The Primal Hunter

While the strike team was dealing with the Exalted Prima Guardian, the rest of Earth’s fighting force was busy with all the regular Primas that had exited the Prima Vessel and were now attempting to spread across the planet. Also, even if the main boss had increased in difficulty significantly, the same wasn’t true for the hundreds of Primas, which was definitely lucky, as dealing with them all was already extremely difficult as things were.

The Primas tended to be around level 280 to 300, with some going close to 310. They were also powerful variants for their levels, making it difficult even for the elites of Earth to deal with them one-on-one. There were still a few who could, primarily those who had been shortlisted from the strike team.

On the side of the Holy Church, Bertram was a machine, cleaving down several Primas alone while dealing with their armies. All the ones Jacob had arrived with were also some of the best natives of Earth the Church had recruited, providing excellent help.

The same was true for the Risen, led by Priscilla, who by now almost acted toward Casper the same way Miranda worked with Jake. Her plans of seduction had definitely died entirely, as she obviously couldn’t compete with a ghost girlfriend. When Casper had been recruited to do Nevermore with the top team of the Risen, she had fully realized he wasn’t someone she should try to bring to her side but someone she had to solely function as support for.

Not that she was weak in her own right, as she led the Risen expertly in the war efforts, making their section solidly defended.

Of course, when it came to war, Valhal proved themselves just as competent as one would expect. Sven took the frontlines as he led the group of warriors, and even if they had far fewer fighters than many other factions for the territory they were supposed to defend, not a single Prima managed to slip through. As for the regular monsters that managed to get by them… well, that was why there was a third wall of fighters behind the second vanguard.

The Noboru Clan also did extremely well, the prowess of the vampires on full display. Reika, the great-granddaughter of the Sword Saint who had gone to the Order of the Malefic Viper, also performed exceptionally as she rained down icy destruction upon large areas.

There were also a few sections where formerly enslaved people and some of those who had arrived due to Jake’s Chosen Ceremony defended. These people wouldn’t get any benefits from the system event, as this wasn’t natively their own planet, but they still chose to fight.

Similar sections, mostly focused around individual factions, covered an entire circle around where the Prima Vessel had touched down, making three defensive barriers. The first was the strike team, then the second barrier with mostly elites, and then the third, which had far more people who were on the weaker end, primarily to deal with the stragglers that got through and to provide support where needed. And, of course, to make sure the second defensive line wasn’t attacked from behind.

So far, everything was going pretty smoothly, as the “commander” of this entire war was busy making sure things didn’t fall apart.

Miranda had set up her own small defensive zone, but used most of her time keeping track of everything going on as she stayed in contact with all the local leaders of the defensive sections. Her domains were practically passive at this point, trapping any Prima or monster that dared venture her way in a deadly swamp there was no escape from.

One of the big fears Miranda and others had was the underground, but the sand had proven to be a great boon. Very few Primas naturally lived in sand, and even those specialized in digging soil found themselves severely handicapped. There were still some, but nothing of great concern that a few dedicated earth mages couldn’t handle.

What was a big problem was something they had kind of foreseen but hoped wouldn’t be as big of a problem as it turned out to be: native monsters entering the fight. It was well known the Prima Guardian couldn’t be fought by creatures who had consumed unique system-given items but only really had the choice to sit out or ally with the Primas. With all their efforts to make monsters around the world sit out, they had succeeded in doing so that there were no reported attacks on human settlements yet, and none of her pre-prepared traps or triggers had activated in the area surrounding Haven either.

Still, they ended up struggling with constant attacks on their backline in this fight with the Primas, which should perhaps have been expected, as even if they had another few decades of preparation, they couldn’t have ensured every monster wouldn’t choose badly who to ally with.

“Attacks from behind section three-four, danger level low, may become intermediate,” the voice of a leader from the former United Cities Alliance informed her as Miranda quickly picked up her communication device.

“Noboru squad six, disengage and assist section three-four,” she quickly sent, getting a confirmation back as another one came.

“Overwhelming attack on section two-eleven, peak-tier Prima appeared.”

“Holstred, go.”

“Fast monsters are approaching section eight. Might get through,” someone from Valhal informed her.

“Court of Shadows, your neighbors need ranged support,” Miranda quickly decided as she looked at what was effectively a three-dimensional map in front of her. She barely had time to do any killing herself, as there was always some kind of emergency. Still, some sections did manage extremely well on their own, and she could almost ignore them.

One such section was the one defended by Vesperia. Sure, she wasn’t there herself, but her army of wasps formed a tight wall, led by her Royal Guards in slaughtering and holding back all Primas and monsters that came their way. It did help that they had far more numbers than any other section for the size of their area, which helped their intimidation factor and made some Primas choose to attack another area instead.

A section with the exact opposite situation to the Vespernat Hive’s was one with only a few dozen people. It was a section that Miranda honestly had little hope in, as it was the one where they threw all the more… problematic individuals. People who were clearly powerful but sucked at working with others or had some serious issues that made others not trust them.

The clear stand-out here was the newcomer. Someone she hadn’t even considered for this fight in the first place, as he had only returned to Earth a single day before the event. It was naturally William, the metal and karma mage, who Miranda truly hadn’t known what was capable of.

But now that she saw his performance… she realized the only reason he wasn’t part of the strike team was because Jake didn’t like him.

A storm of metal wires covered an area of several cubic kilometers, cutting and restraining any living being that dared enter it. Primas could deal with the wires somewhat but still struggled to deal with their limited movement as the metal mage moved to strike them down one after another, as he commanded hundreds of spear-like projectiles to fly all around. He was like a maestro within his own domain of metal death. He proved himself so overwhelming the other people in his section barely had to - or dared to - do anything.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Everything was indeed going pretty well, even if they certainly did have casualties. Nothing over the expected, though. Looking at the map of battles, Miranda suddenly frowned as she noticed the entire strike team supposed to handle the Prima all fly toward the Prima Vessel before disappearing.

What the hell are they up to now?

--

Remember Jake’s initial surprise the Prima Vessel was just entirely empty and didn’t even have any traps? Well, at least the latter one of those had now been amended. The moment Jake entered the Prima Vessel, he saw Carmen retreat with a metal spike poking out of her shoulder, having managed to penetrate her incredibly resilient body.

Having seen this, none of the others had charged forward either before Jake had time to enter. He was the last one to arrive as he had been the furthest way and had to fly there first. Alright, technically, Arnold was the last one to arrive, but that was because he chose to stay outside, still doing… yeah, definitely doing something.

“Where did the Prima Guardian go?” the Sword Saint asked Jake right after he entered, the old man fully aware of Jake’s Sphere of Perception. He would have been very dense if he hadn’t realized after decades in Nevermore together.

“It’s ahead of us, but not in the same room I released it from,” Jake frowned. “The path is shifting.”

“What do you mean?” Casper asked, walking up.

“I’m saying the inside of this entire cube is moving around, shuffling giant cubes of near-indestructible metal around,” Jake clarified. With great timing, too, as the path in front of them suddenly disappeared as a wall blocked their progress before getting replaced with an entirely different hallway.

“A fucking puzzle labyrinth, really?” Carmen cursed, having just had her shoulder healed by Eron. “This is giving me flashbacks to Nevermore.”

“Not really a labyrinth,” Jake shook his head. “Just a delay tactic and a way to bait us into traps.”

“Sounds like a labyrinth to me,” Carmen muttered, dissatisfied.

Through his Pulse – as the Guardian was too far away for his passive sphere to reach – he had spotted the chimera, standing on what looked like a disc of some sort. He could see the movements of energy, too, as it was most definitely doing something. Its shifting flesh and morphing body were further proof.

“Why delay us? To recover?” Caleb asked.

“It’s digesting,” Jake said with a frown. “Absorbing everything we just threw at it… and evolving again. Alright, probably not an actual evolution, but it’s definitely changing. Some form of metamorphosis.”

“Doesn’t that mean we should hurry?” Vesperia questioned.

“We are already taking the fastest path there,” Jake said as he crossed his arms. “Be ready to sprint forward in seven seconds, and watch any traps from the right side.”

No one questioned him as they got ready. Seven seconds later, the hallway in front of them was replaced once more, and they all charged in before Jake spoke again as four layers of barriers blocked a barrage of metal spikes from the right.

“Left in four… actually, just follow behind me and keep up. I will warn about traps only.”

It hadn’t taken Jake long to see the pattern in how all the cubes moved around. It was very predictable, and he reckoned most people would figure it out easily within half an hour. Now, the traps when they entered every cube did get a little annoying,

Jake estimated these traps were just here to slow them down and try to make them waste resources. This entire Prima Guardian battle had been one of endurance so far, and Jake could see other planets struggle immensely trying to overcome the ludicrous durability of the chimera without running out of mana or stamina.

Adding on this damn Prima Vessel, things only got worse. Jake couldn’t tell if the Prima Guardian was actually regenerating its resources or just transforming, but if left alone long enough, it would likely recover. Jake even got the feeling it would have stayed inside the Prima Vessel to recover fully, likely not leaving for many hours to maybe over a full day.

Clearly, they had a choice here. Nothing forced them to chase into the Vessel after the boss and face all these damn trap cubes… but not doing so would be slower. And being slower meant there was a bigger chance others killed the Prima Guardian first. So, was charging into the Vessel really a choice?

“More traps than usual left, magic explosion, to the right, we got metal spikes again. Also, watch the ground here,” Jake repeatedly warned as they went through cube after cube, seemingly moving up and down in a random pattern, getting closer and closer to where the Prima Guardian was. Through his Pulses, he tried to keep an eye on it, and with every snapshot, he saw it change.

However, it had gotten difficult to truly identify its form, as the energy around it was so damn dense it made half the room look like one huge object. One thing he could tell for sure, though: the chimera was growing smaller. A lot smaller.

A good choice by the Prima Guardian.

Having a large body did come with some advantages, especially for a creature like a chimera with ridiculous vital energy. In many instances, having a massive body was even a requirement to house that much vital energy.

However, it also came with the obvious drawbacks of having a large body. There was more surface area to defend, which especially became a problem against multiple opponents who could take advantage. In this fight in particular, the large size of the Prima Guardian had only been a boon to Earth’s fighters, as it allowed them all to attack simultaneously without getting in the way of one another.

Then there was, of course, the lower speed that often came as the result of a larger body. This wasn’t a universal rule, but it was pretty universal that a larger creature making itself smaller would help increase its speed as long as it maintained the same general level of power.

As Jake kept warning everyone about potential traps, he split some of his attention to the Golden Mark and informed the others of what he had seen:

“The Prima Guardian appears to be condensing its body while undergoing some form of change. Be extra careful when we encounter it; I would expect more power and significantly increased speed,” Jake warned them all.

“So, a second phase, with this Prima Vessel cube-puzzle being some kind of intermission between phase one and two?” Casper clarified.

“Pretty much.”

It did end up taking them a bit to reach the Prima Guardian, simply due to how the Vessel worked. With how it shuffled, they even had to wait a bit within some of the cubes before moving on. It was even possible to stay within the same cube, and eventually, it would appear right in front of the Prima Guardian. That would be a lot slower than following Jake, but it was an option.

Soon, they were only three more cubes away. Their party wasn’t much worse for wear, despite the hundreds of traps they had to deal with, as Jake’s warnings and the party’s defensive capabilities had made most of what the Prima Vessel could throw at them relatively trivial. Without the element of surprise, most of the traps just sucked.

Passing through the second-to-last cube, the tension of the group rose. When they entered the last one, they were all ready as can be. A few seconds later, the hallway leading to the boss revealed itself as they all went through.

“No traps here,” Jake said as they walked forward. Behind them, all the shuffling suddenly just stopped. The hallways they were in extended backward all the way to the exit, giving them a clear and easy path out of the Prima Vessel once more. It was a long-ass hallway, but at least they didn’t have to go through the entire puzzle on their way out again.

A gate and a few dozen meters of hallway were now all that stood between them and the Prima Guardian. The energy within the room ahead had also died down, and the gate slowly began to open in expectation of their arrival.

“It’s still fucking ugly,” Carmen muttered as the Prima Guardian was revealed, making Jake nod and frown at the same time.

A humanoid being, only about two and a half meters tall, stood on the platform. It had four human-like arms, wielding different weapons of bone, and on its back, four wings sprung, two with feathers and two reminiscent of Vesperia’s.

Its head – if one could truly call it that - did not have a nose or most usual features. Instead, it was just a sphere with dozens of eyes on the top part, going all around, as a large fanged mouth rested beneath. Its body was covered in an odd mixture of scales, skin, feathers, bark-like skin, and even had some metal here and there. The frame of the creature was relatively thin, with its legs an odd merge between gazelle, goat, deer, and human. The feet were entirely human, though, looking very freaky. It also looked like the chimera was sleeping, with its eyes closed, and while it looked humanoid, it definitely also looked distinctively monstrous.

Something else was also monstrous as Jake’s frown deepened, and he took a defensive stance and pulled out his katars in preparation. “Be very careful… it feels a lot more dangerous.”

They all listened, and as if on cue, a familiar voice echoed throughout the Prima Vessel.

“First Phase: Analysis Stage has been completed. Adaption complete. Initiating Phase Two: Extermination.”

With those words, all the chimera’s eyes opened at once, and without further warning, the creature took a step forward and disappeared as Jake felt a familiar ripple in space.

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