The Primal Hunter 11, page 36
Jake looked at the familiar man entering the arena across from him. The Battlemaster, or Warmaster, had swapped his practical clothes and simple garments for a set of full plate armor, and now wielded a sword and a shield. He walked into the arena with heavy steps, and Jake had to admit his aura had spiked quite a bit.
Despite their conversation only minutes before, they once more met in the middle of the jam-packed arena. Because, yes, even if they had scheduled their fight and started… nine minutes after it had been scheduled, the stands had still been filled to the brim. It made no sense at all, and Jake was honestly getting tired of constantly questioning it. The feeling of annoyance just lived rent-free in his head.
“Looking good there; nice equipment,” Jake complimented the Warmaster. It wasn’t an empty compliment, either… Jake was utterly certain not a single piece of equipment or weapon was anything less than legendary.
“Thank you—there are plenty more where they came from.” The Warmaster smiled. “Now, let us fight with our best and hold nothing back. I have seen your fights already, and I know I cannot slack off… so I’ll go all out from the beginning.”
“Just as I like it.” Jake smiled in return as he jumped back while he pulled out his bow, signifying the battle had begun.
The Warmaster responded by charging after him with impressive speed, his boots lighting up with mana that indicated he’d used some enchantment on them. Jake wasn’t taken by surprise; he quickly shot an arrow that the man deflected with ease using his shield as he closed in on Jake, who couldn’t move backward as fast as someone running forward.
Jake was prepared to dodge as the man swung his blade, but what happened next wasn’t something he had expected. The sword he presumed to be of legendary rarity began to crack all over mid-swing with red fractures and then suddenly exploded without warning, releasing a blast of molten metal and fire.
Cursing internally, Jake instantly pulled out his katars and tried to block whatever he could, but a few wayward fragments still hit him. Meanwhile, the Warmaster had been hidden behind his own shield, avoiding any damage.
Stumbling back to recover, Jake quickly tried to attack while the Warmaster was without a weapon… only for him to pull out a scimitar that also radiated the power of a legendary item. Jake was on guard this time as he engaged, but the Warmaster fought like a normal person for a few moments. He was very defensive, though, and hid behind his shield at all times, never truly giving Jake the chance to land a blow. Despite his heavy armor, he remained incredibly flexible and quickly moved his weapon and shield like a true expert. The man clearly knew how to use his weapons.
Right as Jake began to think nothing tricky was going on, the scimitar suddenly started to frost over. Cursing again, Jake reacted in time as an explosion of frozen metal fragments pelted him. Luckily, he had gotten some distance and could block all the hits that mattered… but then he saw the Warmaster pull out a spear that he pointed toward Jake. Legendary rarity, too.
A flash of lightning wormed across the body of the spear as it shot out a lightning bolt, striking Jake head-on before he had a chance to react and sending him flying back. Another bolt came a second later, but this one Jake managed to block with both katars, as the lightning was effectively grounded by the dense, stable arcane energy within them.
Several more bolts followed, and Jake welcomed the change to a ranged battle. He pulled out his bow and retaliated, using his near-precognitive ability to dodge the lightning bolts. Knowing that just shooting head-on wouldn’t work, Jake began to shoot far more tricky arrows.
The Warmaster blocked two arrows with his shield before a third one struck him in the shoulder. Despite the powerful armor, the stable arcane arrow proved sharp enough to penetrate, but before he could explode it, odd energy from the armor itself invaded the arrow and made it crack and shatter.
Right as that happened, the spear also ran out of juice. The Warmaster discarded it on the ground and took out a second shield, making it borderline impossible for Jake to land any more arrows.
He is like Gudrun… He has a shitload of different tools, Jake was now sure. One had to remember that all items in the arena were ones that the combatants had crafted or bought using Colosseum Points, and seeing as Champions couldn’t do Show Matches… it meant that the Warmaster was exploding weapons he had likely spent months, if not years, making.
There was also the fact that the Battlemaster had seen every single one of Jake’s matches from start to end. Even the Show Matches. He knew exactly what Jake was capable of and had seen all the tricks he had shown thus far.
“Say, how many of those weapons do you have?” Jake asked, having stopped shooting any arrows toward the man holding two large tower shields. If the man wanted to be a turtle, Jake saw no reason to waste arrows on his shell.
“I guess you’ll find out,” the Warmaster said as he smiled while slowly moving toward Jake.
Jake backed away but soon realized he was closing in on the back wall of the Colosseum. Right as he noticed this, the Warmaster put away his shields, and axe appeared in one hand and a sword in the other. The man stepped down as he charged, his boots exploding with power to propel him straight toward Jake.
Jake barely had time to react properly, blocking with his two katars. What’s more, he was incredibly careful when it came to engaging the Warmaster directly, as he didn’t know when one of his weapons would suddenly explode or show some other innate ability.
For a good reason, too.
After exchanging a dozen moves, the Warmaster swung his axe downward at Jake’s shoulder, and mid-swing, it suddenly sped up to become several times faster. Jake’s danger sense had warned him something was up as he swayed, narrowly avoiding the sharp edge.
The weapon hit the ground, and an explosion of sand sent Jake temporarily airborne as he flew back, having blocked the shockwave successfully. The Warmaster came out of the sand cloud even before Jake had landed on the ground, his axe replaced with a second sword as dense air mana collected around the man.
Tens of swift whirlwind slashes struck Jake right as he landed, making him back away immediately, dodging and blocking every hit. The swords of the Warmaster only seemed to be speeding up as he rapidly cut, every hit sending out cutting winds that slowly ripped away at Jake’s leather armor.
Jake kept blocking for several more seconds before he finally saw his chance. He saw that the next two attacks would be aimed high, so he quickly twisted his body and ducked to perform a leg sweep. The Warmaster was taken by surprise as his legs were swept out under him, and he could only try to block when Jake punched forward with his katar, launching him backward. He rolled in the sand several times upon landing.
Without missing a beat, Jake charged forward to follow up, going on the offensive.
Chapter 40
To be a Grand Champion
The Warmaster, still on the ground, raised one of his swords toward Jake, and it began to shine with mana. Jake temporarily abandoned his attack and dodged to the side as the entire blade shot out like an arrow, the man holding onto the hilt.
Jake thought he would have a chance to attack, but the Warmaster twisted his wrist, and Jake’s danger sense warned him and made him duck right as a whip-like blade flew in from behind. The blade he had shot out had segmented itself into several sharp metal pieces with strings holding them together, and with a mere movement of his wrists, he had made it twist and whip around.
After dodging a few more slashes, the Warmaster pressed a button on the hilt of his sword, and the entire blade was dragged back to reform the whole sword. Jake, who had been forced to create some distance, stared for a while.
”Not gonna lie…” Jake said as the Warmaster managed to fully stand up. “I always thought those segmented snake swords or whatever they are called were hugely impractical and not useful weapons.”
”Oh, but they are a questionable weapon, and as a general rule, I would not recommend them.” The Warmaster smiled. ”At least in any prolonged combat. However, they do tend to be useful for surprise attacks. The thing is that the skill required to control one is so high that it is rarely worth the practice. Of course, there are masters out there who have still made it their primary weapon, none of which are to be underestimated.”
”And yet, despite it apparently being so hard, you, a blacksmith, have chosen to learn the weapon?” Jake questioned.
”The best smith is one who truly knows the weapons he makes,” the Warmaster said, nodding. ”In my eyes, to be a Weapons Master Blacksmith is to be a Warmaster.”
Jake smiled. It was a good philosophy, in his eyes, and one he knew many similar to the Warmaster shared. However, it often came about the other way around: An archer becoming a fletcher to make their own bows, a mage learning to craft magic tools to assist them in combat… or a hunter becoming an alchemist to poison his arrows and help him recover during fights. Okay, Jake was a horrible example, as his becoming an alchemist hadn’t been planned but entirely by happenstance, and he’d just made the best out of what he got.
”Then, by all means, show me the weapons you have mastered,” Jake said semi-jokingly as he pulled out his bow again.
The Warmaster didn’t hesitate. He charged forward once more, trying to close the distance and not fight Jake in a ranged battle. His speed was still impressive when he charged, but Jake had found quite a weakness, widely dodging to the side as the man charged past him.
He took a while to stop as he skidded across the sand, failing to block an arrow Jake had shot right when he dodged. Trying his charge again, the result for the Warmaster was identical. Jake once more created distance, taking advantage of how the charge of the Warmaster worked.
Jake had identified it as coming from his boots and had at first believed it just made him faster. This turned out to not be entirely accurate. Instead, it was a charge-like skill that propelled him straight forward at an impressive speed, which naturally resulted in significantly reduced maneuverability, making it much easier to dodge than Jake had first assumed.
After Jake had dodged two times in a row, the Warmaster also seemed to realize the jig was up and switched approaches. Rather than use the enchantment, he ran normally and chased the faster Jake around the arena for a few moments. Jake landed several shots on the man, though he sadly was still unable to explode the arrows due to the peculiar armor. The Warmaster continued until Jake suddenly stopped running, having noticed what the man was doing.
As he ran, the Warmaster slowly set up a net with a thin wire barely visible even with Jake’s high Perception. He strung it up between the pillars, limiting the space Jake could dodge inside unless he found time to destroy the wire.
Something Jake chose to promptly attempt. He purposefully missed an arrow right as he stopped, aimed toward one of the wires. Yet right as he did, the Warmaster seemed to slightly relax how taut it was, making it just slack enough for the arrow to miss.
He didn’t stop his charge as he closed in on Jake, still wielding his two swords. Getting close enough, he swung with both, and they split into segments and fell like whips. Jake dodged as best he could, but the movements of the odd snake swords were just too unpredictable, resulting in a few cuts landing here and there.
Jake instantly put away his bow once more and charged toward the Warmaster, who in turn was still advancing on him. He had done so with the expectation of taking advantage of the snake swords effectively being whips, but the Warmaster had been prepared. He simply let go of both weapons, and two machetes appeared in his hands.
Fucking hell, Jake thought as he dodged a machete swing. He was not too deterred, though, as he pushed forward, unleashing a barrage upon the Warmaster. The man tried to fight back, but with time, one thing had become obvious… Jake out-specced the Warmaster in Agility by quite a bit, while they were roughly equal in Strength.
Forced to switch one of his weapons to a shield, the Warmaster could defend again, but it wasn’t enough for him to get the upper hand. He also had to drop the second machete, as while it was fast, it did take longer to dismiss it and summon a shield than just abandon the weapon outright.
At least, Jake thought that was why he dropped it. He kept fighting the Warmaster until he saw the dropped machete suddenly lift off the ground behind him through his sphere. Jake kept acting as if he didn’t know while the Warmaster positioned his remaining machete between Jake and the dropped one. They both seemed to attract one another.
Magnetism, Jake quickly concluded.
Jake made a feint where he acted like he would commit to a big attack. Right then, the second machete flew for him from behind, but Jake abandoned his attack mid-strike and dodged to the side. The Warmaster let out a soft chuckle as he threw the machete he wielded after Jake and used his boots to charge backward.
This one, Jake had also been ready for. He kept retreating as both machetes clashed mid-air and exploded, sending fragments of metal flying everywhere. Jake summoned a barrier of stable arcane mana to block all the fragments as the Warmaster naturally just used his shield.
”Should have guessed that one wouldn’t work,” the Warmaster muttered as he once more charged Jake, who was still maintaining his stable arcane barrier.
For what felt like the umpteenth time, he had replaced his weapons, now holding two hatchets in his hands… Or, well, he had them for a few moments before both began to burn. Then he threw them, forcing Jake to turn his body and place the barrier in front of the hatchets as both exploded, sending him skirting back.
The blast had broken his barrier and left him with a few burns, but those two hatchets had not been as potent as the earlier weapons… which indicated he was either trying to bait Jake or was genuinely running out of high-rarity weapons.
Even so, the man refused to back down, now closing the distance with two longswords in hand. Jake took a moment to fully stabilize as he dodged the longsword swings and backed away a few steps. Right as he did, one longsword that he thought was stabbing toward him was dropped as, mid-thrust, it was replaced with a spear.
Jake barely blocked with his bracers but was still left with a nasty cut, having skated back and quickly swayed to the side a moment too late. The spear in the Warmaster’s hand had instantly been dropped and replaced with something else the moment he had finished his thrust. What had appeared instead was a cursed object that Jake felt truly disappointed in seeing in the hands of someone who dared call himself a master of weapons.
It was a pathetic crossbow.
Had this pathetic crossbow hit him in the shoulder, making its use a good move from the Warmaster? Yeah, sure, but it was the principle of even using one to begin with Jake was against. All for purely logical reasons, of course.
He just really didn’t like crossbows.
With a groan, Jake pulled out the bolt. The Warmaster didn’t miss a beat and went in again, the dropped longsword replaced with a shortsword. He engaged with the expectation that Jake was weakened from the bolt… unaware of the mistake he had just made.
Jake didn’t even consider being defensive, as he was done playing around after the insult of being hit by a crossbow bolt. He dodged the first swing and stabbed forward, and after finding himself parried once, he skirted to the side and into the Warmaster’s right flank.
The man turned to face him as Jake attacked again with ferocious intent. He didn’t hold anything back; both katars began glowing with arcane light, and both started to give off small shockwaves of destructive arcane energy with each blow. These shockwaves didn’t really do any damage, but they did mean that the usual impact the Warmaster expected from every clash had changed, throwing off his tempo.
It was only a matter of time before Jake managed to land a nasty stab on the Warmaster’s arm. Before he could get it free from the katar, Jake twisted the weapon and forcefully moved his arm away, blocking the man’s other weapon and kicking him on the side of his leg to send him slightly off balance.
He stumbled for a few steps as Jake kept attacking. Jake made a move to stab the Warmaster in the chest, but his foot suddenly slipped when he stepped on the dropped longsword from earlier. Opening his eyes wide, Jake was thrown entirely off balance. The Warmaster took the presented opportunity and lifted his uninjured arm high as he swung down with his full might.
Jake smiled to himself and allowed himself to slide fully along the length of the blade, going nearly entirely prone. The weapon descending toward him didn’t arrive. Instead, a spray of blood hit Jake from above.
Not missing the chance he had created for himself, Jake lunged forward and stabbed the knee of the Warmaster right as the man summoned a mace and slammed it into the ground, forcing Jake back.
When the dust settled, one could see a faint red line floating in the air, the Warmaster down on one knee as he cradled his arm, which looked halfway cut through. Jake didn’t want to assume anything, so he pulled out his bow along with a massive, pre-prepared quasi-Protean Arrow and—
”I surrender!” the Warmaster yelled in a pained voice as he looked at Jake. ”To use my own wire against me like that… Heh, I guess I really am getting too old for this damn arena-fighting business. I should just stick to working as the Battlemaster.”
Jake smiled as he went over and offered the Warmaster—or Battlemaster—a hand. ”Eh, I wouldn’t say that. You are definitely better than a few of the other Champions.”
”A minor consolation to someone who met his downfall to his own weapon… What an ironic end.” The Battlemaster sighed. Right then, the announcer did his announcer thing.
”We have a winner! No… we have a Grand Champion! The Gauntlet of the Grand Champion has been completed once more, as seven Champions have fallen before the Doombringer, who now stands at the apex of the arena of Mortals, a true master! Glory and honor await… unless he still finds himself unsated. Unless he wants to face one more person… one more challenge. Will he face the current Grand Champion? Will he dare face… the Warrior?”
