Isoptera Hive King

Termite kings are larger than other termites and tend to have a dark color.^[1]

The Isoptera Hive King was one of the first C-grades that Jake encounters. During this encounter Jake realises that he has no chance of winning and is forced to retreat not being able to put up any fight against the C-grade opponent. Jake is forced to use Moment of the Primal Hunter as an escape method and is then forced to go into a prolonged period of stealth to avoid detection until the Hive King is drawn elsewhere.

After escaping the fight, Jake is heavily injured including: a missing an arm, one leg split down the center, his entire midsection ripped through his entire ribcage, one lung, and several other organs, and having narrowly missed his heart, his entire stomach torn out. Additionally, his face was covered in blood and a gross, gooey substance that had once been his own eyes.

Jake rematches against the Hive King not long after the former evolved into C-grade. He faired much better and was able to do substantial damage. Noticing that the Hive King as a spawn had a weak soul, Jake liberally deployed Gaze of the Apex Hunter to great effect. He also abuses the Hive King's protective instincts towards the Isoptera Hive Queen and piles up damage and poison. When the Hive Queen realizes she will lose, she sacrifices herself to further empower the Isoptera Hive King, further magnifying his power. This transformation initially puts Jake on the back foot. However, he pushes Arcane Awakening fully, uses Eternal Shadow, and lands a fully charged Arcane Powershot empowered by all the Hunting Momentum built up during this entire hive dive. This is enough to finally kill the Hive King.

Even after the kill Jake describes "staring at the corpse of the Hive King for several more seconds, still ready for anything to happen. It looked like it could begin moving at the very next second, even if he knew it wouldn’t. It took a few seconds for Jake to finally dismiss the katars and fall backward onto his ass, breathing out a loud sigh of relief." Even in death, with the carapace broken in so many places, the termite still looked indestructible.

[Isoptera Hive King Chitin (Epic)] – A piece of carapace from a slain mid-tier C-grade Isoptera Hive King. This material is extremely durable, offering incredible defenses against all types of attacks. Has high natural rigidity, making it a difficult material to work with. Has low to limited uses in alchemy.