Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

Seth remained in Elena's embrace for several long seconds as the rain poured relentlessly around them. For a moment, the battlefield ceased to exist.

Then the rustle of footsteps behind him broke through the silence.

Seth glanced over his shoulder. Kaelen charged through the clearing, dagger poised and coat with aether. Yet Seth's core remained muted.

Not even a faint warning flared from it.

Still, Seth reacted and pulled away from Elena before raising his gauntlet.

Kaelen's first dagger screeched across the reinforced part in a shower of orange sparks, while the assassin's second blade slipped past his guard, carving a shallow line across Seth's cheek.

Ignoring the sting, Seth drove his palms into Kaelen's chest, hurling the assassin several steps backward.

Nightmare seized the opportunity to surge from the shadows and lunge, forcing the assassin into a spin to avoid the attack. The moment the direwolf landed, he planted his paws in the mud. Corrosive smoke billowed from between his fangs as he stared at the assassin.

Kaelen met Seth's gaze. For several seconds, neither of them moved.

Then, without a word, the assassin turned on his heel and dashed away, disappearing into the heavy downpour.

Nightmare crouched low and his hind legs coiled beneath him as he prepared to give chase.

"Stop," Seth said aloud, deliberately avoiding the privacy of Link.

The direwolf halted.

Through their bond, Nightmare understood perfectly that Kaelen's attack had been nothing more than a staged performance.

Seth lifted his gaze toward the storm churning in the sky and the Spirit in the middle. Despite the effort, it likely hadn't been convincing.

If the entity had been watching—and it almost certainly had—it would have caught all the inconsistencies. Kaelen had already saved Elena once, helped them kill Jaz, and now had failed to capitalize on a perfect opportunity to kill Seth when his guard had been down.

The excuse that the assassin wanted a fair fight and refused to strike while Seth was crippled by the aftermath of Beastmaster Rage had always been a flimsy one.

By this point, the Spirit surely didn't buy it anymore.

Nothing I can do about it now, Seth thought with a sigh before looking at Elena.

"What in the world was that?" Elena asked, glancing in the direction Kaelen had disappeared. "Why did he save me... and then attack you?"

"Let's talk about it later," Seth replied.

His attention had already shifted to Colossus.

Lumi still hovered over the giant scorpion, frantically pouring wave after wave of healing light into his battered body.

The young arachnid beast's state was far worse than Seth had feared. Deep cracks split his stone carapace from end to end. Blood seeped sluggishly from the fractures and refused to stop despite the hardened crust forming over the burns and the constant cast of Lumi's spells.

Seth reached through Link.

A wave of relief washed over him. Through their bond, he could sense that Colossus didn't believe his life was in danger.

The giant scorpion was gravely wounded... but he would survive.

"We need to move before more enemies arrive," Seth said aloud, sweeping his gaze across the rain-soaked tree line.

He looked toward Nightmare. 'Can you make sure no one is approaching while we loot the bodies?'

'On it.' The direwolf nodded and melted into the mist, activating Illusionary Emptiness.

Colossus lowered his large head next to Seth. 'I did well... didn't I?'

'You did,' Nightmare answered before Seth could speak. 'You earned the Seeds of that man.'

'Really?' the young scorpion exclaimed, nearly bouncing in excitement before flinching from a sharp jolt of pain. 'You fought really well too, Big Brother Nightmare!'

"What are they talking about?" Elena asked.

"They're complimenting each other," Seth replied with a faint smile.

He rested a gentle hand against the stone of Colossus' broad head.

The simple gesture spoke louder than words. The young scorpion had thrown himself between Elena and Jaz many times without hesitation. Seth would never forget it.

Elena stepped closer and also laid a hand against the side of Colossus' carapace.

"You were incredible," she said softly. "I would have died without you, Colossus."

The scorpion turned his head toward her. For just a moment, Seth could have sworn the tiny mouth nestled between Colossus' mandibles curled into the closest thing to a smile the scorpion could manage.

"Time to get some rest," he told his companions.

Seth deactivated his Distortion Rod and sent a pulse of aether into the teardrop necklace hanging from his chest. Swirling blue light enveloped Colossus and Lumi, drawing both beasts into the pocket-realm, where the little otter could continue healing the scorpion in safety while he recovered.

Seth then reached into his Endless Pouch, and his fingers closed around the cold metal of the Seed Extractor.

He walked over to Jaz's ruined corpse, then knelt in the churned mud. Carefully, he pressed the device against the shattered breastplate covering the Guardian's chest.

Lines of crystalline text materialized.