Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

The mapping of the nearby forest took nearly an hour of hard running through the dense undergrowth. By the time Seth, Nightmare, and Selena rejoined the others, the squad had already begun reshaping the terrain.

The first stronghold rose half-hidden within a rocky alcove along the mountain's slope. Soldiers grunted as they drove jagged iron stakes into the earth, building vicious chevaux-de-frise that would break any Warrior charge into chaos. Higher up, teams hauled two Arcane Cannons onto concealed platforms woven from living branches and mottled tarps; their barrels peeked through the leaves like the eyes of predators.

Deeper in the forest, the other three squads were likely doing the same—raising two more fallback hubs while marking every possible enemy route so they could lay traps later on.

As Seth approached, he turned to his own preparations.

He put several bombs into his pouch, followed by two metallic spheres meant to disrupt detection wards, and three single-use Scorching Wands. Then he ran a thumb across his Protecting Belt, Fine Storing Ring, and Swift Eagle Bracelet, feeling the dense hum of stored aether thrumming inside each artifact.

Henry stood beside a crate of cannon munitions, watching the frantic labor around them, then noticed Seth. "If the third stronghold falls," he said, "you need to be ready to use an Escape Scroll the second I give the word. Same as everyone else." His gaze drifted toward the distant tree line. "If the Empire brought another Distortion Rod, we could be in trouble."

"If they use one, I'll find whoever's carrying it and kill them," Seth said as he tightened the straps on his combat gauntlets. "That will clear the field so the rest of you can get out."

"And then what?" Eddin retorted from the side. "You die in here alone? That'd be foolish."

A crooked smile appeared on Henry's face. "Foolish, yeah. But heroic."

Seth rolled his eyes as he flexed his hands inside the gauntlets, which made the leather groan softly.

"I'm going to scout the forward perimeter. See if there's any movement from their side."

Selena stepped toward Seth, clearly intending to follow, but he shook his head before she could speak.

“Not this time.” His gaze flicked toward the stronghold, then back to her, Henry, and Eddin. “Before we came in… I’m pretty sure I saw someone who could be Morsh among their soldiers. If that’s true, it’s better if I move alone.”

The air around them tightened.

Eddin frowned. “If it’s really him, trying to go after him alone would be insane.”

“I’m not going after him,” Seth said evenly. “But if it is him, I’m still confident I can get away.”

Henry grimaced, unconvinced. “You’re asking us to trust that?”

Seth met the squad leader's gaze. “When have I given you a reason not to?”

Henry hesitated, then exhaled through his nose. “...Right.”

Seth then looked at Selena. “You're more useful here with Henry and Eddin. Prepare one of the spots we found earlier for an ambush with them."

She grimaced, fingers twitching near the hilt of her blade, but after a moment her shoulders slumped. "...fine."

Seth gave her a short nod, then glanced at Henry and Eddin. “I’ll be careful.”

“You better be,” Henry shot back. “I don't want to be known as the squad leader who got Kastal’s monster killed before the fight even starts.”

A smile spread on Seth's lips. “No need to worry about that. It won't happen,” he answered before turning and slipping into the trees with a wave of his hand an instant later.

He moved with fluid grace, his boots barely whispering against the moss-covered ground. Above him, the dense canopy swallowed most of the gray daylight, casting the forest into a shifting gloom of shadow and muted green.

The tension in his shoulders slowly melted away and gave way to something colder. Sharper.

This was where he belonged.

In a maze of roots, trunks, and darkness, where every bent branch, every rustle of leaves, every snapped twig could tell the presence of prey.

Morsh might be a gifted assassin, but the forest was the hunting ground of Primalists, not Rogues.

For the next half hour, Seth became a ghost.

He slipped in and out of Illusionary Emptiness, putting extra care in each step, avoiding dry branches and slick patches of moss that might betray even the faintest sound. He'd pushed nearly a mile into the enemy side of the forest before he found the first sign of life.

A dozen imperial soldiers were moving through a ravine below him. Their armor gleamed even beneath the canopy, while careless voices drifted upward.

"Weak rats," one of them scoffed, kicking a rotting log aside. "They'll be curled up in the darkest holes, waiting for us to flush them out."

"Let them hide," another said with a laugh and rested a heavy halbert across his shoulder. "Makes the hunt more fun."

Seth ignored them and circled farther east.

Over the next twenty minutes, he found three more groups.

They moved in detachments of ten to twenty-five people, spread loosely across the forest floor. Glowing communication orbs passed messages between them, but their formation lacked discipline, with large gaps between the patrols.

They marched with the confidence of men who thought Kastal incapable of threatening them. As if the very idea of traps didn't even deserve their consideration.

Seth's jaw tightened.

His gaze swept the shadows again, searching for any trace of Morsh. The elite assassin was nowhere to be seen. Beyond the chatter and movement of the Empire's patrols, the forest remained still.

But the fact that these vanguard groups were this careless was a problem on its own.

If no one taught them a lesson early, they would blunder straight to the first stronghold before he had enough time to thin their numbers through traps and ambushes.

Seth reached to his belt and pulled free his communication orb, the glass surface glowing with a muted blue light.

Seth: I've got a patrol of around twelve in front of me. I'm going to try and lure them into the first trap point Selena and I marked. Can you be ready in five minutes if it works?

Henry's reply came almost at once.

Henry: We will. Bring 'em to us, Seth.

After a final sweep of the immediate shadows to ensure Morsh wasn't lurking nearby, Seth found his vantage point. He crouched behind the gnarled roots of an ancient oak, a line of sight opening through the dense trunks toward a group of twelve imperial soldiers. Choosing the most isolated detachment, he gambled that their distance from the other forces would turn their arrogance into a fatal mistake.

Seth manifested his cerulean bow, the light of the weapon muffled by the thick undergrowth, then began to channel Ravenous Arrow. His fingers trembled as the Null affinity began its greedy feast.

Aether surged from his Well, stripped of its properties and reduced to its raw, starving form. Thanks to all the practice over the past days, the cast took him just over ten seconds. The projectile materialized in his hand, and the air around it rippled with a deep hunger, causing nearby leaves to rustle softly.

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The imperial soldiers remained oblivious. Without a traditional elemental signature to alert their senses, the magical imprint of the spell seemed to remain invisible to their aetheric perception.

Seth nocked the arrow, then pulled the bowstring back. His eyes narrowed in search of a weak target—one with the lowest Toughness and whose death would feed their motivation to catch him.

And he found her.

A woman with short, blonde hair stood in the center of the group with robes that marked her as either a Priest or an Elementalist. She was mid-laugh, her mouth open in a jibe Seth couldn't hear but could easily imagine.

Seth's vision zeroed in, and the world around the woman blurred until she was the only thing left. A moment after drawing in and holding his breath, he released the arrow.

In a flash, the projectile carved a silent path through the timber, flying between the trunks like a hawk through a thicket. It struck before she'd even finished her laugh.

The arrow punched through the woman's temple and buried half its shaft inside her skull, the tip erupting from the other side in a spray of bone and hazy aether. She fell limp, and her body hit the mossy floor with a dull thud.

"A-ambush!" a man roared, voice cracking with sudden panic.

All the other soldiers scrambled, drawing steel and manifesting shields as they spun in desperate circles.

Seth was already gone. He slipped into the deeper gloom, his boots gliding over the earth as he moved to a new position thirty yards to the east. Two imperial scouts rushed toward the spot he had just vacated, their blades glowing with a frantic glow as they hacked at the bushes.

"Where the hell are they?" one of them screamed, eyes darting wildly through the trees.

"Did they flee?"

"Regroup! Get in a circle! Now!"

Seth leaned against a new oak, the starving light of a second Ravenous Arrow already beginning to coalesce in his palm.

The soldiers, men and women alike, had begun to gather together into a tight, defensive cluster. The two heavy infantrymen with kite shields moved to the front, their steel plates gleaming with protective runes as they braced for an assault.

Yet Seth had already circled to their rear.

The second arrow solidified at his fingertips, and he nocked it in a single, fluid motion, eyes locking onto the only other robe-clad figure in the squad.

The man clutched onto his staff with trembling hands and turned to the soldier beside him. "Should I activate my Protecti—"

The question died in a gurgle. Seth's arrow pierced through the back of his head and the man crumpled into the dirt, his staff clattering against a tree root.

"There! To the east!" a man shouted while pointing a gloved finger in Seth's direction.

Seth's lips pulled back into a grim smile as he broke into a sprint to weave through the maze of bushes and trees. The imperial soldiers gave chase; branches lashed at their faces and twigs snapped under their weight while Intermediate Identify's information of the trio at the front appeared in Seth's vision.