The Primal Hunter's
Nicholas 2's

Nicholas did feel a little sorry for sacrificing his partner to take down the archer. Not because his former ally was killed, but because Nicholas failed to kill the enemy. After he gave the injured archer a healing potion, he decided to hide in the tree about twenty meters away, with a clear line of sight to the injured man.

In other words, he had prepared his allies as bait.

The enemy archers seemed to have some sort of perception skill or something that achieved a similar effect. A way to find the nearest individual at the minimum. He first thought it might be a Basic Tracking skill, but he also saw archers using basic stealth. Which meant that the man had unlocked two skills, hence was above level 10, or had other means he was unaware of.

In the end it doesn't matter. The important thing was to kill the bastard, and his trap had worked like a talisman until the very last moment.

As he timed his shot with the enemy archer, the man reacted as if he had eyes on his back, and managed to slightly veer to the side, reducing the damage from the shot significantly. Nicholas cursed himself as he shot another arrow, but once again, the man stumbled to the side, dodging without even turning around. Before he could open fire again, the man had already fled to a safe place behind a tree.

He jumped down from the tree he was in and started running to the side while still keeping a good distance. He looked at the archer once more and quickly fired another arrow, but then again, he managed to sneak around the tree.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse, in which Nicholas kept shooting arrows whenever he saw another archer as he slowly approached. Based on the movements of the other archers, he must have consumed the health potion, putting Nicholas on a timer before he returned in top shape.

Everything was frustrating and only got worse when the other archers started to return fire. None of them seemed to tend to enter close range, and with a good twenty meters distance between them, they came to a halt.

Jake felt a little better after dodging a few more arrows, and he even started shooting back. His life was in danger at all times, and he did several shaves, the other archers were faster and stronger than him. He enjoyed every moment.

They both dodged and weaved between the trees, shooting arrows back and forth, finding no luck. Jake is absolutely fine with this impasse, as he begins to feel better and better, his high vitality helps heal his internal wounds.

Although the magical effect of the healing potion restored Health Points, it did not directly repair the body. It all depends on the vitality of the person. A stat that Jake did not lack due to his [Bloodline Patriarch] title.

As they shot at each other, they finally slowly moved closer. The initial twenty meters became fifteen and then only ten. With less than 20 arrows remaining, the other archers finally entered Jake's Sphere of Perception, making the physical barrier between them much more irrelevant as he no longer needed to rely solely on sight.

The forest was quite interesting at the moment, with dozens of trees planted with arrows. Some were in low luggage, while others were closer to their peaks, as two archers periodically climbed them to gain advantage.

Jake could feel the other archers becoming increasingly frustrated throughout the fight, and as he entered his scope, Jake finally confirmed a large frown on the man's face.

Jake smiled at himself as he called out. “It's fun, right?”

"What do you want?" the other archers shouted back.

“A name I prefer. And his name is Jake!” he retaliated.

"And why would I care about that?" the other man once again shouted, clearly not enjoying their conversation at all.

Jake sees the man spending his time juggling more arrows. It's not that he's got a lot to say because Jake's doing the same. The other archers, however, had only eleven arrows, with Jake still having nineteen arrows. Based on the skill level of the other archers, he had likely calculated it and knew that he was in a disadvantageous position, keeping him afloat in the conversation to buy time.

“It would be a shame to end up as another random notification about the experience and tutorial points earned, right?” Jake answered, honestly.

Others have the skills to be sure. Despite his obvious frustration with the situation, he remained calm, had a methodical approach, never losing control of his emotions enough to hinder his performance. It's not Jake's last fight with life and death on the front lines against a powerful enemy, but he wants to know the name of the first one, at least. He slightly regretted not getting the names of the three attackers he first killed, but the situation did not really require a name exchange.

“Still trying to be cool, huh? Get a grip; you make me cringe here, ”dia sneers back. "But if you care so much, then my name is Nicholas."

“Well, nice to meet you, I guess. Is my taunts really that bad?” ask Jake. He had tried to make himself seem like a total badass, but, thinking back; it appeared more because he was acting like a fifteen-year-old version of badass.

“Not enough to make me want to get rid of you even without Richard ordering it. Seriously, what the fuck is that?” Nicholas asked, counting the stock of his arrows. Eighteen.

“Seriously, that bad? I guess I should apologize?” Jake replied hesitantly, more than a little embarrassed. I'll never do anything like that again. Ever.

"I'm still going to kill you" replied Nicholas, when he saw that he now had two dozen arrows. “You really messed up, you know. Make the enemy out of us. Do you really think your friends will be safe after I kill you and come back to tell you how full your nonsense is?

"Okay, I think this means the conversation is over," Jake muttered just as Nicholas had told himself.

The conversation at this point will lead nowhere, but Jake is quite happy that he got a name to call his opponent. Jake comes out from behind a tree and jumps to the side, shooting another arrow at Nicholas, who manages to dodge easily.

The purpose of the shot was just to stop his arrow magic.

Nicholas considered running away but decided not to. He would be much more open when trying to run, and even if he managed to escape, it would yield very little. An enemy archer with considerable skill would still be out there, and next time he could easily knock himself or one of his allies down. Just like how they were ambushed today.

And all of that ignores Richard's reaction when he learns that his entire army has been killed by one man. He at least assumed they were all dead at this moment, as no one had appeared despite the long battle.

Nicholas, instead of running away or gaining further distance, decided to close the gap. As part of his work before initiation, he practiced bare hands, and his skill with a knife should not be scorned. While he had limited experience with bows before the tutorial, the system even gave him a ranking increase to his one-handed weapon skills once. He had chosen archers because he believed long-range weapons would be superior to melee weapons, although light warriors might be more suited to him in retrospect.

He dashed back and forth between the trees, and while the distance had only decreased by a few inches by the time they kept shooting back and forth, he continued to advance towards his opponent.

Jake, on the other hand, is fine with the other archers who decide to get close. Although he was very fond of long-distance combat, he was not afraid of meeting enemies at close range. Not because he had confidence in his abilities with melee weapons, but because he unconditionally trusted his current instincts. They were not perfect, and he had taken some injuries during the fight, but still it was very reliable.

He suddenly got an idea when something appeared on his ball while dodging another arrow. He continued to dodge towards a certain tree while returning fire at the right time.

Finally, he reached the tree he was aiming for, after increasing the distance to eight to ten meters once again. He dodged behind the tree he was heading to, as Nicholas followed behind. It was in this tree that Jake killed the wounded archer early in the battle.

During the battle, they had moved so much that they ended up switching locations from where they started, as they both circled the forest from tree to tree. This meant that Nicholas could not see the dead archer from where he was hiding now. Jake, on the other hand, stands behind a tree, right next to a fresh corpse.

Jake once again grinned as he picked up the dead archer, leaning him against the tree in preparation. He then came out from behind the tree, shooting another arrow. Jake accidentally gets around this tree, when Nicholas finally gets within a few meters.

Nicholas attacks Jake as he circles the tree where the archer is hiding. As he passed by, he immediately saw someone coming towards him, and without any hesitation, he stabbed his throat. He smiled as he felt his knife seep into the flesh as he looked at his opponent's face, hoping to see a look of terror on his face.

What actually met him was the dead eyes of the friend he had sacrificed before. Before he could process what happened, a knife came out from behind the corpse, penetrating deep into his chest.

With a cough of blood, he fell backwards, his knife being plucked in the process. A warm feeling spread from his chest as blood flowed out. He knew his heart had been hit and that he was done because blood filled his mouth.

Jake stared at the collapsed archer in the soft undergrowth of the forest. His eyes were still open as he struggled in vain. His vitality still prevented him from instant killing before the system as his health points quickly ran out.

"Good fight," Jake said solemnly.

"Fuck y-" Nicholas tried to say, as he coughed up more blood. Don't even try to talk again before the last vestiges of life leave him.

Jake sighed when he received a notice confirming the murder. He came forward and closed the man's eyes, didn't he, Nicholas.

At one point, he had considered decapitating this leader to send a message to Richard that the threat was serious, but he could not force himself to dirty the corpse of someone who had given him the best fight of his life. It would also be a little too cliche.

Jake instead decides to bury the corpse of his fallen opponent, but first, he has some unfinished business with the last member of the hunting group. He walked towards where the archer was frozen in fear and found him still in the same place, clearly trying to hide.

He had no respect for this young man, only pity. He's barely grown up, if anything, and he's been thrown into this messy tutorial with wild beasts, monsters, and people to kill him. People like Jake.

The boy's attempts to hide became futile as he constantly shivered, making it easy to find him even without his ball. The boy had a dagger in his hand, hidden under a robe, but he lost or threw away his bow at some point.

As Jake gets closer, the archer trembles more and more, and finally musters up the courage to look up, only to see Jake in a blood-red robe that was once brown at some point. Before the boy managed to shout, Jake ran forward and easily disarmed him by delivering a hard punch on his stomach, making him kneel. The knife fell to the ground.

“Your friends are dead, son. Go back to Richard and tell him that Nicholas fought well and remind him that I was serious when I told him that I would kill him if he did something to my friends. Oh, and say that he is free to send more people to chase me, I enjoy it, ” said Jake as he looked at the boy, who clearly thought that he would die.

The boy looked up in fear and hesitated at Jake's words. The man in front of him, in his eyes, was a monster on human skin. Out of nowhere, two of his friends had died, and just as he was beginning to come to his senses, he heard shouts around him as everyone panicked.

He had frozen, not daring to move because he was afraid that another arrow would appear out of nowhere and end his life without him knowing how. He instead hoped, not begging, that the others would win and come to pick him up. But now everyone was dead, including the seemingly invincible Nicholas, who was even revered by the terrifyingly powerful Richard as his match. Worse, now this monster was standing right in front of him.

"Hello?" Jake wondered aloud as the boy was still standing there shivering. Did he not hear it?

The boy quickly became tense before he quickly started running recklessly, almost falling for his first few steps, until he got his bearings and started running.

Jake was a little confused for a moment but only shook his head when he saw the boy running. It looked more than a little silly when the boy hit some trees on the road running like a demon chasing him.

When the archer leaves his line of sight, Jake ends up slumping to the ground, very tired. It turned out that fighting someone to death for more than an hour was exhausting