The Primal Hunter Chapter 1236 - Dragon Hunter (5)

As Jake endured the crushing weight of the True Dragon’s mana, he had to admit that their reputation as the apex magical race was well-earned. The sheer manifestation of power as the orbs locked onto him caused his danger sense to scream, signaling that he needed to prioritize defense immediately.

In a single moment, the glowing spheres discharged beams utilizing the same concept as before. While a lone strike was relatively harmless—unable to even pierce his scales—his peril increased with every hit. If multiple beams struck the same location, their effects would stack, resulting in exponentially growing damage.

Since evading every single shot was an impossibility, Jake had to adapt his tactics instantly to avoid a fatal blow. He sensed that taking dozens of hits simultaneously would result in a permanent game over, so he sharpened his focus to its absolute limit.

With the Pride of the Malefic Viper already surging, Jake manifested mana bolts and protective barriers while weaving through the air, attempting to keep his movements erratic. To his dismay, the beams curved in pursuit, accelerating the further they traveled through the sky.

Jake’s saving grace was that Yrelstromoz was forced to dedicate her entire concentration to guiding the beams, preventing her from launching other magical assaults during the channeled spell.

The initial wave of light soon reached him, clashing against a wall of detonating arcane bolts and barriers. Though he managed to intercept several, the sheer volume was overwhelming, and the barrage quickly closed the distance.

He used his katars to parry the incoming light, choosing to absorb certain hits only when he could ensure no more than three would connect in rapid succession. Yrelstromoz’s ability featured a dangerous grace period where delayed hits still counted as a simultaneous strike; Jake had to quickly gauge the length of this window to survive.

Thousands of projectiles lashed out per second. While Jake successfully neutralized or dodged the majority, his luck eventually faltered. Six beams slammed into his foot when he failed to shift in time. His boots absorbed the brunt of the physical impact, but the raw energy bypassed the material, inflicting heavy damage.

Barely half a second later, his shoulder was grazed by seven beams in too short an interval, resulting in a severe burn and the destruction of his armor. This grueling cycle of evasion and defense continued for thirty seconds before the beams finally dissipated. Though the duration was brief, the lethal intensity of the exchange made it feel like an eternity.

During this "bullet hell" ordeal, Jake had exhausted a significant portion of his mana, having cast thousands of freeform arcane spells to mitigate the onslaught. He had survived, though the outcome was far more punishing than he had intended.

As the light faded, Jake wasted no time. He drew his bow, intent on accelerating Yrelstromoz’s demise. He loosed several arrows while simultaneously diverting mental focus to mend his most critical wounds.

His body was marred by roughly thirty burn marks. The most grievous was on his left thigh, where thirteen beams had converged to sear away flesh until his femur was partially exposed. The agony was excruciating, yet it failed to hinder his mobility. Jake doubted any other C-grade Cultivator could have survived that barrage—with the exception of "cheats" like Eron, whom Jake didn't bother comparing himself to. By minimizing the damage, he was even able to land several powerful shots while Yrelstromoz was still recovering from her casting state.

Three arrows found their mark before the dragon could break away from her orb ritual. The field of glowing spheres dimmed instantly as Yrelstromoz banked to the side, conjuring a barrier to deflect the remaining projectiles.

Before her feet even touched the ground, her magic shifted again. The fading orbs in the firmament flashed brilliantly before collapsing into a single, concentrated sphere of light. Jake tracked the object warily while continuing his archery, bracing for the next move.

However, Yrelstromoz subverted his expectations. Just as she landed from her leap, her wings snapped forward in a powerful flap, and she vanished, reappearing directly in his personal space with her right claw already mid-swing.

Jake’s eyes widened at her sudden burst of speed. With an arrow already notched, he was caught out of position. He was forced to dispel the projectile and use the riser of his bow to parry the glowing talons. The impact sent violent vibrations through his skeleton, causing him to grit his teeth against the metallic taste of blood rising in his throat.

Yrelstromoz pressed her advantage, lunging forward as her claws rained down. This time, Jake managed to swap to his katars, blocking the strikes with much more stability. He even found the timing to sidestep a third swipe and deliver a stinging counter-jab.

He braced for another claw, but the dragon lunged with her entire head, her massive jaws snapping shut in an attempt to bite him in half. Surprised by the agility of the maneuver, Jake rolled to the side, hoping to punish Yrelstromoz for overextending her neck.

As he lunged with his katar, the tip only inches from her eye, she invoked the Draconic Language once more.

“Repel.”

An invisible tide of force threw Jake backward. He sensed a massive drain on her mana pool, confirming that using Words of Power directly against him was far more taxing than altering the terrain. While it was a steep price to pay to avoid being blinded, Jake felt the trade-off favored him.

For a moment, at least.

As he tumbled through the air, he realized the force had propelled him straight toward the massive orb of light. Its true function was finally revealed. It wasn't a complex spell; it was simply a condensed mass of mana designed for one purpose:

Self-destruction.

The resulting explosion blinded Jake as a titanic shockwave of heat incinerated everything in its path. The blast hit him from behind, but just as he tried to stabilize, the dragon was upon him again, forcing him to turn and intercept her strike.

He used his wings as a makeshift shield to cover his rear while blocking the dragon’s frontal assault. The light explosion slammed into his back at the exact moment he parried her claw.

His wings were burned to ash by the radiant blast, and the heat scorched his exposed back. He couldn't spare any more focus for defense, as the dragon’s reckless melee required his total concentration. Without the passive protection of his scales and Arcane Awakening, he would have been finished; even so, his condition was deteriorating.

Despite the immense pressure, Jake’s instincts took command. He moved with surgical precision to match the dragon’s frantic offense. The air, thick with residual mana from the blast, distorted the battlefield, making every parry more difficult. He clamped his jaw shut, refusing to give ground while searching for a flaw in Yrelstromoz’s sequence.

Jake’s superior combat experience eventually began to show. He slowly reclaimed the momentum, forcing Yrelstromoz back and landing several deep stabs before she retreated. Though his back was a mess of charred flesh, he ignored the pain as new scales began to knit over the wounds.

During a momentary pause, Jake noted that Yrelstromoz looked equally haggard. Her relentless spellcasting had allowed the Dragonsbane Poison to run wild, ravaging her physical form and soul. The luster of her scales had faded, and her recent injuries were no longer knitting shut with their usual Draconic speed.

She had clearly abandoned her healing and defense to focus entirely on killing him—a desperate strategy that Jake acknowledged as her only real path to victory.

Switching back to his bow, Jake utilized One Step just as the dragon fired a series of light beams to cover the preparation of a larger spell. The two engaged in a fierce ranged duel, exchanging arrows and magic across the distance.

While she favored light magic, Yrelstromoz demonstrated mastery over other elements. Jake was caught off guard when she whipped the air into razor-sharp blades or summoned jagged earth spikes from the ground. He noticed she wasn't creating these elements from nothing, but rather manipulating the existing environment to fuel her Qi—a highly efficient method.

Jake was clearly outclassed in pure magical prowess. He attempted to counter with his own arcane bolts and orbs, but it often required multiple of his spells to neutralize a single one of hers.

Both combatants accumulated more injuries during the exchange. Jake landed more hits than he took, but he was left with a hole in his abdomen and a deep gash on his forearm that chipped the bone after he misjudged the power of a wind blade.

In contrast, Yrelstromoz was riddled with dozens of small punctures from arrows and katars. Many of these wounds showed signs of necrotic rot as the Dragonsbane Poison took hold. Her constant mana expenditure further drained her vitality, yet her Draconic constitution remained formidable, proving why her race sat at the top of the multiverse.

Second only to humans, Jake thought. Or perhaps just this specific human.

Since time was his ally—with Yrelstromoz burning through her life force faster than he was—the stalemate suited Jake. However, he could tell she was preparing a final, massive technique. After a final exchange of blows, she was ready to reveal her trump card.

Using a burst of physical light to create distance, Yrelstromoz took to the air. She let out a thunderous roar as her body erupted in radiance... and then split in two. These two golden dragons divided again into four, then once more until eight dragons of pure light hovered in the sky, their wings casting blinding flashes with every beat.

Jake initially suspected an illusion, but the real Yrelstromoz was easy to spot once her glow faded. She stood at the center of seven white-light constructs, all moving in perfect synchronization.

The purpose of the skill remained a mystery until the seven constructs dove toward him simultaneously. Jake retreated as the first one reached him, watching as its claws passed harmlessly through the earth like a ghost.

A second dragon dove at his position. Jake used One Step to clear the area, narrowly avoiding the third and fourth, but the fifth dragon was too fast.

As he tried to bank away, the construct’s wing phased directly through his torso. While the ground remained untouched by the light, Jake felt a different result.

A searing, internal heat surged through him. Despite the lack of an external wound, his health plummeted. He realized these summons were spectral in nature and extremely dangerous.

Fortunately, Yrelstromoz seemed unable to join the physical fray while micro-managing the light dragons. This gave Jake a chance to fight back.

After the fifth dragon passed, Jake evaded the sixth and seventh, only to find the first two returning for a pincer maneuver. To clear a path, Jake unleashed a burst of destructive arcane mana, catching one of the constructs in the blast.

When the arcane energy collided with the light, the two forces neutralized each other. A portion of the light dragon was erased, though it began to reform almost instantly.

Can I kill them if I hit them hard enough? Jake wondered, weighing the cost of a full arcane discharge.

He had no time for calculations. A dragon erupted from the ground beneath him, having used its phasing ability to set an ambush. He barely escaped, but three more were already circling, diving in a relentless rotation.

As two dragons crossed paths, Jake noticed a detail: faint rays of light connected them briefly. He realized they couldn't overlap or stay too close to each other for long without losing stability.

He immediately exploited this limitation to improve his evasion. Simultaneously, he focused his fire on a single construct, peppering it with arcane bolts and arrows whenever an opening appeared.

He tried to target the real Yrelstromoz, but three dragons remained by her side as a dedicated vanguard, allowing her to focus entirely on the four dragons hunting him.

Her multitasking wasn't perfect, however. Jake managed to dissipate the first light dragon in about thirty seconds. This eased the pressure, though he still had to navigate the "dead zones" between the remaining summons.

After another minute of high-stakes maneuvering, two more dragons were destroyed. The threat was nearly neutralized. With only one dragon left on offense and the others guarding Yrelstromoz, Jake began landing direct hits on the True Dragon herself.

With her attention divided, she couldn't maintain her barriers and was forced to tank the arrows. Seeing her strategy crumble, Yrelstromoz launched one final, desperate gambit.

The three surviving light dragons charged him at once, ignoring the interference between their forms. Jake realized his previous theory was slightly flawed; the dragons weren't just colliding—the last one was absorbing the others, ballooning in size.

The transformation caught Jake off guard. Even with One Step, he couldn't clear the area as the enlarged dragon accelerated, burning its remaining essence for a final burst of speed. It lunged through him, its entire massive form passing through his body.

Jake ground his teeth against the agonizing heat that scorched his very soul. He quickly flooded his system with stable arcane mana to stabilize his condition. The pain was immense, but he held on until the light construct finally flickered out and vanished.

As he recovered, Jake wondered why she hadn't merged them sooner—and then the truth dawned on him.

He had assumed the dragons were her primary weapon and that she was struggling to control them. He was wrong. They were merely a distraction designed to buy time for her actual ultimate spell. She hadn't merged them earlier because she wasn't ready to fire her real shot until now.

The moment the realization hit, the world changed. A massive pulse of power radiated from Yrelstromoz, leaving sparks of static light in the air. The atmosphere grew heavy with mana. Looking down, Jake saw a gargantuan magic circle stretching for over a thousand kilometers across the landscape.

Above him, a second, identical circle appeared in the heavens, radiating the same terrifying pressure.

Jake shifted into a defensive stance, eyes locked on Yrelstromoz. The cost of the spell was visible; black veins of corruption were spreading across her body despite her Draconic scales. Ignoring the rot, she took a deep, rattling breath... and Jake knew exactly what was coming next.