The Primal Hunter 13, page 28
Except without any of the drawbacks, as mana whirled around the Prima Guardian. It was truly a ridiculous creature that couldn’t exist under any normal circumstances. Jake was ready to defend when he felt a gaze land on him. One of the wyvern heads opened its maw and released a ball of fire his way, the other three heads also attacking others.
Jake dodged, nocking an arrow, as the boss suddenly disappeared. There were no ripples in space this time, and Jake’s eyes opened wide when he felt a slightly familiar form of energy and realized what had happened.
Caleb had recognized it a moment before Jake and quickly yelled, “It’s using the sha—”
However, before Caleb could fully warn them, it was too late.
Casper had been preparing another minor ritual when the Prima Guardian appeared behind him. The overcast skies had made the entire area stormy and unnaturally dark… leading to plenty of shadows for the chimera to travel through.
The Risen tried to react, even turning ethereal, but he wasn’t fully prepared in time. A staff slammed into his stomach, an audible crack sounding out as his body turned ghostly. He tried to get away, but the chimera punched with its other hand as it turned golden, unleashing what was effectively a Golden Claw. Jake quickly stepped in before it could land a third attack, making visual contact with the Guardian to momentarily freeze it.
As Primal Gaze activated, Jake felt his own soul clash with the monstrosity before him. What he felt was utterly unnatural, a mismatch of pieces that were forcibly held together by a fuckload of system-made duct tape. That was also when Jake knew that the system had never planned on having these Prima Guardians rule any planets… because Jake wouldn’t even give this chimera a decade before its Truesoul would fall apart. In other words, it wasn’t built to last at all and only persisted by the grace of the system’s direct interference. For now, though, it was stable, and Jake felt quite the backlash as Primal Gaze nevertheless worked.
Casper exploded with cursed mana, four massive ghostly wooden stakes appearing behind him as he took his chance. With a yell, he shot them all forward, and all four pierced the body of the Guardian before fading away.
That was also when the Prima could move again, and it tried to strike Casper once more, but the Sword Saint released a piercing stab, making the chimera address him instead. Carmen and Vesperia joined the old man as they faced the Guardian with a united front.
Eron was already flying over and healing Casper, who looked to be in quite a bad state, as the three melee fighters tried to restrain the chimera… and things weren’t going super well.
With a kick, the chimera landed a large cut on Vesperia, shattering part of her natural armor. The Sword Saint was forced to block the staff, smashing him down into the ground. When Carmen’s fist clashed directly with the Prima’s, she was pushed back, only to find herself on the receiving end of a wyvern’s breath.
Vesperia tried to take advantage, but the chimera dodged her blow expertly, only to counter her instead, sending her reeling back. Sylphie then struck, proving once more she was the fastest in their group as she cut off one of the wyvern’s necks with a flyby.
Maria also tried to land an arrow, but it was swatted away by the staff. The fire archer was having a harder time than everyone else with the constant acid rain, as not only was the rain aspect bad for her, but the acid also proved very effective against her defensive skill.
Perhaps the Guardian noticed this, as it pointed the staff it had just used to destroy her attack, and the clouds above rumbled. A black lightning strike descended, taking Maria by surprise and hitting her directly. Before she could properly comprehend what had happened, the Guardian appeared right before her, proving it still had One Step available.
Jake had already shot an arrow that he redirected, but the Prima Guardian chose to ignore it and instead attacked. Maria exploded with flames that the chimera just pushed through to punch her in the chest. Its fist pierced straight through, sending blood and bone flying before unnaturally bending, grasping her hair in its hand and pulling backward. The giant maw on its head then opened as it bit down, with Maria barely forcing her head out of the way in time by burning away her own hair. Half her neck and her entire shoulder were torn off, parts of her arm falling toward the ground.
“Glimpse of Spring: Stormcut.”
The Sword Saint appeared below the two of them as he cut upwards, the clouds momentarily parting and the blade sinking into flesh to cleanly sever the arm holding Maria. Jake’s arrow also arrived, striking the Prima in the head and piercing one of its eyes before exploding, making the Prima stumble a slight bit.
This left Maria with a tiny opening. She kicked off the chimera and turned into a ball of fire that shot away right before one of the wyvern heads could grasp her. It instead chose to just shoot a beam of energy her way, but Sylphie flew in front of it and redirected it with a large blast of wind.
“I… need to retreat… Its teeth are fucking poisoned and cursed… Good luck,” Maria spoke, shooting into the distance. Perhaps Eron could have healed her and allowed her to keep fighting, but she knew that the current situation wasn’t favorable for her, and with her weakened after using her escape skill, she knew her contributions to the fight had ended.
The first of their fighters was officially eliminated—if one didn’t count the four Queen’s Guards that had all died too. Maybe Arnold was also out of the fight? He had at least lost his robot… but that didn’t mean Jake was going to write him off.
When the Prima Guardian switched its attention to Eron again to stop him from healing Casper, the healer retaliated. Waves of white flames washed over the boss as it flashed its blade legs a few times, cutting Eron up. It first tried to cut off his limbs, but Eron responded by blowing up his own body whenever his movement became too impaired, making the chimera switch its strategy slightly. Instead of directly fighting him, it created a tunnel of wind before blasting him away within a bubble of stable arcane energy and golden force, sending him flying all the way to one of the sections where people were fighting the regular Primas.
“Do not fret,” Eron spoke while flying away. “Its power surges as its spark wanes. It’s burning through its very own life with every passing moment. Keep going.”
Jake didn’t need to be told twice. He released an Arcane Powershot, blasting the Guardian in the shoulder and sending it spinning. Carmen flew over, her fist burning with power. It appeared as if the Guardian welcomed another clash, as it punched toward her while spinning, but the Runemaiden wasn’t just throwing a casual punch this time around.
A skill Jake recognized as Fist of Ragnarok roared out as an explosion lit up the sky, the impact sending blood and bone flying everywhere as the Guardian tumbled through the sky, its entire arm broken and twisted. Carmen was also blasted back, her arm bent at an unnatural angle.
She threw a glance at Caleb, who was beside her where she stopped, and he quickly understood. He slammed his staff into her side, pushing the bone back in place. The Runemaiden just flinched.
The Guardian, meanwhile, quickly stopped itself in mid-air, cutting off its own limb and regrowing a new arm in less than a second, ready to receive the attack of Sylphie and Vesperia while even counterattacking. It managed to land a nasty cut on Vesperia and a wyvern’s breath on Sylphie.
Several more breaths also flew out, aimed at Jake, who dodged, and Casper, who was already struggling due to his previous injuries. The Fallen King stepped in to defend the Risen, but it was clear Casper was overdrawing on his own power to stay in this fight. Still, he looked like he wanted to get in at least one more big contribution.
The fight was at a stage where every moment was perilous. If the Prima Guardian had its way with someone for even a full second, they could take lethal damage easily, while their party just had to slowly land blow after blow, trying to whittle down the chimera’s resources. All while dealing with it still adapting to everything they were doing, though to a lesser degree. Oh, yeah, and then there was the constant acid rain. While Jake could block it with the passive barrier from Arcane Awakening, and someone like Carmen was entirely unaffected, everyone else had to, at the very least, expend energy to avoid being negatively affected.
Nevertheless, they held on as they repeatedly clashed with the Prima Guardian, dealing solid damage themselves but also taking quite a beating in return. Casper did manage to get his final attack off as he activated the marks left by the four large stakes from earlier, leaving a curse of weakness upon the Prima. It wouldn’t last long, but it gave them some reprieve as it slowed down the boss while it was slowly adapting to deal with the curse.
After that, Casper became the second one to exit the fight. Eron also tried to return to them, but it appeared as if the Prima Guardian did have some level of control over the regular Primas, as a few of them disengaged from their existing fights with the rest of Earth’s forces purely to lock down Eron. It was annoying, as without their healer, things became a lot riskier.
Luckily, their core group of melee fighters remained. Carmen, the Sword Saint, and Vesperia did wonders, keeping the Prima Guardian at bay most of the time. The Fallen King also stayed close to melee, assisting the group with barriers and occasional blasts, while Sylphie and Caleb functioned as a hit-and-run team, both showing off their speed.
As for Jake… well, he was the only one doing any solid damage, as the Prima Guardian was too busy dealing with the other six to handle his curving arrows and powerful Arcane Powershots. The chimera did try to go for Jake a few times, as he was isolated, but he proved himself a bad target every single time by pulling out his katars and engaging it until help arrived without taking any meaningful injuries in the process. Conversely, the boss took plenty of damage from this decision, as the Prima attacking Jake freed up everyone else to attack.
The fight was balanced on a tightrope, with any little thing able to tip it over. Jake felt the words of Eron ring true: The Prima Guardian was burning through its life and resources at an alarming rate, especially since it had to regenerate all the time from the constant damage it took. At the same time, any minor mistake from any of them could result in the balance instantly tipping if another fighter was put out of commission…
Ultimately, it turned out the tipping point didn’t come from anybody’s mistake, but a severe miscalculation.
As the Sword Saint managed to land a blow and Carmen blocked one of the leg-blades, Vesperia was slated to avoid the swing of the staff. She was clearly ready for it and was already retreating slightly when suddenly, all of the Prima Guardian’s eyes opened wide…
Without any warning, they all morphed into bestial yellow eyes that seemed to stare into one’s very soul, their gaze freezing not just Vesperia but the Fallen King, Carmen, the Sword Saint, and even Caleb, who had just been about to land another sneaky blow from behind.
What happened next was just one brief moment… but that was all it took for the tight balance of the fight to shift entirely.
Chapter 31
Prima Guardian (5)
A lot of things happened at once. More than a dozen of the Prima Guardian’s eyes exploded as it used Gaze on so many powerful people at once, but that didn’t stop it from moving its body. It attacked the five people who weren’t able to defend themselves with reckless abandon. Jake was a moment too late to intervene.
Vesperia was struck with its staff on the side of her head, sending blood, bone, and brain matter flying. Nearly her entire skull was crushed. The Sword Saint couldn’t dodge as a leg-blade swept up, cutting off an arm and a leg. The Fallen King had the other leg-blade sweep in from the side, trying to cut him in two but only getting around halfway, leaving the Unique Lifeform with a nasty injury and a blade stuck in his body.
For Carmen, the chimera chose to only punch her in the chest to send her away, perhaps knowing it couldn’t deal meaningful damage with a single blow.
Caleb was a bit further away but was still struck with three breath attacks at the same time. However, luckily, what the Prima Guardian had done wasn’t a Primal Gaze, but only a normal Gaze of the Apex Predator, allowing Caleb to partially fade into the shadows and avoid taking too much damage.
The others had also slightly moved right at the end using their mana, avoiding potential death. But the Prima Guardian wasn’t done. Its maw opened as it moved to bite down on the Fallen King, at which point Jake struck.
He made eye contact with some of the remaining glowing eyes and attacked using his own Primal Gaze. This stopped the Prima Guardian long enough for everyone to retreat slightly, but blood began to roll down Jake’s cheeks from using the skill.
This creature’s soul was just ridiculous. It hadn’t taken any meaningful soul damage even after using Gaze on five extremely powerful people, and if Jake had tried the same thing, he was pretty sure things wouldn’t have gone well for him. Still, the Prima had been smart by not using Gaze on Jake. If it had, things wouldn’t have gone this well for it. Even so, he knew that the Prima wouldn’t be able to use Gaze again. He would make sure of that.
Despite hitting his Primal Gaze, no one could take advantage of it. Sylphie chose to help evacuate those injured, blasting them all away with a great gust of wind. The Fallen King also took this chance and released a golden explosion, getting himself free as he staggered back. Gritting his teeth, Jake cursed internally at how shitty things were going… Then a black line impacted the Guardian, cutting across Jake’s vision.
A hole about the size of a fist was left in the chest of the Prima Guardian, and Jake saw that part of its very soul had been sheared right off. He also recognized where it had come from, and he couldn’t help but flash a brief smile. There was only one person he knew with the power to shoot a goddamn void beam from who-the-fuck-knows-where.
Still, the situation wasn’t great. Jake felt forced to teleport forward and appeared right in front of the Prima Guardian. Pulling out both his katars—Eternal Hunger was easily reclaimed, as it was part of his soul even if he had left it within the Prima before—he entered melee with the boss.
The attack from Arnold had done great damage, but the chimera wasn’t a creature that made any sense, and Jake doubted it would stop unless fully killed. Fighting it alone wasn’t something Jake felt confident doing, but he felt as if he didn’t have any other choice. At least if he was in melee, he could ensure it wasn’t going to use Gaze—because he fucking dared it to try to use his own skill on him.
He would need to buy some time for the others to at least recover a little. Vesperia didn’t look like she could even fly straight, nearly her entire head gone, and the Sword Saint naturally couldn’t fight with half his limbs cut off. Carmen and Caleb were still able to fight, though Caleb wasn’t in a great state either. The Fallen King would clearly also need a bit, which left only Sylphie, Jake, and Carmen.
Fully focusing, Jake pushed his Arcane Awakening as far it could go—and perhaps a bit further—barely avoiding the attacks of the Prima Guardian. Its leg-blades shot up at unpredictable times, bending unnaturally as they moved almost autonomously. All the while, Jake had to avoid the Guardian’s punches and staff, not to mention the occasional magical attack.
At least the wyvern heads on its back didn’t attack Jake and went for the others who were dealing with their injuries, with Sylphie protecting them. Not wanting the Guardian to disengage when it realized it couldn’t deal any meaningful damage to Jake quickly, he began to go more on the offensive.
Having been baited in, the boss thought it had caught Jake in its grasp, only to find the version of Jake it had in its hand dissolve into cursed energy, allowing Jake to land a Piercing Fang with his Voidblade and tear another hole in the Prima’s chest. His opponent responded by releasing a golden explosion of force, making Jake stumble back. The Prima counterattacked instantly, forcing Jake to block the staff, and he felt his arms buckle from the impact, his bones cracking.
Luckily, he had bought enough time for Caleb to attack from behind, knocking the boss slightly to the side and buying Jake a moment to stabilize. Carmen also entered the fray to help Jake, and the two of them faced off against the Prima Guardian together.
While Jake managed to avoid nearly all attacks, only taking minor injuries himself, Carmen wasn’t the same, as she constantly had to take blows directly. Jake noticed that her skin had begun to crack in places, small fractures forming all over her body. He knew she couldn’t keep this up forever, but in truth, they didn’t really have a choice.
The Prima Guardian didn’t come out of this unscathed either. The Fallen King had recovered enough to protect the injured, allowing Sylphie and Caleb to resume their strikes, though without Jake’s constant harassment with arrows, their damage output had been severely reduced.
As Jake was struggling, he suddenly saw someone enter his sphere, and a calm aura fell over him. He felt his hurting body begin to mend as healing energy washed over their entire group. Their healer had returned to the battle and went all out, his body beginning to glow with a powerful healing aura. The Sword Saint, Vesperia, and Fallen King all started to heal in real-time, with even the fractures on Carmen repairing rapidly.
With a moment to spare, Jake looked over to where Eron had been locked down by five Primas not even a dozen seconds earlier. He saw metal reflecting the sunlight as a single mage faced off against four Primas on his own, the fifth one falling toward the ground, blood trailing its descent.
William held a lot of resentment toward Eversmile for making him miss several system events. He had been convinced that the Treasure Hunt, Myriad Paths, and even C-grade Nevermore weren’t things he needed or should do. They were wastes of time for someone like him. To this day, he couldn’t understand why his former “master” would even do that. Had he just been trying to sabotage William for the fun of it? Trying to hurt his Path? He had missed out on so many titles that would have made him stronger, and he felt so damn far behind.
