Chương 73: Chapter 71: Crushing Blow

"As if I'd let you get away!" Seth's voice thundered across the desert expanse as he sprung out of the boulder's shadow and charged toward the Gnoll Barbarian. He had felt it—the moment the beast's eyes had shifted back to their regular yellowish color, its speed, and strength had faltered, along with its once impenetrable defense. Its skin and muscles, previously hard as stone, had begun to yield under his punches. It was now time to hit. And hard.

As Seth closed the distance, the Gnoll raised its axes with a deafening roar, aether flaring out of its arms, then whipped them down toward him. Seth's body, already strained beyond its limit, screamed in protest when his core forced him to jump to the side. The blades whooshed past his face, missing his nose by half an inch, and Seth immediately lunged in, nailing a hard straight into the beast's ribs. The Gnoll growled and prepared to counter, rearing back his weapons.

Yet before it could swing them forward, Seth punched again, burying his gauntlet into its chest, shattering its sternum. As the beast gasped and staggered backward, Nightmare appeared behind it and sank his fangs once more into the creature's darkened upper back, trying to tear apart its neck. Shadow Bite's smoke billowed from his maw and spread out to ravage skin and muscles alike.

Howling in pain, the Gnoll attempted to shake the direwolf off, but Seth didn't waste the opening—his fists slammed into the beast's battered body with bone-crushing force. Flurry done, he darted out of reach, and the two large axes fruitlessly sliced through the air. With a furious growl, the Gnoll finally hurled Nightmare off its back, sending the direwolf skidding across the ground. Its gaze then snapped to the distant stronghold, desperation flashing in its eyes.

Guessing its intention, Nightmare snarled, and a wolf composed of shadows burst out of his body. The Gnoll Barbarian dashed to the side to evade, but the spell changed its trajectory as if it were alive and struck him. Dark, thorn-covered tendrils snaked around the beast's massive body, eliciting a piercing yelp. Pouring aether into his fist, Seth gritted his teeth through pain, reared back his arm, then rotated his hips.

In a blink, he teleported into the Gnoll's shadow and drove his gauntlet into its midsection, sending it crashing into a large boulder. Without hesitation, Seth bolted forward and continued his assault, his core's energy flooding every single inch of his body. His fists rained down onto Gnoll's face like meteors, each punch bashing its head side to side, left and right. His knuckles split and bled despite wearing the gauntlets, but he kept hammering the creature, screaming his lungs out of rage.

"Fucking die!" Under the relentless barrage of blows, the Gnoll's skull finally gave way—a sickening crack split through the air, then it burst apart, spraying blood and brain matter across the red clay. Seth collapsed onto his knees, gasping for air, hands throbbing and hurting more than any of his other wounds. An eerie silence reclaimed the desert as he stared at the beast's corpse before him—it was now nothing more than a grotesque heap of blood, shattered bone, and torn flesh. We won.

Seth immediately turned to check on Nightmare.

"You're alright?" Sprawled out on the red clay, the direwolf barely lifted his head.' Slowly bleeding to death, but yeah, I'm fine.' With shaking legs, Seth pushed himself up and trudged over to the direwolf, boots scuffing the ground with every step as he reached into his velvet pouch and retrieved a Healing Potion. Bracing on one hand, he then knelt down, uncorked the vial, and poured its content into the direwolf's open maw.

"You did great, Nightmare. Really great." Nightmare swallowed the red liquid and shut his eyes, the tension in his face easing as part of the pain subsided. Seth's gaze drifted to the direwolf's flank, where the two deep gashes continued to slowly bleed. The fur around the wounds was matted with blood, dark and clumped, and beneath it he could just make out the distorted outline of broken ribs, bulging with each strained breath.

After moving the direwolf into the safety of his necklace, Seth turned his attention to his own injuries; the largest one on his right shoulder was still oozing, but a thick scab was almost entirely covering it Using a potion would be a waste, he thought before glancing at the setting sun. My body's aether should get it to close while I sleep. With his uninjured arm, Seth grabbed the Gnoll's remains and dragged it to the closest massive monolith stone that jutted out from the desert's ground.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled the body into a crevice, wanting to keep it away from scavengers or patrolling Gnolls, and sank next to it. Only using his left hand, he began the laborious process of carving its chest open with one of his daggers. The moment he snatched out the gray crystal inside, a smile spread on Seth's face as he felt its strong, pulsating aether. Not wasting a second, he cast Intermediate Identify.

Primal Rage (Decent) Spell-shard Tier: Iron Grade: Rare Affinity: - Restrictions: - Warrior or Primalist - 80 Strength and 70 Toughness [...] Seth immediately focused on the three dots to see the additional information. Spell description: - Increases Strength and Agility by 30 for 6 minutes. - Decreases Toughness by 35 for 20 minutes afterward. - Duration increases according to the spell quality. - Consumes 120 uniums over the duration.

- Cooldown: 12 hours Throwing his consciousness inside his teardrop necklace, he looked at Nightmare to Identify him and see if he had the required attributes. Nightmare (Tenebrous Direwolf) If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Potential: Silver Tier Rank: 30 (Low-Iron) Affinity: Darkness Bonded to [Seth] Strength: 80 Arcane Power: 78 Toughness: 54 Well Capacity: 44 Agility: 88 Regeneration: 49 Spells: - Illusionary Emptiness [Silver〜Epic (Crude)] - Shadow Step [Silver〜Epic (Crude)] - Danger Sense [Silver〜Rare (Decent)] - Chains of Darkness [Iron〜Epic (Crude)] - Shadow Bite [Iron〜Rare (Standard)] Seth's brows furrowed as he skimmed through the direwolf's attributes.

'You have the Strength, but you're far away from the required Toughness. You won't be able to learn it until High or Peak Iron.'' Just use it yourself,'Nightmare answered with a weary sigh.' The aftermath penalty would be too harsh on me anyway.' Seth glanced down at his hand.' I also don't have the Tough—'' Wait!

'the direwolf exclaimed.' Check Chains of Darkness' description first, that's the new spell I got during that fight.'' Oh, right!' Seth focused on Nightmare's new ability. Chains of Darkness [Iron〜Epic (Crude)] - Summons a shadow of the owner that binds the target. - Causes excruciating pain and decreases Agility by 25 for 45 seconds. - Duration increases with the spell's quality and Darkness Affinity. - Consumes 50 uniums. - Cooldown: 45 seconds' How the hell did you learn that on the spot?' Seth muttered.

Nightmare let out a weak chuckle.' I couldn't stand by and watch you get sliced in half. And since I'm that amazing, my body carved a new spell on the fly.' Seth rubbed his face before going through the numbers. If Nightmare managed to improve the spell's grooves up to Standard, the enemy's Agility reduction would increase by forty percent—twenty percent for each quality upgrade. That meant their opponent's Agility would drop by thirty-five instead of twenty, which was an absurdly strong debuff.'

With your new spell, we'll be able to take advantage of our Agility and mobility even more.'' Yeah, but it costs a lot of aeth—oh, you should swap out Shadow Step for this one.' Seth smiled, recalling all the moments the Gnoll Barbarian's axes would have cleaved him in half without the teleportation spell.' Not a chance.'' Oh, come on!'

Ignoring the direwolf's protest, Seth pulled out his vita and pressed it against the spell-shard so he could register the Rank-45 kill before tucking both items back in his Endless Pouch. With that done, he then turned his attention to his own attributes. Seth Class: Primalist Rank: 28 (Low-Iron) Subclass: Beastmaster Core: Feral Instinct [...] Strength: 81 (73+8) Arcane Power: 70 (62+8) Toughness: 67 (62+5) Well Capacity: 52 (48+4) Agility: 83 (74+9) Regeneration: 57 (52+5) Spells: - Link [??? 〜??? (???)] - Share [??? 〜??? (???)] - Fog Shroud [Iron〜Rare (Decent)] - Huntbound Rush [Iron〜Uncommon (Standard)] - Intermediate Identify [Iron〜Common (Standard)] - Dark Shocking Strike [Copper〜Rare (Standard)] Seth first smiled as he saw Huntbound Rush new quality, but then let out a heavy sigh. His Toughness wasn't high enough for Primal Rage.

I'm not so far away but it'll still take me a few — His trail of thought abruptly stopped as his gaze fell on his Arcane Power and Strength: seventy and eighty-one, respectively. He finally had enough. Hand trembling, he reached into his Endless Pouch and took out a dusty spell-scroll before casting Intermediate Identify.

Phantom Punch (Standard) Spell-scroll Tier: Iron Grade: Legendary Affinity: Undead Restrictions: - Primalist - 75 Strength and 70 Arcane Power - High-Iron Undead affinity (REMOVED) - Draerian's blood (ADDED) [...] Spell description: - Increases Strength by 60 and ignores 20% of Toughness for a single punch. - Potency increases by 100% against barrier or shielding spells. - Cooldown decreases according to Undead Affinity and spell quality. - Consumes 100 uniums.

- Cooldown: 15 seconds Not wasting a second, he broke the seal and squeezed the scroll in his palm, causing a fierce wave of aether to surge through his arm and rush into his chest. The parchment crumbled and turned into ash, and an intense pain clawed Seth's Well almost simultaneously. Near his other spells, fresh grooves took shape, carving themselves into the dense aether while merging in various places and spreading outward.

The resulting network was far larger and more sophisticated than Fog Shroud, reaching the same size and complexity as Nightmare's Danger Sense, a Rare Silver-Tier spell. Upon the web's completion, the grooves began to emit a deep, vibrant teal glow—likely due to its Undead affinity. Searching for a beast to test the next ability on in his current condition would be reckless and ridiculously stupid—but Seth couldn't resist the urge to do so.

Pushing himself up, he squinted at the sun dipping below the horizon, bathing the sky in orange and purple streaks. I'll come back if I don't find anything before it fully sets. Leaving the crevice, Seth scanned the vast red-clay desert. A distant movement caught his eyes off to the left, away from the strongholds.' Can't you just wait until tomorrow?' Nightmare mumbled from within the beast-holder.

Every muscle screamed in protest as Seth started running, his legs aching and cramping with each boot-kick, yet a grin stretched across his face. For once it was him who was reckless and the direwolf who was advocating for caution.' Nope.' Gradually, the vague shape became clearer, and Seth's eyes narrowed, making out a Desert Lizard a few dozen yards away, slowly advancing through the dry desert.

The Copper-Tier reptile was nearly as large as a night caravan, a blanket of thick, brown scales covering its large body, which was crowned by two protruding horns that glinted under the fading sunlight.

Despite its impressive size, the beast would most likely flee rather than fight when seeing him, which meant it would be best to initiate his ambush with the new spell. Creeping toward the beast, Seth slowly filled the spell's grooves. Once he finished nearly half a minute and one-third of his Well later, teal aether started hovering from his fingertips to his shoulder. Without hesitation, he charged at the Desert Lizard and pounced while casting Intermediate Identify mid-strike.

Desert Lizard Potential: Copper Tier Rank: 15 (High-Copper) Affinity: Earth Strength: 23 Arcane Power: 16 Toughness: 38 Well Capacity: 27 Agility: 16 Regeneration: 23 The beast snapped its large head toward him, but it was far too late to cast any defensive spell. Seth's gauntlet tore through the air, and a gigantic skeletal arm of teal aether appeared around his limb, stretching from his knuckles to beyond his shoulder and crackling with raw power.

His aether-shrouded fist hit the beast's upper back and met absolutely no resistance—scales, muscles, bones, everything gave way and shattered under the blow. The dried ground underneath burst apart into a shower of red dust as he slammed the lizard's body downward with tremendous force. Every organ of the reptile was mashed into a pulp, crushed between the giant skeletal fist and the hard clay. Almost immediately the beast went limp, its head dropping to the side with a loud thud while Seth landed on his feet.

In a profound silence, he stood still in front of the flattened corpse. There was no visible blood—save for a thin trickle dribbling coming from the corner of its mouth. The damage was all internal, contained by its skin and scales. Killed in a single blow, Seth thought. Sure, the beast was only Copper, but it had thirty-eight Toughness—the same amount as pretty much any new Iron Wielder who wasn't a Warrior or a Guardian. It'd definitely get the Houses' attention if I were to use it on the academy's grounds.'

That's it, we're done with those boring human classes,'Nightmare said with a chuckle.' In less than two months, we'll be living in one of those Rift-cities, that's for sure.' Seth turned away from the dead lizard, leaving its beaststones behind, and headed back to the crevice for the night.' Keep dreaming. No way I'm using this outside Rifts.'' We'll see.'