflicted the desolation and saw it had managed to finally tear apart the metal shield, pushing it down, and even as he drew his bow to keep attacking, he couldn’t help but frown.

The feeling the Desolate Child of Loss gave off when he used Gaze wasn’t really one Jake could describe easily, but if he had to, he would say its entire existence felt… wrong. Jake had used Gaze on many things throughout his life, seen many forms of souls, and been confronted with many creatures, but this one was the one that made the least sense to him.

On the one hand, it reminded him of the Yalsten Shade of Eternal Resentment he had seen back in the Treasure Hunt. That creature had been a living curse spirit made from pure curse energy and the collective consciousness of all those who had powered the curse with their negative emotions. This Desolate Child of Loss definitely had aspects of that, but as mentioned, it felt wrong.

What Jake saw also reminded him of the Ashen Devourer and even the Fallen King. There was that hint of uniqueness in there, traces of something that was truly one of a kind, yet also somehow oddly familiar. As if the creature had Records didn’t truly belong to the Desolate Child of Loss, and yet they fully did, having been transformed as the creature had become what it was now.

Finally, there was what held it all together and made this walking entity of wrongness even function. Because despite everything seeming like a mess, it was all one stable creature, fully balanced and stabilized. This was not some creature that would die within a few years if left alone, though with its Path, perhaps evolutions would be difficult, but certainly not impossible. Possibly, Jake even had it entirely wrong, and it didn’t even need to struggle to evolve… the only thing he really knew was that the creature was extraordinary.

Because the final trace, the ultimate building block that made up the Desolate Child of Loss, reminded him of something he felt was impossible to see in a C-grade:

Divinity.

Not to say the creature was a god… but it had the power of faith, and not just a little. Truthfully, Jake wasn’t at all experienced in how exactly faith worked. All he knew was that the Holy Church was the foremost users of this kind of concept and intangible energy, but he had a very hard time seeing them actively having taken part in creating something like the Desolate Child of Loss. Its entire existence seemed antithetical to what they wanted.

All Jake knew for now was that whatever he had seen when he used Primal Gaze wasn’t simple, but it did have a faint sense of feebleness to it, which was why his skill had been so effective. He didn’t know if this was due to the creature’s impossible soul or because of the concept of desolation, but in either case, it meant it wasn’t infallible.

There was just one problem with using Primal Gaze right now… Jake’s own soul was also fucked up, and having used the skill only once had already put quite a strain on him. Alongside the boosting skill Jake had active on the stable 30%, he really didn’t want to push himself too much further. Having a damaged soul and lowered resources really didn’t play well with forcibly raising those resources with a boosting skill, and he knew he couldn’t keep it up for long lest he wanted to set himself back the last few months of progress.

Releasing several arrows, Jake tried to damage the Desolate Child of Loss as he began diving downward to keep the creature away from Eron and the two people currently being healed long enough for Sandy to eat them and get the hell out of there. He also told William not to interfere anymore to allow Jake to benefit from Lone Hunter, instead having the metal mage make sure Eron could work in peace.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The creature dealt with most of Jake’s attacks pretty effortlessly but did take a few minor wounds, mainly because it seemed distracted. As they got even closer to one another, Jake entered the domain of desolation, his body already covered in Scales of the Malefic Viper, allowing him to resist it for the most part. Right as he entered, the Desolate Child suddenly stopped, Jake also stopping as this development wasn’t bad, seeing as his job was to buy time.

“You… I know you…” the Desolate Child of Loss said, looking confused at Jake.

Infusing his own voice with power to answer, Jake stood ready as he felt a powerful undercurrent of killing intent in the words despite the apparent confusion. It was as if the creature didn’t know why it knew him in the first place. 𝘳

“We have never met before, so I would find it highly questionable if you claim to know me,” Jake said, wondering if perhaps it was due to the core he had eaten and was still absorbing energy and Records from – even if the process was now painfully slow.

“No… I remember… you servant… Chosen…” the Desolate Child of Loss said, seemingly trying to collect its own thoughts. Then, it seemingly all clicked in place as it raised its gaze and looked straight at Jake. “I know. You pure evil. Enemy.”

The last words were said with pure hatred as the creature stared straight at Jake, its bloodlust growing. It bent its legs slightly and pointed its spear forward, ready to pounce as it spoke one last time. “Unworthy… but must still be saved.”

Jake quickly reacted courtesy of his danger sense as the creature teleported, appearing right in front of him a fraction of a second later, stabbing for his neck. Twisting his body to the side, Jake avoided the spear and countered as two katars appeared, but found himself too slow as the creature swept a hand upwards, a torrent of pure desolation washing over Jake as his scales screamed but still held on.

Gritting his teeth, Jake went on the offensive to try and claim the momentum of battle and set his own tempo. He stabbed forward, the Desolate Child of Loss dodging while trying to counter, but Jake was one step ahead and punched it in the stomach with Eternal Hunger. The blade sunk in deep and he felt the displeasure of the Sin weapon as it didn’t even try to absorb any energy from the creature of pure desolation.

Mostly unaffected by the attack, the creature tried to strike him again, but Jake circled around his opponent, making use of his higher speed to not be caught out while staying in extremely close melee range to make the usage of its spear harder. He was fully aware none of this would be possible without his scales, as they limited the effect the domain had on him, and if he lost them, he would probably not even be able to move at half his usual speed. With them, he was still weakened, but by far less. This was definitely a big reason why the Fallen King and Sylphie had struggled so much. The desolation simply weakened everything to absurd levels, and while Jake could remain somewhat unaffected in body, his offensive might was still incredibly weak.

It didn’t help that the little neurotoxin that lingered within the Desolate Child of Loss was soon fully made desolate, allowing the creature to get even faster as it became more evenly matched with Jake, though he still managed to stay on top speed-wise. He wasn’t sure for how long, though.

Jake quickly stopped trying to deal damage entirely but went purely on the defensive. At least the creature was fully focused on Jake with hatred he had no good explanation for, giving Eron time to help Sylphie and the King.

Despite his scales, Jake couldn’t simply shrug off the desolation, as it did begin to slowly seep through and enter his body, but not faster than he could rid of it himself. He wanted to keep himself in a state where Sandy could eat him at any moment. Still, the desolation did make him get a little slower and weaker the more time passed, and soon, he didn’t even have a speed advantage.

With little choice, he did something Jake had wanted to avoid as Arcane Awakening fully activated, his body exploding with arcane energy. Jake felt like he had just set his soul on fire, and the pain was excruciating, as if he had just torn a wound open and decided to pour chili sauce on it. Still, he kept a calm head as he continued facing the creature head-on, now with a small advantage once more… but he knew he only had minutes left.

As he quickly released a Pulse of Perception to check out how the others were doing, he saw that Sylphie was already gone, having likely been eaten by Sandy, with the Fallen King still encased in flames as Eron had a worried look. William stood in front of them, also looking concerned as he had some magic circle in front of himself, seemingly doing that karmic scan or whatever he had talked about on their way there.

Jake hoped they would get shit done and be ready to move out of here very soon as Jake kept fighting. By now, he already knew he had likely set his healing back slightly, but he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

Another minute passed, and something Jake had dearly hoped wouldn’t happen happened. His boosting skill began to waver, and it was soon no longer able to stay active unless Jake forcibly kept it going… at which point he wasn’t just looking at setting back his healing journey but adding even more on top of it.

Just then, he received a message he hoped was that they were ready to go. However, sometimes things just didn’t work out that way.

“Hey… this isn’t good. Eron is working as hard as he can, but the desolation has already gone incredibly deep inside the Fallen King. As he is a creature that is more soul than physical body, he takes far longer to heal, and Eron doesn’t think he can get it done in any quick manner… Sandy tried to absorb him anyway into a separate stomach, but the devouring skill simply didn’t work due to the leaking desolation…” William sent Jake telepathically.

Needless to say, that was a very bad message to receive, and despite his struggles, Jake instantly sent one back.

“I can’t keep this up much longer… we need some other plan,” Jake said, a trace of panic now setting in.

Should they try to run without Sandy eating the King? No… he was too slow and couldn’t keep up. Maybe Sandy could eat Jake, and maybe they could try to drag the Fallen King somehow… no that was so dumb. His mana string wouldn’t last more than a moment under the power of the creature’s domain.

The thought of using the mask to summon the Fallen King had naturally occurred to Jake but he knew he couldn’t. Ever since he took the soul damage, the summoning function had been shaky at best, and now, with the King damaged and inflicted with desolation, it was impossible.

In the end, Jake resigned himself to doing something he had no idea what would result in. He still had some Origin Energy remaining to use, and if he-“

“Your thoughts are so easy to read,” the Fallen King’s voice echoed inside Jake’s head, and he saw through a Pulse the King was now standing up, the flames gone, and Eron having backed away toward Sandy alongside William.

A wave of relief washed over Jake as he assumed the healer had made it in time, but then, he saw the Fallen King flying straight toward him as the Unique Lifeform spoke once more.

“The desolation has gone too deep. It has taken hold and refuses to let go,” the King said, his voice melancholic. “I was too slow, too weak, and not familiar enough with the concept of desolation to adequately battle it. There is none to blame but myself… so do not risk yourself needlessly anymore.”

Jake realized what the King was doing as he protested. “I can-“

“This is my choice, my failure, and you do not have the right to bear the consequences. Only I can decide who that burden falls to... and I've already rightfully chosen,” the Fallen King cut him off as the creature landed a blast of golden force that made the Desolate Child of Loss stumble back slightly.

He wanted to protest more, but Jake didn’t get the choice as the Fallen King turned toward him and lifted his ivory claw toward its mask. The claw began to glow golden as the Fallen King infused power into the mask, the Desolate Child of Loss charging the Unique Lifeform from behind, with the King not even reacting.

Golden fractures formed all over the mask as the Fallen King clenched its claw… the mask shattering entirely, sending streams of golden light into the mask Jake was wearing. This was one of the last things Jake saw as a wave of pure golden soul force struck him, sending him flying back as his consciousness wavered and began fading away.

For a brief period, the entire domain of desolation was overpowered and suppressed, and the soul of the Fallen King burned brighter than ever before in a final golden blaze of glory as the King turned toward the reeling Desolate Child of Loss, ready to show why Unique Lifeforms were so feared all across the multiverse… especially in their final moments.