I had been following the hunter around for three days now.

It went on a rampage during the night, just like all the other monsters. But during the day, it just wandered around the desert aimlessly, occasionally stomping on a monster stupid enough to cross its path. I had made sure to keep my eyes trained on the behemoth, from a safe distance of course, and felt like I knew everything I could about it.

I’d never seen it use the laser during this time, which miffed me a bit, but I’d seen all of its other skills a whole bunch of times. Sure, there was probably a skill or two that I was unaware of because it only used them when in danger, but I’d just have to deal with it when it happened.

I spent today in one of my bunkers, devising a plan. First off, I needed to fight it in the oasis, that much was clear, ideally during the day. That way I could focus on the hunter instead of having to deal with other monsters all the time. A few of the hunter's skills seemed to gain additional power when used in the desert, so the oasis was favorable terrain for me. I wasn’t interested in repeating my 100-monster killing spree, since doing this seemed to mark me somehow, which would make it impossible to hide and reposition.

So I had to engage it in the desert and then lure it over. I planned to hit it hard with an ambush attack, after which it would no doubt focus all of its attention on me. Every time I’d seen a monster stupid enough to attack the hunter, it immediately squashed it with impunity. To that end, I had done some experimenting.

Several of my skills could be prepared before firing them off. Specifically poison spear, poison needle, poison bomb, and void javelin. The poison spells weren’t much of an issue, because I could cast them near instantly, but the void javelin still took several seconds to prepare. Earlier I tried to see if there was a limit to how many javelins I could conjure and keep at the ready, and there was.

Contrary to what I thought before, when I readied a spell to hover around me they still took some effort to maintain. Casting a spell was a pretty involved mental exercise, and holding a spell ready occupied some of my mental capacity. My spell-attuned brain once again proved its worth by supporting this endeavor, but my limit was six void javelins. Which would take me approximately thirty seconds to set up.

I was also able to squeeze in a few poison needles next to them before I hit my limit.

The plan was to hit the hunter hard with a surprise volley, doing as much damage as possible. Follow it up with a few poison spears to make sure I had its attention, and then haul ass back to the oasis where I’d activate void cloak to safely reposition and prepare another volley. From there, rinse and repeat, doing my best to dodge an infuriated hunter until It was dead.

In the case that I should run out of mana before I killed it, I would have to retreat to shove some food down the hatch and engage again, worst case scenario, I’d have to disengage completely if it looked like I couldn’t win.

I had retreated to the oasis to finalize my plan and get some rest before the big fight, but it was finally time. My plan was made, my mana and health pools were overcharged via gluttony, and at this point, I was just delaying the fight. I emerged into the night, beelining towards the desert.

It was a lot easier to locate the hunter during the night, so I would go to find him now and follow him around. Dawn would be the signal for the fight to finally start. Fingers crossed that it would be tiring from a full night of fighting too.

It took me about two hours to find the hunter, which was disposing of the trash, as usual. It wasn’t as close to the oasis as I’d liked, so I switched to a backup plan to lure it closer to my favored fighting ground. I quickly conjured a poison bomb, hiding behind the crest of a dune, and let it fly toward the hunter.

Immediately after the bomb left my control, I started casting void cloak while hauling ass away from where I just was. It didn’t take long for the bomb to explode, purposefully not a direct hit, but just close enough to the hunter to count as an attack. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for an infuriated hunter to barrel through the dune I was just on, looking for whoever dared attack it.

I was well out of dodge by now, and there were still plenty of monsters over here that could have been the instigator, so it just started swinging with impunity. Good. I went to reposition myself, intent on repeating this action a few more times. Sunrise was fast approaching, and the closer I got it to the oasis, the better.

This also confirmed that void cloak worked as intended, and that merely attacking the hunter didn’t mark me for extermination like with our earlier fight. If it could track me down just because I attacked it, I might as well have given up then and there, retreating before it was too late… if it even let me.

But everything was going according to plan so far, which was promising. I continued luring the hunter with some well-placed poison bombs, praying each and every time that the instakill would trigger, sparing me from the difficult fight, but no such luck was to be had. For all I knew, the system might have given the hunter some sort of immunity to effects like that so nobody could cheat the system.

I could finally see the oasis when the first rays of the sun emerged. Ideally, I would have been able to lure it all the way there, but it would have to do. It was time that I set up my initial volley while the hunter mopped up the last stragglers of the night. My constant poison bombs had the added effect of doing some damage over time as well, so I hoped that the accumulating damage, as well as the exertion from fighting the whole night, would give me an edge in the battle to come.

I positioned myself on the crest of a dune, making sure that I had a clean getaway route while keeping the hunter within range, and started casting. My eyes followed the huge minotaur-like thing around as the first void javelin materialized above me. It was soon joined by another, and another, until I finally had an array of six javelins hovering above me. I managed to summon two concentrated poison needles as well before I hit my limit. But I did not fire immediately.

My eyes still trained on my target, I waited until its back was turned to me. I took a deep breath. This was it. No turning back now. I rapidly fired off my entire arsenal in less than a second, all of it aimed for center mass. My agility had improved by leaps and bounds, and so did my accuracy, but I was still somewhat traumatized by my earlier days and didn’t dare to shoot for specific body parts… at least not at this distance.

I nervously followed their trajectory with my eyes, but it looked like they were going to hit. A few nerve-wracking moments later, a series of explosions rocked the desert. Bulls-eye!

My celebration was short lived, as the hunter spun around and immediately locked eyes with me. I could see that my spells had done some decent damage, the hunter's back being ripped open and scorched, but as I thought, it wouldn’t be so easy. That said, it was high time for me to skedaddle.

I used my tentacles to leap backward and down the dune, launching myself again as soon as I touched the sand. The dune was obscuring me from sight, and the void cloak I’d started casting as soon as I jumped back phased into existence around me.

Not a moment too soon, as it turned out, when the dune behind me exploded as the hunter just barreled through like he was the cool-aid man. I hadn’t made it as far as I’d liked and was launched along with copious amounts of sand. I panicked while mid-air as I lost all control, trying to figure out where the hunter was in relation to me.

The sand in the air obscured my sight as I spun around violently before eventually hitting the ground with a thud. I was showered by sand, trying my best not to get buried. A quick shake and most of the sand came off, just in time to see a huge fist barrel toward me. I cursed and put all of my strength into a jump, barely making it.

How? Did the hunter's weird mark ability activate now that I initiated a proper fight? I quickly checked, but void cloak was indeed still active, so there was no other explanation. It was confirmed again when I saw the hunter’s hoofed leg swipe toward me while I was still in mid-air. Panic struck again since I had no way to dodge while airborne. What the hell was I supposed to do?

My mind flashed back to my first fight with the hunter and I immediately conjured a poison bomb below me, detonating it just in time for it to send me flying upwards and out of the way. Not waiting around for the follow-up, I quickly checked which direction the oasis was before summoning another bomb that sent me flying there.

Yeah! Suck my slimy ass, hunter! Catch me if you can!

While I was soaring to the oasis, I conjured a cheeky void javelin and threw it right in the hunter's face. Void cloak had been canceled when I cast the first poison bomb anyway, so I could attack all I wanted for now.

It would appear like I needed to add explosion-based propulsion to my regular bag of tricks. The amount of maneuverability it gave me was too hard to pass up.

I slammed into the sand hard but didn’t have time to waste. I immediately launched myself toward the green oasis. My little stunt only bought me a small amount of time, as the one eye directed backward confirmed. The hunter was already recovering from the facial I gave it, scanning the desert for me.

I knew it probably wouldn’t help much but I cast void cloak anyway. I still didn’t know how exactly the hunter marked me, and so long as there was a chance of evading it even a little, I was going to use whatever I had at my disposal. For good measure, I also changed direction after it activated.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The hunter wasn’t moving but was intently staring at the spot I just vanished from. I wondered why it wasn’t coming after me when it suddenly leaped high into the air. After overcoming my initial surprise, I prepared to evade the incoming attack.

The hunter slammed its fist into the desert where I’d vanished, sending a tsunami of sand rolling outwards. The joke’s on him, though, I had seen this attack used many times during the last few days and I was ready. I got as high up on a dune as I could, and when the wave closed in, jumped as high as I could, easily clearing the deadly sand.

Not wanting to cancel void cloak, I resumed my sprint toward the oasis, even if I could have slammed several javelins into the hunter while it recovered from its flashy move. It seemed to be aware of the fact that I dodged the attack because it looked angry while looking in my general direction.

Good, that meant that void cloak could at least mess with its weird marking ability a little bit.

It roared, no doubt using its skill in an attempt to stop me, but I still had no ears. I dared to chuckle a little as I continued on my merry way, finally making it to the oasis. Part one of the plan had been completed almost flawlessly. From here on out it would be an all-out brawl. Well, as much as you could consider hit-and-run tactics to be a brawl, but I’m not gonna care about the semantics.

With the cover of the trees helping to hide me, I started to prepare another volley. Once the hunter caught up with me, it’d be in for a nasty surprise. The same array of spells I’d used earlier was floating above me before long, and the hunter came barreling through the trees not long after. It ran through the trees like they were barely even there, but that just helped me get a better shot.

Now that I was closer to the hunter, I dared to aim my spells at specific body parts. More specifically, two javelins to each leg, the poison needles and a javelin into center mass, and the last one into the face. Six explosions rocked the oasis and I could see the hunter stumble from the assault.

I didn’t give it any leeway and started firing off poison spears and bombs like they were on sale, absolutely peppering the behemoth while I retreated. Still no instant kill, but the damage had to be adding up. I wasn’t entirely certain how the deadly poison status worked, but it had to have triggered a few times by now. Was it a separate status from the regular poison status? Could it stack on top of the two poison stacks I could inflict? Did it replace the regular poison status? Or could it not be inflicted as long as regular poison was at max stack? Whatever the case, it was poisoned for sure, and as long as its health was dropping, I was happy.

I kept firing while getting some more distance between us, the trees eventually stopping me from having a straight shot. As soon as I was out of sight, I once again deployed the void cloak and changed directions, intent on keeping up my advantage for as long as I could.

The hunter was proper mad now, indiscriminately destroying the oasis around it while advancing in my general direction. Whatever mark ability it had was still active, and at this point, I’d have to assume that it won’t be turned off any time soon. Skills were used in succession and the oasis was getting absolutely razed to the ground in an attempt to deprive me of hiding places.

Once I got enough distance between us, I prepared another volley while hiding behind a tree. I just conjured up my fourth void javelin when my cover exploded, sending me careening away before slamming against the trunk of another tree. The surprise and pain caused two of my javelins to fizzle out because I couldn’t keep my focus on them.

I frantically looked back, seeing that the hunter was blindly throwing entire palm trees in my direction, and since I just lost my cover it knew exactly where I was. I could confirm this theory because there were three trees hurtling toward me at high speeds. I cursed and shot out my remaining two javelins to meet the trees in mid-air, the resulting explosions destroying the trees, allowing me to easily dodge the third one.

A quick look at my status revealed that I was down to about a third of my VMP and half of my MP. The hunter was still going strong, battered as it might be, even after all the spells I’d thrown at it. The amount of HP it had must have been insane. Seeing as my tactic of hiding and preparing volleys probably wouldn’t work anymore, I switched to a more direct method.

I launched myself along the treetops as fast as I could, conjuring up projectiles and throwing them at the hunter while moving. The high speed caused me to miss every other shot, especially since the hunter could see the projectiles coming, trying its best to dodge them while advancing on me.

For a while, we were locked in a game of cat and mouse while I flung my spells and the hunter hurled trees at me. I could see that the hunter wasn’t doing so well anymore, but that didn’t stop it. I would even say it made it more dangerous because at this point it looked pissed. It dodged less and less in favor of catching up to me, ignoring the damage I was doing in favor of speed. It knew that if it could catch me, I’d be done for, so it doubled down on this suicidal strategy.

Of course, I also knew that it would be game over for me if I let myself be caught, so I did my level best to run away. The oasis was turning into a desolate landscape, as everything caught between our battle was destroyed and I was quickly running out of trees to use as a foothold.

The hunter's enormous size meant that it was a lot faster than I was, and the only advantage I had was my extreme maneuverability, but just as expected, it eventually caught up. I was desperately dodging another flurry rush of fists and skills when I realized I wouldn’t be able to dodge the next punch.

Again, I quickly summoned another poison bomb beneath me, detonating it to get away, barely able to dodge the mean left hook coming at me. But apparently, the hunter had learned about my little trick and was prepared, his right already barreling towards where I was flying, hitting me like a truck.

I was launched away at a speed I almost couldn’t process, the next thing I knew was that I crashed through several trees before coming to a painful stop. I tried to get myself upright with my tentacles while fighting through the pain, quickly bringing up my status. My health had dropped to an unhealthy amount, and both of my mana pools were low enough to make me worry.

Not wanting to waste any more precious time, I launched myself onto the nearest tree in order to figure out what the hunter was doing. And what I saw made my blood freeze. The hunter was on all fours, its mouth gaping while a small light gathered in front of it. I made eye contact with the hunter, and all I could see was assured destruction.

This time I was too far away to go toward it and hide near its head. In the first place, void cloak wasn’t active, and if I moved it would just readjust its aim. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I only had moments before the laser was fired and my life was snuffed out!

I frantically thought about all of my spells and skills, trying to find a way to escape. All of my poison spells would take too long to reach the hunter, and most likely wouldn’t do anything even if I hit with them. Void Javelin had a similar problem, even if the explosion could maybe alter its aim enough so it didn’t hit me. Then, I remembered a spell I hadn’t used in a long time.

I immediately went to casting, my newly mutated brain casting the previously almost instant spell even faster. The light heralding the laser finished gathering mana, the spell imminent. All I could do was watch, as my own spell completed, praying to any god that’d listen that I completed my own spell in time.

For a split second, the world seemed to come to a stop, as both the hunter and I stared at each other, waiting for our spells to do our thing. Then, time resumed, and a giant spike emerged from the ground and slammed into the hunter's head from below. The force of the spell jerked its head upwards, causing the laser to fire up into the air.

I watched the laser go wide in stunned silence.

This was probably the closest I’d come to dying in a long while and the shock froze me on the spot. I was forced out of my shellshock when the laser slammed into the ceiling, causing an entire section of it to explode, hurtling huge boulders away from the impact. Panic once again took over my body when I saw several rocks fly toward me.

I momentarily forgot about the hunter as I tried my best to position myself so I wouldn’t get squished by one of the several-ton heavy rocks, my eyes glued to the descending debris. I was fighting for my life when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hunter being slammed by one of the boulders. My maneuverability came to be an advantage once again.

The earth was shaking every time another rock slammed into the ground, not helping my attempts at dodging. I had to use another few poison bomb jumps to get to safety, which dropped my health to levels I wasn’t comfortable being at. The falling rocks came in all sizes, and while I barely managed to dodge the big ones, I was being hit by a lot of the smaller ones which didn’t exactly help my health situation.

Eventually, the calm returned again, the oasis now only looking like a shadow of its former self. There were barely any trees left standing, huge boulders peppering the landscape with an unnatural-looking hole in the sky directly above. I alighted on the biggest rock I could find, letting my eyes wander, looking for the hunter.

I eventually found it, battered and bruised, one leg stuck beneath a rock almost twice its size. The laser really did a number on the ceiling, ripping out huge chunks of it. But I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. My opponent was at the end of the rope, immobile and ripe for the picking.

I got a bit closer, stopping at a distance where it wouldn’t reach me with any melee attacks. It was currently busy trying to free itself from the boulder by smashing it to pieces with its fists. Unsurprisingly, it was working. But I wasn’t about to wait around until it was free so we could have an “honorable” fight or whatever. No, this world's only rule was survival of the fittest and it looked a lot like, for this fight, it would be me.

I started conjuring void javelins, throwing them as fast as I could cast them. The explosions were actually helping destroy the rock it was buried under, but it looked like it didn’t matter at this point. After eight javelins, my VMP bottomed out and I switched to poison spears. I threw about forty of them when finally, I got the notification I had been waiting for.

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You have killed a T4 Lv.20 Giant Minotaur(H)

You have been awarded 1’000 Data Points

Your spell Fatal Poison Needle(D) has reached level 10!

You have unlocked the spell Fatal Poison Assassination(C)!

You have completed a bonus objective!

Kill a Hunter (1/1)

Congratulations!

Emergency Quest has been cleared, Congratulations!

Achievement: Kill a T4 Hunter. (A)

You have managed to kill a hunter on the third layer. A feat deserving of a special reward.

Reward:

1 C-Tier skill of your choice.

Special Evolutionary Energy.