Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

"As if I'd let you get away!"

Seth's voice thundered across the desert expanse as he sprung out of the boulder’s shadow and charged toward the Gnoll Barbarian. He had felt it—the moment the beast's eyes had shifted back to their regular yellowish color, its speed, and strength had faltered, along with its once impenetrable defense. Its skin and muscles, previously hard as stone, had begun to yield under his punches.

It was now time to hit. And hard.

As Seth closed the distance, the Gnoll raised its axes with a deafening roar, aether flaring out of its arms, then whipped them down toward him. Seth's body, already strained beyond its limit, screamed in protest when his core forced him to jump to the side. The blades whooshed past his face, missing his nose by half an inch, and Seth immediately lunged in, nailing a hard straight into the beast's ribs.

The Gnoll growled and prepared to counter, rearing back his weapons. Yet before it could swing them forward, Seth punched again, burying his gauntlet into its chest, shattering its sternum. As the beast gasped and staggered backward, Nightmare appeared behind it and sank his fangs once more into the creature’s darkened upper back, trying to tear apart its neck. Shadow Bite's smoke billowed from his maw and spread out to ravage skin and muscles alike.

Howling in pain, the Gnoll attempted to shake the direwolf off, but Seth didn’t waste the opening—his fists slammed into the beast’s battered body with bone-crushing force. Flurry done, he darted out of reach, and the two large axes fruitlessly sliced through the air.

With a furious growl, the Gnoll finally hurled Nightmare off its back, sending the direwolf skidding across the ground. Its gaze then snapped to the distant stronghold, desperation flashing in its eyes. Guessing its intention, Nightmare snarled, and a wolf composed of shadows burst out of his body.

The Gnoll Barbarian dashed to the side to evade, but the spell changed its trajectory as if it were alive and struck him. Dark, thorn-covered tendrils snaked around the beast's massive body, eliciting a piercing yelp.

Pouring aether into his fist, Seth gritted his teeth through pain, reared back his arm, then rotated his hips. In a blink, he teleported into the Gnoll's shadow and drove his gauntlet into its midsection, sending it crashing into a large boulder.

Without hesitation, Seth bolted forward and continued his assault, his core's energy flooding every single inch of his body. His fists rained down onto Gnoll's face like meteors, each punch bashing its head side to side, left and right. His knuckles split and bled despite wearing the gauntlets, but he kept hammering the creature, screaming his lungs out of rage.

"Fucking die!"

Under the relentless barrage of blows, the Gnoll's skull finally gave way—a sickening crack split through the air, then it burst apart, spraying blood and brain matter across the red clay.

Seth collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air, hands throbbing and hurting more than any of his other wounds. An eerie silence reclaimed the desert as he stared at the beast’s corpse before him—it was now nothing more than a grotesque heap of blood, shattered bone, and torn flesh.

We won.

Seth immediately turned to check on Nightmare. "You're alright?"

Sprawled out on the red clay, the direwolf barely lifted his head. 'Slowly bleeding to death, but yeah, I'm fine.'

With shaking legs, Seth pushed himself up and trudged over to the direwolf, boots scuffing the ground with every step as he reached into his velvet pouch and retrieved a Healing Potion. Bracing on one hand, he then knelt down, uncorked the vial, and poured its content into the direwolf's open maw. "You did great, Nightmare. Really great."

Nightmare swallowed the red liquid and shut his eyes, the tension in his face easing as part of the pain subsided.

Seth's gaze drifted to the direwolf's flank, where the two deep gashes continued to slowly bleed. The fur around the wounds was matted with blood, dark and clumped, and beneath it he could just make out the distorted outline of broken ribs, bulging with each strained breath.

After moving the direwolf into the safety of his necklace, Seth turned his attention to his own injuries; the largest one on his right shoulder was still oozing, but a thick scab was almost entirely covering it

Using a potion would be a waste, he thought before glancing at the setting sun. My body’s aether should get it to close while I sleep.

With his uninjured arm, Seth grabbed the Gnoll's remains and dragged it to the closest massive monolith stone that jutted out from the desert’s ground. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the body into a crevice, wanting to keep it away from scavengers or patrolling Gnolls, and sank next to it.

Only using his left hand, he began the laborious process of carving its chest open with one of his daggers. The moment he snatched out the gray crystal inside, a smile spread on Seth's face as he felt its strong, pulsating aether. Not wasting a second, he cast Intermediate Identify.