The Primal Hunter Chapter 1255 - Taking Turns

The Labyrinth Master eyed Casper briefly while adjusting the gunlance gripped in his hand, then raised it high and aimed directly at the Risen. It fired explosively right away, unleashing a tremendous shockwave along with a bullet that Casper dodged just in time, thanks to Lyra's aid.

Midway through his evasion, the boss flickered into view, employing the identical movement technique as the Marksmen to materialize behind the Risen. Thrusting ahead, Casper found himself with no option but to absorb the strike, letting the weapon pass through his form. The infused energy in the gunlance caused evident harm despite this, though it stayed within tolerable limits.

Attempting a retaliation, Casper burst forth with curse energy, summoning scores of chains from nowhere to ensnare the B-grade; yet, the foe emitted a disruptive shockwave that shredded the chains before they could solidify. Even the partially formed cursed stakes splintered apart, shoving Casper backward with a pained grunt.

Unable to regain his footing, Casper got hit by yet another gunlance bullet that phased through him, but midway, it burst into raging flames that hurled the Risen away in agony.

Assaults of pure energy proved highly potent against his ethereal state, and these flames posed a grave threat, compelling the Risen to fall back while conjuring traps behind him.

The Labyrinth Master pursued relentlessly, triggering every trap simultaneously. Curse magic surged from every direction around the B-grade, some portions aiming to strike while others merely aimed to hinder. Apparently unable to rely on another shockwave, the boss had to break loose through physical effort.

In his free hand, away from the gunlance, the Labyrinth Master called forth a sword and sliced through the tangle of chains and cursed energies, swiftly escaping, but luckily for Casper, this delay allowed the Risen to widen the gap.

Forming several hand signs, Casper caused magic circles to emerge behind him as shadowy barriers of curse energy started encircling the boss. With a fierce shout, the boss unleashed a fresh mana shockwave that shattered Casper’s spells, enabling the B-grade to slash through the incomplete walls and rush at the Risen once more.

Casper faced total domination as the boss bombarded him with relentless strikes that the Risen could scarcely counter. His rare attempts at fighting back got neutralized or inflicted no harm, clearly signaling the boss's inevitable triumph.

Naturally, this hinged on Casper battling by himself. He had deliberately confronted the boss alone to foster overconfidence and blind him to any other threats. When Jake prepared to loose his arrow at last, he signaled the Risen discreetly, prompting Casper to feign a frantic assault.

Channeling vast curse energy, Casper unleashed a flood of tiny stakes toward the B-grade, which the boss deflected effortlessly with a blue mana shield. A sliver of the curse energy seeped past, but it only marginally eroded the Labyrinth Master's barriers. Normally irrelevant since Casper struggled to harm him anyway, this minor breach would soon reveal its true significance.

The Labyrinth Master never saw it coming.

Preoccupied with Casper and the swirling curse energy, he overlooked the Arcane Powershot fired by the concealed hunter lurking far behind. Mere instants before impact, he grasped that he confronted two adventurers, not a lone one.

Jake’s Arcane Powershot slammed into the Labyrinth Master's back, targeting just below the right shoulder where flesh rather than metal covered him. The Eternal Hunger arrowhead plunged deep into the B-grade’s flesh, and thanks to the Protean Arrow's construction, the shaft collapsed inward, embedding it firmly.

The arrow's loaded energy and poison ravaged the B-grade’s back, ejecting blood and metal shards as the Labyrinth Master howled in agony. His rear torn open in a flash, and spotting this, Casper seized the opportunity without pause.

Leaping ahead instantly, he pulled a unique cursed stake from his inventory. Pouring every ounce of strength, he drove it into the Labyrinth Master’s shoulder via the gash from Jake’s arrow, and as it connected, curse energy surged through the stake directly into the embedded Eternal Hunger.

The legendary weapon eagerly absorbed the boost and activated, swiftly siphoning the B-grade’s inner energies. Jake capitalized further, planning to trigger Rapid Fire amid the heightened damage from his Supreme Stealth Attack, determined to maximize the harm.

Yet, for all the flawless teamwork from the two C-grades, the B-grade dungeon boss remained a formidable entity. Casper, fresh from deploying his stake, found himself unprepared as the B-grade seized his shoulder, having shifted to solid form for the strike.

Casper struggled to break away fast, but the boss's ironclad hold ripped into his flesh, claws piercing skin to clamp onto bone. Powerless to resist, the Risen got yanked before the boss, who then fired a laser from his mechanical eye.

The laser pierced Casper’s temple clean through to the opposite side, the boss utterly indifferent, even as another arrow buried into his back, eliciting only a grunt. His attention locked on eliminating the pesky Risen without delay.

Gripping Casper tightly, the Labyrinth Master impaled him on the gunlance and hoisted it overhead while pulling the trigger. Instead of one shot, it spewed a volley of shrapnel that ripped the Risen's body to shreds.

Jake observed Casper disintegrate explosively, chunks of limbs and tissue scattering wildly. Though two additional arrows hit the boss, injecting more poison and inflicting further wounds, the Labyrinth Master lingered to hurl a grenade skyward, obliterating the Risen's remains.

Smoke dissipated to unveil the boss, his back shredded and over two dozen arrows protruding from him. Jake’s rapid fire had raged nonstop, wearing the foe down considerably.

With Casper apparently erased, the boss whirled to face the hunter. He erected an energy barrier against Jake’s arrows, but they arced around it as two more embedded in him. Staggering from the pain, he groaned while uttering words again.

“You are powerful, adventurers. Unsurprising, considering you managed to get all the way here,” the Labyrinth Master declared, Jake ignoring the oddity of the boss glossing over the recent events, evidently bound to some preset lines.

“However, your efforts are still in vain. I had hoped to avoid doing this, but you have proven yourself worthy of witnessing the power of this Labyrinth Master!” the final boss bellowed, eyes flaring wide.

Jake answered courteously by embedding four more arrows into the cyborg during his monologue, at last marking his front with injuries, though these seemed weaker than before. Indeed, the boss appeared under a heavy passive damage cut from dungeon mechanics during this shift to phase two, as Jake sensed his poison weakening too.

The dungeon boss's power surge persisted, the whole chamber vibrating with his aura. Floor tiles ignited with energy, and enchanted runes inscribed the surrounding walls. Jake swiftly verified the boss room's exit stayed accessible, and it did... for the moment. The Labyrinth Master's subsequent action threatened to alter that swiftly.

Underfoot, tiles shifted with a profound growl, and the enclosing walls contracted inward, compressing the space. Initially, that was the case, but glancing upward, Jake noted the walls curving down to form a dome.

At that instant, amid the ongoing change, Jake detected the boss's damage reduction fade, and the Labyrinth Master raised his gunlance toward him.

Before the arm fully extended, Jake retaliated with an arrow, delivering a proactive strike just as the gunlance discharged. A fast bullet hurtled at Jake, demanding a sidestep while he fired back hastily.

They traded several distant shots, but soon both recognized that at this distance, Jake held the edge in combat. Still, the Labyrinth Master aimed not to dominate here but to stall as the arena shrank further, with tiles elevating on sturdy metal pillars.

Content at last, the B-grade acted decisively. Raising his off-hand from the gunlance, he gestured at Jake as ceiling sections twisted and a wall fragment intercepted one of Jake’s arrows.

Upon striking the wall, Jake realized it was genuine Grand Labyrinth material. Thus, his arrow barely scratched it. The substance was probably impervious even to B-grades, and witnessing the boss wield it so... yes, classic final boss manipulation was evident.

A pair of additional wall segments descended on Jake, but their speed allowed him to evade promptly. As Jake darted away, the Labyrinth Master lunged to cut him off, brandishing the gunlance as usual, now paired with a sword in his left grip.

The B-grade's movement ability shone impressively as Jake narrowly evaded a sweeping sword arc, then a flurry of six gunlance thrusts, two firing bullets mid-thrust.

Seeking to strike back, Jake faced encroaching tiles narrowing the floor while descending walls hemmed him in, forging a controlled enclosure under the Labyrinth Master’s command, which he exploited masterfully.

Jake grappled nonstop with obstructive walls and erratic rising platforms, the terrain treacherous, often aiding the boss with launch points that rendered his assault rhythm elusive, if not impossible to predict.

The boss's misfortune lay in Jake's resistance to deception, his instincts compensating when his thoughts lagged. Jake prioritized evasion alone, skipping counters, aware they'd yield nothing.

Melee engagement was off the table too, with Jake possessing just one katar. Eternal Hunger remained sunk in the B-grade’s massive back gash, alongside the protruding cursed stake. The curse inflicted steady harm, and the poison corroded the Labyrinth Master internally, so even without strikes, Jake eroded his foe's vitality. The poison's strength would wane without fresh doses, but Jake viewed this defensive stance as fleeting.

Jake kept withdrawing in pure defense, orbiting the contracting field. The round boss arena had spanned over twenty kilometers initially, now reduced to roughly ten, dwindling relentlessly. Jake had steered his dodges to the edges, preserving the arena's core intact.

Armed with bow and single katar, Jake parried select attacks, Fangs of Man enabling his katar to cope, but his bow-wielding arm endured punishment. Luckily, the bow's resilience defied B-grade destruction, yet treating it as a close-quarters tool proved inadequate.

To endure, Jake wove in magic, deploying Pride and conjuring endless lightning bolts plus detonating arcane spheres. Useless for damage, they clouded sight and occasionally provoked overreactions from the B-grade, granting Jake brief respites.

Nevertheless, Jake's maneuvers couldn't sidestep all threats amid the arena's chaos. Deliberate barriers and surging platforms obstructed at critical junctures, landing him occasional light injuries.

Clenching his jaw, Jake risked a bold play, slipping past a sword slash to close in with his Voidblade Katar. Targeting a soft spot, he unleashed Piercing Fang. Less potent sans Eternal Hunger, it still drew blood. The real gain was detonating the infused energy to blast himself rearward, distancing from the foe.

This propelled him to the arena's heart, where faint traces lingered from Casper's earlier explosion. Predictably, the boss pursued to maintain pressure.

Jake activated One Step for a teleport back, the boss trailing via his blurring, hyper-speed skill. Fixated on Jake, he crossed the spot of the Risen's prior demise... precisely as intended.

During phase one, Jake had delivered his potent stealth blow while Casper endured punishment.

Now, their positions flipped, and Casper's turn arrived to demonstrate to Jake the potency of his vaunted single-target cursing prowess. The Risen's dissipating essence suddenly surged anew, a cursed blight aura igniting as the Labyrinth Master crossed the trap's activation zone.