Seth immediately cast Intermediate Identify, estimating that he still had about a minute to Beastmaster Rage.

Fishlord Lancer

 

Potential: Silver Tier

Rank: 42 (Mid-Iron)

Affinity: Water

 

Strength: 115

Arcane Power: 81

Toughness: 101

Well Capacity: 68

Agility: 83

Regeneration: 69

The moment Nightmare vanished into Illusionary Emptiness, the Lancer Fishlord snarled and lunged forward, thrusting its massive trident. A surge of water erupted from the weapon to form a giant, spear-shaped projectile aimed directly at Seth.

Reacting instinctively, Seth dodged to the side, and the spell exploded against the chamber's wall behind in a violent spray.

Thanks to Beastmaster Rage's Agility boost, Seth closed the gap between them in an instant and delivered a crushing punch directly into the beast's abdomen. The Fishlord grunted, momentarily staggered, then raised its trident high to retaliate. Yet before it could bring it down, a shadowy wolf struck from the left, slamming into its flank, and dark tendrils exploded outward, only to wrap tightly around its massive body.

The Fishlord howled, struggling against the black restraints.

Nightmare phased out from Illusionary Emptiness and leapt onto the Fishlord's exposed back, where his fang sunk deeply into its flesh; black smoke surged, eating away mercilessly at the creature's hide. Seth capitalized on the opening, throwing rapid punches into the beast's ribs, each blow landing with devastating force. Then, he drove an uppercut squarely into the creature's chin, snapping its head back.

The Lancer's eyes flared with fury. With a roar, it spun, swinging its enormous trident in a wide, sweeping arc. The weapon crashed into Seth's raised new gauntlets. The impact rattled his teeth and sent a bone-jarring jolt through his arms before pushing him backward, but the Epic+ gear held. The trident then continued on its path, forcing Nightmare to use Shadow Step mid-leap to dodge it.

Seth hissed through clenched jaws and charged back in while surrendering himself to his core. The mysterious energy surged through him and took control of his body, making him duck another trident-thrust. With a lunge, Seth met the beast head on and slammed three hard straights into its ribs.

Weaving and bobbing, he dodged the creature's claws, then jabbed each time he found an opening. Seth's punches flew strong and true, crashing into the big Fishlord's body with loud thuds, making it grimace with every impact.

Nightmare rejoined the fight and pounced once more, Shadow Bite's toxic cloud corroding its way through the Fishlord's skin and muscles. The Lancer howled and tried to retaliate, but Seth and the direwolf's Agility with Beastmaster Rage simply gave them too much speed for it to land a clean hit, and each time its weapon or claws connected out of luck, Colossus' brown protecting aether made the attack bounce off.

'We gotta end this quickly,' Seth said, avoiding another trident swing. 'There's barely any time left to—'

Before he could finish, aether flared around the Fishlord Lancer's neck, then a roar boomed out its maw. The sonic blast hit Seth and Nightmare like a bull and sent them sprawling across the chamber.

Grunting, Seth pushed himself up, and his eyes widened when he saw the large beast leapt toward him, its trident thrusting down with both hands. Instinctively, he threw himself to the side, yet the impact's blast still hit him, causing him to roll to a stop dozens of feet away. Inside the newly formed crater, the Fishlord yanked out its weapon out of the floor and hefted itself out. As multi-colored coral sprouted to life on its chest, and spread to the creature's limbs, the crimson veil in Seth's vision suddenly disappeared.

Shit, Seth cursed inwardly, feeling the power in his muscle plummet along with the Toughness of his body. We're done for.

'Nah,' Nightmare answered, reading through his mind. 'I'll kill that thing with a single bite.'

The direwolf slipped back into Illusionary Emptiness and closed onto the Fishlord Lancer as it stepped toward Seth. Standing up, Seth locked eyes with the humanoid beast while extending his senses through Link. He could feel aether surging violently within the direwolf's body, sliding into his partner' grooves with tremendous force.

Seth's core flared and he leapt aside just as another water spear shot his way to strike once more the wall behind. Raising his gauntlets, he dashed forward. Just before he could clash with the Fishlord, Nightmare launched his own attack.

The direwolf clamped its jaws onto the Lancer's Coral Armor, and a cloud of dark, light-suffocating smoke billowed from his maws. The spell enveloped the enemy's entire back, then seeped its way inside, melting everything it touched causing pieces to drip to the floor. The humanoid beast screamed in agony, dropping its weapon, and grabbed Nightmare with both hands. With a roar, it dislodged the direwolf, slammed him to the ground, and slashed his side. The direwolf yelped, but before he could Shadow Step away, the Lancer kicked him into the chamber's wall.

As the Fishlord picked up its trident and stepped toward Nightmare, whose trial's azure barrier was now barely visible, Seth interposed and lifted his gauntlets. 'Give me all you got, Colossus!'

Stirring in its egg, the unborn beast instantly cast his protecting spell again, yet this time the layer of brown aether that appeared around Seth seemed different. To the inexperienced eye it may look the same, yet Seth could feel a new might inside; it pulsed with a powerful desire to protect, ready to become solid as rock whenever needed.

Snarling, the Lancer Fishlord bolted forward with its trident. Giving in to his inner beast, Seth lunged in, sidestepping the weapon before driving his gauntlet into the creature's gut to shatter the coral covering it. Almost simultaneously, a wolf of shadow pounced, ensnaring the large beast in vines of black smoke yet again.

Glancing over his shoulder, Seth saw Nightmare struggling to stand, fighting the weakness of his now empty Well. With a smile, Seth turned back to the Fishlord, and hammered two other punches into its midsections.

The beast growled, thrashing inside the Chains of Darkness's restraints. Its trident swung wildly, slicing nothing but air as Seth kept dodging it and bashing his fists repeatedly into the creature's ribcage. Bones groaned and cracked—some his, some the Fishlord's.

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Breathing in deeply, Seth centered himself around the radiant, mysterious energy flooding out of his core. Feral Instinct, the Legacy of Kreytorus; Seth knew nothing about the man—who he had been, what he had done—yet at the moment, he felt quite similar to him. It wasn't only the core that was urging Seth to stand strong, thrive, and rise above, it was also himself.

Deep down, he knew fighting his way to the top had always been his Path.

As the Lancer continued trying to impale him, Seth became one with Feral Instinct. Each of the humanoid creature's moves became sharper, clearer, as if time itself slowed. The humanoid beast lunged, thrusting its weapon, but Seth pivoted effortlessly and felt the rush of air as the three prongs narrowly missed his chest. Seizing the opportunity, he drove his fist into the corroded, weakened flank of the creature, earning a roar of agony.

The Fishlord lashed out again, the trident carving arcs of water-infused destruction into the chamber's floor. Seth ducked and weaved, each dodge tighter and more precise than the last. Even without Beastmaster Rage's attribute boost, Seth could now keep up with the beast's attack. Sure, it was a summon without any soul, and Chains of Darkness was robbing it of twenty-five Agility, but still—Seth's core had sharpened his instinct more than he'd thought possible. He currently had thirty Agility on the Lancer, yet it felt like far more than that.

In the heat of the blows, a realization hit Seth. Phantom Punch, he thought while scanning his Well. I still have enough.

Seth smiled and began pouring aether into the spell's grooves while dodging the Fishlord's weapon. Following his core and body's instinct, he drove the energy through the network of trenches—focusing almost all his willpower on the task just as he had done during his fight with Lucius. But this time, he remained in control and didn't waste a single drop of aether.

The moment he finished, the grooves flared and air began crackling violently around his arm. Grinning, Seth dove forward and slipped under another furious trident thrust while rearing back his gauntlet. A skeletal arm of teal aether surged to life, enveloping his clenched fist in raw power that seemed to defy anything an Iron spell should be able to accomplish. The Fishlord's eyes widened and it tried to dodge, but it was too late.

Seth's gauntlet rammed into the beast's corroded side and met absolutely no resistance. It didn't just shatter every single bone it encountered but also pulped the organs hiding behind those bones.

A massive shockwave erupted, rippling through the Fishlord's body. Before any pained scream could escape the creature's throat—or before the blow could send it flying across the room—the beast vanished into a cloud of blue particles.

Seth collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. His muscles trembled violently from the lack of aether in his Well, yet a broad smile split his face in half. Without wasting a second, he crushed the remaining of the trial's aether still faintly flickering around him to end the trial and stop his clock.

Glanced down at his hand, he cast Intermediate Identify.

Seth

 

Class: Primalist

Rank: 30(Low-Iron)

Subclass: Beastmaster

 

Core: Feral Instinct

[...]

Strength: 86 (77+9)

Arcane Power: 76 (67+9)

Toughness: 75 (68+7)

Well Capacity: 60 (52+8)

Agility: 90 (80+10)

Regeneration: 62 (56+6)

Spells:

- Link [???〜??? (???)]

- Share [???〜??? (???)]

- Phantom Punch [Iron〜Legendary (Refined)]

- Beastmaster Rage [Iron〜Epic+ (Decent)]

- Fog Shroud [Iron〜Rare (Decent)]

- Huntbound Rush [Iron〜Uncommon (Standard)]

- Intermediate Identify [Iron〜Common (Standard)]

[...]

Seth sighed loudly as he noticed that he still hadn't been able to break through that damn Rank 30. It had already been a week since he'd hit four hundred base attributes back in the Desert of Misery Rift. Sure, his broken arm hadn't exactly allowed for much hunting since then… but still. Watching the days slip by without progress was maddening.

Most people were trapped at this rank for months. Even prodigies like Elena needed weeks to break through. Yet he'd hoped—expected—that things would be different for him.

His gaze drifted to Phantom Punch, which had moved up to Refined. At least something was improving.

Phantom Punch [Iron〜Legendary (Refined)]

- Increases Strength by 72 and ignores 24% of Toughness for a single strike.

- Potency increases by 100% against barrier or shielding spells.

- Cooldown decreases with the spell's quality.

- Use 90 uniums

- Cooldown: 12 seconds

The Strength and percentage of ignored Toughness had both increased by twenty percent while the uniums cost had dropped by ten, which was all expected with the quality improvement. But it was the cooldown decrease that was a surprise: it had dropped from fifteen to twelve seconds.

That's great, but I doubt I'll ever have to use it more than once in a fight, Seth thought.

First the aether cost was too damn high, still representing a quarter of his Well, and second, the odds of fighting a beast—or human—who could withstand the spell even once was quite low. The seventy-two-Strength boost was pretty much turning his punch into one of a Peak-Iron… or even a Low-Silver.

That's absurd.

At least he'd been able to raise the quality of some of most of his spells—except Fog Shroud, which remained stubbornly at Decent. Every time he looked at the spell's quality, Seth grimaced and thought about nobles. Unlike him, they had access to Eldric's Book, an encyclopedic compendium on spell-crafting and spell-quality reserved to those of their social status.

If he had it, Seth wouldn't have to wait for the spell-crafting class in second year and he could leave the academy to spend his days hunting and building his strength… until the trial against the Faertis, of course.

Seth's eyes drifted down to his forearm. I should look into breaking this damn enchantment as soon as possible—

'I think Small Bite's Well Capacity went up,' Nightmare said while standing up. 'Your bonus from Link increased by one.'

Seth frowned, pushing his previous thoughts aside. 'You're thinking about that before asking me to Identify you? That's a surprise.'

Letting out a low growl, the direwolf shook his head. 'I'm just so tired of feeding him my aether. I'm looking for any sign he might hatch soon.'

'Oh, come on,' Seth answered with a sigh. 'It's not like you have any use for your aether while I'm in class.'

'That's still not a reason to give it to him,' Nightmare retorted before walking forward. 'Anyway, now you can Identify me.'

Seth rolled his eyes. 'With pleasure.'

Nightmare (Tenebrous Young Direwolf)

 

Potential: Silver Tier

Rank: 32 (Low-Iron)

Affinity: Darkness

 

Bonded to [Seth]

[...]

Strength: 84

Arcane Power: 82

Toughness: 57

Well Capacity: 47

Agility: 93

Regeneration: 52

Spells:

- Illusionary Emptiness [Silver〜Epic (Crude)]

- Shadow Step [Silver〜Epic (Crude)]

- Danger Sense [Silver〜Rare (Decent)]

- Chains of Darkness [Iron〜Epic (Decent)]

- Shadow Bite [Iron〜Rare (Refined)]

'Oh, come on,' Nightmare hissed, looking at his attributes and spells through Link.

Seth knew the direwolf had hoped Shadow Bite had increased in quality. But to be fair, the spell had already moved up two weeks ago against the Guardian Knoll in the Desert of Misery Rift—it would be absurd if it had already reached Exceptional. 'At least Chains of Darkness' quality moved up to Decent,' he said to Nightmare while focusing on the spell.

Chains of Darkness [Iron〜Epic (Decent)]

- Summons a shadow of the owner that binds the target.

- Inflicts pain and decreases Agility by 28 for 50 seconds.

- Duration increases with the spell's quality.

- Use 44 uniums

- Cooldown: none

'Great, I'll be able to help you even more,' Nightmare retorted, clearly not pleased by the upgrade.

'It helps you too, dummy,' Seth answered. He took a moment to rub at his face before moving the direwolf back into the necklace and beginning to make his way down the tower.

As he did, his eyes moved to Nightmare's attributes and his own. The direwolf still had forty-seven Well Capcity, yet the bonus Seth received for that attribute through Link was now eight. That meant Colossus' own Well Capacity had reached twenty-five—Nightmare was right.

Which was great, but still didn't give them any hint on how to make their new partner hatch.

'I'm open to any suggestion you might have,' Seth said to the unborn beast through Link.

But the sole response he got was a warm surge of affection and a strong desire to protect.

Seth sighed. What was I hoping for?

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