The Primal Hunter

Caroline couldn’t even scream anymore as the metal spread from her heart until all that remained was a mannequin of iron. The low vitality and toughness of a healer became apparent, as she didn’t even have time to struggle before her death.

On the other hand, Richard was dumbfounded along with the still more than 30 elites around him. What the fuck was going on?

“Always the healer first,” William said, his voice cold, “And then you do the adds, followed by the big boss.”

With those words, metal slid up and covered his face, not even leaving any holes for air to seep through.

His spear was still stuck in Caroline’s corpse of metal as the two warriors closest to him made their move.

The first one swung down a massive heavy sword, aiming for the hand that held the spear. William didn’t even bother to dodge as the man hit his lower arm.

To the surprise of everyone but William, the arms didn’t even move. Instead, the warrior felt the impact reverberate up his arms, causing him to grunt in pain. The ground below William did sink in slightly, but otherwise, he didn’t really feel the blow very much.

Counteracting the force using metal manipulation on his armor was simplicity itself, while the enchantments Herrmann had placed on the armor nullified much of the impact. Along with that, William didn’t exactly rate the man very highly.

The other warrior simply stabbed towards William's back, his blade not finding any purchase either as it encountered the impenetrable armor.

“Boring,” a distorted voice sounded out from within the golem-like body.

Taking his spear out in a far faster motion than any of the warriors were capable of, he swung it to one side, slicing up the chest of the one with the heavy sword, while four blades seemed to emerge from the armor as they stabbed through another.

Instantly two warriors fell as Richard started to realize the gravity of the situation.

“FORMATION!” he yelled as they all shrugged off their groggy states and all retreated away from the metal caster.

The casters on Richard’s side began to condense spells, as the two archers that remained began to each channel a Powershot.

Not that William planned on letting them fire it, as more weapons emerged from his armor.

William didn’t have any spatial storage but instead used the Legacy of Herrmann Schmidt to summon his armory. It was akin to spatial storage in some ways, but in other ways, it wasn’t. The weapons didn’t physically exist but were constructed in real-time by the skill as he used them.

It allowed William to summon creations of the late smith. Swords, axes, spears, daggers, all sorts of weapons, and some pieces of armor. Though the young caster didn’t need that part of the ability, as he was more than fine when it came to his defenses.

It did cost him mana to create these weapons, but it was nothing compared to using his other metal-creation skill.

These weapons were now flying out one by one from his body as he focused his mind on controlling them. When he had first gotten the skill Metal Manipulation, he could manage only a few daggers. It rapidly progressed from three to four to five, and so on and so forth.

Now, more than twenty weapons that were far bigger than a dagger flew around him with erratic movements. Like a school of fish, they bombarded the poor warriors, who could only scream and run as the nearly two dozen weapons chased them down pointy-end first.

Seeing that this couldn’t go on, Richard charged towards William as he released a shockwave of force. While the young caster's armor gave him incredible defenses, it did have its limits as he was blasted backward, momentarily losing control of some of the flying weapons.

stabilized himself as he raised his spear and met Richard's glowing sword with it. A mighty clash of caster and warrior ended as one would

forced to retreat as he started feeling a bit dizzy from the impacts. It was like he was stuck inside a giant bell as the man hammered it with his sword. Without the enchantments, William would, without a doubt, be spitting out

sliding backward, he didn’t get far as a Powershot hit him in the chest, making him nearly fall over from the impact. The arrow naturally disintegrated as it hit the armor,

decrepit and weak. He looked in an even worse shape

time, slid forward as he simply manipulated his body to smash into Richard, who didn’t manage to raise his shield in time.

spear he used was, of course, the epic-rarity skill Spear of Ferroras. It raised his physical stats significantly while wielding it, and the powerful curse placed upon

it hit into metal, it only worked on living things, which meant that William had to penetrate flesh to activate it. Something Richard currently

any way, but their speed was nevertheless impressive even to most light-warriors only due

entire situation. Richard did manage to face him in melee combat, but this was all while

also had to keep track of all the ranged attacks and the warriors who managed to approach him. While he could shrug off most attacks, some of them were

dodged backward frantically. Another flood soon followed

had done to finish his armor. In return

William. With a fright, the metal manipulator tried to get away but was blocked by Richard, who once again had raised his shield and erected the giant blue barrier to block

caster detonated himself like a living bomb, with William only barely managing to summon his trusty Wall of Iron in front of him to take

was far from good against elemental ones. The pain was unbearable as he felt his arms and chest heat

caster remained, save for

deep breath. His stamina was getting dangerously low after

more as they dispersed. The Spear of Ferroras was also nowhere to be found, as it too had been dispelled. A total of eight people and one unmoving suit of armor remained in

single one of them unscathed, the wounds they had suffered after the fight with Desmond had only worsened. One of the

the slight reprieve, none of them relaxed. No notification had been received

everything felt like something was wrong. Very wrong. The caster was the first one to notice as he exclaimed: “Watch out! He is doing something with

came out of nothing. A man with only a single arm and a rapier flew

from behind, but he managed to twist his body and avoid getting hit in the heart. In the same motions, he turned and,

moment William’s final

“Vortex of Steel.”

ground started shaking. Small shards of unprocessed metal started slowly

were. On a battlefield with dozens of bodies all within a few hundred meters. All of them with the equipment they had worn still on. Equipment that now lay unclaimed as

other tools and articles of metal. Every piece that remained within Hayden and Desmond's former base was now

An unlucky warrior also started getting sucked in as he was impacted by an object, followed by another, some

could only gape with his mouth wide open as the twister appeared

sounded out

cutting up and even felling a few of the smaller trees. The storm of metal and corpses all hit the survivors as they

once been a heavy warrior collided with his head with the velocity of a speeding car, knocking him out instantly. More and

storm was brief but effective

had summoned it and Richard. The warrior who had with all his might managed to hang unto his life,

of battered armor and weapons as he breathed heavily. Both his arms and one of his legs were completely twisted, with his shield and sword nowhere to be found - a horrendous wound

kneeling figure encompassed in the steel-looking armor slowly got up as the armor started retracting back into

as every area of his body had suffered severe burns. Not a single spec of hair

young man. He had been stupid… too stupid.