The Primal Hunter

Chapter 151: A Bit of Self-Reflection

Jake let go and looked at the corpse on the ground. Her bloodshot eyes still wide open, staring back up at him, with black veins extending from her face and unto her entire body.

Sighing, he turned his attention to the stunned observers around him. Many of them were still getting back up from the blast Abby had released not long ago. Some of whom would never get up ever again.

In an oddly ironic series of events, Abby had ended up killing even more of her own men than Jake had. He had finished off thirty or so, while her blast had killed nearly fifty, which meant that around half of the people that had invaded the valley were now dead. Another third of the survivors had already run off once he started glaring people to death. He had only killed those who kept attacking, while he didn’t bother with those who ran.

Jake dismissed his scales as he deposited Abby’s corpse into his spatial storage. She was bound to have had a lot of useful items. Next, he went and did the same to Donald’s. He didn’t care about any of the others, as he frankly doubted they had much he needed.

With that taken care of, he turned his attention towards the big barrier still covering his lodge. It was undamaged, and in a fortunate turn of events, had also protected the pond and waterfall behind it. However, the rest of the valley was a bit of a mess, primarily caused by the blast of space mana earlier.

Behind said barrier were Neil and his group. Neil’s mouth was hanging wide open. On several occasions, he had expected Jake to die, but he had effortlessly thwarted the two’s efforts every single time. The two people he and his group had failed to even fight for more than a few minutes had been dominated and killed in less than a minute.

The most overwhelming part was the sheer number of attacks he used. At first, he thought the masked man some kind of melee fighter. An evolved light-warrior variant or something. Then he launched powerful spells, both the disruptive mana blast and the mana bolts impressive in their own right. Then finally, he had taken out a bow and fired off arrows that each had enough power to shatter Abby’s space barriers. Is he really human?

All of that was discounting the scariest thing. The masked man’s ability to kill people out of nowhere. His ability to make people freeze up and become defenseless. He wasn’t even mentioning the fact that he could grow wings, summon scales, or how he had killed Abby in seconds with some kind of powerful melee skill that only required touch from the looks of it.

He couldn’t help but shift his eyes to Miranda. She had mentioned this ‘owner’ several times, but she mentioned she had never truly seen him fight. Neil had doubted his capabilities, but he would be a fool to do so now. He also couldn’t help but question if coming here was indeed a good idea.

Speaking of Miranda, she too was very concerned inwardly. The creepy fuck and his devil spawn of a daughter were gone, but that still left the masked man’s potential anger towards her. She didn’t fear he would do anything like what Donald planned, but that he would just kill her outright.

Jake, on the other hand, hadn’t even considered this. Instead, he stood solemnly contemplating a lot of things… but first, he had to finish cleaning up.

“Everyone, gather over here in front of the barrier,” he yelled out to the still stunned people all around him.

Only around fifty people remained in total. The rest were now either dead or had run off, likely to die from the many beasts within the forest, which was also the reason why so many had stayed. Without Abby and Donald, they weren’t sure they could even survive the way to any safe place. Not that there was truly any safe place in this new world anymore.

“Yes, boss!”

The first person answering turned out to be Chris, who he had talked to just before. He had survived the blast of space mana and was one of the first to get back up. And the very first to run over and stand in front of the barrier.

Though Jake wasn’t exactly fond of the whole ‘boss’ business, that was something to fix later.

With Chris taking the initiative, everyone followed his lead and went in front of the barrier. Many still very hesitant, but nobody dared to be too slow. They all were afraid due to the leadership-style deeply engraved in their bodies from following Abby. Chris was the only one Jake saw who was showing just a bit of defiance.

“So, how long will this thing last?” Jake asked the space mage.