The Primal Hunter Chapter 1250 - First Phase: Guards

The Formation Master stood out as the strongest adversary in the ziggurat, yet striking at them right away appeared out of reach. A shimmering barrier cloaked the full upper level of the ziggurat, with endless runes gliding over its surface, and although Jake felt sure he could pierce it eventually, he wasn't convinced his initial strike would manage it, plus shattering it entirely would demand far too much time.

On top of that, the shield not just blocked all entries but also complicated any attempt by the Formation Master to break free. Put simply, they could expect a brief window to confront only the Guard Captain and Elite Guards prior to the Formation Master jumping into the fray.

“Very game-like design,” Casper observed. “Not that unlike Minaga’s floors in Nevermore. Those demon floors definitely felt like a kind of campy tabletop game.”

“For sure,” Jake agreed with a nod. “And, yeah, this whole fight setup does feel pulled right from a video game. In the opening phase, we need to drop the Guard Captain and Elite Guards before clashing with the true boss, the Formation Master. If we're too sluggish, we'll end up battling them all together.”

“It might also trigger the Formation Master to join after we take out a set number of Elite Guards or maybe the Captain too,” Casper suggested. “Plus, I doubt we have to tangle with every guard simultaneously. This space is plenty vast to dodge detection from some guards on the far side of the ziggurat.”

“I suppose we'll discover it the hard way,” Jake grinned, though he did concur that, from the narrow detection spans displayed by dungeon foes up to now, it looked achievable.

“So, what's your plan for kicking this off? I suggest I blast the Guard Captain nearly to oblivion first, then we both charge in and crush the Elite Guards clustered by the captain. If that works smoothly, we can clear the remaining Elite Guards, or handle the guards if the Formation Master activates during that push.”

“Works for me,” Casper replied with a shrug. “But I'll hold back my best moves for the next phase.”

“Naturally,” Jake responded while drawing his bow. Casper eyed the legendary weapon and shook his head before edging nearer to the foes. Between them, Jake excelled at long-range battles by a wide margin, and though Casper shied from close-quarters brawls, he shone at short-to-medium distances. As a trapper, he handled melee chasers best, letting the Risen lure them into his traps. Otherwise, he'd mainly fire cursed stakes, each with a short reach partly because their heavy curse power faded swiftly in the air.

Once Casper settled into place after a short wait, Jake launched the assault. He fitted an arrow, aimed carefully, and infused an Arcane Powershot. He'd kick off this battle using Arcane Awakening at half offensive strength, sacrificing some punch in his starter shot for endurance throughout the clash. Mostly since the fight's length remained unknown, and given Minaga's flair for drama, Jake could easily picture some explosive, over-the-top twist unfolding.

As soon as Jake sensed his shoulder straining, he released the arrow, igniting their initial boss battle in the grand spot called Minaga’s Awesome and Illustrious Labyrinth Complex Dungeon-5.

Casper stood poised while the Arcane Powershot ripped across the round chamber, stirring the pale sand deep underneath as it hurtled toward the Guard Captain, who showed no sign of expecting the surprise.

Even so, he handled it better than any prior dungeon enemy. Just prior to impact, the Guard Captain attempted to conjure a shield – the solid metal type, not a spell – yet before he could hoist it against the arrow, his form locked up from Primal Gaze.

The arrow slammed into the Guard Captain's chest dead-center, hurling him rearward into the ziggurat wall, where he rebounded into the sand below, carving a deep pit as he skidded along. Jake felt a touch of surprise that the building took zero harm from the armored B-grade's collision, meaning the warrior's frame absorbed the full force.

In terms of harm, the Guard Captain sported a massive gap in his torso and struggled to regain his bearings even as the hunter unleashed chasing arrows. Jake couldn't claim the boosted impact from his enhanced Stealth Attack jumped out obviously, but he relied on the system to affirm the damage boost was real.

He could at least verify that his next two arrows gained from the upgraded Stealth Attack, hitting the Guard Captain twice more before an Elite Guard stirred and blocked Jake’s shots.

Additional guards rushed to aid their leader, but Casper struck first. He unleashed a volley of stakes while calling forth two magic circles at his back. Lyra appeared too, channeling strength into him along with the circles behind Casper.

The stakes drew the attention of four Elite Guards trying to reach their captain, and that short diversion let Casper's follow-up burst free as the rear circles detonated, unleashing floods of turquoise force that radiated utter death.

The four Elite Guards clustered and raised a joint shield that halted the assault outright, but their block kept them from aiding the Captain and the lone Elite Guard already at his side.

This let Jake keep peppering the assisting Elite Guard, who frantically shielded his mending captain. With conditions met to trigger the ability, Jake activated Steady Focus's Rapid Fire mode, firing arrows quicker than ever. Overwhelming for one Elite Guard to block alone without heavy losses.

Jake buried over a dozen arrows into the beleaguered guard before the Guard Captain steadied enough to intervene. Instead of shielding the Elite Guard, the captain launched a full assault, drawing an item from what appeared a spatial storage.

A shot from the rifle-like device in the Guard Captain's grip, aimed at Jake’s skull, proved it a firearm. What's more, the blast arrived swifter than Jake anticipated, compelling him to evade and end his Rapid Fire.

A handful more rounds targeted Jake in the following moments, but now aware of the threat, Jake fired back. He mostly overlooked the badly hurt Elite Guard, figuring poison would end him soon, but that choice nearly backfired.

Grabbing another gun-shaped tool, the Elite Guard pointed skyward and fired. A light ray climbed before bursting into a dazzling glare that lit the chamber briefly.

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Casper, occupied with four Elite Guards, spotted it too, and both recognized the signal:

A flare.

They'd only drawn the Guard Captain and five Elite Guards in the opener, and though one teetered on death from intense poisoning, piling on extras could spell trouble. Casper already strained against four.

It worsened when the room's other ten Elite Guards spotted the flare and bolted toward Jake and his Risen ally. Silently cursing how plans never fully aligned, Jake paused to confirm the Formation Master behaved as hoped.

At minimum, the cloaked form acted per expectations, still weaving some spell that trapped them in the ziggurat's upper bubble. Still, it didn't erase the ticking clock or the surge of foes now facing them.

These ten rushing Elite Guards drew their own rifles, and once combat started, their awareness range ballooned, letting them fire across the chamber at Jake and Casper.

The four Elite Guards with Casper wielded spears, but as the Risen pulled back, they swapped to rifles and fired after him. A couple bullets clipped the Risen, yet he evaded serious harm while hurling cursed stakes and mixing in ghostly spells aided by Lyra.

Jake shifted to covering Casper with fire while sidestepping incoming rounds. His support pulled several charging Elite Guards onto him, easing the load on the Risen.

At that moment, they snagged a bit of positive news.

The flare-shooting Elite Guard had fallen to poison and perished, trimming the guard count to fourteen. A minor win, yet a win all the same. Plus, the top threat fared poorly, and Jake noted the Guard Captain stuck to distant rifle fire because his wounds hampered mobility.

The captain's shots posed greater peril than the Elite Guards', but with him fixated on Jake over Casper, it stayed manageable, since evading thrown objects ranked among Jake's top skills. And duties, but mostly thrown objects.

Aided by Jake, Casper gained solid separation from the Elite Guards, drawing a few to pursue rather than keep firing rifles. Jake targeted the distant shooters while bypassing the rushers, knowing trapping experts weren't easy quarry.

In flight, Casper dropped unseen magic circles hovering midair, and any Elite Guard nearing one triggered an eruption. It struck fast when one guard got blindsided: death energy surged from nothing, then a chain lashed out, sinking into the guard's form with its far end vanishing into void.

Even with a comrade snared, the Elite Guards pressed on, ensnaring more in the traps. The chains inflicted minimal harm, and the death surge merely stunned the victim, granting seconds for the links to bind.

After five fell to them, the rest grew wary of Casper's trap zone, but dodging hazards left them ignoring Jake.

Though the Guard Captain fired at him, Jake unleashed a solid Powershot, knocking back one Elite Guard before dropping an explosive arrow barrage on others. The blasts caused scant damage, but as Jake intended, the Elite Guards panicked and dug into defense against the incoming volley, buying Casper extra moments for schemes.

One clear lesson from recent days was Casper's arsenal dwarfed Jake's in variety. He packed traps, circles, rituals, dungeon spells, curses, and a ghost partner who could boost him or strike solo.

Jake, by contrast, fired arrows. He owned many skills, sure, but they mostly honed his archery, so he stuck to arrows when possible.

It might sound like griping, and Jake remained amazed as Casper slammed five stakes groundward to unleash a curse wave that swept the Elite Guards, briefly scrambling their perceptions from what Jake saw, but jealousy never crossed his mind.

For all Casper's tricks, Jake's raw fighting might outshone him, growing evident as he kept hammering the Elite Guards while weaving past bullets. Casper leaned on Lyra to deflect unavoidable shots while minimizing hits, though injuries piled up regardless.

Luckily for the Risen, Jake's fiercer attacks, plus Casper's ongoing traps, redirected all but the initial four chasing guards toward the airborne hunter.

A sound call, as it complicated Jake's strikes a tad. Just a tad, since he still squeezed in shots amid the bullet storm. Jake planted firm arrows into Elite Guards, slowly dispersing his poison, though progress crawled with their tight cover, and some ditched guns for shields to guard allies exclusively.

Jake’s arrows pressed without mercy, every release sharp and aimed to widen his toxins' reach. He held a consistent pace, gliding through the air with expert twists, and occasionally seized a brief flaw in the Elite Guards’ lineup to sink a penetrating arrow into a vulnerable target. The fight swirled in a frenzy of shafts and slugs, but Jake’s nonstop barrage held them off-balance, preventing the Elite Guards from rallying fully or gaining ground on Casper or nearing Jake excessively.

In time, they abandoned targeting Jake entirely since nothing landed, while at least nicking Casper. Not heavily, and as moments ticked by, Jake struck more arrows into off-guard Elite Guards.

Regrettably, amid this steady grind where Jake and Casper methodically thinned the guards, the Guard Captain had partly mended from Jake’s crushing first blow.

The Guard Captain rose and pushed toward his charges. As he dashed, his presence shifted, radiating intense force that swept the chamber.

It empowered every Elite Guard with fresh vigor. The guards shook off Casper's traps, the captain's boosting ability clearly ramping their strength.

They rallied, morale soaring, as the Elite Guards geared up to link with their captain and-

Abruptly, the Guard Captain halted, body seizing. The B-grade couldn't even glance back before a fresh Protean Arrow, freshly formed by Jake, crashed down, the outcome predictable given his prior wounds.

His head exploded, and to seal it, Jake extended a hand for Touch of the Malefic Viper while triggering his Hunter’s Mark blast. Touch proved redundant, as the Mark's eruption erased the B-grade's lingering spark.

The decapitated Guard Captain crumpled lifeless before landing. His passing dispersed the aura he'd spread, and the Elite Guards froze briefly in dismay at their leader's fall, letting Casper skewer two with hefty cursed stakes.

Jake grinned, ready to pick off the leftover Elite Guards… until a mighty aura burst from the ziggurat peak as a ray of raw power lanced skyward. The ray pulsed energy across the room, raising a barrier of gray sand, as the event appeared to jolt the whole Grand Labyrinth.

Sharing a swift look with Casper, they both knew it.

The fight's second phase had begun.