Ascension of the Primalist [A Tamer Class, LitRPG]

Nightmare dashed forward, paws barely touching the blackened ground while the two soldiers and the panther ahead remained rooted in place by the crushing pressure of the direwolf's aura.

His eyes moved to the Rogue named Selena, then returned to the three foes.

I can't take them out quickly enough to guarantee her safety, Nightmare thought.

If Colossus had been in the direwolf's place, the scorpion would have drawn their attention with his taunt. Seth would have also found a way to take care of them and protect her.

Aether churned violently within Nightmare's Well.

Why can those two always achieve things I can't?

Seth and Colossus constantly seemed to grow faster than him, propelled by some overwhelming intensity he still failed to understand. They were both irrationally emotional and sentimental. This woman and the other Kastal soldiers weren't even part of their pack, yet the two of them would throw themselves into danger to protect others without a hint of hesitation.

As Nightmare crossed the distance, his gaze landed on Selena again.

She stumbled backward across the ash-covered ground, desperately trying to create distance while the soldiers fought against the fear pinning their bodies in place.

And suddenly, something shifted inside Nightmare. He felt it.

A sharp, instinctive urge to protect her.

But why?

Yes, she had saved him during the first battle of the war. She had also praised him afterward with genuine admiration. Was that truly enough for him to care whether she lived or died?

Whatever the reason, the thought of her dying bothered him. Perhaps their pack was larger than he had originally believed.

And it is my responsibility to protect its members.

Nightmare forced aether to carve new, jagged grooves into his very being with a single goal in mind: kill all three enemies in a single strike.

Yet doing that alone was impossible. So he refused to be alone.

Aether slid violently through his flesh, driven by that desperate need to become more. Pain followed in its wake and seared across his body as he bared his fangs to the wind.

If he wanted to stand side-by-side with monsters like Seth and Colossus, then he had to shatter his own limits.

Just as the two men and the panther finally broke free from the immobilizing terror, Nightmare's body rippled like a reflection in a disturbed pond of black water.

Then the shadows at his feet split apart.

Aether erupted in a silent wave of darkness, and two perfect copies of the direwolf formed at his sides, emerging from the gloom itself. Nightmare seized control of the constructs with his mind, and all three of them pounced.

Seth lunged, Dusk Scythes humming as the blades carved through the injured imperial Rogue in front of him. He looked off in the distance, and his eyes widened as he witnessed Nightmare and two identical copies pouncing on the two soldiers and the panther.

What the hell? Seth thought.

He ducked beneath the wild slash of the Warrior in front of him, countering with a quick strike that bit into the man's thigh before following through with a shoulder cut. Even as Seth fought the remaining two soldiers, his attention flickered back to the direwolf.

Through Link, he could distinguish the original from the duplicates, but to the naked eye all three direwolf were practically identical. While the true Nightmare tore through the throat of one soldier, the copies also held their ground. They seemed to lack the original's raw attack power and the ability to cast complex spells, yet they still served as both distractions and lethal weapons.

Selena didn't hesitate and lunged toward the Nightfall Panther to bury both daggers deep into the beast's spine. The creature let out a pained snarl and twisted violently—just as one of Nightmare's copies crashed into it from the side, jaws closing around its throat to finish the kill.

The second duplicate wasn't as fortunate. The imperial soldier in front of it managed to drive his blade through its chest, and the construct dissolved into drifting wisps of shadow.

Yet the loss didn't slow Nightmare. He and the remaining copy converged alongside Selena and tore down the last enemy in seconds.

Seth snapped his focus back to the two imperial soldiers before him before dismantling them in a flurry of violet-black slashes. Selena rushed over to him, followed closely by Nightmare as his remaining duplicate dissolved.

Seth headed their way while casting Intermediate Identify on the direwolf.

Nightmare (Duskbound Direwolf)

Potential: Gold Tier

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Rank: 58 (High-Iron)

Affinity: Darkness

Bonded to [Seth]

[...]

Strength: 142 (135+7)

Arcane Power: 185(142+43)

Toughness: 102 (94+8)

Well Capacity: 83

Agility: 184 (141+43)

Regeneration: 82

Spells:

- Twin Mirages [Gold〜Legendary (Crude)]

- Dreadful Shroud [Silver〜Epic+ (Crude)]

- Illusionary Emptiness [Silver〜Epic (Standard)]

- Shadow Step [Silver〜Epic (Standard)]

- Predator Hunt [Silver〜Epic (Decent)]

- Danger Sense [Silver〜Rare (Refined)]

- Gloom Fangs [Silver〜Rare (Standard)]

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

Seth's eyes widened at the results. Nightmare's potential had risen all the way to Gold with the Seeds, and his species designation had changed entirely. Duskbound Direwolf.

Yet despite that, and despite the absurd amount of bonus attributes the direwolf now had, it was the two new spells that truly took Seth aback.

Mantle of Terror had evolved into Dreadful Shroud, an Epic+ Silver spell on par with his own Dusk Scythes. But even that paled beside the entirely new ability Nightmare had carved for himself: Twin Mirages.

A Legendary Gold spell.

Before Seth could inspect the new spells or properly go through Nightmare's Seeds, Selena reached him.

Her face was pale beneath the soot and ash, and panic burned openly in her eyes.

"Seth!" she gasped, grabbing his arm. "We have to move now. The others are still fighting!"

Seth's expression hardened. "What happened? I saw the strongholds."

"We couldn't hold them," Selena said quickly between ragged breaths. "The Empire used artifacts that spread fire everywhere. They burned entire sections of the forest and wiped out every ambush route we had prepared. Once the cover was gone, they just overwhelmed us." Her hand tightened around Seth's. "We tried to stand our ground, but even with our numbers, we couldn't stop them."

"Where are Henry and Eddin?" Seth asked without missing a beat. "The others?"

Selena's expression turned ugly. "They stayed behind with some of the Warriors and Guardians. They said they'd hold off the imperial soldiers so the rest of us can escape the distortion field."

A heavy weight settled in Seth's stomach.

"Henry said you and the rest of us were the only chance of winning... of avenging everyone who was killed," Selena continued, voice trembling slightly.

Heat exploded through Seth's chest, and his core stirred violently. "Where are they?"

Selena pointed to the left. "In the clearing where we first arrived here. We were trying to find a spot to set the cannon again before getting caught."

Seth clenched his fists, knuckles turning white. "Get out of the distortion field and use an Escape Scroll," he ordered. "I'll handle the rest".

Kael and Elian nodded, but Selena stepped forward. "No, I'm coming with you."

Seth opened his mouth to refuse—then stopped. Time mattered too much for him to argue.

"Fine," he answered. "But the moment I take down the distortion field and the others are safe, you leave immediately."

Selena pressed her lips together, then gave a firm nod. "Deal."

Without wasting another second, Seth broke into a sprint with the Rogue while Nightmare kept pace at his flank like a living shadow.

Seth glanced briefly toward the direwolf. Under normal circumstances, he would have congratulated him on the new spells, the Seeds' absorption, and the jump in potential. None of that seemed to matter right now.

'That's fine,' Nightmare said through Link, catching the direction of Seth's thoughts. 'Let's focus on saving the others first.'

Seth gave a single, sharp nod. All they could do was hope there were still people left to save.

While maintaining his speed, Seth turned his focus inward. The grooves of Aura of Insatiable Hunger no longer throbbed with strain, confirming that the skill was ready to be used again.

His attention then shifted deeper, toward his core and the chained reservoir of strange energy linked to it. Both forces were reacting wildly to the emotions raging inside him.

His core pulsed with unease, like a cornered beast still wavering between the primitive instincts to fight or flee.

The behavior of the second source of power was entirely different.

The chained energy felt less like a living creature and more like a storm imprisoned within a cage—thrashing endlessly against its restraints, waiting for the chance to erupt outward and annihilate everything in its path.

Ever since first sensing that power in the Desert of Misery, Seth hadn't figured out what it was.

But right now, he didn't care. If he could use it as a weapon to save people, it was all that mattered.

Scorched trees continued to blur past Seth for several more strides before the sounds of combat finally echoed through the dead forest.

He slowed his pace.

Even with the terrain around him ruined, Seth still tried to use the blackened remains of the trees as cover—he had been forced to switch Share's connection back to Shadow Step during the previous fight. He snuck forward through the ash-covered wasteland, flanked tightly by Selena and Nightmare.

Seth turned his head toward the Rogue to reiterate their agreement. "Again, the moment the distortion field drops, you leave the Warfare—"

Before the final word could leave his mouth, an agonizing scream cut through the clearing ahead.

Seth's head snapped toward the sound.

In the distance, a chaotic cluster of roughly thirty or forty soldiers clashed in a desperate combat. Steel flashed under the gleaming sun while bursts of aether erupted across the battlefield. Another scream tore through the air.

Seth exploded forward without even thinking and sprinted straight toward the melee, Selena and Nightmare following behind him.

The moment he committed, his core began pulsing with even greater intensity.

A sharp, instinctive jolt shot up his spine, screaming at him to turn back.

The primal thing inside him treated the open terrain and overwhelming number of enemies as an encounter with a foe far beyond his ability to kill. Every instinct urged him to retreat. To run. To survive.

Seth clenched his teeth hard enough for pain to flare through his jaw.

Shut up.

He reached inward and seized the chained energy writhing beside his core. The violent power surged in his grasp as Seth forced it through his body, overriding the desperate survival instinct clawing at his mind. He drowned the fear beneath a single overwhelming desire: kill every enemy standing in that clearing.

The hesitation in his chest vanished.

The frightened beast within him turned into a predator that hunted the threat rather than fleeing from it.

As Seth charged, the battlefield narrowed into sharp focus. A few imperial soldiers turned their heads toward him, their expressions shifting as they realized danger was looming.

Henry stood near the center of the slaughter, swinging his massive two-handed sword in wild, desperate arcs. He was barely holding himself up. His armor was drenched in blood from head to toe, and every swing looked fueled more by sheer refusal to fall than anything else.

Around him, a few surviving Kastal soldiers huddled together in a shrinking perimeter as they tried to fend off nearly three dozen imperial infantrymen pressing in from every side.

Then Seth's gaze locked on a motionless figure among the sea of corpses.

Eddin.

The second-in-command lay sprawled amidst the fallen members of their squad, his body covered in ash and blood. There was no rise or fall of his chest, no twitch from his limbs, and his eyes stared blankly at the horizon.

Death had long claimed him just like the others around him.

Something deep within Seth's chest snapped.

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