Jake launched himself into the air to avoid the charge of the four clones, and just in time, as the space he had just occupied imploded from the impact of four paw-swipes infused with potent space magic.

He pushed his wings to fly faster as he felt the approaching beasts. Twisting his body, Jake turned and shot off blasts of arcane mana as he also landed a Mark of the Avaricious Hunter on all four of them. Not for the damage necessarily, but as much to keep track of them.

Four forms flanked him during his ascent. A part of Jake had hoped they wouldn’t bother chasing him, but clearly, they were out for blood. Two usual responses would appear in this kind of scenario. Fight or flight. Jake’s survival instinct was by far his most potent one… and not a single doubt was in his mind at that moment.

Fight.

Blasting arcane energy to one side, he propelled himself into one of the Panthers and took it by surprise. In mid-air, he took hold of its pelt and tossed it towards another of the beasts as he began flying sideways, his wings leaving poison mist in his wake. Taking out his bow, he fired arrows directly ahead of himself, away from the beasts. The arrows flew straight for a while but soon began bending as they did a one-eighty turn and flew back in Jake’s direction as they also split into five each.

Jake flew between several arrows as the Panthers chasing him were hit by arcane explosions. They blocked it, but it bought him enough time to properly turn and shoot a well-placed Arcane Powershot into one of the clones.

It hit the beast, and right away, the poison entered its body. When it did, Jake quickly noticed a difference… these clones were stronger than the one he had destroyed earlier. Not by overly much, but probably around ten percent.

Clones… split power somehow?

Jake wasn’t sure, but what he did know was that the Panthers were done playing around. Before, they had chased him rather cautiously, which indicated they did not have a proper measurement of Jake… which furthermore probably meant there had been no shared memory or memory transfer from the clone. All they knew was that he had killed one.

However, even so, it was clear that the clones could communicate, at least while in close proximity.

Space around Jake suddenly seemed to shrink as he didn’t really move forward as he flew. Dark mana began collecting all around him as black bolts appeared in the warped space. None of which Jake had time to address as he had to rapidly dodge to the side as a Panther teleported in front of him, only to find another one trying to take advantage of the opening. He barely managed to dodge between the swipes of two beasts by twisting his body and creating a platform of mana to step off.

He tried to get away, but the dark bolts bombarded him, and as space constricted even more, he found it difficult to move as he wanted. In melee, the two panthers continued their assault as Jake was on the backfoot, not getting any chances to retaliate.

Need to get distance, Jake gritted his teeth as he tried to break out of the contained space one of the panthers had created. Both melee weapons had appeared at this point, and he managed to land a few minor wounds on the two beasts, but they also managed to hurt him as several claw marks marred his body.

In a gamble, Jake dove forwards between the two Panthers. He spun around as arcane edges expanded from both blades to try and scare the Panthers away. It worked on one of them, but the one he tried to scare off with Bloodfeast Dagger simply swept the edge away and attacked instead.

Jake ducked at the very last moment, turning his body to block with one of his wings. The Panther tore up the flesh on it and promptly bit down on the joint. The teeth sank into the flesh as pain ran through his body. The Panther bit down even more, ready to rip off the wing entirely. He knew the wing was a lost cause, so he decided to make use of it.

Stamina and mana both flushed the wing as Arcane Awakening was directed to overflow it with energy. In a flash, it began burning with pink-purple energy before promptly exploding in a blast that sent both Jake and the Panther flying away.

Blood sprayed all over the Panther and into its mouth, not to mention the damage caused by the explosion itself. Jake himself had lost a wing, and if that was all, he would be ecstatic at the outcome of the exchange, but sadly he was not fighting a single opponent.

The second Panther went in for his neck, and Jake barely blocked with an arm that he pushed into the feline’s mouth to avoid the sharp front fangs. It still hurt like hell, but scales covered his arm just as he blocked to lessen the damage.

With his other arm, he managed to make a barrier of arcane mana to protect himself from dark bolts bombarding him. He did so long enough for the Panther currently biting down to begin shaking him violently, trying to rip off his arm entirely. He was tossed around, but he managed to not lose the arm as the Panther eventually let go due to the poisoned blood soaking its throat. It tossed him towards the jungle below, with several dark bolts bombarding him on the way down.

With a tattered arm and a lost wing, he fell as he blocked the bolts as best he could. On the positive side, he had gotten out of the compressed space, but on the negative side, he had taken a lot of damage. He had managed to also do some damage to the Panthers and had infected all but one with poison. However, the winner of this first exchange had clearly been the clones.

He took notice of how one of the clones stayed back, not engaging him at all. It had just done some space magic, with the one using dark magic being the one he injured earlier with Arcane Powershot.

Jake landed on the ground below, and before the Panthers could follow up, he sprinted into the dense jungle. Fighting them up in the air had been a terrible move as it quite frankly gave him too much space. He had no natural obstacles he could use to block and was just surrounded up there, while in the jungle, he had the advantage.

One had to remember… Jake was now a stealth archer as well as a hunter.

Using his Marks, he kept track as they all followed him. Jake would honestly accept the result if they chose to disengage, but he failed to hold back a faint smile when he saw them chase. His body was hurting, and Arcane Awakening was still burning his energy and health away at a steady pace, putting him on a timer. That is why he didn’t wait long before he went back on the offensive.

Taking a lot of ninety-degree turns, he managed to get them off his track for a moment. Enough for him to enter stealth once more as they lost track of his position. Jake had already noticed earlier how they needed a moment to locate him whenever he had teleported, proving they clearly didn’t have a good tracking skill or particularly high perception. This was fixed by them fighting together and one being at a distance to observe, but such was not the case right now.

Sneaking around, the Panthers were tracking him and had split up a fair bit, with one of them still flying in the air far above – the uninjured one. It had not moved but stayed far up, nearly at the clouds. At that distance, not even an Arcane Powershot would reach before it could dodge.

That left three in the jungle, all spread out in a triangle pattern as they searched. Pulses of dark mana passed over him as his Arcane Stealth managed to keep him hidden as he stood still whenever such a pulse came.

Just as another pulse had passed, Jake found an opening. A Panther had found an unsuspecting D-grade trying to hide and had decided to rip it out of the ground and tear it apart. Jake took the chance and fired an Arcane Powershot from behind.

The Panther reacted too slowly as it was blasted in the back and was sent flying through several trees with an arrow now stuck in it. The moment he attacked, all of the Panthers became aware of him, and without hesitating, he retreated into the dense foliage again.

Just as he retreated, he found himself forced to lay flat on the ground as a ripple of space passed over him. Less than a second later, a black crescent wave passed, followed by several more as the Panthers tore up the area to find him. Jake just lay there, Arcane Stealth active as he blended in.

Clearly believing he had escaped, the Panthers assaulted another area, only for Jake to pop up again and land another Arcane Powershot on an unsuspecting Panther.

The best part about all this? Stealth Attack bloody worked every time they completely lost track of his position.

Once more, he tried to retreat, but clearly, the beasts were not interested in being made fools of three times in a row. All three charged him at once, ignoring their wounds and the poison running through their bodies.

Jake knew fighting them straight on was a losing battle, so he tried to dodge as he ran. Pride of the Malefic Viper activated for the first time as mana began condensing in his surroundings. Repeated arcane explosions sounded out in his wake, but the Panthers ignored them all to keep chase.

He tried to shake them off, but he was chased by one and flanked by two others. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a faint distortion in the air as Jake jumped just as a Panther appeared. He managed to get over the attack and condensed a platform of mana to stop his momentum just in time to dodge the second beast.

Flooding the platform with destructive mana, it exploded and launched Jake backward towards the chasing Panther. Taking it by surprise, Jake managed to land a cut with Eternal Hunger before fleeing once more. However, just as he thought he would get away, he suddenly spotted a problem.

Fuck.

In front of him, space was already distorting as it became clear he had once more been trapped within some kind of spatial seal. However, this one was far more of a barrier to keep him from escaping than the space seal prior.

With reluctance, Jake was forced to change direction, but that resulted in him not being as fast as he should have been. A Panther teleported, and Jake barely managed to block as two more appeared. The second one he dodged by the skin of his teeth while he was forced to simply take the hit from the last one as his back was ripped up. His cloak and armor, together with the passive shield of Arcane Awakening, managed to take much of the blow, but his equipment was shredded, with five deep gashes still left behind. Jake managed to capitalize on the situation to stab a Panther with Eternal Hunger as he froze another with Gaze. Using all his strength, he spun around and used the impaled beast as his shield so the Panther that tore up his back couldn’t strike again.

He was forced to let go of his weapon as he jumped back and landed on the ground just as he teleported away. The clones chased him quickly as different spells flew all around him. Jake gritted his teeth as he repeatedly teleported in tandem with the Panthers, always a single step ahead.

Pulling out his bow, he began firing arrows in all directions. One right in front of him, one a bit to the side, one above, and so on. The arrows curved around to hit the Panthers, with most of them missing but a few landing as intended here and there. The Panthers adapted swiftly and grouped up to make a barrier, rendering his assault useless.

Eternal Hunger had already been ripped out of the one Panther’s body and left behind somewhere on the ground. At least it was left behind as Jake suddenly felt its call. He didn’t think but just wished for it as it appeared in his hand. It could do that?

Not bothering to think about it, Jake manipulated the shape of the blade slightly as he made it larger and firmly a two-handed weapon. He then dismissed it, ready to summon it again when it was time.

From behind, a dark pulse went through the jungle, followed by a wave of black smoke that seemed to drown out everything. Jake could barely see through it, and it even absorbed sound. However, even more importantly, Jake noticed the smoke infiltrate his body.

It was poison.

Dark poison.

This kind of trap would surely work on many types of foes. A black mist that blinded them and weakened their senses, as well as poison seeping into their bodies to amplify this effect further. A real nasty combo, actually.

Well, except for Jake, who failed to hold back a grin as all he felt was his mana regeneration spike. He did notice that the Panthers also absorbed some of the mist to counteract the Hemotoxin Poison and other toxins he had inflicted them with, but it was far from enough.

The Panthers waited a dozen or so seconds for Jake to lose his senses. Which he did. His vision was blurred with dark spots, his hearing muffled, and even his sense of touch was all off. To really sell it, Jake began firing arrows into the air, having already noticed that the odd spatial seal didn’t affect his arcane arrows. It was likely just meant to seal living beings in, and not all energy as that would make the cost skyrocket.

Satisfied with the result, a beast charged Jake. He purposefully reacted just in time as he blocked with his bow, the legendary weapon more than durable enough. Jake was smashed back and into a tree as the same Panther followed up. Two more hung back, with one of them expelling the mist and the other seemingly trying to speed up its healing.

He took a few more blows that he barely blocked before he made the Panther smash him into a large tree. The idea appeared, and he instantly executed. As expected, the beast charged him, and just as it leaped, Jake used Gaze of the Apex Hunter, barely still able to see the Panther through the mist due to his insane Perception.

It flew through the air as Eternal Hunger appeared. Using the tree as a counterweight, the Panther smashed into the sword head-first, impaling itself entirely. Instantly, the other Panthers reacted, but Jake was too fast. Bloodfeast Dagger appeared, and he stabbed down on the skull of the beast rapidly dozens of times before finally breaking through. The moment he did so, the entire beast just turned to black smoke.

Two down… three to go.

Jake felt like he just had a major victory but then noticed how little the Panthers seemed to truly care. The one who had been healing still waited for the one pumping mist to stop as they realized it was useless. Instantly, the poison mist began dispersing, and he saw the two injured beasts stare at him as Jake’s Eternal Hunger changed back to its regular shape again.

A two-second staredown later, Jake decided it was a good time to return to being a stealth archer as he stepped down and teleported back. He had just appeared as the two Panthers followed him, and instantly he noticed.

Faster.

A swipe hit him from the side, and as he blocked, he found himself sent flying away even more than before.

And stronger.

It was confirmed. For each clone he killed, the others got stronger. It was only a little… but it wasn’t good. Far above still was the third Panther, clearly still not interested in joining, and Jake could only begin to imagine what would happen when it was down to the last one.

Kind of exciting, wasn’t it?