The Primal Hunter 13, page 27
Magic revolved around the Prima Guardian as it raised another arm that rapidly began to morph into the head of a wyvern. Jake didn’t let that happen; he teleported forward, punching upwards into the dragon arm and redirecting the beam of energy toward the ceiling.
Sylphie delivered a massive windstorm that hit Jake from behind, not affecting him at all but lifting the Guardian off its feet and sending it tumbling backward. It quickly reacted by extending two of its arms and turning them into grappling claws that caught onto the walls.
Jake swiftly shot an arrow into one of the arms, making the chimera lose grip and fly some distance down the hallway as he exchanged a glance with Sylphie. Together, they turned heel and talon before sprinting down the length of the hallway.
Mana gathered behind them as they ran, forcing them to dodge bolts of all sorts of affinities exploding in their wake. A few moments later, the Prima took return fire, as Maria, the Fallen King, and Caleb had stopped at the Prima Vessel’s exit to release attacks and buy Jake and Sylphie a bit more time.
When Jake and Sylphie got close enough to the exit, Maria and the Fallen King exited, with Caleb ducking out a moment later alongside Jake and Sylphie. When they got out, they kept flying, and Jake felt the movements of energy both beneath and above them right at the exit.
A second later, the Prima Guardian also flew out. The moment it did, the magical circle above the exit triggered, exploding with cursed energy and sending the Prima Guardian tumbling downwards, followed by Vesperia, Carmen, and the Sword Saint, who released a barrage of attacks.
Massive amounts of sand exploded upwards when the Prima hit the desert with a loud thump. However, while in mid-air, all of the nearby sand shot up toward Jake and the others, the tips turning into spears of glass. Below, the Prima Guardian erupted upwards, challenging the three melee fighters directly as it wielded a sword, a staff, a wooden stake, and a lance.
Each weapon moved almost independently yet still worked together to push back the Sword Saint and Carmen, but Vesperia managed to land a blow with her longer reach, sending the Guardian spinning. Sylphie also expertly dodged around all the sand spears and collided directly with the chimera, cutting up one of its arms.
Turning in the air, it pointed its staff toward Sylphie. The air mana around Sylphie was infused with energy, but then a loud screech instantly pushed away the chimera’s influence as a barrage of wind bullets was returned. Perhaps the Prima Guardian could mimic many things, but it had a limit… Trying to imitate an Authority was certainly one such limit.
During this exchange with Sylphie, the Guardian didn’t stop fighting everyone else. Instead, it kept manipulating the sand and swinging its other weapons, not to mention the eyes that shot out beams or the magic circles that appeared in the air to fire bolts everywhere.
Jake dodged everything and released a few arrows. Two were blocked, but the third one hit the Guardian in the chest, barely penetrating its thick skin. A follow-up arrow hit right around the same area but was completely repelled, as the skin there had adapted to resist piercing attacks.
Using the skill in a way he rarely did, Jake summoned a Penetrating Arrow instead of infusing it into another skill and shot it the Prima Guardian’s way. As expected, it wanted to repel the blow by blocking it with its strengthened skin—and was thus taken by surprise when the arrow penetrated deeply into its chest.
That also allowed Jake to confirm something else. This arrow had been coated in his blood, as he wanted to see if the chimera had adapted and mimicked Palate… to which the answer was no. It did still build up resistance to any particular type of poison he used, but Jake could get around that by simply using his blood and slightly changing its composition with each blow.
Nocking another arrow, Jake wanted to do more damage but found himself harmlessly pushed back by a large gust of wind mixed with a blast of force. A similar blast had hit Maria, Eron, Caleb, and Casper, forcing them back to give the Guardian some space as it disengaged from the specialized melee fighters.
The Fallen King proved to be the chimera’s next target. It teleported up and appeared right behind the Unique Lifeform. The King responded fast and summoned a barrier along with a Golden Claw, but the chimera was faster. A staff hit the King in the side, a stake stabbed through his stomach, and a lance penetrated his leg. Finally, the sword tried to cut off his neck. In the final moment, the Fallen King angled his head, making the sword hit his mask, deflecting it at the same time he released a golden explosion from the claw that impacted the Guardian and allowed him to gain some distance.
Before the Prima Guardian could continue its assault, the Sword Saint and Sylphie arrived, and with the Unique Lifeform, they held on long enough for more assistance to step in. Eron quickly came over and began mending the Fallen King’s body, though the cursed wooden stake proved difficult to deal with, as the damage simply wouldn’t heal properly. Not that the poisoned stinger-like lance that had penetrated straight through his legs did him any good.
This brief exchange with the Fallen King also truly confirmed to them all that this Prima Guardian’s second phase was far more dangerous—a point that was further hammered home when Carmen had to block a heavy blow from a staff wrapped in black lightning. Her forearm cracked as a bit of the insidious energy entered her body.
Ranged attacks flew for the Guardian again, with Jake managing to land an arrow in one of the chimera’s eyes. Maria attempted to find a good opening, and though most of her arrows were deflected, they at least distracted the boss a bit. The smaller form of the chimera proved challenging, as it was hard to land ranged blows without risking hitting any of the melee fighters, especially when the boss moved around so much. It was incredibly fast, and they had to try and stick semi-close together to not risk getting singled out like the King had.
The only ones comfortable with being singled out were Jake and Eron. One because he felt comfortable not getting hit, and the other because he felt comfortable even if he got hit. Based on what the healer said, many of his prior weaknesses had been addressed, and he seemed unafraid of whatever the Prima could throw at him.
Working together, the melee fighters managed to buy good time for Eron to heal the King. The chimera clearly noticed this standstill was not to its advantage, as it switched targets, going for Casper instead. It tried to repeat the clash with the Fallen King, but Casper’s body turned ethereal right as it was hit, the sword phasing right through.
With a second swing, this time wrapped in lightning-infused water, Casper did seem to take some minor damage, but Maria had time to help by releasing a massive arrow that looked like a bird of flames, forcing the Guardian to defend. Jake also took this chance to land another two arrows, each exploding with destructive arcane energy.
My turn now, Jake thought, his danger sense warning him right as the Guardian stepped down again. It appeared right behind Jake, who already had both his katars in hand as he ducked under the staff and spun around while avoiding the sword. Leaning into the boss, he made it awkward to use the lance, as he only had to sway to dodge the stake while he stabbed the boss with Eternal Hunger.
It didn’t even flinch from the blow as its flesh morphed, two small hands growing out and grasping Jake’s forearm right as he penetrated the Guardian’s chest. Jake quickly twisted his wrist, getting free and letting go of the cursed weapon as he blocked the wooden stake with his Voidblade. Opening his eyes wide, Jake quickly raised a foot to stop the Guardian from kicking when its entire leg morphed into one massive, curved blade.
Jake was hit on the sole of his foot by the sharp blade and launched upwards. Not a single drop of blood was spilled, but Jake felt as if something had broken within his boots. As for the boots themselves? Completely unscathed. There naturally wasn’t even a small mark on them, as how could something like the Prima Guardian possibly damage his boots?
Vesperia arrived just then, stabbing forward with her lance to make the Guardian parry, only to get struck from above by a descending bird that left a cut down its back. Caleb also snuck out of a shadow left by the huge wave of sand still whirling around, striking the Prima on the leg and throwing it off balance just in time for a golden beam from the Fallen King to nail it, blasting it back and down into the dunes.
“Restrict its movements if possible.”
The voice came over the Golden Mark, and Jake reacted along with everyone else. A cursed ritual circle appeared, followed by a suppressing golden presence. Sylphie also quickly released a tunnel of wind to push the boss down, while Jake chose to release a wave of powerful destructive arcane mana. Not against the boss itself, but the environment, disrupting nearby space and making teleportation harder.
“Impact in three.”
Even this was not enough to stop the Guardian, which was about to launch itself upwards. That was when three large wasps appeared from below the sand, all grabbing onto the boss. The Prima Guardian responded by cutting the legs off one and nearly smashing the head of another, but the Queen’s Guards refused to let go, even if the choice meant their deaths.
“Two. Make distance.”
They did as instructed yet continued to keep the Prima Guardian down. Another Queen’s Guard died, with the second of the three not long for this world. None of them were giving up, as it appeared Arnold was finally about to make his move, and it had to be a good one with all that build-up, right?
“One.”
A second Queen’s Guard died, with the third one barely hanging on. Jake kept disrupting space, and he saw the Fallen King and Casper struggling as the Guardian fought back. They were all doing their best, but they didn’t have long. That was when Jake saw something out of the corner of his eye breaking through the clouds far above. It looked like a—
The very next moment, his vision was filled with sand that turned to glass in mid-air from sheer heat as something struck the ground with more force than a dozen fully powered Arcane Powershots combined.
Rods from God.
At least, that was what this weapon was called in the common tongue or among enthusiasts. Arnold preferred simply referring to it as kinetic orbital bombardment. It was a theoretical weapon that had interested Arnold ever since he was a child, and seeing it in action left him pleasantly surprised.
It was perhaps the most simplistic weapon imaginable, at least on paper. It was nothing more than a long metal rod coated in material that facilitated space flight and reduced friction. The metal, in this case, had been synthesized using inspiration from the staff Jake had carried around for a while, allowing it to change its weight by varying the infused mana.
From there, all he’d had to do was attach thrusters and have it speed up while orbiting around Earth a few dozen times before finally using its rudimentary and mostly manual targeting system to strike. A strike that proved most successful as a shield activated around Arnold, blocking the sand that whipped past him faster than speeding bullets.
This was the primary weapon Arnold had prepared for this Prima Guardian, with the hope that it could slay the event boss in one go. It hadn’t been fast enough to arrive for the first phase, but it was here for the second one. Based on the feedback from one of his skills, the damage done had been utterly tremendous. However…
Its durability is far above expectations… To think this would barely stop it for a moment…
As he had that thought, a broken mess of a creature appeared behind him. More than half of its body was gone, with the rest bent and broken in unnatural ways, as it had indeed taken tremendous damage. Without its cheat-like vitality, it would have been dead… but it wasn’t.
It wasn’t even enough to truly weaken the creature. The Prima Guardian was still more than deadly as its blade descended upon the scientist, who didn’t have a chance to react. Arnold’s defensive barrier was cleaved straight through, and he felt the bone sword penetrate his skull as his entire body was cut cleanly in two.
As his consciousness faded, Arnold’s thoughts were filled with nothing but regret…
Regret that he hadn’t made a more durable android for this battle.
Alas… it had been difficult to add proper defensive capabilities when he also had to make space for all the explosives.
Chapter 30
Prima Guardian (4)
Jake was a moment too late when Arnold was attacked. The man had stayed a reasonable distance away and even applied some stealth field around himself during the fight, but when the Prima Guardian—which Jake could barely believe was still able to move around so fast—teleported behind him, the man hadn’t been able to react before the blade fell.
For a brief moment, Jake was filled with panic as he saw the scientist get cleaved in two… until the sky exploded, bathed in a blue blast of fire and electricity. Jake momentarily saw a spark before the explosion, as the inside of Arnold’s body did not have any flesh and blood to be seen. Instead, it had apparently all been explosives.
“What the hell just happened!?” Carmen yelled through her Golden Mark.
“I just felt the Mark upon the mechanic disappear,” the Fallen King responded before Jake quickly clarified the situation.
“It was a robot of some kind; I would assume the real Arnold is fine,” Jake said as he shot out a barrage of arrows almost instinctively. He was in a bit of turmoil internally, trying to figure out how the hell the scientist had pulled this off.
Jake… hadn’t noticed it wasn’t the real Arnold. He questioned how the hell he hadn’t, but he tried to excuse it by reminding himself that he’d never looked that closely at Arnold. Due to how souls worked, the Soulshape was almost just one big entity, and Arnold had looked entirely like a real person to most of his senses. The man had felt “metallic,” so to speak, but wasn’t that also pretty damn normal? That this feel came from his armor or something? Wouldn’t it be a normal assumption that the man wasn’t actually a robot apparently made up primarily of explosive material?
He also saw what exactly Arnold had hit the boss with. It was a large metal pole, about ten meters in length, now entirely bent and twisted as it lay in a massive crater in the sand, already getting covered by the sand that had been liquefied by the impact’s sheer heat.
“Do not let your minds wander; the Guardian is far from defeated,” the Sword Saint sent through the Golden Mark, making Jake abandon his silly thoughts and focus on controlling the arrows he had fired.
The chimera was pushed back, its body covered in electrical burns and blue fire from Arnold blowing up his “body,” and it didn’t react in time as the barrage of arrows struck it in the back. Some of them were repelled, but some penetrated where the creature had adapted to deal with Caleb and Carmen’s attacks.
Speaking of Caleb, he and Sylphie struck just then, breaking through some of the still-falling glassified sand and each landing a hit since the Guardian only had one functional arm. It also only had one leg, but its flesh was quivering and moving, making Jake and the others certain its heavily damaged state wasn’t long for this world.
So they had to take full advantage while they could.
As everyone attacked at once, the Prima Guardian defended itself primarily with magic. It created barriers of stable arcane energy, golden force, wind, water, and fire, trying to limit any damage it took. While it did help, it was far from enough. Carmen punched it square in the face with a heavily empowered blow, the Sword Saint cut its stomach, Vesperia pierced what was left of its chest, and Sylphie managed to shred the remaining arm, nearly cutting it entirely off. The damage it took from the combined assault made it rapidly grow out a new foot, only to step down and teleport.
Right as it appeared again, a thunderclap sounded and a dark pillar of black lightning descended, sending the boss reeling back down into the sand. Jake, Maria, and Casper followed up with an Arcane Powershot, a massive fire arrow, and a wooden stake that looked more like a large pillar. These attacks all fell upon the chimera, making the ground explode a mere moment after the boss landed.
“Don’t give it time to rest,” Jake quickly said as he continued shooting arrows. Others also threw all they had at the boss while it was crowded, with Eron confirming to the group they were doing damage, yet the chimera just seemed to take the beating for a little while… preparing.
As Jake nocked another arrow, he noticed it had become overcast. He threw a quick glance the way of the Sword Saint, wondering if he had used a skill to make it rain, but the old man looked just as perplexed as Jake. That was when a raindrop fell on Jake’s arm, and he instantly felt it sizzle and burn his clothes.
Oh… fuck.
Jake wasn’t even the one to warn them all first.
“Acid rain,” the Fallen King spoke.
However, Jake did add something: “Don’t hold anything back anymore… It’s third phase time.”
Arcane Awakening activated, Jake pushing it all the way since he felt a real sense of danger. Not just from the clouds above, but the Prima below. Everyone had stopped attacking for a moment to deal with the rain that had begun to pour down and fully activate their boosting skills, the sky lighting up from everyone unleashing their energy. This brief moment of dealing with the rain wasn’t even a full second… but it had been enough for the Prima Guardian. Its body exploded with power.
A small shockwave sent sand flying as the chimera shot into the air, burning with power as it revealed its healed form. The four arms had become only two, one of them with a staff and the other not wielding anything. Its legs now just looked like two long, curved, single-edged blades, and on its back, the wings it hadn’t used before had been replaced with four long necks ending in wyvern-like heads. The only thing that remained from before was the eye-filled head.
Its entire body also looked far more uniform, no longer a mix of scales, skin, and bark. Now, it had a unified, slightly golden tinge to it that Jake recognized immediately… the runic tattoos also being quite the giveaway. It had mimicked something Jake wasn’t even sure could even be mimicked: the natural defenses of a Runemaiden.
