Chương 218: B3 - Chapter 50: Primalists' Rage

Seth deactivated his Distortion Rod and channeled aether into his Protecting Belt. A blue barrier flared to life around him as he simultaneously activated his Swift Eagle Bracelet. Raw Agility surged through his body, and without a moment's hesitation, he lunged forward. Across the clearing, Elysha triggered the barrier of her own Protective Belt and plunged a hand into her Endless Pouch. Seth reacted right away, conjuring the distortion field once again.

The invisible dome sealed the clearing and prevented Elysha from taking anything out of the velvet bag. The woman glared at him and snapped her recurve bow upward to fire an enchanted arrow. Seth pushed aether into Huntbound Overflow and twisted his torso to dodge the projectile, the iron tip hissing past his ear as the imperial Primalist rapidly created distance. The puma pounced forward from the ridge, its electrified claws tearing through the air. Seth sidestepped the attack with minimal movements.

The Hurricane Eagle hovering above sent a barrage of crescent wind blades slicing down upon him just as another arrow flew toward his chest. Not bad, Seth thought, a smile spreading on his lips. Without missing a beat, he dashed to the left to use the puma's large body as physical cover. After weaving left and right behind the beast, he countered with a rapid succession of heavy punches directly into the creature's ribs. The puma let out a pained cry, its front legs buckling slightly under the impact of the blows.

Elysha quickly wove a Wind spell with her free hand and released a violent gust alongside her next arrow. Seth avoided the threat entirely with Shadow Step and materialized directly behind the puma to follow up with two quick, devastating blows to its hindquarters. The feline yowled and retreated, leaving claw trails over the mud. Seth adjusted his footing in the wet ground, eyes locking on Elysha in the distance.

"You should have coordinated an ambush with Jaz and Celess instead of coming at me alone." Elysha's face twisted in an ugly expression, and her fingers nocked another arrow.

"I don't need those highborn dirtbags to kill someone like you." Seth frowned. The genuine animosity was unexpected. Despite her also having a House name, she clearly hated the two top contributors from the empire. Before he could fully process the woman's reaction, she launched her next offensive. The imperial Primalist and her Hurricane Eagle attacked in perfect synchronization.

A barrage of arrows and razor-sharp wind blades streaked toward Seth while the puma charged back in, forcing him to divide his attention. As he weaved between the incoming projectiles, Armored Phantom Fists' aether gathered around his forearms. One of the eagle's spells clipped Seth, but his Protecting Belt absorbed the impact and allowed him to stay on the offensive. The instant he slipped past the puma's snapping jaws, he pivoted and drove a fist into the beast's nose. A loud crack echoed through the clearing.

Blood sprayed from the feline's snout, but the creature managed to retaliate. Lightning erupted from its body in a massive shockwave. The electrical blast struck Seth and surged through his muscles. Agonizing cramps locked his limbs in place as pain flooded his entire nervous system. Elysha and the Hurricane Eagle wasted no time: both began preparing powerful spells to capitalize on the opening. Gritting his teeth, Seth deactivated his Distortion Rod and poured aether into Morsh's Unshackled Bracelet.

The artifact flashed with brilliant white light. The immobilization shattered instantly. Seth threw himself to the side and reactivated the rod in the same motion—devastating winds slammed into the spot he had been standing less than a second later. The ground exploded apart, bushes ripped apart from the earth, and leaves scattered through the air like in a storm. As he hit the forest floor, Seth's core roared to life, flooding his mind with savage instinct. It was tired of seeing him getting pushed back.

It wanted him to crush them. To show them who was the predator and who was the prey. For a brief instant, he resisted. Then he gave in. Just as he pushed himself back to his feet, the puma pounced yet again. The beast's thunder-wreathed claws slashed toward Seth's face—a far-too-predictable attack. And he had no intention of letting that go unpunished. Seth drove a teal-cloaked fist into the puma's side. The first blow weakened its ribs; the second shattered them.

The beast's hundred-and-four points of Toughness couldn't defend him against Seth's two hundred points of Strength with Armored Phantom Fists. Elysha's confident composure cracked. Yet instead of retreating, she sprinted forward while loosing a rapid stream of arrows. She had clearly sensed her companion was in danger. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. But it was too late. Seth's fists blurred toward the puma's head. One strike. Then a second, a third, and a fourth.

Each blow landed with devastating force until the beast's skull finally caved in beneath the relentless assault. The massive creature went limp and crashed onto the bloodstained ground. For a heartbeat, the clearing fell silent. Then came Elysha's scream.

"No!" She abandoned her bow and drew a pair of daggers from her waist as she kept dashing forward. A dense, volatile aura of red aether flared around her entire body, activating some kind of primal rage that sent her speed skyrocketing. Seth twisted his body to dodge her initial frantic slashes, but a heavy, razor-sharp wind blade came whistling down from the Hurricane Eagle above to accompany her attack.

The projectile hit him squarely in the shoulder and shattered the remaining barrier of his Protecting Belt in a flash of light. Seth raised his arms to block the oncoming daggers, though the sharp wind imbued in each of the slashes cut tiny nicks into his gauntlets. The woman was now exceptionally fast, but Seth's Agility with Link, Huntbound Overflow, and Nightmare's Seeds allowed him to match her speed. And her instinct was nowhere near his.

He slipped past her guard and drove his teal-cloaked fist directly into her ribs. The impact completely destroyed her own protective belt barrier before sending her stumbling backward across the small clearing until she slammed into a tree. The hunting bird above let out a piercing shriek and unleashed an orb of wind that hit Seth just as he crossed his arms to absorb the brunt of the spell. He gritted his teeth through the sharp pain of the slicing air current, boots digging deep trenches into the mud.

The teal aether of his Armored Phantom Fists faded away from his arms. Shit. Wasting no time, Seth cast Night Veil to provide him some cover. The moment the spell's thick cloud of pitch-black smoke billowed from him and swallowed the entire clearing, he summoned his bow. The weapon of light appeared in his grip, and the runic grooves of Ravenous Arrow flared with a hungry energy. Elysha let out a guttural roar.

"Are you really hiding like a coward now?" Her hands swept through a series of rapid motions as wind gathered between her palms. High above, the Hurricane Eagle also began channeling a powerful attack. As if I'd let you. Seth's eyes locked onto the bird's silhouette through the smoke. The moment the arrow appeared in his hand, he nocked, pulled, and loosed it. The avian beast sensed the danger at the very last second and twisted aside—but not fast enough.

The glowing projectile clipped the edge of its wing, sending a spray of feathers spinning through the air. The attack didn't stop the beast and Elysha from unleashing their spells. A colossal storm of compressed wind erupted from both of them simultaneously. The gale tore through the smoke screen and surged toward Seth like an unstoppable wall. He gave in completely to the predatory instincts of his inner beast and triggered Insatiable Hunger. The spell's avaricious energy exploded outward from his body.

An invisible force seized the incoming torrent of wind and began to unravel it, ripping the spells apart and devouring them piece by piece. The raw energy flooded into Seth's channels, and his Well filled to the brim. Aether grooves strained under the overwhelming influx, so he directed every scrap of the absorbed power into forging a new arrow. Elysha frowned, then panicked as she visibly felt the energy of her own spell being absorbed.

"What the—" Before she could finish, Seth released. The overcharged projectile flew through the clearing with a barely audible hiss and struck the Hurricane Eagle above square in the chest. The avian beast dropped from the sky like a stone and crashed through a patch of ferns before disappearing from view. Elysha let out a roar of pure anguish. Her bloodshot eyes locked onto Seth as she charged forward with both daggers raised. Seth calmly summoned another arrow to his bowstring.

Yet instead of facing her, he turned and sprinted toward a moss-covered boulder. Planting his boot on it, he launched himself into the air and twisted his body. When he was at the apex of his leap, he fired again. Elysha crossed her twin daggers before her face in a guard mid-stride. The arrow struck with devastating force. One of her blades shattered and exploded into a cloud of jagged steel fragments. Yet she didn't slow down. Elysha threw herself at him anyway, her face twisted by rage.

Steel and reinforced leather collided. Seth blocked the first few slashes, but Elysha's relentless assault soon found an opening. As he raised his arm to intercept her undamaged dagger, the broken blade flashed from an unexpected angle, scraping across his chest armor and drawing a thin line of blood beneath it. He retaliated without missing a beat, pouring a large amount of aether into his forearms as his gauntlets flared with raw power not in the shape of an actual spell.

They exchanged a furious barrage of blows. Mid-strike, Seth considered activating Beastmaster Rage. The overwhelming attributes of the spell would allow him to end the battle immediately. The thought disappeared just as quickly. No. Having the spell on cooldown afterward would make advancing in the forest more dangerous. And deep down, he didn't want to rely on it. He didn't need it. Not for her. His core pulsed in agreement. It wanted him to push harder and crush that challenger.

Seth slipped beneath a horizontal slash and drove a heavy hook into Elysha's jaw. She spun with the impact, using the momentum to slam the pommel of her dagger into his collarbone. The metal sphere crashed against his armor and forced his boots deeper into the mud. He retaliated with a brutal strike of his own, his fist slammed into her intact dagger. The weapon flew from her grasp and disappeared into the surrounding ferns. A flicker of desperation crossed Elysha's face. Then she got even faster.

Her entire figure blurred as yet another spell erupted through her body. Compressed wind wrapped around her broken blade, still in her other hand, and extended it into a deadly sword. She thrust straight for his throat. Seth's predatory instincts took over, and his left hand shot up. Fingers spread wide, he intercepted the attack. The wind-enhanced blade punched straight through his palm and left through the other side, but its momentum died there.

Seth's hand clamped shut around the weapon's hilt, stopping the tip mere inches from his neck. Pain was irrelevant. Victory was all that mattered. His core flooded him with a primal need. He had to overcome and thrive. To become the apex predator. Seth's right fist came around and crashed into Elysha's face. Her head snapped to the side as the impact shattered her balance.

He drove his left hand downward with all his weight, keeping her blade embedded in his palm, and forced her to the ground before trapping her underneath him. Then he struck again. The imperial Primalist tried to push him back while straining to raise her left forearm to block, but her arm snapped cleanly to the side under the overwhelming force of the incoming strike. Her Strength was simply not high enough. Seth kept punching. A guttural roar tore from his throat.

The pain from his wounds mixed with the savage resonance of his core, which screamed at him to crush that nuisance who had dared to both wound him and stand in his way. One strike followed another. Elysha's struggles faltered. Her body went slack, and her broken head fell to the side. But for several moments, Seth's rage kept him going, his fist still rising and falling even after the battle was over. He delivered one devastating blow after the other into the pulp of torn flesh and shattered bones.

Only when his shoulder felt strained from the repeated impacts did his arm finally stop. Seth released a ragged breath. He slowly lowered his fists and went still, staring down at the aftermath of both his core and his own fury.