Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

Seth ran a few steps behind Kaelen, Nightmare pacing silently at his side. The direwolf remained tense, a low growl rumbling in his chest as his crimson eyes lingered on the assassin's back.

They took a left, their boots skidding and dashed down a steep slope. With an unnerving sense of direction, the assassin had found a narrow, winding path that descended several levels into the heart of the cave. They weaved through the labyrinth of tunnels, catching fleeting glimpses of Elementals—mostly Earth ones—that snapped their heads toward the sound of their passing, only to find them already gone.

Kaelen stayed silent at the front. He hadn't spoken a word since they'd begun to make their way down the chasm, and Seth was pleased with that.

What was there to say? In two weeks, they would be on opposite sides of a war, fated to clash until one—or both—wind up dead. Killing him now wouldn't make much of a difference, either; the Empire would just send another combatant into the Warfare Rift. Still, a primal part of Seth yearned for the fight, an instinct that craved the chance to test his strength against another apex predator again.

"I can feel both of your bloodlust," Kaelen said at the front, not even glancing back. "It's starting to annoy me. Tone it down."

Seth glared at the assassin's back. The order grated on him, but he reined in his instincts, reminding himself of the reason he had chosen to make a truce. Colossus came first.

'I get it,' Nightmare said through Link beside Seth. 'Better to find Little Bite before we attack that person again.'

Seth was caught off guard by the direwolf's moment of introspection. The months of having a younger member in their party were starting to show in him. 'Yeah. We hold our fangs. For Colossus.'

'You don't have fangs,' Nightmare retorted.

'It's a figure of speech, dummy.'

When Kaelen turned into another tunnel, Seth cast his consciousness inward, reaching through Link for any sign of Colossus, but was met once more with only emptiness. A moment later, they found yet another slope that led deeper into the cave, but as they stepped onto it, Seth saw two figures blocking their path: an Earth Elemental and a Wind Elemental.

Kaelen glanced at Seth. "Kill the Earth one. Those shadow blades of yours seem to ignore a good chunk of Toughness."

Seth's hands tightened in his gauntlets. Using his most powerful spell now would put it on cooldown and leave him weaker for an ambush. "No. You kill it with that dagger of yours."

Kaelen let out an exasperated sigh and dashed toward the Earth Elemental, his dagger igniting with a phantom purple energy. He flowed around the golem's clumsy attacks with a deadly grace.

Seth immediately charged toward the Wind one, which was already launching crescent-shaped blades of air toward the Dark Assassin. Seth intercepted them and used Iron Fists to disperse the projectiles. The next instant, Nightmare lunged in, tearing through the creature of swirling air with a devastating Shadow Bite. Seth joined in as he reared back his arm and cast Phantom Punch.

A second later, the massive fist of teal aether slammed into the Wind Elemental and shattered its torso, causing it to dissipate in a violent blast of air. A green crystal clinked to the cavern floor. Seth spun to help Kaelen, but saw the Earth Elemental was already a pile of lifeless rubble at the assassin's feet.

Without even glancing at the beaststone, Kaelen dashed down the slope to move to the next cave's level. Seth left the Wind Elemental's stone behind and followed, Nightmare huffing in annoyance at the abandoned loot as he trailed after them.

For the next eight to ten hours, they fell into a rhythm while descending deeper and deeper into the Rift. They navigated treacherous ledges and crossed more subterranean chasms, often forced to cut down small patrols of elementals that stood in their way. After a few more clashes, the knot of tension in Seth's gut began to loosen. He felt no threat from the assassin, no simmering bloodlust; it was now evident that he only wanted to find his sister as quickly as possible.

After what felt like an eternity, the trio finally reached the bottom of the chasm. The air was thick with mist as the deafening roar of the river filled the cavern. They stood on a gravel-strewn shore directly next to the wide, violent river that snaked through the immense cavern. Seth's gaze shot upward to the jagged edges of the broken bridges far above, then scanned the shoreline—there were no bodies.

No sign of Kaelen's sister. No sign of Colossus.

Both Seth and Kaelen peered into the turbulent water, but the speed of the current turned the riverbed into a murky, indecipherable blur. All they could do was hope their partners had stayed afloat long enough to reach the shore.

"Let's follow the river," Seth said, hoping it would lead them to wherever their companions had been carried.

Kaelen gave a brief nod and took off along the bank, Nightmare pacing beside him. They hadn't gone far before all three stopped dead. Nightmare's Danger Sense flared like a wildfire, and Seth's core pulsed with a frantic warning; even Kaelen's expression tightened, his hand drifting to his dagger.

Ahead, a lone figure hovered in the gloom.

It was an Elemental—though unlike any Seth had seen before. Its body wasn't made of rock or wind, but from solid, translucent ice that caught the faint light and fractured it into rays of blue and white. A freezing gale spiraled around its base, suspending its torso above the ground like a specter of winter. Two jagged arms hovered at its sides, detached yet perfectly synchronized, while its triangular head bore twin hollows that burned with an eerie, glacial light. From its aura and the intensity of Danger Sense, it was either at the Peak of the Iron Tier… or low Silver.

Kaelen hesitated, his body already turning. "Let's head back to the upper floor and find another path."

"No," Seth said at once. "It could take us hours to find another way down. Hours that your sister and my friend might not have."

The Dark Assassin's brow furrowed, frustration flashing across his face. "So you'd rather prefer we die here? How exactly does that help us?"

A low, guttural rumble rolled from Nightmare's throat, laced with aetheric menace. "We're not dying, knife boy. If you don't want to fight, then stand back and watch."

Kaelen's eyes widened, clearly taken aback that the direwolf could speak aloud, while Seth cast a quick glance at Nightmare. He wasn't as confident as his companion, since the distortion field was still up, preventing him from using his artifacts—but with Beastmaster Rage now off cooldown, their chances weren't zero.

If Seth's gut was right, the creature ahead could be at Silver Tier.

Just as the jump from Copper to Iron granted a hundred attributes, the leap from Iron to Silver offered three hundred—an almost insurmountable gap. Without Colossus to take the brunt of the blows, this fight would be brutal.

But when had they ever turned away from a fight they could possibly win?

Seth felt a spark of excitement stir—not from his hungry core this time, but his own heart. He wanted this fight. Finding the easiest solution had never been his way.

'Ready?' he asked through the Link to Nightmare.

'Oh yeah!' the direwolf growled back.

Kaelen's gaze flicked between Seth and the Ice Elemental, disbelief flashing across his features. "You Primalists really don't value your lives, do you. This isn't danger—it's suicide. It's a waste of—"

Seth and Nightmare charged before he could finish. The direwolf disappeared into Illusionary Emptiness, and as the glacial blue eyes of the creature locked onto Seth, Intermediate Identify's information appeared in the corner of his vision.