The Primal Hunter 8: A LitRPG Adventure, page 21
Jake exited his Soulspace again and considered his second option. One he had seen be used to escape a very perilous situation before when used by its maker.
He was naturally thinking of Wings of the Malefic Viper.
The attack on the Risen had started as expected. The weaker individuals took the frontlines from the side of the Holy Church and United Cities Alliance while the Risen tried to preserve their numbers and strength. They tried to only send out the stronger parties from their side, as this was not a battle they could win. Only delay. Priscilla stayed back to organize everything, while Casper had chosen to take to the battlefield.
It’s a bit weird, when I think about it, Casper thought to himself as he released his curses upon the opposing army.
He was a Risen and what many would call a bringer of death and misery with his specialization in curses. Yet Casper realized that he hadn’t actually killed any humans since the tutorial. Not even during the Treasure Hunt had he taken a single life due to how the Risen had approached the event.
Until today, that is.
War was a common occurrence in the multiverse. He knew the Blightfather and the undead faction as a whole condoned these kinds of wars and viewed them as a good thing. It helped weed out the population and, in turn, gave rise to individuals that were not only more powerful, but also more talented. War was far more than a single fight. It was a long struggle and something that forced you to train both your skills and mind. Those who came out of a war on top either had their mentality steeled or broken.
Casper himself was an example of the latter. He had already been broken once during the tutorial. He knew he was not made for war. He hated it. He despised the senseless killing of people fighting for things that were either lies or that they barely believed in. Most of the invaders from the Holy Church or United Cities Alliance were only there because of what their factions had lied about or due to sheer ignorance. They had no personal reason. Casper hated every moment he spent on the battlefield… which only made him stronger.
It didn’t help that he was really fucking good at it.
Curses were fueled by emotions, and the battlefield was a very emotional place. Casper simply had to fuel the fire as he took advantage of the area. One had to remember that the Risen were the defenders, and even if many of their defensive measures had been sabotaged, far from all had been struck. The most potent defenses, only a handful were aware of. One of these defensive items was called the Thousand Splinters Pillar. To the naked eye, it looked like a giant, rotten tree trunk, but to Casper, it was a battery of infinite weapons.
Casper flew above the battlefield with the large pillar floating behind him, sending splinters raining down towards the battlefield. Every time a splinter hit someone, they were struck by a mental attack. Those unable to resist lashed out and began attacking those around them mercilessly, as it altered their perception of who was an ally or friend. Worse, the curse energy in each splinter would be amplified every time the person attacked someone.
Within the first half an hour of the battle, Casper killed hundreds. Within the first day, over a thousand. It slowed down with time as they adapted, but Casper was just stronger. Some were not even D-grade, and Casper quickly realized something was off but kept fighting. At the beginning of the second day, after a long rest where others had to take to the battle, he pushed forward and killed more and more, soon leaving behind the other Risen. If he was ahead of the others, he could limit casualties on their side.
Keeping up and pressing his advantage, Casper soon found himself close to enemy lines. He stopped, and at this moment, his Spirit Mark resonated, and he heard Priscilla speak.
"Retreat for now. They are just throwing bodies at us to tire us out, both mentally and in resources."
Casper instantly agreed and began to make his way back. He stared at the battlefield below and saw corpses everywhere. Most were from the Holy Church, but Priscilla was right… These were just meat shields. Proof once more of the ruthlessness of the Holy Church when it came to war. They were willing to make any sacrifice as long as they won. Their own elites had also cowardly stayed back since the moment Casper rejoined the battle.
One of the defensive measures they still had on the side of the Risen was a single Orb of Second Awakening—a one-time-use item that would send a specially attuned death-mana pulse out to reanimate those who had died as undead. Not Risen, just mindless monsters. But the Church and United Cities clearly knew this, as flames constantly swept across the battlefield, burning the bodies of the fallen, followed by pulses from the priests of the Holy Church to "purify" the souls. It was cruel but effec—
"Watch out!" Casper suddenly heard mid-retreat.
He did not react in time, but a shield still appeared and blocked a beam of light that had been headed straight for him as one of his preprepared spells activated. Casper’s eyes opened wide as a second attack arrived, this time from directly below. He retreated towards the battlefield once more as a sword of light cut the area in which he had just stood. The air shimmered as a figure emerged from invisibility. As he appeared, so did his comrades.
"Thousands dead to isolate me in an ambush…" Casper muttered.
Five people had appeared, and he recognized three of them as the party members of Bertram. It was the healer Noor, the swordsman Lucian, and mage Joshua. Notably absent were the two strongest people in the party, Maria and Bertram.
The two replacements were also an archer and a warrior.
"Thousands of fates realized as they enter the Holyland with honor," the priestess, Noor, said.
Goddamn fanatics, Casper cursed, seeing no need for further words. With the pillar still floating behind him, Casper counterattacked as he prioritized getting back to safety. Lucian cut him off and tried to strike Casper, but was intercepted by a wooden barrier that exploded in his face.
Joshua released a beam of light that forced Casper to dodge as he sent cursed stakes in retaliation. The archer and warrior also joined the fray and tried to pressure the Risen, but the difference was clear. Which only made Casper frown more, as they should know they didn’t stand a chance. Which meant it was as he and Priscilla expected…
"Do you need my help?" Lyra asked him from within his pendant, but Casper refused.
"Save your energy in case they have a trick up their sleeve," Casper answered. “They have something planned, and I may need you to get us out of here.” He had not overextended without a backup plan.
Lyra acknowledged this, ready to unleash her power if anything went awry. Casper handled the fight fine on his own, but killing any one of them was an issue. He lacked in the damage output department, as he was the type of fighter to slowly build up curses in his foes or lead them into traps. With no time to set up traps, Casper just had to fight with his wooden stakes and general curse magic as he ever so slowly tried to get away.
The group had only revealed themselves the moment Casper had begun retreating, so it was clear something was up. He tried probing out responses as he used a boosting skill and pressed Lucian hard. Giant stakes appeared all around Casper, and he connected them to the pillar floating behind him to send out pulses of pure curse energy.
Casper was about to explode the entire thing… when he sensed something was off.
"You fucking bastards," Casper muttered as he looked down. Thousands of motes of light had appeared, floating in the air as Noor spoke an incantation.
"Holy martyrs, heed my call!" the insane priestess yelled as the many motes of light began moving.
Casper had underestimated the depravity of the Holy Church. These people were not just meat shields; they were straight-up sacrifices. He knew this kind of magic; it was something the Holy Church had deployed before. Each of the killed members from the Holy Church had carried on them a mark that effectively turned them into dead people walking to bring out more power, and when they then died, all their remaining energy would be focused into the mark. The holy "purification" earlier had not been to cleanse their souls or whatever, either, but simply a way to prime the motes.
The motes of light flew up and entered a mark on the swordsman Lucian. Casper was perplexed for a moment until he realized what they were doing. These people are batshit insane.
Lucian began glowing with intense light as Casper tried to back away, but the four others moved to stop him. Each of them had activated all their boosting skills to try and keep him still as Lucian’s aura grew with every moment.
Just as he was about to unleash it all, Casper snickered a bit.
"Lyra. Now."
Casper’s body suddenly glowed green as a ghostly form appeared above him. Lyra opened her mouth and let out a fitting unholy scream that sent out a wave of soul energy. At the same time, the pillar exploded, sending splinters in every direction. Everyone was stunned and pelted with splinters as Casper’s entire body turned green and transparent before he flew straight down towards the ground.
Lucian broke through the stun effect and chased him, surpassing Casper’s speed and catching up to him rapidly. The Risen pressed himself even more, and he felt his body burn from the sheer presence of the man, who looked like a miniature sun. Lucian’s blade closed in just as Casper reached the ground… and continued.
The blade impacted the soil and shook the battlefield with a huge explosion, sending shockwaves out. A bright light flashed before it subsided, leaving only a deep hole in the ground as well as a struggling Lucian. He tried to strike again, but his arm broke mid-swing as his body started to turn to motes of light. A few seconds later, not a single trace of him remained, as his body had been consumed by the holy power.
Back behind the walls, a ghostly green figure emerged right next to Priscilla. It was naturally Casper, who quickly turned corporeal again before slumping to the ground. "Those absolute maniacs actually fucking did it."
"We expected it," Priscilla sighed, still clearly troubled by the sheer level of fanaticism displayed by the Church.
Casper nodded as he looked over at a certain cave. "Is it time we make our grand exit?"
"Most have already been evacuated," Priscilla answered.
"Go now," Casper said. "I will help the rest retreat from the battlefield as you lead the last ones in there."
"We’re really doing this," Priscilla said, uncertainty clear on her face.
"We tried and failed," Casper said. "So let’s just stick to the original plan. We should have just accepted long ago that Earth would never be a home for us anyway."
Chapter 24
Making (Unpleasant) Business Deals
When Jake thought about it, Wings of the Malefic Viper was honestly a weird skill in his repertoire. Mainly in that he didn’t really need one of its primary functions anymore: the ability to fly. Jake could just do that using mana manipulation.
This meant the skill now only served as a way to pump out poison mist. It did add a bit of maneuverability while flying, but it was not that major. Jake knew that a lot of the skill’s allocated Records went into simply summoning the wings in their phantasmal form and adding them to the Soulshape, but that wasn’t exactly something Jake "needed" either.
Jake still used the wings a lot due to their relatively low upkeep, which meant the only time he really spent resources on them was with the initial summoning and when he pumped out poison. The poison pumped out also wasn’t exactly impressive. It mostly just served as a way to keep his current poison active and the occasional area-of-effect attack.
Upgrading the poison mist aspect of the skill did not appeal to him either. Besides, if he upgraded his Blood of the Malefic Viper, he would inadvertently also upgrade the mist. There was also the approach of trying to make them more durable, or perhaps increasing the maneuverability and overall flight speed. There was even the approach of going the same direction as Draskil, where his wings allowed him short-range teleports and speed-ups in battle. His version was clearly one specialized for movement in combat and taking advantage of his existing physical stats. But that wasn’t the direction Jake wanted to take.
During the vision where he’d seen Villy getting smacked by Valdemar, he had seen Wings of the Malefic Viper used as an escape skill to great effect. He had felt how the wings had somehow been activated, and a "tunnel" of sorts had been formed that allowed him to escape. Jake wanted something like that.
He wanted an escape skill—not necessarily to run from a fight he could not win like Villy had, but to escape situations that rendered him stuck or sealed in some way. Like the skill Ell’Hakan had used, which had seemed to isolate Jake from the rest of the world for its duration.
One Step was already better at long-distance movement anyway. It was a legendary skill specialized in travel, while Wings had so many other aspects. There were some issues with upgrading it, though.
Having already been shown the skill twice, Jake was not sure if he could see it again. It did say that he could only view a vision of a skill once, but did the one he had count? It felt like that one had been more about Fangs of the Malefic Viper than Wings.
Nevertheless, Jake tried to use the Path of the Heretic-Chosen skill as he focused on Wings of the Malefic Viper. Not necessarily to use it, but to see if he even could—and to his disappointment, the skill did not activate right away. This left him even more unsure, as he still didn’t know if it was because he didn’t fulfill some requirement to see the vision or because he had used his one chance on the skill.
He also tried to reflect on the feeling he’d had during the vision, but it was all too blurry for him to remember. His focus back then had been on Fangs of the Malefic Viper and Fang of Man, not Wings, so even when he had felt the escape technique, his mind had partly been elsewhere.
"You busy?" the worm suddenly asked while Jake meditated on the issue.
"Only a little," Jake answered. "Why do you ask?"
"You said you wanted to hurry, right? The problem is that up ahead is the territory of scorpions, and they like to hide in the sand and attack if we try to go through, so we tend to avoid them. Avoiding them and going around will be slower…” Leadingly, the worm added, “But if the human is strong, then maybe…"
"Let me guess, they have a C-grade leader of some kind?"
"Yep, and it is very dangerous. One of the big worms tried to scare them off once but was hit, and it took weeks to recover from the nasty venom. We aren’t that good at fighting, if you haven’t noticed, and trying to swallow them wouldn’t end well, as they have tough bodies and are very poisonous even when eaten. A few worms have eaten some of them, and it never ended well.”
"So I guess this is all for the wellbeing of worm society?" Jake asked somewhat teasingly.
"Their leader may or may not also be guarding a very tasty-looking rock that I wouldn’t complain if I happened to eat," the worm admitted, making its intentions clear.
Even if worm society was very altruistic and they believed in sharing, there was still some greed when it came to unique, powerful natural treasures. The C-grades tended to monopolize these, according to what the worm had told him, and the only exception was when a treasure was found that would allow another worm to break through to C-grade. Another C-grade among them was far more valuable than the limited growth of one of the existing C-grade worms, and often these treasures didn’t really benefit one already in C-grade that much.
The rock the scorpion guarded was one that fit the criteria of both C-grades and those wanting to evolve being able to use it, according to his worm buddy. It was also one that no other worms dared go for due to the scorpions guarding it.
Jake considered it for a moment. "Fine. Tell me everything you know about them," he said, wanting to at least go in with information.
While Jake had not lost his "fight" with Ell’Hakan because he was weaker, being stronger would potentially have allowed him to avoid getting thrown away entirely. No concept or advanced magic truly mattered before supreme power. If Jake had been a C-grade and just released a massive wave of destructive arcane mana, he would have broken any spell Ell’Hakan could ever conjure up.
Also… Jake still wanted levels, and doing some killing would surely do him good. He felt like he needed it too. Besides, he had the excuse of helping out the worm that was already helping him, and the worm even mentioned this way would be faster. Did the worm specify how much faster or how much of a detour it would be? No, not at all. And he didn’t ask either.
"Okay! So, the scorpions are not that large, only a few times bigger than you, and the most dangerous part is their stringer. The pincers look dangerous, but they aren’t actually that bad, as they can’t really grab our skin… Oh, but they could probably cut off your small parts. So also watch out for those. To make it worse, their skin is not really skin but more like rock, and…"
Jake listened along, considering if fighting them wouldn’t just be a quicker way to find out, as, quite frankly, they just sounded like normal scorpions. Massive scorpions, but still scorpions.
Soon to be dead scorpions.
Caleb sat before the man that he knew had been the impetus of this entire conflict. Why the hell he had asked for a meeting was beyond him, but Caleb had agreed nonetheless. As the Judge of the Court of Shadows in this branch, he was obligated to. The reason was that the leader of the United Cities Alliance had not come to invade the Court. He had not even necessarily asked Caleb to meet.
He had simply approached them as a client.
Arthur sat across from Caleb in a small tent constructed between the group from the United Cities Alliance and Skyggen. Both had men stationed nearby, but Caleb wanted to avoid a fight if necessary. He had to admit that, looking at Arthur, he wasn’t sure if he could kill him. Not because he was strong or anything, but due to the many items he possessed.
Not that Caleb would let that show as he confidently spoke, "I find it brave for you to meet me under four eyes like this.”
"Why?" Arthur asked. "I am not meeting Caleb Thayne, the brother of the Malefic Viper’s Chosen, but the Judge of the Court of Shadows. I am here as a client looking to hire the Court. Nothing more, nothing less."
