Chapter 780: Nevermore: Hunter vs. Warrior

During the first era, humans had been viewed as a weak race. Even weaker than the other enlightened races. They lived for a short time, especially at lower grades, and the only real thing anyone agreed they had going for them was their higher reproductive speeds. They didn't have any good racial skills, and their stat distribution was spread out to create jacks of all trades but masters of none. Moreover, as enlightened, they leveled slower than beasts or monsters and had to adopt a far more diverse path by focusing on both a profession and a class. Compared to other races, they just didn't have much going for them.

As an example, the elven Altmar Empire began to rise during the first era, and other powerful factions were slowly rising and gaining recognition, with elves, dwarves, scalekin, and beastkin all finding their niches and fighting back against the monsters. Humans were just viewed as among the weakest of the enlightened races and an inferior variant... until Valdemar appeared.

With a single axe in hand, Valdemar showed the power of humanity as he exemplified the notion of a one-man army. He conquered empires, slaughtered armies, and became an unstoppable force none could stand against, with even monsters fearing him. Eventually, after there were already few, if any, that could face him, he rose to godhood as the first enlightened.

Without Valdemar, humanity would be far weaker than they were today. Jake would be far weaker than he was, and not just because of the Fang of Man skill he had gained, but due to the sharing of Records. Every single human was affected by the Records Valdemar sent echoing out into the multiverse through his rise to power, the same as how every snake was affected by the Malefic Viper.

In some ways, one could even call Valdemar the Forefather of humanity. The strongest and most influential human in existence... a human who stood at the peak of existence. It was something Jake recognized as fact, simply due to knowing history, yet, as stupid as it sounded, it wasn't something he could fully accept.

Because to accept that Valdemar was the peak of humanity would be to acknowledge him as his superior. Even if he was stronger right now... Jake couldn't accept losing when the playing ground was at least somewhat evened by the Colosseum of Mortals.

Walking up the steps to the arena with steady steps, everything felt the same as every other fight. The clamoring crowd, the announcer, Owen and Polly in the stands... everything was the same. The only true difference was Jake.

When he saw the large arena he had laid his eyes on so many times before, he only felt a sense of calmness. Yet, at the very same time, he faintly felt his own heart beat with excitement as it wanted him to let loose. But Jake knew patience. When he went all-out, he would be on a pretty short timer, and for this final confrontation, he would do everything in his power to pull out a victory.

For the ninth time, the announcer did his thing, and the gates lowered as Jake's final battle against Valdemar began. He casually walked toward the center of the arena as he waited for his opponent to arrive. A few seconds later, he heard footsteps as the Primordial appeared, looking a little surprised at Jake just standing there, waiting.

"Definitely not ya first attempt, eh?" Valdemar said with a big grin as he also walked toward the middle of the arena. "But the look in those eyes is still good. How many times have we stood here before?"

"This is the ninth... and I am on my final life," Jake answered truthfully.

"Got here with nine lives, eh? Impressive. Gotta make the last one count, then," Valdemar said with a shrug as he slightly shifted his weight, ready to move at a moment's notice.

Jake smiled as he pulled out his bow. "I plan on doing just that. So let's make this fight into an ultimate legend unlike any the Colosseum of Mortals has ever seen before."

His words made Valdemar pause briefly as he laughed. "You're no slouch, eh? A proper challenge! Good! Good! I asked you to say that, right?"

Golden energy began to shimmer around his body as he asked, Jake nodding in response. "It's my last attempt, after all... so I might as well make it legendary."

"Then come! Face me, and let's have a good one, eh!" Valdemar laughed incredibly loudly before looking directly at Jake, his massive grin still marking his face. "Remember... you asked for it!"

Valdemar exploded forward immediately with incredible speed, but even so, Jake had already reacted and gotten on the move himself. The Primordial was many things, and predictable was definitely one of them, making it easy to read when he was about to attack or not. Actually responding to the attack was a whole other story... but Jake would manage. He had to if he wanted to execute the plan he had spent nine lives making.

Making use of this initial opening, Jake loosed two arrows toward Valdemar, the first one hitting him in the arm as the Primordial was turning. The second one was swept away, and Jake knew that releasing a third one wouldn't be worth it as Valdemar would easily block it. He had a limited number of arrows and had to conserve them, after all.

With his heavy but swift steps, Valdemar was soon upon Jake again. The straightforward slash that looked easy to dodge was avoided by only a hair's margin as Jake weaved in between the man's hits as he still took some light damage from the remnant golden aura and sheer wind pressure.

Jake had switched to his katars and managed to land a few light cuts and shallow stabs until he was forced to make distance before Valdemar could land a too-dangerous blow. He still wasn't using his boosting skill and was thus still heavily outclassed in power and attack speed. His only real advantage was his higher movement speed and dodging ability, but that had its limits. However, Jake had a plan.

Even if he was disadvantaged now, he wanted to set a tempo for the fight. A status quo of him running away and avoiding blows until he would unleash his boosting skill to land a hopefully impactful blow to gain him an advantage for the rest of the fight.

So that is exactly what he did. A dozen arrows were expended as Jake and Valdemar both took several minor wounds to their bodies as they exchanged blows. A single mistake from Jake would spell his doom, while Valdemar had plenty of leeway in every clash, the man even taking the fight pretty calmly. Jake knew his opponent could unleash more power than he currently was, but he equally knew that the Primordial had a tendency to rise to a challenge and match his opponent in power. Well, if matching them in power meant still thoroughly overpowering them. The point was he could overpower Jake more than he currently was if Jake powered himself up too early. Once he did go all-out, Jake knew he would have less than a minute to hopefully eke out a victory.

"You're a fast and tricky one, eh!?" Valdemar laughed as he pushed Jake back, forcing him to skirt across the sand for a few meters before coming to a stop. "Imma give it to ya, ya either fought me a lot more than the ten times allowed, or you're a damn dodging prodigy!"

"As I said, I have spent nine lives fighting you already," Jake smiled as he met the Primordial's eyes. "And you say I am only dodging... but the arrows sticking out of you kinda say otherwise."

"Bah! They're just flesh wounds!" Valdemar shrugged unbothered as he stopped talking and continued his assault, Jake once more meeting his tempo. He had done this exact fight several times before and knew that soon Valdemar would change things up as he got bored of the status quo. He would change the tempo by displaying more power than usual and do a hyper-aggressive attack.

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That moment would be Jake's time to strike.

A minute or so more passed as Valdemar slowly picked up the pace as usual. Jake used a few more arrows during this time and tried to keep his distance and be in melee range as little as possible, but he couldn't avoid taking minor injuries here and there.

By now, his armor was pretty shredded in many places, having done its job of blocking Valdemar's energy. In fact, the Primordial was clearly more injured than Jake, even if his movements didn't show at all. This wasn't anything special, and far from the first life it had happened, but it was a good start.

Soon enough, Jake felt the mood shift. Valdemar was done evaluating Jake as he charged once more, giving off an even more ferocious aura than usual. Jake dodged the first swing as the Primordial grinned to himself right as his body exploded with his fighting aura. With a roar, he stomped, releasing a shockwave of pure force, pushing Jake back through the sand as Valdemar used the momentum of his own stomp to lunge forward with a wide downward swing, aiming to take Jake's arm. His explosive power would take most by surprise... but Jake had expected it.

Valdemar's strike left him wide open; his attack performed with the expectation that Jake would avoid as he had done with every other major attack. However, rather than continuing to borrow the energy of the shockwave to dodge backward, Jake did just the opposite.

Bracing himself, Jake stepped down hard as his foot exploded with arcane energy. This energy then spread throughout his entire body within moments, making him even faster as he propelled himself toward the surprised Valdemar at a speed the Primordial couldn't have predicted. Jake went under the head of the axe before it managed to strike down and entered extreme-close range, both katars ready to strike.

His opponent was completely taken by surprise, yet he still reacted well. Jake had wanted to strike the heart or neck of Valdemar, but his free left arm moved into a defensive position instantly, forcing Jake to make the executive decision to strike lower where he couldn't defend. Due to the lunging blow, Valdemar could not easily move his legs, which Jake took full advantage of.

One katar stabbed forward, penetrating deeply into the Primordial's guts, while the other stabbed down into his thigh. The arcane energy coursing through his body empowered the blows further as a sound reminiscent of static electricity sounded out from the clashing arcane energy and Valdemar's transcendent fighting aura.

Not missing a beat, Jake twisted his body around Valdemar, who tried to catch him in a bear hug, using the momentum of his movement to twist the katar in the Primordial's thigh as he sliced the katar in the stomach across his flesh, sending blood spilling out.

Jake wanted to do more, but he was forced to quickly kick off the sand and send himself back to dodge an elbow descending toward his skull, the attack moving far faster than anything Valdemar had done prior. However, even as Jake dodged, he was forced to block a wave of golden aura as it clashed with his own arcane energy, Valdemar having truly risen to the occasion as the golden aura around his body was more intense than ever.

"You were holding out on me!" Valdemar said as he held a hand to his stomach and slightly shifted his weight away from the injured leg. Despite calling Jake out, the man had a huge grin on his face, looking ecstatic that Jake had more to show for himself.

Jake clicked his tongue at seeing his attack not doing as much as he wanted, but he was still kind of on track for the plan.

"Had to make it a little more exciting," Jake smiled while pulling out his bow, trying to take advantage of Valdemar's limited mobility. He knew that the Primordial would not be held back by having most of his thigh muscles torn apart for long, after all. Plus, it wasn't like Jake had the leeway to dally with arcane energy, tearing his body apart from the inside.

With high precision, Jake carefully used some of his remaining arrows as Valdemar blocked what he could with his axe. He was down to less than a dozen only twenty or so seconds later, but in turn, Valdemar had a few more bleeding holes across his body, primarily on his forearms and even one in his left pec.

"My turn!" the man yelled after the twenty-second attack window as the wound on his thigh had been temporarily "fixed" with his fighting aura. The huge wound was almost shining now, and despite not healing, it didn't seem to affect him much at all as he charged, having picked up his speed even more than before.

Something he needed to, as post-boost, Jake was far, far faster than before. He easily dodged a simple combo before landing a light cut on Valdemar's wrist, sadly not hitting any veins. Jake tried to do more, but Valdemar exploded in golden light, pushing Jake back a single step. Barely avoiding a punch, Jake landed a solid stab but was too slow to dodge a fist that rammed into his side, sending him flying into a pillar.

Despite feeling the pain all the way to his bone, Jake only used this opportunity to make some distance and shoot two more arrows. Taking a hit had slightly lowered the time his body would last while boosting, but he should still have enough time. He also still had one more major trick up his sleeve... or, well, in his ring.

The fight continued with Jake dodging swings, landing stabs, and shooting arrows while Valdemar just did as usual, though with far more ferocity and power than before, as both he and Valdemar truly pushed themselves.

Throughout, Jake was looking for an opportunity to land the trump card he was waiting for. An opportunity that soon presented itself as Valdemar made a huge downward swing that embedded itself into the sand. Jake acted like he got baited in by charging as Valdemar grinned while ripping the axe out and turning the handle, performing an upward strike that exploded with golden energy.

The ground erupted with sand, golden aura, and arcane energy as a geiser of these three shot into the air... along with a single person.

Right at the moment Jake dove in, he switched his katars for his bow and blasted himself upward with a blast of arcane energy. At the same time, he had blocked with his extremely durable bow, shooting himself into the air, borrowing the power from Valdemar's blow.

Jake flew more than ten meters into the air, and already on the way up, he pulled out the final big attack he had prepared. A large, two-meter-long quasi-Protean Arrow appeared, and while spinning in mid-air, Jake nocked it as he reached the zenith of his impromptu flight.

Locking eyes with Valdemar, who still stood below, Jake began charging a quick skilless Powershot. The Primordial simply grinned as he shifted his stance to take on whatever attack Jake was preparing, not a shred of hesitation in his eyes.

After only a second of charging and borrowing all the remnant arcane energy from the arcane boost he could, Jake released the Arrow with impressive power, especially considering the added velocity from Jake falling.

Now, could Valdemar dodge this arrow? Easily... but Jake knew he wouldn't. Jake knew that even without any provocation or goading, the Primordial would take the attack head-on. Sadly for him, Jake didn't plan on letting Valdemar block the arrow so easily.

Right as the man swung his axe to destroy the quasi-Protean Arrow, the arrowhead suddenly exploded as a mist of dark mana spread and shot into Valdemar's face like ink from an octopus. Out of the explosion erupted a barrage of stable arcane fragments flying forward like a shotgun right toward the Primordial. Valdemar was quick as his golden aura intensified, and his axe swing annihilated most of the fragments, and his passive aura blocked the rest, nullifying the attack.

Valdemar grinned for a fraction of a moment before the true attack arrived. Out of the dark smoke emerged four sharp spikes that had been part of the arrow's body, having been slightly delayed due to the arrowhead exploding. As he had just finished a swing, Valdemar could not raise his axe fast enough and had to block with his arm at the very last moment to not have a spike hit his eye.

Two other long, sharp arcane spikes hit his stomach and thigh, respectively, as the final one missed and penetrated into the sand. The two spikes had hit the wounds Jake had made earlier and, with the existing damage, had managed to penetrate all the way through and into the sand.

Jake, still in mid-air, quickly released a blast of arcane energy upward to bring him down to the ground quicker as he was in quite a precarious situation while falling, and he would rather take the damage from the fall than leave himself vulnerable. Valdemar also knew this, but he luckily couldn't move with the two-meter-long arcane spikes penetrating through his body, letting him only attack with a ranged crescent wave of golden energy.

The blast struck Jake just before he hit the sand, sending him flying back. The intensity of the golden energy was higher than anything Jake had ever experienced before, confirming one thing for him:

In this fight, out of all of them, he had by far done the most damage to Valdemar.

Hitting the ground hard, Jake tumbled through the sand several times as the quiver that had been strapped to him flew off, having had its strap cut by the golden blast. The few remaining arrows spilled all over, but Jake had no time to think about it now. He quickly stopped his roll and took a knee as he looked at the heavily injured Valdemar standing a good twenty meters away, already ripping out the two arcane spikes pinning him down.

This was definitely Jake's best performance so far. His one problem just was... his time was running out fast. His current body was not made to endure the overflowing arcane energy coursing through it, and the damage he had taken from Valdemar's blows certainly didn't help either. He was already long past the point of return, and there was only one thing left to do:

Land a decisive blow before his body decided to give out.

With that in mind, Jake didn't hesitate as he charged straight for Valdemar to finish this fight once and for all.