The Hunt.

In Phantom Blade Zero, the Hunt is a hooded assassin of the Order who swings two chained sickles and is dispatched to hunt down Soul, a man he once fought beside.

Once Zuo Shang has struck his blow at the start, Soul rides Old Man Gen's wagon toward Pangzhen and the Hunt personally gives chase. The fight on the rolling cart only stops where the road ends.

His motive is what distinguishes him from the other killers hunting Soul. Promotion and money mean nothing to him, and he regards a quarry that resists as the finest game. He talks to Soul in a jeering, familiar manner that draws on the standing Soul had earned before becoming a target.

Players have a practical reason to care too. His defeat concludes the opening big zone of the game, and the Phantom Edge he drops is the reason you retrace your steps across old areas, searching for keys, chests and concealed routes.

One of Many Assassins Dispatched Against Traitors

Traitors are never released by the Order, and among the people tasked with taking them down, the Hunt is the most savage and deranged. He accepts no rank for this work and wants no payment. His whole enjoyment lies in chasing people who struggle fiercely to survive.

Soul's Ally First, Then His Prey

S-Game says outright that the Hunt is a former comrade of Soul's, which means they were on one side prior to Soul becoming a target. His dialogue conveys a sense of acquaintance: he calls Soul Master Soul and taunts him as cold-blooded and merciless.

Ambushed Aboard Old Man Gen's Wagon

In Reckless Pursuit, Soul begins by traveling to Pangzhen on a wagon that Old Man Gen drives. Pursuing riders catch up, and Soul slays them from the moving cart. With them dead, the Hunt joins the battle personally, brandishing his chain-sickles.

Soul at last drives him back with a finishing strike, but the wagon has meanwhile reached a broken bridge. Out over nothing go the horses, and in the gorge below the cart smashes to pieces. Jumping clear, Soul blacks out in the river through Weeping Creek Valley. Between the two men, nothing is settled yet.

Corpses Strewn Across the Valley

While Soul makes his way through Weeping Creek Valley, the Hunt remains one step in front. A cutscene featuring him plays right before the bell at The Axemaster's Holding Cell, a place where he has already slain all present. Beyond Creek Valley Plains Entrance, a brief scene has him crossing a bridge and cutting down anything in his way, along the very route Soul must follow to reach the Valley Sha-Chi Tower.

Squaring Accounts at the Great Waterfall

Once the tower is behind you, going over the bridge turns Soul's goal in Steel and Steam into confronting the Hunt. The meeting happens at the Great Waterfall past Waterfall Bridge, where the Hunt declares that Soul has no way out.

Midway through the battle, his mangled body will not go down. Two steel arms extend from behind him and grip another pair of chain-sickles, turning him into the Sixfold Scythe. Soul beats both forms and claims Hunter's Chain Sickle from the encounter, after which the way to Crimson Forest finally opens.

Rewarded by Murder

One craving explains everything about the Hunt. Rank and payment are turned down, prey is judged by how fiercely it clings to life, and in the scenes en route to the waterfall he carves through people long before Soul gets there. Maskwalkers and the Mandate's fighters leave him unsatisfied, and he faults the quarry before him instead of himself.

Relishing the Mockery

Rather than rage, his words to Soul carry a teasing tone. He finds it funny that Master Soul, supposedly cold-blooded and merciless, is still capable of compassion, and he urges Soul to take his time since further "old friends" are lying in wait. His manner implies he sees the chase as a form of amusement.

Staying Steady on the Wagon

Room to move is scarce here, since the fight happens on a cramped wagon. Rolling away tends to snag on the rails, so parrying carries most of the load: bat aside every attack that glows blue, and counter whenever he lands back on the deck. His first chain string ends with a hit you can parry, and parrying it perfectly prompts a Ghost Step input, which sets up big damage.

Killing him is not required. The final cutscene triggers once his health is down to about half.

Winning Through Both Phases at the Great Waterfall

Before going near him, ring the Great Waterfall bell. During the opening phase, keeping your guard up against his weak-hitting strings chips away at his Sha-Chi, and for his ranged attacks the standard color system holds: blue means parry, red means dodge.

Once the Sixfold Scythe phase begins, watch for the blue flash halfway through his aerial chain-swinging combo. Blocking it perfectly lets you step in and hit back. If he disappears and purple chains rain down where you stand, run to the side, and when the chains stop falling and he rushes you, time a block. Stay away from the tornado until it fades. Should you die during this phase, your next try begins at the phase and not at the start of the fight.

Going by base values, Lightning is his weakness, while Fire, Poison and Bleed are resisted, and Blood Burst is resisted even more strongly. Scarlet Wraithblade is useful for draining his Sha-Chi and opening gaps. The Sha-Chi figures listed for him are 1,500 on the wagon and 2,000 as the Sixfold Scythe.

Routes His Sickles Unlock

Hunter's Chain Sickle drags Soul toward marked anchors, and it functions even when it is not equipped. Backtracking is worthwhile at once to the roof over the summit of the Valley Sha-Chi Tower, where the Sha-Chi Tower Base Camp Gate Key lies, and to the opening of the game, where a grapple gets you to the chest containing Lingran's Pendant. The key opens the gate beside Creek Valley Plains Entrance as well as the area with the game's first Long Pillar.

His trademark weapon consists of two short sickles attached to lengthy chains, with which he dashes and swings over steep cliffs, hits at close quarters, hauls himself across incoming attacks, and ensnares enemies from afar. In Chinese, the Phantom Edge is 追命锁镰, and it begins with the same characters as his name, 追命. After his defeat Soul inherits it as Hunter's Chain Sickle, a Martial Phantom Edge that has 247 Damage and 213 Guard Break at level 1.

What Became of an Order Warden Through Transcension

The Sixfold Scythe is portrayed as what Transcension makes of a warden of the Order. A device that generates Sha-Chi is implanted and the limbs are altered, with sanity as the cost. The Hunt embodies both halves of that deal: his body fights on even after flesh and armor have been ripped apart, and as a monster he is still carrying out the new Shadow Sovereign's commands.

He fails to notice how he has changed. A scream now fills his head every day and night with the urge to kill, and no victim ever silences it. To him, that craving shows how excellent his quarry is.

At first he appears as a hooded man in white robes, whose outline is dominated by the pair of sickles and the chains trailing from them. That shape is shattered by the Sixfold Scythe form, in which flesh and armor are ripped open amid a bloody mist and the extra steel arms spread out from behind him.

Taunting Soul

“Heheh... so even the cold-blooded, merciless Master Soul can still feel compassion?”

A spoken line from the Hunt.

“You took Shadow Sovereign Zuo's fatal strike to the heart... and still fought like that...”

A spoken line from the Hunt.

“Don't rush. More of your "old friends" are waiting ahead...”

A spoken line from the Hunt.

“Shadow Sovereign Zuo's been awfully attentive to you...”

A spoken line from the Hunt.

• An outfit called The Hunt can be worn by Soul. Reaching any ending unlocks it, and you choose it from the Appearance menu.
• His defeat unlocks a trophy of Silver grade, titled The Hunt; there is no way to overlook it, as the encounter is compulsory.
• When S-Game announced pre-orders in August 2026, it picked him out, naming blade-to-blade encounters with ex-comrades like The Hunt as one of the earliest events on Soul's road.
• Do not mix him up with the regular Hunter enemies serving Huangxing, who put on black iron masks and fight using bows and swords.