The Primal Hunter
Chapter 1131: Psychological Warfare

Assassinations weren’t just about killing a target. At least not for the Court of Shadows. It was the Path of their entire faction, and the Path of many of their members. However, just like it was a hunter’s Path to slay monsters, that didn’t mean the hunter could just kill any monster.

A hunter could slay a thousand weak beasts an entire grade below himself, and it would give him nothing. In fact, it could hurt his own Records. In the same vein, an assassin didn’t merely care about killing someone. It had to be a kill that would allow the assassin to progress their Path.

This mentality was part of the reason why the Court of Shadows was tolerated throughout the multiverse. They had standards. Rules. These edicts dictated everything from the kind of pay expected to the length of any assassination contract.

The length of the contract was an odd concept to many who hired the Court without much foreknowledge. The way the Court operated was that the contract would only last for a set amount of time, during which the faction would try to take down the target. Should they fail to slay the target during this period, a portion of the deposit would be returned, minus expenses for the attempts on the target’s life.

This also resulted in assassination contracts not always being successful by design. It was a careful balance that had been struck, where the assassination targets could prove themselves worthy of surviving the attempts on their lives. This especially mattered when it came to contracts on young talents, as the success rate on those was far lower than average. Having a rule like that also allowed the Court of Shadows to take more contracts on young geniuses without just becoming a slaughterhouse of anyone showing promise that enemy factions wanted to get rid of before they could mature.

A primary reason why the success rate was so low on young geniuses was due to another of the rules. A fundamental one.

One would never see the Court of Shadows send some A-grade to wipe out a group of C-grades. In fact, one of their basic rules was that one should never have a target below one’s own grade.

That’s to say, an S-grade would never assassinate an A-grade, an A-grade would never kill a B-grade, and of course, a B-grade would never try to kill a C-grade. This was one of their most basic edicts... but no rule was ironclad. Everything had exceptions.

One exception was naturally that an assassin and member of the Court of Shadows could always defend themselves if attacked, even if the attacker was below their own grade. A nice little loophole that the Darkwood Chimera had gladly taken advantage of... though it was still unsure who the true prey was.

“They actually went and did it?” the green-haired woman asked as she saw the Primordial stare into empty space with an amused smile.

“That they did,” the Malefic Viper chuckled, shaking his head.

Not too long ago, he had been contacted by a courier from the Court of Shadows, delivering a message from Umbra. All it said was that someone had attempted to take out a contract on Jake.

The Viper instantly understood the purpose of this message. It didn’t say they had accepted any contract, so this was an opportunity for the Viper to respond and tell them not to accept the contract. A smart play by Umbra. Vilas would have to ask her not to accept it, which could be construed as owing a favor, while if the Viper did nothing, the Court would only once more prove that they indeed dared to accept contracts on just about anyone.

Needless to say, Vilas hadn’t responded. Why would he? He saw nothing wrong with a little contract being taken out on his Chosen. He knew the edicts of the Court of Shadows. Their entire modus operandi. On a contract like Jake, they would definitely adhere to it strictly, which in the Viper’s mind just meant one thing:

A fun time for Jake.

If anyone was suited to facing assassination attempts, it had to be his Chosen. Vilas himself had a hard time taking Jake by surprise, so he wished any aspiring assassin who wanted to make a name for themselves luck.

What he hadn’t expected was for them to use a tactic like this. One where Jake gave the assassin rightful justification to kill him despite being a grade higher. It was novel, but also clearly not a new plan, as based on what the Chimera had shown, it hadn’t been blessed just recently, but been a member of the Court of Shadows for a while.

Well... alright, calling the Chimera a member didn’t seem quite right. More like it was a candidate to become a full member. In fact, that was the deal the Viper assumed the Court and Chimera had struck. The Chimera would serve the Court as an assassin in this Hunting Ground for a set limited amount of time or for a limited number of targets, and in return, it would be allowed to fully join the Court, getting the backing it had talked about wanting.

Pretty clever and incredibly low-risk for the Court of Shadows.

“I wonder who hired the Court...” the goddess wondered out loud.

“There are a lot of candidates, I reckon, but for once, I have a feeling it isn’t actually related to me,” the Viper chuckled.

“Are you worried about him?” The Verdant Sister asked. She had been there to deliver a message just prior and had taken this opportunity to stay around a bit longer.

“Worried?” the Viper asked with a smile. “Why would I be? It’s a Chimera, sure, but let’s be honest, every single B-grade in that Hunting Ground is absolutely pathetic, to the level I hesitate to even call them true B-grades.”

“But your Chosen is still only C-grade, and from what I remember, not even that close to the peak yet,” the Verdant Sister pointed out.

“True,” the Viper nodded. “Which is why these B-grades can at least still provide some level of challenge to him. If he couldn’t even kill these now, how is he supposed to kill a True Dragon before evolving to B-grade?”

The Verdant Witch’s eyes opened wide. “You want him to kill a True Dragon before evolving?”

“Me? No,” Vilas chuckled. “I’m pretty sure he’s the one who will refuse to evolve until he’s killed one.”

“Comparing these B-grades to a True Dragon...” the female god sighed.

“Yeah,” the Viper shrugged. “He still has a ways to go, but given enough preparation and with the improvements he’ll make between now and peak C-grade, I believe he can do it. Assuming he avoids getting killed by assassins from the Court of Shadows, that is.”

With those words, the Viper turned his attention to watching the fight unfold, looking forward to whether this one would be good enough pressure for Jake to improve once more.

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Jake narrowly dodged as the eight tendrils shot for him rapidly, each moving independently to try to lock down or strike him directly. To make matters more complicated, the Chimera had evidently released a boosting skill of some kind, as its power and speed had both gone up a notch.

Arcane Awakening being fully activated was Jake’s only response to keep up as their battle continued. Jake tried to chase after the Chimera, but it was quite good at using Shadow Vault to create distance between itself and Jake.

Keeping up with all the attacks was difficult, and Jake failed to properly counterattack, as he had too much to deal with at once to focus on anything besides dodging. He kept looking for an opening to exploit, but while the monster showed its lack of experience when it came to close combat, it had clearly trained this fighting style a lot.

After nearly getting hit for the umpteenth time, Jake considered his options and decided to change the status quo. He remembered back when he had Shadow Vault himself and his very first training session with the skill. He also remembered that the skill had some limitations. While it could pass through things, doing so drained more energy. Passing through living things, now that was something Jake felt pretty damn confident the Chimera wasn’t capable of due to how it had used the skill so far.

And there just happened to be an entire jungle filled with living things right below him. While Jake could see the tendrils be very adept at fighting within the jungle due to their insane flexibility, Jake still believed it would be an advantageous environment for him.

That’s why he found a brief opening to blast himself downwards and out of range from the Chimera. At the same time, he pulled out his bow and continued taking potshots, aiming for the gaps in the bark of the tendrils. It did very little damage, but everything counted.

As expected, the monster gave chase to try to keep Jake within its optimal attack range. Being on the ground, Jake also lost the ability to dodge downwards, meaning entering the jungle wasn’t entirely bad for it.

For a little while, the Chimera tried to stay above or near the canopies of the trees, but Jake kept moving in a way to make it impossible for the B-grade to attack effectively, forcing it to eventually enter the jungle proper.

“Do you believe this is advantageous to you?” the Chimera asked tauntingly as it kept striking with its tendrils while Jake kept shooting stable arrow after stable arrow while moving rapidly through the jungle.

“Hopefully,” Jake decided to banter a bit. Usually, he wouldn’t bother, but a lot of things still nagged him.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever god had blessed the Chimera was from the Court of Shadows, and that this B-grade had been given a job to kill Jake. Likely, that was why the monster cared so much about taking him out in the first place. He would be the Chimera’s escape from this planet and the source of his backing once off-planet.

Jake’s biggest question was, who the hell would hire the Court of Shadows to kill him? It might be a bit rude, but the first candidate to enter Jake’s mind was Villy himself. Jake could totally see the snake god hire the Court to send assassins after Jake for some extra training and experience. It would also make sense for it to be the Viper, as Jake reckoned the Primordial would know about the assassins being hired and potentially even had to approve it. While Umbra was considered to be at the same level as the twelve Primordials, making someone like the Viper an enemy was still risky.

However, it didn’t feel right. First of all, the timing was wrong. Villy wouldn’t hire them while Jake was off visiting the Pantheon of Life in what even the Primordial had called an official diplomatic mission. It would also be odd to hire assassins to kill your own Chosen within the dominion of another Primordial-level faction.

That meant someone else had enough hatred for Jake to hire an assassin to kill him. Was it perhaps someone who had been related to Yip of Yore? There were still a lot of gods who’d backed Yip out there.

It could also totally be the Holy Church, though they tended to only hire the Court of Shadows to handle internal matters. Perhaps it was just someone who didn’t like to see Jake’s name on top of the Nevermore Leaderboards... either way, whoever was behind this had to be powerful to dare hire an assassin to kill the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and have the Court accept the mission.

So many unknowns... all of which Jake had no way of finding out besides trying to probe the Chimera a bit.

As he dodged through the jungle, avoiding strike after strike, Jake also slowly got closer to the Chimera, all while speaking again. “I know the faction who promised to give you a place in the multiverse... and do you genuinely think they’ll want to invest in you?”

Jake’s words seemed to have some effect as the tendrils were thrown off ever-so-slightly, Jake taking the chance to instantly close the distance and get close to the Chimera, thus exiting its optimal range.

“Look at yourself. You’re a B-grade, yet this is the best you can do? Someone of your caliber isn’t even worth being cannon fodder to the Court of Shadows,” Jake continued, and he noticed that especially the mention of the Court of Shadows had an effect.

“You... how do you know-“ the Chimera began, but Jake stopped it from speaking by teleporting right below the big monster before punching upwards with a Penetrating Fang, stabbing deep into the stomach of the B-grade.

It screamed before trying to crush Jake, but he was too fast and cut the monster across its stomach, causing a small waterfall of sludge-like brown blood to pour out, the wound taking a long time to close due to Heartrot Poison.

“I’ve encountered people from the Court of Shadows many times before,” Jake said, his speaking having no effect on his ability to fight, while it clearly messed with the Chimera. “In fact, there was a time they really wanted to recruit me. An offer I would have perhaps taken in a different life.”

His katars moved across the body of the Chimera like a whirlwind, leaving dozens of cuts every second as the monster struggled and tried to stop Jake in any way it could. Entering the jungle also quickly proved an excellent move, as the tendrils struggled to avoid hitting trees or other obstacles while trying to catch Jake.

“I know them well enough to know that in their eyes, you are nothing. A means to an end at most. Even if you leave this planet, what do you think awaits you? Do you think they can magically turn you into a B-grade that’s worthy of actually being called a B-grade? Even if they could, why wouldn’t they invest those resources in someone actually competent?”

The Chimera tried to get away several times, but Jake didn’t let the B-grade flee. Strings of arcane mana wrapped around the monster in several places, Jake using them to pull and swing himself while attacking, leaving his opponent more and more bloodied. All the while, he continued channeling his inner Songbird.

“How long have you been on this planet without facing any real challenge? How long have you hidden away like the coward you are? How can anyone with such a fragile mindset ever achieve anything? The only thing weaker than your power is your mind.”

Getting a good opening, Jake stabbed right where one of the legs connected to the Chimera’s body and released a blast of arcane mana, nearly severing the entire thing. He felt his poison had accumulated quite a bit inside the monster’s body, too, ravaging it from within.

“Makes me wonder what kind of god wasted a Blessing on you. Did they do it out of pity? Vanity? Either way, whoever this god is, they are living proof that even the divine can sometimes make idiotic decisions,” Jake said, deciding to also insult the Patron of the Chimera, hoping the monster was the reverent type.

Either way, Jake’s plan had worked out well so far. His psychological warfare bought him a lot of time as the two had torn through the jungle, destroying vast swaths of it during their fight, as the Chimera had constantly tried to either get away from Jake or attack him.

Yet he couldn’t be entirely calm... because even if everything he’d said about this B-grade being trash was true, it was still a B-grade. Moreover, what he’d seen so far didn’t even put it at the level of the Sovereign. Far more durable, sure, and Jake could see the Sovereign lose to the Chimera, but in most scenarios, his money would be on the bird.

That meant Jake could only conclude the monster had more to show. The question was just what it was waiting for, as things were going, Jake was rapidly building an advantage.

As Jake landed several more stabs, the Chimera finally had a proper way to get Jake away from it. The monster roared with immense power, releasing a shockwave of dark mana that temporarily forced Jake away, all as the voice of the Chimera echoed.

“Useless... weak... unqualified... yes... I am pathetic,” the defeatist tone of the B-grade swept through the jungle. “But... I’m also a Chimera. I change. Adapt. Improve. It remains incomplete, but you leave me no choice. Witness me and lay eyes on power found within the shadows!”

The torrent of dark energy exuded from the Chimera only seemed to increase in intensity as it began to slowly change properties, going from dark energy to shadow energy. At the same time, Jake also heard a cracking sound as within the darkness, the Chimera was changing form.