The dark skies above were roaring with power, the faith energy of Ell’Hakan having all gathered into one singular point. A pressure powerful enough to calm the planet briefly washed over it right after Ell’Hakan spoke as the eclipse formed.
Gone was the scorching heat of the sun, the stillness of the moonlight having completely disappeared. Instead, it was replaced with something else. It was an all new kind of concept that seemed to align with both the sun and the moon, yet surpassed both.
For a very brief moment, Jake thought back to the Tutorial when he’d used the corrupted shard on the King of the Forest and created an explosion resembling an eclipse. Back then, it had all been born from two opposing and unstable energies forcibly mixing... and in truth, this wasn’t much different.
The sun was a bringer of warmth and life. Meanwhile, the moon represented a harbinger of cold nights and the stillness of death. Mixing these two wasn’t meant to happen as they opposed one another... but it could be done, which was when another memory flashed of someone who had successfully merged opposing concepts to catastrophic results:
Minaga. During the final boss fight of his Labyrinth, the Unique Lifeform used fusion spells of fire and frost as his so-called “big spells.” What was born of a successful fusion was more than the sum of its parts, the destructive potential reaching entirely new levels.
The Celestial Child had accomplished something very similar. Jake couldn’t say if it surpassed what Minaga had done during the fight back then, but he did feel certain the scope of this was far, far larger.
And so was the cost.
As Ell’Hakan stood there, his hands spread as the world experienced a total eclipse, the rest of his remaining flesh peeled off, and his body began breaking apart even more as wide cracks formed down his entire mid-section, even the body of starlight, barely able to keep itself together anymore.
Not even a second had passed since Ell’Hakan spoke, Jake’s mind working at high speeds as he evaluated what to do. Run? No... no, his intuition made it pretty clear he wasn’t going to get away from what was coming, and even One Step wasn’t an option as space itself in a massive area was being suppressed.
Block the attack? Jake wasn’t confident, far from it. Whatever was coming would be unlike anything Jake had faced before. To even call it an attack of a C-grade seemed inaccurate... it was more akin to a mass-sacrifice attack, something used by the Holy Church through massive sacrificial rituals. The biggest difference was that the level of faith those who had sacrificed their own lives for this attack far surpassed even those the Holy Church normally had sacrificed themselves. That, and the fact the ritual was being conducted by Ell’Hakan, an incredibly powerful being himself, especially after he abandoned any future to fully immerse himself in his delusion, and the fact he was also giving up the rest of his own life to do the ritual.So... no, blocking was out of the question.
Call for help? They wouldn’t arrive in time.
Try to negotiate? Yeah, fat chance.
Trick Ell’Hakan somehow? The dude was so far into his own delusion that Jake could bring back the “real” Celestial Child - assuming he had ever even existed in the first place - and Ell’Hakan would still proclaim himself the real one even as every single god in the multiverse vouched for the real one’s authenticity.
Jake was wracking his brain as only two options appeared... one was to do what he’d done back when he faced Valdemar in Nevermore. Pulling on his Bloodline like that came with massive risks, though, and in all honesty, Jake wasn’t sure what the result of doing so would be.
Back then, he had been in his “mortal form” due to the Challenge Dungeon. Now, he was quite evidently not, and as he vaguely remembered how he felt back then, Jake feared the consequences of using that kind of power. A lucky outcome would be to experience a period of weakness for a good while after using it, but it was equally possible he would experience some kind of permanent loss.
The point was that Jake had no way of knowing, which made him reluctant. Especially after the entire Palate of the Malefic Viper fiasco, Jake was a lot more careful about just using his Bloodline willy-nilly. Yes, it was powerful, but perhaps it was too powerful at times, and no matter how he used it, he would still have to bear the cost of its usage.
This left Jake with only one real option left in his mind... one that was perhaps the simplest when facing this kind of massive attack:
Kill the caster before he finishes fully casting the skill.
Without any hesitation, Jake pulled out his bow and started shooting. Intuitively, he knew that getting close to Ell’Hakan, who was already burning up his entire existence, would be problematic, and he was confident in dealing more damage with a bow than even if he could make contact and start stabbing while using Touch of the Malefic Viper. 𝘳ΆNꝋβĚṧ
The response to Jake’s attack was lackluster, to say the least. A few barriers that seemed ot almost be cast automatically appeared, blocking two arrows before the third one penetrated through and hit Ell’Hakan head-on.
It struck him in the chest, the arrow piercing all the way and leaving several cracks where it hit as if Jake had struck a statue. The second arrow had a similar result, and so did the third, but Ell’Hakan seemed unbothered as he still stood there with the trident raised as the eclipse finished fully forming and powering up.
Jake desperately kept shooting, holding nothing back. He infused every Arcane Powershot as quickly as he could to deal more damage and pushed his boosting skill above even the 60% he really didn’t want to go beyond, all to try and destroy the vessel of Ell’Hakan – or to lean into the metaphor of earlier, make the water tank fully collapse.
The arrows were weakened by the pressure from the eclipse, but they still each dealt tremendous damage. Jake’s danger sense grew as his body moved faster and faster before he felt that the true attack was about to arrive, and he knew it was time to unleash his final gambit.
From his quiver, Jake took out a large arrow he’d been preparing in the background for a while. Just because Jake had used the Eternal Hunger arrow earlier didn’t mean Protean Arrow was out of commission, and this arrow had truthfully been ready for a while as he’d started to form it right after he’d used Eternal Hunger. He just never saw a good opportunity to use it, not before now.
Nocking the Protean Arrow, Jake took aim and charged Arcane Powershot quickly before loosing it, also pouring in every shred of Hunting Momentum he had left. Right before the arrow struck the Celestial Child, Jake pushed himself by using Primal Gaze to try and momentarily stun his foe with the hope it would assist in destabilizing his foe’s soul.
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Primal Gaze activated as Jake felt his eyes about to pop out of his head from the strain as he felt like he’d just used the skill on several people at once. All the faith energy in Ell’Hakan’s body had changed his soul permanently, making it foreign and damaging for Jake to look at, which was also the reason he had been apprehensive about using Gaze throughout the fight.
Even so... despite the backlash perhaps not being worth it, the skill worked. Ell’Hakan froze right before the Protean Arrow struck him in the chest, the arrow piercing straight through him as the nahoom buckled over. Cracks formed across his entire body, making it look as if he was about to shatter, but Jake wasn’t done yet.
Now.
Throughout the fight, Jake’s Hunter’s Mark had been building up energy little by little with every blow Jake landed. Each individual hit hadn’t contributed much, but with how Ell’Hakan had just taken all the hits as he became closer and closer to a being of pure faith energy, the build-up had only increased, reaching a level beyond anything Jake was used to.
And now, he detonated that entire Hunter’s Mark all at once.
The still-keeled-over Ell’Hakan lit up as Jake detonated the charge, arcane light flashing out of every fracture and hole in the nahoom’s already broken body. It burned him from the inside as it dealt direct damage to his soul, and Jake felt the soul of the Celestial Child shudder...
Shudder, but not break.
Jake’s face fell as Ell’Hakan slowly raised himself to a standing position again. The Celestial Child looked down at Jake with an expression of scorn and arrogance, letting Jake know that he’d failed.
With his trident raised, Jake saw Ell’Hakan command the eclipse as he lowered his weapon, the celestial phenomenon obeying his command. In the sky, a black pulse of energy sent a shockwave down as a massive pillar of energy began descending toward the planet. It broke through the already damaged atmosphere, making the sky shatter and break apart upon impact as it continued down with Jake as its only target.
The dark light of the eclipse covered an area as far the eye could see, and Jake could only desperately draw his bow and shoot another arrow as the light descended toward him. The attack the Celestial Child unleashed wasn’t a super flashy one, nor did it appear very destructive. Even the atmosphere hadn’t truly been “destroyed” by the light of the eclipse... the balance keeping the struggling atmosphere whole had simply been broken by the overwhelming surge of energy.
Jake’s danger sense was going berserk as he stared at this light that seemed to bring with it only oblivion, and he knew he wouldn’t walk away from blocking it... so he did just the opposite.
His scales dispersed, all defenses scattered, and Jake refocused all of Arcane Awakening to be purely offensive. With Jake exposed, even the passive suppression of the eclipse strained his soul, but he had to ignore it as he just kept trying to somehow end Ell’Hakan before he himself met his end... but it seemed doomed.
Jake questioned what to do at that moment. His plan had failed, and in truth, he had no idea what he was truly dealing with anymore as that eclipse skill surpassed Jake’s expectations manifold. Even if Ell’Hakan died, would the attack persist? Did Jake even have a chance to end the fight here and now? Did he really need to risk using his Origin Energy to empower his Bloodline?
He had so many questions and no way to get away or do anything else but attack as the light came for him. As he faced death, Jake kept looking for the best way forward, but he needed more time... and as his sense of danger grew and the light of the eclipse drew closer, he felt his own heartbeat. It was beating fast, the stress from the fight coursing through him, but the closer the danger got, the more his heart slowed down, and when he had only a scarce couple of seconds left before the lethal attack would strike, Jake claimed the moment as his own.
Moment of the Primal Hunter.
His skill activated as Jake willed it to, his mind more focused than ever before as time slowed down all around him, his heartbeat getting slower and slower until finally… it entirely stopped.
And as it stopped, so did the world.
Skill Upgraded: Moment of the Primal Hunter (Legendary)] --> [Moment of the Primal Hunter (Mythical)]
Jake stood unmoving, not thinking about anything he’d just done, as everything was frozen in place around him, the only thing active seemingly his mind and senses. He watched the light of the eclipse and his opponent, who stood with this light as his backdrop. Jake also stared at the state of Ell’Hakan and his body, and as he analyzed the many fractures and used Sense of the Malefic VIper to understand his opponent’s state, a plan began to form.
He wasn’t sure how long had passed with the world frozen all around him, but Jake quickly began to feel an odd strain. He felt as if his soul was about to be torn from his body, and he knew he had to move and allow himself to be affected by time once more.
The second Jake moved, so did the world also slowly come alive. The eclipse light began slowly descending once more, as only now did the usual effect of Moment of the Primal Hunter trigger, with the world moving in slow motion as Jake was still moving at full speed.
He quickly drew the string of his bow and released an arrow, hitting the still-slowed-down Ell’Hakan at a certain spot in his chest where there already was a crack. A second arrow hit a second crack less than a blink later, with a third following suit nearly instantly after.
As he kept shooting, the brief Moment he’d claimed was rapidly coming to an end, but Jake wasn’t done yet. His heart was still beating, slowly getting faster, but Jake focused all his will to buy more time… but he knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Jake kept drawing his bow, and every time he did so, his perception of time always slowed down as he pulled back the string to take aim, courtesy of one of his often-forgotten passive skills. Yet now, this perceived slowdown in time only annoyed him as his body couldn’t keep up with what he wanted it to do.
He focused deeply on the sensation of time being slowed by Moment of the Primal Hunter and held on to that sensation as long as he could, hoping to get off the right amount of arrows… and as he did so, his body responded. It was unclear if Jake moved faster or the world was slower, but even as Moment came to an end, Jake kept rapidly nocking and shooting arrow after arrow, far faster than he ever could before. As Jake was fully focused on simply continuing to shoot, knowing that the second he stopped, he would lose all momentum and whatever state he was in, he even ignored the notification.
Skill Upgraded: [Steady Aim of the Apex Hunter (Ancient)] --> [Timeless Focus of the Apex Hunter (Legendary)]
By now, Ell’Hakan looked like a pincushion from all the arrows Jake had shot that stuck out of him, with eighteen arrows in total. But it wasn’t enough as Jake kept shooting even as his body screamed at him to stop.
Nineteen.
His shoulders were tearing, and blood was already streaming down his chest and arm from the cracks in his skin, but he kept shooting.
Twenty.
The arm wanted to just hang limp, but he needed two more, making Jake grit his teeth so hard his gums began bleeding as everything hurt, especially as he kept himself in his accelerated state to keep shooting.
Twenty-one...
As he loosed his final arrow, several more vessels burst in Jake’s body, but he got it off as his arm fell down his side, unmoving.
The arrow flew true and hit Ell’Hakan right in the center of his chest the very moment eclipse light also enveloped his body. Everything in Jake’s vision turned down as he was about to be consumed by the light, and he only had time to do one final thing as he sent a mental command.
Each arrow had pierced into one of the many cracks lining his opponent’s body, and Jake had placed every single one of them in a very deliberate pattern. Placed them so that the second he detonated every arrow at once, the fissures in the Celestial Child’s body and soul would widen and crack... and as everything would happen at once, not even give him a chance to keep himself together, no matter how much Willpower or how strong his delusion.
From within the dark light of the eclipse, a single flash of arcane light lit up as the twenty-two arrows embedded in the Celestial Child’s body all turned destructive and blew up at once.
Jake’s danger sense was still screaming, his heartbeat about to go crazy as his survival instinct wanted to take over... but then it disappeared. Within his sphere, he saw the body of the Celestial Child finally experience critical failure, too much damage to his soul’s integrity happening at once, making it collapse in an instant as he simply exploded.
With the dark light of the eclipse mere meters from Jake, it was washed away and replaced by a wave of starlight that blew harmlessly over his body. The eclipse light was entirely gone, with wisps of starlight raining down upon the broken planet instead, each of them fragments of the Celestial Child’s soul. The moons and sun were gone, the eclipse nowhere to be seen as if it had never been there, and the world was calm once more as even all the remaining faith energy began to scatter, the “god” it had gathered around no more.